There's a difference between running hard enough to stay afloat and actually creating sustainable progress. This week, we sit down with the incomparable Kelly Kline of Western Workouts to talk about the moment you stop outrunning your own life, the practice of active surrender, and why micromanaging your process might be the most liberating thing you'll do this year.

Kelly returns to Cowgirls Over Coffee for a conversation that refuses to stay surface-level. What begins as a besties catching up for the new year quickly transforms into an honest excavation of what happens when striving stops working, when coping mechanisms reach their expiration date, and when you're finally ready to build the bridge instead of just skimming across the water. This conversation is just two women sharing what they've earned through failure, reflection, and the audacity to start again.

The conversation moves through the cost of control, the paradox of surrender that requires action, and the particular kind of exhaustion that comes from trying to manage outcomes instead of mastering process. Kelly notes the concept of active surrender as something that isn't simple passive resignation but a deliberate practice of discernment, energy management, and trust. Meanwhile, Thea unpacks her pivot away from outcome-based goals toward process-obsessed discipline, revealing what it looks like to move from running on fumes to nurturing from the ground up all over again.

But perhaps most importantly, this episode makes the case that conversation itself is leverage. That authentic friendship isn't a nice-to-have luxury but a strategic necessity for anyone in pursuit of a better-than-typical life. This conversation is community executed in real time proving that real connection dissolves comparison and creates space for the kind of growth that can only happen when someone sees you clearly and loves you anyway.

Listen In For...

1. Why authentic friendship functions as a competitive advantage.
2. The distinction between having boundaries and accidentally constructing a life that doesn't require them.
3. What it means to move from coping strategies to sustainable routines.
4. Thea's 2026 shift: abandoning outcome-based goals in favor of process-obsessed discipline.
5. Kelly's framework for active surrender: why letting go requires more action than holding on.
6. The cost of being ten steps ahead at all times, and what opportunities control strangles before they can breathe.
7. How to stop leaking energy into battles that don't serve you.
8. The practice of micromanaging your process instead of your outcomes.
9. Why discernment is the muscle that makes surrender active rather than passive.
10. What happens when you choose to disengage instead of oppose.

TL;DR (Minute by Minute)

1. 00:00 Opening: Conversation as leverage and the January tradition.
2. 01:21 On curating genuine humans and the gift of authentic friendship.
3. 02:18 Seasons of isolation and the power of voice messages.
4. 03:06 The permission-based approach: listen or workshop?
5. 04:04 Boundaries revisited: the difference between having them and not needing them.
6. 05:52 The moment striving stops working and everything catches up.
7. 06:34 Zero outcomes: Thea's 2026 framework for process over results.
8. 07:16 What it means to finally go back and fill the gaps you've been skirting.
9. 49:22 Kelly on active surrender: what it is, what it isn't, and why it changes everything.
10. 50:27 Discernment as the practice that makes surrender powerful.
11. 51:29 Why surrender isn't sitting around hoping for the best.
12. 52:13 Energy management: disengaging without opposing.
13. 52:35 Driving in the opposite direction just to prove a point.

Where to Go From Here

1. Your turn: What resonated? Tag Thea @thea.does.all.the.things and let us know what part of today's conversation hit hardest for you. Real conversation travels farther than algorithm-friendly content ever will!
2. Choose practice over panic: Thea dropped her entire strategy framework last week free, comprehensive, and proven. Stop whining, start implementing. Get THE PLAYBOOK now.
3. Read Kelly's Substack: Fresh perspectives on living with intention, delivered straight to your inbox: The Embers Remain.
4. This is the group chat: Subscribe to Cowgirls Over Coffee, share this episode with someone who needs to hear it, and keep showing up for conversations that challenge you to create your life without compromise. We'll be here every week, doing the same.
5. Stay connected: If you loved this episode make sure you're subscribed to our Monthly Brief to help you tackle each month with intention, and if you're looking for a little more support you might want to join us inside the Cowgirls Over Coffee Membership.
6. Thea Larsen: @thea.does.all.the.things
7. Kelly Kline: @western_workouts

This week, Thea and Meg sit down for a raw, winding conversation about what it means to enter a new year not with optimization in mind, but with intentionality, margin, and the audacity to savor the actual living.

