If you thought TikTok was for fun and not for growth-minded CEOs, think again.

Racheal Cook is the host of the masterclass-style podcast, Promote Yourself to CEO, and today, she stopped by the show to deliver an absolute masterclass on content creation strategies for CEOs, especially if you’ve been nervous about going all-in on TikTok.

Listen in and take notes as Racheal shares how she was able to 25x her ROI on TikTok, with a strategy that focused less on the $10-an-hour maintenance tasks and more on the $10,000-an-hour CEO growth tasks!

In this episode of the podcast, we talk about:

  • The CEO feast or famine cycle
  • Overcoming system resistance
  • Muscle memory
  • Going all in on strategy
  • Racheal’s video strategy
  • Why TikTok isn’t just for Gen Z

This Episode Was Made Possible By:

Social Media Starter Kit Free Course
The Social Media Starter Kit is your chance to pull back the curtain and get insights on how to build a social media strategy that works for you, learn how to create (and implement) a simple and effective content plan, convert followers into buyers, and much more.
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About the Guest:

As an award-winning business strategist, Host of the Promote Yourself to CEO podcast, and Founder of The CEO Collective, Racheal Cook is on a mission to end entrepreneurial poverty for women.

Over the last 15 years, she has helped thousands of women entrepreneurs design predictably profitable businesses without hustle and burnout.

A sought after speaker on entrepreneurship, marketing, and productivity, Racheal has been featured by the US Chamber of Commerce, Forbes, Inc, Fast Company, and Female Entrepreneur Association.

When she’s not helping women entrepreneurs, you’ll find Racheal hiking along the James River and playing board games with her three kids.

Websites: theceocollective.com, rachealcook.com
TikTok
Instagram

Memorable Quotes:

  • “Not, you might run into the feast-famine cycle. It's like you will. It is almost guaranteed because it's like putting, you know, gas into your car. If you don't put gas into your car, at some point, you're gonna be stranded on the side of the road calling AAA to come help you out. So if you're a business owner, this is one of the most important things to focus on, especially if you wanna grow your business.” – Racheal Cook
  • “I've also learned that it's not about when I feel like it, it's about just putting the time on the calendar and having a system to support me so that if I'm gonna sit down and batch record any type of content, I can sit down, do the part that only I can do.” – Racheal Cook
  • “If you ever study the science of creativity, it is not about waiting until inspiration strikes. It's about sitting down in the chair and doing the thing again and again and again. And you might write pages and pages and pages, and all of it sucks, but it doesn't matter. It's the muscle, it's the discipline, which I know a lot of people don't like that word, but it makes a massive difference.” – Racheal Cook
  • “My first video was in 2007 or 2008. Oh, it's so bad y'all. But the reason that I can create content quickly today is because I've literally spent years doing this work in different formats and different ways, but it takes years.” – Andréa Jones
  • “I always tell my clients to, if you're gonna pick a strategy, stick to it for at least six months because…when we say try it, we don't mean post once. If you're just posting, once, you're not getting enough data to determine whether or not this truly works, and you're not giving yourself enough chances to iterate and get better.” – Racheal Cook
  • “I'm always keeping a running list of content ideas. If you ever run outta content ideas, my best tip for you is to, on your phone, on your notes app, have a list of content ideas, and anytime you hear something, or you have a conversation with somebody, or you know questions come up, you just keep a running list.” – Racheal Cook
  • “It was interesting because while people were like having all these conversations in the comments, they're literally boosting this video and making it grow more and more. And so I'm just watching it take off like, okay, I answered a few comments, but after that, I was just like, let's just see what happens. But it definitely showed me that this is a platform where if you say something that's polarizing or really makes people think in that first hook, that is where you will get in front of a ton of people.” – Racheal Cook

Resources Mentioned:

Grab Racheal's Free Business Growth Tools
Episode 147 – Creating Intentional Instagram Content for VIP Offers with Jordan Gill
Sign up for Racheal's Free Fired Up & Focused challenge
Check out Racheal's Promote Yourself to CEO Podcast

Watch the Episode Below:

Transcript

Andréa Jones (00:01):
If you think you can't get high end clients on TikTok. Ooh, I'm so excited for today's conversation cuz we are gonna flip that mindset right now. Racheal Cook has 25X-ed her ROI on her TikTok investment. We're gonna dive into that and more in today's episode. So let's get into it.

