Center Stage / the conversation
Founder, Executive Coaching Solutions LLC | Leadership Coach & Addiction Specialist
Cassie Adkins grew up on the side of a mountain in Virginia with three brothers — a childhood that, by her own telling, explains everything that came after. She is direct, unpolished when it serves the work, and deeply comfortable in discomfort. Today, those qualities are the backbone of her practice as a leadership coach, business consultant, and nationally certified addiction and substance abuse counselor serving executives navigating some of the most chaotic organizational moments of their professional lives.
Cassie Adkins grew up on the side of a mountain in Virginia with three brothers — a childhood that, by her own telling, explains everything that came after. She is direct, unpolished when it serves the work, and deeply comfortable in discomfort. Today, those qualities are the backbone of her practice as a leadership coach, business consultant, and nationally certified addiction and substance abuse counselor serving executives navigating some of the most chaotic organizational moments of their professional lives. Cassie's path to where she now sits is not the straight line of an MBA and corporate ladder. It began with architecture — she trained as an architecture student before pivoting to addiction therapy, a field she has described as requiring the same precision and structural thinking as design, but applied to human systems rather than buildings. She spent more than a decade as a working addiction therapist, building fourteen years of lived experience alongside her clinical training, before that expertise began to intersect with the leadership and organizational challenges of the business world. Her firm, Executive Coaching Solutions LLC, was launched quietly in December 2023 as a side venture, then went full-time in January 2024 after Cassie was laid off and made the decision to go all in. The practice is built on a deceptively simple premise: business success starts and ends with the people behind it. As a leadership coach and consultant, Cassie works with executives navigating high-stakes transitions — mergers, acquisitions, major organizational shifts — helping them turn complexity into clarity. Her methodology combines coaching, conflict resolution, and process optimization into strategies tailored to the specific human dynamics of each engagement. What makes Cassie singular is the combination of clinical depth and business fluency she brings to the room. Most leadership coaches approach the executive as a professional. Cassie approaches the executive as a human being with a psychological history — because she has spent years with clients in the most vulnerable moments of their lives, she knows what it actually looks like when people change, what makes change stick, and what organizational conditions make it more or less likely. That knowledge, applied to CEOs merging billion-dollar teams, produces a qualitatively different kind of intervention. She is also a certified addiction and substance abuse counselor through Rise in Recovery, the practice she founded in December 2024, making her resources accessible to individuals and families across the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia and remotely throughout the United States. In addition, she serves as an Implementation Consultant at Trainual and as a board member at Invicta International, where she brings her blend of strategic insight and human-centered leadership to support trauma-impacted communities. Cassie Adkins hosts her own podcast, "You're Not Actually A Leader Yet," where she challenges conventional leadership thinking with the same candor she brings to every coaching engagement. She joined Mornings in the Lab's Center Stage from 12 acres on a dead-end road in the middle of Virginia — a detail that, like everything about her, says exactly what she means about the kind of life and leadership she is building.
Authentic self-awareness as leadership foundation
I am a ball of anxiety — how are you?
Cassie's opening admission is as deliberate as it is disarming. A leadership coach who opens with honesty about her own anxiety in the moment is modeling exactly what she teaches: authentic self-awareness is not weakness, it is the precondition for genuine leadership.
Origin: mountain upbringing and character formation
I grew up with three brothers on the side of a mountain — and that should tell everyone everything they need to know.
This origin sets the character: raised in a challenging, competitive, no-nonsense environment. The plaid, the 12 acres, the dead-end road — Cassie's physical environment mirrors her approach: real, direct, and deeply grounded in self-knowledge.
The go-to coach for billion-dollar team transitions
When tech entrepreneurs and CEOs are merging billion-dollar teams, they call her.
The framing of Cassie as the person leaders call when the stakes are highest is a precise authority signal. Her expertise is not general coaching — it is specifically the moment of maximum organizational chaos, where most consultants fail and the difference between a good coach and a great one is measured in hundreds of millions of dollars.
The power of space, solitude, and intentional environment
I am in Virginia on 12 acres on a dead end road in the middle of nowhere — just how I like it.
Cassie's geographic choice is not incidental — it is a deliberate retreat into deliberate space. Her 12-acre practice of presence mirrors what she brings to her clients: the ability to slow down, see clearly, and operate from a place of intentionality rather than reactive noise.
