This conversation between Vivianne and Ava Dorsey, founder of Ava’s Pet Palace, offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at what it means to build a business from childhood passion into a purpose-driven, values-centered brand. Ava shares the realities of growing a company that began in her kitchen at age eight and now ships nationwide, the anxiety and courage required to show up publicly, and the deep importance of creativity, community, and staying grounded in her mission.

In this episode, Vivianne sits down with Ava to explore her entrepreneurial journey, the evolution of Ava’s Pet Palace, and the collaboration between their two companies on the Cosmic Chews product line. Together, they discuss what it means to grow a business with integrity, how creativity and courage fuel each other, and how to stay rooted in values when opportunities and pressures increase.

Together Vivianne and Ava dive into: 

•The moment her hobby transformed into a real company

•How her parents’ support shaped her courage and creativity

•Her evolving definition of success and why it has nothing to do with numbers

•How she handles anxiety, public speaking, and high-pressure moments

•Why comparison kills joy and creativity and what she does instead

•The magic of collaboration over competition (starring a pet astrology dog treat)

•Her belief that there’s no “right moment”, you create it

•Why community matters now more than ever as she opens Ava’s Pet Palace to investors

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If this conversation resonated with you, stay connected with the women behind it. 

•Follow Ava to watch the evolution of Ava’s Pet Palace, her journey as a young CEO, and the values-driven entrepreneurship she’s modeling for the next generation.

•Follow Vivianne for grounded, courageous insights on leadership, creativity, and building businesses that nourish instead of deplete.

•Join The Walkout, an online 2-day experience from January 15th – January 16th for UX professionals interested in building a life and career outside of corporate without regret, guilt, or starting from scratch.

This rerun episode offers an unfiltered look at the invisible emotional, ethical, and practical challenges entrepreneurs face but rarely talk about. Through real stories of walking away from misaligned clients, navigating burnout, trusting intuition, and redefining success, Vivianne and Dan illuminate what it actually takes to build a business that protects your integrity, honors your values, and supports your wellbeing. If you’ve ever questioned whether you’re allowed to say no, to choose yourself, or to build differently, this conversation will feel like oxygen.

In this candid and deeply honest conversation, Vivianne and Dan share the real cost of alignment in business and the courage required to uphold it. 

They unpack:

• How to recognize when a client relationship is misaligned.
• What it looks like to stand firm in your values even when it costs you financially.
• The difference between healthy discomfort and destructive erosion.
• Why trusting your gut is a skill, not a guessing game.
• How to navigate transitions when the next step isn’t clear.
• Why emotional clarity and business clarity are inseparable.
• The hidden power of defining “enough” for your life and work.
• How upbringing, cultural background, and spiritual frameworks shape our beliefs about work, suffering, and success.
• Why so many designers struggle with money, worthiness, and charging for their value.
• The importance of building a business model that nourishes instead of depletes.
• What courage looks like in everyday practice, not as heroics, but as alignment.
• 
  
• Perfect For You If…
• You’re questioning whether the way you’re running your business is actually working for you.
• You’ve stayed in draining client relationships because you felt you “had to”.
• You’re craving more alignment, joy, and integrity in your work.
• You’re navigating transition and unsure what’s next.
• You're a designer or creative entrepreneur struggling with money and worth.
• You’re unlearning corporate conditioning and building toward something healthier.

If this episode resonated, share it with someone who’s ready to build with more clarity, courage, and self-trust.

-DAN MALL is a husband, dad, teacher, creative director, designer, founder, and entrepreneur from Philly. He helps designers get their flowers by teaching them about the business of design, leadership, systems, process, and craft. Dan runs Design System University to create, collect, and curate curriculum, content, and community to help enterprise teams design at scale. He also co-founded Great Job!, a platform that helps parents and caregivers design their own handbook for raising amazing kids. Previously, Dan ran design system consultancy SuperFriendly for over a decade. Dan writes weekly on site danmall.com and his weekly newsletter, and publishes bite-size tips and tricks to on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

-Follow Vivianne on LinkedIn for more courageous insights on work, mindset, and meaning.

-Join The Walkout, an online 2-day experience from January 15th – January 16th for UX professionals interested in building a life and career outside of corporate without regret, guilt, or starting from scratch.

If you’ve ever wondered whether entrepreneurship could feel like freedom instead of fatigue, this conversation is for you. In this episode of Choose Courage Inc., Vivianne sits down with Michael Davis, a former corporate designer who walked away from a 17-year career to start Tinycup Coffee, a coffee company born from burnout, healing, and rest. Together, they explore how entrepreneurship can become a path of restoration instead of erosion and how to build a business that nourishes rather than drains you.

Through honest storytelling and powerful reflection, Michael and Vivianne unpack the emotional, practical, and spiritual sides of starting over: confronting skill gaps, redefining success, unlearning grind culture, and learning to protect the sacred within business.

