In this new episode our discussion revolves around the imperative to close the exit gap that women face in business, wherein they capture a mere 0.8% of exit value.

I have the distinct honor of hosting Carrie Kerpen, a trailblazing entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of the Whisper Group, which specializes in exit readiness for women-owned businesses.

Throughout our discussion, we delve into the transformative journey of women entrepreneurs, emphasizing the necessity of cultivating confidence alongside competence. Carrie elucidates her own experiences of building and selling her agency, highlighting the profound insights gained from her journey in navigating the complexities of business exits. As we explore the nuances of leadership and the unique challenges faced by women in the entrepreneurial sphere, we illuminate pathways for women to scale their ventures and achieve financial independence.

Our Guest This Week:

Today we have a SUCCESS SORCERESS in our midst!  

Carrie Kerpen is the Founder and CEO of The Whisper Group, the premier exit-readiness advisory firm dedicated exclusively to women-owned businesses. A trailblazing entrepreneur, Carrie built and sold one of the world's first social media agencies, turning a lifestyle business into a life-changing eight-figure asset. Through her work, her bestselling books — Work It!(which was featured in the #WisdomOfWomen Book Club) and her latest, The Whisper Way — and her podcast The Exit Whisperer, Carrie is on a mission to close the staggering exit gap, where women capture only 0.8% of exit value. Her visionary leadership empowers women founders to scale with purpose and exit with prosperity, reshaping the future of wealth for women. Carrie’s voice is bold, definitive, and rooted in a fierce belief: that women deserve to build companies that create freedom, impact, and generational wealth.

Takeaways:

• A significant exit gap exists where women-owned businesses capture only 0.8% of total exit value, highlighting systemic inequalities.
• Carrie's journey illustrates how personal challenges can lead to professional growth and transformative business success.
• The Whisper Group aims to empower women entrepreneurs by providing resources and community support for business growth and exits.
• Both hosts stress the importance of confidence over mere competence in pursuing business opportunities and leadership roles.
• The conversation revolves around actionable strategies for women to build scalable businesses that can be sold for substantial value.

Chapters:

05:06 Defining Moments: Shaping the Future

11:33 Transitioning into Leadership: From Wedding Planner to CEO

13:42 The Exit Gap and Women's Entrepreneurship

19:54 Understanding the Exit Gap for Women Entrepreneurs

30:01 Understanding Valuation: The Key Metrics for Success

31:58 Navigating the Emotional Challenges of Selling a Company

39:04 The Whisper Way: A New Chapter for Women Entrepreneurs

Burning Questions Answered:

1. Why do women capture only 0.8% of exit value—and how do we fix it?
2. What makes a business actually sellable?
3. Can women create life-changing wealth without building billion-dollar unicorns?
4. How do you know when it’s time to sell your company—and what happens next?

Favorite Quotes:

“For every $100 spent on acquiring companies, women-owned businesses earn just 1 cent. That’s what we’re here to change.”

“Revenue is vanity. Profit is sanity.”

“The idea that I could sell my business meant I could stop being afraid.”

GUEST OFFERS & CONTACT INFORMATION:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carriekerpen/  

LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thewhispergroup/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wearethewhispergroup/? 

Website: https://www.wearethewhispergroup.com/ 

Email: info@thewhispergroup.com

1. The Wisper Way – the book:  thewhisperway.com 
2. The Whisper Way Exit Readiness Program: https://www.wearethewhispergroup.com/the-whisper-way-exit-readiness-program
3. Buy/Sell a Business: https://www.wearethewhispergroup.com/buy-sell-a-business
4. The Whisper Collective:  https://www.wearethewhispergroup.com/the-whisper-collective

Follow the #WisdomOfWomen show for more inspiring stories and insights from trailblazing women founders, investors, and experts in growth and prosperity.

YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/yja3w7nh

Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/4tak8ajk 

Amazon Prime: https://tinyurl.com/366syddj 

Apple Podcasts: https://tinyurl.com/bdhananz 

RSS Feed: https://feeds.captivate.fm/womengetfunded/ 

Coco Sellman, the host of #WisdomOfWomen, believes business is a force for good, especially with visionary women at the helm. With over 25 years of entrepreneurial experience, she has launched five companies and guided over 500 startups. As Founder & CEO of A Force for Good, Coco supports purpose-driven women founders in unlocking exponential growth and prosperity. Her recent venture, Allumé Home Care, reached eight-figure revenues and seven-figure profits in just four years before a successful exit in 2024. A venture investor and board director, Coco’s upcoming book, *A Force for Good*, reveals a roadmap for women to lead high-impact, high-growth companies.

