Mindset First: Ifedayo Agoro Reveals How Her Program Helps Women Overcome Barriers to Profitable Businesses

Ifedayo Agoro is the Founder of Dang! Lifestyle, the leading skincare brand in West Africa, known for redefining beauty and wellness standards across the region. With a background in storytelling and community engagement, she has built a brand that goes beyond products, creating safe spaces for women to connect, learn, and thrive.
After relocating to the United States to expand her global business, Ifedayo continues to champion women’s empowerment through intentional wellness and authentic community-building. Her content and public voice weave together the multidimensions of her life, as a founder, a wife, a cultural curator, and a thought leader, sparking conversations on self-care, identity, and the evolving role of women in business and society.
In this interview, she speaks on how she’s empowering women to have a mindset shift through her program specifically for women entrepreneurs. Excerpts

What inspired you to create a full one-year program specifically for women entrepreneurs, and how is the year-long structure different from shorter bootcamps or courses?
For everything I do, I always put thought into it. You cannot build a real business in 4 or 8 weeks because real businesses develop in layers.
Mindset. Model. Product. Pricing. Distribution/ Systems
And these things don’t just require knowledge, they require time, testing, and correction.
We’re not rushing to get to the finishing line here, we’re building something that can last. The one-year structure allows people to build, test, fail, adjust and build again properly.

Many women face unique barriers when starting or scaling businesses – what are some challenges you’ve observed most frequently among your participants, and how does your program directly address them?
What I’ve noticed in most of my students is that they are not lacking intelligence. They just need someone to guide them to create structure and sadly, some of them need permission, they’re looking for someone to tell them they can do it. This mindset is quickly addressed in class1. There are other things I’ve noticed: Waiting to feel “ready” before starting, underpricing because they don’t trust their value and avoiding the numbers i.e revenue, costs, margins.
The profitable business program addresses this by forcing three things early: Clarity of business model, Money discipline and Execution structure

You bring in prominent business leaders as guest teachers throughout the year. How do you decide who to invite, and what kind of transformation have you seen in participants after these high-caliber sessions?
Someone like Femi Oladehin taught me pricing in 2021, and it changed how I built Dang, Professor Tom taught me in Harvard and his class changed my life, Ibikun Awosika is the ultimate Nigerian mentor. These people don’t just speak well, they walk the talk.
From the program, the attendees collapse years of trial and error into one conversation. But more importantly, the guest mentors change and challenge the standards of the attendees.
The real transformation is not just knowledge, but elevated thinking. There’s no way you go back to running your business casually after this program.

How do you help women move from the “idea stage” to actually generating consistent revenue within the first 6-12 months of the program?

To be clear, we do not promise that our women will generate profit in the first 6-12 months. We hope they do when they actually practice what has been taught in the classes. What do we teach? We don’t entertain ideas for too long.
Within the first phase of the program, we force people to think about what they’re selling, who is paying? Why would they pay you now?
Then we move quickly into simple offers, real pricing based on the transformation you offer and actual selling. There is no business if you can’t sell. And once you have validated your product by selling, we then refine the product, customer experience and systems. But the focus early on is simple: Growth mindset and prove that someone will pay you

What role does mindset play in your curriculum, and can you share one powerful mindset shift you’ve seen most often lead to a breakthrough for participants?

Like I said earlier, mindset shift/change is the first thing we tackle in the program. It is the basis by which everything grows or fails. Mindset is important, but I don’t teach it in isolation.
The biggest shift I’ve seen is when the ladies go from, “Do I like this” Am I confident enough to do this?” to “Is this working?” “I can do this.” Once this shift happens, everything changes: Decisions become clearer and emotional decisions reduce.

How do you structure accountability and support across a full year so members don’t lose momentum – especially during the inevitable tough months?

I don’t depend on motivation, when it comes to business, that’s not reliable enough. We use monthly structures, assignments, case studies, workbooks, live sessions where questions are answered. Our ladies can go back to these things in tough times and most importantly, their emails are ALWAYS responded to. I got them.
But beyond these systems, there’s the environment. When you are surrounded by people who are seriously building, you’ll begin to feel uncomfortable staying the same as you came.
That tension keeps people moving and I love it.

You work with women at different stages (pre-revenue, early revenue, scaling). How do you make sure the program delivers value for beginners and more advanced entrepreneurs at the same time?
Beginners learn what to do while more advanced founders refine how well they’re doing it
Let’s use pricing as an example: a beginner learns how to price while an advanced founder learns where they are leaking profit. Also, because it’s a year-long program, people grow into the next level. So we’re not teaching for where you are today, we’re building for where you need to get to, no matter your level.

What advice would you give to a woman who wants to build a profitable business but feels she doesn’t have enough time, money, or confidence right now?

Most people are waiting for the perfect combination. It doesn’t exist. Like I tell my community all the time, you have to start where you are and then you build from there. If you don’t have money, start with something that generates cash quickly. If you don’t have time, remove things that are not producing results. If you don’t have confidence, act anyway confidence comes with habit and experience.

Any lessons you’ve learned as a mentor and program leader?

I’ve learned that most people don’t have a business problem. They have a mindset problem. Until that changes, you’ll always run around in circles or be stuck.