Roots+Rebirth™ with Terri R. Broussard

What if your purpose is not something you have to find, but something that has been quietly following you all along?

In this soulful episode of Roots+Rebirth™, Terri R. Broussard sits down with entrepreneur, interior designer and Commissioned co-founder Hannah Nokes for an honest conversation about career reinvention, faith, creativity and the courage to follow the quiet voice within.

Hannah built the kind of career many people are taught to want. She attended business school, earned an MBA, worked for multinational corporations, served in the nonprofit sector, led corporate community-impact work and launched a consulting practice. Then the pandemic disrupted her business and left her questioning what came next.

The answer arrived as a persistent inner whisper: do design. Hannah resisted. Interior design did not seem to fit the professional story she had spent years building. It felt too creative, too frivolous and too disconnected from her corporate résumé. Yet saying yes to that small voice opened the door not only to a thriving design practice, but also to Commissioned, a faith-centered community supporting women entrepreneurs in creative fields.

Terri and Hannah explore the pressure to make a career look logical, why failure can redirect us toward work that fits more fully, and how skills from every chapter can become part of a larger purpose. They also talk about motherhood, financial realities, faith in public life, creating beauty as an act of worship and the importance of being present enough to notice the people and moments right in front of us.

This conversation is an invitation to stop waiting for the entire plan and begin with the next honest step.

In This Episode We Talk About

• How living in the Middle East expanded Hannah's view of the world
• Following the prescribed corporate path and discovering that plans can change
• What a 2002 layoff taught Hannah about identity, security and reinvention
• Moving between corporate, nonprofit, consulting and entrepreneurial work
• The pressures working mothers faced when showing up at work was treated as nonnegotiable
• How the pandemic disrupted Hannah's consulting business and created space for a new direction
• The quiet inner voice that kept telling Hannah to pursue interior design
• Why Hannah feared her career story would no longer make sense to other people
• How every earlier skill became useful when she co-founded Commissioned
• Talking openly about faith while welcoming women with different beliefs
• Why creativity and beauty can be meaningful forms of service and worship
• Balancing purpose with the financial realities of raising a family
• Building a legacy through presence, relationships and how we make people feel
• Coming home to the artistic, playful and joyful parts of ourselves

Key Takeaways

• Your purpose may already be visible. The interests and gifts you dismiss as impractical may be clues to the work that fits you most fully.
• A career does not have to look linear to be meaningful. Skills from corporate work, nonprofit leadership, entrepreneurship and creative pursuits can combine into a story that only becomes clear in hindsight.
• Failure can be redirection. A layoff, a struggling business or an unexpected ending may create room for work you would not otherwise have considered.
• Start before the conditions are perfect. Creativity can be introduced into the life and work you already have. Small acts of permission often create the next opportunity.
• Presence is part of legacy. Accomplishments matter, but people are more likely to remember how you welcomed them, noticed them and made them feel.

About Hannah Nokes

Hannah Nokes is an entrepreneur, interior designer and co-founder of Commissioned, a faith-centered community created to support women building businesses in creative and often independent fields. Her career has spanned corporate business, nonprofit leadership, corporate social responsibility, social-impact consulting and entrepreneurship. Through Commissioned, Hannah helps women find community, encouragement and the boldness to pursue the work they were created to do.

Resources Mentioned

• Commissioned livingcommissioned.com
• Commissioned on Instagram @commissioned__
• LumenKind mindful marks lumenkind.com
• Saalt period care saalt.com

Final Thought: A meaningful career rarely reveals itself as a perfect sequence of logical moves. Sometimes it looks like a layoff, a detour, a business that no longer works or a quiet interest we keep dismissing because it does not match the identity we have built. Hannah's story reminds us that no chapter is wasted. Purpose can gather the skills, disappointments, relationships, faith and creativity from every version of our lives and turn them into work we could not have planned. We do not need to see the entire path. We need enough courage to honor the next true step.

Follow and Connect with Terri! @terrirbroussard | Follow Roots+Rebirth! @rootsandrebirthpodcast

What if the pain in your body is carrying a story your mind has already moved past?

In this deeply personal episode of Roots+Rebirth™, Terri R. Broussard sits down with chiropractor Dr. Rachel Bailey to explore the connection between physical pain, stress, emotional experiences and the body's remarkable memory.

