How to vet business coaches (and avoid coaching scams)
In this episode, hosts Rachael Wonderlin and Emily Naples sit down with trainer-turned-founder Rachel Ridgeway to talk about the messy middle of building online: niching down, going viral to 100K+, and realizing growth can pull you away from the community you're meant to serve. Rachel R. shares how she vetted (and benefited from) an early business coach, why she turned down most brand deals, and what pushed her to launch a wide-toe-box "barefoot" sock company, Aira Basics, plus a celebrity endorsement. Key Takeaways: – Niching works, as long as you make sure it still serves the audience you set out to help. – Viral growth can change who finds you; guard your original mission as you scale. – Vet coaches by outcomes, references, and realism; avoid "X clients in X days" promises. – Protect audience trust: be selective with brand deals and avoid unvetted supplements. – You don't have to live on social: products, trade shows, and partnerships are valid growth paths. About Rachael: Rachael Wonderlin is a dementia care consultant and gerontologist. She founded her consultancy, Dementia By Day, in 2014. She is the author of When Someone You Know is Living in a Dementia Care Community, Creative Engagement, and The Caregiver's Guide to Memory Care and Dementia Communities. Find out more at www.rachaelwonderlin.com and Instagram.com/dementiabyday Follow along with I Can't Hustle Any Harder Than This anywhere you get your podcasts or on YouTube at YouTube.com/rachaelwonderlin
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AirBnB Catastrophies with Kara and Shaddy
"Our renter starts calling us on FaceTime, telling us that the toilet is overflowing and how they're trying to remove the toilet. We're like, 'Uh, don't remove the toilet!" Then they say, 'There's so much water, there's so much water everywhere! We need another unit!'" Kara Wonderlin and Shaddy Mzeghet met in Miami in 2020 and, shortly after they began dating, started running businesses together. Be it Amazon, drop-shipping, Airbnb, vending machines, or more, they know about it and they've run it. Tune in for insights like, "Passive income just isn't real the way the Internet makes it seem like it is" and "You're going to deal with difficult people no matter what you do!" Follow along with I Can't Hustle Any Harder Than This anywhere you get your podcasts or on YouTube at YouTube.com/rachaelwonderlin
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Baking a Cookie Biz From Scratch with Connie Feda
Meet Connie Feda, Co-Founder of Cookie Cookie Ice Cream Company in Pittsburgh, PA, a company that trains individuals living with disabilities how to bake, engage with others in a service role, and get involved with the community. Connie is a mom of six kids and she started Cookie Cookie Ice Cream to find a place for her daughter with Down's Syndrome—now 26 years old—to work. "We couldn't find a place that worked with her in the way that she needed to train, so we decided to start something that would take time out of the equation for learning. We realized that there were a lot of people in our area who needed the same thing." Connie's team works with 10 schools in the area to teach their students how to work with others and grow in a service role. Their cookies (and ice cream!) are phenomenal (we checked the store out after this episode) and Connie was kind enough to bring us cookies to taste. Learn more on https://cookiecookieicecream.com Follow our podcast, I Can't Hustle Any Harder Than This, anywhere you get your podcasts or on YouTube at YouTube.com/rachaelwonderlin
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I Can't Hustle Any Harder Than This with Rachael Wonderlin
"I went home and I opened my laptop and thought, 'I'm going to find a new job.' I was on Indeed for about five minutes before I realized, I can't do this again—I can't go work for someone else. I'm going to leverage this blog I've built and turn it into a dementia consulting business." Rachael Wonderlin started Dementia By Day as a blog in 2014 and turned it into a consulting business in 2016 after being laid off from her 9-to-5 role. "I think in order to start a business, you have to want to deal with the difficulties of starting a business. You have to be willing to wade around in the muck for a while before you can be successful." This episode is all about the ups and downs of Rachael's start in entrepreneurship and how the road to business ownership has changed since 2016. Rachael started this podcast in early 2025 and is now finished with the first draft of her fourth book—this one about consulting!—and is on the lookout for an agent. Find Rachael on Instagram at DementiaByDay or Can't_HustlePodcast or visit her site at rachaelwonderlin.com and dementiabyday.com Follow our podcast, I Can't Hustle Any Harder Than This, anywhere you get your podcasts or on YouTube at YouTube.com/rachaelwonderlin
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"I realized I HATED my business!" with Amanda Nowak
"It was the first night of our vacation and I looked at my husband and said, 'I hate my business and I don't want to do this anymore.'" Amanda Nowak and Rachael met years ago when Amanda owned a successful, 7-figure senior living-based design business. From the outside, everything looked perfect, but on the inside, Amanda was suffering. "I was ashamed of how I felt about my business," she says. Amanda is now the founder and owner of Element Eight: https://element-8.com and on LinkedIn under Amanda Nowak. "Now I help people in transition periods like when they fall out of love with their business and need to either restructure or pivot, or when they're in corporate and have that entrepreneur itch. Very much a 'what the hell am I doing with me life, I know I want something else and it's not this.'" Follow our podcast, I Can't Hustle Any Harder Than This, anywhere you get your podcasts or on YouTube under YouTube.com/rachaelwonderlin
Unlike the so-called "influencers" on social media talking about how easy it is to run your own business or start a side hustle, "I Can't Hustle..." is all about the truth of business ownership. Rachael Wonderlin started a blog in 2014 called "Dementia By Day," which she converted into a consulting firm in 2016. After nearly a decade of running a small, online business, Rachael has some thoughts to share.
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Ireland