Intro (00:30):
Welcome to the Savvy Social Podcast, the show that blends stories and strategies to help businesses create engaged and profitable online communities using the unique power of social media. And now your host Andréa Jones.

Andréa Jones (00:47):
Racheal, I'm so excited to talk to you. This feels like a long time coming.

Racheal Cook (00:52):
Absolutely. I feel like it's the mutual admiration society right now because I've been following you and your journey for so long. So it's so fun that we actually get a chance to talk.

Andréa Jones (01:02):
Yes. I'm like honestly super excited. I said this before just to get nosy about your strategy, but before we get into that the reason that we actually originally booked this was because a lot of busy CEOs struggle with time. It's the biggest Yeah. Resistance I get when I hear people talk about social media specifically in their marketing they go, Andrea, I just don't have time to do this. Like I have a million other things going on with running the business plus managing families. So can you talk a little bit about what you suggest to CEOs about carving out time for marketing?

Racheal Cook (01:39):
Absolutely. This is also a huge thing I hear and the biggest thing that I know to be true is that if you don't have a strategy to consistently do marketing, to consistently do sales and consistently deliver your products and programs and services to your clients, then you will run into the feast-famine cycle. Not, you might run into the feast-famine cycle. It's like you will <laugh> it is almost guaranteed because it's like putting, you know, gas into your car. If you don't put gas into your car, at some point you're gonna be stranded on the side of the road calling AAA to come help you out. So if you're a business owner, this is one of the most important things to focus on, especially if you wanna grow your business. If you wanna grow your business, then you have to be focused on the things that actually drive growth.

(02:27):
And that is hands down going to be marketing and sales. That doesn't mean that you need to be everywhere or that you need to do all the things. It does mean you need a strategy and you need a system. If you have a strategy and a system that you can consistently put effort into and you can start to build in the support, have a team who helps you implement that consistently, that's when you start to dramatically see things shake up in your business. I mean we see within three to six months our clients are in a whole different place because of the strategy, the system and the support.

Andréa Jones (03:02):
Oh my gosh, I love a good strategy. I'm a huge systems person as well and I used to think of myself as this free spirit. I'm a creative, I need to be inspired, but what I realized very early on in my business is that that free spirit meant I was never posting content <laugh> because I never felt like it. So when we think about the system piece specifically, especially for those of us who are a little resistant to systems, like how do we get started with that process? Because I think it's easy to get stuck in like the technical aspect of it.

Racheal Cook (03:38):
Yeah, I love that you said there's times where you just don't feel like it and that's usually one of the biggest reasons that I see for creatives that they struggle with staying consistent because they feel like they can only be creative when inspiration strikes. But if you ever study the science of creativity, it is not about waiting until inspiration strikes. It's about sitting down in the chair and doing the thing again and again and again and you might write pages and pages and pages and all of it sucks but it doesn't matter. It's the muscle, it's the discipline, which I know a lot of people don't like that word, but it makes a massive difference. So I have a background in music performance and from the time I was like four or five, I was practicing scales on the piano and then I went to French horn and so I would sit down and practice the same scales at five years old that a professional concert pianist would practice.

(04:34):
Now the difference is they're on stage around the world getting record deals because they sit down and they do the basics again and again and again. And I think this is where a lot of creatives get stuck is the gap between seeing the potential of what they could do and knowing that they aren't ready yet cuz they haven't put in the reps. So if there's one thing I wanna challenge everyone to do, it's pick a strategy that you wanna go after and be willing to do the first 10, you know, shitty first drafts <laugh>, just to get the muscle working, just to start building the reps because it's the reps that will actually get you to the point where you are really good. It's not that you are gonna come out of the gate and know exactly how to do video or know exactly how to do copywriting or know how exactly to do a podcast I guarantee. Like I know you've had your podcast for a really long time, like years now. Yeah,
Andréa Jones (05:32):
2018 is when we started <laugh>.