Rachel shares how a life-changing health crisis redirected her from veterinary medicine to chiropractic care, and how her own healing journey led her to combine traditional chiropractic techniques with soft-tissue work, applied kinesiology, acupressure and Neuro-Emotional Technique. Her approach begins with a simple truth: every body has a history, and no two bodies tell that history in exactly the same way.

Terri recounts a striking session with Rachel that brought her back to a painful childhood memory about feeling unattractive. Their conversation opens into a larger exploration of the beliefs, sensations and survival patterns we can carry long after they stop serving us.

Rachel also offers a gentle at-home practice for becoming curious about pain, explains why we can physically absorb stress from people we love, and reminds us that healing often begins when we slow down enough to notice what our bodies have been trying to say.

This conversation is not an argument that every pain is emotional. It is an invitation to consider the whole person, seek qualified care and listen more closely to the wisdom of the body.

In This Episode We Talk About

• How a serious illness changed Rachel's path from veterinary medicine to chiropractic care

• Why Rachel uses a highly individualized blend of chiropractic and complementary techniques

• How the body may retain physical, sensory and emotional associations with earlier experiences

• Terri's childhood picture-day memory and the belief it shaped for years

• Neuro-Emotional Technique, applied kinesiology and how to find trained practitioners

• Why pain is shaped by the nervous system and may not always have an obvious physical trigger

• How empathy for a loved one's stress can show up in our own bodies

• A simple EFT-inspired awareness practice for exploring pain at home

• The patterns families repeat long after the original reason has disappeared

• Intuition, energy, nonverbal communication and Rachel's lifelong spiritual curiosity

• Rachel's commitment to gathering small moments of joy with her family

• Leadership, service and what Rachel witnessed in Terri during a difficult season

Key Takeaways

Your body has a story. Injury, stress, sensory information and emotional experiences can all influence how the nervous system responds in the present.

What once protected you may no longer serve you. Patterns can remain long after the original situation has changed. Awareness creates room for a new response.

Pain deserves curiosity and appropriate care. Notice what you feel, when it appears and what else is happening, while seeking qualified medical evaluation for persistent, severe or unexplained symptoms.

Healing is individual. A method that helps one person may not be right for another. Credentials, trusted referrals and personal fit matter.

Joy is a practice. Rachel's current purpose is to notice and receive the ordinary moments of connection that are easy to miss when life becomes too busy.

Try This

If you notice a familiar pain or tension pattern, pause and describe it without trying to diagnose it. Ask:

• Where do I feel it?

• If it had a color, shape, texture or size, what would it be?

• What was happening just before I noticed it?

• What memory, emotion or person comes to mind?

• What does my body need right now: rest, movement, reassurance or professional care?

This is an awareness exercise, not a substitute for medical or mental health care. Seek prompt professional evaluation for severe, new, worsening or persistent pain, or for symptoms such as weakness, numbness, loss of bladder or bowel control, chest pain, shortness of breath or signs of stroke.

About Dr. Rachel Bailey

Dr. Rachel Bailey is a Central Texas chiropractor and the founder of Austin Hills Chiropractic in West Lake Hills. Her individualized approach blends multiple chiropractic techniques with soft-tissue work, acupressure, applied kinesiology and Neuro-Emotional Technique. She works with patients seeking support for physical pain, stress patterns and the ways earlier experiences may continue to affect the body.

Resources Mentioned

• Austin Hills Chiropractic austinhillschiropractic.com

• Neuro-Emotional Technique practitioner directory netmindbody.com

• International College of Applied Kinesiology practitioner directory icak.com

• The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk

• Polyvagal theory and the work of Stephen Porges

• Emotional Freedom Techniques EFT

• Thought Field Therapy TFT

• Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

• Insight Timer guided meditations

Follow and Connect with Terri! @terrirbroussard

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What if the thoughts you never challenge quietly become the life you live?

In this deeply soulful episode of Roots+Rebirth™, Terri R. Broussard sits down with acclaimed actress, author and Inner Fitness pioneer Tina Lifford for a conversation about the relationship we spend our entire lives inside: the one we have with ourselves.

Known to millions for her work on Queen Sugar and a career spanning more than 100 television and film characters, Tina's work today reaches far beyond the screen. Through The Inner Fitness Project, she is helping people strengthen their inner lives with the same intention we bring to strengthening our bodies, careers and relationships.

Tina shares the unforgettable story of her godmother, Aunt Pang, a magnetic and beautiful woman whose life was ultimately shaped by a painful belief she had absorbed about herself. Her story opens a larger conversation about the "lies" we inherit, how our thoughts become reality when left unchallenged, and why knowing that we are inherently whole, purposeful and worthy can change the way we experience our lives.

