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The CEO Sage — Business
The CEO Sage

You’re vitally important and completely invisible. You’re performing in what you once dreamed. The thing you built to free you has become the thing you’re trapped inside.

You’ve built something real. A business that works. A reputation that precedes you. By every measure, you’re succeeding.
And something is wrong that you can’t quite name.

You’ve tried the frameworks. You’ve bought the courses. You’ve followed the gurus. And on some level you know that none of it is going to give you what you’re actually looking for, because what you’re actually looking for is yourself.

This is The CEO Sage—a podcast for the woman who is ready to stop looking outside herself for the answer.

Kris Plachy doesn’t offer you recipes or tactics or the “real way” to scale your business. She offers you something more rare: permission to listen to what you already know. In intimate, unflinching conversations, she names the truths you’ve been waiting to hear aloud. That your wisdom matters more than the strategy. That your self-trust is the asset worth protecting. That what feels like failure might actually be an invitation to something better.

If you’ve achieved the success everyone told you to want and discovered it wasn’t what you were looking for, this is for you. If you know something needs to change but can’t see the path, this is for you. If you’re ready to stop performing and start revealing—to yourself first, then to the world—this is for you.

The CEO Sage. Where the work of becoming begins with the work of remembering who you already are.

Copyright: Copyright © 2019 - 2021 Kris Plachy

Latest Episodes:

Handling the Pressure of an Aging Parent With Dementia | Michelle Arant Oct 26, 2026

Show notes

What happens when your aging parent needs you more and you're already stretched too thin? Michelle Arant knows. For five years, she ran Kris's operation while her mom slowly disappeared into dementia. On the surface, she had it all together. But she was barely holding on.

This is a conversation about what happens when you're the person everyone depends on, and suddenly you can't fix what matters most.

About the pressure that builds when you're holding it all.

About the things nobody talks about because we're too ashamed to admit we're not okay.

Michelle is here to tell you what actually helped. And it wasn't what she expected.

What you'll learn

Why information and research can't fix what you're actually experiencing
How your body holds the stress when your mind tries to stay strong
What the pressure cooker metaphor explains about your breaking point
Three things that finally helped Michelle and can help you

Michelle also created a free guide that walks through what you'll probably experience at each stage of this journey. Find it at www.michellearantcoaching.com/stagesguide. And connect with her on Instagram @groundedinthegoodbye where she talks about the hard things nobody else admits out loud.

Connect with Kris

Be sure to hit the Subscribe button for this podcast so you don't miss new episodes.
This week you heard another wise woman's voice. If you'd like mine in your inbox, subscribe to The Sage Letters at www.thevisionary.ceo/letters

Normalize Hiring Experts Oct 19, 2026

Show notes

I keep seeing the same pattern. Successful women running multimillion dollar businesses who don't have assistants. Women trying to figure out their marriages, their family problems, their health...all on their own. And I'm watching it wear us down.

What you'll learn:

Why we insist on solving everything ourselves when we're clearly not experts
The real cost of wearing yourself down trying to figure it all out
How hiring experts is actually what keeps you ahead
What you're protecting by refusing to get help
Why this shift changes everything

This is a rant, but it's the one you need to hear. About permission. About the exhaustion that comes from trying to be the expert in everything. About why hiring experts isn't failure, it's exactly what you need.

Connect with Kris

Be sure to hit the Subscribe button for this podcast so you don't miss new episodes.

If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to the Sage Letters to go deeper: www.thevisionary.ceo/letters

I Wanted to Be Proud of Myself When My Mother Died Oct 12, 2026

Show notes

On September 27th, my mom passed away at 88 years old. I was with her, holding her hand, as she died.

In this deeply personal episode, I'm sharing what that experience was like, the complicated relationship my mother and I navigated throughout our lives, and the decision I made months before her death that changed everything about how I experienced losing her.

We talk about the realities of aging parents, the emotional responsibilities we carry as adult children, the importance of allowing people their own agency, and why we need to normalize honest conversations about death, grief, and family relationships.

But this episode isn't really about death.

It's about how we choose to live.

It's about recognizing that even when we cannot control our circumstances, we can decide who we want to be within them.

And it's about the extraordinary peace that can come from making that decision on purpose.

Whether you're caring for an aging parent, navigating a difficult relationship, or facing a circumstance you never wanted, I hope this conversation reminds you that you always have a choice about how you show up.

