Promote Yourself to CEO | Small Business Strategy for Women Entrepreneurs
If you're fed up with the non-stop solopreneur grind… I'm so glad you've found The Promote Yourself to CEO Show! Each week, join host Racheal Cook MBA for candid conversations about stepping into your role as CEO of your business, the hard lessons learned along the way, and practical, profitable strategies to grow a sustainable business without the hustle and burnout. Listen in to the latest show and connect with Racheal at http://www.theceocollective.com or on Instagram @racheal.cook to continue the conversation!
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Human First AI Is a Decision Not a Vibe
<p>Send us Fan Mail</p><p>Most of the conversation about AI is happening at two extremes. Founders bragging publicly about the payroll they cut, and founders refusing to touch any of it. Both are missing the point, and neither one leaves you with an answer you can actually run a business on.</p><p>So I spent six months deep diving into AI so I could form my own thoughts. Three programs, an intensive, and a lot of building. Not reading about it. Not collecting other people’s opinions. Actually using it inside this business until I had a...
My 90 Day Plan Did Not Survive July
<p>Send us Fan Mail</p><p>There is still a block sitting on my calendar from the second week of July that says “Record new podcast episodes.”</p><p>I never moved it. I sat down in front of it most mornings, pushed it to the next day, then to the next week, and eventually I stopped pretending and just let it sit there being wrong.</p><p>My granny died while my family was in Italy – just 6 months after my mom passed away. </p><p>So instead of returning home and jumping right into my Q3 90 Day Plan that I’...
Why Your Right Hand Person Belongs in the Planning Room with Elise Arsenault and Priscilla Leonard
<p>Send us Fan Mail</p><p>You come home from a planning day lit up. Six hours of clarity, a wall of Post-its, a quarter that finally makes sense. Then you sit down with your team, and somewhere between your head and their inbox the whole thing flattens into a to-do list nobody has the context for.</p><p>Elise Arsenault knows that exact moment. She built The Global Actor into a training program the audiobook industry has come to trust, with ten of her graduates nominated at this year's Audies and several of them winning. And for years...
Why Hiring a Team Won't Fix Your Capacity Problem
<p>Send us Fan Mail</p><p>Adrienne Loker was certain her group therapy practice needed more marketing. Her numbers said otherwise. Here is what actually turned her business around.<br/><br/>Most therapists believe the path to growth is hiring a team and handing off clients. Adrienne did exactly that, and the plan that looked perfect on paper came apart the moment real people and real life entered the picture. People got licensed and left with their caseloads. The loyalty she thought she had earned was not for sale.<br/><br/>In this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO...
How I Took a Full Month Off in Italy (While My Business Runs Without Me)
<p>Send us Fan Mail</p><p>Right now, as you hear this, I am probably lounging by a pool in a villa in Tuscany, watching my kids and their cousins splash around while I have my full Under the Tuscan Sun moment. There is a family wedding tomorrow, a welcome dinner tonight, and still another 2 weeks of exploring Florence and Rome ahead.</p><p>What I am not doing is refreshing my inbox in a panic, wondering whether everything is quietly falling apart back home. I already know it isn’t.</p><p>My business can run without me at...
Pre-Sell Your Fall to Beat the Summer Cash Dip
<p>Send us Fan Mail</p><p>There is a specific kind of quiet that gets under your skin in July, and it has nothing to do with a slow, lazy afternoon. It is the quiet of your bank account. Clients are off on vacation, nobody is starting anything new, and you can feel the revenue dip coming the way you feel a storm before it lands.</p><p>I used to brace for that quiet too. Now I don’t, because of one strategic move I make almost every summer. It is the same reason I can spend a mo...
How to Take Summer Hours Without Losing Clients
<p>Send us Fan Mail</p><p>I grew up in the river realm of Virginia, where everyone either had a boat or knew someone who did, and summer meant Friday afternoons out on the water before the weekend even started. The reason my family got to do that was simple. My dad ran summer hours in his business, and by noon on Friday the office was empty and everyone was gone.</p><p>I didn’t clock it as a business decision back then. I just knew we were a little different. But I’ve run summer hours in my o...
Why Fall Chaos Is a Summer Planning Problem
<p>Send us Fan Mail</p><p>My three teenagers are home for the summer, the calendar cleared out the last week of May, and like a lot of business owners I could feel the pull to write the next two months off and call it a season.</p><p>I’m not doing that, and I don’t want you to either.</p><p>After almost 20 years of running this business, here’s what I’ve watched happen every single year. The women who disappear completely in June and July are the same ones scrambling in September, marketing dried up, no c...
Notes to Future Me: A Simple Habit to Protect Your Capacity
<p>Send us Fan Mail</p><p>There is a note blocking off the last week of May in my calendar, and it is yelling at me. Last week of school. Do not plan anything. All caps. Too many exclamation points. When I open it, past me has left the longer version: be nice to yourself, Racheal, there will be concerts and awards and kid stuff, the twins get out by one most days.</p><p>I wrote that a year ago, for the version of me who would forget. And she always forgets.</p><p>Here is the thing...
The Mid-Year Review That Resets Your Second Half of 2026
<p>Send us Fan Mail</p><p>If the plan you wrote down in January no longer matches the year you're actually living, you're not behind. You're just due for a review.</p><p>This is the time of year where I see most women entrepreneurs do one of two things. They abandon the plan entirely and start running on default, or they white-knuckle a plan that stopped fitting their reality months ago. Both end the same way: a Q3 where nothing feels like it's working and you can't tell why.</p><p>So in this episode I'm walking you...