Together they explore:

-The difference between building a brand and building a business, and how creativity alone isn’t enough without sustainable systems.

-How entrepreneurs can mistake endurance for integrity and why betting on yourself sometimes means leaving comfort for alignment.

-The belief that “success and suffering are twins,” and how to untangle worth from work.

-Why rest should be a ritual, not a reward, and how honoring stillness sustains innovation.

-The daily tension between profit and peace and what it means to protect the sacred while scaling a business.

-How Tinycup became a quiet rebellion against extraction and speed, honoring the slower, communal coffee traditions of the Global South.

Michael also introduces new projects within Tinycup, including The Rest Shop (a collection designed to help people curate spaces of rest) and the upcoming ebook “Coffee Rest Rituals,” which guides readers in building intentional rituals using the five senses.

Vivianne and Michael close with a shared message for anyone navigating change: "You’re not starting from scratch, you’re starting from experience. Let your next chapter be messy, courageous, and aligned and build something that feels like peace."

Resources & Next Steps

-Explore Tinycup Coffee. Visit the Tinycup Rest Shop to discover products designed to help you create an environment of calm, restoration, and sensory grounding.

-Special Offer. Use code CHOOSECOURAGE25 at checkout for 25% off anything in The Rest Shop.

-Join ⁠The Walkout⁠, an online 2-day experience from January 15th - January 16th for UX professionals interested in building a life and career outside of corporate without regret, guilt, or starting from scratch.

If you’ve ever questioned whether burnout is simply the cost of success, this conversation between Vivianne and Nyam is for you. Together, they unpack how burnout becomes a wake-up call, how sabbaticals can be a radical act of reclamation, and how entrepreneurship can transform from survival mode into a vessel for healing. This episode challenges the myth that rest must be earned and reveals how slowing down can actually bring you back to yourself.

In this deeply reflective and restorative conversation, Vivianne sits down with Nyam (a former tech leader turned sabbatical coach) to explore what it really takes to move from burnout to wholeness.

Nyam shares her breaking point in 2021, when even self-advocacy couldn’t protect her from exhaustion. Her turning point came after discovering stories of Black women taking sabbaticals as acts of liberation. That inspiration led her to step away from corporate life and take a one-year sabbatical across the U.S., Mexico, Portugal, Ghana, Colombia, and Spain.

Throughout their exchange, Vivianne and Nyam explore:

• How burnout often disguises itself as “success.”
• The difference between enduring and healing.
• What it means to live disconnected from your body and how rest restores that connection.
• Why travel can be both a mirror and a teacher for self-trust and intuition.
• The micro-betrayals we normalize at work (like apologizing for taking care of basic needs) and how they erode our sense of worth.
• The importance of community and support systems when taking extended leave or pursuing deep transformation.

They also discuss grief and anger as part of the healing process, reframing them as pathways toward reclamation rather than emotions to suppress. Vivianne introduces the idea that “rest isn’t the opposite of work, it’s the mirror that shows you why you’re working in the first place,” while Nyam reflects on turning pain into purpose and creating a business that nourishes rather than drains.

The episode closes with a conversation on redefining success through entrepreneurship, not as another grind, but as a creative, healing practice. Vivianne and Nyam challenge listeners to move from chasing “success” to cultivating fruitfulness: building lives and businesses rooted in courage, care, and creativity.

Find Nyam on LinkedIn, at nyamadodoadji.com, and on Substack at shespeakssoftly.substack.com. And enjoy her Burnout Reflection Guide for Tech Professionals here!

Learn more about Choose Courage Inc. at choosecourageinc.com and follow Vivianne on LinkedIn for more reflections on courage, creativity, and redefining success beyond the hustle.

If you’ve ever wondered whether entrepreneurship can be more than a grind (a healing, human, and liberating practice) this conversation will move you deeply. In this episode, Vivianne sits down with Anna Krachey, a founder who is exploring how we can reimagine travel, business, and creativity as acts of restoration rather than depletion.

Anna shares how her company grew from a deeply personal experience (caring for her terminally ill mother and realizing how harsh modern travel has become) into a mission to help people “arrive in better shape.” Together, she and Vivianne unpack what it means to unlearn corporate conditioning, trust slower rhythms of growth, and build businesses that restore rather than erode.

If you’ve ever felt torn between ambition and alignment, pressure and peace, or the need to keep proving versus the desire to feel whole, this episode will help you see that courage isn’t about doing more. It’s about becoming more honest with yourself.

