Promote Yourself to CEO | Small Business Strategy for Women Entrepreneurs

You’ve seen and heard about it from the hiring room to the Hollywood screen. For the last few years, every workplace imaginable has been discussing and trying to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion by implementing DEI practices in their company.

But Mia Henry, founder and CEO of Freedom Lifted, sees a flaw in the way these concepts often get applied. Her approach involves pioneering innovative work, and she has lots of experience working with those committed to promoting justice and equity.

In this episode of the Promote Yourself to CEO podcast, we’re continuing our work and business culture series with Mia. You’ll learn how to cultivate a sense of belonging within your team by using a more effective way of applying these concepts in your small business. Mia will reveal what shared power looks like, why it’s important to have it, and the process she uses to help others begin to do DEI work differently.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

7:03 - Why are diversity, equity, and inclusion so important within the culture of a company? Mia explains from her unique perspective.

12:42 - Mia discusses what social power and equity are and how they relate to shared power within team dynamics or management of organizations.

20:07 - Many still aren’t ready to have this conversation, so what is necessary for people to be ready to do this work? And how does Mia help them start to tackle it?

23:12 - Issues still arise when those with marginalized identities gain positional power. Why? And why is privilege not necessarily a bad thing?

25:23 - We talk about the two stakeholders I think small businesses really need to consider in this and how too many businesses approach it instead.

32:33 - How is this kind of social justice and movement work similar to doing trauma work? Mia also discusses a critical (and sometimes revolutionary) part of her work.

38:21 - Mia gives some examples of people she looks up to who are leading from this new paradigm of shared power.

41:11 - We share why we have hope for younger generations to make a difference, and how our generation can help.

45:08 - Mia has been part of The CEO Collective for a year. What has happened to her business since joining?

Mentioned in Build a Business Culture That You and Your Employees Love with Tiffany Slater

• Freedom Lifted
• The Shared Power Podcast
• “Redefining Leadership with Deborah Harrington” | The Shared Power Podcast
• The CEO Collective
• “How to Re-Align Your Business With Your Values with Erica Courdae”
• “Values Matter: Taking a Real Stand In Your Business with Erica Courdae”
• 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!

Are you a small business owner who is hiring more employees and building a real team? Then it’s time to start thinking at an entirely new level about how this will change the game for your company. And you need to have a culture in place that helps you attract and retain the talent you want onboard.

In the last few years, we’ve seen huge changes in the way people work. In fact, the pandemic accelerated changes that were already underway. These changes very much revolve around company culture and how that affects its employees, something that the human resources department of every corporation has a direct hand in.

Dr. Tiffany Slater is very much a product of this change. She has over 20 years of experience as an HR professional but had to leave a toxic workplace situation. Now, she specializes in helping other busy entrepreneurs take the lead on their human resource needs. And she’s here today to help me kick off a new podcast series on business culture.

In this episode of the Promote Yourself to CEO podcast, you’ll learn how to get really honest about the type of business you want to have now that it’s no longer just about you. Tiffany will teach you how you can start building a more intentional culture for your small business that’s enjoyable and effective for you and your employees.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

4:27 - The dichotomy between the old and new way of work management has changed in the last few years. How does it impact small business owners?

12:09 - Tiffany explains what being a fractional human resources executive means for small business owners and reveals the tipping point for managing the HR side of a company.

15:55 - What does it mean to have a culture in your business? Every organization has one, even if they don’t plan for it.

17:59 - As a solopreneur, your company’s values are your values. But what happens with those values as you build your team?

23:23 - When you’re not intentionally thinking about your company’s culture, it tends to create one by accident. Tiffany describes the challenges she sees in those businesses.

27:45 - How is creating a healthy, functional dynamic for your team within your business similar to hosting a party? Tiffany reveals the two things that bring it all together.

31:22 - If you want to attract and retain talent in your business, you must build a company culture that does this.

Mentioned in Build a Business Culture That You and Your Employees Love with Tiffany Slater

• HR TailorMade
• Free HR Strategy Session with Tiffany Slater
• The CEO Retreat
• The CEO Collective
• “How to Re-Align Your Business With Your Values with Erica Courdae”
• “Values Matter: Taking a Real Stand In Your Business with Erica Courdae”
• The Art of Gathering by Priya Parker
• 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!

Do you often have to throw your 90-day business plan out of the window because events come up that throw a wrench in the works?

Over the past few years, pandemics, social justice movements, and wars have made the world feel more chaotic than ever. And that impacts you as a small business owner, as do the things just going on in your personal life.

