Tiny Brave Steps: Real Women. Real Fear. Real Courage Stories.

Bernice McDonald

These are women who’ve faced the fire.  Tiny Brave Steps is where real women tell the truth about the hardest things they’ve ever walked through—and how they found their way to the other side. Not with some dramatic, made-for-TV moment. But with what I call Tiny Brave Steps - the kind of courage that happens one terrified, trembling choice at a time. A surgery that stole everything and gave her more than she ever imagined.  A caregiving journey with no finish line.  A fourteen-year silence finally broken.  These aren’t superhero stories. They’re your-neighbor, your-sister, your-friend stories. The kind where you listen and think, That could be me. I’m Bernice McDonald, Creator of the Tiny Brave Steps method and author of The Little Books of Courage.  Each episode, I walk you through one woman’s journey using the Courage Map - a path from feeling “Not Enough” to becoming “Brave Enough.”  You’ll hear her real voice. Her real fear. And the real moment she decided to take that next step - even though her hands were shaking. Because here’s the truth I want you to know: Courage is never the absence of fear. It’s the judgment that something matters more than the fear. If you’ve ever whispered I’m not brave enough for this—this podcast was made for you. New episodes weekly. Bring your heart. Leave with courage.

  1. Oct 25

    Cathy's Story: Chin Up. Keep Moving.

    Send us Fan Mail In 2008, Cathy Derksen's family was in a car accident.  Her family survived; a man about her age did not. In the blink of an eye, she saw what she'd been tolerating: a toxic marriage that was shaping her two teenagers, and a workplace that was wearing down her health. Within a year, she'd left both, a 25-year career in medical genetics included.  She got through it with a mantra, chin up, keep moving, and with something she's only recently named: a box where she put every feeling she didn't have the energy for, so she could stand on it and get things done. Today Cathy creates collaborative books that have made about 240 women published authors, many of them at midlife, and some of them have seen their faces on a billboard in Times Square.  In this episode she talks about: The box The one small chapter that changed everythingAnd why writing down your story powerfully helps embrace healing. If you've ever kept everyone else going by putting yourself away for later, this one is for you. How To Connect With Cathy: Cathy Derksen is the Founder of Inspired Tenacity, a bestselling Author and Publisher, an International Speak and Certified Success Coach. Inspired Tenacity Global Solutions Inc. website:  https://inspiredtenacity.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathyderkseninspiredtenacity/ Hosted by Bernice McDonald — Life & Courage Strategist, speaker, and author.  Need to find YOUR Next Step through a hard thing you're facing? Have a simple conversation with the Tiny Brave Steps Generator AI:  www.tinybravesteps.com. Connect with Bernice:   Email: bernice@bernicemcdonald.com Website: www.tinybravesteps.com Join me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernicemcdonald/ If this episode moved something in you — leave a review, share it with a woman who needs it. Do YOU have a Courage Story you'd like to share? Send Bernice a message.

    Cathy's Story: Chin Up. Keep Moving.
  2. Oct 8

    Pennie's Story: The Voice That Grew in The Garden

    Send us Fan Mail You know that moment when someone asks you to name one good thing about yourself, and your mind goes completely blank? Pennie knows it well. After her second divorce, sitting in her sister’s basement with an assignment to list ten things she liked about herself, she cried for half an hour and managed one. Her feet. When I asked her how she got from there to where she is now, she didn’t start with a breakthrough. She started with a garden. She was a homeschooling mom of five, worn down and stuck, when a small whisper told her to grow one. Her husband never got around to building the boxes.  So she went to the garage, picked up a power saw she’d been afraid of her whole life, and cut the boards herself.  That one tiny brave step was the first proof she’d had in years that she could do hard things. Then she knelt in the soil and started discovering what school had never shown her. The girl they said had a learning disability was a woman who thinks in pictures, and thinks beautifully. What grew in that garden carried her through the end of a long marriage. It carried her through her first job in seventeen years, and a résumé that terrified her, and the slow, patient work of rebuilding with her children.  Today she coaches entrepreneurs and leaders, and she’s stepping onto the stages she dreamed about at twelve. She’s honest that she isn’t finished, and that’s one of the things I love most about her. If you’re building something that matters to you, and a voice in your head keeps asking who you think you are to say it out loud, this one’s for you. CONNECT WITH PENNIE WILSON: Podcast: Conquering FUDDD Through Mental Fitness Kokoro Creators: www.kokorocreators.com  FB link is @kokoro.creators    https://www.facebook.com/kokoro.creators/  Hosted by Bernice McDonald — Life & Courage Strategist, speaker, and author.  Need to find YOUR Next Step through a hard thing you're facing? Have a simple conversation with the Tiny Brave Steps Generator AI:  www.tinybravesteps.com. Connect with Bernice:   Email: bernice@bernicemcdonald.com Website: www.tinybravesteps.com Join me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernicemcdonald/ If this episode moved something in you — leave a review, share it with a woman who needs it. Do YOU have a Courage Story you'd like to share? Send Bernice a message.

