The Kristen Boss Podcast – Episode 232: Part 3: Healing and Moving Forward

Release Date: September 29, 2025
Host: Kristen Boss

Episode Overview

In the final chapter of her deeply personal three-part series, Kristen Boss unveils the realities of healing and rebuilding after stepping away from a multimillion-dollar business. This solo episode explores themes of self-compassion, nervous system regulation, and the difficult—but ultimately redemptive—process of starting over. Kristen candidly reflects on her journey of letting go, wrestling with shame, and finding new purpose, especially after confronting both her public and private lows. For entrepreneurs and anyone navigating major transitions, Kristen’s insights offer a roadmap for aligning success with sustainable well-being.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Power of Sharing Your Story

• Kristen opens by thanking listeners for their empathy and support following her recent vulnerable episode.

• She acknowledges the relief and connection that comes from bringing her story into the open, emphasizing how shame “lives in the dark.”

  “When the stories stay in the dark, it can tend to be isolating… Shame lives in the dark. But when we bring our stories to light, it allows for healing and empathy and, dare I say, connection and community.”
  — Kristen (05:30)

2. Coming Home and Choosing Accountability

• Kristen discusses the moment she “came home to own the mess” and describes entering therapy and doing a four-day intensive at Onsite Experiences.

• She details the difficult but necessary work of self-forgiveness and understanding where she’d missed key warning signs.

  “It was really messy. I'm not going to sit here and say, yeah… everything was better. No, it was like, it was really painful. And I knew that I needed to go into a season of, like, introspective [work].”
  — Kristen (09:25)

3. Shifting Professional Identity

• She shares the internal conflict of stepping away from a known (and successful) professional identity, even as her heart was no longer in it.

• The “Beyond the Business” coaching calls, where topics went beyond strategy to authentic life coaching, brought her new fulfillment and highlighted the deep intersection of life and business.

  “Your life and your business do touch. They bleed together. It all impacts each other.”
  — Kristen (15:00)

4. Letting Go of External Validation

• Kristen describes the agony of leaving behind her established programs and the identity and respect that came with them.

• She discusses the fear of becoming irrelevant by stepping away from social media (“My algorithm still hasn’t recovered”), and learning to value herself apart from public platforms.

  “What is my worth apart from an algorithm, apart from that feedback?”
  — Kristen (21:57)

5. The True Nature of Burnout

• She decouples burnout from sheer hours worked, explaining instead how chronic misalignment and nervous system dysregulation were the real culprits.

• Kristen explains the science of fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses, and how unchecked micro-stressors accumulate, leading to self-sabotage and exhaustion.

  “It wasn't that I was working too much hours wise, it was that I was chronically and consistently dysregulated… My body is always saying, we're not safe, we're not secure, we don't have enough resources. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go.”
  — Kristen (34:52)

6. Building a New Company — and a New Self

• Kristen and her husband Scott began work on their new startup, Sondera, aiming to help others regulate their nervous systems and make decisions from a centered place.

• She admits she tried at first to “erase herself” from this new business, believing she couldn’t be trusted with a brand after her past mistakes.

  “How do I erase myself or almost become non-existent in this new business?... What I was trying to understand—remember I talked about it like an addiction. So I thought being sober meant erasing myself.”
  — Kristen (46:11)

7. Redemption in the Rebuild

• Contrary to her expectations that healing required stillness, Kristen finds the real work happened as she began building again—facing the vulnerability and ego hits of a new, uncertain venture.

• She recognizes the vital role Scott has played in her emotional healing, especially learning to soften and accept help.

  “Our healing happens when we are put in the same circumstance and we choose differently and we operate differently.”
  — Kristen (59:12)

  “I have never been so vocal about my feelings of vulnerability, of inadequacy, of smallness as I have in my healing.”
  — Kristen (1:04:40)

8. Lessons in Humility & Purpose

• Kristen reflects on investing not just money, but her ego and pride into the new endeavor, uncovering the ‘price tag’ of personal transformation.

• She tells how truly transformative it is to rebuild while allowing herself to be seen in messiness, not just in triumph.

  “If all the time and the energy and the money that we have put into the startup, if the only thing I get out of it was all the healing it brought in my life—I guess it's worth it.”
  — Kristen (1:10:30)

9. Why Human Story Always Comes First

• A friend’s advice reminded her Sondera needed a human story—her story—to resonate.

• She’s now motivated by saving even one high achiever from self-destruction through nervous system awareness.

  “If I could create an intervention for people to live a more centered, whole life where they do not self-destruct in harmful ways, however that looks to people... I want to build the lifeline.”
  — Kristen (1:15:08)

10. Embracing the Messy Middle

• Kristen closes by recognizing that her journey is far from over but encourages listeners to see the value in the “brutal” building process.

• She invites listeners to consider how what they’re building is shaping who they are—perhaps more than any end result.

  “The wiser part of me gets to run this show… I truly believe that my story is getting redeemed, the stage is getting redeemed, my brand is getting redeemed… you can call it a rebrand. I'm calling it my redemption arc.”
  — Kristen (1:23:00)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Nothing has taught me empathy more so than my own shortcomings.” (07:28)
• “My world would have been entirely insular and, honestly, self-serving. It would have been about me.” (1:20:30)
• “Everyone loves a great character arc… We want to know that change is possible. So what better way than to invite people into the story?” (1:19:25)
• “I've never cried so much as I have this year. But also, I have a strange amount of peace in the height of the most uncertainty I've ever had in my life…” (1:24:38)

Important Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|---------| | 05:30 | The power of bringing stories to light | | 09:25 | Beginning intensive therapy and self-forgiveness | | 15:00 | Integrating life coaching into business programs | | 21:57 | Navigating fear of irrelevance after going offline | | 34:52 | The science and consequences of chronic stress | | 46:11 | Attempting to erase herself from her new business | | 59:12 | Realizing healing occurs in the rebuilding process | | 1:04:40 | Vulnerability and emotional partnership with spouse | | 1:10:30 | Evaluating the true cost—and value—of healing | | 1:15:08 | Deciding to share the human origin of Sondera | | 1:23:00 | Embracing the “redemption arc” and messy middle |

Final Thoughts

Kristen Boss’s raw account in this episode is a testament to the humility, courage, and hope required to rebuild not just a business, but a whole self. She challenges listeners to see healing as both an internal and a communal process—one that demands the willingness to be seen in our most unfinished, unpolished states. Her story is fitting for anyone seeking not just to rise again, but to rise with a deeper wisdom, generosity, and self-awareness than before.

Next episode tease: A deeper dive into nervous system regulation and how it impacts your day-to-day life, plus guest experts.