The Raising Hope Podcast

Growth doesn’t always feel exciting. Sometimes it feels like grief. In this episode of the Raising Hope Podcast, we’re exploring the hidden side of transformation: grieving old identities, old versions of ourselves, old dreams, and old ways of surviving that no longer fit who we’re becoming. If you’ve ever felt guilty for changing, scared to let go, or caught between who you’ve been and who you’re...

Have you ever caught yourself saying… “I don’t even know who I am anymore.” If so, I want you to know something: I don’t actually think most women lose themselves. I think life simply becomes so loud that they stop hearing themselves. In this special episode of the Raising Hope Podcast, we’re exploring why so many high-achieving women become disconnected from themselves—and why the first step towa...

You finally said no. So why doesn’t it feel like the relief you thought it would be? In this episode, Kristy picks up right where last week left off — not the moment you say no, but the strange, disorienting space that opens up after. The guilt that creeps in. The grief for a version of yourself you didn’t even like. And the question nobody prepares you for: if that’s not who I am anymore… then wh...

What if the secret to actually thriving — not just surviving — starts with a word you’ve been taught to avoid your whole life? This week on Raising Hope, I sit down with Dr. Wendy O’Connor, a Stanford-trained positive psychologist and life strategist for women. Wendy had the career, the marriage, the kids — everything she thought she wanted. Then she woke up one day with three daughters under 15 m...

You have been the strong one your whole life. The one who handles it. The one everyone leans on. The onewho shows up — always, without fail — regardless of what it costs you. In this episode Kristy gets real aboutwhat that identity actually costs, what it looks like when it starts to crack, and what it means to let it evolveinto something that finally serves you instead of everyone else. Including...

If you’ve ever been praised for holding everything together — and you’re exhausted from it — this episode is for you. Renee Calhoun is a licensed marriage and family therapist with over a decade of experience in trauma, family systems, and human trafficking prevention. In this conversation, we dig into the real roots of over-functioning: where it starts in childhood, why it gets praised, and what...

What if the life you’ve been living isn’t wrong — it just needs to be rewoven? This week I’m sitting down with Laura Nespoli, strategic storyteller, founder of Meshin Movement, and author of the newly released memoir-meets-workbook Threads of Me and You . Laura spent 20 years helping brands like Google, Meta, and Southwest Airlines shape their stories — and from the outside, her life looked exactl...

The in-between isn’t a crisis. It’s a portal. 🌀 That low hum that never quite goes away. The grief that makes no sense because nothing has died — except something has. The old version of you is being released. The self you built piece by piece through every achievement, every title, every role — she’s in the process of letting go. And that’s a loss, even when it’s the right one. You can be gratef...

You're not burned out. You're not broken. You're in the in-between — that disorienting threshold where the oldidentity no longer fits and the new one hasn't fully arrived yet. In this episode, Kristy goes deep on what thisstage actually is, what it feels like from the inside, and what it actually takes to move through it. Including herown story, a client story, and a five-part framework that goes...

If you’ve ever typed something into a comment section and thought that’s the thing I couldn’t name — this episode is for you. A few weeks ago, I left a comment on someone’s Reel. Ten seconds, totally off the cuff: “This is the weird in-between stage nobody talks about. The old identity no longer fits, but the new one hasn’t fully formed yet.” Two hundred women liked it almost immediately. That doe...

This is the Season 1 finale — and the episode Kristy has been building toward all season. After ten episodes of excavating the identity shift, the fear, the practical pieces, and the real cost of staying stuck, it’s time to talk about the one thing that changes everything: permission. What it is, why high-achieving women wait for it, why it never comes from the outside, and how to actually give it...

We talk a lot about the risk of changing. We almost never talk about the cost of not changing. In this episode, Kristy gets honest about what staying stuck is actually costing high-achieving women right now — in their bodies, their identities, their relationships, their time, and their potential. This one might be uncomfortable. Let it be. Key Themes: • The physical signals your body sends when yo...

This is the episode you've been waiting for. You've done the identity work. You've sat with the questions. You've gotten honest about what you want. And now the practical voice is showing up — the one that sounds like your most responsible friend — asking: okay but how does this actually work when you have bills and kids and a life that depends on your income? Kristy gets completel...

This is the episode for every woman who has built her entire sense of self on what she does — and is now terrified of who she'll be if she stops doing it. Kristy goes deep on the achievement trap: what it is, how it happens, and why the most successful women are often the most disconnected from their own sense of worth. She anchors the episode in her own experience of identity collapse during her...

There's a layer to reinvention that most people skip over. This episode goes straight into it. Kristy gets real about what it actually feels like to be a mother in the middle of trying to find yourself again — the identity shift that happens when you pour everything into your kids, the guilt that shows up the moment you want something for yourself, and what it meant to do all of this as a single m...

You know you’re stuck. You know how to move. So what are you actually moving toward? In this episode, Kristy shows you what life feels like on the other side of reinvention. Not motivational BS. Real, lived experience. What changes. What you didn’t expect. How you actually get there. She also talks about how understanding your Human Design and astrology — knowing what you’re actually built for — i...

You’ve done the work. You know you’re stuck. You know why. And now you’re sitting there thinking — okay, but what do I actually DO about it? That’s this episode. This week I’m breaking down the real, practical, no-fluff version of how you start moving when you’ve been frozen for what feels like forever. No toxic positivity. No “just take the leap.” Just the actual steps — the ones I used myself an...

Why You’re Really Still Stuck - And What Fear Looks Like When It’s Wearing a Suit You know something needs to change. You’ve known for a while. So why haven’t you moved? In this episode, Kristy names the real reason high achieving women stay stuck - and it’s not what you think. It’s not a lack of motivation, a lack of clarity, or bad timing. It’s fear. But not the obvious kind. The sophisticated k...

You built the career. You’re raising the kids. You’ve hit the milestones. So why does it feel like something’s missing in this episode? Kristy breaks down why high achieving moms are especially vulnerable to losing themselves and why that’s not a personal failure. She digs into the identity shift that motherhood actually causes (it goes deeper than you think) and names the specific kind of emptine...

Have you ever built a life that looks exactly right on the outside — the career, the title, the kids, the responsibility — and still felt completely lost inside it? That’s where this podcast begins. In this first episode, Kristy Giarratano — nurse, nursing leader, mom, and certified coach — shares the moment she knew something had to change. She opens up about what it feels like to be a high-achie...