SHE BUILDS.

People. Businesses. Brands. Leaders. Opportunities.

Shelly Gould Peterson is an entrepreneur, business strategist, speaker, personal branding expert, and community leader with nearly 30 years of experience building organizations, developing people, and turning ambitious ideas into measurable results.

Today, she is the Founder and CEO of Promoting Me and the Founder of EMPOWER ME, two platforms created to help people recognize their value, own their story, strengthen their identity, and build what comes next.

Founder & CEO of Promoting Me | Founder of EMPOWER ME | Business Strategist | Speaker | Community Leader

FROM CONSTRUCTION
TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Shelly Peterson’s business education started long before she ever held an executive title.

As a third-generation construction professional, Shelly grew up around the industry. At just 12 years old, she began helping her dad with his concrete and general contracting business, gaining an early understanding of what it takes to build a business. From hard work and customer relationships to reputation, financial responsibility, problem-solving, and getting the job done.

That foundation grew into a nearly three-decade career in construction and business leadership.

Over 30 years, Shelly worked across virtually every area of business and helped deliver more than $3.5 billion in construction projects across 14 states. Through leadership roles with The Boldt Company and Suffolk Construction, including serving on the executive team of one of ENR’s Top 100 construction management companies, she guided major business operations, developed high-performing teams, and led and mentored more than 2,500 people.

Her expertise extended far beyond construction. Shelly became known for developing business strategies built around marketplace trends, business development, reputation, staffing, operations, financial performance, KPIs, communication, leadership, and community.

Her work required more than managing projects and numbers. It required building trust, creating accountability, developing leaders, solving complex problems, navigating change, and bringing people together around a shared vision.

Those experiences shaped Shelly’s belief that successful businesses are built through strong leadership, clear strategy, meaningful relationships, measurable results, and consistent execution.

In 2020, Shelly founded Promoting Me, bringing decades of business and leadership experience into entrepreneurship with a mission to help people become brands and make a name for themselves. She later created EMPOWER ME, an experience centered on real people, real stories, practical strategies, personal growth, and meaningful connections.

Today, Shelly applies the lessons she first began learning alongside her dad at age 12, and spent nearly three decades refining in business and construction, to building businesses, brands, leaders, and communities.

The most important thing she built was not a building. It was people.