So, how do you bridge that gap between your quarterly plans and yearly goals? In this episode of the Promote Yourself to CEO podcast, you’ll learn how to take your goals for the next year and turn them into an achievable plan. I’ll teach you the difference between process and project goals, the critical systems you need to make it all work, and examples of where you might need to shore up your business.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

5:19 - What type of goals are you setting for your business? There’s a difference between process goals and project goals.

10:43 - Many small business owners are doing project goals they think will grow their business. Ask yourself these two questions when it comes to your goals.

15:00 - Is your business leaking anywhere? Do an audit to see where you need to plug the gaps.

22:35 - Make sure you have these three systems dialed in for all your offers so that you (and your team) succeed without burnout.

26:50 - What can happen if you don’t implement these systems in your business before adding new things?

29:54 - Here’s an example of a project versus process goal within my business. It enables me to take this next step with The CEO Collective I’ve been working on behind the scenes.

Mentioned in How to Bridge the Gap Between Your 90-Day and 12-Month Plans

• Plan Your Best Year Ever Challenge
• 90-Day CEO Operating System
• 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!

Forgetting to market and prioritize making sales consistently? What about letting your schedule get so out of control that you don’t give yourself any time off for months on end? Or chasing every next shiny object instead of focusing on what works in your business?

What you suffer from, dear entrepreneur, is a lack of plan implementation. In the final part of this year’s Best Year Ever challenge, you’ll discover how to take all the insight from the previous episodes and turn them into an actionable 12-month profit plan for 2024.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

6:40 - How does my 5-part framework form the foundation for your 12-month plan?

11:56 - Here’s where I start when I’m mapping out my 12-month big picture profit plan.

13:52 - Discover how to plan out what you’re going to sell and when you’re going to sell it.

17:28 - I reveal one thing you need to make sure you’re doing throughout the year and another you need to do every month.

19:57 - What do you do about any goals that aren’t covered by your client growth engine?

20:52 - Now that you have your big picture profit plan for the year, what’s next?

Mentioned in Do You Have a Month-by-Month Profit Plan for 2024?

• Best Year Ever Challenge
• The CEO Collective
• The CEO Retreat
• 90-Day CEO Operating System
• Racheal on Instagram and TikTok
• Leave a review on Apple Podcast

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!

You tell yourself, “This year, I’m gonna do it!” You write down your business goal. You put it where you can see it constantly. You’re determined to reach that pinnacle you’ve set for yourself this time! A few months later... you’ve forgotten about it or given up on it.

We tend to only set goals once a year, and that’s one of the reasons why goal setting often doesn’t work for most people. On day 4 of this series, I take a different approach to goal setting to help you establish business milestones you’ll actually follow through on in 2024.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

4:54 - Many of us have such a love/hate relationship with goal setting. Why does it fail so often?

6:17 - As you brainstorm all of your potential goals for the new year, refrain from doing this.

8:40 - What is in your client growth engine and in your team engine? 

10:50 - I talk about using my five-part framework (Attract, Engage, Nurture, Invite, and Delight) to help you as you create goals.

16:12 - Once you’ve brainstormed, how can you narrow your goals down to five for the year? Think about how you’re setting yourself up for success. 

Mentioned in How to Set Goals You Can Actually Follow Through On?

• Best Year Ever Challenge
• 90-Day CEO Operating System
• Get Paid Calculator
• Racheal on Instagram and TikTok
• Leave a 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!

Are you constantly running your business in emergency mode? You might be running your company by default instead of by design, constantly putting out fires and working crazy long hours. But panic as a business strategy isn’t a wise recipe for success. 

In this episode, I talk about how to design a business that works for you and runs like clockwork in 2024.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

3:51 - Why should your business design come after your life design?

5:39 - What does personal and professional success mean to you? Here are some things to keep in mind.

10:41 - Who are the dream clients you want to focus on attracting and attaining in 2024?

11:40 - Time to shift into money mode! But you don’t want to pull a revenue goal out of thin air here.

16:03 - The final thing you want to look at as you go through this process of (re)creating your business by design.

Mentioned in Is Your Business by Default or by Design?

• Best Year Ever Challenge
• Get Paid Calculator
• Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
• Racheal on Instagram and TikTok
• Leave a 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!

With our hustle and bustle culture, we’re always in danger of burning ourselves out. The last couple of years, however, have made it even worse. It always feels like there’s something going wrong in the world--pandemics, war breakouts, etc.--that can have an effect on our business, causing us to worry about its future.

No matter what’s happening in the world, though, you can still build your dream business. This Best Year Ever series can help you get clarity about what you want to experience right now. In this episode, I dive into the second challenge and it’s a powerful one!

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

3:52 - Today’s the day you jump into your time machine! What do I mean?

5:50 - I reveal the best place to start as you go through today’s exercises. This is all about getting intentional.

7:03 - I give examples of how you can use this exercise to upgrade your life (with a little insight from my own life).

