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

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

By: Bernice McDonald
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She was told by her own team that if she got into trouble, they wouldn’t come to save her. She showed up anyway—every single day for fourteen years. She walked into literal fires while fighting one inside her own chest. And one day, she decided surviving wasn’t enough anymore.


That’s one story. There are so many more.


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.


These are women who’ve faced the fire.


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.





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Episodes
  • Kylyna's Story: Not This. Not Me. This Is Where I Draw The Line

    Kylyna's Story: Not This. Not Me. This Is Where I Draw The Line
    Jun 15 2026

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    Some women learn early that the safest thing to do is disappear.

    Kylyna learned it in a house where her father’s drinking was the weather — always there, never her fault, impossible to fix.

    So she got the good grades. She kept the peace. She stayed in her room. She made herself easy to overlook.

    And then she grew up and had a baby. And something in her said no.

    This is the story of a woman who held a line almost no one around her understood — with the father she loved and couldn’t trust, with the brother she couldn’t save, and, hardest of all, with herself, when she saw her own pain starting to turn into the same thing she’d watched destroy them.

    It’s about the strength she built alone, long before she knew it was strength.

    It’s about grief that doesn’t tie up in a bow.

    And it’s about what gets built on the other side of all of it: a business of her own, two sons who know they don’t have to numb what hurts, and a Sunday-morning phone call nobody would have predicted.

    If you’ve ever been the different one in a room — the one holding a line while everyone else looks away — this one is for you.

    A gentle note: this episode touches on addiction in the family and the loss of a sibling, held with care.

    Find your own next step at tinybravesteps.com.


    Hosted by Bernice McDonald — Courage Architect, 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.

    Show More Show Less
    26 mins
  • Nadine's Story: When Did I Stop Singing? Losing The Magic In Marriage

    Nadine's Story: When Did I Stop Singing? Losing The Magic In Marriage
    Jun 4 2026

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    Nadine spent decades helping other women find themselves — as a relationship counselor, NLP trainer, and self-esteem facilitator.

    But for 19 years inside her own marriage, she was quietly losing track of who she was.

    It wasn't dramatic. It was the slow accumulation of small surrenders: preferences set aside, choices made around someone else's moods, a voice that used to sing falling silent somewhere she couldn't quite name.

    When the marriage ended, Nadine made a choice many women don't know how to make: she refused to let the anger take her down. She changed the locks. She packed her cart with the foods she actually liked. And one day, driving alone, she caught herself singing — and realized she couldn't remember when she had stopped.

    Nadine's story is a courage story about identity: what it costs when we give it away, what it takes to reclaim it, and how becoming fully yourself again is exactly what makes the second act possible.

    If you have ever looked up and wondered how you got so far from yourself — this one is for you.

    Guest: Nadine Hanchar | Relationship Counselor, NLP Trainer, Women's Self-Esteem

    Website: https://progressiveplus.com/
    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nadinehanchar/

    Hosted by Bernice McDonald — Courage Architect, 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.

    Show More Show Less
    25 mins
  • Chery's Story: Facing Trauma As A Small But Mighty Ninja Warrior

    Chery's Story: Facing Trauma As A Small But Mighty Ninja Warrior
    May 26 2026

    Send us Fan Mail

    At 44, Cheryl Ilov walked into a doctor's office and walked out changed.

    When the people she trusted most refused to believe her, she buried it. For a year and a half, she held herself together.

    And then she didn't.

    What pulled her back wasn't therapy or time. It was an acupuncturist who wouldn't stop talking about ninjas.

    This is the story of a fussy girl in pointe shoes who became her teacher's first female black belt — and what she discovered along the way about strength she'd been carrying her whole life.

    CONNECT WITH CHERYL ILOV:

    https://www.cherylilov.com/

    https://www.linkedin.com/in/cherylilovvitalityconsultant/

    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU0oIAa1eygYtcRPuNnLv1g

    FIND CHERYL'S BOOKS HERE.

    Hosted by Bernice McDonald — Courage Architect, 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.

    Show More Show Less
    28 mins
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