We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ashton Portmann a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ashton, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

The Vital Choice Project (TVCP) was founded by Garrett Pagel and myself in October 2024. Both of us have battled chronic illnesses and have seen firsthand how the pharmaceutical industry often prioritizes prescribing drugs and vaccines over exploring holistic ways to heal the body.

Garrett, who now serves as the president of TVCP, experienced this firsthand. After being diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis, he spent months in and out of hospitals, trying a variety of prescriptions that brought little to no relief. Eventually, he discovered juicing and a gut microbiome reset. Through these natural methods, Garrett was able to completely turn his health around—something his doctor even admitted “shouldn’t be possible.”

That experience became a turning point for both of us. We realized that there are millions of people who are struggling with chronic illnesses and are never shown the potential of natural, holistic healing. We wanted to help change that.

After weeks of brainstorming a possible solution, we came to one clear conclusion: if we want to change the system, we have to start by changing the culture. That’s why we began creating chapters of The Vital Choice Project on college campuses, particularly for future healthcare professionals. Our goal is to educate and empower students to explore holistic and natural approaches to health, breaking away from the dependence on prescription medicine driven by major pharmaceutical companies.

True change starts with the next generation—and that’s exactly where we’re beginning.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Ashton Portmann, and I serve as the Vice President of The Vital Choice Project (TVCP). Garrett Pagel, the President of TVCP, and I started this organization with one goal in mind—to help people heal from chronic illnesses.

We went about this mission by creating chapters on college campuses where future healthcare professionals meet monthly to discuss natural and holistic medical practices. In addition to these meetings, we host campus events that feature holistic doctors, athletes, as well as other guest speakers who inspire students and show that these approaches truly work.

We believe that by changing the culture, we can change the future of healthcare. We noticed that few, if any, organizations were focusing on health and wellness education at the collegiate level, so we decided to take that initiative ourselves.

Looking ahead, we aspire to become one of the largest grant programs for students in this space. Our goal is to continue expanding The Vital Choice Project by creating new chapters and offering “Breakaway Grants” to help students focus on their studies and become the best healthcare professionals they can be.

How’d you meet your business partner?

I was very blessed to have met my business partner when I was two weeks old. Yes you read that correctly, we have been best friends our whole life and have been blessed to start our own organization together.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

One time we really had to pivot was when we had a fundraising event planned with Mike Tyson as our keynote speaker. We had the venue all ready to go, the layout of the event all figured out. Then, a week before the event, our venue canceled on us. We then had to scramble to find a new venue within a week while having to start everything over from scratch. It took a lot of work but we were able to make it work and ended up throwing a very successful event despite the setback.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thevcp.org
• Instagram: tvcproject_
• Linkedin: Ashton Portmann
• Twitter: The Vital Choice Project

Image Credits

David Jon photography