Brave

Tammy Dunnett
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Brave is a podcast about the moments that shape us. The conversations we avoid. The choices that define us. The courage it takes to become more fully ourselves. Each episode explores what happens when who you are becomes more important than what you're afraid of. Sometimes that conversation is with an expert who helps people navigate life's hardest moments. Sometimes it's with someone who has lived through a defining experience and discovered something worth sharing. Every guest brings wisdom, hope, and practical insight that helps listeners find courage in their own lives. If your work, your story, or your perspective helps people become a little braver, I'd love to hear from you.

  1. Oct 21

    E16: What If You Are Wounded, Not Broken with Dr. Russ Irwin

    What if the past has shaped you, but doesn’t have to define your future? On this episode of Brave, host Tammy Dunnett talks with Dr. Russ Irwin about generational trauma, childhood abuse, and the painful patterns that can shape how we see ourselves and relate to others. Dr. Irwin shares how mentorship, curiosity, and the willingness to ask for help began to change his path, and why he sees people affected by trauma as wounded, not broken. Together, Tammy and Russ explore healing as an ongoing journey, reframing triggers, and finding courage in moments of uncertainty. Dr. Russ Irwin has worked at the intersection of human behavior, mental health, and high performance. His perspective is shaped not only by advanced study but his work with leaders, individuals, organizations, and his own journey through poverty and childhood abuse. Learn more about Dr. Russ Irwin, his recent book, and coaching at www.irwincoaching.ca Visit thetalkshop.ca

  2. Oct 7

    E15: Stop Shrinking: Finding Your Voice in a Male-Dominated World

    What happens when you're the only woman in the room and you're expected to prove you belong there? In this episode of BRAVE, Tammy Dunnett sits down with Doris Paquette, an award-winning executive, community builder, and advocate for women's leadership, to talk about finding your voice in male-dominated industries. Doris shares her experience of being questioned because of her age and gender, second-guessing herself, and eventually shrinking her voice just to avoid conflict. She also shares the pivotal moment when she stopped waiting for someone else to advocate for her and decided to take control of her own destiny. We talk about: • What it feels like to constantly question whether you belong • The impact of being underestimated on confidence and creativity • Finding people who will champion you when you can't yet champion yourself • Having difficult conversations instead of quietly going along • Coming prepared and trusting your expertise • Speaking up without softening what you really mean • Being labelled "difficult" or "too much" and refusing to let that make your decisions for you Doris's message is simple: your voice matters. Don't dim your light. And the question she leaves us with: Where have you been editing your voice, and what might happen if you trusted yourself enough to say what you're already qualified to say? Stay in the conversation. Stay in the brave. #BRAVE #WomensLeadership #Leadership #WomenInLeadership #Confidence #Communication #WomenInTheWorkplace #Courage #CareerConfidence

  3. Sep 30

    E14: Brave Enough to Look Underneath Fear

    Have you ever been completely clear about what you wanted to say or do - until someone reacted? They questioned you. Got angry. Pushed back. And suddenly, the certainty you had a moment ago disappeared. What happened? In this episode of BRAVE, Tammy sits down with writer and somatic clarity specialist Stephanie Dawn Clark to explore what happens beneath the surface when fear, our nervous system, and past experiences begin to shape what we can see as possible. Stephanie spent much of her life learning to trust her intellect and solve problems. But after finding herself in an abusive relationship, she discovered something that changed the way she understood clarity, fear, and choice. Sometimes, the problem isn't that we don't know what to do. Sometimes, our physiology has changed what we're able to perceive. Stephanie shares her deeply personal story of moving from freeze to clarity and how that clarity ultimately helped her find a way out of a dangerous situation. Together, Tammy and Stephanie explore: Why our nervous system can narrow our perception without us realizing itThe connection between past experiences and present-day reactionsFight, flight, freeze and fawn as survival responsesHow self-doubt can become a form of self-gaslightingWhy trying to intellectually understand an irrational situation may keep us stuckThe difference between fear as a warning signal and fear as an old predictionWhat it means to move from reaction to choiceWhy clarity isn't always cognitive - it can be something we experience throughout the bodyThe importance of slowing down the moment when something shiftsWhy Stephanie believes we shouldn't manufacture certainty, but instead maintain contact with realityOne of the most powerful ideas in this conversation is that bravery isn't necessarily about pushing through fear. For Stephanie, brave has come to mean something much simpler: Being willing to look. To want the truth more than we want to be comfortable. And sometimes, that means becoming curious about the exact moment when something changed. A question for you The next time you find yourself questioning something you were once clear about, pause. What happened in that moment? What changed? And what did I know before that? Because sometimes the brave thing isn't to push forward. Sometimes it's to stop, get curious, and look. About Stephanie Dawn Clark Stephanie Dawn Clark is a writer and somatic clarity specialist who helps people work with consequential situations by developing more accurate perception and greater choice. Her work focuses on the relationship between the brain, nervous system, fear, clarity and our ability to stay connected to reality. Find Stephanie at StephanieDawnClark.com, where you can also access her Situation Locator tool. She also writes on Substack, which she describes as the intellectual home of her work. About BRAVE BRAVE is about the moments that shape us, the choices that define us, and the courage it takes to become more fully ourselves. Because brave isn't just one moment. It's something we keep choosing. Brave is what happens when who you are becomes more important than what you're afraid of. Until next time, stay in the conversation.

