I Built A $120K/Year App That Helps Pregnant Women Relax

Tara Menzies

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Published: February 10th, 2022

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Tara Menzies

Founder, Christian Hypnobirthing

$10K

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Christian Hypnobi...

christianhypnobirthing.com

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started February 2018

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Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?

Hi! My name is Tara Menzies, and I’m the creator of the five-star rated Christian Hypnobirthing App, which is a scripture-based relaxation app designed to help expecting mamas feel more relaxed and connected to God throughout pregnancy and birth. Being in this relaxed, faith-filled state helps the body produce optimum levels of oxytocin and endorphins, naturally helping to make labor more efficient and more comfortable.

Since starting the app, we now also have a childbirth education course called ‘Faith-Filled Childbirth’ which has over four hours of birth educational video content to help expecting parents feel more informed and confident about birth and their choices, the course also includes an unlimited subscription to the Christian Hypnobirthing App as well as our Printable Birth Affirmation Cards.

The app currently has around 5000 downloads a month, and average revenue of US$10K a month. When I decided to create this app I had no app-building or software background, no money to invest, and no potential investors. All I had was an idea and the belief that it was possible.

i-built-an-84k-year-app-that-helps-pregnant-moms-hypnobirth

What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?

As I’ll be discussing pregnancy and birth throughout this, I just want to say upfront that I am a qualified hypnobirthing teacher with a diploma in Hypnobirthing (KGH) accredited by the Royal College of Midwives, but I am not medically qualified, so please always check with your doctor, midwife or medical caregiver before making any changes to your lifestyle, pregnancy or birth plans.

Now let’s get to it! Throughout my twenties, I worked as a creative (singer, actor, and director) and because of that I normally had to have other jobs on the side to support my creative endeavors. I worked as a nanny, sang and played piano in a hotel in Knightsbridge (London), and I even started my own kid's party business. I really wanted to be a mum but my husband and I had been trying to conceive a baby for a couple of years and had sadly experienced three consecutive losses. When I finally got pregnant with our son Charlie, and we managed to get to the twelve-week scan I was overjoyed, but equally, I became wracked with anxiety about potentially losing our baby, and had huge fear about giving birth.

Try to accept that no matter how wonderful your product is, it’s not always going to resonate with everyone. So don’t waste time trying to please everyone. Just get on and create what you want to create.

My sister-in-law told me about something called ‘hypnobirthing’ to help with anxiety during pregnancy and birth and to be honest as a Christian I wasn’t too keen on the sound of the word ‘hypno’. But as I looked into it, I discovered that thankfully it wasn’t anything to do with a man on a stage swaying a pocket watch in front of you, making you cluck like a chicken. ‘Hypnobirthing’ actually comes from the word ‘Hypnotherapy’ which is a form of therapy that uses words to help people overcome anxiety and phobias etc. Quite simply hypnobirthing is words and changing the words we use around birth from negative to positive. This has a massive impact on how we feel about birth, which in turn has a massive impact on our body, and our birth experience.

Even though the visualizations and breathing exercises seemed helpful, there were certain aspects of hypnobirthing that didn’t resonate with me as a Christian, for instance when they talked about ‘being a goddess’, or the ‘universe’ etc. So I decided to try and find Christian alternatives. I searched for ‘Christian Hypnobirthing’ but nothing existed. It was at this point that I started to think about how great it would be to have a scripture-based version of hypnobirthing.

While searching for Christian pregnancy resources I found a book called ‘Supernatural Childbirth’ which is a wonderful faith-based childbirth book, but it was quite negative about natural birthing methods, so I decided to stop using hypnobirthing altogether, and just ‘have faith’, believing for an amazing pain-free birth. It’s a nice idea in principle, but when the time came for me, I found myself overwhelmed and lacking in tools or resources to help me through a very difficult labor.

The problem with this kind of approach is that if you are experiencing pain in labor it can lead you to think that you ‘don’t have enough faith’, but that just isn’t based on logic. The reality (and this is what you learn in hypnobirthing) is that most of the pain in labor is caused by fear, which leads to tension in the body, which leads to pain, which leads to more fear, and then more tension, etc. This is called the ‘fear-tension-pain cycle’ a concept first brought to light by British obstetrician Grantley Dick-Read.