    Pennie's Story: The Voice That Grew in The Garden
  3. Sep 30

    Julie's Story: The Wall Silence Built

    Send us Fan Mail On a rainy night, ten-year-old Julie Fairhurst was home babysitting her three younger brothers when strangers came to the door and took all four children away.  Two weeks later her mother appeared. Julie ran to her sobbing, and her mother raised both hands and said, “get her off me.” There had been a car accident, and her mother's closest friend had died.  No one talked about it. There was no counselling and no conversation. The family went quiet and stayed quiet — and every child in that house grew up deciding the coldness was about them. Julie spent the next thirty years refusing gifts, refusing compliments, and paying every bill so she'd never owe anyone anything.  She called it independence.  Then one night she heard herself say something out loud, and everything turned. Today Julie has published forty collaborative books and more than 350 true-life stories — and she has never charged women a participation fee to contribute them, because she never wanted money to keep a woman from being heard.  This is how the silence finally broke. If you've ever gone quiet to keep the peace — this one is for you. CONNECT WITH JULIE FAIRHURST: Julie is offering a Free gift with this call OR GO TO:  https://juliefairhurst.com/free-30-mins-with-julie FACEBOOK:  https://www.facebook.com/julie.fairhurst.7 WEBSITE:  https://juliefairhurst.com/ WOMEN LIKE ME WRITING GROUP:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/879482909307802 LINKEDIN:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliefairhurstvoicestoryinfluence/ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/juliefairhurstinfluence/ Hosted by Bernice McDonald — Life & Courage Strategist, speaker, and author.  Need to find YOUR Next Step through a hard thing you're facing? Have a simple conversation with the Tiny Brave Steps Generator AI:  www.tinybravesteps.com. Connect with Bernice:   Email: bernice@bernicemcdonald.com Website: www.tinybravesteps.com Join me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernicemcdonald/ If this episode moved something in you — leave a review, share it with a woman who needs it. Do YOU have a Courage Story you'd like to share? Send Bernice a message.

    Julie's Story: The Wall Silence Built
  4. Sep 9

    Jen's Story: A Mom On A Mission

    Send us Fan Mail When addiction entered her home, Jen McCutcheon did what mothers do.  She fixed.  She researched treatment centres. She planned interventions.  Held the family together with whatever she could find.  And she kept going until her body shut down. Then came a night on the living room couch, crying in front of a blank wall, when something inside her said: you are the common denominator. This is a story: ...about a woman who watched her son disappear and did not notice she had disappeared too.  ...about being told her story was not hers to tell.  ...about standing in a backyard with her nails cutting into her palms, realizing she had stopped breathing.  ...and about what she built once she stopped trying to fix and started going first. It does not end tidy. Her son relapsed four weeks before this conversation. She is still in it, and so is he, and she will tell you that is part of it. Jen is a recovery, trauma healing and personal power coach and the founder of Enable No More — changing the conversation around addiction, one family at a time. CONNECT WITH JENNIFER MCCUTCHEON Website: Enable No More Moms On A Mission Community  Take Back Your Power Consultation Hosted by Bernice McDonald — Life & Courage Strategist, speaker, and author.  Need to find YOUR Next Step through a hard thing you're facing? Have a simple conversation with the Tiny Brave Steps Generator AI:  www.tinybravesteps.com. Connect with Bernice:   Email: bernice@bernicemcdonald.com Website: www.tinybravesteps.com Join me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernicemcdonald/ If this episode moved something in you — leave a review, share it with a woman who needs it. Do YOU have a Courage Story you'd like to share? Send Bernice a message.

    Jen's Story: A Mom On A Mission
  5. Sep 2

    Mirna's Story: Finding Her Way Back To Her True Canvas

    Send us Fan Mail Mirna knew what burnout looked like. She’s a psychologist. She had helped other women recognize unhealthy workplaces, trust what they were feeling, and find their way through. Then it happened to her. She stepped into the biggest leadership role of her career, excited and ready. But within the first month, her body was already telling her something wasn’t right. Then came the questioning. The labels. Too aggressive. Intimidating. Contrarian. And slowly, Mirna began asking herself the question so many capable women ask when the people around them keep telling them a story about themselves they don’t recognize: What if they’re right? In this Courage Story, Mirna shares what finally helped her see that she wasn’t the problem, the night she sat alone in a hotel room and wrote her resignation letter, and the childhood voices that had been making her second-guess herself for decades. Most importantly, she tells us what she found when she began peeling away all those other voices. Her True Canvas. The resilient, honest, curious, funny woman who had been there all along. Today, through Your True Canvas, Mirna helps other women ask the same powerful question: What actually belongs to me—and what have I been carrying that was never mine? If you’ve ever found yourself doubting what you know, overriding what your body is telling you, or changing yourself to fit someone else’s version of who you should be, Mirna’s story may feel very familiar. Because sometimes courage isn’t becoming someone new. Sometimes it’s finding your way back to yourself. Connect with Mirna Mejia and Learn To See Yourself as Your Own True Canvas: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirnamejiaphd Website: Your True Canvas  www.yourtruecanvas.org Hosted by Bernice McDonald — Life & Courage Strategist, speaker, and author.  Need to find YOUR Next Step through a hard thing you're facing? Have a simple conversation with the Tiny Brave Steps Generator AI:  www.tinybravesteps.com. Connect with Bernice:   Email: bernice@bernicemcdonald.com Website: www.tinybravesteps.com Join me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernicemcdonald/ If this episode moved something in you — leave a review, share it with a woman who needs it. Do YOU have a Courage Story you'd like to share? Send Bernice a message.

