Promote Yourself to CEO | Small Business Strategy for Women Entrepreneurs

Too many women entrepreneurs work crazy long hours trying to do everything themselves. And just when they feel like they’ve finally put out one fire, another one flares up soon after. But panic isn’t a business strategy, and you didn’t become an entrepreneur to stress yourself out.

Imagine a 2022 that’s different, one without the hustle and burnout. Imagine running your business by design instead of default. When you do, things begin to run like clockwork. So in this episode, I dive into a strategic process for consciously designing a business that works for you instead of you for it. Welcome to day three!

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

3:33 - Why are we doing business design today after lifestyle design yesterday? It reflects one of The CEO Collective values.

5:33 - I discuss the first part of today’s exercise: looking at your personal definition of success.

7:46 - What’s your professional definition of success?

8:42 - Without getting clear on part two and being more discerning, your business becomes really stressful.

9:43 - Part three shifts you into money mode, but you’re not just going to pull a revenue goal out of thin air. Here’s a helpful way to crunch the numbers.

12:11 - I talk about what to do after you’ve come up with your revenue goal and mention a caveat to keep in mind if you have multiple offers.

14:55 - Marketing that works best for others may not be right for you at all. So how do you figure out the best strategy for you?

Show Links

• Plan Your Best Year Ever 5-Day Challenge
• Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
• Racheal on Instagram

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 spend every waking moment thinking and worrying about your business, especially with everything that’s gone on since last year? You can still build your dream business regardless of what’s happening in the world. Just take the time to get intentional about what you really want to experience. In today’s episode, I focus on a strategy to help you design your dream life in 2022. Welcome to day two!

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

3:54 - Today is when things get fun and exciting. I reveal what inspired me to create this exercise.

5:25 - Where is the best place to start when you’re dreaming of what you want to see in your life in the future?

5:58 - I walk you through the process and give examples of upgrades you can attain a year from now.

7:58 - Keep these caveats in mind as you brainstorm your upgrades.

8:29 - I mention some upgrades you may want to consider making in your business.

9:51 - Putting some numbers on the upgrades you desire will give you a clearer picture of the income you need to make it happen.

12:30 - I briefly preview tomorrow’s episode. If your business hasn’t provided you with a steady paycheck, day 3 will make a huge difference!

Show Links

• Plan Your Best Year Ever 5-Day Challenge
• Double Double: How to Double Your Revenue and Profit in 3 Years or Less by Cameron Herold
• Racheal on Instagram

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!

The holidays are almost here and many of us are already thinking about next year. But before you do that, it’s important to first take time to reflect on the progress you’ve made in your business this year. Too many entrepreneurs make the same mistakes and face the same obstacles again and again because they fail to do so, making the need to reach the next level of success that much harder.

So to help you avoid this, I’m kicking off my annual five-part series for planning your best year ever! I’ll walk you through the same strategy that I and thousands of other women business owners have followed for the last five years. Today, I start off with reviewing the year. By the end of this series, you’ll have a 12-month plan in hand to help you turn your profit dreams into reality.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

2:29 - Entrepreneurs who plan grow twice as fast as those who don’t plan. So here’s what I encourage you to do before even listening to the episode.

5:01 - Why is planning so important? I talk about what I’ve noticed in my 15+ years working behind the scenes with clients.

7:46 - I reveal why I like to review the year month-by-month and tools that can help refresh your memory of what happened.

9:21 - Ask yourself these key questions as you reflect back on each month. You’ll start to see patterns and get insights into what worked and didn’t work.

12:39 - I give examples of the type of clarity you can gain through this process to help your business.

Show Links

• Plan Your Best Year Ever 5-Day Challenge
• Racheal on Instagram

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!

What does it mean to have success on your terms? For many, it looks like being your own boss, on your own schedule, and making as much money as you want. Then you see the success of entrepreneurial influencers online, start to feel like you’re doing things wrong, and try to change the way you operate, only to realize you’ve just created another 9-to-5 job for yourself.

To help you discover your own definition of success, I’ve created a workbook covering five areas of life. In this episode, I walk you through this workbook so you can transform life and business to align with your real desires in 2022.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

3:15 - I remember when I started realizing that our definition of success as women entrepreneurs had massively changed.

6:22 - Why can you still feel disappointed when you hit a revenue goal? Having clarity on your definition of success gives you a decision-making filter.

8:02 - What does your ideal regular day look like for you? I walk you through the first part of the workbook I’ve created.

