Kelly Kowall on Life, Lessons & Legacy

We recently had the chance to connect with Kelly Kowall and have shared our conversation below.

Kelly, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What is a normal day like for you right now?
Right now, I’m juggling many responsibilities as I lead the creation of a new program focused on building resiliency for our American Heroes while also managing the daily operations of our growing nonprofit. As we expand our reach and touch more lives, I’m working hard to balance innovation with sustainability, ensuring that both our new initiatives and our existing programs receive the attention they deserve. I’m working hard to balance it all so we can make the biggest impact possible.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Kelly Kowall, and I am the founder and president of My Warrior’s Place, a nonprofit organization dedicated to serving veterans, military service members, first responders, and families who have experienced the heartbreaking loss of a warrior.

The mission of My Warrior’s Place is deeply personal to me. After losing my son, SPC Corey Kowall, in Afghanistan, I was faced with unimaginable grief. Out of that pain grew a vision: to create a sanctuary where those who serve—and those left behind—could find peace, healing, and renewed purpose. What began as a dream with little more than faith and determination has grown into a thriving retreat center, touching thousands of lives each year.

Today, My Warrior’s Place offers far more than a peaceful refuge. Through programs like Forever A Warrior, our resiliency and life-coaching retreat, we provide unique opportunities for healing that combine the power of nature, education, community, and shared experience. Our guests find solace, not through clinical settings, but through connection—whether it’s on the water in a kayak, around a fire pit at night, or in conversations with others who truly understand.

I’m proud that My Warrior’s Place was built on the dedication of people who believe in honoring our nation’s heroes and their families. Over the years, we’ve overcome natural disasters, financial hurdles, and personal trials, yet our mission has only grown stronger. Along the way, I’ve been humbled to receive recognition such as Florida’s Champion of Service Award, but the true reward has been watching lives transformed, hope restored, and resilience rebuilt.

What makes My Warrior’s Place unique is that it was created from lived experience and love. It is a place built not just to honor my son’s legacy, but to ensure that every warrior and every family member who walks through our doors knows they are not alone, their sacrifice is remembered, and their healing matters.

Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What relationship most shaped how you see yourself?
Over the years, my healing journey has taught me that the relationship we have with ourselves is the foundation for how we move through the world. After the loss of my son, I found myself shattered, questioning not only my future but also who I was without him. It was in those quiet, painful moments that I began to understand the importance of self-compassion, resilience, and allowing myself to feel and heal rather than suppress the grief.

As I leaned into the process—sometimes stumbling, sometimes standing strong—I discovered a deeper strength within myself than I ever knew existed. I learned to honor my pain without letting it define me, and in doing so, I began to see myself not as broken, but as transformed.

This journey has reshaped how I view myself today. I no longer see only a grieving mother; I see a woman who has turned unimaginable loss into a source of hope and healing for others. My relationship with myself has grown into one rooted in acceptance, faith, and purpose—and that is what allows me to walk beside others on their own paths of healing.

What did suffering teach you that success never could?
Suffering has taught me that nothing in life is ever entirely good or entirely bad. At first, I used to think of experiences in black and white: a loss was a tragedy, an achievement was a blessing. But living through pain has shown me that life doesn’t divide itself so neatly. Out of heartbreak, I’ve found unexpected strength, new perspectives, and relationships I might never have discovered otherwise. Even in my darkest moments, seeds of growth and compassion were quietly taking root.

At the same time, I’ve realized that joy and success are not without their own shadows. Moments that seemed perfect at first often carried hidden struggles, whether the pressure to maintain them or the unexpected changes they brought into my life. This has taught me that every experience is a mixture of both light and shadow, gain and loss. Nothing is purely one or the other. And in accepting this, I’ve learned to hold life more gently — not demanding it be perfect, and not fearing it when it’s painful, but embracing it as it is: complicated, unpredictable, and profoundly human.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Where are smart people getting it totally wrong today?
I’ve come to believe that some of the smartest people today often get it wrong—not because they lack intelligence, but because of how they use it. Intelligence, when combined with curiosity and humility, can be a powerful tool for uncovering truth. But too often, I notice that smart people limit themselves by listening only to voices that echo their own beliefs. Surrounded by agreement, they mistake validation for understanding.

This tendency creates echo chambers where ideas are rarely tested. Rather than seeking out perspectives that challenge their thinking, many choose only the sources, writers, and leaders who will confirm what they already want to believe. The result is a kind of intellectual comfort zone: safe, but shallow. It’s easy to win arguments when you never risk exposing yourself to the possibility of being wrong.

But the truth is rarely found in places of comfort. It demands effort, patience, and the courage to sit with uncomfortable questions. I’ve come to see that brilliance alone is not enough; without the willingness to dig deeper, intelligence can become a shield rather than a searchlight. It can defend assumptions instead of illuminating reality. And when that happens, even the brightest minds risk being misled.

To me, true wisdom doesn’t come from being the smartest person in the room, but from being the most willing to learn. It requires questioning even our most cherished beliefs, listening to those we disagree with, and putting in the hard work to search for truth wherever it may lead. If intelligence is the ability to think quickly and deeply, then wisdom is the courage to think honestly and fully—even when the answers we find are not the ones we hoped for.

Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: What do you understand deeply that most people don’t?
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is that the only person I can truly change is myself. For a long time, I thought I could persuade people to see things differently, to make better choices, or to live in ways that I believed would bring them more peace. But time and experience have shown me that change cannot be forced from the outside. It has to come from within.

What I’ve realized is that many people don’t fully understand this. They spend their energy trying to reshape others—arguing, convincing, pushing—while overlooking the one person they actually have the power to transform: themselves. It’s easier to focus outward, pointing to what others should do, than to look inward and face the harder, quieter work of self‑growth.

Accepting this truth hasn’t been easy for me either. It requires humility to step back and admit that I can’t control anyone else’s thoughts, choices, or actions. But it has also been freeing. By focusing on my own growth, I’ve discovered that change in myself often has a ripple effect. When I choose patience, compassion, or honesty, others sometimes respond in kind—not because I forced them to, but because I showed them another way of being.

I now see that the real power lies in personal transformation. I can’t rewrite anyone else’s story, but I can rewrite my own. And sometimes, that is enough to inspire the people around me more deeply than any argument ever could.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mywarriorsplace.org
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mywarriorsplace