We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Renee’ Hood. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Renee’ below.

Renee’, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

How I came up with the idea of my business will be a two part story. One related to my doula services and the other of my products. First, we will start with the doula services. I had been in the coporate world for over twenty years and I was getting tired and frustrated with it. I’m not sure if it was the people or the job itself but I was ready to do something else. One day I was on medical leave and watching In the Heat of the Night (lol), and out of the blue I thought I heard the word doula. Now I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Chief Gillispie that said it, but I decided to google it. Goggle told me a doula is a professionally trained childbirth assistant who sees the mother during pregnancy, labor, and after birth to provide emotional, physical, and informational support. Wow I thought, I was already doing this for friends and family but didn’t know that’s what I was doing. I began to do some research and I found that it intrigued me. The more excited I got in my research the more alarmed I became at the same time. That woman that look like me were dying at an alarming rate unnecessarily. This fueled me to figure out what I could do to try and make a difference one person at a time. I quickly came to realize that this was something that God had placed on me and I had to see it through. My passion for people and my desire to want to help others has allowed this to be what I do fulltime for almost 4 years now.

Now, how I got into making herbal tea. I have been seeing a rheumatolgist for about 20 years now for pain relating to arthritis and autoimmune diseases. I would wake up daily in pain and go to bed in pain. Over the span of these years I had been taking anywhere for 7-10 pills a day and a couple of them several times a day. One day I said to myself I am too young for this and I’m not doing this anymore. I am a tea drinker. I drink it daily. So, one day I decided to research different herbs that could possible help me and the issues I had going on with my body. I started blending different herbs to see how they could help. If nothing else I could drink them for the taste. Now the next part of my story I don’t recommend but it’s my story. I slowly stopped taking my meds and I didn’t immediately tell my doctor I wanted to see how my numbers would look when I went to my appointments. At the time I was going every three months. After each appointment my numbers started looking better and better. After that third visit my doctor asked what are you doing, your numbers are better than they have ever been? I said well I’m going to be honest I stopped my meds (all of them at this point) and just been drinking the herbal tea blends I’ve been making. Surprisingly she said I’m ok with that as long as your numbers stay like they are we are good but at any point things change we will have a different conversation. I was ok with that. During these months of drinking the different blends I would come up with and my friends and family started trying them as well. Some just for the taste and others for the benefits. Either way this how I got into making and selling my herbal tea blends.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

As a birth doula I help women during their pregnancy, labor, and shortly after birth not only with educational, emotional, and informational support but I help them plan out the birth they desire. How do they want their birth to look? What are the expectation that they desire for themselves and their baby. There are so many women that are scared to birth in a hospital setting for whatever their reasons maybe and if my presence can make a difference in the birthing experience that they have I’ve done my part. No one should fear that they won’t be heard or listened to or that because they are a women of color they could possible die. I had a client that was preparing to birth her second baby at the same hospital as the first time but two years apart and she stated that this was a completely different experience than the first just because I was there. I’m not providing any medical care but that’s not my role but the love, compassion, and the peace that I bring to my clients is what makes a difference and sets me apart from others. To hear my clients voice that they were so glad that I was there with them and their families makes my heart smile and that’s the reward that keeps me doing this.

As for my teas I am proud that tea lovers are loving and enjoying my teas. Also, that people feel they are helping them. I have customers tell me all the time how much they love the tea. I’ve even had a customer tell me that everyone should experience them even worldwide. She has actually gone as far as buying them and sending them to friends in Japan to try. Now that was a proud moment. That someone that only knows me from just trying the tea one day to think that much of me and my product to buy it and ship it internationally. I’m excited for my future clients to enjoy my variety of herbal teas locally, different states, and abroad.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

How I built my social media audience was from pulling friends and family from my personal page to my business page. Everybody knows someone that is pregnant or a tea drinker. So, those friends and family started sharing my content or at least mentioning my platforms to others. As a business owner your social media pages should always be public. This draws in other people as well. The number one piece of advise I would give anyone and it applies to all areas of your life not just business but be consistent. Even when your post aren’t liked or commented on. Don’t get caught up in the likes or the lack of them. I will post things on social media and instead of engaging on the post people will private message me or send me a comment on my website. People are watching and paying attention so keep posting and sharing your content.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

As I’ve mentioned before that I was in the corporate world all my life up until the last four years. My company decided to close and relocate to another state and that wasn’t an option for my family at this time in our lives. So this was the time for me to either look for another job or trust God and start my own business like I’ve always wanted. I decided to trust and launch my business. This was a major pivot for me because with the two businesses they just didn’t start off with an abundance of customers or clients. It actually had me second guess my decision. I even thought maybe I’ve made the wrong decision and tried to apply for some jobs. All I got from that was rejection after rejection. Even with jobs I know I was qualified for and some overly qualified. I did have some interviews and got to the last level of the process but didn’t get any of them. I soon learned that the path I was trying to take was not the one I was being lead on and that I had to trust the process and God. Even when things don’t look like what we want them to or expect them to just keep going. You don’t have to know every step of the process even though I want to all I need to do is trust and just step. That’s what I’ve been doing and continue to do and this journey has been amazing. It’s nothing like I expected but here I am walking it out.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.beyondthebreakdoula.com
• Instagram: beyond_the_break_doula
• Facebook: beyond the break doula