13:19 - Keep these questions in mind as you think about your relationships with family and friends.

17:35 - This is an area where I often put myself last, especially when I’m feeling stressed. It goes back to when I was a teenager.

22:44 - Discover the biggest benefit of having creative outlets outside of your business and how I avoid the temptation to turn every hobby into a business.

26:16 - Fulfilling your definition of success in this area will have you feeling more empowered and grounded in your life and business.

29:23 - To wrap up the episode, I quickly recap the five areas you want to think about to define your success.

Full Show Notes

Show Links

• Plan Your Best Year Ever 5-Day Challenge
• Your Definition of Success Workbook
• Racheal on Instagram

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!

Social media and online marketing and content creation strategies are wonderful and I use them. But... business grows at the speed of relationships. If you’ve heard it’s impossible to scale a referral-based business or that you shouldn’t rely on referrals for your business, then tune in as me and my Operations Director Amber Kinney expose these myths.

Amber can certainly vouch for this promotional strategy as she’s built her business entirely on referrals. So we have a conversation about how referrals are here to stay, can serve as one of the best things you do for your business, and cover five key strategies to think about so your business can become referrable.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

6:23 - Amber briefly discusses a little bit about her business.

9:29 - Is it sustainable to only have a referral-based business? Amber shares her thoughts on the matter.

12:21 - Growing too fast has its consequences. Amber reveals two must-have components for a referrable AND scalable business.

17:07 - How does Amber get referrals? It’s such a simple, casual process.

18:48 - With referrals, a lot of the heavy lifting in vetting both sides (the client and the CEO) is done for you. We discuss the reasons why.

22:46 - Why do some people really struggle with referrals? It’s tied to the transactional feeling of relationships that lack buildup.

27:04 - We talk about how we’ve networked, made connections, and built relationships as introverts to stay on top of our game.

32:28 - Amber offers some final advice to wrap up the interview.

34:23 - I end the episode with a quick summary of the five key things Amber and I talked about regarding building a more referral-based business.

Full Show Notes

Show Links

• Plan Your Best Year Ever 5-Day Challenge
• Racheal on Instagram

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!

I’ve said before that high touch is incredibly important for entrepreneurs with premium offers. Despite being told that you can make lots of money while you sleep or that you must have a complicated funnel to be successful, directly connecting with people interested in your products, programs, and services is the real key to making sales at a premium level. In this episode, I share seven high-touch sales boosters to help you increase your revenue.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

8:28 - I dive into the first high-touch sales booster. It’s one of my absolute favorite things to do and can make a huge impact on your launch.

10:25 - How can you personally follow up with your most active community members?

13:22 - Sales booster #3 is a little bit more techie but totally worth it because it produces incredibly high conversions. Here’s how I do it.

17:30 - I only recommend this sales booster if you have someone to help you manage it. It’s a great one for enrollment periods.

18:17 - How can you quickly and efficiently respond to all the emails and DMs you receive during your enrollment period?

20:48 - Using this method can help boost enrollments during the middle days of your launch when things slow down.

25:46 - I save the best high-touch sales booster for last. 

Full Show Notes

Show Links

• Plan Your Best Year Ever 5-Day Challenge
• Racheal on Instagram

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!

I’ve said before that high touch is incredibly important for entrepreneurs with premium offers. Despite being told that you can make lots of money while you sleep or that you must have a complicated funnel to be successful, directly connecting with people interested in your products, programs, and services is the real key to making sales at a premium level. In this episode, I share seven high-touch sales boosters to help you increase your revenue.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

8:28 - I dive into the first high-touch sales booster. It’s one of my absolute favorite things to do and can make a huge impact on your launch.

10:25 - How can you personally follow up with your most active community members?

13:22 - Sales booster #3 is a little bit more techie but totally worth it because it produces incredibly high conversions. Here’s how I do it.

17:30 - I only recommend this sales booster if you have someone to help you manage it. It’s a great one for enrollment periods.

18:17 - How can you quickly and efficiently respond to all the emails and DMs you receive during your enrollment period?

20:48 - Using this method can help boost enrollments during the middle days of your launch when things slow down.

25:46 - I save the best high-touch sales booster for last. 

Full Show Notes

Show Links

• Plan Your Best Year Ever 5-Day Challenge
• Racheal on Instagram

Remember the day you first heard you should be on Twitter? Or Facebook? Or Instagram? Last year, it was Tik Tok. Years prior, it was Periscope. And on and on it goes.

