Why You Should Launch & Adjust: Cara Lash | Born to Build Ep. 5

Why You Should Launch & Adjust: Cara Lash | Born to Build Ep. 5

Cara Lash never set out to build the business Caravan is today. After spending two years developing a travel-planning platform, one piece of advice changed everything: launch & adjust. In Episode 5 of Born To Build, Sarafina Mancuso sits down with Cara Lash, founder of Caravan, to discuss leaving corporate consulting, building a business around something you genuinely love, validating an idea before there's proof it will work, trusting your intuition, creating community through shared experiences, and why some of the strongest businesses grow organically through word of mouth. It's a conversation about launching before you're ready, embracing change, and building something people don't just use—they genuinely want to be part of. If you're building a business, a career, or simply trying to create something meaningful, this conversation is for you. Listen on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts. Guest: Cara Lash, @caravantripplan Follow Born To Build: Instagram: @borntobuildpodcast TikTok: @borntobuildpodcast #BornToBuild #CaraLash #Caravan #Entrepreneur #Community #Startup #Business #Podcast

Building Beyond The Craft: Ryan Schumack | Born To Build Podcast Ep. 04

Ryan Schumack never set out to become a business owner. He just wanted to make great coffee, create beautiful spaces, and be a good neighbor.In Episode 4 of Born To Build, Sarafina Mancuso sits down with Ryan Schumack, co-owner of Sweetbee Café, to explore what happens when passion becomes a profession. Together, they discuss building a business from the ground up, balancing creativity with operations, creating systems that scale, the realities of entrepreneurship, why perfection isn't the goal, finding leverage in business, and the lessons every builder learns along the way. If you're building a business, a career, or simply trying to create something meaningful, this conversation is for you. Listen on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts. Guest, Ryan Schumack, @rswinter @sweetbeebk Follow Born To Build:Instagram: @borntobuildpodcast TikTok: @borntobuildpodcast #BornToBuild #RyanWinter #Sweetbee #Entrepreneur #SmallBusiness #Leadership #BusinessOwner #podcast

The Human Advantage: Wally Feresten | Born To Build Ep. 3

For more than 35 years, Wally Feresten has helped guide live television through thousands of sketches, hosts, musical performances, and moments that audiences never realize depend on the cue cards in his hands. As the longtime cue card supervisor for Saturday Night Live and Late Night with Seth Meyers, Wally has spent decades operating in one of the highest-pressure creative environments imaginable, mastering a craft so specific, so human, and so pressure-dependent that technology never replaced it. In Episode 3 of Born to Build, Sarafina Mancuso sits down with Wally Feresten to discuss his journey into television, building a career at SNL, operating under pressure, mastering a highly specialized craft, adapting alongside technology, turning decades of expertise into a business of his own, and what it means to build a life around becoming exceptional at one thing. The conversation explores craftsmanship, live television, pressure, reputation, entrepreneurship, human connection, legacy, and what it means to make the impossible possible, week after week, for more than three decades. Guest: Wally Feresten, @cuecardwally_official 02:03 Meet Wally Feresten 04:38 Getting His Start at SNL 09:47 How Saturday Night Live Actually Works 16:07 Spending Decades Inside One Creative Family 22:44 Operating Under Pressure 29:49 What Makes a Great Cue Card? 35:52 Working with Celebrities & Building Trust 39:07 Why Cue Cards Survived Technology 42:07 Turning a Craft into a Business 47:32 From Labor to Leverage 52:43 What Students Need to Know About Building a Career 57:08 Ideas Are Easy. Execution Is Everything. 59:35 Were You Born to Build? Listen & Subscribe: Website: borntobuildpodcast.com Apple Podcasts: https://tr.ee/1HcLXID7Ht Follow Born to Build: Instagram: @borntobuildpodcast TikTok: @borntobuildpodcast Music: https://tinyurl.com/3pepwnc

The Art of Seeing Potential: Duncan Smith | Born To Build Ep. 2

Duncan Smith built more than a following. He built a career around seeing potential where other people see waste. Known online as Trash Boy, Duncan has built an audience by transforming discarded furniture, forgotten objects, and New York City street finds into pieces with a second life. With a background in art, filmmaking, and production, his work goes far beyond upcycling. Through a combination of craftsmanship, creativity, storytelling, and an unmistakable eye for possibility, he's built a platform that not only reimagines objects, but allows viewers to experience the transformation alongside him. In Episode 2 of Born to Build, Sarafina Mancuso sits down with Duncan Smith to discuss moving from the UK to New York, building a life around creativity, navigating the realities of the creator economy, balancing artistic integrity with monetization, and trusting your instincts when the path forward doesn't always make sense on paper. The conversation explores potential, adaptability, visibility, social media, creative identity, risk, entrepreneurship, and what it means to keep building when success isn't always reflected in real time. 00:00 Intro 00:49 Meet Duncan Smith 01:27 What Trash Boy NYC is really about 02:34 Seeing potential in discarded things 05:20 Moving to New York and shopping secondhand 06:36 Creating the magic in transformation videos 08:06 Duncan’s background in art, film, and production 10:37 Going from behind the camera to in front of it 12:13 Learning by doing 14:32 Home, identity, and different versions of yourself 16:32 Why New York encourages big swings 18:15 Were you born to build? 20:03 Chasing ideas and trusting instinct 21:26 Delusional confidence and figuring it out 23:08 Everyone thinks you’re crazy until it works 24:06 Growing from zero followers to full-time creator 25:40 The first Trash Boy video 28:31 Hulu, Good Morning America, and social media pressure 29:04 When the algorithm changes 32:43 How creators make money 35:16 Brand deals and building a unique style 37:08 Raw content vs polished production 38:42 That Thrifting Show and building under pressure 41:16 Taking opportunities before you feel ready 43:23 Building from an apartment to a workshop 45:51 Investing in the business 47:33 The loneliness of building something new 49:44 Scaling Trash Boy NYC 51:51 What’s next for Duncan 54:46 Sharing, teaching, and not gatekeeping 56:29 The skill of trying 57:17 Rebuilding when the blueprint stops working 1:00:45 Were you born to build? 1:01:00 Closing thoughts Guest:Duncan Smith @TrashBoyNYC Listen & Subscribe: Borntobuildpodcast.com Follow: @borntobuildpodcast Music: https://tinyurl.com/3pepwnc

The Business of Building Businesses: Shermin Lahka | Born To Build Ep. 1

Shermin Lakha built more than a law firm. She built visibility around a traditionally transactional industry and turned relationships into the foundation of a multi-dimensional business ecosystem.In Episode 1 of Born to Build, Sarafina Mancuso sits down with the founder of LVLUP Legal to discuss building a modern legal brand through social media, creating visibility in a traditionally buttoned-up profession, scaling teams, building founder relationships, and what it takes to continuously evolve as both an operator and public-facing brand. The conversation explores discernment, proximity, community, business development, visibility, risk, and the realities of building businesses rooted in trust and connection in real time.Guest:Shermin Lakha @shermin.lahka [https://www.instagram.com/shermin.lakha/]LVLUP Legal @lvluplegal [https://www.instagram.com/lvluplegal/]Listen & Subscribe:Website [borntobuildpodcast.com] Youtube [https://youtu.be/OppT1yXjihw]Apple Podcasts [https://tr.ee/1HcLXID7Ht]Follow Born to Build:Instagram @borntobuildpodcast [https://www.instagram.com/sarafinamancuso]TikTok @borntobuildpodcast [https://www.tiktok.com/@borntobuildpodcast]Music: https://tinyurl.com/3pepwnc