We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Chelsey Gray. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Chelsey below.

Chelsey, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Please tell us about starting your own firm and if you’d do anything different knowing what you know now.

The Early Days of Spotlight Strategies

Honestly, the decision to start Spotlight Strategies wasn’t some perfectly planned moment it was a reckoning. And before I talk about business strategy or systems or pipelines, I have to tell you the real story. Because the real story starts with survival.

I am a survivor of Military Sexual Trauma. What happened to me in the Marine Corps didn’t just leave a wound it rewired how I moved through the world. PTSD from MST is a particular kind of battle because it attacks the very thing business is built on: *trust*. Trust in people. Trust in systems. Trust in yourself. For a long time, I couldn’t walk into a room without scanning it. Couldn’t build a partnership without bracing for betrayal. Couldn’t lead without a layer of armor on that kept people just far enough away to feel safe.

And here’s the irony I was trying to build a firm whose entire foundation is *relationships*.

So before any of this worked, I had to do the hardest work: healing. Not perfectly. Not linearly. But intentionally. And I couldn’t have done it without two anchors my faith in God, and my husband. My faith gave me something no trauma could take away: a sense of purpose that was bigger than my pain. My husband gave me a safe place to be human when the world required me to be strong. There was no investment capital. No family safety net. No formal degree to fall back on. Just God, my husband, and a conviction that I was built for something.

The Path That Built the Foundation

My path to entrepreneurship was unconventional by every measure. I didn’t come out of a business school or an accelerator. I came up through the marketing industry first learning how businesses communicate, attract, and grow. How messaging is built. How brands create trust before a single conversation ever happens. That experience gave me a lens into how businesses present themselves to the world.
But it was when I transitioned into business coaching and consulting working as an apprentice alongside a coach, watching how they served clients, diagnosed problems, and held space for real transformation that everything clicked. Slowly, piece by piece, the full picture of business started coming into focus.
And the most important piece? People.

Not just your internal team though getting the right people around you is everything. I mean your entire ecosystem. The B2B relationships, the strategic partners, the organizations you show up for, the networks you invest in. Business isn’t a solo sport. It never was. The moment I truly understood that, everything shifted.

That’s why volunteering mattered and still matters. Showing up for organizations that align with your mission isn’t charity. It’s *community*. It’s how you build trust before you ever have a track record. My involvement with the Navy League, the Veterans Employment Committee, the chambers, the veteran organizations that wasn’t resume-building. It was relationship-building. It was proving, consistently, that I show up. And people do business with people who show up.

Building the Firm

From that foundation healed enough to trust, experienced enough to see the whole board, and embedded enough in community to have real relationships Spotlight Strategies was born. The first real step was getting honest about what I uniquely brought to the table: operational discipline from the Corps, deep community connections, and an ability to cut through organizational chaos and find the through-line.

I started showing up to Navy League events, chamber meetings, veteran convenings not to sell, but to serve. And I built the team the same way I’d learned business: intentionally, relationally, piece by piece. Bringing in fractional partners like Sarah, Kory, Nate, and Michael meant we could operate like a full strategic team without the overhead of a traditional firm. Strategic Business Coaching became the foundation you can’t build anything sustainable without alignment first.

The Key Challenges

Let me be real: the hardest challenge wasn’t the business it was *me*. Unlearning the idea that I had to do everything myself. Learning to trust again when trust had been weaponized against me. Learning to price my value correctly when I’d spent years serving without a paycheck attached to my impact.

Veterans often undercharge because we’ve been conditioned to give everything and ask for nothing. But that’s not sustainable not in business, and not in life.

Would I Have Done Anything Differently?

I would have invested in infrastructure earlier the systems, the tools, the processes. I would have been bolder, sooner. And honestly? I would have started the healing work even sooner, because the business can only grow as far as the person running it has grown.

Advice for a Young Professional Considering Starting Their Own Firm

Start with yourself. Whatever you’re carrying deal with it. Not because it makes you weak, but because unhealed wounds become business liabilities. Trust issues, imposter syndrome, fear of visibility those things will show up in your contracts, your pricing, your partnerships. Do the work.

Find your anchors. Mine were my faith and my husband. Yours might look different. But you need something that holds you when the business doesn’t.

Volunteer with intention. Get in the rooms of the organizations that align with what you believe in. Serve before you sell. The relationships you build as a volunteer will outlast any marketing campaign.

Understand that business is people all the way through. Your internal team matters. Your B2B network matters just as much. The people who refer you, partner with you, champion you they are your business.

And finally your unconventional path is not a liability. It is your differentiator. The things you survived, the roads you took that didn’t come with a map those are what make you someone worth trusting. Own them.

Spotlight Strategies wasn’t built on capital or credentials. It was built on conviction, community, and the grace to keep going.

That’s the story. And it’s still being written.

Chelsey, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Getting to Know Chelsey & Spotlight Strategies
I’m Chelsey, Founder and CEO of Spotlight Strategies a veteran-owned strategic operations consulting firm based in San Diego. But before I tell you about the business, you need to know a little about the person behind it, because the two are inseparable.