Racheal Cook (05:35):
If we were to go to listen to the very first ones, how would you feel about those first episodes compared to where you are today?

Andréa Jones (05:41):
Oh yeah, yeah, they're terrible <laugh>.

Racheal Cook (05:44):
I literally, my community, we just had a retreat and so I had all these women here with me and they were saying the same thing and I was like, okay, let me show you my shitty first drafts. And so I went back into my YouTube archive and like I tried everything as it came out because I've ridden this wave of social media over the past 15 years. So I was like, oh yeah, here's when I started playing with YouTube. Here's when Facebook Live first came out. I tried it all and looking back at it now I'm like, God, I was not good <laugh> but I also learned and I got the muscle memory. So now I have 15 years of putting in the reps. I have 15 years of practicing speaking, communicating clearly, figuring out how to come up with a hook so I can quickly record videos. And I've also learned that it's not about when I feel like it, it's about just putting the time on the calendar and having a system to support me so that if I'm gonna sit down and batch record any type of content I can sit down, do the part that only I can do, which is talking into the microphone or looking at a camera and then my team can take it and run with it. I don't ever have to touch it again.

Andréa Jones (06:50):
Yes. Oh my gosh, I love everything you just said. I actually just posted this on my social as well. My first video was in 2007 or 2008. Oh it's so bad y'all. But the reason that I can create content quickly today is because I've literally spent years doing this work in different formats and different ways, but it takes years and I do think there's something to being a business owner and being an adult learning that we feel like we should just know we should be able to show up and do it. But it still takes time in practice.

Racheal Cook (07:30):
Abolutely. So it takes a ton of practice and this is where you can decide, are you gonna take a really long time to learn the skillset or are you going to collapse years of learning into just going all in on a strategy and by all in on a strategy. I mean whether it's TikTok or a podcast or going live on social, like doing it as much as you can so that you can get as many reps as you can in as quickly as possible. That's how you collapse the timeline for growing that skillset. And the good news is like no matter where you are or what you have available to you, you can do this with your phone, you can do this with the camera on your computer. You don't have to have a fancy setup at all. I mean definitely when you and I started, I didn't even have a, like I had to go buy a cheap webcam cuz there were no cameras on our computers, we didn't have iPhones. Like none of that technology was available to us. And now literally there's so much available that you can collapse your learning curve into a few months if you really wanna go all in on it.

Andréa Jones (08:35):
I'm curious because you mentioned going all in on strategy a few times now. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>, how do we choose what strategy to go all in on?

Racheal Cook (08:45):
Okay, this is a great point. There's a lot of things to consider and this is where my favorite answer is always, it depends <laugh> and it's because there's nuance and context, right? I think everybody's different and you have to choose something that aligns with your strengths. So first thing is think about what are you strongest at? How do you best like to communicate? So I know a lot of people who the idea of talking into a camera is not them at all, but they love to write. So I tell them, if you are a writer, be a writer. How can we go all in on writing content? And there's so many ways, like I can think of so many people who most of their content on social media is written. It's even I'm trying to think of, there's a couple people that, I can't remember their names, but like everything they do is written, it's newsletters, it's social media, but it's all long form text or short form text on social, maybe a graphic here and there, right?

(09:39):
But you're not gonna see them on video all the time. And then there's people who love audio only and they have totally played towards, they love being on podcasts, they love recording their own podcasts, they use audio only as a great tool. We're even seeing people with private podcasts now. So if you like to talk, that's potentially a great one for you. And then there's people who really like the video because they love, you know, being able to connect in that way. I think it is picking the channel that makes the most sense for you as far as your strengths. What feels more comfortable to you. Granted it's all gonna feel uncomfortable at first until you put the reps in. So just know that <laugh>, you might decide you actually love being on video once you do it. So try pick something that you think you're gonna be strong in.