Learn more about A Force for Good:

Website: https://aforceforgood.biz/ 

Are Your GROWING or PLATEAUING? https://aforceforgood.biz/quiz/

FFG Tool of the Week: https://aforceforgood.biz/weekly-tool/ 

The Book:  https://aforceforgood.biz/book/ 

Growth Accelerator: https://aforceforgood.biz/accelerator/ 

Welcome to the Wisdom of Women show.

We are dedicated to amplifying the voice and wisdom of women in business.

A new model of leadership is emerging and we are here to amplify the voices of women leading the way.

I am your host, Coco Selman, five time founder, impact investor and creator of the Force for Good system.

Thank you for joining us today as we illuminate the path to unlocking opportunities and prosperity for women led enterprises by amplifying the voice and wisdom of women.

So today we have a success sorceress in our midst.

I am so excited to announce to you Carrie Kirpin, the founder and CEO of the Whisper Group, the premier exit readiness advisory firm dedicated exclusively to women owned businesses.

A trailblazing entrepreneur, carry built and sold one of the first social media agencies turning her lifestyle business into a life changing eight fiction eight figure asset through her work.

Her best selling books Work it which was featured in the Wisdom of Women Book Club just recently.

And her latest work the Whisper Way and her podcast the Exit Whisperer prove that Carrie is on a mission to close the staggering exit gap where women capture over only 0.8% of exit value.

We are going to dig into that.

Her visionary leadership empowers women founders to scale with purpose and exit with prosperity, reshaping the future of wealth for women.

Carrie's voice is bold, definitive and rooted in a fierce belief that women deserve to build companies that create freedom, impact and generational wealth.

Drop the mic right.

Welcome Carrie.

Thank you Coco.

And you know it's so.

I'm so excited to be here because when I think about what being a force for good means and any of it, I just, I think of you.

That is you and I'm grateful to be here with you today.

Thank you for being here.

It's so fun and you know I am honored to be part of your, your Whisper collective which we'll talk about more and getting the chance to get to know you through that and just giving me so much joy and excitement and hope about the future for, for women and for, for the world.

So one question I always like to start out with is what is a book written by a woman that has significantly influenced your life?

Okay, Coco, don't be mad but I have two.

All right, so I'm giving, I'm going to give you one business one and one fiction one because I thought that was really good to show that you can have a well rounded experience of what influences you in your life.

The first is by Katie K. And Claire Shipman which is the confidence code and what it talked about, it did all of these studies around confidence versus competence.

And it talked about how men tend to focus on their confidence so they'll apply for a job when they meet 60% of the qualifications.

But women are all about, am I competent enough?

Am I good enough?

So they won't apply for that same job unless they meet a hundred percent of the qualifications.

That really taught me to lean into.

I might not know everything yet or be perfect yet.

Right.

And I may never be, but if I am confident, I can push forward.

So that really changed my life.

And then Good in Bed by Jen Weiner, I loved because it was about a girl who had a fuller figure who was finding herself in that process.

I remember grow.

You know, it was like, probably.

It was past young adult, but I was probably in college when I read it.

I remember seeing myself so much in her and loving.

I love all of Jen Weiner's books, but that first one was a game changer for me.

I love it.

I don't think I've read Good and Bad.

Oh, it's the best.

That's her first.

That's her first.

That is the best one.

It's really great.

I will totally read it.

And I will also pick up the Confidence Code.

I know.

I've seen it.

And there's this, like, I totally resonate with what you're saying, because women and men are different in how competent and confident you have to feel before you do something.

We need to lower that bar a little, right?

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

We need to just go for it.

So often we try and make sure everything's perfect before we launch something or only apply for something after we've received, you know, enough education or enough learning or enough practice.

But, like, there's a minimum viable amount.

You need competence.

We can't be walking around incompetent, but chances are we're a heck of a lot more competent than we think we are.

What we're lacking is the confidence.

And that book, for me, I'm telling you, everybody pick it up.

The Confidence Code.

It's great.

Awesome.

The Confidence Code and Good in Bed.

These are the fun one.

That's a good beach read, too.

Oh, wonderful.

So I always like to find out about, you know, sort of the great, you know, the big moments in people's lives.

And what are those moments that shape who you are?

Looking back at your life, what are three defining moments or experiences that brought you to where you are today?

And it could be moments where you said yes to a bold opportunity or stood your ground and said, no more.

Or moments that you've faced a heartbreaking loss or accomplished something that still fills with you with pride or receive something, an unexpected gift from the universe.

So what are three of these moments that have most powerfully shaped the person you are today?

Oh, gosh.

I think there are so many moments.

And I think if you're open.

I always talk about listening to the whispers, right?

