Our goal is simple:
To help you be and feel more free.
The Walkout is a 2-day experience for UX professionals interested in building a life and career outside of corporate without regret, guilt, or starting from scratch.
When:
- Thursday January 14th: 9am - 2pm PST
- Friday January 15th: 9am - 12:30pm PST
Where: Online
With: 3 UX professionals who built a career path outside of corporate design and a thoughtful, curious community of UX folks who believe that there has to be more to life than enduring the corporate grind.
Join the Walkout ~
Here's what you'll experience at The Walkout:
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A 30-day action plan you can start the following Monday.
You'll walk away with specific steps, clarity, and milestones, not vague inspiration that fades by Tuesday.
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A clear exit path that matches your skills, values, and risk tolerance.
No more paralysis between "stay miserable" and "leap blindly,” just honest assessment and direction.
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Permission to leave without guilt.
From people who've done it, don't regret it and won't judge you for wanting something different.
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Realistic expectations about each path.
The actual timeline, the real costs, the hard parts no one talks about, and the rewards that make it worth it.
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The confidence to have the hard conversations.
With your manager, your family, and most importantly, yourself … without apologizing for choosing freedom.
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The ability to spot which corporate narratives are keeping you stuck.
"Just one more year," "I need more experience," and how to reject them without guilt.
This Is Not Another Design Conference
| Scroll left to right | The Walkout | Typical UX Conferences |
|---|---|---|
| Why We Exist |
✔ To help you leave well ... without guilt, fear, or self-abandonment.
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✖ To help you stay longer ... with more tools to tolerate what’s breaking you.
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| Focus |
✔ Clarity, courage, and freedom
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✖ Inspiration to endure direction
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| Depth of Experience |
✔ 3 speakers. 2 days. Real transformation.
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✖ 15+ speakers, a mile wide, and an inch deep.
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| Who’s on Stage |
✔ People who’ve actually walked out. They’ve faced the fear, rebuilt from scratch, and won their peace back.
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✖ People who’ve learned to survive dysfunction and now teach you how to do the same.
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| Approach to Pricing |
✔ One accessible, transparent price.
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✖ Tiered pricing & scarcity tactics.
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| Accessibility |
✔ Priced for reach, not revenue.
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✖ Priced for profit margins.
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| Profit with Purpose |
✔ 20% of profits donated to non-profits to support others in need. Freedom multiplies when shared.
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✖ 0% give-back. Maximize margins.
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| What You Leave With |
✔ A 30-day action plan and the courage to use it, not a buzz that fades by Monday.
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✖ Some notes you won't look at again, a few new LinkedIn connections, and a lingering ache for more.
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| The Energy |
✔ Designed for nervous systems that crave honesty and hope in equal measure.
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✖ A cycle of inspiration and exhaustion on repeat.
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Join The Walkout
January 14th - January 15th
Where clarity, courage, and community converge so that you leave corporate design with confidence, build what's actually yours, and reclaim your life in the process.
If this is resonating, keep reading👀
A Quick Back Story
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Dan Mall
I help freelancers and agency owners build design business that run on purpose so that they can make more money and get their flowers.
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Vivianne Castillo
I help values-led entrepreneurs build businesses that pay well, feel good, and protect their peace without burnout or selling their soul.
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Rachael Dietkus, LCSW
I help designers build meaningful careers that honor care, integrity, and trauma-informed practice.
This is what led us to create an experience that contradicts everything the design industry tells you about "building influence" and "navigating ambiguity."
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☉ We've collectively spent 30+ years in corporate design roles, senior positions, leadership tracks … all the things you're "supposed" to want.
☉ On the outside, it looked like success. Behind the scenes, we were carrying the emotional labor of broken organizations, tolerating dysfunction professionally, and wondering if this was really it for the next 20 years.
^ This is what the industry tells us to pursue, even when it's killing us slowly.
☉ Between us, we've survived layoffs, re-orgs, and countless executives who "just didn't get design." We kept thinking the next company would be different.
☉ Eventually, we each walked out in different directions, toward different futures. One built an agency. One became an entrepreneur. One became a trauma-informed strategist and SME.
☉ Now we’re making money doing the work we actually love and enjoying life instead of enduring it.
