We recently connected with Yolanda K Churchwell and have shared our conversation below.

Yolanda K, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Your ability to build a team is often a key determinant of your success as a business owner and so we’d love to get a conversation going with successful entrepreneurs like yourself around what your recruiting process was like -especially early on. How did you build your team?

Absolutely. One of the most pivotal moments in my business came when I realized that hiring wasn’t just about getting help—it was about protecting my role as a Visionary CEO.

Early on, I was wearing every hat. I was the service provider, the scheduler, the strategist, the bookkeeper—and while everything looked good on the outside, behind the scenes I was drowning. The irony? I was the expert that other CEOs came to for help streamlining operations and building teams. I had the blueprint, but I wasn’t fully using it for myself.

That moment of misalignment lit a fire under me.

I took a step back and treated myself like one of my own clients. I mapped out my workflows, identified the bottlenecks, and created the structure I teach others: the right people doing the right tasks the right way. I didn’t just hire to fill gaps—I hired based on function, not feeling. That shift changed everything.

Today, I lead The Business Assistance Group with a lean, high-performing team of independent contractors who support not just our clients, but also the systems that allow me to lead and scale. We’ve helped CEOs go from “booked and busy” to strategic and profitable—with operational clarity that starts by building their dream team the right way.

For any founder stuck in the cycle of doing it all: your first hire doesn’t have to be perfect. But your process does. And that’s where real growth begins.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m Yolanda K. Churchwell, and I help successful women stop running their businesses by force of will—and start leading them with vision, clarity, and confidence.

Before I became known as The CEO’s Fractional COO, I had a long and respected career in government. I was organized, efficient, and excellent at what I did—but I also saw what happens when systems break, when people are stretched too thin, and when leadership gets buried in logistics.

When I stepped into entrepreneurship, I saw those same patterns repeating in women-led businesses.

The clients who come to me aren’t beginners. They’ve built something that works. They’re bringing in revenue, serving clients, and hitting milestones—but it only works because they’re working nonstop. Everything runs through them. Every client issue, every team question, every project update—they’re the glue holding it all together. And deep down, they know: that’s not sustainable.

That’s where I come in—not as “support,” but as their right hand and strategic partner.

At The Business Assistance Group, we help CEOs design businesses that run without them—so they can finally scale beyond themselves. I don’t just organize the backend. I create clarity. I help diagnose what’s fragile, what’s unscalable, and what’s keeping them stuck in the weeds. Then, together, we build the systems, the structure, and the team support that lets them finally step into the role they were meant to lead: Visionary CEO.

I’m most proud of the moment my clients reclaim their time and trust themselves again. When they step out of survival mode and start making decisions from a place of strategy, not stress. When they go from “doing it all” to “leading it all.” That transformation is why I do this work.

If you’re reading this and you feel like your business can’t grow without stretching you even thinner—just know: that’s not a sign you’re doing something wrong. It’s a sign you’ve outgrown how your business is currently built. Growth requires new solutions.

And that’s where I can help.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

Absolutely. My side hustle didn’t just turn into my full-time career—it became my calling.

For over 20 years, I worked for the IRS. It was a stable career with structure, benefits, and a clear path. But deep down, I knew I was meant to serve differently. I saw how many brilliant women were building businesses they loved—but behind the scenes, they were exhausted. They were juggling client work, operations, and team management, with no real systems to support their growth. I saw it because I had lived it and failed at what should have been a flourishing business today.

I started The Business Assistance Group while still working full-time. At first, it was “just” weekend strategy calls and after-hours client work. But it didn’t take long to see that the demand was real—and the impact was deeper than I imagined. Helping a CEO go from overwhelmed to organized, from doing everything to leading with vision? That was the kind of work that lit me up.

The shift from side hustle to full-time happened gradually and strategically. Some of the key milestones:

My first retainer client who said, “I didn’t know help could look like this.”

Launching my VIP intensives, where I condensed months of clarity into one and two powerful days for CEOs ready to shift into the Visionary role.

Letting go of the safety net and leaving my full-time job to bet on myself—fully.

Now, I work with six- and seven-figure CEOs who are scaling but stuck—because everything still runs through them. I help them stop operating from survival mode and start leading from a place of structure, trust, and strategy.

Looking back, what started as a side hustle became a movement. I don’t just run a business—I help other women build businesses that run without them or less of them, so they can finally scale beyond themselves.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Yes—my business journey has included a major pivot, and it changed everything.

About ten years ago, I launched The Harris Look, a boutique that offered beauty, fashion, and accessories. I was proud of the brand I built—it was stylish, impactful, and filled a gap I saw in the market. But behind the scenes, I was carrying a silent weight.

I was being released from a difficult marriage and trying to run a business while in survival mode. I kept pushing forward, but I knew something wasn’t right. The systems weren’t sustainable. The demands were nonstop. And I was spending more time managing the mess than building the vision.

Eventually, I shut the doors on that business—not because it failed, but because I had outgrown what it required of me. I had learned the lesson that would catapult me into my calling.

But here’s the beautiful part: that experience became the seed for what I do now.

I didn’t walk away from entrepreneurship—I just pivoted toward the part I loved most: helping women bring order to chaos, build systems that support their vision, and scale a business without burning out. That’s how The Business Assistance Group was born.

Today, I help CEOs who are in that same pressure cooker—juggling growth, team, and operations with no real support—and I partner with them to build businesses that they run (that don’t run them), so they can finally lead like the Visionary CEOs they were meant to be.

My pivot wasn’t just professional. It was personal.
It reminded me that resilience isn’t just about bouncing back.
It’s about choosing a better way—and building something stronger from the lessons you’ve lived.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.getthebusinessassistancegroup.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebusinessassistancegroup/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GetTheBusinessAssistanceGroup
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/Yolanda-K-Churchwell-GetTheBAG
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@yolandak.churchwell8050