Promote Yourself to CEO | Small Business Strategy for Women Entrepreneurs

We all know that creating content is a fantastic way to showcase your expertise and your experience and to help potential clients understand why they should work with you. But how do you figure out exactly what that content should be or how to make sure that you're doing it strategically, not just throwing a bunch of proverbial spaghetti at the wall? Well, in this episode, I am talking with my dear friend, Abby Herman, about how we can get more strategic about our content marketing.

Connect with Me:

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

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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 been in business for any length of time, you know that you need an audience of people who are potentially interested in working with you.

And when your business was brand new, getting the word out felt simpler, and you got a nice audience and some paying clients then…

But how do you grow your audience?

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!

This week on Promote Yourself to CEO, I talk to Mado Hesselink, founder of Yoga Teacher Resource, and one of the few people that took on the 100 conversation challenge. She shares what she learned along the journey of completely transforming her business from yoga teacher to business owner. We cover:

• Who ACTUALLY has the answers of where your business should go next, and how to get access to them to prepare for your next move.
• The tactical methods of talking to 100 different people - how to find them, what programs will help you the most, and ways to start the conversation.
• How to simply ask people for what you want, and why it’s a muscle that you need to flex regularly to be the most successful CEO possible.

You’ll be surprised how much you can learn from these simple conversations, and how much it can really help you grow your business. After hearing Mado’s story, you’ll be ready to take on the 100 conversation challenge, too.

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 want more visibility, all you need to do is show up on Instagram.

We’ve all heard that before, right?

And it’s not long before you’re going live every single day until you’re at your wits end, so frustrated from not seeing results.

I’ll let you in on a secret - the answer isn’t MORE Instagram!

I’ve seen so many amazing women entrepreneurs struggle with this exact same problem, so if this sounds all-too-familiar, you’re not alone.

This week, I’m so excited to be kicking off a series on Promote Yourself to CEO about all things marketing. You’ll learn:

• Why more isn’t always better in terms of marketing, and how you can actually cut through the noise instead of just making more of it.
• How to get more customers taking the action steps you’re looking for - clicking links, commenting on your posts, and purchasing your services - and why you might be making this less likely with your current approach.
• The real, strategic way to build more trust with your clients that doesn’t involve any trendy tips or tricks so that you can avoid the feast or famine cycle.

It IS possible for your marketing to be fun, clear, and effective, but it might be a little unsexy.

If you’re ready for real results, this episode is for you!

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!

How would you describe the last 90 days for your business?

I would call it a rollercoaster.

Between the pandemic, the economy, and the Black Lives Matter movement, nothing has been predictable.

And as we close out this hectic Q3, this is usually when I’d record a podcast episode of my quarterly review. This process is super important to me and keeps my business on track.

But this year, I’m showing you a bit of a different review.

I still did my Q3 review, but I’m recording a review of one of the priorities for my business: allyship.

I committed to being an imperfect ally not only in my business, but also in my personal life. 

That means showing up, doing the work, and holding myself accountable for it, NOT just a one time Instagram post.

So this week on Promote Yourself to CEO, I’m being transparent about what I did over the last few months to be an imperfect ally. You’ll hear:

• My realization that I was intellectually doing the work, but falling short in my actions as an ally for Black, trans, and LGBTQ+ lives, and what steps I took to align my business with my values.
• The generational shift that has made it more dangerous for your business to NOT share it’s values, and how to explicitly state yours to your clients to build connection and trust.
• How being an entrepreneur automatically gives you the power to make an economic impact and how I got intentional about voting with my dollars, in business and my personal life.

Plus - an answer to one of my most common questions: what books have you been reading?

The journey to becoming an ally is just that - a journey. I need to continue to evaluate myself and my business to make sure I’m aligning my actions with my business. I will not make a promise to “do better” and not follow it with action.

If you’re making the same commitment, this episode is for you!

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 anything like me, there comes the point in your business where your business needs to step up and support you and support your family if you're going to stick with it.

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.

Show Notes::

http://www.rachealcook.com/profit-plan/

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!

Let me ask you, have you ever found yourself just hustling, hustling, hustling in your business?

You feel like you're doing all the things to bring clients into your business, but you're just not seeing a steady flow of new potential clients who are ready to work with you.

If your experience as an entrepreneur has been inconsistent clients and inconsistent cash flow, then I want you to keep watching because today we're going to talk about this significant leak that is happening in so many entrepreneur's businesses.

This leak prevents those dream clients from becoming paying clients and the good news is once you understand what this leak is, it's simple to fix.

Backstory: I was at an event not too long ago, and everybody got one of those enormous post-it note papers. The assignment at this event was to map out your business in the next 12 months.

There were a couple of different sections everybody was filling out. They were filling out what they were offering, a lot of people had a lot of different offers going on. Multiple things they wanted to offer and sell, different products, programs, and services.

They also had a section for your marketing plan. I started looking around the room at the marketing plan, and I realized everybody in this room has a leaky business and here's why; because their marketing plan was not working together.

It was not working together.

It was a smattering of tips, and tricks, and tactics but it wasn't putting the pieces together and making sure they led to your offers. Nothing was cohesive, and the minute I shared with them a different way to approach this, all the light bulbs went off.

Most people when they sit down and write out a marketing plan, think about all of the activities they need to do. They need to have a newsletter, and they need to blog, they need to do a podcast, they need to be on social media

There's no point of focus, and there's no consistency in what they're doing and making sure that it all works together.

Show Notes::

http://www.rachealcook.com/predictable-profit-strategy/

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 working too hard in your business... but still not seeing results???

Today I'm sharing the #1 Mistake that is holding most entrepreneurs back from predictable profits... HINT HINT... it's not about doing more!

Show Notes::

http://www.rachealcook.com/predictably-profitable-business/

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 wouldn't take a job without having paid vacation days, sick days, and other perks, right?

Then why would you build your business that way?

In this episode, we're breaking down how to stop selling your services by the hour and start designing a signature offer that creates a solid monthly baseline revenue you can depend on.

See the FULL show notes and get the Business Growth Checklist at RachealCook.com/baseline-revenue-plan

Join Racheal on Facebook and learn why entrepreneurship doesn't have to be so hard!

And follow 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 recently I chatted with an entrepreneur who is incredibly smart, so educated, so qualified to do the work that she wanted to do in the world, but by the time she came to chat with me she said:

"Rach, here's my challenge; I have taken training, after training, after training and it feels like I'm constantly shifting direction, and as a result I'm not getting where I want to go."

Have you ever felt that way, like you're just continually adding more pieces to the puzzle, but it's like you don't even know what the puzzle looks like?

I know that when I first started in my business, I didn't know the direction I was going. I was trying to figure it out as I went. It wasn't until I saw the big picture that things started to fall into place.

I want to share with you The Ultimate Business Growth Checklist.

This checklist walks you through what you need to focus on FIRST to design and grow a predictably profitable business.

http://www.rachealcook.com/business-growth-checklist/

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!