It's like being open to those moments that are not as big.

I'll give you a couple that were really powerful.

For me, the first was when my husband was not yet my husband and wanted to get married.

He's a larger than life personality.

He wanted everyone he's ever known to come to his wedding.

Coco, I don't mean people from high school.

I mean, if he were on this podcast, he would be like, hello, everyone.

Hello, Hello.

It's Women of Wisdom.

I'd like all of your listeners to join me as I get married.

This is the type of person that he was.

And I knew there was nowhere to hold it or afford it in New York.

We were very young and didn't have any money.

And so we decided that we were going to have to get creative.

And so I was placed in a position where I wanted to get him what he wanted, which was the wedding of his dreams.

And I was going to have to do it against impossible odds.

And I had a lightning moment that came to me that was like, okay, we both love baseball.

What if we go to a minor league team, like the minor league affiliate of the Mets, both Mets fans, and we say, hey, we want to buy out your night.

And it'll be like a sponsored evening.

And, like, instead of Pepsi tossing T shirts into the audience at a ball game, 1-800-Flowers will toss bridal bouquets, and it'll be cute and campy and fun.

And we'll get married on the field after the game and all of our friends and family can be there and we'll raise the money for charity.

Like, this sort of just came to me.

Oh, we'll pitch press for you.

And then it came to me and I said it out loud to Dave.

And you know when, like, something comes out of your mouth and you're like, once it's out, you can't pull it back, right?

It's like toothpaste.

You squeeze out the toothpaste, you can't put the toothpaste back in.

So then I had to do that.

And I pushed past every fear that I had to make that happen.

I mean, you're doing like the equivalent of a sponsored wedding.

You're going to be in the press.

You don't know what people are going to say.

It's kind of out there, it's kind of bold.

But I pushed past my own anxiety.

No one had done it.

Talk about competence.

I mean, I no idea what we were doing.

And we just did it.

I think when we did it, we were able to have, you know, 8,000 people total at our wedding of friends, family and baseball fans.

We raised over $20,000 for charity and we got a ton of press.

When that happened, all of the sponsors came to us and said, you know what, you guys are amazing.

We bet on you and so do something again.

We were like, oh my gosh.

So we started an agency that's actually the start of the agency.

So I would say that moment changed my life from a personal perspective because I married the love of my life and we continue to do things together over and over and over again.

But it also changed my life professionally because it taught me that I'm going to put myself out there and I'm see what happens.

If it doesn't work, it doesn't work, but just go for it.

And I'm so lucky that we did because we started a word of mouth agency.

We got married.

Facebook was no longer relegated to a college address.

So we decided to be a social media agency early and that's what led to the explosive growth.

That's amazing.

And I just love that it came out of your desire to create the wedding of your then fiance, soon to be husband's dreams.

You wanted to say yes to him and it was like, okay, well, I'm stuck between what we want and what's possible.

What appears to be possible.

Right.

And you just broke all the rules.

Well, it's true.

And if you think about it, so many women go to the ends of the earth to people please in different ways.

But like, really I was focused on, I'm gonna get that man his wedding.

And then now when I think about it, I'm like, I should have been like, okay, well what do you actually want for your wedding?

But it turned out to be the greatest day of my life, short of when we had our kids and just really, really special.

And so just push past your own fears and just go for it.

Well, and I also find there's a nugget here about when you're following your heart and your passions and your deep desires.

And it sounds to me.

And maybe there were moments when it wasn't, but it sounds to me like came from a place of joy and fun.

It did.

I felt so lucky to be marrying him and I just wanted it to be joyful.

That was a focus for me.

And then out of that, you discovered your unique brilliance in the world.

Right?

Right.

How has that played out for you?

You know, then you went on and you sold your company and all those.

You built it and sold it.

And then like now you started the whisper way.

So connect some of those stats for us and how this line of joy and determination continued to play through.

You sure.

So we continue to build Likable.

Likable grows and you launch and you start winning big clients.

There were no Fortune 500 companies doing social media at that time.

So they had nowhere to go.

They came to us.

We had to figure it out because we were the only at the time, there were very few of us.

It was like, you know, very early stage.

So we grow and grow.

It worked because Dave was the visionary and the face of the business and I was the operator.

And that's like really was a good dynamic for us.

It worked really well.

But because Dave was a visionary, he knew that he wanted to launch something new and bigger.

He wanted to go into tech.

So it was very exciting.

But we needed to raise funds for that because again, we're bootstrapping, growing.

And it was a very interesting time for me because I had to step into his shoes.

Social media was no longer new and we had put, you know, our whole net worth and life's work was in this business.

