ICMM: Living Life Unpaused

About ICMM: Living Life Unpaused

Most of us are waiting for something. The right job. The right relationship. Better health. More money. More confidence. More certainty. And while we're waiting, we quietly put parts of our lives on hold. ICMM: Living Life Unpaused is a podcast about what happens when you stop waiting. Hosted by Abby Ventrillo, each episode explores the idea that transformation doesn't come from having all the answers. It comes from taking ownership of the things you can control and moving forward, one step at a time. Through honest conversations, personal stories, and interviews with experts and everyday people who have reinvented themselves, we'll explore what it means to build a life that's aligned with who you are and what you want. We'll talk about physical, mental, emotional, financial, and functional well-being. We'll talk about careers, relationships, purpose, personal growth, and the dreams you've been putting off until "someday." Because life isn't meant to be lived on pause. One intentional thing. Every day. Let's press play.

Publisher

Abby Ventrillo

Category

education · health & fitness

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

31 May 2026

Latest episode

5 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

18 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   5 Oct 2026

   Episode 18: The Strength in Needing People

   Courtney Gard describes herself as fiercely independent—the kind of person who figures things out and handles things herself. Then, in September 2020, moving a china cabinet just one inch changed everything. A falling vase shattered and severed nearly every major structure in Courtney's dominant wrist. What followed were surgeries, years of rehabilitation and chronic pain, and the unexpected challenge of relearning everyday things most of us never think twice about—from cracking an egg to opening a door. But this isn't really an episode about Courtney's hand. It's about what happens when the version of yourself you've always relied on no longer works in the same way. Courtney joins Abby to talk about trying to get back to “normal,” grieving the life she had before, living with an injury other people couldn't always see, and eventually realizing that moving forward didn't require her to become who she was before the accident. Most importantly, she shares what happened when she stopped trying to prove she could do everything herself—and learned that asking for help didn't make her any less independent or capable. Because sometimes managing yourself doesn't mean doing everything yourself. Sometimes strength looks like letting other people help carry what you're holding.

2. 

   28 Sept 2026

   Episode 17: Control the Controllables

   We hear it all the time: focus on what you can control. But what if the harder part isn't knowing what you can control — it's recognizing when you've crossed the line into trying to control something that was never yours? In this solo episode of ICMM: Living Life Unpaused, Abby digs into the idea at the heart of ICMM: I Can Manage Myself. After five rounds of insurance submissions for a new medication, Abby found herself in one of life's familiar hurry-up-and-wait seasons — doing everything she could while having absolutely no control over the outcome. But that experience opened up a much bigger conversation about where our responsibility actually ends. Why do we keep checking, worrying and replaying when there's nothing left for us to do? When does explaining ourselves turn into trying to manage someone else's reaction? When can “I can't control this” become an excuse to avoid the part we actually can? And just because something is within our control, does that mean we have to act on it right now? This episode explores the difference between control, influence and responsibility — and why managing yourself isn't about responding perfectly or controlling every piece of your life. It's about learning to recognize what is yours, what isn't, and where you still have agency when the outcome was never yours to decide. Because controlling the controllables isn't a command to control everything you can. It's permission to stop trying to control everything you can't.

3. 

   21 Sept 2026

   Episode 16: Turning Your Why Into Your Why Now

   What happens when the reason you think you should wait becomes the exact reason you decide you can’t? In this episode, Abby sits down with Meg Dieter, founder of Whimsi Beans, to talk about the winding path from corporate marketing to motherhood to building a product that didn’t exist yet. After her daughter Chloe received an autism diagnosis, Meg began learning about adaptive tools and sensory needs—and saw firsthand what the right tools could unlock. Eventually, an everyday struggle around feeding her young daughters sparked a simple question: Why couldn’t vitamins come in sprinkle form? That question became Whimsi Beans. Meg shares what happened next: finding manufacturers, seeking funding, pitching an idea people had never seen before, hearing plenty of no’s, navigating production challenges, and building a company while raising four daughters. But this conversation is about more than entrepreneurship. It’s about what happens when life doesn’t follow the plan, why you don’t have to wait for the “right” time to begin, and how remembering your why can help you keep moving when you have no idea what comes next. Sometimes your why is also the answer to: Why now? To preorder, visit their website https://whimsibeans.com/ (https://whimsibeans.com/)

4. 