(10:26):
And I think the other thing is pick the thing you think you can get the most mileage out of. So one reason I love doing TikTok for example, and I love video in general, is it's the one strategy where I can get all potential options out of it. So I can record a video, take the long form video, chop it into multiple mini videos, I can then take the audio from that video, put it on my podcast, I can take the short snippets and put those into audiograms. I can have the transcript and turn that into blog posts or sometimes multiple blog posts cuz an hour long podcast, my podcast is usually about an hour long, that usually ends up being about three decent sized blog posts out of one podcast episode. And then my team can turn that into social media content, newsletter, content, sales, emails, content, everything. So that's one, one thing to consider for sure is where you can get the most mileage out of your content too.

Andréa Jones (11:25):
Yeah. Okay. I wanna dive more into this because I think that sometimes we choose the strategy that someone else has said is the best one. And I use this example sometimes with LinkedIn. I personally love LinkedIn but some of my clients log into LinkedIn and they're like, this is not the place for me. I tried it, I cannot connect with it. I much prefer Instagram. And I'm like great, let's go all in on Instagram cuz you tried it. I think the biggest underlying I wanna make in what you said is try it. You have to put in the reps first. Like you have to give it a shot. Yeah. And you'll quickly be able to see what works for you instead of just ideating and thinking about it forever going, I don't know if I like this. Figure it out, figure it out quickly if you like it or not and then go in that direction. I love that you said that. I love that.

Racheal Cook (12:15):
Yeah. I always tell my clients to, if you're gonna pick a strategy, stick to it for at least six months because you need, when we say try it, we don't mean like post once. If you're just posting, once, you're not getting enough data to determine whether or not this truly works and you're not giving yourself enough chances to iterate and get better. I loved, did you ever remember the a hundred day challenge that was really popular a while ago on like Instagram and TikTok where it started in the creative community where people were like, I'm going to knit for a hundred days or I'm gonna paint for a hundred days or whatever. And I was like, oh what a brilliant thing to learn, a new skill to choose something you're gonna try for a hundred days and you're gonna post on social for a hundred days.

(12:57):
You're gonna do a hundred days of reels, you're gonna do a hundred days of going live, you're gonna do a hundred days of emails, like a hundred pieces of content, short form, long form, it doesn't matter again, you're collapsing the timeline in three and a half months. You're gonna have two years worth of data basically if you were to try to do it only once a week. Which means you can move so much faster because you're gonna know whether or not something feels good to you, whether it's getting results, whether you're starting to get traction in a short timeframe. So if you're picking something I would say a hundred day challenge is a great way or think about at least a six month commitment to really go all in and see if it works for you.

Andréa Jones (13:36):
Yes. Oh I love that timeline too because I think sometimes we think I'm gonna try it for a week, but a week isn't enough time to see is not, it actually works. Yeah. Especially on social media I find. Okay, great. So, oh wait, we're gonna take a quick break and when we come back we're gonna dive into all things TikTok. We'll be back soon.

(14:00):
[Podcast Ad break] Social media is constantly changing. I know that you know that, but not all of these changes are pertinent to your business. That's why I created the feed. The Feed is a private audio experience of curated social media news and updates that relate to your business. So ditch the overwhelm and download the feed today. And no this isn't a subscription service. Pay one fee and get access to our entire back catalog along with every single episode released in the future. Head on over to onlinedrea.com/feed to start feeling like a social media expert today. [Podcast Ad break]
(14:48):
All right, we're back. I gotta talk to you about TikTok cause like I said, I'm just personally nosy. So you used to do, you've done a lot, Facebook lives, all of it, but why TikTok and when did you officially start the TikTok strategy?

