Better Because of Divorce

Here's something nobody tells you when your marriage ends.

The most dangerous thing you can do right now is try to heal from divorce alone.

Not dangerous in a dramatic way. Dangerous in the quiet, slow, barely-noticeable way that keeps women stuck for years, carrying the same grief, the same pain, the same patterns, with no one to witness it, reflect it back, or show them another way.

Healing after divorce was never meant to be a solo project.

In this episode I'm talking about what happens when it finally isn't.<...

What Dolly Saw - And What I See in You

The world lost Dolly Parton this week.

And I couldn't let this moment pass without talking about what she meant, not just as an icon, but as a woman who spent her entire life doing one extraordinary thing.

She saw possibility in people.

In children who didn't have books. In employees at a theme park in Tennessee. In anyone who crossed her path. She didn't see who they were performing or who they were trying to be. She saw...

Every choice you make right now is sending a ripple.

Into your children, your grandchildren, your friends, and all of your relationships.

And the ripple doesn't wait for you to be ready. It doesn't ask for your permission.

It just moves.

In this episode we're talking about the two very different legacies available to every woman who is rebuilding her identity after divorce. The legacy of the woman who never came back. And the legacy of the woman who became more herself than she had ever been inside the marriage.

This summer I was in the room when my daughter got the call that she was accepted to medical school.

And I was also the one who had to tell my other daughter that her best friend had been killed in a car accident on his way to our house.

One moment she was laughing and waiting for him to walk through the door.

The next, life was changed forever. 

In between those two moments I was floating on a sailboat in the Adriatic Sea, witnessing the most beautiful, clear water I...

Most women know what they want to say; they struggle with feeling safe enough to say it.

If that sounds like you, keep reading!

In this episode I'm joined by Sara Fisk, host of the Ex Good-Girl podcast and Life Coach for women who can handle anything- except asking for what they want. 

Find Sara by clicking on either of the links above or take her free course by clicking right here.

Today, we're talking conflict resolution and having a conversation that goes so much deeper than how to avoid an a...

What if finding purpose after divorce doesn't start with a plan?

What if it really starts with permission to put yourself first?

In this episode we're dismantling the belief that has kept women small for decades: 

 ❌ Putting yourself first is selfish

❌ A good woman goes last

❌ Wanting things for yourself is dangerous.

These beliefs cost you your joy and your impact.

The woman who is running on empty after divorce isn't giving anyone her best. She's giving them her leftovers. And finding purpose after divorce is impos...

Are you waiting to move forward after divorce?

Waiting until life settles down. Until you have more money. Until you have it figured out. Until you feel ready.

It sounds so reasonable. So responsible. So safe.

But what if waiting is actually the most toxic relationship you've been in since your marriage ended?

In this episode we're breaking up with waiting and talking honestly about why moving forward after divorce has nothing to do with perfect timing and everything to do with one decision.

We cover why waiting feels...

After divorce, one of the most devastating losses isn't the marriage.

It's trust in yourself.

"I chose wrong." "I stayed too long." "How did I miss the signs?"

Your brain uses the divorce as evidence that your judgment can't be trusted. And when you don't trust yourself, you can't make decisions. About dating. About your career. About your life. You stay stuck, reactive, and waiting for someone else to tell you what to do.

In this episode replay, I'm introducing something called the Trust Fund.

Not money. Evidence.

Do you ever feel like your life is something you're surviving instead of choosing? Like you're handling everything, showing up, getting through the days and still somehow feel completely trapped?

There's a reason for that. 

Most women, a year or two past divorce, are living inside a gap they don't even know is there. They're replaying the same painful thoughts on a loop. They're waiting — for the right time, the right feeling, permission that never comes — before they let themselves do anything new. And they're surrounded by the same people, spaces, and patterns that were built...

This episode is for the woman who is still in the thick of it.

The one who cries in the car. The one who isn't sleeping. The one who is scared of what comes next and doesn't quite recognize her own life anymore. But also, the one who, underneath all of it, still knows she is worth so much more than the life she's living right now.

If that's you, this episode is an invitation to imagine.

In this episode of Better Because of Divorce, host and certified life coach Julie Steed takes...

"I can't afford it." Four little words that sound completely reasonable. Four words nobody ever pushes back on. Four words that end the conversation every single time.

And sometimes they're simply true. But a lot of the time, those four words are hiding something much deeper.

In this episode of Better Because of Divorce, host and certified life coach Julie Steed unpacks what often lives underneath "I can't afford it." And it's almost never really about money. It's about risk. It's a quiet, deep lack of trust that if you take a chance and it...

You're doing everything right. Therapy. Journaling. Talking it out with friends who understand. You are healing, and you have been for a long time.

So why do you still feel stuck?

