Episode Overview

In the final installment of her vulnerable three-part series, Kristen continues to unpack the emotional, spiritual, and professional journey she’s been on over the past year. Picking up where she left off—at rock bottom—Kristen shares what happened after taking radical responsibility for her actions and stepping away from the business that made her a household name in social selling.

She explores the deep healing work she’s done through therapy, a transformational retreat, and a season of radical stillness...before realizing that healing often intensifies when we start building again. Kristen discusses the creation of Sondera, her new company focused on nervous system regulation, and how the entrepreneurial process is offering her the most humbling and redemptive growth of all.

This is not a polished comeback. This is the messy middle—where ego dies, faith grows, and identity is rebuilt.

What You'll Learn in This Episode

• Why healing often accelerates in the process of building something new
• How nervous system dysregulation can sabotage success
• The dangers of attaching self-worth to productivity and platform
• Why Kristen walked away from a wildly successful business
• The origin story of Sondera and what it’s really about
• Why your internal safety matters more than external security

Key Takeaways

• Healing is not linear. Kristen thought peace would come from stillness. But it came through risk, exposure, and being seen in a new way.
• Burnout is more than overwork. Chronic nervous system dysregulation—not just hours worked—was what broke Kristen down.
• Success doesn’t mean alignment. Kristen shares how she knew she was out of alignment even though her business was thriving on the surface.
• Redemption is found in transparency. Instead of disappearing and re-emerging perfectly polished, Kristen invites her audience into the real-time journey.
• Your body tells the truth. Learning how her stress response (flight) controlled her behavior helped her take back agency and make healthier decisions.

Timestamps

00:00 – Intro: “I see you with brand new eyes.”

01:20 – Recapping Part 2: Hitting bottom and coming home

03:00 – The power of bringing your story into the light

05:00 – Deep therapy and emotional healing at Onsite

06:15 – Feeling disillusioned with her former business model

07:10 – Launching “Beyond the Business” coaching calls

08:00 – The agonizing decision to shut down her signature programs

09:45 – Stewarding success well in seasons of plenty

11:00 – Letting go of external validation and facing public perception

12:30 – The fantasy of a “quiet, offline life” vs. the call to rebuild

15:00 – Discovering nervous system regulation as the missing link

17:00 – Fight, flight, freeze, and fawn: how they show up in your business

20:00 – Why she mistook her chronic stress for ambition

23:30 – Understanding burnout through the lens of dysregulation

25:10 – Building Sondera: from idea to messy execution

26:30 – Why healing happened through building, not before it

29:00 – Learning to express vulnerability to her husband

31:00 – Letting go of ego, hustle, and performance-driven identity

33:00 – Creating Sondera as a redemptive act

34:30 – Reconnecting with her story and reclaiming her voice

36:00 – An invitation to listeners: look for the growth in your own build

39:00 – Next up: nervous system regulation and what it means in daily life

Resources & Mentions

• Kristen’s New Company:

Episode Overview:

In this raw and unfiltered episode, Kristen shares one of the most vulnerable moments of her life—the unraveling of her personal identity, the toxicity of success addiction, and the deeply human consequences of building self-worth entirely around a business. This is the second part of her behind-the-scenes story, and it’s not easy listening. Trigger warning: This episode discusses topics such as suicidal ideation, addiction, emotional breakdown, and marital strain.

Through heartbreak, pain, and brutal self-awareness, Kristen details how she reached her breaking point and the darkness that ultimately led to her healing journey. She explores what it means to lose yourself in the pursuit of achievement, the false safety of validation through external success, and the courage it takes to ask for help and be seen in your most broken state.

This is not just an episode—it’s a lifeline for anyone who has ever felt like they were falling apart behind the scenes.