As Cowgirls Over Coffee returns for 2026, Thea Larsen reflects on five years of marination on building, learning, and finally understanding what it means to operate from a place of depth rather than velocity. Joined by her best friend and frequent collaborator Meg, this conversation doesn't traffic in resolutions or productivity hacks. Instead, it examines the quiet revolution that happens when you stop managing your life like a crisis and start treating yourself like a resource worth protecting.

What emerges is a candid meditation on the privilege and paradox of getting older: the stability that allows you to close doors, the self-awareness that clarifies what actually matters, and the hard-won wisdom that your twenties are, in fact, overrated. Thea and Meg discuss the shift from operating at the edge of capacity (always redlining it, always seeing how fast you can go) to choosing to drive at 75 instead of 95. Because you've finally figured out that sustainable speed gets you further.

Listen In For…

1. Why the arbitrary nature of the New Year doesn't make it meaningless, and how collective energy shifts the game.
2. The brutal honesty of a come back and what it means to rebuild baseline capacity.
3. The evolution from psychological safety concerns to higher-order needs as you stabilize your life.
4. What it means to manage yourself as a resource instead of constantly operating at just above empty.
5. The difference between slower, softer, and deeper.
6. Why efficiency optimization can become its own trap, and what happens when you shift from external factors to internal anchors.
7. The power of iteration in conversation, and why the membership side of Cowgirls Over Coffee has changed everything.
8. What "savoring" looks like when applied to fitness, prayer practice, and life in general.
9. The case for operating with a half-full tank instead of running on fumes in the name of productivity.

TL;DR (Minute by Minute)

1. 00:00 Why this year feels different.
2. 05:00 Meg's massage therapist drops wisdom about your twenties being overrated.
3. 09:30 Stability, self-awareness, and the gift of caring less.
4. 13:45 Fitness, injury recovery, and the cost of falling off baseline.
5. 18:20 The shift from optimization to savoring.
6. 20:20 Managing energy and priorities from an anchored place.
7. 21:00 The gas tank metaphor: operating at half full vs. running on empty.
8. 22:00 What it means to go deeper without going slower.
9. 23:30 The power of conversation and virtual tables.
10. 25:00 Husbands who master the art of appearing to listen (we see you).

Where to Go From Here

1. Your turn: What hit home? What are you carrying into 2026? Screenshot this, tag Thea @thea.does.all.the.things, and let's keep the conversation going—because real talk compounds faster than highlight reels.
2. Join us: If these conversations make you feel less alone in your ambition, your exhaustion, or your evolution, the Cowgirls Over Coffee Membership is waiting. We don't do surface-level strategy; we do the messy, meaningful work.
3. Download the playbook: Did you miss this?! Thea dropped her entire strategy framework last week free, comprehensive, and proven. Stop whining, start implementing. Get THE PLAYBOOK now.
4. Subscribe and share: Keep us in your earbuds all year long. Every conversation is designed to challenge, question, and cheer you on.
5. Stay connected: Follow Thea @thea.does.all.the.things and Meg @meg.scales on Instagram for behind-the-scenes moments, and make sure you're subscribed to our Monthly Brief to help you tackle each month with intention.

There's the version of yourself you've been told to be and then there's the one who shows up when the recording keeps going because the conversation is too good to stop. This week, Thea, Audrey, and Lana couldn't stop yapping, and what unfolds is a raw examination of the work that doesn't show up in your business plans: discernment, friendship dynamics, and the discipline of knowing which race you're actually running.

This conversation is what happened when we realized we weren't done processing, and hit record again. Audrey shares her journey of being labeled "too much" and why she's finally done apologizing for taking up space. Lana dissects the difference between friends who project their bench onto your Olympic aspirations. And Thea reminds us that agility (not rigid planning!) is the only framework that serves the most demanding lives.

What emerges a conversation about frameworks: how to schedule your life first, how to recognize when advice is actually projection, and why the most important work you'll do in 2026 will very likely be the discernment no one sees.