Racheal Cook (15:02):
Oh this is so interesting because like many people I thought TikTok was just for my kids. I thought my 13 year olds are watching this, so this is not for me. But then a few things started shifting. Of course pandemic hit and suddenly TikTok exploded. Everybody's downloading it and that's when I kind of got into it more and I was just consuming it just going through it. But what's interesting about TikTok is it really hones in on what you're interested in and sends you into those communities. Like it, it literally is like, oh you're interested in racial justice, you're interested in feminism, you're interested in money, you're interested in ancient Egypt, like it doesn't matter. It will start showing you that content. And so I started seeing all these incredible educators from different fields and I saw more and more of them and I was like, this is fascinating.

(15:59):
Like I was learning so much about other topics and I was seeing that they were topics that I knew I wouldn't have found on other platforms because on other platforms 90% of what you see is just from the people you have followed. You're not generally seeing new people unless you're proactively learning from them or following them already. So I realized this is where TikTok is different. When I talk about my marketing system, most social media is the third step. It's nurture, it's in front of people who've already taken some step to get on your email list or follow you on social media. So they've already gotten to know you a little bit. TikTok is the very top of the funnel because it's a discovery engine. It's where if you have an interest in this topic, it's the algorithm is now gonna send your content to 90% of people who are not following you.

(16:53):
And that to me is like how much have I paid in Facebook ads? How much is everybody saying they want organic reach in front of new people? And so that's when I decided really about 2021 where I was like, okay, something's happening here. I like it. I'm talking to all of my friends who run very successful businesses and they like it and they're on it not necessarily for business, usually for like random obscure interests, but it really got me thinking like this could get me in front of new people organically. So I decided to go all in and do a six month TikTok experiment. Literally we started it February of 2022 and I worked with a local video team cuz I knew that for me I have chronic health challenges. I don't have a lot of energy to do a lot of things. Sitting down as talking is no big deal for me.

(17:46):
Like I can, if if all I have to do is sit in a chair and say things I can do any type of content you want, but if I also have to figure out the technology and figure out the video setup and edit everything, like I don't have the bandwidth for that. So I reached out to a local video team who had worked with a friend of mine for her event and I, I was like, Hey guys, I really like what you did for this event. Would you be interested in shooting content with me? They had never done something like this. So I literally had to pitch them this idea of here's what I'm looking to do. Can we do like a half day of video and shoot as many one to three minute videos as we can? And they were like, okay, we'll do it.

(18:27):
We'll just do it on a flat like half day rate and then whatever the editing hours turn out to be. And I think they were nervous because they said other small businesses that they had worked with in the past were mostly like local small businesses that were looking for like a sizzle reel to put on their website. They weren't people who were leveraging social media or online marketing in the way that I do in my business. So they were nervous because they had told me they were used to people sitting down in front of the camera and taking multiple takes just to get like one cohesive sentence out. And then we sat down the first time together and we produced or we recorded about a hundred TikToks in three and a half hours and that's when they were kind of like mind blown, okay, we can work with her, this is gonna be easy. And then we started dripping them out, you know, one a day, five days a week and it was amazing. It was amazing because within the first two and a half months I had already 10X-ed my investment on that first video shoot.

Andréa Jones (19:28):
What? Yeah. Okay. Oh I love this. So okay, I have so many follow up questions. I'm like where do I go next? So a hundred TikToks. Talk to me about the process for recording those. Were they asking you questions? I'm assuming you wrote the questions then since they'd never done this before.

Racheal Cook (19:45):
So this is where having other types of content really played in my favor. Like I have done hundreds of podcast interviews and I have my own podcast so I really thought of setting up for this shoot like it's short form, it's very much, you know, you need to be able to say something quickly. You don't have time to flesh out a whole podcast episode. So I thought of it more like doing a podcast interview where like you get a list of questions, they ask you the question and then you just respond back. So I spent some time, I'm always keeping a running list of content ideas. If you ever run outta content ideas, my best tip for you is to on your phone, on your notes app, have a list of content ideas and anytime you hear something or you have a conversation with somebody or you know questions come up, you just keep a running list.

