Episode Overview
In this powerful episode, Kristen explores a deeper layer of hustle culture—one most people never identify: hustle as a survival response. Drawing from personal experiences, trauma-informed coaching, and neuroscience, she unpacks how our nervous systems are often running the show without us even realizing it.
You’ll learn why high-performers hit burnout despite consuming all the right strategies, and how unaddressed stress patterns are sabotaging our leadership, productivity, and peace. Kristen also introduces the four main survival responses (fight, flight, freeze, and fawn) and how they show up in real life, business, parenting, and more.
Whether you feel stuck in cycles of burnout, perfectionism, or chronic overworking—this episode will help you understand the real driver behind those patterns and how to finally change them.
What You'll Learn in This Episode
- Why hustle is often a survival strategy, not a strategy for success
- The neuroscience behind why we freeze, overwork, or people-please under stress
- How early childhood experiences shaped your default stress response
- The difference between reaction and response—and why it matters
- Why information alone isn’t enough: the gap between knowledge and action
- How to begin regulating your nervous system in real-time
Timestamps
00:00 – Intro: Life as a sideline sports mom
02:00 – Recapping the three-part healing series
03:30 – The survival response hidden inside hustle culture
04:35 – Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and how it shows up in business
05:28 – The real reason we stay stuck in reactivity loops
06:35 – Looking for security in external outcomes (and why it backfires)
07:30 – Childhood experiences that shaped our nervous systems
08:20 – Example: scarcity, chaos, and “fighting for the meat”
10:00 – Why children default to shame without external narration
11:00 – How childhood survival strategies bleed into adulthood
12:00 – What your frontal lobe does—and why it goes offline under stress
13:00 – The “infobesity epidemic” and why personal development isn’t working
14:50 – The two speeds we operate in: 0 or 100 mph
15:45 – Nervous system regulation is the real key to high performance
16:30 – What triggers actually feel like in the body (even online)
17:48 – Our brain’s obsession with certainty and black-and-white thinking
19:00 – One grounding question to ask when you’re spiraling
20:25 – Kristen’s own journey with chronic dysregulation and burnout
21:27 – The four major nervous system stress responses explained
22:30 – Fight: control as a form of safety
23:34 – Freeze: perfectionism, overthinking, and inability to start
24:30 – Fawn: people-pleasing as emotional self-preservation
25:45 – How to create safety for others with different responses
26:20 – Social media and collective dysregulation
27:15 – Rear lobe vs. frontal lobe thinking
28:00 – From reaction to conscious response: the real work
29:10 – One simple regulation tool to start using today
30:00 – Regulating ≠ never being triggered—it’s about knowing what to do
31:00 – Why this conversation is the future of personal development
32:03 – Take the new stress type quiz + download the full 26-page report
Key Takeaways
- Most people are unknowingly operating from survival mode every day
- Your nervous system is either helping or hijacking your decision-making
- High performers are often stuck in hustle loops not from laziness, but from dysregulation
- True transformation doesn’t happen from learning more—it happens when we can apply what we know, and...
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Ruthie's Table 4
For more than 30 years The River Cafe in London, has been the home-from-home of artists, architects, designers, actors, collectors, writers, activists, and politicians. Michael Caine, Glenn Close, JJ Abrams, Steve McQueen, Victoria and David Beckham, and Lily Allen, are just some of the people who love to call The River Cafe home. On River Cafe Table 4, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers. Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt, and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation. For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/ Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/ Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/ For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com