The 90-minute morning blueprint for leadership excellence
Today she's sharing the exact blueprint she uses to transform leadership chaos into organizational excellence — and it all starts in the first 90 minutes of your day.
The 90-minute morning window is Cassie's central operational unit for leadership transformation. This is not morning routine content for its own sake — it is a structured argument that the first 90 minutes determine the quality of leadership a CEO brings to their organization for the rest of the day.
Accessible, honest, genuinely human: the operating philosophy
I started this practice to make addiction treatment accessible, honest, and genuinely human.
Rise in Recovery's founding principle reveals what drives Cassie's approach to every aspect of her work: accessible, honest, genuinely human. These three words describe not just her therapy practice but her entire professional philosophy — the same values she brings to executive coaching.
Integrated approach: coaching, conflict resolution, process optimization
I combine coaching, conflict resolution, and process optimization to create strategies that work for your unique challenges and goals.
The combination of these three disciplines — not just coaching, but conflict resolution and process design — explains why Cassie's interventions produce structural change rather than temporary inspiration. She addresses the human, the interpersonal, and the operational simultaneously.
Human-to-human leadership: the foundation of business success
Business success starts and ends with the people behind it. That's why I focus on the human-to-human element in everything I do.
This is the core thesis of Executive Coaching Solutions LLC — that organizational performance is ultimately a people problem, not a strategy or technology problem. It is also the insight that separates Cassie's depth from most business consultants, who address the system while ignoring the human beings operating within it.
Unveiling Leadership Truths
Episode #CS-007
Center Stage
When tech entrepreneurs and CEOs are merging billion-dollar teams — they call her.
Business success starts and ends with the people behind it. That's why I focus on the human-to-human element in everything I do.
I grew up with three brothers on the side of a mountain — and that should tell everyone everything they need to know.
Cassie Adkins is a leadership coach, business consultant, and nationally certified addiction and substance abuse counselor based in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Through Executive Coaching Solutions LLC, she works with tech entrepreneurs and CEOs navigating high-stakes transitions — particularly mergers, acquisitions, and major organizational restructuring — helping them build alignment in fractured leadership teams, resolve destructive conflicts, standardize processes, and create cultures that attract and retain strong people. She combines more than a decade of clinical training in addiction therapy with business consulting expertise, giving her a uniquely human-centered approach to organizational performance. She is also the host of the 'You're Not Actually A Leader Yet' podcast.
Cassie Adkins began her professional life as an architecture student before pivoting to addiction therapy — a field she practiced for over fourteen years with both clinical training and, by her own description, lived experience. Her work with individuals and families navigating addiction recovery gave her a deep understanding of human change: what conditions enable it, what blocks it, and what makes it durable. Over time, this clinical expertise intersected with her growing engagement in the technology and startup space, where she began applying her conflict resolution, coaching, and process optimization skills to leadership teams. She launched Executive Coaching Solutions LLC in December 2023 and went full-time in January 2024 after being laid off.
Cassie Adkins's framework for executive leadership transformation centers on the first 90 minutes of the day — the window she believes sets the cognitive and emotional tone for every leadership interaction, decision, and team dynamic that follows. Her approach to morning structure is not prescriptive, but it is purposeful: it begins with a real self-check (not the polished version), includes space for intentional thought before reactive engagement begins, and establishes the internal state from which the day's highest-stakes decisions will be made. The blueprint is the foundation of the organizational transformation work she does with CEOs — because no leadership system survives a leader who starts the day in reactive chaos.
Rise in Recovery is Cassie Adkins's addiction counseling practice, founded in December 2024 and based in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, with remote services available throughout the United States. It was built on her belief that addiction treatment should be accessible, honest, and genuinely human — reflecting both her fourteen years of clinical practice and her personal commitment to removing shame from recovery conversations. Through Rise in Recovery, she works with individuals and families who are tired of feeling stuck and ready for real recovery, offering practical tools, straight talk, and genuine support without judgment. The practice complements her executive coaching work by grounding it in a deep, human-centered understanding of behavioral change.