I’m a Marine Corps veteran. I’m a survivor of Military Sexual Trauma. I’m a wife, a woman of faith, a connector, a strategist, and someone who has spent most of her life building the support system she never had. I’m also a recipient of the Chesty Puller Award one of the highest honors in the Marine Corps community and I serve on the Navy League Board of San Diego, where I chair the Veterans Employment Committee. I host a podcast called Unhinged Success: Raw and Unfiltered, because I believe the most powerful thing any leader can do is tell the truth about how they actually got here.

My path to this work was anything but traditional. I didn’t come from a business school. I didn’t have investment capital or a family safety net to fall back on. What I had was grit, faith, and an unwillingness to accept that the systems around me were the best we could do.

I started my career in the marketing industry, where I learned how businesses build trust, craft messaging, and grow their presence in the world. That foundation was invaluable but it was when I transitioned into business coaching and consulting, working as an apprentice alongside an established coach, that everything truly came into focus. I began to see all the pieces of business coming together not just marketing, not just strategy, but the full ecosystem. And the most important piece of that ecosystem? People. The right internal team. The right B2B network. The right community relationships. When I understood that business is fundamentally built on trust and relationships, Spotlight Strategies was born.

What We Do
Spotlight Strategies operates as an embedded strategic operations partner meaning we don’t just hand you a plan and disappear. We get in the trenches with you. We serve small business, higher education institutions, nonprofits, and private enterprises who are navigating complexity, trying to scale, or struggling to turn strategy into real execution.

Our four core service lines are:
Strategic Business Coaching — This is always the foundation. Before anything else, we get clear on where you are, where you’re going, and what’s getting in the way. We use a proprietary Compass framework grounded in Verne Harnish’s Scaling Up methodology to create real strategic alignment across your organization.
Tech & AI Integration — We help organizations leverage technology and artificial intelligence to work smarter, automate what can be automated, and free up human capacity for the work that actually requires human judgment.
Podcasting & PR — We help leaders and organizations build their voice, their visibility, and their authority. Your story is a strategic asset. We help you use it.

Veteran Workforce Integration — This one is close to my heart. We help organizations access, onboard, and retain military-connected talent, and we help veterans understand that they are not entry-level candidates. They are experienced leaders who have managed teams, budgets, contracts, and high-stakes decisions. We bridge that gap.

The Problems We Solve
Our clients come to us when they’re stuck, when the strategy exists on paper but isn’t translating into execution. When their teams are siloed and not communicating. When they know they’re leaving opportunity on the table but can’t identify exactly where the breakdown is. When they’re scaling faster than their infrastructure can support. When they want to access the military-connected community but don’t know how to authentically build those relationships.
We solve the gap between vision and execution. Between strategy and results. Between knowing what needs to happen and actually making it happen.

What Sets Us Apart

A few things, honestly.
First access. My position on the Navy League Board of San Diego, my relationships across veteran organizations, defense tech companies, chambers of commerce, and higher education institutions give our clients access to networks that most consultants simply cannot offer. That’s not something you can manufacture. It comes from years of genuine, volunteer-driven community investment.

Second — we are operators, not order-takers. My team of fractional partners — our CMO, COO, CTO, and CPO means our clients get a full leadership team, not a single consultant with a slide deck. We function as a strategic extension of their organization.
Third — lived experience. I understand what it means to build something from nothing. I understand the military-connected community from the inside. I understand trauma, resilience, and what it actually takes to lead through hard things. That depth of understanding shows up in how we serve clients, especially those in the defense and veteran spaces.
And finally — we operate from a principle of mutual success. When they win, we win. When we win, they win. That’s not a tagline. That’s how we structure our partnerships.

What I’m Most Proud Of
I’m most proud of the community I’ve helped build. The veterans who found jobs. The organizations that finally got the strategic clarity they’d been chasing. The women who felt seen and supported when they came forward about their Military Sexual Trauma. The small businesses that scaled past what they thought was possible.
I’m proud that I built something real without capital, without credentials on paper, without a conventional path because I believed it needed to exist.
And I’m proud that Spotlight Strategies is proof that your story, no matter how painful or unconventional, can become someone else’s lifeline. I was also nominated for veteran business of the year in 2024, and 2025. I was also nominated for the San Diego Women in Leadership honor roll for 2025.

What I Want You to Know

If you’re a potential client, here’s what matters most: we are not here to give you a plan and send you an invoice. We are here to be your partner embedded, accountable, and invested in your success.

If you’re a veteran or military-connected professional, I want you to know that your service translated the moment you left the uniform most people just didn’t have the language to see it yet. We do.

If you’re someone who has experienced MST or carries trauma from your service, I want you to know you are not alone, and your healing and your success are not mutually exclusive. I am living proof of that.

And if you’re someone who just wants to follow along welcome. This is a community built on authenticity, strategy, and the belief that the right support can change everything.

My Next Chapter

Building Spotlight Strategies has been one of the greatest adventures of my life. And as I look ahead, I’m stepping into a new kind of freedom the freedom of simply being the brand.