1. The "too much" narrative women inherit and why reclaiming it is an act of sovereignty.
2. Audrey's "green broke" revelation: what happens when structure collapses and you have to rebuild from authenticity instead of achievement.
3. The Olympic team metaphor: understanding friendship dynamics when some people want to jog around the track and others are training for gold.
4. Why verbal processing is simply how some of us think.
5. The projection problem: how to recognize when you're giving advice to yourself instead of trying on someone else's limitations.
6. Agility as the antidote to rigid planning and why asking "what do I really want right now?" is the most strategic question you can ask in the new year.
7. The work that moves the needle: discernment, rest, and friendship.
8. Why scheduling your life first is the litmus test for whether you're creating the life of your dreams or just checking boxes.
9. Eldest daughter energy, second child chaos, and birth order baggage we're all still unpacking.
10. The courage to protect your time and energy without apology (because it's okay to let people find their own team).

1. 00:00 The episode that wasn't supposed to happen: why conversation deserves more than a hard stop.
2. 02:30 The open seat invitation: this is a group chat, not a lecture series.
3. 03:50 "Green broke" and barely broke: Audrey's sweatshirt and the second child who learned to boss herself around.
4. 04:30 When structure collapses: the bro energy that got her far, and the authenticity that got her further.
5. 07:00 "You're too much": unpacking the narrative women are handed and why it's time to hand it back.
6. 12:15 The Olympic team vs. running the track: why your friends need to know which race you're in.
7. 18:40 Verbal processing and why apologizing for how you think is exhausting.
8. 24:00 The projection trap: recognizing when advice comes from your own story.
9. 29:30 Agility over rigidity: why flexibility is the most strategic advantage you need.
10. 35:00 The work that matters: discernment, rest, friendship and the boring priorities that actually move the needle.
11. 41:00 Scheduling your life first: the radical act of prioritizing what you think will "wait."
12. 47:00 Knowing their goals before giving advice: the considerate work of meeting people where they are.
13. 50:30 The answer that doesn't look like the answer: tedious, boring, and utterly essential.

1. Your turn: What resonated? Which conversation do you need to have? Tag our host Thea @thea.does.all.the.things and let's keep this conversation going.
2. Download the playbook: Did you miss this?! Thea dropped her entire strategy framework last week free, comprehensive, and proven. Stop whining, start implementing. Get THE PLAYBOOK now.
3. Request a seat at the table: Want us to sit down with someone? Know a woman who's doing the work and deserves the conversation? Slide into the DMs or shoot us an email at [email protected] - because we're drafting the group chat of 2026.
4. You're in the conversation now: Subscribe to the podcast, share this episode with the friend who needs to hear it, and keep showing up. This is where driven women talk about the discernment, the friendships, the agility, and the audacity it takes to refuse to settle.
5. Thea Larsen: @thea.does.all.the.things
6. Audrey Hall: @audreyetta
7. Lana Wilkes: @small.town.preachers.wife

SEO KEYWORDS & TAGS: Women entrepreneurs, female business owners, friendship boundaries, discernment in business, agility mindset, women in leadership, cowgirl entrepreneurs, authentic living, personal growth for women, business mindset, female empowerment, work-life balance, strategic thinking, entrepreneurship for women, Western lifestyle, verbal processing, eldest daughter syndrome, friendship dynamics, intentional living, women supporting women, rural ranch life.

There's a particular exhaustion that comes from living half-invested in your own life, when you're saying yes to everyone else's timeline while your own dreams accumulate dust. This week, we're pulling up a chair to the table we've been setting for five years, laying out every strategic detail, hard-won insight, and unfiltered observation about what it actually takes to build a life that doesn't require you to choose between future goals and presence, checking boxes and your nervous system, momentum and moments.

Thea, Meg, Audrey, and Lana convene to kick off 2026 with the kind of conversation that feels less like a podcast episode and more like the group chat you've been craving. No disclaimers. No hedging. No apologizing for wanting it all. Just four women who've spent half a decade living the methodology for sustainable achievement, discussing every single strategy, planning framework, and operational principle they've tested alongside 1,300+ women.

Please note: this isn't a teaser for what's inside the membership. This is the full playbook with nearly 50 pages of distilled wisdom, and the core methodology that's transformed businesses, marriages, and the daily operations of women who refuse to settle for good enough. Because if five years has taught us anything, it's this: the answer isn't hustling harder or culling your dreams. You need better infrastructure, and you definitely need a village. We start again here.