You hear the same about other marketing methods like building email lists, creating YouTube videos, starting a podcast, and blogging. And on and on it goes.

One of the challenges women entrepreneurs face is just understanding the right strategies to use to grow their unique businesses. Without that clarity, you can’t gain real momentum as it just dilutes your efforts.

So if all of this advice has your head spinning and confused about how to promote your business, then this episode’s for you. In it, I simplify how to think about your overall marketing strategy for better results.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

4:45 - What are your strengths? Answering this question isn’t as easy as it seems and I discuss why.

6:13 - I reveal a few ways for you to gain clarity on what you’re naturally good at.

11:05 - What are the four sweet spot themes for entrepreneurship? I briefly talk about each one.

13:25 - Focusing on strengthening weaknesses only incrementally improves results. How can you focus on your strengths instead?

21:15 - The final piece of the puzzle is the real secret to long-term success for entrepreneurs.

24:12 - I dive into all five components of my marketing strategy, using myself as an example.

32:23 - I give a quick recap of the episode and your next action steps.

Full Show Notes

Show Links

• The Sweet Spot Quiz
• Your Business Sweet Spot by Racheal Cook
• Racheal on Instagram

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 availability of many social media platforms today, you'd think it would be fast and easy to launch any type of business. Reaching and selling to a lot of people seems to be a task you can easily tick off your to-do list as an entrepreneur. This is a misconception which many CEO aspirants fail to realize at the beginning. To get business going, we need to address this issue.

To be able to start scaling your business, first, you must understand the basics of entrepreneurship. This is a crucial stage that no CEO aspirant should skip. What are the steps that you need to take in order to scale your business? In this episode, we identify the points which you need to tackle before you can even plan to make your business bigger. Join me as I dig deep into the foundations of a successful business.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

1:44 - I talk about being approached by entrepreneurs who have tried several tactics but are still unable to scale their business.

2:36 - Is there really a specific tactic needed to scale your business?

3:00 - I share my thought process in deciding business scaling readiness.

4:30 - What are the different stages of business growth?

6:23 - Find out why you're not getting the sales you were hoping for.

11:40 - I emphasize the importance of being clear about what your business offers.

13:40 - Pay attention to the people who respond to what you offer. You'll be surprised about what it can actually do for your business.

15:24 - Do you have a marketing system in place? How do you capture and nurture potential clients?

20:52 - How much time are you able to spend in marketing your business?

21:47 - I explain how to get clients to commit to your business offer.

27:45 - Persistence is key!

29:50 - What goes into building your support team?

30:42 - Have you built your business in the right structure? 

34:59 - Learn the ways to make sure that your business is fully protected.

37:00 - Are you paying yourself a solid salary?

39:01 - I wrap up with some final thoughts.

Full Show Notes

Show Links:

• Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
• Business Growth Checklist
• Work with Racheal

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’ve ever done a full-scale launch of a product, program, or service, then you know how overwhelming the process can be. You’ve got to ensure that everything’s working correctly and all the different pieces of software do what they need to do (and in the right order).

But is this the only way to get more sales and clients? If you’ve been burned by launches (or feel burned out at the very thought of them), then don’t fret. There’s a way to simplify launching, and I’ve brought on business strategist Kelly Roach to reveal how. During my conversation with her you’ll discover her live launch method to get clients and sales without the super complicated, super technical marketing approach.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

2:24 - I take you back to my earliest launching days and discuss why I absolutely had to have this conversation with Kelly.

7:16 - How did Kelly come up with the idea for creating a new approach to launches? Her own frustration and desperation drove her to it.

12:44 - Remember this every time you see a celebrity entrepreneur and feel the pressure to model yourself after them.

15:18 - Kelly describes what she means by a live launch and what it looks like in practicality.

18:59 - As someone watching from afar, there’s one thing I especially love about how Kelly does her live launches. Discover what it is and why it’s so important.

20:59 - What is social selling, and how does it fit into the live launch method?

22:53 - Kelly discusses how to run a live launch and sustain this way of marketing without burning yourself out. She reveals the 3 big elements of the live launch methodology.

27:39 - How does Kelly see the future of the online marketing industry? Those making their living from selling courses will especially want to pay attention to this!

30:50 - I wrap up the episode with some final thoughts.

Show Links

• Live Launch Method by Kelly Roach
• The Unstoppable Entrepreneur Show with Kelly Roach
• Kelly on Instagram
• The CEO Collective
• Racheal on Instagram

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!