The question is: What would your future self be proud of you for choosing today?

Connect with Kris

Stay in touch by subscribing to the Sage Letters: www.thevisionary.ceo/letters
Let's work together. Explore SAGE at www.thevisionary.ceo/sageinvitation
Be sure to hit the Subscribe button for this podcast so you don't miss new episodes.

A Time to Learn or a Time to Believe? Oct 05, 2026

Show notes

You're researching. You're exploring. You're gathering more information. But what if the real problem isn't that you don't know enough? What if you just don't believe yet?

What you'll learn

The difference between times in life for learning and times for believing
How successful women use "I need more information" when they're actually afraid to move
Why we make things complicated when we're scared
What's actually separating you from what you want (and it's not what you think)
What to ask yourself when you keep spinning

Kris has been thinking about this. Watching people stay stuck. Watching herself stay stuck. And she knows what actually shifts when you stop needing more learning and start believing in what you already know.

Connect with Kris

Want the video Kris references in this episode? Click HERE.
Stay in touch by subscribing to the Sage Letters: thevisionary.ceo/letters
Let's work together. Explore SAGE at thevisionary.ceo/sageinvitation
Be sure to hit the Subscribe button for this podcast so you don't miss new episodes.

Swallow Feelings Much? Sep 28, 2026

Show notes

You swallow your feelings to keep the peace. But you're the one paying the price.

Kris has stopped doing it. Something shifted this year. She's unwilling to pretend she isn't feeling what she's feeling or thinking what she's thinking. When she's named it, risking the relationship, something unexpected happened. The relationships either got stronger or they recalibrated into something more honest.

But here's what she's noticing in her clients: everyone is doing what she used to do. Holding back. Not bringing their whole self to the table. Swallowing feelings so other people don't have bad feelings. Building lopsided relationships where one person gets supported and the other doesn't. And then wondering why they don't feel seen or known or safe to be themselves.

She's watching how this pattern keeps women from being who they actually are. How it creates resentment and separation. How it makes them small.

What you'll learn:

Why you learned to swallow your feelings in the first place
What happens to a relationship when you finally stop doing it
How swallowing feelings alters your experience
Why you've built relationships where only one person's needs matter
What you tell yourself about why you can't be yourself
What's actually on the other side of honest

Telling the truth might cost you something, but so does pretending.

Connect with Kris

Stay in touch by subscribing to the Sage Letters: thevisionary.ceo/letters
Let's work together. Explore SAGE at thevisionary.ceo/sageinvitation
Be sure to hit the Subscribe button for this podcast so you don't miss new episodes.

Happiness is a Magnet Sep 21, 2026

Show notes

You can't wait to feel happy. You have to practice it.

Kris has been thinking about joy. Real joy, not the performative kind. The kind where you wake up and think, okay, this is good. She's noticed something in herself this year and in the women she works with: happiness isn't something that just happens to you. It's something you have to make a practice of.

Most of us are too busy absorbing everyone else's problems, worries, and fears to find our own joy anymore. We put happiness on the someday list. We treat it like a luxury instead of essential. We wait until we feel like it instead of initiating it.

But here's what Kris believes with every ounce of her being: happiness is a magnet. The more you allow yourself to indulge in joy, the more joy finds its way to you. And the people around you feel it. They notice it. They're drawn to it.

What you'll learn:

Why you can't wait to feel happy any more than you can wait to feel hunger
How to treat your joy as essential as oxygen
What happens when you get immersed in everyone else's challenges
Why laughter isn't performative
How your happiness is actually a magnet for more of what you want
Where to start this week

Spend a little time thinking about this. Make a promise to yourself. Then keep it.

Connect with Kris

Stay in touch by subscribing to the Sage Letters: thevisionary.ceo/letters
Let's work together. Explore SAGE at thevisionary.ceo/sageinvitation
Be sure to hit the Subscribe button for this podcast so you don't miss new episodes.

Meditation for the Over-Functioning Woman Sep 14, 2026

Show notes

This episode is different. There's no lesson, no breakdown, no list of takeaways. Just a meditation.

Kris created this for the women who can't stop. The ones who feel guilty the moment they're not producing. The ones whose nervous system never really rests. The ones who measure their worth by what they accomplish and their value by who needs them.