1. Why five years of experimentation has led to giving away the entire methodology for free and what that signals about the conversation we're ready to have in 2026.
2. The antidote to "you can have everything, but not at the same time": compounding instead of choosing, cultivating practices instead of burning out.
3. What actually changes when you stop treating your ambition like something to apologize for and start treating it like the data it is.
4. Why isolation and withdrawal are the default response to exhaustion, and how intentional connection becomes the counterintuitive path forward.
5. Why we're done with the shame narratives and ready for nuanced conversations that honor complexity when it comes to entrepreneurship, motherhood, family, and ambition.
6. The art of finding your people, developing friendships that feel like infrastructure, and surrounding yourself with women who elevate rather than diminish.
7. Why overcomplication is a defense mechanism and how embracing practices creates the ease that allows you to do more with less friction.
8. The shift from performative planning to operational excellence.
9. How to quit overthinking and start iterating: taking imperfect action to generate the information you need to refine your approach.
10. What "nutrient-dense life" actually means: high quality, deeply satisfying, strategically designed to nourish.

1. 00:00 Five years of Cowgirls Over Coffee and 1,300+ women later, here's what we've learned.
2. 04:45 The full methodology drop: 40 pages of our methodology free.
3. 08:30 Why we're done censoring and disclaiming because we're over the exhaustion of apologizing for wanting more.
4. 12:15 The shame and judgment around ambition.
5. 16:00 Strategic planning as the antidote to overwhelm: practices, routines, and the compound effect.
6. 20:45 Finding your people and creating infrastructure through connection.
7. 25:30 What makes Cowgirls Over Coffee different is that it's not about the resources, it's about the conversations.
8. 30:00 The year of observation and what 2025 taught us about social media, sustainability, and showing up authentically.
9. 34:20 Compounding versus choosing, and why you don't have to sacrifice one area of life for another.

1. Your turn: Screenshot this episode, tag our host Thea @thea.does.all.the.things on Instagram, and tell us what landed. Are you ready to be a villager? Embrace the system? Stop apologizing? We want to hear all about it.
2. Get the full playbook: Download the complete Cowgirls Over Coffee Playbook: Infrastructure for Ambition. No gatekeeping. TAP TO REQUEST IT HERE
3. Subscribe and share: This is the first of many unfiltered conversations in 2026. Subscribe to the podcast, share this episode with someone who needs to hear it, and come back every single week.
4. Build your village: If you're tired of doing it alone, start here. Listen, engage, and be a villager first.
5. Thea Larsen: @thea.does.all.the.things
6. Audrey Hall: @audreyetta
7. Meg Scales: @meg.scales
8. Lana Wilkes: @small.town.preachers.wife

Women entrepreneurs, strategic planning for busy women, work-life balance without sacrifice, ambitious women community, sustainable business growth for moms, building systems and routines, entrepreneurial mindset for women, how to stop feeling overwhelmed, compounding success strategies, finding your people and building a team, authentic leadership for women, productivity frameworks that work, overcoming entrepreneurial isolation, goal-setting for ambitious women, women supporting women in business, nutrient-dense life, stop apologizing for ambition, operational excellence for women, friendship and accountability in business, proven business methodologies for women.

You can take the girl off of the ranch, but you can’t take the cow trails out of her metaphors. When Lindsay shared that the first time her son stepped onto a sidewalk he called it a “cow trail for people,” we knew we were in for a good one. This episode isn’t about slowing down or speeding up, but finding your footing when everything familiar shifts. From feed store counters to city sirens, we’re unpacking what happens when convenience meets capacity, and why your best practices still apply … even when your groceries can be delivered to your doorstep.

This week we welcome Lindsay Garber, formerly a top-tier ranch wedding photographer, and now the fourth-generation force inside her family’s western wear & feed store in Albuquerque. She’s traded gravel roads for Trader Joe’s, but what grounds her is the same: purpose, people, and a love for the culture that raised her.

Together we explore why leaving town won’t fix a life that’s running on fumes, and why the basics still matter whether groceries are a seven-hour round trip or seven minute away. We talk about context over tactics, conversation as a catalyst, and how retail has its own seasonality: chickens, rodeo, fairs, film crews, and yes, the surprise delight of French cowboys. 

