The IFW Show
Welcome to The IFW Show, the no-BS startup show that gives you the real-real on how to start a successful business while keeping your sanity. Each episode will feature a real-life coaching session with Karen Cahn, Founder & CEO of IFW, or a guest coach, and a member of the IFW entrepreneur community. Listen in to get logical business insights, learn executable strategies, and get actionable tactics that you can use to launch, grow, and even scale your business. No more waiting, let’s get you funded.
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Making Bank As A Freelancer
Jordyn DiOrio is breaking into the world of freelance consulting after years of experience in senior business operations, project management, and marketing strategy. While she’s confident in the skills she’s honed throughout her career, Jordyn is looking to dive deeper into the meaning behind her business. Looking to sustainably scale her business, Jordyn asks the question “What defines a milestone?” At JDP Consult, Jordyn maximizes her expertise to help clients understand where they’re missing the mark, what is slowing them down, and how she can help them revamp their strategy. She’s well on her way to hit her revenue goal in the first six months, so then what? Host Karen Cahn, Founder & CEO of IFW, sits down with Jordyn to discuss the “why” behind JDP Consult and how that is measured.
Tune in to find out how Jordyn plans to secure projects with her bullseye client (hint: in collaboration with IFW Services X), while creating meaningful work. Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, or Stitcher. Download transcript
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After exiting two successful companies and being one of pop culture’s biggest celebrity bloggers, Necole Kane is on the IFW Show with Karen Cahn asking the question we’ve all pondered: “Do I really need a cofounder to be attractive to investors?”
Necole is the powerhouse behind My Happy Flo, a natural plant-based supplement that supports hormonal balance, alleviates heavy bleeding, bloating, cramping, and mood swings for a happier, healthier menstrual cycle. My Happy Flo is currently a DTC brand, but Necole has dreams of supporting people with periods on a global scale and getting her products in major retailers. The question that she’s up against is how to get there. Necole is a visionary who needs someone to fill in the gaps on the leadership and logistics side. Karen sees this as the perfect opportunity to bring on a Chief Operating Officer and offers up ways to make My Happy Flo an attractive venture for an experienced operational rockstar. Karen and Necole discuss the financial side of taking on a COO, vesting schedules, and the profile of what Necole’s ideal candidate might look like. What’s going to get My Happy Flo to the lucrative promised land? Tune in to find out. Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, or Stitcher.
Lauren Morris, founder and executive director of MOVE Inclusive Dance, is back with an update from when she was on the IFW Show last year. Lauren and Karen previously spoke about transitioning Lauren’s Nashville-based dance studio from non-profit to for-profit, and Karen helped Lauren come up with a plan to raise venture capital. Lauren was ready to take on that process, but as things started opening up again and there were less restrictions on in-person events, the vision for MOVE started to change. Startup life – you know the drill.
Even though Lauren says she’s made ‘zero progress’ since her last coaching session, it’s clear that things have started taking off. MOVE recently had its first dance recital, Lauren has successfully hosted in-person fundraiser events, and they’ve developed their virtual programming. So why does Lauren feel like she hasn’t made any moves? Karen and Lauren have an honest discussion about imposter syndrome and how it’s showing up in their professional lives. Luckily, the IFW community is here to lift women founders up and remind them that they are exactly where they’re meant to be. Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, or Stitcher.
Everyone wants to hire a unicorn, but the reality is that they don’t exist. What every small business owner needs is a rockstar who wants to shine and share their talent.
Gloria Chou, the founder of Gloria Chou PR, is looking for advice about how to make her first full-time hire. Karen Cahn, podcast host and Founder & CEO of IFW, prides herself on her talent-hiring skills and can pinpoint exactly where Gloria is getting stuck.
Gloria needs a director of content who can transform Small Business PR with Gloria Chou podcast episodes into Reels, Tik Toks, email marketing, and more. Gloria realizes that this isn’t her zone of genius, and she needs to find someone who has a complimentary skillset to what already exists in her business. Karen also pinpoints where the leak is in Gloria’s sales funnel and offers up a few solutions for how to patch it. Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, or Stitcher.
What do ALL founders have in common? Every single entrepreneur who is starting a company needs to differentiate themselves and establish a unique brand for their business. But how does one do this in a concise way that actually portrays the anatomy of their business to their customers? Cue the experts.
This week on the IFW Show, Karen Cahn is joined by co-founder and CEO of Entreprenista, Stephanie Cartin. Entreprenista helps female entrepreneurs create and build their personal brand through their private membership community. Stephanie wants to grow the Entreprenista League so her members can grow their businesses and gain access to more capital. Tune in to hear Stephanie and Karen talk about all things funding, consolidating go-to-market messaging, marketing, and of course, what life is really like when you’re a woman running a business. Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, or Stitcher.
Did you feel the sting of paying rent on a space you couldn’t use during the height of the pandemic?
For Laci Chisholm, founder of Fit4Dance, paying rent for 18 months for a studio she could not use made her realize she’s ready to own her own space. Laci wants to create some real roots in Brooklyn and own a building that she can use for her dance studio, to grow her future family, and to have tenants. This is her chance to create generational wealth and pay it forward to her community. Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, or Stitcher.
