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I need you to meet Michelle Mercurio. She's one of those rare people who refuses to pick a lane—and that's exactly what makes her brilliant. In this conversation, we dig into why the traditional business advice to "niche down" might actually be killing your ability to show up as yourself. Michelle's built a career that spans branding, community building, teaching, and yes, witchy practices—all tied together by two powerful threads: understanding who we are and how we relate to one another.

What I love most about this episode is how Michelle reframes growth itself. We're so conditioned to think growth means up, up, up—more revenue, bigger team, next level. But what if growth is actually a spiral? What if coming back to familiar patterns isn't regression but evolution? We explore how to shed decades of conditioning that taught us to smooth out our edges and fit in, why elevator pitches actually kill connection, and what it really takes to build authentic community (spoiler: it requires showing up even when it's uncomfortable). If you've ever felt like you're supposed to be further along or you're doing it wrong because you don't fit the mold, this one's for you.

In This Episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

• Why Michelle describes growth as a spiral rather than a ladder—and what that means when you feel like you're revisiting the same challenges you thought you'd already overcome

• The real danger of trying to fit in as a small business owner—how smoothing out your edges to belong actually makes you invisible in the marketplace

• What neuroplasticity research reveals about conditioning—and why it takes intentional effort to break free from the patterns that keep us playing small

• How elevator pitches kill connection instead of creating it—Michelle shares her "Ditch the Pitch" approach that uses questions as hooks instead of titles and credentials

• The truth about successful people that nobody talks about—hint: they're just the ones who didn't quit (but Michelle draws an important line about what you should quit)

• Why you can't just show up once and expect community to happen—what it really takes to find your people and build genuine relationships in business

• The one action you can take today to build authentic community—Michelle's practical suggestion for anyone feeling isolated in their business journey

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!

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The best entrepreneurial stories rarely start with a grand vision. They start with a rug being pulled out.

That's Ashley's story. A layoff. A pandemic that destroyed her in-person business overnight. So she did what many of us do in crisis—she picked up watercolors and created. A hundred days worth. Except it took two years to finish.

When Ashley came to me, I saw what she couldn't see herself: a hundred pieces of unique, marketable content in a space flooded with generic coaches. She resisted. Hard. Tears and all.

But here's what changed everything: clarity isn't something you force. It's something you create conditions for. Once Ashley stopped waiting for perfection and started building in public, the momentum came fast. Seven months from a wine bar idea to four finished books.

If you've got something incomplete sitting in your files, or you're wondering if your "weird" skill could be your real differentiator—listen in.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

• The accidental entrepreneur — Ashley's family had three generations of business owners. She wanted nothing to do with it until a layoff left her no choice.
• When crisis creates clarity — A pandemic wiped out her revenue overnight. She started painting. Two years later, she had 100 finished watercolors and no plan.
• What I saw that she couldn't — A hundred pieces of unique, ready-made content. Ashley saw uncertainty. I saw her competitive advantage.
• The two-year gap between finishing and knowing — Completed the paintings in 2022, knew her path in 2024. Here's what she learned about waiting for clarity.
• Building in public before you're ready — Ashley announced her journal plan on LinkedIn, tagged 200 people, took pre-orders before writing a word.
• Why smaller commitments actually work — Instead of writing all four at once, she took pre-orders for volume one, wrote it, then repeated. The structure got it done.
• Your market is telling you something — People kept asking about her art, not her coaching. She listened to that signal instead of resisting it.

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!

Send us a text

Your revenue is down. Sales have slowed. And every time you log into social media, you're hit with another wave of news that makes you want to throw your entire business plan out the window and start over.

But here's what most business owners don't realize: when things slow down, the problem is rarely everything. It's usually just one or two key levers that need your attention. The CEOs who come out stronger on the other side? They're the ones who can diagnose the real issue instead of burning it all down in a panic.

In this episode, I'm walking you through the exact framework I use with my CEO Collective clients to figure out what actually needs fixing in your business. We're talking about the four levers that directly impact your revenue, how to identify which one is causing your slowdown, and why changing everything at once is the worst move you can make right now.

This isn't about working harder or doing more. It's about working smarter and focusing your energy where it will actually move the needle. Because sales slowdowns don't mean your business is broken. They mean it's time to make a strategic CEO-level decision.

On this episode of Promote Yourself to CEO:

• The leaky bucket problem - Why you might be bringing in new clients but still losing revenue (and the one metric that will tell you if this is happening in your business)
  
  
• Product-market fit in uncertain times - The three scenarios where adjusting your offers makes sense, and when a "bite-sized" entry point could be the bridge between hesitant buyers and long-term clients
  
  
• The messaging shift nobody's talking about - Why aspirational content stops converting when the economy gets shaky, and what your audience is actually searching for right now
  
  
• The visibility dilemma - How to stay visible when you're burned out on social media, plus the "Follow-Up Friday" strategy that's working for service-based business owners right now
  
  
• The science experiment approach - Why changing one variable at a time is the only way to actually know what's working (and what's not) in your business
  
  
• Client retention as your secret weapon - The case study of a CEO Collective member whose revenue dropped even though new client numbers stayed the same, and what we discovered when we looked under the hood

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!