Meet Katie Montell | The Baby Planner – Maternity Consultant and Parent Coach

We had the good fortune of connecting with Katie Montell and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Katie, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
When I was pregnant with my daughter, I felt extremely prepared. I had a lot of experience with babies and had even been a nanny and night nanny. I did ALL of the research, read all of the books, and took a ton of courses. But once she was born, I was incredibly overwhelmed. I had no idea how hard it would be. I started realizing that there is a gap in the way we are supporting parents. We do a lot to get them ready for birth and caring for a newborn, but not so much in preparing their lives for the changes that come with a baby. Not only that, we are overselling a lot of things that parents don’t need and constantly bombarding them with advertisements that scare them into buying a product. I wanted to create a business that helped parents prepare their homes, lives, and careers for a new baby by providing custom, unbiased services for baby registries, nursery designs, postpartum planning, family routines, and career planning. Basically anything non-medical related to preparing for a newborn. We spend so much money on wedding planners for a one-day event when having a baby is, arguably, a bigger life change. So the Baby Planner was born to answer this problem and help solve these gaps!

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Before I was The Baby Planner I was a Management Consultant for 12+ years. I also have 14 nieces and nephews and was a babysitter, nanny, and after-school teacher for a lot of my life through college and beyond. Combining my corporate strategy skills, my experience with clients, and my experience with babies set me up for success to start the baby planner. But it hasn’t been easy. Maternity consultants are not well-known like wedding planners. So a lot of the work, in the beginning, has been just telling people what a baby planner is and why it’s an important role. I built this business while also working a full time job, being a new mom, and through the pandemic – so time management has been a huge challenge. But I believed in it SO much. Parents need more support from every angle and I have loved every single minute of this journey. Another challenge has been changing my mindset from telling parents what worked for my family vs. giving unbiased advice to families on what will be best for their unique family. So instead of telling parents exactly what they need, I walk through the options and pros and cons of each so we can work together to figure out what will work best for them. Which is often times very different from worked well for my family. Once I was able to approach my business this way, I was able to add so much more value to my clients. This is what sets me apart from asking a friend or family member for advice on baby planning – I am constantly doing research on everything available to be able to coach parents on what will work best for their unique family.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Oh gosh where do I start! I guess it will depend on if you have children with you or not and the time of year. But here are some of my favorites. Favorite outdoor places are the beltline, piedmont park, and hiking stone mountain. For food, I love the optimist or really any ford fry restaurant. also great for food are the food halls like Krog Street market, ponce city market, and sweet auburn market. For day drinking, anything along the beltline or hanging at a brewery like Scofflaw – most of these are pretty family friendly too. For kids activities, Georgia Aquarium, Fernbank, or the Botanical Gardens are amazing.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My husband has been an amazing partner. Without him and his support, I never would have been able to have the time to build this business while also being a mother and having a full-time job.

The friends who let me experiment and perfect my processes with them before I started taking paying clients. They have been integral in providing valuable feedback and helping me ensure that I am really adding value.

Website: www.thebabyplanner.co

Instagram: @thebabyplanner.co

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebabyplanner.co

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-baby-planner-atlanta

Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebabyplanner.co