What Happens When You Finally Believe in Yourself
Sep 08, 2025Kris launches a brand-new mini-series with a masterclass on Self-Trust and Self-Worth for Female Founders. And she encourages us to ask: Why do we trust ourselves to build entire businesses—but not to have one hard conversation?
After wrapping the seven transitions of Beyond the CEO, this next season dives deeper—into the paradox that so many successful women face: the ability to make bold, visionary moves while quietly second-guessing themselves in the day-to-day.
Across the next five weeks, you’ll hear Kris unpack her full Self-Trust and Self-Worth masterclass, designed to help you see how every “tactical” problem—whether it’s firing someone, raising your rates, or stepping back from the business—is rooted in how much you believe yourself, and how much you believe in yourself.
Here’s what we explore:
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The paradox of female founders: bold vision paired with constant second-guessing
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The difference between self-trust (“I believe myself”) and self-worth (“I believe in myself”)
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Why tactical problems are often symptoms of deeper trust and worth issues
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How overachievement and shame fuel cycles of exhaustion and over-functioning
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What changes when you finally believe yourself and believe in yourself
This episode is your invitation to stop treating the symptoms and start healing the root. Because when you strengthen self-trust and self-worth, you don’t just lead better—you build a business and a life that finally feels aligned with the woman you’ve already proven yourself to be.
Contact Information and Recommended Resources
Your journey starts with clarity. Head to thevisionary.ceo/trust and take the Self-Trust & Self-Worth Index Kris designed to give you immediate insight.
Transcript
Hello and welcome. I'm so thrilled that you're here. We wrapped up over the last many weeks beyond the CEO, which was a series of seven transitions, right. That we talked about that I observe every single client I've worked with as they either transition into a different role in their business, they transition out of their business, or they sell their business. Like, it just doesn't seem like we can get away with not going through these transitions. So my hope through that process was to give some discovery to you that you could start to think about it. And as a result. Right.
Kris Plachy:
I'm going to start a new quarter under the umbrella Sage Coaching for Female Founders, where we're going to do the deep dive in beyond the CEO, especially in some of the core areas that, that I cover, exit strategies. And as I mentioned, you know, I, I want you to start to think about your exit even if you, even if you're like 38 years old, because you may get the opportunity to leave the business that you have, you might get the opportunity to sell it, you might have some really cool opportunities that come your way. And we can't really wrap a timeline around that. But what we should be doing is wrapping up our desire around that. What is it that you most want? Right, so we're in this upcoming live training with me. So it's going to be a live class every week and then a live coaching call, advisory call every week. So 12 weeks, lot of lifetime, you and I working with other women like you, focusing on the beyond the CEO work. Really, how do you make sure you're ready, the business is ready, the team's ready.
Kris Plachy:
How do we get you into the ad at that advisory role so that you're up out of that day to day operations? We start moving you in that direction. What are the strategies for exit? And then how do we start to leverage some AI tools to help you build the knowledge base that you have in your business, that your business needs from you? I believe it's part of your asset that you can start to build for the business. So I'm going to walk you through that as well. I'm super excited. This is going to be a very invigorating 12 weeks. And as I mentioned, it's in the container that I call Sage Coaching for Female Founders. And then after that quarter is done, I'm going to have another quarter where we're going to have a different sort of deep dive. All of this though is rooted in what I really believe to be true, which is that women seem to, first of all Women are incredible pioneers and visionaries.
Kris Plachy:
And that's why so many of you listening to this are already so successful that there is no doubt that you are incredibly capable once you've sent your mind to it. But what I have noticed is this really interesting thing that I'm calling the paradox, right between the trust that you have in your ideas and in your vision, that you see what, you see, what you know to be real, you know, what you can do, what you can accomplish. But then there's this really crazy, rampant second guessing that having been a coach now for as long as I have, I've coached a lot of very successful men. And that's not to say that there aren't men who second guess themselves, but I will tell you that I believe this is more, more predominant with women. And so I was talking with my coach, I was talking with my team, I was, and we were talking about this notion of self trust and self worth. And what I have really come to recognize and find is sort of this, you know, I'm always, I'm always looking for the way to make things that feel complicated be more simple. And what I have found is that a lot of what I've spent my entire career doing teaching, quote, unquote, leadership. Sure, there's tactics, like there's things that, you know, I would like someone to show me how to do because I didn't even know it could be done.
Kris Plachy:
And then once I know how to do it, I can get it done right. But that's not really leadership. That's managing a team, it's managing people. And leadership stands in this other space. And that's really your self possession, your self agency, your ability to make decisions, your ability to believe yourself when nobody else does. And that's really the core of what I think a lot of us struggle with as female leaders and entrepreneurs. And so I felt very compelled to make a masterclass on self trust and self worth. And so I did.
Kris Plachy:
And so what I've decided to do is share that with you over the next several weeks. And so here's actually what we're doing. We're using this in two ways. So I am going to release the audio from the masterclass that I created and we're going to share that with you over the next, I think it's five weeks and the focus is on self trust and self worth. But in addition to that, I've also created an index, the Female Founder Self Trust Index that you can go take and it will. It's really cool. It's built through chat GPT. So it's going to give you some great feedback and probably not surprise you all that much, but it will give you direct feedback on, you know, where, where are you the strongest when it comes to self trust? And, and where do you have opportunity? Where are you more tender? And the same is true with self worth.
