Promote Yourself to CEO | Small Business Strategy for Women Entrepreneurs – Details, episodes & analysis

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I need you to meet Michelle Mercurio. She's one of those rare people who refuses to pick a lane—and that's exactly what makes her brilliant. In this conversation, we dig into why the traditional business advice to "niche down" might actually be killing your ability to show up as yourself. Michelle's built a career that spans branding, community building, teaching, and yes, witchy practices—all tied together by two powerful threads: understanding who we are and how we relate to one another.

What I love most about this episode is how Michelle reframes growth itself. We're so conditioned to think growth means up, up, up—more revenue, bigger team, next level. But what if growth is actually a spiral? What if coming back to familiar patterns isn't regression but evolution? We explore how to shed decades of conditioning that taught us to smooth out our edges and fit in, why elevator pitches actually kill connection, and what it really takes to build authentic community (spoiler: it requires showing up even when it's uncomfortable). If you've ever felt like you're supposed to be further along or you're doing it wrong because you don't fit the mold, this one's for you.

In This Episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

• Why Michelle describes growth as a spiral rather than a ladder—and what that means when you feel like you're revisiting the same challenges you thought you'd already overcome

• The real danger of trying to fit in as a small business owner—how smoothing out your edges to belong actually makes you invisible in the marketplace

• What neuroplasticity research reveals about conditioning—and why it takes intentional effort to break free from the patterns that keep us playing small

• How elevator pitches kill connection instead of creating it—Michelle shares her "Ditch the Pitch" approach that uses questions as hooks instead of titles and credentials

• The truth about successful people that nobody talks about—hint: they're just the ones who didn't quit (but Michelle draws an important line about what you should quit)

• Why you can't just show up once and expect community to happen—what it really takes to find your people and build genuine relationships in business

• The one action you can take today to build authentic community—Michelle's practical suggestion for anyone feeling isolated in their business journey

Connect with Me:

• Instagram: @racheal.cook
• TikTok: @rachealcookmba
• LinkedIn: @rachealcook
• YouTube: @the_ceo_collective
• Website: The CEO Collective

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The best entrepreneurial stories rarely start with a grand vision. They start with a rug being pulled out.

That's Ashley's story. A layoff. A pandemic that destroyed her in-person business overnight. So she did what many of us do in crisis—she picked up watercolors and created. A hundred days worth. Except it took two years to finish.

When Ashley came to me, I saw what she couldn't see herself: a hundred pieces of unique, marketable content in a space flooded with generic coaches. She resisted. Hard. Tears and all.

But here's what changed everything: clarity isn't something you force. It's something you create conditions for. Once Ashley stopped waiting for perfection and started building in public, the momentum came fast. Seven months from a wine bar idea to four finished books.

If you've got something incomplete sitting in your files, or you're wondering if your "weird" skill could be your real differentiator—listen in.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

• The accidental entrepreneur — Ashley's family had three generations of business owners. She wanted nothing to do with it until a layoff left her no choice.
• When crisis creates clarity — A pandemic wiped out her revenue overnight. She started painting. Two years later, she had 100 finished watercolors and no plan.
• What I saw that she couldn't — A hundred pieces of unique, ready-made content. Ashley saw uncertainty. I saw her competitive advantage.
• The two-year gap between finishing and knowing — Completed the paintings in 2022, knew her path in 2024. Here's what she learned about waiting for clarity.
• Building in public before you're ready — Ashley announced her journal plan on LinkedIn, tagged 200 people, took pre-orders before writing a word.
• Why smaller commitments actually work — Instead of writing all four at once, she took pre-orders for volume one, wrote it, then repeated. The structure got it done.
• Your market is telling you something — People kept asking about her art, not her coaching. She listened to that signal instead of resisting it.

Connect with Me:

• Instagram: @racheal.cook
• TikTok: @rachealcookmba
• LinkedIn: @rachealcook
• YouTube: @the_ceo_collective
• Website: The CEO Collective

Subscribe & Review:

If you loved this episode, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

🎤 Thanks for listening! I'll see you next week!

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My entrepreneurial dad taught me that you have to fire yourself from every other position in your business. But when you first start your business, you have to wear so many hats: customer service, bookkeeper, tech person, assistant, and so on. So it can be quite challenging to let go of some of the roles as you grow your business and your team.

Today kicks off a new podcast series that discusses how you can become more productive and focuses as a CEO. And in this episode, I talk about how to redefine your role as CEO of your business so you don’t become the bottleneck that holds everything up.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

3:56 - Why is it so difficult to let go of the other roles and stay in your CEO lane as your business grows?

7:07 - Founder of Spanx, Sara Blakely, gave insight on how she had to learn to get out of her own way.

12:05 - You being the bottleneck in your business has this unintended consequence as well.