And most of the people I saw around me were thought leaders in the space who were loud, extroverted and male.

And I felt like that was none of those things.

And so I was really afraid.

When I took over as CEO of Likable, I read a book called Built to Sell.

If you had asked me what book changed my life, it would be Built to Sell by John Warlow, which was all about an agency owner who goes to sell his business and is worth nothing because it's all him and he's doing a million different things.

And this advisor takes him through this value building philosophy.

I read it and I'm like, this is what I'm going to do.

I am going to build this business to exit.

I became really focused on what I needed to do to make the business optimized, to make the top dollar.

That really led to me getting to a space where I wanted to sell.

I went through the process, and in that moment, I discovered how alone I felt, because I couldn't have Dave in the room.

They wanted whoever was staying with the company in the room.

They didn't want anyone to fall in love with Dave and therefore require him to be a part of that company.

Like, it had to be me.

And I'm sitting there and, like, it's really challenging because for most women, we're in the room full of men, and you're like, this is the biggest transaction of my life.

And you have paid advisors who you're paying to help you, but they're all incentivized.

I found myself being like, where's a woman that I could talk to who has done this before?

And I couldn't find anyone.

It just was like a needle on a haystack.

And so that is really what led me to what is my life's work.

So if you talk about those moments, it's like launching the business, Dave leaving the business, selling the business, and then talk about moments of joy.

It's the moment I realize, well, the first part was not so joyful.

Realizing that there's a huge exit gap that very few of us are exiting because we don't even realize it's possible for many reasons.

And then realizing that my life's work is going to be to connect and find every woman who has sold her business and be able to give her an opportunity to give back to women who are looking to grow, to sell.

And to me, that was, you know, really where I was like, okay, this is my next chapter and where I want to spend my time.

I love it.

And, you know, I just want to go back for a moment to that moment where here you are, you're in a business at the time, likable, that you probably loved at the time, right?

But there you are.

You read this book, built a cell, and it plants this seed, right?

It's like fire in your belly, you know, I know this is what I want, right?

You know, And.

And what was.

I'm curious about that time.

Like, what was it about that.

Was it just the idea that your company could be built to sell?

Or it was like, no, I want to sell my company, Like.

Or was it just the idea that there was a way that you could build it and make it sellable, and there was some fascination around that or something completely different?

You know, it's such A good question.

I think there were a couple of things that appealed to me.

I was a very reluctant entrepreneur when we started, like, it was by accident.

We had this wedding, and there we go.

I came from a family that worked in jobs that they loved, that had pensions.

My dad left, you know, was a very amazing lawyer who became a judge because it was really steady and wonderful for a lot of reasons, but had a pension.

My mom was a social worker and therapist and went into work in the schools because it was steady and predictable.

I came from that space.

For me, when I read Built South, I was like, okay, Dave pushes me out of my comfort zone in the best way.

I planned this wedding, and I'm.

I'm doing all this stuff, and I'm here launching this company with him.

The entire time, I was letting my own scarcity hold me back.

When I read Built to Sell, I thought to myself, okay, I can do this, and then I won't feel afraid anymore.

I'll build it, I'll sell it, and then I won't feel afraid.

Spoiler alert.

That does not fix what makes you afraid.

But I think in my head, which I don't think anyone's ever asked me that before, I think in my head, I thought, if I sell this, I will no longer be afraid.

If I build this to be, I have a great exit.

I won't be afraid.

And I think that was part of it.

And then it became falling in love with that journey that helped me fall in love with making it a business that was bigger than just me.

I fell in love with, like, the fundamentals business.

I never went to business school.

I probably would have loved it and probably would have really gone into theories.

I fell in love with that.

But I think the original thought was, oh, I could sell it, and then I won't be afraid.

I'll be secure.

I'll be an entrepreneur, but I'll be secure.

That's my pension.

Oh, my goodness.

That is so deep.

I think we do a lot of things in the service of a quiet fear.

Yeah, right.

Like, it's the safety that we want, the security we want.

And anything could happen anytime to any of us, even those with pensions.

Right.

It doesn't solve it.

You have to do the inner work within you no matter what.

Like, money doesn't solve that.

A great job, none of it solves it.

It's all within you.

Absolutely.

So then you created the whisper group.

And so I want to come back for a moment to.

And then we're going to talk all about the Whisper group.

But the problem that you point out is the exit gap that women capture only 0.8% of exit value.

What?

What is that?

Like wtf?

How is this possible?

What does this mean?

I mean.

Yeah, yeah.

So here's what it actually means.

First of all, there's a bunch of studies and if you want to look at this report, it's available for free, it's on close the exit gap.com.

1%.