   14 Sept 2026

   Episode 15: The Necessity of Challenge

   Season 2 starts with a question: What if the thing making you uncomfortable isn’t a warning sign—but information? In this episode, Abby explores the necessity of challenge: the people willing to tell us what we don’t want to hear, the ideas that get stronger when someone pushes back, and the unexpected circumstances that force us to see our lives differently. From the difference between boundaries and walls to the danger of mistaking comfort for safety, Abby challenges the idea that protecting our peace should mean protecting ourselves from discomfort. She also looks at the challenges we never choose—the diagnosis, the loss, the plan that suddenly changes—and why finding meaning in what happens isn’t the same as believing it happened for a reason. Sometimes challenge tells us to keep going. Sometimes it tells us to change direction. Sometimes it exposes what we’ve been avoiding. And sometimes it shows us just how badly we want something. The goal isn’t to seek out hardship. It’s to stop assuming that discomfort automatically means something is wrong. So, what is the friction in your life trying to tell you?

5. 

   31 Aug 2026

   Episode 14: It's Time to Be Honest with Yourself

   We all have a version of “Starting Monday.” Starting Monday, I’ll get serious. Starting Monday, I’ll make the change. Starting Monday, I’ll finally do the thing I keep saying I want to do. But what if “Starting Monday” isn’t always a plan? What if sometimes it’s the story we tell ourselves because the truth underneath it is harder to admit? In the Season One finale of ICMM: Living Life Unpaused, Abby explores what it really means to be honest with yourself — about what you want, what you’re afraid of, what you’re willing to change, and the choices you may have convinced yourself you don’t have. From a high school performance of a play called Starting Monday that took nearly 30 years to fully understand, to losing a career that had become part of her identity, Abby looks at the stories we tell ourselves to stay comfortable, why fear can sound remarkably like truth, and why sometimes you need to diagnose before you demolish. Because you can read the books, listen to the podcasts, ask for advice, and gather all the information in the world — but nobody else can decide what you do next. Before you build the plan, make the change, or promise yourself you’ll start Monday, there’s one thing you have to do first: Tell yourself the truth.

6. 

   24 Aug 2026

   Episode 13: When the Plans Change

   What happens when the plan you made no longer fits the life you're actually living? A chance conversation with a phlebotomist got me thinking about the difference between building your dream life and actively living your life — and why one may actually be how you get to the other. In this episode, we're talking about why plans should be directions, not promises; how the things we call “detours” may actually be giving us information we couldn't have had before; and why focusing so intensely on one goal can sometimes leave the rest of our lives sitting on pause. And when life does change the plan — whether by choice or without asking our permission — sometimes pausing is exactly what we need. The key is knowing the difference between an intentional pause and one that quietly becomes indefinite. Living Life Unpaused doesn't mean perpetual motion. It means staying an active participant in your own life — paying attention, taking in the new information, and consciously deciding whether it's time to continue, change direction, or let something go.

7. 

