Vivianne Castillo helps values-led entrepreneurs build businesses that pay well, feel good, and protect their peace (without burning out or selling their souls).

Vivianne founded and led HmntyCntrd, a FastCo award-winning consultancy working with clients like Google, Patagonia, Capital One, Grammarly, Workday, and more. She's designed learning and development strategies for 700+ person design organizations, facilitated cross-functional alignment with C-suite executives, and generated over seven figures in revenue across her businesses — including one year where her team took a mandatory four months off and still beat revenue goals by 20%.

With 12+ years of psychology and research experience, Vivianne's thoughtwork has been mentioned in Slate, Fortune, Huffington Post, Fast Company, and ELLE Magazine, and she was an invited speaker at Fortune's Most Powerful Women Next Gen Summit. She brings a holistic, deeply human approach to business building that refuses to repeat capitalism bro blueprints or exploitative tactics.

After leaving Salesforce in 2021 (a departure written about by Business Insider and Fast Company) to build HmntyCntrd, Vivianne now coaches and consults values-led, high-capacity entrepreneurs through Choose Courage Inc., helping aspiring and established founders who refuse to betray their ethics, identity, or humanity for the sake of growth.

Vivianne works directly with entrepreneurs through through 1:1 coaching & consulting and her group coaching experience, The Lab: From Corporate to Entrepreneurship, a 3-month program for professionals ready to build profitable, sustainable businesses that honor who they actually are.

A die-hard Chicagoan, Vivianne recently moved to Mexico with her two-year-old bilingual Doberman pup name Moose. Connect with Vivianne through her weekly newsletter and on LinkedIn, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

Rachael Dietkus helps professionals leave their corporate and government roles with integrity, reclaim their sense of purpose, and design a next chapter that honors both their values and their well-being.

Rachael is an internationally recognized leader in trauma-informed design, civic tech ethics, and care-centered public interest technology. As founder of Social Workers Who Design, she works at the intersection of design, social work, and systems change, helping organizations build ethical, sustainable, and trauma-responsive practices that support both people and impact.

With 25 years in public service, her work spans government, healthcare, academia, philanthropy, and social impact design. She has advised federal agencies, public health teams, research organizations, design studios, and nonprofits across the U.S. and internationally. Her approach centers care, integrity, and psychological safety as core infrastructure for effective work.

From 2022 to 2024, Rachael served at the White House with the U.S. Digital Service as its first social worker-designer, integrating trauma-informed practices into federal technology, disaster response, and service delivery. She later supervised designers and data scientists at the U.S. Digital Corps.

Her work has been featured in Fast Company, Design Observer, Fortune, and MIT Press. She is the author of the forthcoming book Trauma by Design (MIT Press), which explores how technology and design can cause harm and how practitioners can build systems rooted in care and accountability.

Connect with Rachael through her newsletter, website or on LinkedIn.

Vincent Brathwaite helps designers and entrepreneurs build clarity and impact by shaping simple, human-centered experiences guided by integrity, kindness, resilience, and courage.

Vincent Brathwaite is a Caribbean-American design executive, educator, and entrepreneur based in Hawaiʻi. As founder of Gidens, an AI-powered workflow assistant that automates administrative tasks for small businesses, he's reimagining how small-medium businesses navigate the complexities of running a business.

With over two decades of experience spanning Fortune 500s to grassroots startups, Vincent bridges human-centered design and emerging technology. He's led innovation workshops in Guadeloupe, spoken on design and technology in Switzerland, and advocates across the U.S. for equity, cultural authenticity, and responsible AI, drawing from his roots in Overtown, Miami.

His voice resonates with C-suites, creatives, technologists, and community builders alike because he leads with both vision and values.

Connect with Vincent on LinkedIn.

Behzod Sirjani helps high-growth companies build strong research foundations, scale research operations, and turn insights into strategic advantage without rushing to full-time hires.

Behzod Sirjani is Chief of Staff at Vercel, where he helps build the operating system for the Product & Engineering organization and partners closely with the executive team.