And then if you look at data which came from PitchBook, that data shows that of companies that had only female founders, they captured 0.8% of the total dollar spent on M and A.

So for every hundred dollars spent on acquiring companies, women owned businesses are earning a penny.

So if we talk about why I talk about this all the time, like yes, there is inherent bias, but it's bigger than that.

We are behind in terms of the access to this type of information that the businesses that we start and build can be sellable assets.

Most of the businesses that women start are started in their garage, in their closet.

Like, you know, it's just like it's something that they bootstrap and pull together.

They do it because it's a passion project, they do it because it's a side hustle.

They do it because they're, you know, raising their kids and they want something to do.

You know, all of these things they start and they do not realize that they, when they're done, they don't have to close it, they can sell it.

With a few smart tweaks, we can help make those sellable assets.

It's not about the unicorns.

It's not about, you know, the Sarah Blakely's of the world and Poppy and Alison Ellsworth.

Those are amazing companies.

They are exceptions to the rule.

And so what I would like to do is get all women with all different businesses to understand that they too can exit start something new and exit again and build life changing wealth.

It's amazing.

It's really amazing and it's true.

Right?

You really can do this and you don't have to sell it for a billion dollars.

You don't have to be angel or venture backed by the way, when you do that, you lose a percentage of your equity.

When you do sell, you're not going to keep as much yourself.

Like, right, most companies are not venture backed.

That's right.

This is really a life changing moment for women founders.

I think it's so important what I learned about what you were doing.

I was like, all the women out there who have companies need to understand this.

Tell us more about what your vision is.

I know you're coming at this from various ways through the whisper group.

You're changing the economy of women and how we think about business.

I so appreciate you saying that.

The whisper group has three areas.

So the first thing I started with was if I'm going to close the exit gap, I'm going to need some help.

I built a collective of exited female founders.

We have a collective and a community of exited female founders, which you are in cocoa and that is just in its infancy.

It started as an online community.

We're leaning into events.

We have a lot of opportunities for those women because as you know, I have one of them.

I have some merch that I have for my founders and one of the things is acquired, not retired.

Like so many of us.

Everybody has a vision.

Like you sell your business and you go sit on a beach.

You can only sit on a beach for so long, you get bored, you want to feel fulfilled, you want to do good work.

So, you know, really looking at opportunities for those women and all different types of things.

So that's where I started.

I said, we can't do this alone.

I need to get my team of women together, built a collective.

Then I built an education practice.

So focusing, really leaning in on content, the book, all of that is focused on getting the message out at scale to women who are starting businesses.

If you're starting a business and you want to learn about how to build, to sell, you're going to want to look at some of this stuff.

So that's all on all of the whisper group social channels, our podcast, our books.

It's a whole media company that we're building out.

And then when women aren't ready to sell or need help thinking about it or need some consulting on that, that's our advisory practice.

For our advisory practice, what I felt was really important because of my own focus on competence, I believe confidence, which I love, my confidence.

But we want to make sure that women who are looking to exit get help from the women who can truly best help them.

Source from my collective, women who have sold in a woman's vertical.

So for instance, if a woman had a healthcare services company, I'd be calling Coco and be like Coco, talk to her, help her.

If a woman was selling a media agency, they would be speaking to me.

And so I match women with women in their vertical who have done it before to give them advice, guidance, and counsel along the way.

And then we ultimately do brokerage work.

Oh, it's so great.

You also help sell companies.

So companies coming to you.

I got really excited when I understood this piece of what you're up to.

So talk about that a little bit.

Yeah, so it's newer.

So I started with just the thing is that I wanted to do.

I had to balance my unabashed joy and drive and desire to go with being thoughtful and learning and seeing the best approach.

So I started with the mentorship work.

I got the training and certifications necessary to be able to broker.

And that was a wonderful process because it all links back to that Hetty K. And Claire shipment book.

When I was sitting in those classes, I was like, oh, I actually know all of this.

Like, so it was.

It was great.

It was great for me to get that.

It was like I went in and I got the education that helped support and validate that.

I was, in fact, not just confident, but competent.

Once we did that, we started opening up brokerage services.

And we've been leaning into not just sell side, but buy side.

One of the things that we do is when a woman comes to us, like, I think I want to sell in five years, but I want to sell for this number.

I tell them, well, you're worth this number today.

I help them do some acquisitions.

I was terrified to do any acquisitions when I was growing, but I wish I did because I think it's a great way to grow and increase your value.

So I've been doing a lot of work with that.

So I've been working on both the buy side and sell side.

And that's really fun because you really can create so much value by adding to your team.

You know, I'm in a point where I've just exited my company.

I'm trying to figure out what to do next.