13:06 - How can you start redefining your role as CEO? I reveal the first thing I did and some red flags that signal you’re getting in the way.

17:29 - I discuss the role of the traditional CEO in defining their business’s vision. I also share my favorite exercise to get clarity on your business’s vision.

22:00 - CEOs also have a responsibility to set the culture for the company. I talk about one of the values I’ve had for my business since the beginning.

26:36 - What’s the difference between how corporate CEOs go about creating the strategic plan for their business vs. small business CEOs?

28:49 - I discuss how running a small business team contrasts with running a large company team and how that’s reflected in my business.

31:53 - This final role-playing piece for CEOs is one of the most difficult. It’s the one thing you can’t outsource.

38:35 - Where do you need to put your time, energy, and attention so that you can focus on generating business growth and results? To get clear on this, here are some questions to ask yourself.

48:44 - I share how the avenues where I focus my time, energy, and attention on show up in my business every week and month.

56:15 - How do I divide up my time between doing all the things I’m focused on in my business?

Mentioned In This Episode

Connect with Me:

• Instagram: @racheal.cook
• TikTok: @rachealcookmba
• LinkedIn: @rachealcook
• YouTube: @the_ceo_collective
• Website: The CEO Collective

Subscribe & Review:

If you loved this episode, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

🎤 Thanks for listening! I'll see you next week!

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Are you staying ahead of the marketing shifts that affect your business?

Trends come and go--like Myspace, which was once all the rage, but isn’t even in the marketing conversation anymore. What once was effective becomes less so, like you’re seeing on certain social media platforms.

But if you wait too late to get ahead of the shifts and change your approach, you’ll find yourself struggling to get your business back on track. So what can you do now?

Getting in front of other people’s audiences is one of my favorite ways to create more visibility for myself and my clients. Not through cold pitching, though, but building relationships and creating collaborative partnerships. And today as we continue our conversation on visibility in your business, I have the perfect expert to talk about collabs on the show!

In this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO, my friend Jordan Gill is back to talk about how you can leverage collaborations in your business. You’ll learn about ways in which you can form these partnerships, how to ensure you make it beneficial for both sides, and what the future of collaborations might look like soon.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

9:53 - What was the thought process behind Jordan’s creation of Ready Set Collab?

14:41 - I talk about my own experience with collaborations vs. hiring a PR team to pitch for me.

17:05 - What are the different kinds of collabs you can engage in as a CEO? Jordan discusses a few.

22:17 - Jordan talks about how to sustain your energy over the long haul when doing collaborations for the first time.

27:52 - There’s one big thing that most people miss when going after collabs. Jordan reveals what it is.

29:40 - What is coming next in the world of collaborations, and what should you pay attention to?

34:29 - What about using AI tools like ChatGPT for collabs? Jordan shares how she and her Ready Set Collab members use it.

Mentioned in How to Use Collaborations to Help Your Business Thrive in Uncertain Times

• Ready Set Collab waitlist
• Jordan’s VIP program, Done In a Day™
• “How to Profit from VIP Days with Jordan Gill” episode
• Mistakes That Made Me podcast
• The Get Paid podcast
• The CEO Collective
• Racheal on Instagram and TikTok
• Rate and review on Apple Podcasts

Connect with Me:

• Instagram: @racheal.cook
• TikTok: @rachealcookmba
• LinkedIn: @rachealcook
• YouTube: @the_ceo_collective
• Website: The CEO Collective

Subscribe & Review:

If you loved this episode, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

🎤 Thanks for listening! I'll see you next week!

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The world of marketing and sales is shifting. Some of the strategies you’ve used may not be as effective as they used to be (or work at all anymore).

But one thing does remain the same: visibility. One of your biggest jobs as CEO is getting the word out about your offers, products, programs, and services. And giving yourself a little experiment or challenge can help you get more eyeballs on your business.

CEO Collective member Megan Gersch is incredible at getting visibility! She ran a challenge for herself on Tik Tok, and what started as a goal of 100 turned into over 262 potential clients, which sparked a lot of momentum for her bold brand and website design company for creatives.

In this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO, we kick off a new podcast series about visibility for small businesses. Today, you’ll hear Megan describe her experiment and learn about how doing a similar challenge can help you gain visibility and insight into what your potential clients are actively looking for.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

6:28 - What is Megan’s approach when helping people create a brand that stands out? She reveals the common mistake too many make with their branding.

10:32 - Megan talks about her experiment with doing website design reviews on Tik Tok. What were the two biggest issues she found?

15:39 - Megan discusses the impact of her experiment on her business and how she feels about using it as a promotional technique.

20:22 - Megan shares how she got visibility through two other avenues and why Tik Tok has been such a great strategy for her business.

25:40 - The amount of creative business assets you need can be a challenge. How does Megan’s VIP day strategy help you launch in days instead of months?

