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Blogging for IBCLC’s with Rachel O'Brien, IBCLC [BONUS: ASK THE EXPERT] – Lactation Business Coaching with Annie and Leah
In this bonus episode of Ask the Expert, Annie & Leah interview Rachel O’Brien, IBCLC about blogging, and how she uses it to compliment her private practice. Rachel shares her process of creating blog posts and how that has changed over the years. We learn how we can make blogging work for us and our businesses, and why it’s not as intimidating as we might think. One thing that might surprise you is that Rachel explains to us that it’s not usually what you write about, just that it’s YOU who’s writing it.
About Rachel O’Brien, IBCLC: Rachel O’Brien is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) who earned her Master of Arts degree in human lactation in 2015. Rachel prides herself on providing real-life, guilt-free breastfeeding help and specializes in low milk supply, latch difficulty, tongue tie and lip tie, and LGBTQIA+ lactation.
When she isn’t doing in-home visits for breastfeeding help or working as a lactation consultant at UMASS Memorial Hospital in Worcester, Rachel is often blogging about lactation or contributing as a breastfeeding expert on multiple websites. She uses her expertise, warmth, and sense of humor to help families to meet their breastfeeding and chestfeeding goals.
HIGHLIGHTS
04:28 Blogging for depth rather than quantity
05:25 Rachel’s blog post creation process
07:49 Creating posts that are easy to understand
11:12 Using your unique voice to share information
13:31 Leading readers further into your business
QUOTES
04:24 “I really enjoy explaining things and trying to teach things in a different way. And so I do a lot of longer form blog posts now, and I don’t do that many of them, but I put a lot of work into the ones that I do.”
05:44 “When there is a situation that I keep running up against and I feel like I know it because it’s part of my job, but I just have no resources for it, that’s when I decided, okay, fine. I’m going to be the one who makes this.”
08:20 “I didn’t need to prove to anyone that I knew every single thing that there could be about that particular subject. I just had to know enough to make it make sense to somebody else.”
10:47 “It’s not about writing about a particular topic, it’s about you talking about that topic. And so it’s super, super important with the blog that they hear your voice when they’re reading the words.”
16:22 “I always think that we, in lactation and in a lot of jobs, we’re not selling our services so much as we’re selling ourselves.”
About Us
Leah Jolly is a private practice IBCLC with Bay Area Breastfeeding in Houston, Texas. Annie Frisbie is a private practice IBCLC serving Queens and Brooklyn in New York City, and the creator of Paperless Lactation.
The Lactation Business Coaching podcast is produced by us and edited by Jillian Grover, who also writes our show notes. Our theme song is by Silas Wade.