  4. Sep 23

    E13 When the Life You Built No Longer Fits

    How much of your life are you willing to spend proving you can succeed in a place you no longer want to be? Stacey Berger spent 16 years climbing to the executive level then walked away with three kids, a new mortgage, and no plan. A conversation about values, fear, and jumping anyway. Stacey Berger had the career most people would call a win: 16 years at one company, promoted from administrative assistant all the way to a decade in a high-stakes executive role, in an organization she genuinely loved. And then the things that made it worth loving - the people-centric vision, the room to grow, the ability to make an impact - began to be clawed back. As the breadwinner for a family of five with a stay-at-home husband, she found herself never fully at work when she was at work, and never fully at home when she was home. In this episode, Stacey walks Tammy through the anatomy of her brave decision. She names the morning she woke up not wanting to go to work and did a quiet life assessment in bed; and the roughly two years of indecision that followed. She describes the "when/then" game so many high achievers play: when the kids are older, when the mortgage is paid, when there's money in the bank, then I'll make the change. And she describes the day she stopped playing it, with a brand-new dream home, a big mortgage, a one-, three-, and five-year-old, and no nest egg to speak of. Relief and terror arrived in the same breath. What follows is the unglamorous middle: an exit that was "a bit of a gong show" after 16 years of loyalty, a shaken sense of confidence, an identity crisis without the title, and three non-negotiables she held onto when she had no answers: impact, growth, and freedom. In this conversation: Why loyalty became the value that competed with every other one she heldThe difference between "I think I've made a decision" and a line-in-the-sand decisionBuilding security out of faith rather than conditions — "we're going to figure it out"The values you compromise without noticing, and the weight that lifts when you stopWhy she couldn't have predicted the life she has now — and why that's the pointConnect with Stacey: staceyberger.ca — and on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. Got a story of your own? Visit TheTalkshop.ca to apply to be a guest on BRAVE. Until next time — stay in the conversation, and stay in the brave.

  5. Sep 16

    E12 When “No” Isn’t the End: The Brave Conversation That Changed Everything

    What happens when you’re told “no” and it feels like the choice has been taken away from you? In this episode of BRAVE, Tammy Dunnett talks with Jason Alderson about rejection, fear, self-advocacy, and the power of having a brave conversation when you could simply walk away. Jason had already spent years educating members of the Canadian Armed Forces about mental health when he applied to become a Mental Health First Aid instructor. He was confident he was a good fit. Then came the rejection: he wasn’t accepted. For a couple of days, Jason grieved what felt like a future that had suddenly disappeared. But eventually, he made a choice: he wasn’t finished. Instead of accepting the rejection as the end of the road, Jason reached back out. He respectfully challenged the decision, advocated for himself, and opened a conversation that revealed something he hadn’t expected. The problem wasn’t that he was a soldier. He simply hadn’t gone deeply enough in his application. That brave conversation changed everything. Jason shares what he learned about standing up for yourself, navigating rejection, finding your voice, making courageous choices, and refusing to let fear make the decision for you. Together, Tammy and Jason explore: Why rejection can feel like a loss of choice and powerHow fear can convince us to do nothing while making it sound completely reasonableWhy fear can have a vote, but it doesn’t have to be the only voteThe courage it takes to advocate for yourselfHow a “no” can sometimes mean “not yet”Why taking a breath and becoming intentional can change what happens nextThe importance of looking inward before making a difficult choiceHow brave conversations can create opportunities we thought were already goneWhat it means to choose courage, even when you’re afraid of disappointment or failureHow our choices shape the path forward, even when we can’t control the circumstancesThis is a conversation about bravery, resilience, rejection, self-advocacy, leadership, mental health, courage, and the choices we make when life doesn’t go according to plan. And it leaves us with a question: Where in your life have you been acting as though the choice has already been made for you? Because maybe there’s still a choice there left unexplored. Maybe it’s yours to make. Find JasonLearn more about Jason Alderson and his work in mental health, leadership, resilience, and workplace speaking at jasonalderson.com. Find TammyLearn more about Tammy Dunnett and The Talk Shop’s work in communication, leadership, brave conversations, coaching, training, and keynotes at thetalkshop.ca. BRAVE is a podcast about the moments that shape us, the conversations we avoid, the choices that define us, and the courage it takes to become more fully ourselves. Because sometimes, one brave conversation can change everything.