☉ We built businesses and careers that don't require us to build influence without authority, understand business priorities that contradict our values, or stay brave in the face of preventable chaos.
^ It's here that we discovered the difference between surviving the design and tech industry and actually living.
This is why we've created THE WALKOUT.
First, let's make sure attending is worth your time …
Who Will Get the Most Out of This
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Who this isn’t for ❌
❌ You're in active crisis mode (about to be evicted, health emergency, etc.) and need income stability more than exit strategies right now.
❌ You're going to spend the whole time calculating how much you'll lose instead of what you'll gain.
❌ You think investing in your business and personal growth is "risky" but staying in corporate is "safe" (hint: you've got the risk calculation backwards).
❌ You're not willing to consider that YOU might be part of why you're stuck (your choices, your fear, your inaction) and are therefore unwilling to ask for help.
❌ You're waiting for the "perfect time" to leave and think this experience will tell you when that is (spoiler: there isn't one).
❌ You want to "think about it" for another 6-18 months while staying absolutely miserable because staying stuck feels safer than committing to change.
❌ You're looking for the magic framework that makes leaving feel easy instead of accepting it will be scary and doing it anyway.
❌ You're more afraid of what people will think than you are committed to your own freedom.
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Who this is for ✅
✅ You're done consuming content about leaving and ready to actually build your exit plan with support.
✅ You're willing to invest in yourself even when it's scary, because staying stuck is more expensive than any conference, coaching program, course, or degree.
✅ You understand that leaving is a process, not a light switch and you're willing to move towards your exit over +3 months.
✅ You're ready to have uncomfortable conversations because freedom matters more than others approving your career path.
✅ You're not running FROM corporate design. You want to run TO something specific.
✅ You know you need support, accountability, and expert guidance and you're ready to explore all three.
✅ You're done asking "should I leave?" and ready to start asking the real questions: "How do I land my first agency client?" "How do I validate this business idea?" or "What's the actual path to becoming a licensed counselor or social worker?"
And Here's A Gift to You
A tangible reminder that when you walk out with courage, you never walk out empty-handed.
The Walkout isn’t just an event ... it’s a declaration. It’s a choice to build work, wealth, and wellbeing differently.
To mark this moment, we’re gifting a limited number of physical copies of $100M Money Models by Alex Hormozi, a book that helps you build offers with integrity, clarity, and care for the people you serve.
You just cover shipping.
We only have a small batch of 150 copies available (because that’s what we can genuinely share right now), so if you’re signing up for The Walkout, this book is our way of saying:
You’re not walking out empty-handed. You’re walking out equipped and ready to create, lead, and earn with heart.
What to Expect
This 2-day experience shows you 3 proven exit paths from corporate UX so you can stop navigating dysfunction and start building freedom through agency ownership, entrepreneurship, or helping professional paths.
If you're curious, keep reading (and notice if you experience goosebumps, fist pumps, and audible heck yeah's as you read)
Day 1: Envision Your Exit
Three people who stopped navigating dysfunction and started building lives that didn't need navigating.
The Old Way: Stay in corporate. Build influence. Navigate ambiguity. Hope the next company is different. Repeat until retirement or layoff.
The Walkout Way: Walk out strategically. Build agency ownership, pursue entrepreneurship, or become a helping professional. Own your time, your income, and your peace.
Agenda
Thursday January 14th | 9am - 2pm | 3 Talks + 1 Panel
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More details will be shared when registration opens Friday November 14th.
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More details will be shared when registration opens Friday November 14th.
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More details will be shared when registration opens Friday November 14th.
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The three of us go there and are answering your unspoken questions. You know the questions: the ones you Google at 2am and the ones you feel like you can't ask your manager, your partner, or your colleagues. And we’ll answer them honestly.
No corporate speak.
No toxic positivity.
No "just believe in yourself" hoopla.
Questions like:
- How should I be thinking about money and how much to have in savings before I leave? What's realistic vs. what's just fear talking?
- How do you stop feeling like a fraud when you charge clients more than your old hourly rate as an employee?
- I grew up poor/working class. Leaving a stable paycheck feels like betraying my family's sacrifices. How do you reconcile that?
- Do I quit first and then build, or build on the side until I can quit? What did you do and what would you do differently?
- I'm terrified of being seen as a failure. How did you deal with the fear of leaving a “good job”?