In this episode of Better Because of Divorce, host and certified life coach Julie Steed shares the hard truth she learned the slow way after her own divorce: that healing can quietly become a trap. A place to hide. Something that feels like progress while you never actually step toward the life you want.

Julie opens up about the cycle of healing...

For decades, I reacted to my life. I thought I had a temper. I thought that was just who I was.

The truth was harder and simpler than that. I had never learned how to manage or process my emotions. And everyone around me lived inside the fallout. My marriage was an emotional minefield. My ex and my daughters navigated the unpredictability. And I believed it was simply my personality.

Today my life looks completely different. My relationship with my daughters is stronger than ever. My ex and I are amicable. And I am in...

So many women tell me that one of the biggest hurdles after divorce is the loss of self confidence. The inability to trust themselves. The feeling that the woman they used to be — capable, certain, grounded — somehow disappeared along with the marriage.

But here is what I want you to consider. Divorce didn't take your self confidence. Something else did. And in this episode of Better Because of Divorce, host and certified divorce life coach Julie Steed breaks down exactly what that is and why understanding it so important.

When you know what actually happened to y...

After divorce, something powerful happens. Women get moving. They lose weight, start businesses, start dating, build something new. The results are real. The progress is real. The accomplishments are genuinely theirs.

But sometimes the fuel behind all of that action has nothing to do with them.

In this episode of Better Because of Divorce, host and certified divorce life coach Julie Steed introduces a concept she calls dirty fuel - when you take real action and achieve real results, but the catalyst behind everything you are doing is anger, resentment, hurt, or the desire to...

Strong independent women are really good at okay.

And from the outside, okay looks like enough, but it's really survival mode in disguise.

In this episode of Better Because of Divorce, host and certified divorce life coach Julie Steed makes the case that okay, as hard as you worked to get there, is not the goal. It is not healing. And it is not anywhere close to the life you actually deserve.

Okay has a therapist. Okay has friends. Okay has a support system and a routine and a life that functions. And...

After divorce, staying busy feels like strength. A full schedule, a packed calendar, falling into bed exhausted every night. It looks like resilience. It looks like keeping it together.

But busyness is one of the most socially acceptable ways to avoid feeling anything at all. And if you have been moving nonstop since your divorce, there is a very good chance you have been outrunning yourself without even knowing it.

In this episode, Julie shares her own experience of using busyness as armor and why she now knows that surviving is not the same as...

If you've been divorced for a while and you're still stuck in the same patterns, still talking yourself out of the same decisions, still waiting for the right moment to finally move forward, this episode is for you.

The reason you're not moving isn't what you think it is.

It's not your circumstances. It's not bad timing. It's not that you're not ready.

It's something else entirely. 

In this episode, Julie Steed shares her own story of rationalizing her way out of the very thing that changed her life and and b...

One of the hardest situations divorced women face is showing up to a family event — a wedding, a graduation, a birthday party — when your ex is going to be there with his new girlfriend, fiancée or wife. The anxiety starts before you even walk in the door. And for many women, the answer is simply: don't go.

But avoidance isn't healing. 

In this episode of Better Because of Divorce, host and certified divorce life coach Julie Steed shares a raw, personal story from a recent family wedding and breaks down exactly how she navigated it wit...

If you're going through a divorce or recently divorced and feeling overwhelmed, lost, or ashamed about your finances, this episode is for you.

Julie sits down with Dr. Barb Provost, founder of Purse Strings, to talk about financial recovery after divorce.

Dr. Barb holds a doctorate in adult education and spent over two decades in the financial services industry watching women get overlooked, talked over, and underserved. After navigating her own divorce and listening to hundreds of women share their fears around money, she built Purse Strings, a free platform that gives women financial education...

What if the life you actually want is still available to you?

Not the life you had before. Not a consolation prize version of it. The real thing. The relationship.

The financial freedom.

The trips, the work that excites you, the version of yourself you can barely picture right now but can feel somewhere underneath all of this.

What if that life is closer than you think?

What if?

In this episode, I cover:

Why women stop dreaming after a long marriage, especially one that...

What if one of the most powerful tools for healing after divorce wasn't therapy o or journaling or another self-help book?

What if it was play?

In this episode I'm talking about something that disappears almost immediately when divorce hits — and why getting it back is not optional if you're serious about rebuilding your life.

Play is not frivolous. It is not something you earn. It is not something that has to wait until you're on the other side of this.

It is medicine.

We cover why everything gets se...

Are you dating after divorce and empty nest and wondering why it feels so hard?

Most women who are ready to date again after divorce are still playing by the old rules. 

Wait to be chosen. 

Hope he likes you. 

Build your life around whoever shows up.

Those rules are never going to get you what you actually want.

In this episode we're talking about a completely different approach to dating after divorce and empty nest.

And this approach gives YOU all of the power.

I talk to a lot of women who want to "wait until they're ready" to move forward after divorce.