Through it all runs a throughline we live by at Cowgirls Over Coffee: when the landscape shifts, your practice (water, sleep, vegetables, reflection, and real connection!) keeps you steady.

• Why swapping ranch life for city life changes the scenery but not the work of caring for your capacity.
• How conversation functions like binoculars, giving you context so you can actually see what’s coming.
• A practical reminder that the “next level” still runs on the same basics: sleep, hydration, nourishment, and honest check-ins.
• The difference between exhaustion on the ranch and monotony in town, and how to break both with intentional moments of awe.
• What retail teaches about seasons (spring chicks to fall fairs to pilot season) and how to plan without losing presence.
• The store as tether: how tending a legacy space can anchor identity and community in the middle of a metro.
• Why mastering yourself outperforms mastering the hustle, especially when opportunities arrive faster because you planned well.
• A gentle reframe for over-capable women: you don’t need a 12-step overhaul; you need faithful follow-through on what already works.

• 04:30 Lindsay’s move: from “most rural” New Mexico to the heart of Albuquerque; what changed and what didn’t.
• 09:40 Context over geography: leaving town won’t solve capacity problems without deliberate practices.
• 15:20 Conversation as a tool: the “binoculars” for seeing the ship; tactics make sense once you have context.
• 21:35 City monotony vs. ranch exhaustion: different drains with the same antidote: intentional rest and wonder.
• 27:10 Retail seasons 101: chickens, rodeo, fairs, film crews … and the unexpectedly punchy French cowboys.
• 32:45 Legacy as anchor: keeping a 75-year family business human in a humming city.
• 38:50 The faithful basics: water, sleep, vegetables, and how simple habits power real next-level growth.
• 43:30 Wrap-up + invitation to carry the conversation forward.

• Join the conversation: What did this conversation remind you to tend? Your routine, your rest, your roots? Screenshot and tag @cowgirlsovercoffee and keep the conversation going.
• Grab the free Routine Playbook: Build a steady daily practice that supports capacity (perfect for busy seasons).
• Connect with Lindsay Garber: Follow along at @callmelynz, or find her behind the counter at her family’s iconic western store @dansboots still proof that purpose travels with you, no matter the zip code.
• Stay in the loop: Subscribe, share this episode with a friend, and consider joining the Cowgirls Over Coffee Lifetime Membership for conversation, accountability, and community that lasts.

As September closes, forget lukewarm goals because this conversation is about striking the match yourself. Kelly of Western Workouts joins us for a conversation about the kind of fire fueled by self-belief, reckless confidence, and a refusal to waste energy on what doesn’t matter.

This episode began, as many of our best ones do, with a yap-and-cheer session that turned into a bonfire of ideas. We talk about why spite may get you moving, but it never leaves you satisfied, and why a process you love always beats an outcome that looks shiny but feels empty.

Kelly brings her perspective from training horses, bodies, and minds. We add our lens of capacity, discernment, and real-life integration. Together we unravel what it means to build a fire of our own; whether that means claiming your time back from distractions, letting go without fanfare, or saying yes to hard things without fearing how hard they’ll be.

• Why a self-belief bonfire outlasts a spite-fueled spark every time.
• The practice of reckless confidence: deciding you’ll figure it out, then getting to work.
• How to be unbothered by noise, urgency, and opinions that don’t serve you.
• The case for integration over silos when it comes to motherhood, work, and identity.
• When to simply step back into the bushes: no drama, no debate, just disengagement.
• Why discipline is less about willpower and more about respecting your own energy.
• How patience and slow-burn often set the stage for your boldest moves.
• The role your people play in elevating your fire instead of draining it.

• 00:00 September check-in and the fire worth tending.
• 06:15 Spite vs. self-belief: why empty wins don’t satisfy.
• 10:00 Process over outcome: act, adjust, repeat.
• 25:30 Practicing being unbothered: disengaging with grace.
• 30:00 Integration > silos: motherhood, work, identity.
• 36:20 Reckless confidence and pouring the gasoline at your feet.
• 42:45 Circles, standards, and raising your own algorithm.
• 48:00 Closing: presence through the holidays, confidence that sustains.