Before Vercel, he spent five years running Yet Another Studio, advising companies like Figma, Mozilla, and OpenAI on org design, decision-making, and navigating growth.

Behzod is also a Program Partner at Reforge, where he’s built courses on user research and customer insight, and a Venture Partner at El Cap. He writes and speaks about building careers with more ownership, and how to translate corporate experience into independent work.

Connect with Behzod on LinkedIn or his newsletter.

Patrice Perkins help visionary creatives protect their genius, own their work, and turn their intellectual property into profitable assets without exploitation or loss of control.

Patrice Perkins is an art, new media, and entertainment attorney who helps visionary creatives protect their genius, retain ownership of their work, and turn their intellectual property into profitable assets.

With more than 14 years of experience, she provides strategic legal counsel to artists, authors, cultural leaders, and thought leaders through her firm, Creative Genius Law. Her clients include Amanda Williams, Tonika Lewis Johnson, Luvvie Ajayi Jones, Dr. Yaba Blay, Jeanne Sparrow, Dr. Joy Bradford, Nedra Tawwab, and the tap dance collective M.A.D.D. Rhythms.

Patrice advises clients on intellectual property protection, art transactions, publishing, podcasting, brand collaborations, and licensing, with a vision of helping independent creatives generate $1M or more from their work. She has been featured in Forbes, Fortune, Bloomberg, and WBEZ and was named a “Legal Rebel” by the American Bar Association for her innovative approach to law.

Connect with Patrice on LinkedIn or thru her website.

Erika Poole leverages innovative health benefits strategies through user-centered design and flexible plan approaches to make complex insurance work better for real people.

Erika Poole is the Founder and CEO of Spectacle Health Navigation, a technology platform that helps brokers and small businesses offer and manage modern health benefits, including Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements (ICHRA), with clarity and flexibility.

With more than fifteen years of experience in healthcare technology, Erika has worked as a researcher, designer, professor, consumer advocate, and innovation leader. She previously served as a UX Director at Elevance Health, the parent company of the largest Blue Cross Blue Shield plan in the United States, where she focused on improving how people understand and navigate their health coverage.

Erika founded Spectacle to simplify one of the most confusing systems in American life. She works closely with brokers and small employers to make health benefits easier to offer, understand, and use. As a licensed insurance broker with a PhD in Human-Centered Computing from Georgia Tech, she brings a rare combination of technical expertise, industry knowledge, and human-centered design.

Erika is excited to join The Walkout as a trusted resource for attendees navigating questions about health insurance, benefits, and coverage options as they consider new paths in their careers.

Connect with Erika on LinkedIn or thru her company's website.

Ashby Kyhl helps small businesses and individuals build financial clarity and long term security through proactive tax strategy, sharp bookkeeping, and practical accounting systems that make money easier to manage.

Ashby Kyhl is an accountant with an EA credential (which is the highest credential awarded by the IRS) who specializes helping small businesses and individuals gain clarity and confidence in their finances. He provides practical support across tax preparation and management, bookkeeping, financial advising, audit preparation, and accounting systems assessment.

Known for his detail-oriented and thoughtful approach, Ashby is passionate about making high-quality accounting services accessible and affordable for entrepreneurs and small business owners. He approaches every financial question as an opportunity for creative problem-solving and long-term financial stability.

Ashby is passionate about helping people better understand their numbers so they can make informed decisions, strengthen their businesses, and build greater financial security.

Elizabeth Burke helps purpose-driven practitioners turn their knowledge and experiences into meaningful learning experiences that transform others.

Elizabeth Burke weaves together her background in strategic event planning, education, and UX Research to design impactful experiences that activate learning, understanding, and transformation. Through her company Collective Expansion, she supports purpose driven practitioners in expanding the reach of their message and methods to create a positive impact in the world. Taking work from one to one, to one to many is a big step. Elizabeth is here as a trusted guide and thought partner to provide insight and support along the journey. As a lover of nature and great food, you can often find her hiking on the trails and in the kitchen exploring a new recipe.

Connect with Elizabeth on LinkedIn.