Executive presence is one of the most talked-about leadership conversations in corporate America today.

In this episode, Michelle sits down with Cherise Williams, Director at Maker’s Mark, inclusive leadership expert, and cultural catalyst, for an honest and deeply personal conversation about identity, reinvention, corporate authenticity, and what it really means to lead as a woman of color.

Cherise shares her powerful story of navigating pregnancy, autoimmune illness, family crisis, divorce, corporate pressure, and the constant demand to “perform” executive presence in environments built around someone else’s standard.

In this episode:

-Executive presence and why it’s often measured against a white male standard

-The pressure women of color face to “fit” corporate leadership expectations

-Cherise’s life-changing reinvention story during 2020

-How stress, motherhood, and health forced her to rebuild her identity

-Why authenticity matters more than corporate performance

-Leadership through joy, cultural competency, and accountability

-The legacy of impact: leaving everything better than you found it

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Michelle May O'Neil

https://www.instagram.com/themichellemayoneil/

Cherice Jenelle Williams

https://www.instagram.com/chericejenelle/

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In this episode, Michelle explores the deeper, often overlooked lessons inside Unreasonable Hospitality.

This book isn’t just about restaurants; it’s a transformational leadership framework about identity, culture, and creating organizations where people feel truly seen.

In this episode:

-Hospitality as an identity practice, not a performance

-Why hospitality trains teams to develop awareness and leadership judgment

-How hospitality strengthens resilience, retention, and emotional safety in organizations

-The truth that hospitality must happen inside the company first, not just with customers

-How these ideas connect to the Fifth Move Strategy through diagnosing and documenting culture

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Michelle May O'Neil

https://www.instagram.com/themichellemayoneil/

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Success isn’t supposed to feel like suffocation, but for many founders, it does.

In this solo episode, Michelle O’Neil tells the story of an entrepreneur whose business grew faster than the foundation beneath it. What looked like momentum on the outside became chaos on the inside, until she realized the truth: growth doesn’t break businesses… lack of systems does.

Michelle breaks down the operational and mindset shifts every founder must make to scale without burnout, including why hustle isn’t the answer, why delivery matters more than marketing, and how repeatable systems create real freedom.

In this episode:

-Why success exposes weak systems instead of strong ones

-The danger of scaling chaos in a growing business

-Why fixing delivery comes before chasing more clients

-How founders must shift from worker to architect

-The difference between custom work and repeatable scale

-Four lessons to move from stress to structure

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Michelle May O'Neil

https://www.instagram.com/themichellemayoneil/

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