Episode

The Success Lie: Chantell Preston on Identity, Trauma, and Rebuilding After the Exit

Podcast
Innerspace: Deep, Meaningful Conversations with Brett Kaufman
Published
Mar 9, 2026
Duration seconds
3373
Processing state
not_requested
Canonical source
https://joininnerspace.com/
Audio
https://audio4.redcircle.com/episodes/1c174b1b-1fae-438b-a4ed-165e3aaf9df9/stream.mp3
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Markdown
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Summary

Chantell Preston sold her healthcare company at 41 and thought she'd finally made it. What followed were the two hardest years of her life. In this episode, Chantell traces the full arc: a childhood defined by divorce, abandonment, and a controlling home in Oklahoma. A teenage relationship that turned physically abusive and why she couldn't leave. The drive to prove herself that became the fuel of her entrepreneurial career, and the price she paid for it in every relationship that mattered. When the business sold, so did her identity. The title was gone. The family was fracturing. And for the first time, she had to sit with the question she'd been outrunning her whole life: who am I without all of this? Chantell is now an investor, author, podcast host, and co-owner of a professional volleyball expansion team in San Francisco. But the most meaningful work she's doing today can't be put on a business card. This is a conversation about what success actually costs and what it takes to finally come home to yourself.