By: Catherine Mitchell – Ms Cat Consulting
For Ms Cat, entrepreneurship has never been about simply collecting business titles or launching another offer. Her work has consistently centered on helping people take what exists as an idea and turn it into something tangible.
Through Ms Cat Consulting, she works with entrepreneurs on the structure behind their businesses, from business development and systems to branding, revenue strategy, visibility, and execution.
Over time, a second part of her work kept growing, and that was helping people become published authors.
Now, that work is expanding through THIS SHOULD’VE TOOK ME OUT, a collaborative book series built around real stories of survival, rebuilding, and what happens after the experience that could have changed everything.
The first volume, MORE THAN MY SENTENCE: The Lives Built After Incarceration, is scheduled for release November 1, 2026.
And for Ms Cat, the series is not a departure from the work she has already been doing.
It is an extension of it.
“Whether I’m helping someone build a business or helping someone tell their story, I’m always looking at the same thing: What are we going to build from here?” says Ms Cat.
Building Beyond the LLC
Ms Cat Consulting was built around helping service-based entrepreneurs move from simply having an idea, or even simply having an LLC, to operating with greater structure and intention.
Ms Cat’s work has included business formation, business credit readiness, branding, operational systems, sales strategy, automation and business development.
Her philosophy is captured in a phrase that has become central to her brand.
“Strategy is the new hustle.”
Rather than encouraging entrepreneurs to simply work harder, Ms Cat focuses on helping them understand what is missing between having a business and actually building one that can grow.
That philosophy eventually expanded beyond traditional consulting.
Creating Community Through CEO Mode Activated
Ms Cat is also the creator of CEO Mode Activated, a business community built around education, resources, accountability, and connection.
Inside the community, entrepreneurs have access to conversations and programming around business, mindset, execution, books, resources, and personal development.
For Ms Cat, the community addresses a problem she has seen repeatedly throughout entrepreneurship, which is that access to information does not automatically create results.
“You can collect every resource, attend every webinar and save every post,” says Ms Cat. “At some point, you still have to do something with what you know.”
CEO Mode Activated gives entrepreneurs a space to move beyond consuming information and begin applying it.
That same emphasis on execution eventually became an important part of Ms Cat’s publishing work.
Helping Aspiring Authors Get to the Finish Line
Through the CEO Mode Book Bootcamp, Ms Cat has helped aspiring authors take their books from an idea toward publication through structure, deadlines, accountability, and guidance throughout the writing and publishing process.
The premise is straightforward. Plenty of people say they want to write a book.
Far fewer finish one.
Ms Cat has built her approach around helping aspiring authors close that gap.
Her work has also expanded into hands-on publishing services for authors who have already written their manuscripts and need support with editing, formatting, cover development, publishing, and bringing the finished project to market.
Ms Cat’s growing publishing catalog can be viewed at books.by/mscat, which is also becoming the home for her expanding collection of publishing projects.
Soon, that catalog will include another major piece of her work.
THIS SHOULD’VE TOOK ME OUT
THIS SHOULD’VE TOOK ME OUT is a collaborative book series centered around people who have lived through experiences capable of breaking them, but whose stories continued.
Rather than creating one anthology around a broad theme, Ms Cat is developing the project as an ongoing series, with each volume focusing on a different shared life experience.
Volume 1, MORE THAN MY SENTENCE: The Lives Built After Incarceration, focuses on incarceration, reentry, and the lives contributors built afterward.
Additional volumes are already being developed around subjects including the loss of a parent, surviving serious health and medical experiences, and rebuilding after abuse.
The stories are developed through personal interviews with Ms Cat.
From those conversations, contributors’ experiences are shaped into first-person chapters while preserving the facts, perspective, and individual voice of the person who lived the story.
For Ms Cat, that distinction matters.
“These aren’t stories I’m trying to make dramatic,” she says. “The life they actually lived is enough. My responsibility is to help them organize it in a way that allows somebody else to feel and understand it.”
Curating the Stories Rather Than Simply Filling the Pages
As the series expands, Ms Cat is also introducing a formal contributor application process.
Rather than automatically accepting anyone who wants to appear in a volume, prospective contributors first submit their stories for consideration.
Applicants whose stories appear to align with an upcoming volume are then invited to a brief contributor fit interview before final selections are made.
Each volume will have a limited number of contributor opportunities.
“This series cannot just be about filling eight spaces,” says Ms Cat. “The stories have to belong in that particular book. There has to be something on the other side of what happened.”
That “other side” has become an important part of the series.
The books do not focus solely on the experience that caused pain, loss, or disruption.
They also explore what happened afterward.
The rebuilding.
The decisions.
The changes.
And the person who emerged.
People interested in being considered for a future volume can apply to become a contributor here.
From Collaborative Author to Individual Author
The collaborative series also creates another pathway within Ms Cat’s growing publishing ecosystem.
A person may enter THIS SHOULD’VE TOOK ME OUT believing they have enough of a story for one chapter.
After going through the interview process, seeing their words on the page, and ultimately holding the finished book, they may realize their story is much larger.
That contributor may eventually decide to write an individual book.
Some will want to write it themselves through the CEO Mode Book Bootcamp.
Others may already have a manuscript and need publishing assistance.
Still others may need more extensive help developing and writing their story.
Ms Cat sees each of those paths as connected.
The goal is not to create a separate company for every new idea.
Instead, consulting, community, education, and publishing all remain part of the larger Ms Cat Consulting ecosystem.
One Brand, Multiple Ways to Build
At first glance, business consulting, entrepreneur communities, and collaborative books may look like completely different projects.
For Ms Cat, the common thread is execution.
An entrepreneur may need help turning an idea into a functioning company.
An aspiring author may need help turning an idea into a finished manuscript.
A contributor may need help turning a lifetime of experiences into a story that can finally live on paper.
In each case, Ms Cat’s role remains remarkably similar:
Create the structure.
Identify what is missing.
Build the process.
Finish the work.
That philosophy has allowed Ms Cat Consulting to expand without requiring Ms Cat to reinvent the brand every time a new opportunity emerges.
Instead, the work continues to grow underneath one umbrella.
What Comes Next for Ms Cat
With MORE THAN MY SENTENCE preparing for its November 1 release, additional volumes of THIS SHOULD’VE TOOK ME OUT are already in development.
At the same time, Ms Cat continues to operate Ms Cat Consulting, develop CEO Mode Activated, and expand her work with aspiring and established authors.
Her publishing catalog at books.by/mscat will continue to grow alongside the series.
And contributor applications for upcoming volumes of the series are now open.
For Ms Cat, all of these projects ultimately return to the same belief:
Ideas matter.
Stories matter.
But eventually, both require execution.
That’s where Ms Cat has built her lane.
Ms Cat Consulting → https://connectwithmscat.com
Ms Cat’s publishing catalog → https://books.by/mscat
Contributor applications → https://tally.so/r/2E25ze
CEO Mode Activated → https://www.facebook.com/groups/ceomode
