Today we’d like to introduce you to Ms Cat.
Hi Ms, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve been a full-time entrepreneur for more than a decade, and my journey has never been about staying in one lane. It has been about taking what I’ve learned in each season and using it to build the next one better.
Early in my entrepreneurial journey, I built businesses in logistics and media, including work in television and film. Those experiences taught me how to create opportunities, manage moving parts, work with people, and figure things out in real time. But they also taught me something even more important: being talented and hardworking does not automatically mean you have a sustainable business.
At some point, I realized I didn’t just enjoy building businesses—I was especially good at helping other people figure out how to build theirs.
That became the foundation for Ms Cat Consulting.
Today, I help entrepreneurs take ideas that are often sitting in their heads, notebooks, or half-finished plans and turn them into structured businesses. My work focuses on the pieces many entrepreneurs skip in the beginning: business structure, positioning, offers, systems, automation, credit and funding readiness, sales strategy, and creating a business that can actually grow.
That is where my philosophy, “Strategy is the new hustle,” comes from. I know how to hustle. I’ve done plenty of it. But after years in business, I’ve learned that you cannot hustle your way around a lack of structure.
As my consulting work grew, so did the vision.
I created CEO Mode Activated because I wanted entrepreneurs to have more than information. I wanted to create a community where people could connect with other business owners, learn, collaborate, be accountable, and actually put what they were learning into practice.
Publishing became another extension of that work. Through the CEO Mode Activated Book Bootcamp, I help people turn their knowledge, experiences, stories, and unfinished ideas into published books. For me, a book is more than something with your name on the cover. It can become a tool for authority, visibility, credibility, and opening doors that may not have opened otherwise.
I’ve since brought many of those lessons together through Concept2Company, where the focus is helping entrepreneurs move beyond simply starting a business and begin building an actual company—one with a clear offer, a way to generate revenue, the right systems, strong financial positioning, and a strategy for growth.
What makes this season exciting is that I’m still applying everything I teach to my own businesses.
I’m currently relaunching my logistics company, expanding my work in tax software, and developing A House of Restoration, a new structured sober-living housing venture in Houston. So while I teach entrepreneurship, I’m also still very much in the arena building, testing, adjusting, and growing.
When I look back, I don’t see a bunch of unrelated businesses. I see an education.
Every venture taught me something about leadership, money, people, systems, marketing, resilience, or what not to do the next time around. And all of those lessons shaped the strategist I am today.
I started as an entrepreneur who knew how to make things happen.
Today, I’m much more focused on understanding how to build things that can keep happening without everything depending on me.
And for me, that is what stepping into CEO mode really means.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
No, it definitely has not been a smooth road.
One of the biggest turning points in my life came when I lost what I thought was a secure six-figure career. I was managing a 1,500-unit property with more than 100 employees, taking care of my family, and doing what I thought I was supposed to do. Then the property was sold, and just like that, more than 100 of us lost our jobs. I had sacrificed so much time with my children for that career, and that experience made me realize how uncomfortable I was with someone else having that much control over my ability to provide for my family.
Entrepreneurship didn’t immediately make everything better. There was a season when I was pursuing film and production, and I directed a film that premiered at AMC. From the outside, it looked amazing—red carpet, cameras, people congratulating me, my name on the marquee. What people didn’t know was that I barely had enough money for an outfit for my own premiere, and afterward my team and I were trying to figure out how we were going to get gas money to make it home. That experience taught me very early that looking successful and actually being successful are two completely different things.
When I started building Flat Fee Tax Prep & Services, I didn’t have investors, a big financial cushion, or some perfect blueprint. I signed the lease on my first office knowing I had three free months to figure out how to make it work. I recruited people, built the team, learned the industry while I was leading in it, and eventually grew to about 100 agents. There were plenty of days when I was exhausted and figuring things out as I went, but that season taught me how much could be built with vision, leadership, relationships, faith, and the willingness to move before everything was perfect.
One of my hardest lessons, however, came after I had already experienced success.
I built Flat Fee into a six-figure business and eventually began shifting my attention toward financial literacy and community impact. I created the Woke Money Movement and was able to do some incredible things with it, including hosting a major financial literacy conference at NRG. The mission was meaningful, the brand was growing, and from the outside it looked successful—but it was not generating the revenue necessary to sustain me as a full-time entrepreneur.
I became so focused on the mission that I neglected the business that had been generating my income. When I finally sat down with my bookkeeper and looked at the numbers, I had taken roughly a $200,000 loss compared to the previous year. That was humbling. It took me nearly a year and a half to work my way out of that financial hole, and in some ways I’m still rebuilding from decisions made during that season.
There have also been internal struggles that people don’t always see. As my network and opportunities grew, I found myself in rooms with highly successful people and sometimes questioned whether I belonged there—even when I was the person who had created the room or brought everyone together. I had to learn that confidence is not the absence of fear or doubt. Sometimes confidence is simply refusing to let those feelings disqualify you from opportunities your work has already earned you.
So no, the road hasn’t been smooth, but I wouldn’t remove the difficult parts.
They are the reason I approach business differently today. I learned that passion without profitability can become expensive. I learned that visibility does not equal financial stability. I learned that being busy does not mean you are building something sustainable. And I learned that sometimes the smartest thing an entrepreneur can do is admit when something isn’t working, take the lesson, make the adjustment, and keep moving.
Those experiences are a big part of why I say, “Strategy is the new hustle.” I know how to hustle. What I had to learn was how to build with intention.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
At the core of my work, I help entrepreneurs turn ideas into structured, profitable businesses.
Through Ms Cat Consulting, I specialize in helping people get clear on what they are building, create offers that make sense, put systems in place, strengthen their business and funding readiness, and develop strategies that support real growth. I’m also the creator of CEO Mode Activated, a community built around connection, accountability, collaboration, and implementation, as well as the CEO Mode Activated Book Bootcamp, where I help aspiring authors move from an idea or unfinished manuscript to a published book.
What sets me apart is that I’m not teaching entrepreneurship from theory. I’ve built businesses from the ground up, created six-figure brands, led large teams, made costly mistakes, pivoted, rebuilt, and learned what it really takes to make a business sustainable.
I’m known for taking something that feels complicated or scattered and helping people make sense of it. You can bring me 15 ideas, and I’m going to help you identify which one makes the most sense, how it can make money, who it serves, and what needs to happen next.
What I’m most proud of is watching people move from talking about what they want to do to actually doing it—launching the business, publishing the book, making the decision, or finally seeing themselves as capable of more.
That’s really what my work is about: helping people move from idea to action with strategy behind it.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
First and foremost, I give God the credit. My faith has carried me through every season—the wins, the losses, the pivots, and the moments when I had no idea what the next move was going to be. There were times when I truly believe God sent the right people, opportunities, and resources exactly when I needed them.
Second, my children. They have been one of my biggest motivations from the very beginning. So many of the decisions I made around entrepreneurship came from wanting more control over my time, my income, and my ability to be present for them. They have watched me build, struggle, pivot, and keep going, and that means a lot to me.
I also have to credit the mentors, friends, team members, clients, and supporters who have believed in me along the way. Some gave me advice, some opened doors, some worked beside me when the vision was still coming together, and some trusted me enough to allow me to help build their businesses and ideas.
I’ve learned that nobody truly builds anything meaningful alone. I may be the visionary behind what I create, but there have been a lot of people who have contributed to the journey, encouraged me when I needed it, and helped me become a better leader along the way.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://connectwithmscat.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/connectwithmscat
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/connectwithmscat/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mscat/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ceomodeactivated
- Other: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ceomode