Terri and Tina also explore Tina's framework of the surviving self, thriving self and infinite self, and why healing does not require rejecting the parts of ourselves that once protected us.

The conversation becomes deeply personal as Terri shares what her recent back pain has revealed about years of prioritizing work over her body and herself. Tina responds with a remarkable story about an ankle injury she carried for decades until one unexpected act of acknowledgment changed her relationship with the pain.

This isn't a conversation about fixing yourself.

It is an invitation to remember yourself.

IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT

• Why Tina describes herself as an "old soul"

• Being different and learning to see difference as a gift

• Why every person is inherently whole, purposeful and worthy

• The "big lies" we absorb about ourselves

• Tina's powerful story of Aunt Pang and the consequences of believing someone else's definition of you

• Why principles only transform us when they become actions

• How an uninterrupted thought can become our reality

• The difference between the surviving, thriving and infinite selves

• Why Tina doesn't believe we need to destroy or reject our "shadow" selves

• What physical pain can reveal about emotional experiences we have never acknowledged

• Terri's realization about the relationship between her back pain, work and rest

• Why inner fitness can be trained just like physical fitness

• A simple question Tina recommends using to interrupt an unwanted thought

KEY TAKEAWAYS

You are inherently whole, purposeful and worthy. Your experiences may make you forget that truth, but they do not erase it.

A thought uninterrupted can become reality. When an old belief appears, you have the ability to interrupt it, question it and create space for something truer.

Your surviving self is not your enemy. It helped you navigate what came before. Growth means learning to support that part of yourself while strengthening the part that can imagine something new.

Acknowledgment can be healing. Sometimes what a wounded part of us needs most is not to be overcome, analyzed or ignored. It needs to finally be seen.

Inner fitness is trainable. We deliberately exercise our bodies and educate our minds. Tina believes we can bring the same practice and discipline to our inner lives.

ABOUT TINA LIFFORD

Tina Lifford is an acclaimed actress, author and the founder of The Inner Fitness Project. Across a career spanning decades, she has portrayed more than 100 characters on television and film and is beloved by audiences for roles including Violet Bordelon on Queen Sugar.

Her work beyond the screen focuses on helping people build their Inner Fitness, strengthening their capacity to understand themselves, trust themselves and navigate life with greater wisdom.

She is the author of The Little Book of Big Lies and creator of Inner Fitness practices and tools designed to help people live well from the inside out.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Tina Lifford and The Inner Fitness Project

• The Little Book of Big Lies

• Tina's Inner Fitness practices

• Self 365: Inner Fitness in a Box

• Tina's "Dream" video on YouTube

Follow and Connect with Terri! @terrirbroussard

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What happens when life asks you to surrender everything you thought you could control?

In this deeply moving conversation, Terri Broussard sits down with healthcare communicator and patient advocate Erica Olenski to explore the extraordinary lessons born from caregiving, grief, healing, and purpose. After her infant son, August, was diagnosed with brain cancer, Erica's world shifted from career ambitions and carefully crafted plans to a profound journey of presence, resilience, and spiritual awakening.

Rather than allowing tragedy to define her family, Erica discovered that August wasn't simply someone to be healed, he was a teacher whose life transformed everyone fortunate enough to know him. Together, Terri and Erica reflect on trusting intuition, navigating life's biggest transitions, recognizing signs from loved ones, and finding the courage to become who you were always meant to be.

This conversation is ultimately about remembering that healing is not something we arrive at. It is a way of living.

• Why caregiving became Erica's greatest leadership education

• How one diagnosis transformed every aspect of her life

• The surprising connection between healthcare and spirituality

• What it means to become a steward instead of trying to control outcomes

• How to trust your inner knowing, even when it contradicts conventional wisdom

• The role intuition plays in healing

• Why grief can become one of our greatest teachers

• How loved ones continue communicating after death

• Why believing in yourself is often the most spiritual act you can take

• How life's hardest seasons often reveal our deepest purpose

Erica Olenski is a healthcare communications strategist, patient advocate, entrepreneur, and transformational storyteller whose life was forever changed when her infant son, August, was diagnosed with brain cancer. Through years of caregiving, advocacy, and profound personal loss, Erica has become a compassionate voice helping others navigate healing, resilience, and purpose with authenticity and grace.

