Racheal Cook is an award-winning business strategist who believes entrepreneurship doesn’t have to be so complicated. Through her signature online mastermind Sweet Spot Strategy, she helps women entrepreneurs to simplify business and amplify results by designing a business around what works best, for you. A sought-after speaker on entrepreneurship, marketing, and productivity, Racheal’s work has been featured on US Chamber of Commerce, Female Entrepreneur Association, Smart Passive Income, and more. She’s also the author of the Amazon Bestseller books Fired Up & Focused and Your Business Sweet Spot.
You talk a lot about designing your business around your lifestyle and about finding your business sweet spot. What is your sweet spot and how did you find your business sweet spot?
There are so many people who are making things too much difficult for themselves. In her view, we don’t need to make it hard on yourself, and that’s where our sweet spot comes in. Your sweet spot is where your strengths and passion meets the people you are here to help and when you tap into that, suddenly things become easier because you are working in your zone of genius. She started to realize that not everybody is a natural planner the way she is because it is her zone of genius. She also worked the hard way for quite a while but once she started listening to people she realized that the biggest roadblock they are having is the one she could easily remove because it was crystal clear to her what needed to happen, and chances are that’s where your sweet spot lies too.
You mentioned that your sweet spot comes naturally to you and can easily be overlooked because you don’t think much of it. Then there is the question of turning that into a business. What do you think about that?
In her opinion, you can turn almost anything into a business. One other thing she points out that something that is your zone of genius might not be the exact thing you are monetizing but it could just be helping you create a business. Over thousands of businesses, she started to see patterns with her students. The way she operated was different the way other people operate. The challenge of being a teacher is figuring out how do you make everything make sense to different people. She started to see her students are all sort of falling into four groups; the Maker, the Maven, the Mentor and the Mastermind. The Maker are the people who get things done. People hire them because they know that that’s the best way to get the end result. You can teach someone how to cook but they’ll never be as good as your personal chef sitting there doing it. Then there is the Maven. These are the people we all look up to. They build bigger platforms and are the spark that gets people excited and fired up. The Mentor work more intimately and closely with their clients and they tend to be like their personal cheerleaders to get them through the finish line. The Mastermind, which is her personal sweet spot, take in all the information and figure out how to break it down into systems and find out ways they can teach others how to achieve their goal.
What happened when you started working in your sweet spot?
She stopped fighting the thought process she had. She is more of a strategist and once she realized that, she stopped regretting her decisions. The best part of leaning into her natural strengths is that it simplified a lot of decision making, quickly realizing if something is a good fit or not.
When you were a little girl, was it apparent that you are a great planner? Does it make sense looking back?
The skills she applies today were apparent from early on. It’s very apparent going back to middle school, when she wanted to be a professional musician, and all the things that she wanted to do are super related to what she is doing now. She’s always able to stay super focused, which goes back to her practice sessions playing French horn, in a four-by-four foot room, three hours at a time. So, a lot of the skills she learned then are very applicable.
Once you got the MBA what did you do?
Like a lot of her peers, she went into financial consulting, specializing in small businesses. These businesses were all kinds of different industries making millions of dollars. The people were great, but they don’t have much passion for what they were doing. She quickly burned out on that. She was thinking of taking a leave of absence, that’s when her yoga teacher approached her and asked if she could help with her year-old yoga studio. She realized that there may be smaller businesses that she could work with and that opened a whole new world for her. That was her journey from traditional consulting with businesses that she wasn’t excited about to talking to all these amazing entrepreneurs who were really on a mission themselves.
I feel like If I didn’t have a strong connection with my purpose of helping others then I am not sure if I would have continued my business once I had a kid. So, what’s your experience with connecting with your purpose?
She knows that she always wanted to have both business and family side by side. What she loves the most is working with women. She loves seeing and creating this new wave of women entrepreneurs who don’t have to sacrifice. They are making a whole new generation of businesses that are going to change the way women are going to work. The fact that she has a team of these amazing women who are also full-time moms behind the scenes just makes her incredibly happy.
What’s the best advice you have ever been given?
Create a life not just living. It’s important to make time for the things that matter you the most. For her, she always knew that she has to put herself first, which means taking care of her health and well-being.
Any action steps that you like to include in the end?
If you are intrigued by the idea of your business sweet spot then head over to rachealcook.com/quiz. There is a free quiz to help you discover your business sweet spot theme and when you complete the quiz there is a little guide that gives some insight into the best marketing and business design strategies for your particular sweet spot.
How can we get in touch with you?
Website: rachealcook.com
Podcast: Uncomplicate Your Business