The Survivors Chair

This is the final episode of The Survivor’s Chair Podcast.

It’s not about quitting. it’s about choosing joy.

After a year of powerful conversations around trauma, healing, survival mode, and personal growth, Kim shares why it’s time to close this chapter.

Not because the work isn’t meaningful or important but because something deeper is calling: more laughter, more lightness, and more living.

In this episode, Kim reflects on:

• The impact of sharing trauma and healing stories
• Listening to your body when something starts to feel heavy
• The importance of honoring your own evolution
• Why choosing joy is part of the healing process
• What’s next: a brand new podcast, Somehow Still Besties

You’ll also meet her best friend of 50 years, Karol (with a K), as they introduce a new direction, one that blends real life, hard conversations, and a whole lot of laughter.

This isn’t goodbye, it’s a pivot.

Thank you for being part of this journey.

🎧 Follow Kim’s next chapter: Somehow Still Besties Podcast

YouTube - http://www.youtube.com/@somehowstillbesties

https://www.instagram.com/somehowstillbestiespodcast?igsh=MXc1cGFrbTh4bTU0cA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr

https://www.instagram.com/karolgrato?igsh=a3ptOTkxc3FqdWx6

https://linktr.ee/Kimrussellpro

In this episode of The Survivor’s Chair, I sit down with Nina Tulio to talk about the side of business most people don’t share.

Nina opens up about being over $90,000 in debt, the pressure of keeping her salon alive, and the moment she had to sell her home to save her business. 

But what she learned along the way changed everything.

We talk about:

• Money mindset and self-worth
• Leadership, burnout, and overgiving
• Why profit is personal
• Accountability and growth
• Building a sustainable business

This episode is for anyone who feels stuck, overwhelmed, or ready to do things differently—in business and in life.

Find Nina-

https://ninatulio.com/

https://www.instagram.com/ninatulio?igsh=ejRzOWV2djJxZmwz

Website - https://www.kimrussellpro.com

Facebook professional page - https://www.facebook.com/share/1CJpdMEnYF/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kimrussellpro?igsh=eHYydWpmZHpoaWZn&utm_source=qr

TikTok- https://www.tiktok.com/@kimrussellpro?_t=ZT-8ulWGvHLaot&_r=1

LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimrussellpro/

YouTube link - https://youtube.com/@thesurvivorschair?si=AmadtItWM6ID_3Ok

If you've ever felt completely lost , not broken, just unclear then this episode is for you.

Kim comes back after almost a month away and does what she always does speaks the truth.

Recording during a blizzard, sorting through the mess in real time, she unpacks what's really been going on and her struggle with consistency.

She talks about something she calls the 75% Syndrome ( when you get close to a breakthrough and pull back), and what life looks like when your mind and body aren't on the same page after cancer.

In this episode: the difference between taking a break and avoidance, why the fear of success is more dangerous than the fear of failure, what it takes to put yourself first when you never have, cancer screening updates (Signetera test results are in), and the weed analogy for trauma that might just change how you think about healing.

Kim doesn't have it all figured out. She's finding her way back, one honest conversation at a time.

The struggle bus is real.

IN THIS EPISODE:- Why Kim has been MIA — and replacing 'have to' with 'I choose'- The 75% Syndrome: building momentum, gaining traction, then pulling back- Consistency after cancer when your mind says Ironman and your body says stretch- The difference between a break and avoidance - Putting yourself first for the first time in your life- Cancer screening update: the Signetera test results- Trusting the process when you don't have clarity- The trauma weed analogy roots that keep growing back- Why being 100% healed isn't the goal, growth is- Book update and the story behind The Survivors Chair

NOTABLE QUOTE:"Trauma is like a weed you can't get rid of. You dig it up, but you left a little seed there and it just grows back. It pokes its little head up and says: just so you know, I'm still here." Kim Russell

CONNECT WITH KIM:

Podcast: Spotify & Apple -search The Survivors Chair

YouTube:https://youtube.com/@thesurvivorschair?si=AmadtItWM6ID_3Ok⁠

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/share/1CJpdMEnYF/?mibextid=wwXIfr

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimrussellpro/

TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@kimrussellpro?_t=ZT-8ulWGvHLaot&_r=1

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/kimrussellpro?igsh=eHYydWpmZHpoaWZn&utm_source=qr

Speaking & Workshops: https://www.kimrussellpro.com/

Email Sign Up - https://kimrussellpro.myflodesk.com/podcast

📚 Book: Coming soon

In this episode of The Survivor’s Chair Podcast, I’m talking directly to the people pleasers, caregivers, helpers, overachievers, and anyone who has a hard time knowing when to say when.

Even when we’ve done the work… even when we’re aware… we can still fall back into old patterns of over-helping, over-caring, and sacrificing ourselves for others.

