Courage to Reinvent

In a room of 600 people, a speaker asked who was living with a chronic illness. One hand went up: Dori’s. In Part 2 of their conversation, Dawn Russell and Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo start there and ask the question this show keeps coming back to: where does the courage to reinvent actually come from?

Dori traces her courage to being unashamed, and to giving up the narrative she held onto for so long. She talks about why feedback says more about the giver than the receiver, how her longest stretch of recovery began with a full surrender to asking for help, and why Band-Aids don’t do the deep work, in a life or in an organization. The conversation closes with her first piece of advice for quality leaders facing AI while their systems still run on paper.

Reflection questions
Think of a room you’ll walk into this month. Before you get there, ask yourself:

1. What do I already know that I haven’t said out loud?
2. If I do something bold in that room, what will be driving it? Desperation, escape, proving myself, or a choice I made before I arrived?
3. What’s one small thing I can decide now, so I’m not counting on courage in the moment?
4. Who can I tell, so I’m not deciding alone?

About White Point Garden
Dawn’s story is set at White Point Garden, also called the Battery, at the southern tip of Charleston’s peninsula. Known as White Point since 1680, the site held a fort from 1737 and became a public park in 1837. Its 1932 Confederate monument carries the inscription “…for their faith and their courage endured a great fight.” In May 2020, during the Black Lives Matter protests, the monument was spray-painted with “Traitors.”

Mentioned in this episode

•  The Courage to Reinvent by Dori Gonzalez-Acevedo, available for pre-order at CourageToReinvent.com
• The Hand That Went Up Before I Did
• Chief: chief.com
•  ISPE: ispe.org

Support
This episode includes conversation about addiction, recovery, and mental health. In the U.S., call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 (free, confidential, 24/7).

Subscribe to The Courage to Reinvent wherever you listen to podcasts. Join Dori Gonzalez Acevedo and Dawn Russell for honest conversations about the messy, human side of personal and professional transformation.

If this trailer resonates with you, share it with someone navigating their own next chapter.

Subscribe to The Courage to Reinvent wherever you listen to podcasts. Join Dori Gonzalez Acevedo and Dawn Russell for honest conversations about the messy, human side of personal and professional transformation.

If this trailer resonates with you, share it with someone navigating their own next chapter.

Dori Gonzalez Acevedo, founder and CEO of ProcellaRX, introduces "The Courage to Reinvent," a podcast about the moments when people realize an old, once-helpful script no longer works and must be let go to move forward. She explains that reinvention often begins when you admit what used to protect or bring success is now holding you back, and that reinventions may be chosen or forced, affecting careers, businesses, relationships, identities, and beliefs in non-linear ways. Co-hosted with Dawn Russell, the show focuses on unpolished, honest conversations that explore transformation, fear, failure, grief, and long-avoided decisions, repeatedly asking: "What do I need to let go of to move forward?"

Subscribe to The Courage to Reinvent wherever you listen to podcasts. Join Dori Gonzalez Acevedo and Dawn Russell for honest conversations about the messy, human side of personal and professional transformation.

If this trailer resonates with you, share it with someone navigating their own next chapter.