9:24 - How can you upgrade your business and have it support the life you want?

10:10 - This is when you bring some numbers into play. You need to think about it in two parts.

Mentioned in What Does Your Dream 2024 Look Like?

• Best Year Ever Challenge
• Get Paid Calculator
• Double Double by Cameron Herold
• Racheal on Instagram and TikTok
• Leave a 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!

With the holidays just around the corner, it’s not just time to look ahead in your business. This is also a good time to reflect on your progress over the last year. So many entrepreneurs don’t reach their goals because they keep running up on the same obstacles over and over.

If that’s you, let’s not do that again. Instead, let’s start planning your best year ever! In this episode, I kick off my annual five-part series where I walk you through the same strategic planning process I’ve used for over 20 years and shared with thousands of women entrepreneurs to help create a solid action plan for 2024.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

2:16 - Do this before you listen to the episode. It’ll help you follow along as I dive into the first BYE challenge.

5:25 - Doing this helps you determine the best course of action as you shift your business. It’s a move professional athletes understand well.

7:21 - Need assistance answering the questions for this challenge? Using these tools can help you get really clear on what’s gone on in your business.

9:33 - As you go through this exercise, you’ll start seeing things that bring up the following questions.

10:32 - Double down or let go? I share some scenarios where you might want to do either.

Mentioned in Ready To Plan Your Best Year Ever?

• Best Year Ever Challenge
• The CEO Planner
• Racheal on Instagram and TikTok
• Leave a 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!

If you’re out of alignment with your business and want to realign yourself, it starts with your vision. But it doesn’t end there. You’ve got to get your values on board as well.

In this episode of the Promote Yourself to CEO podcast, Erica Courdae is back to help me dive into how you can realign your business with your values. You’ll learn how being out of alignment affects everyone in your company, the one band-aid you want to avoid using when you’re feeling stuck in your business, and what might be behind that resentfulness you feel towards your business.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

3:02 - Why have this conversation now? Erica and I talk about why doing more isn’t the answer to fixing the problem.

6:12 - You’re not the only one affected in your business when you’re out of alignment. We reveal an inflection point for many small businesses.

13:52 - Why do values not exist in action in a lot of businesses (both large and small)? We discuss what it takes to realign your values.

21:17 - Here’s how the 90-Day CEO Operating System and Erica’s workshop help get you back to alignment.

25:49 - Do you resent everything about your business, including your clients and team? This might be a reason why.

30:48 - I share why we lead with “life before business” as our #1 value at The CEO Collective.

36:42 - Beware the consequences of going it alone and not allowing your team to contribute (on some level) to solidifying your company’s values.

41:46 - What’s the difference between joining and belonging? People often conflate the two.

Mentioned in How to Re-Align Your Business With Your Values with Erica Courdae

• From Implicit to Explicit Values Workshop
• The CEO Date Checklist
• 90-Day CEO Operating System
• The CEO Planner
• The CEO Retreat
• The CEO Collective
• Fair Play book and deck by Eve Rodsky
• “The Vulnerable Side of Visibility with Erica Courdae”
• “Values Matter: Taking a Real Stand In Your Business with Erica Courdae”
• Pause on the Play on Instagram
• 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!

Are you at the point where you dread showing up to your business each day? Do you feel stressed at the thought of working in your business and would rather do anything else?

If so, that’s a sign that you’ve fallen out of love with your business. But how did it happen, and what can you do to rekindle the relationship?

Today, we’re starting a new mini-series. And in this episode of the Promote Yourself to CEO podcast, you’ll learn about the two parts to re-aligning your business vision and how your definition for success provides the foundation. I’ll reveal the likely cause of your misalignment and give you a few suggestions to help you clarify your new business vision.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

3:05 - Why do you get out of alignment with your business vision?

6:01 - When you hire others, what’s in it for them? There are two parts to re-creating your business vision.

7:36 - I talk about owner’s intent and how I define success in several areas of my life outside my business.

15:32 - Cultivating this has been one of the biggest things that has really shifted my feeling of alignment with my definition of success.

20:05 - Looking toward the future, what do you want your business to do for you? I’ve documented my owner’s intent and share a bit of it here.

27:03 - Things tend to get a little messy when entrepreneurs start to grow their team. What does your vision need to look like for them to get excited about being on board?

30:53 - Here are a few things you might want to consider when you create your business vision.

35:40 - I recap what can help you re-calibrate a new vision for your business, as well as the next step to take once you have it.

Mentioned in How to Re-Align Your Vision and Fall Back In Love With Your Business

• "Is Your Business Aligned With YOU?"
• The CEO Date Checklist
• 90-Day CEO Operating System
• Vivid Vision and Double Double by Cameron Herold
• 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!