   17 Aug 2026

   Episode 12: Do It For Yourself

   This week didn't go the way Abby planned. A quiet autoimmune condition flared back up, a medication that's worked for eight years is suddenly in question, and one unanswered question in another part of her life sent her imagination straight to the worst-case scenario — the kind where she's somehow always the problem in the plot. For a minute, she almost let all of it talk her into rethinking everything she's built. Instead, this episode is about catching that pattern in real time. Abby digs into the difference between appreciating validation and requiring it, why "is this working" and "is this worth doing" are two completely different questions, and how much of our decision-making runs on imaginary criticism nobody actually voiced. She talks about the pull to copy someone else's results instead of trusting your own reasons, revisits a line from a recent Taylor Swift interview about writing for yourself first, and circles back to last week's conversation with Dr. Michelle Retz about permission. Then she hands out a permission slip of her own — and an assignment: do one thing this week purely because you want to, and don't tell anyone about it. No guest this episode, but Abby ties it directly back to Episode 11 with Dr. Michelle Retz, so if you haven't listened yet, start there. Topics covered: Why quitting on yourself rarely sounds like fear — it usually sounds responsible The difference between "is this working" and "is this worth doing" How an unanswered question turns into an entire imagined story, and why we always cast ourselves as the problem Chasing someone else's results vs. doing the work because you actually love it Rejecting your own idea before anyone else gets the chance to Learning to give yourself permission instead of waiting for someone else's This week's assignment: one thing, purely for you, untracked and unposted

8. 

   10 Aug 2026

   Episode 11: I Am Tired of Being Tired: How Your Body Is Keeping Score

   What if “I'm just tired” isn't actually normal? This week I'm joined by Dr. Michelle Retz, NMD — a naturopathic medical doctor who's been part of my own health journey — for a conversation about everything traditional medicine tends to skip: adrenal fatigue, the hormones nobody checks at your annual physical, the real difference between naturopathic and functional medicine, and why chronic stress can wreck your thyroid, your gut, and your immune system without a single “abnormal” lab result. We also get into something I didn't expect from a medical conversation — boundaries. Why they're not a therapy topic, they're a health topic. What early warning signs actually look like before you hit burnout. And why so many of us are walking around in a low-grade stress state we've just learned to call “busy.” If you've ever felt dismissed, told you're “fine” when you know you're not, or just plain tired of being tired — this episode is for you. Find Dr. Retz at anuesthetics.com (http://anuesthetics.com) or 816-359-3310.

9. 

   3 Aug 2026

   Episode 10: Believe Me: The Years Without Answers

   A friend recently apologized to Abby for something she didn't even realize she'd done — she never really understood what Abby had been living with, until it started happening to her too. That conversation is why this episode exists. This is Abby's full medical story, told start to finish for the first time: 16 years of irregular labs, dismissed symptoms, negative tests that didn't match what her body was doing, a decade of infertility, hospitalizations with no follow-up, a rheumatologist who wouldn't treat her without a "significant" clot, and the moment a doctor looked her in the eye and said, "You are not crazy." It's a story about invisible illness, the loneliness of the diagnostic odyssey, and what it costs — physically, emotionally, and relationally — to keep advocating for yourself when the answers haven't caught up yet. It's also a story about functional medicine, and why Abby now believes healthcare works best as a both-and, not an either-or. If you've ever felt like your friends don't quite believe you, or your doctors have stopped listening, or your own body has become a stranger — this one's for you. And if you love someone living this story right now, this episode might change how you show up for them. Next week: Abby sits down with Dr. Michelle Retz, the functional medicine doctor who helped her get her life back.

10. 

    27 Jul 2026

    Episode 9: The Business Becomes Your Boss

    Everybody wants to be their own boss — until the business becomes the boss. This week I'm joined by Shannon Hoffmann, who grew up inside a family business in Wichita, built her own grocery store from scratch in Kansas City the year before the economy crashed, helped her family more than double in size overnight by acquiring five competing stores, opened a second business right as COVID hit, and eventually made the call to sell it all and start over. We talk about the unglamorous, middle-of-the-night kind of grit it takes to keep a business alive — going to ten banks and getting turned down by nine, keeping a staff calm when you don't have all the answers yet, and knowing the difference between digging in and holding on too long. Shannon is refreshingly honest about what it actually costs to build something of your own, and just as honest about what it felt like to finally walk away. If you've ever romanticized “being your own boss,” or you're in the thick of building something right now and wondering if you have what it takes — this conversation is for you. In this episode: •  Growing up in an entrepreneurial family, and what her mom's “fire, ready, aim” approach taught her •  Building her Kansas City store from the ground up — and surviving the 2008 crash before the business had a base •  The overnight acquisition that took the family from two stores to seven •  Running two businesses through COVID, and becoming “an HR expert, a legal expert” overnight •  Why it took ten years before she made her next big move — and why that patience mattered •  The decision to sell, and what it actually felt like to walk away •  Her honest read on what people underestimate most about starting a business

11. 