28:55 - What has it been like for Megan inside of The CEO Collective? How has she and her business benefited and changed?

Mentioned in How a Visibility Experiment Can Help Jumpstart or Grow Your Business with Megan Gersch

• Megan’s website and Tik Tok
• Help a Reporter Out (HARO)
• Terkel
• “How 100 Conversations Can Transform Your Business with Tami Hackbarth”
• “How 100 Conversations Helped Mado Hesselink Find Her Dream Clients”
• The CEO Collective
• Racheal on Instagram and TikTok
• Rate and review on Apple Podcasts

Connect with Me:

• Instagram: @racheal.cook
• TikTok: @rachealcookmba
• LinkedIn: @rachealcook
• YouTube: @the_ceo_collective
• Website: The CEO Collective

Subscribe & Review:

If you loved this episode, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

🎤 Thanks for listening! I'll see you next week!

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If you had maternity leave or a health emergency requiring you to be away from your business for a couple of months, could your business handle it? Could it even survive?

Let’s say, for instance, that you’re a chiropractor who injures her wrist and can’t work on clients for 12 more weeks. That’s where Dr. Lisa Griffith (my chiropractor, client, and friend for the last three years) found herself...and that happened after she’d taken a 12-week maternity leave from her practice the previous year.

But not only did her business make it through, it’s growing! So how did she do it, especially as an entrepreneur who has to work face-to-face and be hands on (quite literally) with her clients?

Today on the show, Dr. Lisa talks about how she transitioned into having her own practice, grew her team, and continued to grow her business despite the maternity leave and the injury necessitating time away.

In this episode of the Promote Yourself to CEO podcast, you’ll learn many insights into how you can continue to grow your business and keep it running when you need to step away from someone who’s done it twice in back-to-back years. You’ll also discover how to communicate big changes in your business to your clients in ways that’ll get them excited and an example of layering support in your business for when you need time off.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

6:12 - How did Dr. Lisa and I get connected, and what was going on in her practice at the time?

10:57 - Dr. Lisa did something smart with her practice that also served as kind of a full circle moment.

12:48 - How did Dr. Lisa arrange things for maternity leave in her practice for her second pregnancy?

16:20 - Entrepreneurs sometimes fear people won’t follow them when they move. Dr. Lisa discusses how she got clients to move along with her brand.

20:48 - What is coverage in the health care world, and how did Dr. Lisa utilize it for her business while on her maternity leave?

25:10 - Dr. Lisa talks about what she's been able to work on now that she’s pulled back on her overall hours.

28:16 - What has been Dr. Lisa’s experience with The CEO Retreat and the 90-Day plan?

Mentioned in Growing Your Business When You Need to Take a Step Back with Dr. Lisa Griffith

• Dr. Lisa Griffith’s website and Instagram
• Jane app
• The CEO Retreat
• 90-Day CEO Operating System
• Racheal on Instagram and TikTok
• Rate and review on Apple Podcasts

Connect with Me:

• Instagram: @racheal.cook
• TikTok: @rachealcookmba
• LinkedIn: @rachealcook
• YouTube: @the_ceo_collective
• Website: The CEO Collective

Subscribe & Review:

If you loved this episode, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

🎤 Thanks for listening! I'll see you next week!

Send us a text

“What questions do I ask myself in a review? What do I do when I sit down to check my progress? How do I adjust my plan?”

We’re almost at the midway point of the year which is the perfect time to do a review of your business. But not everybody knows where to start when it comes to doing a review, and these are the types of questions I get when working with clients.

What if you’re not sure if you’re on track with your goals? Don’t worry! With my framework, you can figure out whether or not you’re still on pace to meet your goals for the year.

In this episode of the Promote Yourself to CEO podcast, I walk you through a mid-year review. You’ll learn the questions you need to ask yourself to help you determine what is and isn’t working in your business and how you can start planning for the second half of the year.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

5:00 - Look at each goal you set at the start of the year and ask yourself these questions. I discuss a couple of mine.

10:39 - What goal am I not currently on track to reach? Here’s one I’ve been struggling with lately.

14:42 - The next step in the mid-year review process involves digging a little deeper with a month-by-month review. Answer these key questions.

25:22 - What has worked so far this year? (And what has flopped? I reveal why something going wrong isn’t always because you did something wrong).

33:28 - Your leading and lagging metrics are two of the most important things in your business to wrap your head around.

36:10 - Is there a gap in your revenue at this mid-way point? If so, here’s what you can do.

38:17 - Plan for the rest of the year with these four questions to ask about each month remaining.

44:22 - So many entrepreneurs struggle because they overcomplicate this! To wrap up, I offer this one final piece of insight.

