A career building the work.
A practice connecting capacity and story.

I am Chericka Johnson, a capacity-building and storyselling strategist with 20+ years across corporate leadership, nonprofit executive work, and business ownership. I help leaders turn a priority into a working reality, and explain its value to the people whose support makes it possible.

See services  |  For consulting firms  |  For founders and experts

What connects my work

A team can believe in a priority and still struggle to deliver it. An organization can do valuable work and still struggle to explain why it deserves support. I have worked on both sides of that gap: leading the operation and communicating the value.

My career spans corporate sales, nonprofit executive leadership, and business ownership. Across those settings, my work has connected people, resources, and a clear purpose with the practical systems needed to move forward. That is the foundation of Build With Chericka.

Corporate leadership: making strategy work in the field

I began my career with Philip Morris USA in 2004, within the Altria family of companies. Over fourteen years, I progressed from territory sales leadership in Florida and Texas to regional leadership in Washington, where I led a team of seven.

Each market required a different understanding of customers, relationships, and the people carrying the work. I learned to translate national priorities into local action, adapt the message, and give teams the direction and support to execute. That experience still shapes my approach: understand the context, make the priority clear, and stay close to delivery.

Nonprofit leadership: building the operation behind the mission

I spent six years on the executive staff of Churchome, including service as Chief Strategy Officer. The organization had a global reach of more than 1.2 million people. My responsibilities spanned strategy, operations, donor development, finance and accounting, digital care, belonging, and outreach.

Hired to lead a newly created role, I designed and built Pastor Chat’s digital care infrastructure from scratch using Crisp chat technology. I built the operating model, multilingual access, conversation guides, training resources, quality standards, and escalation pathways that equipped more than 90 staff members and 30 volunteers. Together, that infrastructure and team supported more than 85,000 practical and spiritual care conversations.

I also led end-to-end execution of subsequent Vision Summit donor retreats, working from an original consultant-designed framework. The work connected the case for support with the donor journey, cross-functional coordination, and follow-through. The organization raised $5.1 million across two retreats.

Those experiences brought capacity building and storyselling together: a mission people could understand, an invitation to participate, and an organization prepared to deliver.

Leading through financial pressure and organizational change

At Churchome, I supported cost-reduction and organizational restructuring in 2023, then led these efforts from 2024–2026. I managed team and organization-wide budgets during financial pressure, guiding teams through changes in staffing and resources.

This experience informs my approach to capacity building: align the work with available resources and help people navigate the changes required to carry it forward.

Business ownership: living the decisions my clients face

I co-founded Love + Leisure, a boutique travel agency for destination weddings, group travel, and retreats. I build the offer, client communication, booking experiences, and AI-enabled workflows that support delivery.

Ownership keeps the work practical. The offer needs to make sense to a buyer. The client experience needs to match the promise. The systems need to work with the time and resources available. I bring that same discipline to founders and experts building a practice of their own.

The human reason behind the work

At ten years old, I noticed whose backgrounds and stories were missing from the room at my church. That early question about belonging stayed with me. I am a pastor by calling, and I care about whether people feel heard, respected, and able to contribute.

That perspective influences how I build: listening before designing, making ownership clear, and creating follow-through people can trust. Belonging is one of the experiences those systems can support. Capacity building and storyselling are the disciplines I bring to the work.

Why Build With Chericka exists

I partner with organizations that need more capacity to carry an important priority, consulting firms that need a senior implementation partner, and founders whose expertise needs a clearer value proposition, offer, and story.

Through Value to Vision, I turn that positioning into website copy and an AI-assisted website build hosted on Netlify. I lead the build for clients who want it handled and build and coach alongside those who want to learn.

Across my engagements, we define what needs to change, build the systems and narrative together, and put them into practice. You work directly with me, with agreed responsibilities, useful deliverables, and a handoff your team can carry forward.

Across corporate leadership, nonprofit executive work, and business ownership, I have learned that a compelling story needs the capacity to deliver on it. I bring both disciplines together: building the systems that move work forward and shaping the story that earns trust, support, and investment.