Pain in labor is not a sign that you’re lacking in faith, but more likely a sign that you are feeling scared or anxious, and your body is tensing up, which is slowing down the process of labor and making it more painful. Whereas when you are completely relaxed, your body produces more of the hormones which help labor to progress more efficiently and also naturally relieve pain. The body is miraculously designed for birth, and when we can train ourselves to relax through breathing exercises and having anchors for relaxation (for instance listening regularly to the Christian Hypnobirthing tracks, worship music, light touch massage, etc) birth can be a peaceful, joyful and spiritual experience.

A week or so after giving birth, I was sitting up in bed breastfeeding our beautiful baby boy, listening to the scriptures on my bible app, and one stuck out for me, Matthew 19:26 “Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” I felt so amazed that I skipped back to listen to it again. This stayed with me and I kept thinking about it, and that if this scripture is true, then surely a wonderful birth experience must be possible?

I thought a lot about my birth, and how I felt that the exercises in hypnobirthing really could have helped me. I felt that Christian women deserved to be able to have access to the wonderful tools used in hypnobirthing, but in a way that aligned completely with their beliefs. I kept thinking that combining the visualizations and breathing techniques with the amazing power, love, strength, and support that come from God would be an amazing resource for birth and that it really should be created. And if no one else was going to do it, then why not me?

I told my husband how I’d been feeling and that I wanted to create a scripture-based hypnobirthing app and he felt it was a great idea, but we’d put all the savings we had into a deposit for a small two-bed flat and had no money. I’d given up my job as we’d moved out to the countryside and was now looking after our new baby boy full time. My husband was earning enough for us to pay our mortgage and live, but not enough for us to invest in anything extra or borrow any money.

I had no app-building or software background and after googling how much it would cost to build an app and finding a ‘basic’ app cost around $40,000, I almost gave up. But ‘All things are possible with God’ just kept coming into my mind, and I felt that it must be possible.

Take us through the process of designing your app.

I ended up searching for how to ‘build an app for free’. I found something called ‘Siberian CMS’. It said that you could use it if you had fairly minimal software experience. So I innocently thought I could probably do it. I remember emailing them to ask for help getting started and they replied ‘it’s really simple, you just need your own VPS, minimum SSD2’. I had no idea what any of that meant. It is so funny thinking about these moments because there were just so many points at which I could have given up. And my naivety kind of served me, because it meant I was quite optimistic. Whereas I think if I’d known how difficult it was going to be, I probably never would have done it.

The most important part of the app was the content, and so I started writing the tracks. I did a huge amount of research. And combined what I felt were the best aspects of hypnobirthing, with my favorite scriptures for birth. I would research and write the tracks and then record them every time my son was napping, or after he’d gone to bed.

I can’t remember exactly how long that took, but I think I was doing that for at least a month or so. I used a podcasting mic that I bought off Amazon, and GarageBand on my Mac to edit.

Screenshots from the first version of the app:

A few months after making the Christian Hypnobirthing tracks I became pregnant with our second son. I listened to the tracks throughout that pregnancy and birth, and the experience was incredible. I was so relaxed my husband and I were laughing and joking between contractions. The hospital staff didn’t believe I was in active labor and were going to send us home. Thankfully they let my husband and I stay in a waiting room.

For me as a Christian, the tracks just brought something so much more powerful than traditional hypnobirthing, because even sitting in a hospital waiting room, I felt so much peace and strength, and felt the presence of God with me, helping me to stay relaxed and positive. When my surges (contractions) started becoming a bit more intense my husband called the midwife while I was in the bathroom, and by the time she came with a wheelchair to take me to the labor room I was already giving birth. They recorded it as 12 minutes of active labor and 8 minutes of pushing.

Our son was born en-caul (which happens in less than 1 in 80,000 births) and it was a truly amazing experience. So radically different from my first birth (even if it was in a waiting room!). It made me realize just how unique the tracks were and how the combination of the encouraging scriptures and prayers with the hypnobirthing techniques was something special.

Describe the process of launching the business.

Once I had managed to get my own VPS (Virtual Private Server - which costs about $15 a month), I was able to use the Siberian CMS Software for free, and I started designing the app. I found a beautiful watercolor designer on Fiverr who designed the logo for about £40, and I followed the steps and instructions on Siberian to build the app.

I found aspects of that process extremely difficult. The fact that I had to use Xcode to build the App Store version of the app, and Android Studio for the Google Play app, and all the many steps, and all the times the build failed because one tiny thing wasn’t done.