Mentioned in How a Mid-Year Review Can Help You Achieve Your Goals

• Mid-Year Review Workbook
• The CEO Collective
• The CEO Retreat
• 90-Day CEO Operating System
• The CEO Planner
• Plan Your Best Year Ever Challenge
• Racheal on Instagram and TikTok
• Rate and review on Apple Podcasts

Connect with Me:

• Instagram: @racheal.cook
• TikTok: @rachealcookmba
• LinkedIn: @rachealcook
• YouTube: @the_ceo_collective
• Website: The CEO Collective

Subscribe & Review:

If you loved this episode, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

🎤 Thanks for listening! I'll see you next week!

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The rumors are true - the world of entrepreneurship and small business is rapidly changing. And what may have worked in 2016 or even 2020 is no longer as effective. 

Join the mentors of The CEO Collective for this discussion about what we are currently seeing in the world of small business, including:

• The 'popular' tactics are constantly changing, but we see entrepreneurs getting exhausted trying to constantly keep up. That's why we focus on proven best practices for small businesses!
• How perfectionism rears it's ugly head especially during more stressful times when we start to doubt ourselves and our core business strategy.
• Why the mentality of 'set it and forget it' does not work long term when those tactics stop working. Passive income, funnels, and automate everything leaves out the HUMANITY of business.
• Business grows at the speed of relationships - we all believe that building those relationships are key to the long term success for small businesses.
• Remember that business is cyclical and trends come and go - there's always an opportunity to ride the wave in popularity but what do small businesses do when those stop working?
• Why the 'overnight success' myth is really distracting small business owners from the time it really takes to build a successful business.
• Why we dive deep into nuance and context when considering what will or won't work for small business owners

Want to learn more and apply to the next cohort of The CEO Collective? Get all the details about how you can work with our team at https://theceocollective.com/apply/ 

Connect with Me:

• Instagram: @racheal.cook
• TikTok: @rachealcookmba
• LinkedIn: @rachealcook
• YouTube: @the_ceo_collective
• Website: The CEO Collective

Subscribe & Review:

If you loved this episode, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

🎤 Thanks for listening! I'll see you next week!

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If you're already crossing that big $100K milestone and looking at $250K, $500K, and beyond, you need different information and advice than the businesses that are brand new, but the more you grow, the less public information you're going to find.

If you're ready to break through to your business's next level of success, join me for today's masterclass, The 90-Day CEO Operating System.

This system is designed to help you put the infrastructure in place to sustainably scale your business without sacrificing your life, your health, or your family.

Find the slides for this masterclass at http://www.theceocollective.com/training.

Apply Now for The CEO Collective at https://theceocollective.com/apply.

Connect with Me:

• Instagram: @racheal.cook
• TikTok: @rachealcookmba
• LinkedIn: @rachealcook
• YouTube: @the_ceo_collective
• Website: The CEO Collective

Subscribe & Review:

If you loved this episode, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

🎤 Thanks for listening! I'll see you next week!

Send us a text

For the last 15 years, I’ve seen so many people come and go. I’ve seen so many people start out with dreams and ambitions, only to burn themselves out and take years to recover from the impact.

But you know in your heart and soul that you’re meant to be an entrepreneur. And I want you to have long-term success, instead of sacrificing it with a short-term view. It’s why I wanted to create this “Truth About Scaling” podcast series.

So now, that brings me to the final installment. In this episode, I break down some final key things to consider and implement when you’re ready to shift into high-growth business mode.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

5:58 - Are you ignoring or passing off parts of your business that you don’t understand? I discuss why that’s a mistake.

11:39 - You need to understand these indicators to know whether or not your marketing is working in your business.

14:05 - What’s another area where women entrepreneurs play small because they’re not considering it at all?

17:23 - Keep it simple, keep it sane, and keep it strategic. I reveal the trap entrepreneurs often fall into that only complicates their business.

24:01 - What common habit have I seen over the years from women entrepreneurs that holds them back? Inside The CEO Collective, we know this happens and are prepared for it.

28:25 - If you don’t allow your business to develop these two important pieces before attempting to scale, then you’ll end up in a cycle of catastrophic growth.

35:02 - I reveal one of the biggest disconnects I see between business owners and why you need your own CEO support team.

40:05 - Personal success teams are another crucially important aspect to being a CEO with sustainable business growth.

45:15 - It’s easy to look at marketing material out there and think that growth is linear. But is it really?

Mentioned in How to Get Yourself Ready to Hit High-Growth Mode In Your Business

• The CEO Collective
• CEO Retreat
• Business Growth Checklist
•  90-Day CEO Operating System
•  Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
• Racheal on Instagram and TikTok
•  Rate and review on Apple Podcasts

Connect with Me:

• Instagram: @racheal.cook
• TikTok: @rachealcookmba
• LinkedIn: @rachealcook
• YouTube: @the_ceo_collective
• Website: The CEO Collective

Subscribe & Review:

If you loved this episode, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

🎤 Thanks for listening! I'll see you next week!