Plug in your headphones, grab your diplomas, and join us as we graduate from Hangover University.
Stephanie Rice is the Founder & CEO of Better Bar, a full-service event planning business centered around low and no-alcohol experiences. Better Bar’s mission is to see a world where bars don't need as much booze to create buzz, or as Steph puts it, get lit without the hit and still have a great time. The problem? She is a one woman show with a day job and wants to scale her side hustle to take it beyond the Bay Area. How can she do this without going to every event in person? Karen Cahn, Founder & CEO of IFW and your lovely podcast host has the answer. Tune in to find out! Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, or Stitcher.
How does a solo founder balance bringing rock icon Melissa Etheridge onto their advisory board, run a growing business, and raise a round of venture capital, all at the same time? This problem of how do I successfully raise VC while running my growing startup looms in the minds of all startup founders, especially solo-founders. Tune into this week’s episode of the IFW Show with Karen Cahn, as she gives Shira Yevin, founder of Gritty In Pink, a platform that connects music industry execs to freelance talent, some actionable steps she can take to get her raise done. Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, or Stitcher.
In this episode of the IFW Show with Karen Cahn, Tinia Pina, Founder & CEO of Re-Nuble, is looking for advice on how to socialize her mission and connect with Gen Z and Millennials on social media. Re-Nuble makes food scraps a compatible plant food for indoor growers, which reduces the need for chemical fertilizers that contribute to air and water pollution.
Tinia doesn’t have any issues getting her B2B consumers to align with her mission, but she’s having trouble tapping into the families who can benefit from Re-Nuble. Where are kids and their parents consuming content and getting ideas these days? Answer: TikTok, Instagram Reels, and Instagram Stories. TikTok has trained people to only want ‘edutainment’ in bite-sized videos. Coach Karen suggests that instead of starting from scratch, Tinia should find the young people and influencers who are already on the platform and creating content about the environment and organic food.
Coach Karen gives Tinia a weekend homework assignment to claim the TikTok handle and start interacting with those people and studying the trends. Let’s see how she makes food waste understandable, funny, and most importantly, shareable. Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, or Stitcher.
In this episode of the IFW Show with Karen Cahn, Carina Glover, Founder of HerHeadquarters, tells us first hand the challenges she faced raising venture capital as a Black woman startup founder in the U.S. and how she is now crushing it. ICYMI: in 2021, just 2.1% of all VC dollars deployed in the United States went toward businesses, and just a fraction of a percent went toward women of color business owners.
Carina Glover came to the IFW Show to get expert coaching on how to secure the enterprise partners of her dreams, and left with tactical, strategic steps on how to make her Enterprise Partnership dreams come true. Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, or Stitcher.
Sometimes when you feel like your business is plateauing, it’s time to recycle that box you thought you were thinking outside of, and simply look at your data for growth opportunities.
In this episode of the IFW Show with Karen Cahn, Alex West Steinman, Co-Founder & CEO of The Coven, needs inspiration on how to expand her digital platform and monetize globally. With two bustling physical spaces already rocking and a digital community platform with membership in the thousands, Alex needs advice on how to monetize outside of her entrepreneur community. This is where Coach Karen’s brilliant mind comes in - she sees one thing Alex doesn’t: the data goldmine that her existing customers have built for her. With the insights from this data, should The Coven pursue leadership and development training for corporations, or continue down the path of trying to monetize its membership base of entrepreneurs and freelancers? If we’ve learned anything from the last episode with Shauntavia Ward, it’s that founders need to pick one thing and do it really well. Which direction will AWS choose to go in to maximize her revenue, and more importantly, her impact? Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, or Stitcher.
Focusing on being the best at one thing when your competitors are offering an array of products and services can give you major industry FOMO. But, as any great business owner knows, you have to focus on doing one thing really well before you can start to diversify your revenue streams. This, my friends, is “The Google Way,” meaning you need to do one thing and do it well in order for your business to be successful.
In this episode of the IFW Show, Karen Cahn talks to Shauntavia Ward, Founder of Elemint Skin, as she stands her ground on being THE destination for facials in Austin, TX. Why? Shauntavia is an expert in clean facial wellness, has years of domain expertise and training, and is not willing to weave in other “spa services” that could dilute her brand. Shauntavia entered the episode wanting to expand her brick and mortar, and leaves with an entirely new and lucrative business idea. Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, or Stitcher.
Your business is disruptive. You have revenue and you’ve proven demand. Now, how do you make your business go from “interesting” to “investable?” You’re confident you can raise your seed round from venture investors if you can just get in front of the right people… but how the heck do you actually do this? In this episode of the IFW Show, Karen Cahn talks to Odessa Jenkins, Founder & CEO of the Women’s National Football Conference (WNFC), about how she is pitching to the wrong investors. KC empowers OJ with a new strategy on how to confidently network her way to the exact right investors to get her seed round done. Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, or Stitcher.
