From Tragedy to $1M Business: Krista St-Germain on Post-Traumatic Growth for Widows

In 2016, Krista St-Germain's husband was killed by a drunk driver. They'd only been married a few months. He was her second husband, the romantic story everyone dreams of. She thought her best days were finally in front of her.And then the rug got ripped out from underneath her.What she discovered in the aftermath changed everything. Not just for her, but for the 600+ widows she's helped since.Krista found coaching and post-traumatic growth - the idea that we don't just bounce back from trauma, we can actually bounce forward to higher levels of life satisfaction. Not because we're grateful for what happened, but because we use it to live more on purpose.In this episode, Krista shares her journey from working in aerospace (for the money, not the planes) to building a 7-figure coaching business. She started in 2018 with 1:1 clients and made $85K her first year. By 2019, she'd crossed $100K and launched The Widowed Mom Podcast. By 2021, she hit $1M.She also gets real about what it took internally. For a long time, she didn't even identify as a widow. She didn't think she was qualified to help. Until she realized her clients didn't care about her story - they cared about whether she could help them.The moment she claimed the title of grief expert? Everything shifted.In this episode, we talk about:Losing her husband to a drunk driver and what the aftermath was really likePost-traumatic growth and the 5 areas where people can bounce forward after lossWhy she resisted coaching widows for so long and what finally shiftedThe revenue progression: $85K year one, $309K year two, $650K year three, $1M+ year fourWhy she waited until $100K to launch her podcastBuilding a 6-month rolling group program that's been running since 2019Spending $10-15K per month on Facebook ads and what that actually looks likeThe identity shift of claiming "grief expert" instead of "becoming an expert"Why she hires a tapping coach to work with her clients instead of doing it all herselfWhat she'd tell someone waiting to feel ready: "Confidence is a byproduct. Show up with courage."Connect with Krista:» Website: Coaching with Krista» Podcast: The Widowed Mom PodcastReady to sign clients in the next 7 days? Grab Rebecca's free training at https://embodiedsociety.com/clients