• Join the conversation: Screenshot this episode and tag @cowgirlsovercoffee and @westernworkouts on Instagram/Threads—tell us where you’re pouring your gasoline this season.
• Grab the free Routine Playbook: Build daily structure that makes acting (and adjusting) easier.
• Connect with Kelly: Follow Western Workouts for strength, stamina, and no-nonsense confidence.
• Stay in the loop: Subscribe, review, and share so more women can light fires that actually last.

There’s the kind of work that looks good in a highlight reel, and then there’s the kind that smells like bleach in July, stretches four feet from tip to tip, and requires the audacity to keep going when it would be easier to quit. This week we sit down with Cassie Everson of Wanderlust Skulls to talk about the ditch, the mountaintop, and the discipline of making art that endures.

Artist and entrepreneur Cassie Everson has been shaping the modern Western aesthetic for nearly a decade through her work as Wanderlust Skulls. If you’ve ever saved an image of a painted longhorn skull to your Pinterest board, chances are you’ve already encountered her signature pieces: bold, abstract, distinctly Western, and always authentic.

But this conversation isn’t a how-to on creative business, it’s a rare look into the unglamorous, cyclical reality behind it. Cassie shares the unlikely origins of her work, from finding her first skull in a secondhand shop to teaching herself taxidermy with YouTube and grit. She talks candidly about debt, slow shows, and why art requires you to sell not just an object but a feeling. What emerges is not a formula but a paradox: the work isn’t easy, yet over time it generates a surprising sense of ease if you can resist both the panic of failure and the intoxication of quick wins.

• How Cassie defines her “modern Western abstract” style and why authenticity matters in both art and business.
• The early, unvarnished realities of teaching yourself taxidermy.
• What art reveals about selling feeling rather than product, and why story is central to connection.
• A candid look at the cycles of business: the moments of debt, the long seasons of silence, and the resilience required to keep going.
• Why meeting both the ditch and the mountaintop with the same determination becomes a critical entrepreneurial skill.
• The paradox of ease versus easy, and how structure allows a business to feel lighter without diminishing the work.
• The Vault: Cassie’s forthcoming collection of jumbo longhorns with rare shape and scale, designed as bespoke heirloom pieces.

• 00:00 Why conversation dissolves comparison.
• 05:30 Cassie’s origin story: from a thrifted skull to a modern Western aesthetic.
• 12:00 Real vs. replica: how to identify authentic skulls and why it matters.
• 18:40 The messy middle: early shows, financial setbacks, and learning to continue.
• 24:15 Art as feeling: commissions, story, and connecting beyond the visual.
• 29:50 The difference between ease and easy, and what it demands of us.
• 34:30 The Vault preview: jumbo longhorns, rare breeding, and bespoke design.
• 39:00 Closing: seasons, sovereignty, and the practice of mastering your craft.

• Your turn: what hit home? Tag @cowgirlsovercoffee and @wanderlustskulls, and let’s prove that real talk travels farther than highlight reels.
• Trade scrolling for structure: Download the Routine Playbook. A quick-win guide to creating sustainable practices that feel less like obligation and more like sovereignty.
• Collect the art, meet the artist: Explore Cassie’s pieces at wanderlustskulls.com and follow her on Instagram @wanderlustskulls for a behind-the-scenes look at grit and grandeur.
• You've entered the group chat: Subscribe to the podcast, share this episode with a friend, and keep coming back for conversations that fuel capacity, not just momentum.

Fall is here and we’re not tiptoeing into it. Today we talk about going all in without burning out, rebuilding stamina after a slow season, and choosing sustainable momentum over shiny sprints.

In this conversation, we welcome back my dear friend Audrey Hall, a creative, builder, and wholehearted go-for-it gal who knows what it takes to strategically ramp back up. Together, we unpack what “locking in” looks like when you’re balancing real life: kids, careers, recovery seasons, and the call to create again.

We talk about scheduling as stewardship, fluid structure (yes to time blocks, no to rigidity), and the crucial difference between capacity and consistency. You’ll hear us reject the tired binary of “hustle harder” vs. “slow way down” and instead build a practice that honors both ambition and sustainability. From self-mastery to seasonality, we explore why momentum sticks when it’s grounded in honest constraints, hydration-and-all.