One of the things that I've been exploring and, you know, this is I'm starting to look at companies that I might want to buy.

That's right, yeah.

You know, and.

And when I exited, and I'm going to get back to a question, but when I exited my company, I also looked at selling to private equity.

A couple of them wanted to make us a platform.

I would have stayed on for a longer period of time, held more equity, and then learned through that process about acquisitions.

I wanted to do that.

It didn't work out in the big picture, but that idea of scaling and creating more impact by not just your organic growth of how many customers can I get through my little funnel?

All right, I'm going to go make some.

So much fun.

And you really can do it.

You don't even need that PE firm to do that.

You can start small and do it now.

Find your thesis of what you want to buy and build on growth through acquisition.

I think women are really well suited for this because they will focus on the integration and proper onboarding of companies.

If acquisitions fail, it almost always lies in integration.

They don't integrate them properly.

They're sitting on an island.

It's just.

No.

Right.

So tell us.

Okay, now I want to go back to the Whisper Group and your experience as an exited founder.

So.

And you know, come from this idea that you were thinking strategically about selling your company.

I have a mantra in my life.

I always want to build every company that I ever create and build to be increasing of value to not just myself, but to others.

So every.

Every day you're making traction and progress to that.

A lot of times it flies in the face of how founders operate.

They put themselves in the middle of a business.

Tell us about some of the things that we need to shift in the way we operate in order to create businesses that are really built to scale exist without us.

So that leads right into the Whisper way.

When we founded the Whisper Group, Whisper stands for the seven tenants to build a highly sellable business.

I'm going to take you through them super fast.

Why?

Understanding your why really getting a vision for what you want to do with this company and starting with the end in mind, like, how much value do you want to build and why did you get to that number?

Like, what's there and why is it there?

That's a harder question than a lot of people think.

A lot of times we pick numbers based on ego and we don't pick them based on reality or impact or anything else.

Once we have that number, we want to go into the H, which is how.

And that's really understanding the multiples.

So the first two are about getting an education.

You want to understand what a company in your space would be worth theoretically, if you were to build it.

And where are the metrics you need to get to know your numbers?

Where are the metrics you need to get to to be valued at that?

You need to have a reasonable expectation within the range of multiple that you are given in your industry.

The market determines a multiple based off of where you are, it's a multiple of earnings of some capacity.

And whatever it is that you earn, you times that by the market multiple.

There's a range where you fall is going to be dependent on the next pieces, how strongly you build them.

So you've got your why, your how, your eyes, your cocoa.

All income is not created equal.

If you have $3 million of revenue and it comes from one client, it is infinitely less valuable than having $3 million of revenue or even $2.5 million of revenue.

And that comes from many different clients.

Why?

Because it is riskier to sell a business that has one client, because that client can fire you or go away.

It's the same thing with a product and one retailer.

You want to have income that is ideally recurring or repeatable, expected, meaning you can forecast it and diversified.

So you want to keep your income red, recurring, expected, diversified.

The next one that you want to make sure you have is your secret sauce.

And that's what makes you different.

That's what a lot of founders struggle with, but it is the thing that allows you to take it beyond the multiple range.

If you have something that nobody else can replicate, that everybody wants, some kind of key driver in your business that thrusts you forward, that's like a real killer for secret sauce.

So for me in the whisper group, the secret sauce would be the collective.

I have the largest collective of exited female founders.

It is unique and different.

You're not going to really have two exited female founder communities in that way, and certainly not as deep.

So that's a really good secret sauce for us, right?

We have these women and we match them.

Okay, so we've got your why, your how, your income, your secret sauce, your profit.

That is how you're measured.

Your profit is really how you're going to be valued anyway.

So making sure you have a profitable business, and by the way, focusing on that helps you make more money, be less tired, be less anxious.

Like I always say, at the end of the day, like, revenue is vanity and profit is sanity.

You want to make sure that you're making enough money to survive and hopefully thrive.

Your next one is your executive team, or if you're a solopreneur, your ecosystem, you want to have systems and processes and a good team to support you so that the business is not based entirely on you.

When a business is based entirely on you, you're going to have some challenges because when somebody acquires you, they know you're going to leave eventually.

You wouldn't be selling it if you weren't going to do something else.

And the last piece is really exclusively, it's for everybody, but it's to work with a lot of female founders on this is their roar factor or their resilience.

It's really going to be about how they're going to withstand standing in that room full of men defending the veracity of their P and L and their details of their business.

And it's really, really challenging and believing that you are worth what you are in there to ask for.

That's an area I work on a lot with female founders.

Love it.

Having just gone through a sale, all these points that you're bringing out here are different than a typical consultancy or advisory group that helps you grow your business.