Did your passion project take off and become a real business? Do you wish it could go back to being a passion project without all the pressure to monetize? You are not alone. This gut-wrenching feeling can be isolating, loaded with shame, and something more founders face than you think. On this episode of the IFW Show with Karen Cahn, tune in to hear Mikki Hernandez, Founder of MixedKids&Co, unpack her feelings about how she isn’t sure if she wants her super-innovative passion project to move forward as a business. Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, or Stitcher.
Are you wearing too many hats in your business? Do you feel like you have to run point on every project? Is your team feeling unsupported and disorganized? It’s time to find an Operations expert, friend. On this episode of The IFW Show Podcast, Karen Cahn talks to Konstance Patton, founder of Soho Renaissance Factory, about how a microdose of psychedelics gave her the inspiration to start her art empire. Now that The Soho Renaissance Factory is running at a high rate of revenue, Konstance needs to ramp up her operational expertise on the team, something she’s lacking. We also talk about how the coaching she received through the IFW Entrepreneur of the Year program helped her level-up her vision and make it massive. Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, or Stitcher.
Why do founders with a social mission often feel guilty collecting profit? In case nobody has told you today, running a woman-owned business that does good for the world and making money at the same time is totally badass. In this episode of the IFW show, Elizabeth Gay, founder of Ípàdé, gives us an exciting update on how she starting charging real money for her valuable services, after giving away so much during the pandemic. Karen and Elizabeth also talk about equity crowdfunding, and making your customers and fans investors in your business. Take a listen! Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, or Stitcher.
What do Meghan Markle, ULTA Beauty, and IFW have in common? They all adore Lamik Beauty. Not only is Kim the CEO of LAMIK, she is also the CEO of turning lemons into lemonade. On this episode of The IFW Show, Karen Cahn talks to Kim Roxie about her upcoming venture capital raise, how taking desperation out of the equation will lead you to the right investors, and how Kim turned lemons into lemonade during the pandemic. This episode will cover:
- What you need to consider before embarking on a venture capital raise
- How to maximize your resources so you can focus on raising your round
- Choosing the right investors
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, or Stitcher.
Pitching to people who do not care, warding of the Klu Klux Klan, being told that in order to raise funding, we need a “glam squad,” and other horrific things that female founders need to go through to run a normal business can start to make us think lots of things, like Why TF am I doing this? Or Am I the chosen one to solve this systemic problem for my community? Who and where are the people who want to support me? Because I know they are out there. Tune into this episode of the IFW Show to hear Karen Cahn, Founder & CEO of IFW get an honest update from Wanona Satcher, founder of Mākhers Studio, about her entrepreneurial journey. Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, or Stitcher.
Ladies and gentlemen… The IFW Show is BACK and making a return in a big way in 2202. We launched our beta season to see if people would find our live startup coaching valuable, helpful, and maybe even somewhat entertaining. Guess what? You all made it very clear that you liked what we were throwing down. So with that, strap in for a new wave of the IFW Show. Starting in 2022, you can expect a new episode every Wednesday. If your new years resolution is to get your business soaring, you’re in luck. Stay tuned and fingers crossed that 2022 is nothing like the past two years. JK. Kind of. Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Audible, or Stitcher.
Founder of ìpàdé, Elizabeth Gay, provided a safe space for social entrepreneurs and activists to co-work and collaborate. Now she’s ready to convert them to paying customers. Tune in to hear Karen Cahn coach Elizabeth on how to create a sales funnel that drives revenue while remaining sensitive to the needs of her community. Listen to this episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Audible, or Stitcher.
If you are not armed with the right info before you start, your board can become a nightmare, tune into this episode of The IFW Show when Karen Cahn, coaches Wanona Satcher, Founder of Mākhers Studios on this very topic. Listen to this episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Audible, or Stitcher.
In this episode, IFW Founder & CEO Karen Cahn coaches LAMIK Beauty Founder Kim Roxie on what she needs to be thinking about as she gears up to take on her first equity investment after a year of COVID pivots. Listen to this episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Audible, or Stitcher.
In this episode, Karen Cahn coaches Next Chapter Concierge Founder Debbie Sokobin on how to promote and grow her new business like a boss. Tune in to listen to Debbie learn to understand her worth when providing a service that adds value to the world. Listen to this episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Audible, or Stitcher.
So, you think you’re ready to take on a co-founder? In this episode, Dr. Karen Wilson learns how to decide which type of co-founder will best propel her business forward, where to look for co-founders, and shares her journey of finding co-founders with IFW. Listen to this episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Audible, or Stitcher.
Is your business solving a massive problem? Have you achieved product-market fit and know how to scale? Then you may be ready to raise venture capital! Lauren Beasley, Founder of MOVE Inclusive Dance, learns what the best first steps are to raising VC. Listen to this episode now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Audible, or Stitcher.
Shocker: it’s not always a linear path. Join Kalilah and Karen Cahn as they coach entrepreneur Lindsey Murphy, Host of The Fab Lab with Crazy Aunt Lindsey, on how to get that elusive, national distribution for her new product. Listen to this episode now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Audible, or Stitcher.