private advisory

CEO on Fire Executive coaching

WHEN THE DECISION ISN’T JUST BUSINESS.

The most consequential decisions in life rarely belong entirely to one category.

A business decision may carry implications for your family. A relationship may influence how you lead. An exit can change your financial reality, your identity, and what you want from the next chapter. Sometimes the decision itself is clear—but what it means for the rest of your life is not.

CEO on Fire provides confidential private advisory for CEOs, founders, executives, and other accomplished individuals navigating situations where professional and personal considerations intersect.

WHAT BRINGS SOMEONE TO PRIVATE ADVISORY?

There is rarely one reason.

Sometimes there is a specific decision to make. Other times, something has changed—a business, a relationship, a family dynamic, a financial reality, or simply your understanding of what you want.

Private advisory becomes particularly valuable when the situation is consequential, multiple parts of life are involved, and there is no obvious person with whom to think through the whole picture.

A consequential decision

A choice involving your company, career, relationship, family, or future where what is at stake extends well beyond the immediate choice.

A transition

An acquisition, exit, succession, changing role, relationship shift, family transition, or new chapter that raises questions about what comes next—and who you are within it.

Relationships & family

Marriage, partnership, children, aging parents, family businesses, or the ways ambition, wealth, and demanding careers affect the people closest to you.

Wealth, achievement & identity

The questions that can emerge around success itself—trust, responsibility, expectations, lifestyle, purpose, identity, and what you want achievement to make possible in your life.

A private situation with no obvious advisor

Something too personal for the board, outside the role of your attorney or wealth advisor, inappropriate to discuss casually, or simply too interconnected to fit neatly within one professional discipline.

And sometimes there is no crisis, transition, or decision at all.

There is simply a sense that an important part of your life deserves more thought than it has been given.

A PLACE TO THINK DIFFERENTLY.

Private advisory begins with understanding the full context—not only what is happening, but who is involved, what matters to you, what may be influencing the situation, and what different choices could mean for the rest of your life.

Sarrah listens for what is being said and what may be harder to articulate. She asks direct questions, challenges assumptions, identifies patterns and dynamics that may be shaping the situation, and offers perspective informed by more than a decade of working closely with accomplished people.

Sometimes the work is highly practical: preparing for a difficult conversation, thinking through a decision, weighing competing priorities, or determining what to do next.

Other times, it goes deeper: understanding why a situation keeps repeating, examining what may be influencing your choices, reconsidering what success means to you, or confronting something that has been easier not to examine.

A conversation about business may become a conversation about family. A relationship issue may reveal something about leadership. A decision about the future may raise a larger question about identity.

The subject can change. The relationship—and the context Sarrah brings to it—doesn’t.

CONSISTENCY. CONTEXT. ACCESS.

CONSISTENCY

Every private advisory client has a protected hour with Sarrah each week. The consistency is intentional. It creates the depth of relationship and accumulated understanding that allow the work to become more valuable over time. The cadence is consistent; the scheduling is flexible. Sarrah understands the realities of demanding lives and works with clients when travel, business, family, or unexpected circumstances require a change. There is no predetermined agenda. What matters most that week determines where the conversation goes.

CONTEXT

Over time, Sarrah develops an understanding of the people, history, pressures, ambitions, relationships, and patterns surrounding your life. That context changes the conversation. You don't have to explain everything from the beginning when something happens. Sarrah already understands much of what came before, who is involved, and why the situation may matter beyond what is immediately visible. The longer the relationship develops, the more useful that context becomes.

ACCESS

Important situations don't wait for scheduled conversations. Clients have direct access to Sarrah between meetings by text and email, with brief calls between scheduled conversations when circumstances warrant. A decision may need to be made. A difficult conversation may be about to happen. Something unexpected may change the situation entirely. If something important happens, you don't have to save it for the next meeting.

AN ANNUAL ADVISORY RELATIONSHIP.

Private advisory is structured as a 12-month engagement, allowing the relationship, trust, and context to deepen over time.

The work evolves with you—sometimes centered on an immediate decision or transition, other times moving across business, leadership, relationships, family, identity, or the questions that emerge as life changes.

Because this level of advisory requires meaningful availability, Sarrah works with no more than 10 private advisory clients at a time.

THE RIGHT ADVISORY RELATIONSHIP MATTERS.

CEO on Fire is designed for accomplished people who value candor, discretion, depth, and a relationship that develops over time.

The work is most valuable when you are willing to speak openly, examine assumptions, consider perspectives that may challenge your own, and look beyond the immediate problem to understand what may actually be influencing it.

Sarrah will offer perspective, ask difficult questions, and tell you what she sees—even when it may not be what you want to hear.

The goal isn’t to have someone make your decisions for you. It’s to have someone you trust beside you while you make them.

begin with a private conversation

CEO on Fire Executive coaching

You may be facing a specific decision. Something in your life may have changed. Or you may simply recognize the value of having a trusted advisor who understands the broader context of your life.

The first conversation is an opportunity to understand what is bringing you here and determine whether a private advisory relationship makes sense.