(20:31):
So I've always done this, I've always had a running list of things that I'm hearing from my clients, I'm hearing from my community. So I sat down before this video shoot and I wrote out in question form and then I wrote out my hook. The hook is really important on any sort of video content because you really only have a few seconds to get people and if the first thing you're saying is, hi I'm Racheal, the founder of the CEO Collective, like people have already swiped away, they don't care. You have to answer instantly. The question is this for me? And if you're writing a strong hook where they're going, oh this is for me <laugh>, then they're gonna keep watching the rest of the content. So I basically had a list of strong hooks and then as they were filming they would read me the question and read me the hook. I would take a second to think and compose myself and then I would give them back the hook and a quick response and that's how we were able to get through so much.

Andréa Jones (21:28):
Oh my gosh, I love this. You know, I've been thinking for a long time about how to set this up for our clients cuz we run into the same issue where they are brilliant at what they do but like sitting down to do this is a huge lift because there's so many other things going on in their lives. And so I love that you really batched a hundred videos <laugh> in three hours with some prep time obviously. Yeah. fascinating. So you drip these out five videos a week, one a day for, and within the first 60 days you 10 x your investment. I wanna talk specifically about what that means. So was this someone into your program? Like talk to me about their path if you, if you know it.

Racheal Cook (22:10):
Oh I absolutely know it because they told me right away that they found me on TikTok. So I had a couple of interesting experiences. Like for me this was an experiment and I had committed to six months. So if I didn't get any results for six months, I was okay with still investing in the cost of working with the video team. Which the first round was about $2,500. Keeping in mind I'm in Richmond, Virginia, it's a local business, I basically pitched them this idea <laugh>, they had never done it before. So it was about $2,500 for the first batch of videos that we did. My program, the CEO Collective is 10,000 for the year and I rarely do one-on-one coaching but sometimes I do. And that's about 30,000 for the year or 15,000 for six months. So within the first 60 days I saw an immediate uptick in our podcast and for me my podcast is like the sun that everything else spins around, right?

(23:07):
Like it's where most people for my nurture content, that's what most people listen to to really get to know me and really get to know my work is the podcast. So we made sure that all of the tos we had done led into things we've talked about in depth on the podcast cuz there's a big difference between a 9-second clip versus yeah an hour long episode on that topic. And then we started seeing, we opened, so we had our first batch we recorded in February. We had our first batch starting to go out mid-March and then by May 1st. So like six weeks into these things going out we had our first pay in full for the CEO Collective. And she literally told us in her intake form, I just found you on TikTok a week ago, I binge listened to like 20 hours of your podcast and I knew I wanted to work with you.

(24:01):
And that continued. So a few weeks later I had another person join the collective and a few weeks later I had somebody really wanna work with me one-on-one even though I basically wasn't doing one-on-one. And I actually tried to tell her I don't think I have bandwidth for one-on-one right now. Can I circle back with you in a few months? And she pursued me. She continued coming back to me saying, no, I really think you're the person I'm supposed to work one-on-one with. So I basically put off $30,000 because I was like, I don't have time for it right now. But she kept saying, do you have time yet? Can we get started yet? So within February we recorded everything March things started going live May 1st, I had my first pay in full sale by June I had three paying full clients so it's probably a lot more than 10 x at that point. I'd have to crunch the numbers cuz it was over $30,000 and that initial $2,500 investment.

Andréa Jones (24:59):
So what are you thinking at this time? Like I know you gave yourself six months but six weeks into it you're already seeing traction. Like do you increase your video output? Do you like immediately book another session? Like what's going through your mind?

Racheal Cook (25:12):
Absolutely. I booked another session, so we followed up that March session with two days that we recorded in July. And this is where things are a little challenging for me. Again, I have chronic health issues and sometimes if I'm in a flare up I know I can't perform. And so they know that. And there have been a couple times where we'll schedule a couple days and I'll know going into it I'm like, this is not gonna be the week <laugh>. So I'll say I have to readjust. But we have found that if we can plan far enough in advance and give me some flexibility on some dates, so we'll have like this date one week if I am feeling great and if I'm not I have a backup date with them that helps. But we've been basically doing a quarterly video shoot and for me, I'm not necessarily trying to do multiple times a day.