What they don't see is that being "ready" isn't a message that drops from the sky. Instead, it shows up in subtle ways - ways that are easily ignored or pushed aside.

That restlessness you keep dismissing? That quiet longing that won't leave you alone? That searching that brought you here?

Those aren't accidents.

Those are signs.

In this episode, I talk about 3 things that happen when you're ready to...

The Hidden Cost of Being Strong After Divorce

Are you stuck after divorce even though you're doing everything right?

The strength and independence that carried you through the hardest season of your life might be the very thing keeping you stuck now. Quietly turning away everything you want.

In this episode we cover three things strong independent women do after divorce that keep them stuck.

Mistaking your armor for your identity

Choosing what feels safe

Waiting to be "ready"

Plus a simple activity...

What if the way you feel about money right now isn't permanent? Not fixed. Not fate. Not just the way it is because of your divorce.

If you've been stuck in financial scarcity thinking after divorce, this episode is going to shift something for you.

We're exploring the difference between scarcity mindset and abundance mindset. Making this shift might be the most important financial move you make in your divorce recovery because it allows you to be open to new possibilites.

We take a look at what scarcity thinking actually costs you after...

Divorce doesn't just divide your assets. It destroys the system and when that system collapses, your brain doesn't register it as an inconvenience. It registers it as a threat to your survival.

If you're struggling with financial anxiety after divorce, you're not weak and you're not bad with money. Your nervous system is doing exactly what it was designed to do.

In this episode I'm breaking down exactly why financial fear hits so hard after divorce and what you can actually do to take back control of your money and get out of the spiral.<...

When I asked women in my online community what divorce stole from them more than anything else, the overwhelming majority of women said: my family.

If you're navigating grief after divorce, the loss of your family unit, your sense of belonging, the relationships you spent decades building, this episode is for you.

We're talking about the love that hurts the most to lose: the kids who pulled away, the friends who disappeared, the family members who didn't know how to hold you. The secondary losses after divorce that nobody prepares you for.

Do you feel like you're in an identity free-fall after divorce? 

If so, you want to hear this episode where Julie introduces Ali Ryan, the newest member of Team FIERCE. Ali is an integrative coach and yoga teacher who specializes in trauma-informed somatic and relational frameworks. Her work supports safety, self-trust, and spacious possibility with practical presence and real-time support.

In this episode, Ali shares her own journey from being highly functional on the outside while deeply disconnected on the inside—doing everything "right" yet finding herself at the bottom of the well after her sec...

When is the right time to date after divorce? How do you navigate online dating apps? How do you date safely?

In this episode, Julie sits down with Sade Curry, a life Coach for Divorced Women and host of the Extraordinary Life & Dating after Divorce podcast. She helps divorced women meet and date good men and find a partnership where they feel respected, loved and safe. Sade is certified in Life Coaching, Trauma Coaching, and Feminist Coaching.

In this episode we cover: 

You're doing well, making progress - and then a trigger hits and the pain floods back. You think: "I'm going backwards. I'm failing. I haven't healed at all."

But what if you're not sliding backwards - you're spiraling upward.

Julie dismantles the lie of linear healing and introduces the truth: healing is loopy, not a straight line. Think about the shape of a loop - it goes forward, curves back, then swoops up. Then backwards again, then swoops higher. From above it looks like you're retracing the same ground, but from the side you can...

Ready to stop white-knuckling through "I'm enough" affirmations and start doing the deeper work? Learn more about the FIERCE Sisterhood - a community of divorced empty nesters who are willing to sit in discomfort, pull the thread on "not enough" thoughts, and create physiological safety while building authentic transformation. Email SISTERHOOD to julie@juliesteedcoaching.com for information.

About This Episode

In this unscripted episode, Julie breaks from her usual format to share a personal discovery about insecurity and perfectionism. After noticing herself spinning over seemingly simple issues, she realized she was struggling with...

When your marriage ends, it's normal to question everything: "I chose wrong." "I stayed too long." "How did I miss the signs?" Your brain uses the divorce as evidence that you can't trust your own judgment, creating a spiral: "If I was wrong about THAT, what else am I wrong about?"

The result? Paralysis. You can't make decisions about dating, career, friendships, or even what car to buy. You either seek constant external validation or retreat completely. Either way, you're stuck, reactive, and powerless.

Julie introduces the Trust Fund - not money, but a collection...

Julie introduces a powerful alternative to New Year's resolutions: choosing ONE WORD to embody throughout 2026. This practice creates laser-sharp focus that blocks out external noise and helps you move forward intentionally rather than reactively.

When triggered or facing challenges, you return to your word and ask: "How do I want to respond so it brings [insert YOUR word here] into my life?"

Your word becomes the lens for viewing opportunities, relationships, and decisions, helping you say no to what doesn't align and yes to what does.

Join me for my free...