    Mirna's Story: Finding Her Way Back To Her True Canvas
  6. Aug 19

    Sarka's Story: When Perfect Was Never The Point

    Send us Fan Mail For years, two things ran Sarka’s life without her seeing them: she didn’t believe in herself, and she thought she had to be perfect.  It took a hard question — where will you be in 20 years? — before she turned around and looked to see what her life was becoming. She became an entrepreneur with no savings and no plan, learned to answer her own fear instead of fighting it, and said yes to a TEDx stage she almost didn’t get — the one she forgot three times in rehearsal and gave anyway.  Today she helps other people out of hiding, the way someone once helped her.  Her message is simple and hard to do  unless you know how: you are enough, but it's not a mantra.  It's something you learn to feel right down to your toes. CONNECT WITH THE LOVELY SARKA RISCH. You'll be glad you did. LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/sarka-risch Website: www.sarkarisch.com Hosted by Bernice McDonald — Life & Courage Strategist, speaker, and author.  Need to find YOUR Next Step through a hard thing you're facing? Have a simple conversation with the Tiny Brave Steps Generator AI:  www.tinybravesteps.com. Connect with Bernice:   Email: bernice@bernicemcdonald.com Website: www.tinybravesteps.com Join me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernicemcdonald/ If this episode moved something in you — leave a review, share it with a woman who needs it. Do YOU have a Courage Story you'd like to share? Send Bernice a message.

    Sarka's Story: When Perfect Was Never The Point
  7. Aug 11

    Lonna's Story: Opening Her Heart's Door

    Send us Fan Mail Lonna found the answer to her prayers — a faithful man, a fresh start in a new state — and still ended up more alone than she’d ever been.  Two wounded people with no tools, ten hard years, and a marriage on life support.  What turned it around wasn’t willpower.  It was a care pastor who told her she’d never even had words for what she’d survived, a counseling room where she rewrote the beliefs she’d been living out of, and one unforgettable moment in a remembered field where she finally saw where Jesus had been all along.  In this episode, Lonna shares - ...how she went from a black-and-white world to Technicolor ...how the depth she’d been told was “too much” became the very thing that saved her and  ...how a marriage that nearly ended became one that gives other people hope.  Here is a story of the slow brave work of opening the doors of her heart until the color came back. Connect with Lonna: Lonna spent years uncovering the lies she'd believed were truths about herself and others so she could finally tell the truth about her own story — and these days she helps others tell theirs.  As the founder of Seven & Associates, she comes alongside nonprofit leaders to help them think like entrepreneurs, building the strategy, marketing, messaging and fundraising that let a mission-driven organization actually grow and last. She's a Fractional CMO and trained AI Architect. Find her at sevenandassoc.com. Website: www.sevenandassoc.com Instagram: Instagram.com/7andassocs Facebook: www.facebook.com/SevenandAssocs/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lonna-gibson/ Hosted by Bernice McDonald — Life & Courage Strategist, speaker, and author.  Need to find YOUR Next Step through a hard thing you're facing? Have a simple conversation with the Tiny Brave Steps Generator AI:  www.tinybravesteps.com. Connect with Bernice:   Email: bernice@bernicemcdonald.com Website: www.tinybravesteps.com Join me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernicemcdonald/ If this episode moved something in you — leave a review, share it with a woman who needs it. Do YOU have a Courage Story you'd like to share? Send Bernice a message.

    Lonna's Story: Opening Her Heart's Door

About

These are women who’ve faced the fire.  Tiny Brave Steps is where real women tell the truth about the hardest things they’ve ever walked through—and how they found their way to the other side. Not with some dramatic, made-for-TV moment. But with what I call Tiny Brave Steps - the kind of courage that happens one terrified, trembling choice at a time. A surgery that stole everything and gave her more than she ever imagined.  A caregiving journey with no finish line.  A fourteen-year silence finally broken.  These aren’t superhero stories. They’re your-neighbor, your-sister, your-friend stories. The kind where you listen and think, That could be me. I’m Bernice McDonald, Creator of the Tiny Brave Steps method and author of The Little Books of Courage.  Each episode, I walk you through one woman’s journey using the Courage Map - a path from feeling “Not Enough” to becoming “Brave Enough.”  You’ll hear her real voice. Her real fear. And the real moment she decided to take that next step - even though her hands were shaking. Because here’s the truth I want you to know: Courage is never the absence of fear. It’s the judgment that something matters more than the fear. If you’ve ever whispered I’m not brave enough for this—this podcast was made for you. New episodes weekly. Bring your heart. Leave with courage.