Then when I finally uploaded it to the App Store they rejected it initially because there wasn’t enough content (pictures etc), so I had to make a new build and create the Positive Birth section with more information and resources about birth, breastfeeding, positive birth videos, etc. That new build was accepted and so the app finally launched! Which was an extremely exciting, albeit slightly nerve-wracking day.

I launched the app over Easter 2018 and I was amazed when it started to get downloads. It was only getting about five downloads a week, but I was so thrilled. It was just so exciting to me that the app was out there and people seemed to be liking it! It was amazing to know that many women had felt the same way as I had about traditional hypnobirthing and that the faith-based tracks were exactly what they were looking for. The thing that was difficult after launching, was discovering that there will always be issues that come up with software.

If Facebook can have their entire site go down, then anyone can. The problem is app users can be very unforgiving, and quick to give you a one-star review if they have even the slightest technical issue. Sometimes the issue was to do with the software I was using, and other times it was nothing to do with the app, but actually to do with a setting the app user had on their phone. It used to cause me a lot of stress, but I’ve learned to just breathe, and do my best to find a solution. And often the customer would be so grateful for the help they’d change their one-star review to a five-star review.

Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?

Without a doubt, the biggest thing that has served to grow the business is word of mouth. It took a long time because I had no idea about social media or marketing but I did start an Instagram account and Facebook page in the beginning and over time it has built up. We have around 29K followers on Instagram now, which I feel has been due to a combination of posting regularly (I try to post once or twice a day), creating more engaging content (often the posts that get the most likes and shares tend to be beautiful birth videos and photos from our app users or informative posts about birth) and the other huge difference in terms of growing the business, and brand awareness have been ‘Influencers’.

I’d never thought about influencers until Amanda Tress messaged me on Instagram to tell me she’d listened to the app throughout her pregnancy and birth. I have no idea how she found it, but I did notice a small increase in followers and downloads after she posted a story about the app, and it made me realize how much more powerful it is to have someone recommending your product, than paying to boost your posts or run your adverts. Mostly because (understandably) people trust people, much more than they would ever trust a company or a brand.

Two years after creating the app, the app was only generating about $800 a month, so I still couldn’t afford to do any advertising, and I didn’t see any real results from boosting posts. I liked the idea of word of mouth because it feels so much more genuine. I decided to write to some pregnant influencers and offer them a free download of the app. I never asked them to post about it, but just offered them a free download in case they were interested.

Hannah Bower was one of the influencers I wrote to and she ended up posting her birth photos including one of her listening to the app during labor and she also wrote a beautiful testimonial about the app. This was kind of a game-changing moment for the app. Sales quadrupled for the next couple of days and I began to realize that maybe I wouldn’t have to get another job and that running the app could potentially provide an actual income, which felt immensely rewarding after a couple of years of work.

Another big moment was when Kathlyn Celeste posted her birth video on Youtube:

Kathlyn had a lot of anxiety about birth because of a previous traumatic birth experience. She began listening to the Christian Hypnobirthing tracks regularly in the lead-up to her birth and had the most beautiful home water birth. She mentions using the app in the video, and I think the fact that it’s a video is just so much more powerful than a written testimonial, as you can see how relaxed she is, and the effect that has on her birth.

The video has had nearly a million views on Youtube and is well worth a watch if you’re looking to change the way you view birth. It is so beautiful. Just be sure to get some tissues! I bawled while watching it.

I feel very grateful to say that now we get so many beautiful mentions and birth stories coming in every day that I’m finding it difficult to find the time to read them all! But I try to get back to as many people personally as I can. Even though it’s taken a long time to build to this point, I think there is huge power in word of mouth. If you can create something that people love, and they tell their friends, I believe that over time it will grow, you just have to keep going.

How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

I finally made the move to getting an app developer to develop a better version of the app. One of the biggest requests I’ve had over the years was to have the tracks downloaded in the app, but because of the limitations of the software I’d used to build the app, this simply wasn’t possible. Hiring a developer to work with has been amazing. It’s so nice to work with someone else! And it’s been wonderful to make the app so much more user-friendly, and also implement some of the requests that we’ve had over the years.

One of the biggest new developments has been the Faith-Filled Childbirth Course. It’s still relatively new (it was released a few months ago). I put the course together as the app is primarily for relaxation, but being informed and confident about the process of birth and your choices around it, is also so important. The course is where you can learn more about physiological birth, gentle cesarean, induction, the effects of adrenaline vs oxytocin, the role of birth partners, etc. So the course works hand in hand with the app to help parents feel informed, confident and relaxed. The course also includes an unlimited subscription to the app, as well as our affirmation cards, so it is our ‘ultimate birth package’ and we’ve already been getting such wonderful feedback about it, which is exciting.

