The CEO Sage

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

If you recognize there's a bottleneck between where you are and where you want to be, this is for you.

Kris has closed her business and opened her practice. The difference matters. A practice isn't about reaching thousands through funnels and content calendars. It's about working directly with women who are ready to actually change.

Not women who want to learn more. Women who want to execute differently. Not women who are curious about personal growth. Women who are willing to do the uncomfortable work to get a different result. Women who know something has to shift but can't figure out what.

She's looking for women at different stages. Some are trying to grow their companies but know their confidence or competence is the bottleneck. Some have built the life they dreamed and are asking who they are now. Some are close to selling and unsure who they need to become in that process. Some are drowning in masterminds and group programs when what they actually need is someone to help them remember who they are.

What you'll learn

• What kind of woman is actually ready for private coaching
• Why group masterminds and programs might not be what you need
• How to know if you're in learning mode when you should be in integration mode
• What happens when you stop exposing yourself to everyone else's ideas
• About a 2-day live event happening in September

If you're listening to this and thinking "that's me," it probably is.

Connect with Kris

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

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Every business has an ending. The question is whether you're going to plan for it or let it happen to you.

Kris is thinking about something that doesn't get talked about nearly enough. Aging. Exits. The reality that your business, no matter how successful it is, will not last forever. And if you're waiting until you're ready to leave to start planning, you're already too late.

She's watched it happen too many times. Women in their 50s and 60s realize they need to exit and discover they've built a business that cannot operate without them. They cannot delegate. They cannot step back. The business needs what's in their head to function. And now they're stuck.

Here's what you need to know: it takes 12 to 36 months to get a business ready to sell. If you're already wondering about it, you should start now. Not because you have to sell tomorrow, but because getting ready invites opportunity.

What you'll learn:

• Why most women never think about exit strategy the way men do
• How building a business as if you could sell it changes everything
• What happens when you become too enmeshed in your own business
• The tipping point where it becomes too late to exit easily
• How to shift from founder to custodian of what you've built
• What to ask yourself if you're staying past your expiration date

The sooner you start thinking about this, the more choices you'll have. It's time to get honest about what comes next.

Connect with Kris

• Build a business you can actually leave. Explore SAGE at www.thevisionary.ceo/sageinvitation
• Be sure to hit the Subscribe button for this podcast so you don't miss new episodes.
• If this episode landed for you, subscribe to the Sage Letters to go deeper: www.thevisionary.ceo/letters

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