Promote Yourself to CEO | Small Business Strategy for Women Entrepreneurs

When you’re running a business day to day, your to-do list is full with answering emails, posting on social media, working with clients, etc.

Many women entrepreneurs spend so much time working in their business that they don’t have the time to work on big picture, game-changing stuff like writing the book they’ve thought of for years or creating that next-level program that brings everything together.

In this episode, I share my favorite time management tips to help you build more CEO time into your business so that you can finally open up new revenue streams, reach more people, and work smarter instead of harder.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

4:29 - The answer is, “No.” I discuss how money mindset mentor Denise Duffield-Thomas decided to use tip #1 to stop this time and energy infiltrator.

7:21 - If you’ve been sitting on big dreams for years due to lack of time, I reveal the honest truth in tip #2.

9:33 - What’s my absolute favorite strategy to help you design your week around what matters to you most?

11:54 - You can work on the big picture of your business in 20 hours a week. I discuss how, even if you’re still working a job or taking care of young kids.

16:03 - I talk about this third and final big time management tip all the time! It’s one of my favorite things to do.

Show Links

• Fired Up & Focused Challenge
• “How a Model Calendar Helps Me Work Just 25 Hours a Week!”
• “A Mamapreneur’s Guide to Finding Childcare (Without Breaking the Bank)”
• The CEO Planner
• “How a CEO Date Keeps Me Focused Each Week”
• Racheal on Instagram and TikTok
• Leave a review on iTunes

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!

As a new entrepreneur, you feel inclined to say yes to everything. But as your business grows and those yeses pile up, they become overwhelming to the point where they prevent you from doing the necessary CEO level work you need to focus on.

In today’s episode, I share the top three boundaries that’ll give you the confidence to say no so that you can concentrate on the work you’re truly here to do.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

2:59 - Having clear boundaries doesn’t get talked about much in business circles. Why is having clear boundaries in place so crucial as a CEO?

8:07 - I discuss the different types of clear boundaries you need to place in your business, starting with your calendar.

15:31 - What’s one reason why people get drained and feel tired when working with clients? I talk about the most important thing you can do about it.

21:57 - I reveal how I handle emergencies (on both my end and a client’s) and requests for meet-ups to ensure I protect my time and energy.

27:29 - Constant communication can become an energy drain too. What do you need to look at when setting boundaries around people contacting you?

37:28 - While email is my go-to business communication channel, I reveal how I handle questions and messages through other channels.

42:17 - What do you do when people just want to pick your brain? It’s easy to get sucked into this thinking it’ll lead to a client relationship!

45:46 - Having these clear client boundaries in a scheduling policy will nip problems like last-minute cancellations in the bud quickly.

50:45 - This client boundary challenge is something I see a lot in service providers who are good at a lot of things.

Show Links

• Fired Up & Focused Challenge
• Dare to Lead by Brené Brown
• “How a Model Calendar Helps Me Work Just 25 Hours a Week!”
• The CEO Planner
• The CEO Retreat
• Google Voice, Help Scout, and Voxer
• Racheal on Instagram and

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!

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

• Fired Up & Focused Challenge
• Double Double: How to Double Your Revenue and Profit in 3 Years or Less by Cameron Herald
• The CEO Retreat
• “How a CEO Date Keeps Me Focused Each Week”

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 investing time, energy, and money into your business but not always seeing the return? You're not alone—and it's time we have a real conversation about how to actually get results from those big decisions.

In this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO, Racheal Cook breaks down 5 essential strategies to make the most of every investment—whether you're hiring, signing up for a program, attending an event, or investing in a rebrand.

You’ll learn how to:

✅ Make smarter decisions BEFORE you spend a dollar
✅ Follow through (even when life gets in the way)
✅ Avoid ghosting your growth by leaning in and asking for help
✅ Take what works and leave what doesn’t—with confidence
✅ Build your own business ecosystem through real relationships

If you've ever felt disappointed by a course, coaching program, team member, or service provider—or just want to be more intentional with your resources—this episode is packed with honest insights and practical advice to help you stop wasting money and start getting results.

This isn’t just about ROI—it’s about stepping fully into your CEO role.

🎧 Press play now to learn how to turn every investment into real momentum in your business.