(26:02):
I can't create content fast enough to do multiple times a day. But what we did start doing is once we ran through the first a hundred videos, we started playing around with repurposing them and we discovered things like, well if you edit them a little bit differently then you just re-upload it. That can get the same video, so much mileage. Like you could literally take it and re-edit it so that it looks slightly different or sounds slightly different. And 90% of the people who were gonna see it hadn't seen the original. So that was really interesting to me that we could edit the videos a little bit more and not have to rerecord anything. It was just about changing up the order of things, sometimes taking the hook and pulling another line out to be the hook. And then the second shoot we did, I actually decided, you know what, what would happen if I recorded three versions of the hook and then we have the core content. So now we're going into it knowing we have the core video but three versions of the hook to edit in. So we have three videos out of that one content idea. So we just kept tweaking with it and playing with it.

Andréa Jones (27:07):
That's so like, I'm so fascinated by this process because there's an iteration here that I think that we as business owners sometimes miss. Again, it goes back into this concept where we just like I I think it's human nature, we just go, we're perfect. First video done, beautiful, done and dusted. But really there's, there's a re-editing, there's a revisiting, there's a tweaking process here to, to move things along. What would you say is your most popular video so far?

Racheal Cook (27:38):
Oh God. So the most popular video was interesting cuz it went out in the first couple weeks and it just started growing and I didn't, I was like, what is happening right now? It was the wildest thing. I've never, I've never on any platform seen the type of virality that can happen on TikTok. And at the time that we put this video out, I probably had like a thousand followers but it took me to 10,000 really, really quickly. Like now we haven't grown a ton out more, but I need to work on my hooks to figure that out. So, the most popular video was one where the hook was if you were getting paid a thousand dollars an hour, what would you do differently? And it's all about understanding are you doing c e o level work or are you, you know, spending your time on lower value admin operations type of work?

(28:23):
What, which I call the $10 an hour work. What was interesting is people who listened to the whole video and were entrepreneurs were like, holy cow, I've never thought of it this way. This makes so much sense. The people who weren't entrepreneurs got upset <laugh> because they only heard what they wanted to hear. Like they didn't have the context for that to make sense to them. So it was interesting because while people were like having all these conversations in the comments, they're literally boosting this video and making it grow more and more. And so I'm just watching it take off like, okay, I answered a few comments but after that I was just like, let's just see what happens. But it definitely showed me that this is a platform where if you say something that's polarizing or really makes people think in that first hook, that is where you will get in front of a ton of people. You've just gotta be ready for knowing that not everyone understands the nuance and context in a short form video. And if you understand that you won't get upset when people have comments that might sound like, you know, they're trying to come for you, they're not trying, they don't understand cuz this wasn't meant for them.

Andréa Jones (29:25):
Yeah, I feel like you have a really refreshing take on negative comments. I'm way too emotional. Like it would ruin my day if people commented like that on a video.

Racheal Cook (29:34):
Yeah.

Andréa Jones (29:34):
Do you ever, do you battle with that a little bit?

Racheal Cook (29:38):
I used to because sometimes I've had a video where the first line was something about feast-famine and somebody put something really mean about my weight and I am not a tiny girl, never have been, never will be. I am proudly a curvy girl. So I just kind of now let that just whatever <laugh>, like I don't need you here <laugh>. And I also know on the other side, like knowing the people I'm here to serve, I truly believe that when we show up we give other women permission to show up as they are. So I'm here in a larger body, taking up space, being visible. That is a really brave and courageous act and there are so many women out there who are in a larger body and have things to say and have, you know, people they're trying to help but they're scared because society has conditioned us.

