Currently accepting two new clients · Q3

The version of leadership you don't get coached on in the boardroom.

Dr. Sarah Kim, PCC · ICF-certified · Practicing since 2015

I work confidentially with CEOs, founders and senior executives on the parts of the role the calendar doesn't make time for — succession, self-trust, ego, family, the way you actually show up under pressure.

What this practice is

  • 1:1 confidential coaching for CEOs, founders & senior execs
  • Chemistry call first — 30 min, no charge, no expectation
  • Bilingual method — strategic + somatic, never one or the other
  • Six clients max on the annual engagement at any time
  • ICF PCC · PhD Clinical Psychology · Operator background

The hardest part of senior leadership is not the strategy or the operations. It is what they ask of the person doing the work — and how few places in your life are honest enough to discuss that.

My job is to be one of those places.

— Dr. Sarah
The work

Four ways we can work together.

All engagements are confidential and protected by formal coaching ethics. Each begins with a no-cost chemistry call so we both know it's right before any commitment is made.

i.

The Annual Engagement

The cornerstone of my practice. Twice-monthly 75-minute sessions, plus access between sessions for the moments that need an outside voice in real time. For CEOs and founders working on the part of leadership that doesn't show up on the org chart.

12 months·2× per month·6 clients max
ii.

The Transition Intensive

For executives stepping into a new role — new CEO, founder-to-CEO, public-board chair, fractional-to-full-time. Weekly sessions for the first 100 days. Designed to compress a year of learning into a season.

100 days·Weekly·4 per year
iii.

Founder Couples

For co-founder pairs (and the occasional CEO-and-spouse) working through the unique entanglements of building something serious together. Monthly 90-minute sessions for at least six months.

6 months min·Monthly·2 couples max
iv.

Group Cohort

A small, vetted cohort of eight CEOs and founders. Monthly group sessions plus 1:1 quarterly check-ins. Built for the version of peer learning that doesn't exist inside YPO or Forum. Twelve-month commitment.

12 months·Monthly group + quarterly 1:1
My approach

How I work, step by step.

A few notes on the method, the assumptions, and what it costs you — in time and in honesty — to do this kind of work well.

01.

The chemistry call comes first. Always.

Thirty minutes, no charge, no expectation. You leave knowing whether the fit is there. I leave knowing whether the work is mine to do. About one in three calls becomes an engagement, and that is by design.

02.

The first three sessions are a diagnostic, not a coaching arc.

Before we set goals I want to understand the system you operate inside — the company, the home, the body, the calendar, the things you've already tried. Most coaches skip this step. I won't.

03.

The work is bilingual: strategic and somatic.

I am trained in the cognitive-behavioral tradition and the somatic one. Senior executives are usually well-served by the first and chronically under-served by the second. We will use both.

04.

I'll tell you the thing your team can't.

There is information you cannot get from inside the org chart. My job is to surface it gently, then honestly, then ruthlessly — in that order. Most clients describe this as the part of the work that earned out the engagement.

05.

We measure progress in artefacts, not feelings.

You should be able to name three things that are concretely different in your work and your life six months in. If you cannot, the engagement has failed and we will say so honestly.

Voices

A few notes from past clients.

Names redacted by request, attributed by role and stage. Full references provided after our chemistry call where appropriate.

"
Sarah found the conversation I'd been avoiding for two years inside the first forty minutes of our first real session. The next three years of my career happened because she did.
J
J. — Public-Company CEO
$2B market cap · Series C alumna
"
The most useful relationship in my professional life. Not because it is comfortable — because it is the one place I am honest about the part of the job that breaks people.
M
M. — Founder / CEO
Late-stage SaaS · 450 employees
"
We hired Sarah after our co-founder split nearly broke the company. Two years later we are still business partners — and that is entirely because of the work we did with her.
A
A. & K. — Co-Founders
Bio / DeepTech · Series B
"
Sarah is the rare coach who is comfortable being unpopular for the right ninety seconds. I'd refer her to anyone — and I have.
R
R. — General Partner
Top-decile growth fund
Designation
ICF PCC · ORSC certified
Doctorate
PhD, Clinical Psychology · Columbia
Background
Former operator · COO, Series B SaaS
Based
Mill Valley, CA · Worldwide via video
Recent writing

A few essays, occasionally.

I write when I have something I cannot say to a client in a session. Sparingly, and on substack.

March 2025

The decision behind the decision.

Most CEOs are accidentally optimizing for the wrong thing — and the thing they are optimizing for is not in the deck.

January 2025

What replaces the founder when the founder leaves.

On founder transitions, executive grief, and the part of succession nobody puts in the announcement.

October 2024

The body is the leading indicator.

Why the most senior leaders I know learned to read their nervous system before the next quarterly report.

Begin

If this resonates, start with a chemistry call.

Thirty minutes, on Zoom, no charge. You will know within the first ten if we should work together. So will I. That is how this is supposed to work.