Kris Plachy:
So self trust really is I believe myself, and self worth is I believe in myself. And I think sometimes we can struggle with both or struggle with one or the other. But all of this is. Is at the root. It's like sitting there sort of in your root chakra, if you will, right? As to why we don't make the bigger decisions, why we second guess ourselves all the time, why we don't trust ourselves with difficult conversations, why we avoid them, why we don't dare to dream that we could sell our business for $50 million, why we don't build the relationships that help us get to that point, why we don't invest in ourselves. Right? I've said this on this podcast so many times. The male clients I've worked with would not think twice about spending 60, 80, 100 grand on themselves if they knew it was going to manifest more in their business, more success in their business, all those kinds of things. Women struggle with that, right? A lot of women have to talk to their husband and their husband's not even in their business.
Kris Plachy:
And they still defer. They don't possess this belief that if they invest in themselves, they magnify their success. So over the next five weeks, you're going to get an element or a section of the masterclass that I created. But right now you could go take a the Female Founder Self trust index. It's 20 some odd. It's very short. It's like 20 questions. I think it's super cool.
Kris Plachy:
I love the, I love the technology, first of all. Plus I think it's really powerful the way it presents the feedback. So I strongly recommend you go take this and see what, see what it tells you about yourself. I know you're going to get a little nugget that's going to be super powerful. And then I want you to keep an eye out because we're going to start opening registration for the Sage coaching for Female founders. And our focus this quarter will be on beyond the CEO. Really, how to have an elegant exit. Whether you plan on exiting your business in a year or you don't even know when, I want you to be intentional, too many women just start companies and have no plan for how they're going to exit.
Oh, maybe my daughter will take a. Oh, I don't know. Maybe I'll take, you know, if somebody wants to buy it, sure. Like there's no intention. So let's set some intention together. Right? And that's what beyond the CEO is going to be all about this next quarter, and we're going to start that in early October. So my hope is that you will join me and be a part of Sage Coaching for Female Founders and this immersive experience for 12 weeks. So all of those details will be available to you when you go to www.theVisionary/CEO/trust.
It'll take you to the the Female Founder Trust Index, Self Trust Index, and as a bonus, you're going to get access to the masterclass. So in addition to hearing it on the podcast, there's also a whole video class. So I hope this has all made sense. I've been trying to share a lot of information with you. This is the introduction to what's to come over the next several weeks. I'm super excited about this conversation. I think it's a really important one for all of us to be having. And as always, if you find the content I produce for you to be valuable, please leave me.
A review means the world to me to know that you're listening and that it's valuable and it's hitting you where you need it to hit. And without further ado, let's get started on the first section of Self Trust and Self Worth for Female Founders. Talk to you next time.
Hey, I'm Kris Plachy. I'm the founder of The.Visionary.CEO. I work exclusively with female founders, high achieving women who are running multi-million dollar businesses or operations. And I want to talk to you about a moment I recently had that I would kind of consider one of those like screeching record across the needle, across the record. If you get that reference, you're probably in the right place. I had that kind of moment, right. And I want to tell you what it was and why it led to you being here with me. So I was talking to my coach and we were talking about the work that I do with my clients.
And I have spent years, I'm in my 30th year professionally and I am now in my 15th year with my own business working with leaders to improve, how they lead, to deal with the challenges that come with leading people. What all of those triggers are that we kind of have to work through when it comes to people doing things in our business that don't get the job done and at the very least and also make us like want to be crazy on the very worst. And one of the. So I've, I've tracked two, I've, I've walked two tracks my whole career. I have walked my leadership competence and my business. My business acumen are strong and capable. I'm very good at that. I'm very good at strategic strategy.
I'm very good thinking partner. I'm very good at helping people solve big problems. And also I'm a really good coach. And I've studied coaching since I was 24 years old. Before coaching was even coaching, I was learning how to be a coach. And one of the things that has never really been able, I've never really figured out what is this secret sauce because in addition to working with thousands of people and I've done presentations and all those things, what I've also done is maintained my clients for years. And you know, a lot of them will just say, it's just you, we love being with you, we love working with you. You just always are there.
I love having you in my back pocket. You know, it's all these kinds of conversations that we have. But like, what is it? Right? And so I was talking to my coach and we were talking about the last. One of the last calls I just had in my sage program where someone asked me, you know, I need to know how to fire someone, I need to know how to pay someone. And I said to my coach, like, how, how do I help these women in a different way because we've been talking about these things for years. And I was a little surprised, like, why, why are you asking me how to fire someone? We've been working together for three years and my coach and I had this conversation about two things. We talked about sort of generational ancestral knowing and intelligence that women have inherited over, over all of our lifetimes and many before us, that we just don't trust ourselves. And so we want to always consult and get ideas and make sure we're doing it right.