- How do you handle health insurance? That's the thing keeping me stuck more than anything.
- I've invested X years building my design career. If I leave now, doesn't that mean I wasted all that time?
This isn't a sanitized Q&A, this is the conversation you wish you could have with someone who's been exactly where you are: terrified, stuck, and wondering if wanting something different makes you weak or brave.
We'll tell you what worked, what didn't, what we'd do differently and what we'd do exactly the same.
And we'll tell you the truth: leaving is scary, staying is scarier, and you're not crazy for wanting out.
Day 2: Plan Your Path
Choose one 2.5-hour intensive workshop and walk out with a concrete plan, not just inspiration.
The Old Way: Leave another conference motivated for a week, then do nothing because you don't know where to start.
The Walkout Way: Spend 2.5 hours with someone who's already done it, building your actual exit plan with accountability and structure.
Agenda
Friday January 15th | 9am - 12:30pm | You'll pick one workshop to attend on Day 2!
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More details will be shared when registration opens Friday November 14th.
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More details will be shared when registration opens Friday November 14th.
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More details will be shared when registration opens Friday November 14th.
Why This Experience is Different (and Works)💙
Most conferences motivate you. We equip you.
Most conferences teach theory. We build plans.
Most conferences send you home inspired. We send you home with your next 30 days mapped.
That's the power of attending THE WALKOUT:
You leave with clarity, community, and a concrete plan (not just a notebook full of ideas you'll never execute).
Quick Recap: What You Get
Day 1: The Talks + Panel
Three talks from people who've already walked out successfully
An honest panel Q&A addressing your biggest fears and questions
A room full of people who get it and are bringing good, hopeful energy
Day 2: Your Workshop Choice
One intensive 2.5-hour workshop on your chosen path
Direct access to your workshop leader
Your Investment: $149
Most conferences play the scarcity game with early bird rushes, tiered pricing, and FOMO countdowns that make you feel like you're losing if you don't act fast enough.We ain't got time for that. THE WALKOUT costs $149. Period.
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Whether you register today or the day before the event, you pay the same price.
We're not manufacturing urgency through pricing tricks because the urgency is already real: it's the years you're losing staying in a job that's dimming your light.
And unlike a lot of design conference, we believe it's important to practice the values that the UX industry prides itself on ... like being human-centered💙
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Whether you register today or the day before the event, you pay the same price. We're not manufacturing urgency through pricing tricks because the urgency is already real: it's the years you're losing staying in a job that's dimming your light.
Why $149?
Because we remember what it's like to be stuck: wanting out so badly but feeling like every "investment in yourself" is another luxury you can't justify while golden-handcuffed to a corporate salary you resent.
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$149 is less than:
- One day of your salary
- The Figma subscription your company pays for so you can make buttons slightly better
- What you spend not thinking about it for another month
For us, this isn't about money or pricing tickets so that we make as much money as possible.
It's about creating a safe space for you to bet on yourself.
We priced this so that if you're seriously considering leaving — even if you're scared, even if you're not sure when — you can say yes without agonizing.
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We believe that choosing yourself shouldn’t come at the expense of others ... it should create more possibility for everyone. That’s why 20% of every ticket goes directly to two organizations doing life-changing work in these unprecedented times:
💙 The Greater Chicago Food Depository: connecting our neighbors with healthy food and addressing the root causes of hunger.
💙 The National Immigrant Justice Center: providing advocacy and legal support to keep families together and protect the rights of immigrants and asylum seekers.This is what regenerative commerce looks like: care that circulates. Your investment fuels not just your next chapter, but someone else’s chance to either continue or begin theirs.
You can learn more here.
What your $149 includes:
❌ Here's what we're not offering:
Motivation that fades by Monday. Magic frameworks that remove fear. Guarantees that leaving will be easy.
✅ Here's what we are offering:
Clarity on your path forward. Tools to build your exit plan. Proof that other people did it without regret. Community so you're not alone. Permission to want something different.
The real cost isn't $149.
The real cost is another year of Sunday scaries. Another year pretending the next reorg will be different. Another year of 2am Google searches for "how to leave corporate." Another year optimizing someone else's product instead of building your own freedom.
$149 to stop wondering and start planning.
That's not an expense. That's an investment in the life on the other side of this decision.