(30:29):
And unless you're, you know, a certain size and you fit some ideal beauty that you can't be the face of anything. And I'm here to challenge that. I think each of us has a role to play. I think representation matters in so many ways and the more we show up as ourselves and not let the feeling of well I've gotta lose weight first or I've gotta figure out my style first or I've gotta do my hair first. Like those are all really good ways to protect yourself from ever getting any negative feedback. But they're also really good ways to hold you back from sharing what you have to share with the world and what you have to share is more important than what a handful of negative people have to say about how you look.

Andréa Jones (31:11):
Yes. Oh my gosh. Snaps all around. I love it. <Laugh>. I love to see it <laugh>. I am, I'm just obsessed with your TikTok strategy. What's the future for you though? So it's been a few years since you've been implementing this or are we sticking with TikTok?

Racheal Cook (31:27):
Just a little over a year. Yeah, a little over a year. A few things we're playing with now. One is just increasing frequency, so trying to do more video shoots. I have one coming up in a couple weeks and I'm gonna do two days at a time. So we'll be able to get a little bit more accomplished. And the other thing is, it's so funny, I think you know Jordan Gill and she is, she's amazing and she also has chronic illnesses, so we relate on that level and she's been producing a ton of reels and I met her in person at the ConvertKit Conference and I was just dying laughing because she literally carries around a second phone in a tripod and like all this stuff to just catch footage as she's going through day in the life, whatever. And then you never know how she's gonna use that footage.

(32:15):
And I was like, that is so smart. That is so smart to me. Just always catching video footage. So that's something else I'm working on. I actually just did our most recent CEO retreat. I had my team shoot a ton of just B-roll. Who knows how we'll use it, but I think it's really important, especially if you're leading a community for your imagery to reflect community. I don't use stock photography because I feel like that's a way to distort who's welcome in our space or safe in our space. I love having photographers come to our in-person events and shoot the event and take video of the event cuz then you really get to see like who's in the room with you. This is not models that we've selected and airbrushed or whatever. These are like real women with real businesses running into stuff. So that's the biggest thing is adding into the prescheduled more like high level produced video, adding in just more filming all the time so that I can do more like voiceovers or use it in different ways.

Andréa Jones (33:19):
Yes. Okay. I love that. I love that. Honestly, I love Jordan Gill reel's strategy as well. We had her on the podcast to like dissect that because she's brilliant at the way she shows up in a way that feels good for her. So I love that. I love that. Okay, so for those people listening who are like, I'm ready, I'm ready to get into Racheal's world, I know that you have the Fired Up and Focused challenge, which honestly y'all, this is perfect for those of you who are like, man, I've been thinking about it, but I'm not feeling motivated. You tell us about it, Racheal, tell us about it.

Racheal Cook (33:53):
Yes, this is a challenge. I have literally been running for 10 years now and I started this challenge because I discovered again and again in talking with women entrepreneurs, it's not that you aren't smart enough. It's not that you aren't strategic enough. It's not that you don't have the talent, it's that we don't know how to make time for the things that'll move our business forward. And often we don't even know what the things are that move our business forward. So the Fired Up and Focused challenge is five days to teach you five core CEO habits that will help you to prioritize the growth level tasks, those thousand dollars, $10,000 an hour tasks that actually move your business forward versus being stuck in kind of maintenance mode in your business where you feel like you can't get outta the weeds, you're always stuck in your inbox doing admin, doing customer service, et cetera. So it's absolutely free, it's on demand. You can find it at firedupandfocused.com.

Andréa Jones (34:50):
Awesome. We'll put that link and all of the links in the show notes. Obviously we want you all to connect with Racheal on social media. TikTok is at rachealcookmba and Instagram is racheal.cook. Anywhere else you want people to connect with you online?

Racheal Cook (35:04):
Those are my two places. And if you are a podcast listener, you can check me out on Promote Yourself to CEO. We have masterclass style podcast coming out every single week to support you in continuing to grow your business sustainably without the hustle and burnout.

Andréa Jones (35:19):
Love it. If you're listening to this, you love podcasts, so definitely check that out. Next week, I wanna give you a wide variety of what's possible on TikTok because I'm obsessed. So we'll see you next week with that. Thank you so much for listening. Bye for now.