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

In the first episode of this brand new series on Building a Life First Business!

I wanted to kick things off with my own personal story that has deeply impacted the lens that I see the world through - and is a huge part of why I do the work I do.

My mother was 31yo business owner when a car accident left her in a coma for 3 months and in the hospital for another 2 years before returning home to her family. She experienced a Traumatic Brain Injury that would leaver her permanently disabled for the rest of her life.

She survived but lost her business... and even more, she missed the early days of my and my sisters childhoods.

This episode is deeply personal but if you really want to know why I care so much about building businesses that actually allow you to enjoy your life - my story is a reminder that all we have is today.

00:00 Introduction and Series Kickoff
01:20 A Personal Story: The Accident That Changed Everything
04:10 The Aftermath: Family and Business Struggles
08:41 Building a Life-First Business
13:33 Adapting to Motherhood and Business
24:28 The Importance of Community and Support
28:32 Caring for Aging Parents
35:30 The Life-First Business Philosophy
42:44 Conclusion and Next Steps

Attend the upcoming free training with Racheal - Scaling Your Life-First Business

Want clients for life? Give your client an experience that goes beyond their expectations.

Think about booking lodgings for a vacation. It’s one thing to book a room for your stay with all the expected accommodations. But you remember the place that goes beyond: the chocolate on the pillow to greet you as a new guest, warm and freshly laundered towels in the bathroom daily, a minifridge already full of goodies you didn’t even have to buy, etc. And the next time you’re ready for a vacation in the area, you want to stay there again.

Now, it’s really easy to think that translating that type of experience into your service-based business is as simple as surprising and delighting with little gifts, like that chocolate on the pillow. But there’s so much more to it, and today I’m excited to have Amber Kinney back on the podcast to talk about it.

In this final episode of our customer experience series on Promote Yourself to CEO, you’ll learn about how you can translate surprising and delighting clients into your business as part of your customer experience plan. We’ll teach you how to put a little more intention and thoughtfulness into the ways you choose to surprise and delight clients so that they’ll trust and connect with you and your company.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

6:44 - What’s one of Amber's favorite ways to surprise and delight clients in her agency?

8:45 - I talk about a recent surprise I received when I started working with someone new. This kind of delight can motivate your clients even more!

13:01 - You can vote with your dollars when delighting your clients, too. Here’s how we do it every year.

16:22 - How do you and your team build connection with your clients in ways that will surprise and delight them?

24:25 - I discuss another way I try to delight all the time. This one goes above and beyond, and it can stick for your clients for years!

• The CEO Collective

• The CEO Retreat

• Amber Kinney’s agency, The AK Collective

• Maven Made Facial Serum

• Racheal on Instagram and TikTok

• Rate and review on Apple Podcasts

Can you afford to take 30 days away from your business? What would happen if you can’t but took the time anyway?

Sometimes, things come up. Personal or family illness, the impending birth of a new baby, or just needing a break can spark the need for taking some extended time off.

But for a lot of small business owners, taking that time would essentially shut the business down. You’d stop marketing, working with clients, and making sales... unless you have systems in place that keep your business running when you slow down.

This past April, I had to step away from my business because of a flare-up of my chronic illness that caused me extreme pain and kept me up at night. But if you listened to the show in April, you’d never know that because I had systems in place that could help me weather that situation.

So in this episode of the Promote Yourself to CEO podcast, you’ll learn the systems I use to make sure that my business runs smoothly even if I have to step back for a bit. By growing through some of the systems I use in my 5-part framework, I’ll teach you how you can keep on serving your clients and generating revenue while you’re away.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

5:09 - I talk about the biggest changes I’ve made for more flexibility in the “delight” stage of my framework.

9:18 - What do these changes look like functionally inside of The CEO Collective?

18:20 - How do I make sure sales keep coming in even if I have to step away from my business?

25:08 - If you think you need to be active in the nurture marketing stage all the time, systems are your friend here. I reveal how.

31:29 - Where do I spend the majority of my time, and why should you do the same?

39:33 - It took me a long time to follow this final piece of advice.