Here’s what I’ve learned: no matter what organization I’m working with, no matter what name is on the door or what role I’m stepping into, I am the one who gets things done. Chelsey is the asset. The relationships, the access, the trust, the results those travel with me. That realization has been incredibly liberating.

I’ve had a beautiful, wild ride building from the ground up. And I’m proud of every hard-won piece of it. But I’m also honest about where I’m going. When the right larger organization is ready to acquire Spotlight Strategies, I am open to that conversation. Not because I’m done but because I’m ready to do this work at an even greater scale, with the infrastructure and resources to match the mission. I want to step alongside the right organization, contribute at the highest level, and let the brand I’ve built be a bridge to something even bigger.
I also want to be a mother. That’s not a footnote that’s a priority. The flexibility and freedom of operating as the brand means I get to define what balance looks like for my family. I refuse to choose between impact and home. I’m building a life where I don’t have to.

And through all of it every stage, every chapter, every new door I will continue to be a voice for the voiceless. Especially for women veterans who have survived Military Sexual Trauma and have never received acknowledgment, support, or justice. That mission doesn’t retire. That calling doesn’t transfer. No matter where I land or who I’m working with, I will keep showing up as a light for the women who are still finding their way out of the dark.
That’s Spotlight Strategies. That’s me. And the best is still ahead.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Honestly? Showing up when there was nothing in it for me.
Long before I had a business card that said “Founder and CEO,” I was in the room. Volunteering on committees, serving on boards, attending events, supporting causes that aligned with my values — not because I was building a pipeline, but because I genuinely cared. And people noticed. Reputation isn’t built through marketing. It’s built through consistency. It’s built when people see you show up the same way whether the cameras are on or not.
My seat on the Navy League Board of San Diego and chairing the Veterans Employment Committee weren’t strategic moves on a chess board — they were extensions of who I already was. But what they did over time was create trust at a level that no advertising budget could buy. When you volunteer alongside people, they see your work ethic, your integrity, and your heart up close. That’s a very different kind of credibility than a well-designed website.
My military background also opened doors — but not in the way people might think. It wasn’t the rank or the awards, though I’m proud of those. It was the culture it instilled in me. I do what I say I’m going to do. I follow through. I don’t disappear after the contract is signed. In a consulting world where plan-and-disappear is common, being someone who actually stays and executes is rare. That became part of my brand whether I named it or not.
My story also played a role — and that took courage to lean into. Being open about being a survivor of Military Sexual Trauma, being transparent about building this business without capital or formal education, hosting a podcast called Unhinged Success: Raw and Unfiltered — all of that signaled to people that I wasn’t performing professionalism. I was living it. Authenticity is magnetic, especially in communities like the military-connected world where people have finely tuned instincts for who is real and who is performing.
And then there’s my network — not just who I know, but how I know them. I didn’t collect contacts. I built relationships. I connected people to each other without expecting anything in return. I advocated for veterans in rooms they weren’t in. I championed women who didn’t have a voice. When you operate like that long enough, people don’t just know your name — they trust it. And they talk about you.
Reputation in this market isn’t given. It’s earned slowly, through a thousand small decisions to show up with integrity, to serve before you sell, and to be the same person in every room you walk into.
That’s what built mine.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

The Bible — and I say that without apology. My faith isn’t separate from my business philosophy, it is my business philosophy. Principles of servant leadership, stewardship, showing up for the least visible people in the room, operating with integrity when no one is watching those didn’t come from a Harvard Business Review article. They came from my faith. Proverbs alone could run a masterclass on business wisdom.

The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann is a short read that completely reoriented how I think about value, networking, and success. The idea that your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interests first that’s not just a business strategy, that’s how I actually live. It validated something I’d been doing long before I had a name for it.

Scaling Up by Verne Harnish is the closest thing I have to a business bible. It gave me the framework and the language to articulate what I’d been doing instinctively how to build a company that doesn’t fall apart when the founder steps back, how to create alignment across teams, how to think in systems instead of scrambling in chaos. It’s the backbone of our Compass framework and how I approach strategic planning with every client. If you’re building something serious, read it.

Beyond books, podcasts and mentorship have been enormous. Being an apprentice to a business coach didn’t just teach me the craft it showed me what it looked like in practice, in real time, with real clients. You can read every book ever written and still not understand what it feels like to sit across from a struggling business owner and know exactly what they need. That came from watching, doing, and learning alongside someone further down the road.
And honestly my community. The conversations I’ve had at Navy League events, in veterans’ organizations, in rooms most people never get access to those have shaped my thinking as much as anything on a shelf. The people who told me their stories. The women who trusted me with their pain. The entrepreneurs who let me in when they were struggling. Every one of those interactions taught me something a book couldn’t.

The throughline in everything that has shaped me is this: the best leaders are the ones who never stop learning and who are humble enough to know that the most important lessons often come from the most unexpected places.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://spotlightstrategiesco.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_spotlight_strategies_/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/spotlight-strategies/
• Other: https://gamma.app/docs/The-Dawn-of-Victory-Main–va8ntr13kvuomzq

Image Credits

Nate Alexanian for photos and William Burdine for photos