Cassie Adkins specializes in the most charged organizational moments: mergers and acquisitions, major leadership team restructuring, conflict between senior leaders, and cultural breakdowns in high-growth companies. Her work addresses fractured alignment within leadership teams, communication failures, process inefficiencies that consume leader time and attention, and the team dynamics that undermine execution. Her clinical background in addiction therapy — which required understanding deep behavioral patterns, motivations, and resistance to change — gives her unusual diagnostic capability when she enters a chaotic organizational environment. She identifies the human root causes of dysfunction rather than treating the surface symptoms.
Cassie Adkins's podcast 'You're Not Actually A Leader Yet' challenges the assumptions, blind spots, and comfortable self-images that many people in leadership positions carry about themselves and their teams. Drawing on her journey from architecture student to addiction therapist to executive leadership coach, Cassie brings a direct and often counter-intuitive perspective to questions of leadership development, team culture, and organizational performance. The podcast features candid storytelling, insightful analysis, and the same honesty that defines her coaching work — making it a resource for anyone willing to examine not just their leadership strategy but their leadership identity.
let's bring up our guest here let's bring in the gang here and listen we got somebody coming up here right now Cassie Atkins we're going to get into a CEO coach reveals how to transform team chaos in excellence when Tech entrepreneurs and CEOs are merging billion dooll teams they don't call Ghostbusters oh bad joke no they call her yeah yeah today she's sharing the exact blueprint she uses to transform leadership chaos into organizational excellence and it all starts in the first minutes first 90 minutes of your day Cassie Atkins welcome to Mornings in the live with Keith and Friends good morning good morning morning cath how are you I am a ball of anxiety how are you oh good so what brings the ball of anxiety today you have three brothers you're hanging out with three brothers this morning how are you I know that was not lost on me believe you me so where are you joining us from today Cassie where where you coming from today I am in Virginia on 12 acres on a dead end Road in the middle of nowhere just how I like it oh sounds amazing that does sound amazing yeah long driveway kind of thing middle of nowhere yeah is that where it's at yeah I grew up with three brothers on the side of a mountain so that that should tell everyone everything they need to know and the Plaid that's probably a giveaway giving it all away there you go there you go so Cassie we have a question we' like to ask every single guest here on the show it's pretty important question and uh you ready for it no go for it all right what is Cass morning routine not the polished version not the one you want the audience to hear what's the real one
Introduction: the CEO whisperer for billion-dollar team chaos · ~2 minutes · Cassie is introduced as the coach that tech entrepreneurs and CEOs call when they are merging billion-dollar teams and need to turn leadership chaos into organizational excellence. Her specialty is established immediately. · Virginia, 12 acres, and three brothers: the origin story · ~3 minutes · Cassie's childhood on the side of a mountain in Virginia with three brothers — and what that environment built in her. The authenticity and directness that defines her coaching style is traced to its roots. · The real morning routine: no polished version · ~3 minutes · The show's signature question elicits Cassie's genuine morning reality — not the Instagram version. Her candor here demonstrates the authenticity she brings to every client engagement. · From architecture to addiction therapy: the non-linear path · ~4 minutes · Cassie traces her unexpected career arc — from architecture student to addiction therapist — and the fourteen years of clinical experience that gave her an understanding of human change deeper than most executive coaches ever develop. · The human-to-human foundation of business success · ~4 minutes · Cassie's core thesis: that business success starts and ends with the people behind it, and that most organizational problems are human problems that require human-centered solutions. · The 90-minute morning blueprint for leadership transformation · ~4 minutes · The central practical framework of the episode — Cassie's approach to the first 90 minutes of a leader's day as the foundation of everything that follows, and the specific practices she uses with CEO clients. · Mergers, acquisitions, and team chaos: what the work looks like · ~4 minutes · Real examples of the organizational chaos Cassie is called in to address — fractured leadership alignment, communication breakdowns, conflict between senior team members — and how her combined coaching, conflict resolution, and process methodology addresses the root causes. · Rise in Recovery and the addiction therapy practice · ~3 minutes · Cassie's decision to launch Rise in Recovery and make addiction treatment accessible, honest, and genuinely human — and how the clinical depth from that practice informs every leadership coaching engagement. · Closing: what organizational excellence actually requires · ~2 minutes · Cassie closes with her foundational belief about what separates organizations that thrive from those that don't: not strategy, not technology, but leaders who know who they are and what they bring to the room.