    20 Jul 2026

    Episode 8: Stop Waiting for the Perfect Plan

    We expect eighteen-year-olds to have their whole future mapped out — and then we're surprised when the plan doesn't fit twenty years later. This week, Abby unpacks why the “perfect plan” so many of us are still quietly waiting to finish writing might be the exact thing keeping us stuck. Drawing on her own scrapped pre-law track, a devastating detour through infertility, and the phone call that first pointed her toward this show, Abby makes the case for planning differently: chase your theme instead of your title, treat setbacks as the plan working rather than the plan failing, and stop waiting for a launch date to do the transforming for you. Along the way: the real philosophy behind Kaizen, why Prussian military doctrine has more to teach us about flexibility than any five-year plan, and the questions to ask before you let hustle culture cost you the people and hobbies you also wanted. This episode leaves you with three questions to swap in for “where will I be in five years” — and one small, doable assignment before next week.

12. 

    13 Jul 2026

    Episode 7: You Don't Have to Be Miserable to Want More

    My friend Marci didn’t set out to become an astrologer — she spent two decades in corporate finance, raising three kids, and quietly wondering if there was something more. In this episode, she opens up about the “messy middle” of her pivot: the funeral that cracked something open, the astrology course she couldn’t fully explain to her husband, and the moment she realized this wasn’t just a hobby. We talk about what astrology actually is (hint: not a crystal ball), how Marci uses birth charts to help people find direction instead of predictions, and why manifesting under a new moon is worth trying even if you’re skeptical. She also breaks down what’s shifting in the sky this July and why she thinks the second half of the year is going to feel different. Curious what your own chart has to say? Use code PODCAST for a discount on a reading with Marci at starlightastrology.net (http://starlightastrology.net). Have you ever had a moment where someone else saw your pivot before you did? Tell us in the comments.

13. 

    6 Jul 2026

    Episode 6: If You're Not Moving, You're Just Wishing

    I know I'm not happy — I just don't know what I actually want. If you've ever said some version of that, this one's for you. In this solo episode, I get into the quiet trap so many of us live in: waiting to feel certain before we're willing to move. And here's the thing — we've got it backwards. You don't think your way into clarity. You move your way into it. Clarity was never a lightning bolt that strikes before you act. It's the information you collect because you took the first small, scary step. We'll talk about the real difference between wishing and dreaming, why "figuring it out" can be the most comfortable place to hide, why confidence is the receipt you get after you start (not the ticket in), and why a small, unglamorous action will always beat the big idea you never begin. Plus what writing things down actually does for your brain — and why a dream you never buy a ticket for is really just a wish. And I give credit where it's overdue: to the friend who, when I lost my job, was the first to say "maybe this isn't it — maybe you need something more creative." That's Marci. She's here next week to talk about her own mid-pivot from corporate finance to astrology, and you're going to love her. Your one thing this week: write down what you actually want, then buy one ticket — take one small, real step toward it. Because it's just one intentional thing every day.

14. 

    29 Jun 2026

    Episode 5: Turn Your Brain Off and Sign the Papers

    Chance Lemos drove past the same building on 39th Street every morning for two years. Big building, great neighborhood, a for-sale sign that kept blowing over in the wind. And for two years he told himself he couldn't. Then he turned his brain off and signed the papers. In this episode I sit down with Chance, owner of Blue Collar Barber Co, about making the leap most of us only talk about — what it actually costs, why he hand-picked every barber and every chair in the place, and how he built the old-school barbershop he wished he'd had as a kid. We also get into the part of his story he doesn't tell often: the loss he went through young, and the moment he decided he would never use his circumstances as a reason to stay small. It's a conversation about fear, action, and what happens when you stop waiting for the timing to feel right.