The two discuss:

• The mindset shift from “grin and bear it” culture to crafting intentional comfort and agency, even in cramped airplane seats.
• The philosophy of active restoration and how entrepreneurs can design both products and lives that replenish energy instead of draining it.
• Why building a business requires unlearning the “never enough” mindset of corporate life and redefining what productivity and worth look like.
• How entrepreneurship mirrors personal growth, revealing our fears, attachments, and opportunities for healing.
• The emotional and financial mindset shifts required to move from employee thinking to founder thinking.
• Why courage isn’t about fearlessness, it’s about honesty, rest, and self-trust.

Throughout, Vivianne and Anna reflect on the healing potential of entrepreneurship when it’s approached not as a hustle, but as a mirror for becoming who you truly are.

Sign up for updates and travel restoration tips at softlanding.travel  and be the first to know when her brand officially launches under its new name.

Choose Courage Inc. helps entrepreneurs build businesses that heal rather than harm, models rooted in care, courage, and creativity. Join the community or explore group coaching at choosecourageinc.com.

This episode of Choose Courage Inc. is a deeply honest and healing conversation between Vivianne and Melanie Penney, founder of TOPISMA and creative entrepreneur and stylist whose story embodies courage, reinvention, and self-expression. Together, they explore what happens when life unravels (from layoffs, divorce, and identity loss) and how choosing to bet on yourself can become an act of healing. So if you’ve ever questioned your worth outside of work, struggled to redefine success after leaving corporate life, or are learning to rebuild through creativity and care, this episode will resonate.

Melanie also shares how TOPISMA serves the LGBTQIA2S+ community and allies through sustainable styling, secondhand fashion, and co-creative processes that help clients express their truest selves.

Vivianne and Melanie discuss:

• The emotional crash after a layoff and divorce and what it means to start over with nothing but courage.
• How corporate systems teach self-abandonment and how entrepreneurship can become a mirror for healing that.
• Shifting from scarcity and control to self-trust and alignment.
• Redefining wealth as rhythm, rest, time, and presence, not just money.
• Clothing as a tool for self-love, confidence, and embodiment.
• How entrepreneurship reveals your deepest stories about worth and safety and how to choose alignment over approval.
• Building a business rooted in tenderness, sustainability, and collaboration.
• Why community, rest, and experimentation are essential to creative entrepreneurship.

If You Enjoyed This Episode:

• Share it with a friend rebuilding after burnout, a creative seeking alignment, or anyone learning to trust their voice again.
• Leave a review to help more people find Choose Courage Inc. and remember: your business can be your healing.

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About Melanie and TOPISMA

TOPISMA is a Seattle-based personal styling practice offering wardrobe experiences designed around humanity, healing, and creative sustainability. Melanie helps clients reconnect with themselves through clothing that honors identity, body, and story, sourcing primarily from secondhand pieces, upcycled fashion, and local designers.

Learn more or book a session:  www.topisma.com

Instagram: @topisma_seattle

This is a conversation for anyone who’s ever lost faith in a system, an industry, or even themselves and is learning how to rebuild it through creativity and courage.Vivianne and Kevin Bethune unpack what it means to hold onto hope when it feels impossible, how creativity can become a form of healing, and the deeper spiritual parallels between faith, innovation, and design.

If you’ve ever felt disillusioned with corporate culture, burned out by creative constraints, or betrayed by institutions that claimed to care, this episode offers a way forward: through curiosity, endurance, and the courage to build something new.

Together, they explore:

• The moments of “faked hope” : when you keep showing up even as you secretly lose faith in what you’re building.
• Kevin’s story of hustling within the walls of Nike, side-designing his way toward creative freedom, and how his son’s birth became the catalyst to finally leap toward grad school and a life-altering path.
• The question every creator must face: What am I willing to sacrifice for alignment? and what “sacrifice” actually means when it’s done for healing, not depletion.
• Vivianne’s powerful reflection on how the evangelical church and corporate UX culture mirror each other: both claiming to care about people while often upholding exclusion and hierarchy.
• The realization that creativity is where you stop faking hope and start building it.
• Follow Kevin Bethune on LinkedIn for insights on design, creativity, and human-centered innovation.
• Follow Vivianne on LinkedIn for reflections on courage, creativity, and regenerative entrepreneurship.
• Visit Choose Courage Inc. to join the community of entrepreneurs and creatives building with care, courage, and creativity.

In this episode we talk through a powerful framework that redefines what entrepreneurship can be: not as a race to exhaustion, but as a practice of liberation, healing, and regeneration.

Through vivid storytelling and real client examples, we unveil the Courage Over Comfort Spectrum, a model that helps founders see where their business truly lives: Are you building something that nourishes you, or something that quietly erodes you?

If you’ve been feeling burnt out, overextended, or stuck in a business that looks good on paper but feels hollow, this episode is your compass back to alignment.