Mentioned in The Systems That Keep Your Business Running When You Slow Down

• The CEO Collective
• The CEO Retreat
• 90-Day CEO Operating System
• The CEO Planner
• Marketing Strategy Intensive
• Fired Up & Focused Challenge
• Plan Your Best Year Ever Challenge
• More Business Growth Tools
• Help Scout
• Uncommonly More
• Racheal on Instagram and TikTok
• Rate and review on Apple Podcasts

How are you doing on those 2022 goals you set at the beginning of the year? We’re almost at the midway point of the year. But if you’ve gotten off track with your goals, don’t worry! In this episode, I walk you through a mid-year review to help you figure out what is and isn’t working and how you can start planning for the second half of 2022.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

2:42 - Look at each goal you set at the start of the year and ask yourself these questions. I discuss a few of mine, including a big one accomplished already.

6:07 - What goal am I not currently on track to reach? I’ve had this one on my to-do list for two years!

8:24 - The next step involves digging a little deeper and doing a month-by-month review. I reveal how I do it.

14:27 - Answer these questions to really get a handle on what you’ve noticed in your review.

20:53 - Plan for the rest of 2022 with these four questions to ask about each month remaining.

25:38 - So many entrepreneurs struggle because they overcomplicate this! To wrap up, I offer this one final piece of insight.

Show Links

• The CEO Planner
• The CEO Retreat
• Racheal on Instagram
• Leave a review on iTunes

Undercharging and over-delivering can be a challenging habit to break. You have to come to terms with the idea of increasing your prices and overhauling your packaging structure. 

If you’re like my guest today and feel nervous about raising your prices, then listen up because I have a real-life case study for you! I interview CEO Collective member Sarah Young about her journey over the last 18 months where she increased her price points, decreased burnout, positioned herself differently than other bookkeepers and CPAs, and now enjoys her business more than ever.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

6:15 - What did Sarah’s business look like before she joined The CEO Collective? She reveals what prompted her to get into business for herself.

10:11 - Sarah feels like her pricing story is a little embarrassing, but she tells it anyway. Everybody has the same struggles, especially women.

14:27 - After some research, Sarah started raising her prices but still found herself burning out. Then something happened in January 2021 that changed her business.

21:28 - What did existing clients think after Sarah raised her price points? She discusses repackaging herself for higher-paying clients and framing a response to those who could no longer afford her.

27:13 - Sarah reveals something she had to come to terms with as she rebuilt her business from the ground up.

28:48 - Where did Sarah find higher-level clients willing to invest at her prices? If you think it’s super complicated, think again.

32:08 - Sarah shares what she sees happening financially with fast-growing businesses when they underprice themselves.

36:09 - How do you build in profitability in your pricing, especially as you hire and grow a team? Sarah offers her insight.

42:47 - Sarah shares what’s been the best part of being a member of The CEO Collective.

Show Links

• Sara’s CFO Checklist
• Sara on Instagram
• The CEO Collective
• Racheal on Instagram

We’ve all heard the conditioned messaging about how to achieve success:

Pull yourself up by your bootstraps! No one’s going to work as hard or care as much about your business as you. If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.

If you’ve been struggling with this mindset and haven’t allowed yourself to be fully supported in your business, then this episode should help change your mind. I interview my client Michelle Clayton, who’s the founder of WeLetHerFly.com and a member of The CEO Collective. We discuss how she finally stepped into her CEO role by surrounding herself with support and made mindset shifts in her business that allowed her to get out of the feast or famine cycle that traps so many entrepreneurs.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

5:18 - Your branding can affect your ability to show up in your business the way you want. How?

9:03 - What happened when Michelle decided to increase her pricing?

13:16 - Your pricing communicates certain things about your business, product, or service.

16:02 - Michelle has undergone another big shift in her business while in The CEO Collective. It’s something I’ve often discussed on the show.

20:07 - How has Michelle’s role as CEO changed? And what did she do to stay creatively inspired when the well ran dry?

26:46 - I ask Michelle a couple of lightning round questions to wind down the show.

30:08 - Michelle discusses why anyone on the fence about joining The CEO Collective should just go ahead and do it.

36:12 - I recap some key things about how Michelle pulled her business out of the feast or famine cycle.

Show Links

• We Let Her Fly
• Free Guide: Plan Your Best Brand Photoshoot Ever
• The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron
• The CEO Collective
• Racheal on Instagram
• Leave a review on iTunes

When you need to grow your business, what do you do? Do you lock out the rest of the world and brainstorm new products, programs, or service ideas yourself, like so many entrepreneurs do? Big mistake!