15. 

    22 Jun 2026

    Episode 4: Stop Calling It a Crisis

    What if the midlife crisis isn't a crisis at all? We've all heard the phrases — the quarter-life crisis, the midlife crisis — and most of us picture the same thing: someone buying a sports car, blowing up their whole life overnight. For years, I rolled my eyes at the idea. My life was "normal"… until it wasn't. In this solo episode, I get honest about the season that forced my own realization — losing my job, back-to-back surgeries, losing my dad, my brother's diagnosis — and how, somewhere in the middle of all of it, I finally understood I wasn't unhappy with my work. I was living my life on pause. We get into the science that made me feel less alone: where the term "midlife crisis" even comes from, the U-shaped happiness curve, and the quietly powerful idea of languishing — that joyless, aimless, going-through-the-motions feeling that isn't depression and isn't burnout. I share the story of the woman who walked into my lobby with a vase of flowers, the question a friend asked that I couldn't answer, and what the regrets of the dying taught me about the life I was about to keep chasing.

16. 

    15 Jun 2026

    Episode 3: Betting on Yourself

    My very first guest! I sit down with my friend Jim Wiegand, who spent more than twenty years climbing to the top of the finance world — all the way to CFO — and then walked away to open his own Discover Strength studio. We talk about how he knew it was time, how he made the leap with a family and a mortgage on the line, and then he gives a practical, no-excuses guide to why and how you should start strength training.

17. 

    8 Jun 2026

    Episode 2: You Are Not Your Job

    Episode 2 — You Are Not Your Job We've quietly agreed, as a society, that what you do for money is the same thing as who you are — and this week Abby pushes back on that. Starting from the most ordinary question in the world ("So, what do you do?"), this episode makes the case that you are so much more than your job, and that it's completely okay for a job to be just a job — a means to fund a life you love. Abby walks through two signs worth listening to when a role no longer fits: the Sunday dread and the slow drain of motivation. She digs into the science of why those signals matter — including Self-Determination Theory and why intrinsically motivated people actually perform better and burn out less — and explains why the popular advice to "monetize your passion" or "just do what you're talented at" can quietly backfire. She closes with two honest questions to sit with this week: What would you do if no one was watching? What scares the hell out of you? Key takeaways: A job doesn't have to be your dream to be worthwhile — the problem starts only when it prevents the life you actually want. Sunday dread and lost motivation are information, not character flaws. Turning something you love into a paycheck can quietly kill the love (the overjustification effect) — some things are meant to be loves, not livelihoods. You're allowed to change your mind about your career. Every role teaches you something — sometimes what you don't want. Research referenced: Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan); Sunday Scaries surveys by Adobe, Zety & LinkedIn" —

18. 

    31 May 2026

    Episode 1: Press Play

    What if the thing keeping you stuck isn't a lack of clarity, but the belief that you need clarity before you can move? In the first episode of ICMM: Living Life Unpaused, Abby shares the story behind the movement, the podcast, and the simple idea that changed everything. After a year marked by job loss, grief, health challenges, and more than a thousand rejections, she found herself asking a difficult question: How much of my life have I been postponing while I wait for one thing to work out? What followed was a series of realizations about happiness, control, and the small decisions that shape our lives far more than the big moments we spend years waiting for. In this episode, Abby shares: The "when" trap that kept her life on pause The unexpected ChatGPT conversation that changed her perspective Why happiness isn't something you find, it's something you build The third-grade classroom lesson that became ICMM How one small action a day became the foundation for Living Life Unpaused This isn't a story about having all the answers. It's a story about pressing play before you do. One thing. Every day. Let's press play.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

Contact ICMM: Living Life Unpaused

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.