Right. So there's this inherent sort of knowing inside women that pushes us to ask questions about things that we probably already know the answer to. And I thought, yeah, that's probably true. And I think I probably do the same thing, even not knowing that that's what I'm doing it, because I'm not sure I trust what I know even though I know it and even though I've been doing it forever. And then the second thing I said to her out loud was, well, and the truth is every tactical problem is actually rooted in a bigger symptom, a bigger cause, right? Every tactical symptom is a rooted in a much bigger issue. If we can treat the bigger issue, we can solve the tactical problem, but most of us just want the answer, right? And I want you to think about this across your life, right? Like, how do I lose the weight? Just tell me what to do. How do I save the money? Just tell me what to do. How do I have a difficult conversation? Just tell me what to do.
But what we don't spend a lot of time is why is it hard for you to save money? Why is it hard for you to lose weight? Why is it hard for you to have a difficult conversation? And there's something else happening in there. And so I'm going to be really honest with you. What I did is I took that transcript and I of that coaching call with my coach And I asked ChatGPT because it knows me so well and I said, you know the body of work I have, you know, the work I've been doing with my clients for so many years. Will you please take this transcript of this coaching call and take the body of work that you know, I do in my sage program, the visionary sage work that I do with my clients. And will you find the through line? Gotta love ChatGPT, Chachi. ChatGPT said, well, of course, absolutely. The through line is the paradox of a high performing, high achieving female founder that she faces between her ability to make great things and huge things happen, but also her lack of self-trust and her lack of self-worth. And I was off to the races.
Because the truth is, since I can remember, let's call it high school, I have been like holding space for coaching, you know, counseling, advising, venting, doing everything I can to get the women in my life to believe themselves and to believe in themselves. And that distinction, hearing it in that way in my head, brought it all together. Because here's what I know is true. You are running an operation that the incredible risk that you had to take to get there is insane. It's mostly insane that you had an idea and you said, yeah, I'm going to go do this thing. You had no reason to think that would work, but you did it. You trusted that. And I'm going to talk to you about the domains of self-trust because I actually think there's different kinds of trust.
And when we wrap it all into self-trust, it doesn't resonate because you do trust yourself. Right? But not with everything. So how is it that I can build this multi-million dollar operation, but then I can't trust myself to deal with this one thing? That's a paradox that we. It's like this. It's like this oxymoronic, paradoxical problem that we have to figure out how to solve because it's limiting you. And it is rooted in self-trust and it is rooted in self-worth. Self-trust and self-worth need to be defined for you. And that's what we're going to do in this program.
I do this work and I have done this work and I have helped countless women learn how to believe themselves and believe believe in themselves. Because a woman who believes herself and a woman who believes in herself will change the world. And if she doesn't change the entire world, she'll change the world for the people that she has in hers. And that, my love, is what I want for you. Because you're already there. You've already built the resources you have the business you have the success you have the things that you thought were gonna bring you some level of satedness, right? But there you are, still grappling with things, still over functioning, hyper functioning. You're exhausted, you're confused. You're not making decisions where you probably should.
You think you should be better at it than you are. You use other people's milestones and success to measure your own. You stay stuck in a role in your business not because you love it, but because you don't know how to get out of it. You feel guilt if you leave it. And you certainly don't know who you will be if you don't do it anymore. We're going to end all of that. This masterclass is designed to help you build a new relationship with self-trust and self-worth in a way that I don't think you've ever heard it before for. And in a way that I believe will change the relationship that you have.
In all of the relationships that you have, like who are you as the leader, as the wife, as the partner, as the mother, as the sister, as the friend and as the you. This is the through line. You don't have a problem with having difficult conversations. You have a problem with trusting yourself or believing in yourself or even thinking that you are worthy of bringing it up. Maybe your expectations are just too high. Maybe you're just micromanaging or maybe we just need to tighten up and work on some muscles that you haven't developed yet despite all the success that you have. And that's why this is for you. Because I think that actually makes it worse.
I think the more success we have, the more hard we are on ourselves and frankly, even the more shame we feel that we aren't better at these things that other people seem to be able to do. And so I'm going to break it all down for you in this masterclass. When you're done with this masterclass, you're going to really understand self-trust and all the different domains that I've identified with that. And you're going to really understand self-worth and why That's a, that's like the low, the slow hum that we can't shake. We're going to see how that presents itself for you as a woman in your life and in your business. And then I'm going to talk to you about how you move through that. How do we start to develop better self-trust? How do we start to embolden ourselves and drop this low self-worth worthiness stuff? Because it's showing up, it's keeping you stuck, it's limiting you. You have one beautiful life here, love.
And my advocacy for you is to move through this so it stops keeping you where you are. So I'm thrilled that you here, you're here. I'm so glad you found it. This is going to be really cool work. And the, the blow up of this is that Inside Sage coaching for female founders. We take this type of work and we have conversations about it, we have coaching on it and we also have other tools that we offer. We give you some of that tactical support you need as a leader in your business. And every quarter, we identify a new topic that we dive deep into that's related to operating at the level that you're operating.
So. Coaching for Female Founders. Sage Coaching for Female Founders is exclusively for women who are running multimillion dollar operations. And there's a real reason why that's true. And I explain that to you through this course. I'm thrilled you're here. Let's get started.