She's not asking you to fix anything or become anything. She's just inviting you to remember something you probably forgot: you're allowed to be here without earning it.

Take 15 minutes. Find somewhere comfortable. Close your eyes. And let her remind you who you are when nobody needs anything from you.

Connect with Kris

Stay in touch by subscribing to the Sage Letters: thevisionary.ceo/letters
Let's work together. Explore SAGE at thevisionary.ceo/sageinvitation
Be sure to hit the Subscribe button for this podcast so you don't miss new episodes.

Break Patterns & Cycles Sep 07, 2026

Show notes

You say you want it. Then you spend all your energy explaining why you can't have it.

Kris has been working on breaking her own cycles, and she's watching this pattern everywhere. Women tell her they want more revenue, more freedom, a better team, less responsibility. Then the moment she asks what needs to change, they argue about why it's impossible. How expensive it would be. How hard. How much time it would take. Why it won't work.

Here's what she's noticing: we get on treadmills and we stay on them. We believe we can't break out because the pattern feels so true to us. We tell ourselves stories about what's possible and what isn't, and we defend those stories like they're facts. I can't eat cauliflower. I can't change my business. I can't leave. I can't do it alone. I can't, I can't, I can't.

But the only thing stopping you is that you haven't decided to do it yet.

What you'll learn:

How we self-assign ourselves to categories that don't actually exist
Why arguing about difficulty is really just avoiding action
What difference makers do that everyone else doesn't
Why your ideas for yourself are your answers
How visionaries get derailed by everyone else's approach
What it actually takes to get what you want

The amount of time you waste talking about why you can't do something is the time it would take to just do it.

Connect with Kris

· If you want to know more about The Shift that's coming up, subscribe to the Sage Letters to be informed: www.thevisionary.ceo/letters

· If this is you, let's work together. Explore SAGE at www.thevisionary.ceo/sageinvitation

· Be sure to hit the Subscribe button for this podcast so you don't miss new episodes.

The Shift Aug 31, 2026

Show notes

You built the dream. Now the ground underneath it is changing.

Kris is experiencing it.

She's talking to women whose businesses are soaring but they don't want to run them anymore.

Women whose businesses are falling apart and they're not sure they want to rebuild.

Women who sold and are asking, now who am I?

This is the shift. It can be external (the market, the team, the industry) or internal (something changing inside you) or both. And what makes it uniquely hard is that you know exactly what you're capable of. You know you could build something new. You just don't know if you want to, or if you're willing to risk it, or what that new thing even is.

She's been thinking about what this moment requires. Not more strategy. Not more content. Just space. Space to be confused. Space to dream a little. Space to not do it alone.

What you'll learn:

• Why this shift feels so disorienting even at the top of your game • How every major move in your life has been about creating what you needed • Why your immediate circle probably can't understand what you're experiencing • What it means to be closer to finishing than starting • How to hold both the practical reality and the dream at the same time

If you're in this moment, you're not alone. Kris is talking about it so tune in.

Connect with Kris

If this episode landed for you, subscribe to the Sage Letters to go deeper: www.thevisionary.ceo/letters
Interested in joining the live event in September? Visit https://www.thevisionary.ceo/septemberwithkris for the details and to register.
If this is you, let's work together. Explore SAGE at www.thevisionary.ceo/sageinvitation
Be sure to hit the Subscribe button for this podcast so you don't miss new episodes.

Your Confusion Is Telling You Something Aug 24, 2026

Show notes

Your confusion isn't a problem. It's a tell.

In her years of coaching women, Kris keeps seeing the same pattern. Women say they're confused about what they want, whether to keep an employee, or what their next move should be. But confusion isn't the real issue.

Confusion means you actually know what you want, or what needs to happen. You just don't like the consequences. So instead of choosing, you stay stuck in confusion, waiting for other people to change or circumstances to shift in your favor.

She walks through how to move through confusion. The takeaway method: remove an option and notice how you actually feel. Get another brain: someone objective who isn't invested in your choice can see solutions you can't. Or just take action: action creates clarity in ways confusion never will.

What you'll learn:

Why your confusion is really about not wanting to deal with consequences
How to tell the difference between not knowing and not wanting to choose
The takeaway method for revealing what you actually want
Why you need someone outside your story
How action dissolves confusion faster than thinking ever will

Stop mistaking discomfort for confusion.

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