 👇 Then DM Racheal on Instagram @racheal.cook and let her know: Which of the five strategies will you be focusing on first?

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!

After setting a revenue goal for your business, the next question on your mind might be, “How do I actually reach my goal?” If that’s you, then you’ll love this episode! In it, I dive even deeper into the actual math behind your revenue goal using real numbers to help you determine what to sell, at what price point, and to how many clients or customers.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

3:26 - I explain why figuring out how to hit your revenue goals can get a little tricky, especially if you follow so-called guru advice.

10:11 - You have to understand your sales conversion rate which varies based on what you’re selling, to who, and at what price point.

12:26 - What kind of sales call conversion rate do I see among people, even those without much sales experience?

14:53 - Let’s take a look at conversion rates of some other popular promotional methods.

22:56 - How do I know that the price point advice too many “gurus” give to entrepreneurs isn’t necessarily based on any real data?

27:39 - I discuss the biggest problems I see with offering a one-session service and my minimum price point recommendation for your signature offer.

31:39 - Here’s how building a baseline revenue with a higher-end offer can help you grow your income down the line, without sacrificing your time or salary.

34:55 - Remember this about each product, program, or service you create for your business.

Show Links

• Get Paid Calculator
• Racheal on Instagram
• Leave a review on iTunes

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!

There’s a tale that’s rarely told in the business world. It’s a tale of two companies. Both make seven figures annually. But the business owners behind them receive a vastly different amount of money as actual take-home pay.

What happens once money comes into a business? Where does it go from there? The lack of real disclosure on this in online entrepreneurial circles has led to lots of people focusing solely on revenue goals, not their business’ actual profitability.

So in this episode, I break it all down, talk some numbers, and tell you exactly what it means to have a six-figure take home income, not just a six-figure business.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

3:29 - How much time do you have to invest in your business? Here’s how to take a look at your situation to see what works best for you.

7:16 - How much energy do you have available to you? And what do you need to do to maintain it?

9:48 - Instead of pulling a revenue goal out of thin air, ask yourself this question. I reveal the right way to come up with your number and a free resource you can use.

14:28 - I briefly mention why defaulting to your last salary as your revenue goal won’t work.

15:55 - I talk about what goes into running a business, how to use that information to reverse engineer your target, and a super simple way to figure out your revenue goal.

23:46 - Setting aside a little bit of your profits every month really starts to change the game and your perspective. I break down some percentages in detail.

31:08 - I look at the math behind a $100,000 annual revenue goal and how much you really need to earn to make that your take-home pay.

36:27 - How much tax are you going to pay at this point? This is where you’ll want to get yourself a good CPA.

39:10 - Before wrapping up, I go over the biggest piece of misinformation about growing a bigger business. It stops many from setting a higher revenue goal.

Show Links

• Get Paid Calculator
• Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
• Racheal on Instagram
• Leave a review on iTunes

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’ve seen the hype about small business and entrepreneurial success out there. It’s unreal! Not a day goes by when I don’t see photos of fancy cars, vacations, oodles of cash, and the typical success catch phrases that come with them on my social media.

Here’s the conundrum, though: when your business crosses into the territory of making seven or eight figures, it can quickly become less about doing what you love and more about grinding things out as an entrepreneur to meet demand. 

So does bigger actually mean better for you? Or is big enough... enough? In today’s episode, I talk about why I believe in creating a big enough business to create an actual business and life you love.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

5:54 - I discuss what it was like growing up around entrepreneurs, and the surprising information I recently learned from my mother.

8:16 - Why should you beware of creating a business that grows too fast? I tell you what I’ve seen from businesses that experienced hyper growth.

10:02 - I retell a parable about a CEO and a fisherman that illustrates my point.

12:47 - I describe the time I was at a crossroads when I first heard the parable and the realization I came to after some reflection.

15:30 - The big questions I want you to ask about your revenue goals, and defining a Big Enough Business, the kind that loves you back.

17:10 - An early lesson in my business that serves as an example of why NOT to model your version of success after someone else.

20:05 - An example of what my "Big Enough Business" looks like and why it serves me in creating a business and life I love.

23:55 - How being intentional allows me to succeed without sacrificing my life and without causing me to be in a constant state of emergency in my business.