We also get practical: experimenting with expectations, noticing when to pause before you tip into burnout, and re-training your stamina at work, in your body, and in your calendar. If you’ve felt the nudge to go all in but you’re wary of old patterns, this one is your invitation.

• Why pairing structure with fluidity lets you move fast without snapping your bandwidth.
• How to treat scheduling as stewardship of time, energy, and attention.
• A simple lens for “capacity before consistency” so your progress is sustainable.
• The mindset shift from binary choices to both/and thinking (success and ease).
• How to rebuild stamina after a long rest without shaming your pace.
• A practical reframe for goals: train for the distance, check your direction, take water breaks.
• What it means to practice self-mastery now (not who you were at 25, 30, or last year).
• Why “locking in” can include Slime Sundays, date nights, Bible study, and all the parts of a real life, on purpose.

Times are approximate.

• 00:00 Opening: why we’re “locking in” for fall and inviting you into the conversation.
• 04:00 Calendars as clarity: scheduling that feels empowering.
• 08:45 Coming out of hibernation: Audrey on starting from “zero” and finding traction.
• 12:30 Capacity before consistency: the stamina metaphor and sustainable progress.
• 16:40 Seasonality in real life: mom-mode, build-mode, and rejecting scarcity.
• 21:15 Fluid structure: observing burnout signals and knowing when to set it down.
• 26:00 Self-mastery in this season: goals, pace, water breaks, and course checks.
• 31:20 The middle ground: ditching the hustle/slow binary and choosing both/and.
• 35:10 Permission slip: “Lock in with us” and how to start today.
• 38:30 Wrap-up + six-week check-in invitation for accountability.

Where to Go From Here

• Question for you: What’s your first non-negotiable as you lock in for fall—the one practice that makes everything else easier? Screenshot this episode and tag @cowgirlsovercoffee with your answer so we can crowdsource strategies that actually hold.
• The FREE Routine Playbook. Your step-by-step for routines that protect capacity (so consistency can finally kick in!). Get Yours Here
• Join the Cowgirls Over Coffee Lifetime Membership. Where conversation, accountability, and routines become infrastructure. Learn More Here
• Connect with Audrey Hall. Follow her at @audreyetta. And, listen in on Cowgirl Church.

Follow along with Thea over at @thea.does.the.things

September invites fresh structure and, if we’re not careful, fresh burnout. In this conversation, licensed professional counselor and Enneagram coach Becky Lauridsen reframes self-care as protection (not pampering) and opens the door to brain health with neurofeedback. From postpartum anxiety and over-functioning to rodeo performance and concussion recovery, we explore how to build capacity on purpose, before the crash out.

Becky shares the origin story of IOWEME (“I owe me”), a preventative, accessible, guilt-free self-care model born from her own burnout and postpartum anxiety. We unpack the crucial difference between self-indulgence (instant relief, little ROI) and true self-care (sometimes uncomfortable, always compounding). We also trade the myth of work–life balance for work–life harmony: a “pleasing arrangement of parts” calibrated to your actual rhythms (hello, 5:30am clarity!).

Then Becky takes us into ROAM (Rodeo Optimization and Mindset) and explains low-energy neurofeedback as a practical path to brain health. Think “parking brake off” for your frontal lobe: better regulation, focus, and recovery after high-intensity performance (for athletes and their horses). If you’re craving capacity that’s truly sustainable, this one’s for you.

Listen in for …

• The self-care vs. self-indulgence distinction, and why protection beats pampering.
• The IOWEME model: preventative, accessible, and simple mental-health support.
• Work/life harmony (not balance): designing a “pleasing arrangement of parts.”
• The “check-engine light” for burnout (irritability over the stray socks = signal).
• Neurofeedback 101: electrical vs. chemical brain systems, suppression, and flexibility.
• The “parking brake” metaphor: why so many high-capacity women feel stuck in Delta.
• Performance & recovery for rodeo athletes, and why brain care must match body care.
• The pony case study (!) and what equine sessions revealed about regulation.
• 
  

TL;DR (Minute by Minute)