Thinking about it really differently.

When I got into selling my company, I had to understand the healthcare services.

Like, what was the multiple for our healthcare services?

What were the levers that made it go up and down?

For example, trading on the stock market, there was a range from 9 to 15 times EBITDA.

What got you to the 9 versus what got you to the 15.

Like, was different things like how much were you growing, how much, how much did you have, what was, what was your gross profit percentage?

It was a sweet spot for how if you were, you know, and it was very specific, if your gross profit was above 40%, you got a much higher deal than if you got it below that.

And, and so these are things that are real.

And if you're building a company, you probably don't know this, but it would be really helpful to know because.

Because then you can build your own company knowing that this is what's kind of benchmarked.

That's exactly right.

And you start with those benchmarks early.

And that's why it's so important to match founders with women who are in their space.

Yes, they get it.

So like the agent for agencies, it's quite similar.

Like you want to make sure that all of your cost of goods sold never go past 40% and which is the people who are executing it.

And so many agencies are not there.

They're at 60%.

So it's like, how do we get there without having to lay off staff?

Which they never want to do if they don't have to.

So we talk about, okay, what can we do to grow, to get there and do that type of stuff to be able to make sure that we're at the top of the multiple?

It's very similar.

It's just the idea that we take these principles and then we make them industry specific.

Is great and you are able to do that and you're learning all about it.

What did you find was the hardest about going through your exit with likable media?

What were the things you didn't expect that really were hard?

Well, there were a few.

I mean, I think the first thing is my own feelings about the realization that there was really no amount of money that was going to fix what felt scared within me.

I remember Dave used to say to me before we sold, how much money is enough?

What amount is enough money?

And I really couldn't answer.

I would come up with some bizarre number, but then when I would hit a number, it didn't feel like enough because I was still so afraid and like.

And so I think that was interesting to realizing that I still had to do deep inner work.

That was first.

The second thing with the sale was the loss of identity that comes from your.

You're Carrie Kirpin, the founder of Likable to Now who am I?

And I think I really struggled with that, especially in the in between period where I was working for the company.

I stayed on for three years.

I had a good acquisition, the acquirers were great.

But I think it was really hard for me that I was.

Now who was I?

I was within a division of, you know, it just.

It didn't really feel natural when it's no longer yours and you're still there and you are not calling the shots.

Someone said it's like someone buys your house but you're still living in it while they're redecorating.

That's what it felt like.

Those were some of the things that were challenging.

Yeah.

What are some tips a founder can do to help themselves prepare for this and for, you know, expanding oneself beyond just the company that you're in and the identity that you identify with through the company that you're building right now?

I mean, first would be to do inner work and reflecting before anything, just to prepare yourself to going through a big journey and really get support.

For me, we offer that in the best way at the whisper group.

If I had a little more support upfront, it would have been better.

To prepare yourself is to know, like I always used to say this when after we were purchased and there were things that were uncomfortable, they paid a lot for me to have that discomfort.

Like, that's okay.

Like it's okay.

It doesn't have to be perfect and uncomfortable.

Like, they paid for this.

So, okay, they're going to be redecorating in my house.

Okay.

It's uncomfortable but learn to sit in that discomfort and, and that's okay.

And then the last thing I would say, which is more specific to when you're going through the process, if you don't understand something, ask every question possible.

Every question possible.

I want to know.

Explain to me the details of working capital.

Explain to me what you mean when we talk about this non compete and non solicitation.

Does that mean if I want to ask one of my clients to sponsor something that's in a totally different field, can I not do that?

Really get detailed and don't be afraid to explain this to me.

I think that's great advice.

And as early as you can to start to really understand this process, get.

A really early understanding of the multiples and how you're valued and what metrics matter.

What metrics really matter.

And it's very different for my healthcare business.

Like I talked about gross profit.

That's.

Yeah, but like there is a myriad of other things that are very specific to home health that it wouldn't apply to an agency.

So.

Okay, so I'm thinking about your current business, the whisper group, and helping people think about selling their companies.

I want you to talk a little bit about, let's say I'm a founder, I have a company and I need to change my life for some reason, but maybe I should just close it.

No.

So like, because I feel like there's a lot of that.

Yeah, there's a lot of that.

Right?

Yeah.

Well, somebody goes through a divorce, somebody goes through a life changing event, somebody needs to move, somebody's child is sick and suddenly they can't run that business anymore.

And so what I would suggest is that every business has a buyer of some sort.

What they'll pay for, it depends.

And so the first step is what can I do to make sure that this business is as de risked as possible.

So thinking about like, okay, yeah, what could I do to ensure that it is actually a sellable asset?