Timestamps:

00:03 – Welcome + Important trigger warning

01:27 – The weight of sharing hard stories

02:19 – Ignoring the warning signs and pushing through pain

04:35 – The season of invincibility and missing the check engine light

05:28 – How validation addiction builds unnoticed

07:34 – Business as a dopamine supplier and feedback loop

09:31 – “Am I loved? Am I safe? Do I matter?” – Using business to answer soul questions

11:46 – When the business couldn’t answer anymore

14:44 – The fragile sense of self and the beginning of the breakdown

17:11 – Escaping with fiction, fantasy, and avoidance

19:26 – When you justify the escape by saying “I’m not hurting anyone”

21:33 – Traveling constantly and still feeling empty

23:49 – Using wealth to numb pain and buy happiness

26:24 – The fallout: A marriage crisis and being found out

28:48 – The darkest 72 hours

30:45 – Keynotes, private jets, and suicidal thoughts

33:44 – The people who said “Come home”

37:19 – The return: facing the consequences and fighting to rebuild

41:02 – Why this wasn't the end, but the beginning

43:19 – Starting a 12-step recovery program

45:27 – First virtual meeting in a hotel robe—true humility

48:17 – Radical grace, empathy, and the gift of being chosen despite the mess

50:11 – A call for listeners to let others in

Key Takeaways:

• Success addiction can look like high performance, but it often hides profound inner unrest.
• Business cannot answer the deepest questions of identity, love, safety, and belonging.
• Escapism—whether through work, reading, shopping, or performance—can quietly become destructive.
• Healing begins with brutal honesty, surrender, and letting people in.
• True freedom starts when you’re willing to be seen and loved at your lowest.

Call to Action:

If today’s episode resonated with you, don’t keep it to yourself.

• Screenshot and share it on Instagram, tag @thekristenboss so we can shout you out.
• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to help others discover this life-changing conversation.
• Visit www.kristenboss.com for coaching programs, resources, and support.

Resources Mentioned:

• Episode: “2:00 AM Business Thoughts” – For deeper insight on Kristen’s launch-driven business model and dopamine...

In this raw and revealing episode, Kristen begins a powerful three-part series chronicling the rise, fall, and healing that reshaped everything she thought she knew about success. This first installment focuses on the grind—how she built a thriving, multi-seven-figure business from scratch—and the glory—what it felt like to be on top of the mountain.

But beneath the surface of her seemingly unstoppable growth, Kristen candidly shares how deep-rooted scarcity, people-pleasing, and identity wounds quietly shaped her relationship with business. Listeners are invited into the hidden side of success: panic attacks, over-identification with validation, and the psychological fallout of rapid growth.

Whether you're building something new or wondering what happens after you "make it," this episode offers a cautionary tale with depth, compassion, and honesty.

• 00:00 – Intro: Behind the scenes of a “lean startup” and why Kristen is sharing this story now
• 02:30 – A message to listeners in all seasons: grit, glory, and deferred hope
• 04:50 – The illusion of control and invincibility in the winning season
• 07:12 – Kristen’s early days: scarcity, student debt, and starting over
• 09:38 – The “right offer at the right time”: how her business exploded overnight
• 12:03 – Panic attacks and sudden success: when abundance feels like danger
• 14:24 – The psychological cost of scaling faster than she could process
• 16:02 – How scarcity kept driving her, even in the midst of abundance
• 18:22 – Discovering “Sudden Wealth Syndrome” and rethinking trauma
• 20:48 – The dopamine loop of validation, launches, and performance
• 22:59 – The danger of feeling untouchable during a season of success
• 25:20 – Childhood wounds and the business of belonging
• 27:43 – Feeling like a product: how proximity and keynotes reinforced a false self
• 29:46 – Two internal narratives that quietly drove dysfunction in her business
• 32:13 – A forced detox from validation and income highs
• 34:34 – A final reflection on the parts of her that were running the show
• 36:30 – What Kristen learned from watching someone else’s public fall
• 37:45 – A preview of Part 2: the implosion, the warning signs, and the unraveling

Subscribe & Share:

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