Chisolu Isiadinso Of Forever A Dreamher: Why We Need More Women Founders & Here Is What We Are Doing To Make That Happen
An Interview With Vanessa Ogle
Development: Workshops and programs should be available to female founders on marketing, sales, business planning, capital readiness, financial literacy, and leadership. These three training areas should be a requirement for founders because it grants them access to skills and resources needed to be successful.
As a part of our series about “Why We Need More Women Founders”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Chisolu Isiadinso.
Chisolu is the Founder of Forever A Dreamher, a development firm with a digital community that engages and empowers women entrepreneurs through education, community, and resources. She has over 10 years of corporate experience in procurement and contracts, 9 years as a serial entrepreneur, and 7 years in business consulting. Chisolu’s passion is to combine her business experiences to support female founders in navigating their entrepreneurial journey, all while developing the next generation of female entrepreneurs, leaders, and professionals.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
In 2015, I started my first business a week after graduating from my MBA program. My first company was an interior and exterior painting company that specialized in residential and commercial painting services. I knew nothing about painting, but with the help of my family I was able to grow the company to multiple six figures in the first year using the knowledge learned in my MBA program, 2 months of management training at Sherwin Williams, grit, and the mindset to sell and win. The one thing that I noticed in my first year in business was the lack of resources, support, funding, and mentorship for women in business. Since 2017, I have vowed to create a space for women entrepreneurs through writing a book, hosting events, creating a podcast, and launching a digital community. I know how it feels to start a business and not know what is next. Through Forever A Dreamher, women in the community have a safe space to learn, ask questions, and win.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
The most interesting story that I have is a movement that I created in my city, Baton Rouge, called “Co-Working Day.” This movement started as a way for me to collaborate with other women’s businesses by creating a safe space where we can share resources, contacts, and information to help us grow in business. This movement started with 5 women and is growing rapidly because women are seeking spaces to collaborate, connect, and build community.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
The funniest mistake that I made in business was trying to handle my own bookkeeping. After hiring a bookkeeper in my first year, I received $12,000 back on my taxes. I thought this was an easy task until I forgot to file a 1099 form and ended up owing the IRS $10,000 back the following year. I find this funny because I know that I shouldn’t do that again and my accountant is my best friend in business.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
My mother has been a great inspiration and supporter of me while on my entrepreneurial journey. She is an amazing mom who believes in every venture that I start, and she always has my back. If you ever attend one of our events, you will see my mom there ready to work. Whether she is helping with the setup, passing out food, or greeting women at the door, she will be there excited and proud of me.
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
“Think and Grow Rich” is one of my favorite books. This book changed my mindset and life because it emphasizes the power of persistence and vision in building wealth. The story of Rockefeller was my favorite because he shared the humbling beginnings and the challenges that Rockefeller faced on his journey. I understand that in business there will be many ups and downs, but when you strategically align with the right people and make BOLD decisions, then success will come next. This book exemplifies the life of entrepreneurs who dream, dare, and do all while persevering.
Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life or your work?
“A winner is a dreamer who never gives up” by Nelson Mandela is a quote that I live by. You can say that it is my mantra. I love this quote because a dreamer is a person who has a vision, but that dream can either lead to execution or quitting. My goal is to inspire women to DREAM and win in ways that can change their lives.
How have you used your success to make the world a better place?
Over the past 2 years, we have helped our community members receive over $100,000 in funding to scale their companies, hosted a teen summit to inspire over 30 teen girls to dream and lead, and created a community with the capacity to go global over the next 3–5 years. The work that we are putting in today is preparing to change the lives of the next generation of female entrepreneurs, leaders, and professionals.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. According to this EY report, only about 20 percent of funded companies have women founders. This reflects great historical progress, but it also shows that more work still has to be done to empower women to create companies. In your opinion and experience what is currently holding back women from founding companies?
In my opinion, access to development, resources, and authentic mentorship is holding back women from founding companies. Women lack access and exposure to key entrepreneurial resources and tools early on. These resources range from access to capital, authentic mentorship, industry networks, and professional development.
Can you share with our readers what you are doing to help empower women to become founders?
At Forever A Dreamher, we believe in holistic development. We focus on business development & planning, leadership growth, and workforce readiness. We work closely to provide women with the tools, resources, and confidence they need to build and scale their companies. Our approach includes hands-on workshops, coworking days, leadership training, and professional development sessions.