When you try to expand your business this way, you’re cutting out 100% of one of your most crucial assets: your existing customers and clients. In this episode, my guest and CEO Collective member Layne Lyons tells us about how she’s on track to double her business by getting actual input from those already familiar with her business.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

5:17 - Layne describes her business before it underwent an amazing transformation and reveals her first business bottleneck.

9:39 - What did Layne do to resolve her first bottleneck? What was her experience like after she started putting some boundaries in place?

13:12 - Layne shares what it felt like to finally increase her price points and offers advice to those on the precipice of doing the same.

15:53 - A new offer has opened the door for Layne to double the revenue from her business. She reveals what it is and the journey she went on to get here.

21:31 - What happened when Layne launched her new offer? This demonstrates why asking your existing client base for new ideas is the easiest way to build your next offer.

25:21 - Layne describes how she and her business are different now thanks to the changes she’s implemented.

34:21 - How was Layne’s experience joining The CEO Collective? She offers an inside look.

37:09 - To wrap up, I highlight a few points Layne made about streamlining and simplifying her business to the point where she now works less and enjoys her life more.

Show Links

• Layne’s Legal Umbrella Checklist
• Book Trademark Consultation with Layne
• The CEO Collective
• Racheal on Instagram

As a business growth strategist for over 15 years, I’ve constantly heard and seen something that grates on my nerves. So many so-called experts always hype up the latest tools and tactics that grow your business by some measly amount every year. 

But why only settle for five or ten percent annual growth when you can double it instead? You don’t have to, which is why in this episode I reveal my three key strategies to help you rapidly grow your business (doubling or even tripling your revenue) with half the effort.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

4:35 - I dive into the first strategy right off the bat. You can do it quickly, without engaging in more marketing or attracting extra sales.

9:31 - What’s the most common concern I often hear when I advocate my first strategy? One of my clients recently went through this.

13:55 - I discuss one final key thing to think about when it comes to strategy #1. Women entrepreneurs especially need to pay attention to this!

18:00 - Key strategy #2 involves increasing this aspect of your business. It does come with a couple of caveats, though.

25:13 - What’s the correlation between consistent business growth and time spent on marketing and sales activity?

26:24 - I reveal the last strategy to double your revenue with half the effort. It involves something a lot of entrepreneurs forget.

30:58 - Retention is a huge thing that leads to results, and I talk about the myriad of ways in which that helps your business growth.

33:25 - What happens after your clients have achieved the big promise of your signature offer?

37:08 - To wrap up the episode, I quickly recap the strategies.

Show Links

• Get Paid calculator
• More Than Money with Jacquette Timmons
• Racheal on Instagram
• Leave a review on iTunes

We all got through those startup stages of our business where we knew it was going to take awhile to figure things out and to get people in the door.

Once you get a little bit further along on your journey and you’re ready to make this your full-time focus, you need your business to pay you a real paycheck.

No one loves to run a business that can’t support the entrepreneur running it.

This is why it’s so, so important to have a game plan for how you’re going to design that predictably profitable business.

But the statistics show us that most women do not have a predictably profitable business.

Over 75% of women entrepreneurs do not earn more than $50,000 a year. And most entrepreneurs shut the doors within the first couple of years.

If you are committed to making your business truly work for you and work for your family, you have to have a real profit plan to make it work before you get so burnt out that you throw in the towel.

https://rachealcook.com/profit-plan/

Not long ago, I was a guest coach for a business workshop where everyone was working on a poster-size post-it to map out our business for the next 12 months.

There were directions to map out your business goals, your offers, and your marketing strategy.

I started looking around the room to see where people needed help and I realized everybody in the room had a leaky business.

Their marketing plan was not working together.

Everyone’s marketing plan was a smattering of tactics… but there was no clear strategy to ensure that all that marketing effort was leading potential clients to their paid offers.

The minute I shared with them a different way to approach their marketing strategy, all the light bulbs went off as people could see why all the work they had put into marketing their business wasn’t generating real results.

Most people when they sit down and write out a marketing plan, they make a list of marketing to-dos. They need to have a newsletter and they need to blog… they need to do a podcast and they need to be posting on social media.

But a marketing to-do list isn’t a strategy unless it all works together to turn your community into paid clients.

Ready to fix the LEAK in your predictable profit strategy?

https://rachealcook.com/predictable-profit-strategy/