Vivianne breaks down the four quadrants of entrepreneurship (from the extraction engine that runs on depletion to the creative rebellion that runs on care, courage, and creativity) and shows how to move from burnout to freedom with intention and integrity.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The Courage Over Comfort Spectrum: The horizontal axis from extractive capitalism → regenerative commerce and the vertical axis from entrepreneurship as erosion → entrepreneurship as healing.
• Why most entrepreneurs end up miserable: not because they’re failing, but because they’re replicating the same toxic systems they tried to escape.
• The four quadrants of entrepreneurship (e.g. The Extraction Engine, The Conscious Collapse, The Compromised Cause, and The Creative Rebellion)
• How to know which quadrant you’re in: What your calendar and bank account reveal about your real priorities.

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TLDR

Your business can be your protest.Your business can be your practice.Your business can be your liberation.

The Creative Rebellion is not a quick fix, it’s a long game of care, courage, and creativity. If this resonated with you:

• Send it to an entrepreneur who’s tired of the grind and ready to build something that actually feels good.
• Follow Vivianne on LinkedIn for more reflections on courage, creativity, and regenerative entrepreneurship.
• And finally, please leave a review if this resonated, it helps others discover Choose Courage Inc. and join the movement toward businesses built with care, courage, and creativity.

In this episode, Vivianne shares the two mindset shifts that have completely changed how she approaches life and business: “Keep the main thing the main thing” and “A frog a day keeps the stress away.”

If you’ve been feeling stretched thin, stuck in reaction mode, or overwhelmed by all the noise, then this episode is your reset. Through powerful storytelling, Stoic wisdom, and real-life examples from running two companies, Vivianne shows you how to cut through the chaos, reclaim your focus, and make meaningful progress without burning out.

And no, these aren’t cute productivity hacks, these are mindset practices that will help you stop spiraling, start focusing on what truly matters, and rebuild momentum one intentional action at a time.

• Why modern chaos requires ancient wisdom and how Stoicism can help you stay grounded.
• How to identify your main thing (and the uncomfortable truth about what your calendar and bank account reveal).
• The art of subtraction: how doing less creates more clarity and impact.
• How to build the discipline of protection aka guarding your priorities from distractions, urgency, and other people’s expectations.
• The surprising reason you procrastinate and how “eating your frog” dismantles avoidance and stress.
• A 30-day plan to integrate both mindset shifts into your personal and professional life:
  • Days 1–7: Identify what truly matters.
  • Days 8–14: Protect it ruthlessly.
  • Days 15–21: Eat one frog a day.
  • Days 22–30: Refine your rhythm.
• What the Stoics called eudaimonia (aka a life well-lived) and how these practices get you there.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re doing a lot but not moving forward, this episode will hit home. You’ll learn how to stop chasing every shiny opportunity, stop avoiding the hard things, and finally create a rhythm of clarity and calm progress.

This isn’t about hustling harder ... it’s about focusing smarter.
You’ll walk away with a new lens for decision-making, a simple structure for momentum, and the reminder that the obstacle isn’t in your way, it is the way.

• Share this episode with a friend who’s been feeling scattered or stuck in survival mode.
• Follow Vivianne on LinkedIn for more courageous insights on work, mindset, and meaning.
• Please leave a review if this episode resonated! It helps others find Choose Courage Inc. and join this movement of building lives that align with courage, clarity, and care.

+++Download the free workbook for this episode here+++

TLDR: This episode is for anyone who looks successful on paper but feels lost in their own life and for those ready to stop chasing the dream job and start building a brave life instead.

In this vulnerable and hyper-practical episode Vivianne Castillo — Founder and CEO of ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HmntyCntrd⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠moonpaws⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ — cracks open the glossy façade of what society sells as the “dream job.” From a life in corporate UX that looked perfect on paper to building a purpose-led business and life in Mexico, Vivianne shares her raw journey of confronting burnout, rediscovering agency, and choosing courage over comfort.

This episode isn’t about entrepreneurship as a quick fix, it’s about internal revolution. Vivianne weaves together stories, truths, and shares some of the transformative practices she teaches to her clients (The Body Truth Audit, The Identity Archeology Dig, and The Relationship Audit) to help them get radically honest about what’s no longer serving them and start building lives they don’t need to escape from.

This episode covers: 

• How your body keeps score when you’re out of alignment
• The truth about stress weight and soul-crushing jobs
• The identity crisis after leaving corporate titles behind
• Why healing is essential to build a brave life and how to begin
• How childhood patterns keep us seeking worth through achievement
• Letting go of prestige, salary, and reputation to choose peace

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Join our 3-month entrepreneurship group coaching program designed to help you overcome self-doubt, build an entrepreneurial mindset, and launch a business that aligns with your passion and purpose. Learn more before registration closes ⁠⁠here⁠⁠.

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Choose Courage Inc. is a ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HmntyCntrd⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ brand and this podcast is sponsored by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠CountrPT⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.