I keep getting requests to do a more general relaxation app just for daily life (not just pregnancy). So that is something I’m thinking a lot about. I’d love to do it, but as I’ve mentioned I have two beautiful boys, a husband, and a business that already requires lots of time and attention haha. So it’s just a case of finding the time. But that’s something I’d love to look at this year.

Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

I think some of the greatest challenges I’ve faced (and I’m sure this applies to most businesses) have been my own limiting beliefs and mindset. This is why I think working on yourself and having daily rituals (listening to affirmations, thinking of something you’re grateful for, prayer, etc) that get you in a great state are essential.

Yes you’ll make mistakes, and that’s ok, you will learn as you go, so just get started, then you start getting momentum.

For a long time, I was the one holding my business back. For all kinds of reasons, but most of them were to do with feeling that I wasn’t good enough, or being afraid of making mistakes, etc. When I began to shift my mindset away from my insecurities and instead began focusing on what the app was contributing to others, and how I could potentially contribute in a bigger way, things began to grow. I think one of the best things you can do if you want to grow your business, is to work on growing personally. It might feel painful at the time, but I believe it will always be worth it.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

As I’ve mentioned, Instagram is probably the biggest social media platform I use, and I think it’s the best for my demographic. I do have Facebook as well, but I feel like its algorithms seem to set up to only reach people through paid advertising. Whereas it seems that you can get quite a lot of free publicity on Instagram if your post gets picked up and people are sharing it.

For app distribution I use App Store and Google Play. For the Faith-Filled Childbirth Course I used mastermind.com to build and host the course. And to sell our affirmation cards I use Etsy.

I used Wix to build our website, which I like. It can create contact forms that can be saved to different email lists, and then you can use Wix’s email marketing, which just saves time instead of having to use an outside email marketing management system like Mailchimp, etc.

What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?

In terms of birth, I recommend reading Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth, and also her book Spiritual Midwifery. Ina May has so much incredible wisdom, from a lifetime of midwifery and the birth stories are extremely encouraging.

If you’re interested in learning more about hypnobirthing, I recommend The Hypnobirthing Book by Katherine Graves. I was trained as a hypnobirthing instructor by Katherine and she was a wonderful teacher, so passionate and full of positivity. If you are a Christian, I do recommend giving Supernatural Childbirth a read. There are some wonderful scriptures in there for the birth, and it is very encouraging.

If you are looking to learn more about Christianity then a wonderful place to start is the Alpha Course. My husband and I did it together about eight years ago and enjoyed it.

In terms of business, one of my favorite podcast episodes was The Tony Robbins Podcast where he interviewed Spanx creator Sara Blakely. I have learned so much from listening to Tony’s podcasts and doing his courses over the years, from looking after our finances to making time for gratitude each day, I do recommend his work.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?

One of the most important things I’ve learned is to stop worrying so much about what other people think. It’s paralyzing. And a business cannot move forward if the director is paralyzed. Try to accept that no matter how wonderful your product is, it’s not always going to resonate with everyone. So don’t waste time trying to please everyone. Just get on and create what you want to create. Yes, you’ll make mistakes, and that’s ok, you will learn as you go, so just get started, then you start getting momentum.

I’d also say, do your research, and work out how much is wise to invest. I don’t personally recommend over-investing. I think there’s power in starting small, with what you have, and building from there. I was so grateful that I started small as it took years to start making an actual income, and if I’d borrowed money to start with I could have gotten into difficulty.

The last thing I’d say is to make time for self-development every day. For me, I try to get out on what I call my ‘gratitude walk’ daily, where I initially spend time focusing on everything I’m grateful for and acknowledging the grace in my life (I really think gratitude is one of the most powerful tools we have to help us overcome anxiety and increase happiness) and then I spend time doing creative visualisation (which is really helpful for goal setting and getting a sense of purpose and direction). If you have the Christian Hypnobirthing app, then that is what the ‘Gratitude and Creative Visualisation Exercise’ is based around. And doing it every day has changed my life. I feel so much happier and healthier as a result, and I really notice the difference when I don’t do it.

Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?

If you're passionate about God and birth, then please get in touch! We're currently looking for a new app developer, and our team is increasing. So if you feel we could work together in some way, please feel free to reach out.

If you’d like to apply send me an email at [email protected].