I share a very real example of how I slipped back into those patterns and how it showed up not just emotionally, but physically in my body through stress, exhaustion, and disrupted health.

We’ll talk about why you can’t want more for someone than they want for themselves, how helping can quietly turn into self-abandonment, and how relational trauma wires us to equate caregiving with safety and belonging.

I also break down what it looks like to recognize when helping becomes harmful, how to set boundaries without guilt, and why slipping back into old behaviors doesn’t mean you’ve failed it just means you’re human.

This episode is a reminder that healing isn’t about perfection. It’s about awareness, self-trust, and learning to choose yourself.

#TheSurvivorsChairPodcast #PeoplePleasing

#RelationalTrauma #HealingJourney

#TraumaInformed #BurnoutRecovery

#NervousSystemHealing

More about Kim -

https://linktr.ee/Kimrussellpro

Email Sign up - https://kimrussellpro.myflodesk.com/podcast

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kimrussellpro?igsh=eHYydWpmZHpoaWZn&utm_source=qr

In this episode of The Survivor’s Chair, Kim sits down with her friend Julie Schindler — an Intuitive Akashic Reiki Master and creator of the Feargiveness Frequency, a healing-in-color system that helps transform trauma into treasure through energy work, color wisdom, and soul guidance.

Julie shares her powerful story of living with a life-altering spinal injury, navigating years of chronic pain, and the moment everything shifted when “pops of color” began guiding her back to life, one small step at a time.

We talk about coloring pain, self-forgiveness, nervous system healing, sobriety, and why practices like barefoot grounding (earthing)can be a game-changer for chronic pain and inflammation.

Julie also shares the heart behind SPEAKUp in COLOR, her mission to build a School of Color for orphaned children in Zambia, helping kids learn emotional expression and healing through color art and creativity.

This one is raw, hopeful, spiritual, and the kind of conversation that reminds you that healing is possible, and sometimes it starts with one color.

Topics: chronic pain, spinal injury, trauma healing, Reiki, Akashic field, grounding/earthing, somatics, self-forgiveness, nervous system regulation, healing through color, sacred service

More about Julie -

📩Email: [email protected]
🌐Website: www.80nsunny.com

🔗Linktree: https://linktr.ee/julie.schindler🌈YouTube: @FeargivenessFrequency UCVKb6jgugdnn6y7Pt1PHKMw


💞Charity: SPEAKUp in COLOR🌈GOFUNDME https://gofund.me/ab29a757

More about Kim -

Website - https://www.kimrussellpro.com

Linktree- https://linktr.ee/Kimrussellpro

Email Sign up - https://kimrussellpro.myflodesk.com/podcast

Facebook professional page - https://www.facebook.com/share/1CJpdMEnYF/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kimrussellpro?igsh=eHYydWpmZHpoaWZn&utm_source=qr

TikTok- https://www.tiktok.com/@kimrussellpro?_t=ZT-8ulWGvHLaot&_r=1

YouTube link - https://youtube.com/@thesurvivorschair?si=AmadtItWM6ID_3Ok

Books mentioned in the podcast ( paid link) - https://amzn.to/42i0yap

In this episode of The Survivor’s Chair, Kim Russell explores end-of-year pressure, social media comparison, and what it really means to live outside the highlight reel.

This conversation touches on survival mode, burnout recovery, and trauma-informed healing, especially for women navigating major life transitions.

This episode is a reminder that surviving, resting, and listening to your body count as progress.

If you’re feeling behind, overwhelmed, or disconnected from yourself, this conversation offers permission to release pressure and enter the new year gently.

You don’t need to have it all figured out, you’re allowed to be exactly where you are.

Kim Russell is a trauma-informed mentor, educator, and host with over 40 years in the beauty industry and decades of leadership experience.

As a breast cancer survivor, former foster youth, and salon owner of 30 years, Kim brings lived experience, honesty, and compassion to conversations about healing, boundaries, and redefining success.

Connect with Kim

Website: https://www.kimrussellpro.com/

Iinktree - https://linktr.ee/Kimrussellpro

In this episode of The Survivor’s Chair Podcast, Kim Russell sits down with personal stylist and closet editor Sandra Aussem, founder of Aussemista Style, for a raw and honest conversation about trauma, healing, forgiveness, and self-worth.

Sandra shares her powerful life story from adoption, childhood abuse, foster care, addiction, and loss, to sobriety, motherhood, grief, and ultimately becoming the guardian and mother figure her stepdaughter needed.

Through profound moments of reckoning, including the loss of her husband and complex relationships with both her adoptive and biological parents, Sandra reveals how gratitude, forgiveness, and compassion became the foundation of her healing.

This episode explores what it truly means to feel worthy. Sandra shares how her work helping women simplify their closets and personal style is deeply connected to helping them reclaim confidence, ease, and self-trust during times of transition.