This might be intuitive to you but I think it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you share a few reasons why more women should become founders?
As a female founder, I believe that more women should become founders for three reasons, which are limitless opportunities, transferable experience, and financial freedom. One, with the new age of social media, there is no limit to the amount of success women can gain using their talents and passions. Two, women make up almost 50% of the workforce, which means that women have what it takes to learn, lead, and manage due to on-the-job experiences. Third, there is no cap on the amount of money that can be made in business, which means there is an opportunity for generational wealth and financial freedom.
Can you please share 5 things that can be done or should be done to help empower more women to become founders?
1. Funding Opportunities: Funding is critical to female founders. Women with resources and tools to secure funding have a better chance of scaling. Funding should be available through venture capital, microloans, lines of credit, and credit cards. This does not just mean giving women the money but offering resources and tools to show them how to manage the funds too.
2. Mentorship: Women can access mentorship from the Small Business Association (SBA), companies eager to do business with women, and state/federal agencies. These are the organizations with the funding to develop and mentor women in business. In addition, intermediaries are great sources because they can offer programming and industry networks where women can meet key decision-makers, build relationships, and close the deals needed to scale their businesses. We need more of the organizations that are open to niche opportunities to assist women-owned businesses.
3. Development: Workshops and programs should be available to female founders on marketing, sales, business planning, capital readiness, financial literacy, and leadership. These three training areas should be a requirement for founders because it grants them access to skills and resources needed to be successful.
4. Community: Access to a diverse community of women open to sharing resources and information is vital. Many times, women are defeated due to myths and imposter syndrome. Not gatekeeping and sharing examples and information can serve as a huge motivator to inspire female founders.
5. Freedom and Balance: Providing opportunities that promote work-life balance is very vital for female founders to have the flexibility to balance the roles of mother, spouse, and founder. In addition, financial freedom is important. As an entrepreneur, my goal is to live financially free and build generational wealth for my son.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
If I could create a movement to inspire women to become founders, then I would create a global initiative called the “Dreams to Dollars” program. I’ve had this idea for a while, but it has been challenging to bring it to fruition due to the lack of funding. This imitative would focus on creating a powerful ecosystem and coaching program with essential tools that women can access within Dreamology, our digital community. Female founders would have access to resources, courses, mentorship, funding opportunities, and a list of strategic partners who are willing to offer contracts to women through their diverse supplier programs. Each participant will have access to business training, leadership sessions, and a peer support network. This would serve as a game changer for female founders because of the flexibility to access the content virtually, which means 24/7/365.
We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them.
I would have to say, Melinda Gates or MacKenzie Scott. It was hard to pick just one because both women are making a huge impact on the world through their philanthropist efforts. Both women are major supporters of gender equality and women’s empowerment. I love the major strides that they have already made toward investing in women owned businesses. If I had the support of either one of these amazing ladies, I am sure that Forever A Dreamher would be able to make a huge impact on female founders by providing them with access to education, funding, and mentorship needed to WIN in business early on.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Readers can find us @foreveradreamher on all social media outlets (Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and LinkedIn), they can listen to the Forever A Dreamher podcast on all major platforms and join our community for free using www.wearedreamology.com.
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.
About The Interviewer: Vanessa Ogle is a mom, entrepreneur, inventor, writer, and singer/songwriter. Vanessa’s talent in building world-class leadership teams focused on diversity, a culture of service, and innovation through inclusion allowed her to be one of the most acclaimed Latina CEOs in the last 30 years. She collaborated with the world’s leading technology and content companies such as Netflix, Amazon, HBO, and Broadcom to bring innovative solutions to travelers and hotels around the world. Vanessa is the lead inventor on 120+ U.S. Patents. Accolades include FAST 100, Entrepreneur 360 Best Companies, Inc. 500 and then another six times on the Inc. 5000. Vanessa was personally honored with Inc. 100 Female Founder’s Award, Ernst and Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and Enterprising Women of the Year among others. Vanessa now spends her time-sharing stories to inspire and give hope through articles, speaking engagements and music. In her spare time she writes and plays music in the Amazon best-selling new band HigherHill, teaches surfing clinics, trains dogs, and cheers on her children.
Please connect with Vanessa here on linkedin and subscribe to her newsletter Unplugged as well as follow her on Substack, Instagram, Facebook, and X and of course on her website VanessaOgle.
Chisolu Isiadinso Of Forever A Dreamher: Why We Need More Women Founders & Here Is What We Are… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.