Interviews with purpose-driven leaders who are dedicated to helping others and making a positive impact in the world.
May 18, 2021
Jill Salzman | The Founding Moms
TELL US, WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT DO YOU DO?
I’m Jill Salzman and I’m the founder of The Founding Moms, the #1 platform that helps mom entrepreneurs build better businesses. We help mom entrepreneurs who want to improve their marketing, branding, and sales expertise by educating them in our online platform and facilitating community connections so that they can grow at the pace they need to grow, without the overwhelm or pressure to do it at lightspeed. We meet IRL in cities around the country at our Founding Exchanges, or twice-monthly masterminds, to make sure our members know that you can’t build a business by yourself.
HOW DID YOU GET HERE?
In 2005, I launched my first business. I had no idea what I was doing. In an effort to help musicians tour the country (after a short stint working at a major record label in NYC) I opened a music management company. Oh, those poor clients! Two years into doing that, I decided to launch a second business selling baby jewelry…and I ran both businesses simultaneously for six years. In 2009, while I was pregnant with my second daughter, I started to panic about how to grow two businesses with two babies in one home office. How did people get anything done? What if a baby screamed while I was on a sales call? Were there any moms trying to build businesses? Since I didn’t know a single one, I invited strangers through Meetup.com to meet with me and give me advice. Turns out, there were a lot of us wondering the same thing. So after several months of meetings that kept growing, I decided to create a business out of it. A decade later, we’re now thousands of mom entrepreneurs who band together to build better businesses than I did when I first started out.
WHAT DO YOU STAND FOR? WHY IS THIS WORK IMPORTANT TO YOU?
In my time helping moms build businesses, I’ve come to see that no one takes us seriously. The media, our culture, no one seems to value what the working woman can offer to society, particularly if she’s raising kids at the same time. Because we’re undervalued, we undervalue ourselves. It’s become my mission to speak up for these silent voices that aren’t only raising the next generation of kids but are contributing to their family’s income and even their local economy. There are a lot of us, but we are humble and we need loud voices to make sure folks know that we matter, too.
WHAT IMPACT ARE YOU MAKING?
That’s to be determined! I hope the impact that The Founding Moms makes goes on for generations and we help strong girls become strong women who build important, impactful businesses.
WHAT (OR WHO) INSPIRES YOU TO DO THIS WORK?
Stephen Colbert.
WHAT’S YOUR VISION, YOUR BIG DREAM FOR THE IMPACT YOU WANT TO MAKE?
If we could grow our community from thousands to millions of women and offer what we do to women in countries that don’t speak English, we could make a real impact around the world, for a long time to come.
WHAT CHALLENGES ARE YOU FACING?
It’s always and forever a challenge to find mom entrepreneurs who don’t know that we’re here for them. We want to find them! And we’d very much love your help in sending them our way.
WHAT’S ONE THING YOU WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW ABOUT YOUR CAUSE AND/OR THE WORK YOU’RE DOING?
Mom entrepreneurs matter.
DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE QUOTE OR WORDS OF INSPIRATION TO SHARE?
“You can’t laugh and be afraid of anything at the same time.” -Stephen Colbert
HOW CAN OTHERS SUPPORT YOU OR YOUR CAUSE?
We’d love for you to send any mom entrepreneur who’s working on building her business to visit us. Thank you in advance!
At Orapin, we believe those who are working for the greater good should be known, supported, and celebrated. We help purpose-driven companies share their stories and bring more attention to their cause by giving them resources and support to launch a strategic PR program that delivers a meaningful ROI. If you would like to be featured in INSPIRED IMPACT™, reach out to hello@orapinmarketing.com.