This conversation is for anyone who has lived in survival mode, struggled with feeling “too much” or “not enough,” or is learning how to love themselves and their story fully.

• Forgiveness is not about excusing harm — it’s about freeing yourself from it

• Childhood trauma often lives in the body long before it can be named

• Addiction and self-destructive behaviors are often attempts to soothe deep pain

• Healing happens in layers — there is no single “lightbulb moment”

• Parenting can be a powerful path to healing our own abandonment wounds

• Grief and loss can coexist with joy, purpose, and meaning

• Identity can be reclaimed at any stage of life

• Feeling worthy is an inside job — but support and reflection help

• Style and self-expression can be tools for grounding and confidence

• Loving your inner child is essential to long-term healing

Kim Russell is a hairstylist, writer, speaker, host of The Survivors Chair Podcast and a trauma-informed mentor with over 40 years in the beauty industry and three decades as a successful salon owner.  

As a breast cancer survivor, former foster youth and an adoptee, Kim has faced and overcome profound challenges.

These lived experiences have shaped her work as a leader, mentor, and educator, offering a powerful lens into how trauma can impact our personal lives, relationships and careers.

Kim is certified in Traumatic Research Studies through the Trauma Foundation in Boston and actively participates in training programs, panels and mentorship for youth in foster care.

Her work emphasizes the importance of healing, self-trust, and rewriting the behaviors and subconscious beliefs around our story that keep us from achieving happiness and success.

Get in touch with Sandra -

https://www.aussemistastyle.com/

https://www.instagram.com/aussemista?igsh=ZnJpcnFnN3lqeGZi

Get in touch with Kim -

Website - https://www.kimrussellpro.com

Email sign up link - https://kimrussellpro.myflodesk.com/podcast

Facebook professional page - https://www.facebook.com/share/1CJpdMEnYF/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kimrussellpro?igsh=eHYydWpmZHpoaWZn&utm_source=qr

TikTok- https://www.tiktok.com/@kimrussellpro?_t=ZT-8ulWGvHLaot&_r=1

TikTok- https://www.tiktok.com/@kimrussellpro?_t=ZT-8ulWGvHLaot&_r=1

LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimrussellpro/

Youtube https://youtube.com/@thesurvivorschair?si=AmadtItWM6ID_3Ok

In this episode of The Survivor’s Chair, Kimgets honest about a phase no one really prepares us for; what happens when you start to outgrow survival mode.

After decades of running on adrenaline, owning a salon, caring for everyone else, drinking to take the edge off, and wearing exhaustion like a badge of honor she’s now sitting in a veryunfamiliar place, rest, quiet, and not wanting to live the way she did before.

Kim talks about the confusing in-between,the unmotivated, “lazy,” or stuck feeling when you’re actually just done with a life thatran on overgiving, people-pleasing, and trying to be everyone's savior.

She shares how cancerforced her to stop, why she chose to quit drinking, how her relationships andpriorities have shifted, and what it really looks like to start getting to knowyourself for the first time without the busyness, the wine, and the constantcaretaking.

This episode is for every woman who thinks she “should” be doing more, or doesn't know how to get off the hamster wheel and start over.

outgrowing survival mode,life after survival mode,

women in midlife feeling stuck,healing from overachievement and burnout,recovering people pleaser, quitting alcohol for breast cancer survivors,choosing sobriety after cancer,trauma, survival, women’s health,learning to rest after burnout, how to set boundaries without guilt,women over 45 starting over,life after closing a business,emotional healing after breast cancer, somatic healing and trapped trauma,getting to know yourself in midlife

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Survival Mode

02:51 Outgrowing Survival Mode

05:46 The Challenge of Slowing Down

08:41 The Importance of Connection

11:42 Letting Go of the Savior Mentality

14:42 Navigating Boundaries

17:33 Prioritizing Self-Care

20:29 The Impact of Alcohol on Life

23:31 Shifting Perspectives on Life

26:06 Learning to Know Yourself

29:20 The Journey of Self-Discovery

32:03 Embracing Imperfection

35:02 Conclusion and Reflection

Website - https://www.kimrussellpro.com

Email sign up link - https://kimrussellpro.myflodesk.com/podcast

Facebook professional page - https://www.facebook.com/share/1CJpdMEnYF/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kimrussellpro?igsh=eHYydWpmZHpoaWZn&utm_source=qr

TikTok- https://www.tiktok.com/@kimrussellpro?_t=ZT-8ulWGvHLaot&_r=1

LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimrussellpro/

Books that changed my life ( Paid Link) - https://amzn.to/42i0yap

outgrowing survival mode

life after survival mode

women in midlife feeling stuck

healing from overachievement and burnout

recovering people pleaser

quitting alcohol for breast cancer survivors

choosing sobriety after cancer

trauma, survival, and women’s health

learning to rest after burnout

how to set boundaries without guilt

      women over 45starting over

life after closing a business

emotional healing after breast cancer

somatic healing and trapped trauma

getting to know yourself in midlife

When life changes overnight, survival takes over but healing requires intention.