Usually it's just the same way you stage a house, you can stage a business.

Like, okay, what are the things that we need to put in place to make sure that it's ready?

So if you give me like a couple months to just sort of get that together.

This is if you're in a, like I gotta get.

I get a lot of calls from founders who are like, I'm gonna close this.

I just wanna sell it off, get me out.

It's my least favorite to do because I'm sad that they won't make as much.

But it's also very rewarding because I'm helping them.

We place a fair market value on it and then we can call up people who are competitors, call up people who you think might be apt to buy it.

You don't need representation to do that.

If you're at the end and you're like, I gotta get this out, you can facilitate it yourself.

Hopefully you have some guidance.

We offer a lot of guidance behind the scenes too, but really don't think you can't.

There's always a buyer for something.

We always like to think of these massive multimillion dollar.

Oh no, you can have a seven figure exit.

You can have a six figure, seven figure exit.

It's yes, definitely.

Right.

So I just want to put that out there for people because I know that for myself, I would not have earlier in my career have even considered.

I had intellectual proper, I had content that was usable, frameworks that could have been sold that I never sold.

And I just stepped out.

I was having a baby, I did, you know, whatever it was.

And, and, and I, I, I don't regret it.

But today I would handle it so differently.

Especially with the whisper group out there.

Yes, yes, yes.

Well, hopefully, hopefully you reach out and don't feel intimidated because we talk to.

Anyone all the time.

What is your vision now?

What is the vision for your business, for you personally?

What just I know you're so excited about the whisper group.

It paint a picture for me.

Ten years out there's the Mary Oliver poem.

I don't know if you've read it, Summer Day.

And if she asked the question, what would you do with this wild and wonderful day or this life, this wild and wonderful life?

When you think about your gifts and your brilliance and your connections and your resources, what would you like to do with this wild and wonderful life of yours over the next 10 years?

I think over the next 10 years, I would like to help thousands of women make more money through the sale of businesses that they never knew were sellable.

Here's who Carrie is.

She helped close the exit gap.

And I think for me, that's beautiful.

What happens with the company itself happens with the collective.

What happens with all of it?

We'll see.

You know, it could be a million different things, but at the end of the day, I want to help women feel less alone and more able to stand in that room and get what they absolutely deserve.

Less alone and help close the exit gap and help more women get what they deserve.

I love that.

Okay, so you just launched a book, the Whisper Way.

Look how beautiful it is.

Now read this subtitle because I don't remember it.

Don't you worry because I always have to look.

Let's see the Whisper Way the secret formula for women entrepreneurs to scale and sell for life changing money.

Love that.

So book is fun.

It's a.

It's a mix of fiction meets implementation guide meets real life examples.

So it starts off with seven women that are fictional that come together on a retreat hosted by a woman named Ramona who is like the alter ego of me.

She's like hippie me.

She's me if I had no anxiety and just living on a farm.

The women all have different businesses and go through these workshops to determine each of them have a challenge related to one of the areas of Whisper in each section.

When we get to those challenges, we do real life implementation for how to find your why, how to hone in on your income, secure your secret sauce, perfect your profit, elevate your executive team and refine your roar.

So those are all different workshop areas that you can work on for your own business.

And then I use a real life example of an entrepreneur who's done each and so that's the book and where.

Do we get it the Whisper Way?

Everywhere.

Barnes and Noble, Amazon, everywhere.

But you can go to the whisperway.com too because there's some free bonuses there too.

There's some video content you get when you buy it there.

I love it.

The Whisperway.

Go there because then you can get some good content.

Buy the book the Whisper Way.

Carrie Kirpin Is there anything else that we can learn about how to connect with you?

I'm on all social media.

I spent a year building up that platform in a deep and meaningful way.

I post content every single day, which is a lot.

So come follow me and engage with the content.

I put stuff out.

You know, ask a question anytime and I will answer it.

Thank you Carrie.

Thank you so much for joining us on the wishes.

You are a gift.

I can't wait to have more fun with you.

Go to more events.

It's going to be really fun.

And to all of our listeners, be sure to check out the Whisper Way.

Be sure to follow Carrie Kirpin and all her socials which you'll find in the description below.

And be sure to find a community of other wonderful women founders.

Whether it's with her, whether it's on a force for good, wherever you can find.

We know each other through several we can help each other out.

So be sure to follow like and share the wisdom of women.

Show on whatever your favorite listening and viewing platform is and to infuse more wisdom into your business, take the Growth Readiness Quiz at FFORCE for Good Biz Quiz and uncover where your insight is needed most.

The world is made better by women led business.

So let's all go make the world a better place.

Cheers.