  6. Aug 5

    E11 From Sexless Marriage to Orgasmic Life: Xanet Pailet's Brave Rebellion

    On this episode of Brave Rebellion, leadership and communication coach Tammy Dunnett speaks with sex and intimacy coach Xanet Pailet, a former high‑achieving healthcare attorney who walked away from a 26‑year sexless marriage and a prestigious career that looked perfect from the outside. Xanet shares how she poured all her energy into work and motherhood while feeling lonely, disconnected from her body, and terrified of vulnerability. She opens up about leaving her marriage at 50, discovering tantra, healing sexual shame, writing Living an Orgasmic Life, and redefining success, intimacy, and identity. This conversation is for high‑achieving women who feel broken, “too much,” or “not enough”—and secretly wonder if this is all life has to offer.

  7. Jul 29

    E10: Fired for Telling the Truth

    When your paycheck depends on your silence, what do you choose? In this episode of The Brave Rebellion Podcast, career ownership coach Stacy Heisey-Terrell shares how she uncovered financial manipulation, refused to falsify reports, and lost her HR director role for choosing integrity over security. We explore toxic leadership, “battered career syndrome,” the hidden costs of staying, and how Stacy rebuilt a values-aligned life through entrepreneurship and service. You’ll hear: How financial irregularities were uncovered and dismissedThe emotional toll of being punished for telling the truthThe real cost of choosing integrity over security“Battered career syndrome” and why so many stay in harmful rolesHow Stacy rebuilt her career, values, and sense of freedom Keywords: integrity, toxic workplace, HR leadership, whistleblowing, career transition, burnout, ethical leadership, psychologically safe workplaces, brave conversations Connect with Stacey https://sheisey-terrell.esourcecoach.com/ Connect with Tammy: thetalkshop.ca

  8. Jul 22

    E9 From “Too Disabled for College” to University Graduate: Michelle’s Brave Rebellion

    In this episode of The Brave Rebellion, Tammy Dunnett sits down with Michelle Steiner, a writer, teacher’s aide, and disability advocate who grew up with an invisible learning disability. Labeled early as an “outcast” and repeatedly told college wasn’t for her, Michelle was urged toward trade school and “limited” paths. Through candid storytelling, she shares how years of defeat, stigma, and discouraging reports from professionals eventually gave way to a brave decision: to trust her own interests, pursue college, and advocate fiercely for accommodations. Michelle explains how shifting her self-talk, focusing on what she can do, and leaning on family support helped her build a meaningful career and life. This episode explores the power of self-advocacy, mindset, and quiet rebellion against other people’s expectations—offering hope and practical insight for anyone living with an invisible disability or walking beside someone who is.

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About

Brave is a podcast about the moments that shape us. The conversations we avoid. The choices that define us. The courage it takes to become more fully ourselves. Each episode explores what happens when who you are becomes more important than what you're afraid of. Sometimes that conversation is with an expert who helps people navigate life's hardest moments. Sometimes it's with someone who has lived through a defining experience and discovered something worth sharing. Every guest brings wisdom, hope, and practical insight that helps listeners find courage in their own lives. If your work, your story, or your perspective helps people become a little braver, I'd love to hear from you.

Information

  • Creator
    Tammy Dunnett
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    16
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Tammy Dunnett
  • Show Website
    Brave