In this episode of The Survivor’s Chair Podcast, host Kim Russell sits down with Theresa Mazzuco, founder of Your Business Blueprint, to explore what happens when trauma, stress, and entrepreneurship collide.

After her father’s heart attack, Theresa suddenly found herself running his company while battling her own health anxiety, and complications brought on by chronic stress and grief.

Through her journey, she discovered how unresolved trauma lives in the body, how functional and integrative medicine can restore balance, and why nervous-system awareness is essential for leaders and founders.

Today, Theresa helps early-stage entrepreneurs use her Start Smart Framework to create solid business foundations that can hold through life’s hardest moments.

Together, Kim and Theresa discuss:

• The link between grief, the nervous system, and chronic illness
• How to navigate burnout, caregiving, and leadership after trauma
• The difference between symptom management and root-cause healing
• Practical ways to build sustainable, trauma-informed business systems
• Why alignment and self-trust are more powerful than hustle
• 
  

This episode is both heartfelt and educational—a reminder that success doesn’t have to come at the expense of your health. I

f you’ve ever ignored your body’s warnings or pushed through burnout, this story will help you slow down, breathe, and rebuild with compassion.

trauma-informed entrepreneurship, Theresa Mazzuco, Your Business Blueprint, Start Smart framework, sustainable small business, grief and entrepreneurship, stress and autoimmune symptoms, functional vs traditional medicine, nervous-system regulation, trauma-conscious leadership, women in business, healing while building, Kim Russell, The Survivor’s Chair Podcast

Follow Theresa Mazzuco

https://www.instagram.com/trebuildsbusinesses

https://www.facebook.com/theresa.mazzuco

Order the book The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk

https://amzn.to/42i0yap

(Paid link)

Follow Kim Russell

Website - https://www.kimrussellpro.com/

Email sign up - https://kimrussellleaderreset.myflodesk.com/j6zv5fcak7

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/share/1CJpdMEnYF/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kimrussellpro?igsh=eHYydWpmZHpoaWZn&utm_source=qr

TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@kimrussellpro?_t=ZT-8ulWGvHLaot&_r=1

Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimrussellpro/

With over two decades of experience supporting C-suite leaders, Sarah shares what it means to carry the invisible weight of keeping everything (and everyone) organized, and how years of holding space for others eventually taught her how to ask for help herself.

Now 25 years sober, Sarah reflects on the lessons she learned in recovery and how one day at a time, community over isolation and service to others became the same tools that helped her navigate her breast cancer diagnosis in 2023.

In this bonus episode of The Survivor’s Chair Podcast, host Kim Russell sits down with Sarah Hawkins, executive assistant, community builder, and breast cancer survivor , for an honest and human conversation about resilience, awareness, and the quiet courage it takes to keep showing up for life.

Together, Kim and Sarah talk about dense breasts, early detection, and the mammogram appointment she almost canceled.

Their conversation blends practical awareness with emotional truth, from the humor that keeps us grounded, to the importance of community connection, and the power of paying it forward through Sarah’s event, Mocktails & Mammograms, which supports the National Breast Cancer Foundation’s Hope Kits for women in treatment.

This episode is a heartfelt reminder that awareness saves lives and that healing is never something we do alone.

Listen for:

• How recovery tools translate into survivorship
• Why early detection and mammograms matter (especially with dense breasts)
• What to expect from reconstruction and healing
• How humor, honesty, and community can soften the hardest seasons

Keywords: breast cancer survivor stories , early detection saves lives, Sarah Hawkins breast cancer journey, Mocktails and Mammograms, breast cancer awareness podcast, women supporting women through cancer, executive assistant burnout, community healing stories, Kim Russell podcast, the survivors chair podcast

Follow Sarah: www.linkedin.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahmartinhawkins/

accesspointcollective.carrd.cohttps://accesspointcollective.carrd.co/

mocktailsandmammograms.carrd.cohttps://mocktailsandmammograms.carrd.co/

Follow Kim:

Website -

https://www.kimrussellpro.com

Email sign up link - https://kimrussellleaderreset.myflodesk.com/j6zv5fcak7
 

Facebook professional page - https://www.facebook.com/share/1CJpdMEnYF/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kimrussellpro?igsh=eHYydWpmZHpoaWZn&utm_source=qr

TikTok -

https://www.tiktok.com/@kimrussellpro?_t=ZT-8ulWGvHLaot&_r=1

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kimrussellpro/

Amazon - Books that changed my life

https://amzn.to/42i0yap

(as an amazon associate I earn from qualifying purchases)