• 00:00 “Conversations” > “episodes” + why listener feedback matters.
• 01:11 Meet Becky: LPC, EMDR, Enneagram coach, LENS neurofeedback provider.
• 06:17 Postpartum anxiety, burnout, and the wake-up call: it starts with me.
• 10:01 IOWEME origin: from reactive therapy culture to preventative care.
• 12:32 Responsibility & boundaries: self-care as non-negotiable, not “extra.”
• 16:00 Self-indulgence vs self-care (instant relief vs lasting effect).
• 18:54 “Outweigh the indulgence”: a practical rule that still leaves room for fun.
• 23:44 Non-negotiable habits: why early-morning quiet time compounds.
• 27:34 Work/life harmony > balance; design for your real energy ebb and flow.
• 31:47 ROAM begins: from rodeo roots to neurofeedback certification.
• 35:49 Neurofeedback explained: amplitude, frequency, suppression.
• 38:59 The parking brake brain: lifting Delta lock for flexible regulation.
• 41:01 Equine neurofeedback: the pony case and practical behavior change.
• 43:35 Head trauma, concussions, CTE risk, and recovery as standard practice.
• 47:26 Where to find Becky + what’s next.

Where to Go From Here

Question for you: When the day feels heavy, which shows up first: self-indulgence or true self-care? Screenshot and tag @cowgirlsovercoffee with your answer so we can crowdsource smart strategies that actually stick.

The FREE Routine Playbook. Your step-by-step for routines that protect capacity (so consistency can finally kick in!). Get Yours Here

Join the Cowgirls Over Coffee Lifetime Membership. Where conversation, accountability, and routines become infrastructure. Learn More Here

Connect with Becky:

• IOWEME (guilt-free self-care & counseling): iowemenow.com • IG: @iowemenow
• ROAM (Rodeo Optimization & Mindset, neurofeedback): roamneuro.com • IG: @roamneuro

Follow along with Thea over at @thea.does.the.things

September has a way of sneaking up on us. The commitments start rolling in, the days get shorter, and suddenly the pressure to “get it together” hits full force. In this “season-two” kickoff of Cowgirls Over Coffee, Thea and her dear friend Meg share how one simple conversation shifted their entire perspective on the September spiral, and why the reset you need may not actually start with another routine tweak.

For many women, September feels like a fresh start wrapped in glossy anxiety. The casual pace of summer fades, structure snaps back into place, and expectations start piling up. The natural response? Double down, do more, and try to wrestle order out of chaos.

But in this episode, Thea and Meg explore what happens when you pause before reacting. Their conversation ranges from seasonal transitions to family rhythms, the pressure of rural grit, and the reminder that we’re not meant to navigate life alone. Along the way, they uncover a surprising truth: what often feels like burnout might actually have a different root cause.

You’ll walk away with a practical reframe for the fall, an invitation to anchor your routines in depth instead of hustle, and permission to reach out instead of powering through. If September already feels frenetic, maybe the best reset is as simple as picking up the phone.

Listen in for …

• Why September often triggers “fresh start pressure” that turns into burnout.
• The hidden cost of powering through on your own.
• How conversation can act as infrastructure for your routines.
• A practical fall reset: channel intensity into depth instead of just more doing.

TL;DR (Minute by Minute)

• [00:00] Why this feels like Season Two.
• [02:10] The fog-lifting effect of conversation.
• [06:20] Why September hits harder than summer.
• [10:08]  Grit, buried feelings, and the cost of powering through.
• [14:45] A surprising realization about what’s really behind burnout.
• [17:18] Channeling intensity into depth instead of productivity.
• [20:18] Living in neutrality and curiosity when routines get shaky.
• [24:32] Work examples: how conversation resets productivity.
• [29:26] What’s next for this new season of Cowgirls Over Coffee.

Where to Go From Here

We want to know: does burnout for you feel more like exhaustion or like loneliness? Screenshot and tag @cowgirlsovercoffee with your answer.

The FREE Routine Playbook I mentioned. Your step-by-step playbook for routines that actually stick, because capacity has to come before consistency: TAP HERE

Join the Cowgirls Over Coffee Lifetime Membership where conversation, accountability, and routines become infrastructure. LEARN MORE HERE

Let’s keep the conversation going: find Thea at @thea.does.the.thing and Meg at @meg.scales.