25:20 - How a big enough business allows you to live in your business sweet spot, and stop dreading Monday morning.

27:50 - How a big enough business and building a business and life you love will mean you must know your non-negotiables. 

29:40 - Does focusing on a big enough business, mean you lack ambition?

 34:00 - The questions I want you to ask to define your big enough business.

Show Links

• The CEO Collective
• Racheal on Instagram
• Leave a review on iTunes

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!

Stop burning out while building your empire. CEO and entrepreneur Rachel Cook reveals why your success is setting you up for a crash—and the three-layer support system that saved her business during family crisis. Learn the exact reset strategies, email scripts, and relationship-building tactics that let you scale sustainably without sacrificing your sanity. This isn't typical self-care advice—it's strategic business infrastructure. Discover how to spot burnout before it hits, build non-transactional support networks, and create recurring systems that keep you resourced through any challenge. Essential listening for ambitious women who refuse to choose between success and wellbeing.

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'm recording from a completely new space today, and honestly, that feels fitting because everything about my business and personal life has shifted over the past 18 months. What started as managing my parents' care while growing a thriving business has turned into something much more complex.

You might think successful entrepreneurs have it all figured out, but I'm here to tell you that's not how it works. While my business was scaling to a team of 12 and hosting sold-out retreats, I was also getting new medical diagnoses, watching my father relapse into alcoholism for the third time, and spending $16,000 a month on my mother's care. Sometimes life demands that you make hard choices about what you can and can't handle.

This isn't your typical business strategy episode. I'm sharing what it actually looks like when the CEO of your life has to make decisions that nobody prepares you for - from letting go of team members to setting boundaries with family to completely restructuring how you show up in your business. If you're navigating major life changes while trying to keep your business running, you'll want to hear this.

On This Episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

• Major business pivots under pressure - Why I closed my downtown office, scaled back my team from 12 to 2 core members, and what that taught me about sustainable growth

• Managing chronic illness as an entrepreneur - Getting a lupus diagnosis and finding the right medical support while running a business (and why perimenopause is no joke)

• The real cost of family caregiving - How spending $16K monthly on my mom's nursing care led to difficult decisions about boundaries and what "responsibility" actually means

• Navigating addiction in the family - What it looks like to watch a parent go through rehab three times and why I had to learn that you can't save someone who doesn't want to be saved

• Building business resilience for life's curveballs - The systems and mindset shifts that allowed my business to not just survive but thrive during the most challenging 18 months of my life

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 used to get so frustrated when people told me to "work smarter, not harder." My parents were entrepreneurs who embraced the hustle, and I thought success meant being willing to work 80-100 hour weeks, doing anything and everything to grow your business.

But here's what I learned the hard way: there's a ceiling to how much harder you can work. When you hit it, you become the bottleneck in your own business.

I've built a multiple six-figure business working just 25 hours a week—not through some magical productivity hack, but by fundamentally shifting how I think about work itself. In this episode, I'm sharing the six strategies that allowed me to step out of the grind and into true CEO-level thinking.

This isn't about cramming more tasks into your day or finding the perfect time-blocking system. It's about questioning everything you've been taught about what it takes to succeed and discovering that the entrepreneurs who scale sustainably aren't the ones working the hardest—they're the ones working the smartest.

If you've hit that wall where working harder isn't the answer anymore, these six shifts will change how you approach every aspect of your business.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

• Do less with more focus - I'll show you why having a signature offer and focused marketing strategy delivers exponentially higher returns than trying to be everywhere at once

• CEO doesn't mean Chief Everything Officer - I learned this lesson the hard way about letting go of control and building the support systems that freed me from day-to-day busy work

• What got you here won't get you there - I'll walk you through the critical pivot points every business faces and why your current strategies might be holding you back from the next level

• Embrace rinse and repeat - Find out why I had to overcome my creative nature to build reusable assets that prevent me from constantly recreating the wheel

• Create the money to invest back - How I shifted my mindset from "I can't afford this" to "I can create the money for this" and transformed how I view business investments

• Find mentors and masterminds - Why you can't Google your way to success and how having the right people in my corner accelerated my growth exponentially

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!