Roots+Rebirth™ explores the moments that transform us. Through honest conversations with leaders, authors, healers, innovators, and changemakers, host Terri Broussard uncovers the experiences that shape who we become and the wisdom we gain when we embrace both our roots and our rebirth.

What if the healing you've been searching for is already inside of you?

In this deeply personal and expansive episode of Roots+Rebirth™, Terri R. Broussard sits down with healer, teacher, and founder of Good Energy Heals, Sheryl Netzky, for a conversation about intuition, emotional healing, grief, embodiment, spirituality, and returning home to yourself. Terri shares how Sheryl's work helped transform her own life during one of its most difficult seasons, navigating a concussion recovery, burnout, grief, identity shifts, and the unraveling of a marriage.

Together, they explore the whispers we ignore, the cost of disconnection, and the profound healing available when we learn to listen inward. Sheryl explains how her journey began with meditation and stress physiology at age 14, evolved through decades in education and yoga, and ultimately expanded into shamanic energy work focused on helping people restore balance physically, emotionally, spiritually, energetically.

This conversation is both grounding and expansive. It is for anyone who has ever felt disconnected from themselves, overwhelmed by life, grieving deeply, or quietly sensing that there is another way forward.

What We Talk About

• How stress and thoughts affect the body physically
• The connection between stillness, intuition, and healing
• Why high achievers often disconnect from themselves
• Teaching, energy sensing, and embodied awareness

Where to Find Sheryl and Terri:

Website: https://www.goodenergyheals.com/

Instagram: @sherylnetzky

Facebook: Sheryl Netzky

LinkedIn: Sheryl Netzky

Instagram: @TerriRBroussard @rootsandrebirthpodcast

In this episode of Roots and Rebirth, Jason G. Green joins Terri R. Broussard for a deeply personal conversation about family, purpose, identity, and the power of community. Jason reflects on his journey from working in the Obama White House to rediscovering his roots through the stories of his grandmother and the historic Black community of Quince Orchard, Maryland.

Together, they explore the inspiration behind his bestselling memoir, Too Precious to Lose, and discuss what it means to preserve generational stories, embrace belonging, and build stronger, more compassionate communities in today's world. The conversation also touches on grief, legacy, faith, ancestry, and the moments in life that quietly redirect us toward who we are truly meant to become.

Connect with Jason Green:

• Instagram: @jasongerardgreen
• Book: Too Precious to Lose: A Memoir of Family, Community, and Possibility

Too Precious to Lose explores the power of family legacy, community, identity, and the stories that shape who we become.

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#RootsAndRebirth #Podcast #JasonGerardGreen #TooPreciousToLose #Community #FamilyLegacy #Storytelling #GenerationalWisdom #Ancestry #Identity #Belonging #Purpose #PersonalGrowth #Healing #Faith #Leadership #CommunityBuilding #Memoir #BlackHistory #FamilyHistory #Transformation #TerriBroussardWilliams #SelfDiscovery #Connection #MeaningfulConversations

In this powerful episode of Roots+Rebirth™, Terri R. Broussard sits down with executive leader, speaker, and advocate Melissa Akie Wiley for a transformative conversation about disability, identity, beauty, trauma, and belonging.

Melissa shares the life-changing story of surviving a devastating dog attack at five years old that left her facially disfigured and launched her into decades of reconstructive surgeries. Together, Terri and Melissa unpack the hidden ways society ties women's worth to physical appearance and how childhood stories, media, and cultural narratives shape the way we see ourselves and others.

Melissa also discusses the mission behind her organization, Forget the Fairy Tale, and how she is helping schools, workplaces, and families redefine beauty, empathy, and inclusion.

This episode is a profound invitation to rethink how we define beauty, worthiness, and what it truly means to belong.

• Disability, facial disfigurement, and belonging

• Childhood trauma and resilience

• Beauty standards and the social conditioning of girls

• Identity formation through hardship

• Rewriting harmful narratives around appearance

• Parenting with empathy and inclusion

• Emotional intelligence and human dignity

• Finding worth beyond physical appearance

• Healing through acceptance instead of perfection

• Expanding society's definition of beauty

• Familiarity reduces fear and increases empathy

• Children internalize how the world treats them

• Hardship is not a reflection of intelligence or potential

• Women's worth is often unfairly tied to appearance

• Beauty standards shape how girls see themselves early in life

• Acceptance can be more powerful than perfection

• Children should be taught to recognize inner beauty and emotional safety

• Difference exists everywhere in nature and humanity

• We cannot change what we refuse to confront honestly

• A meaningful life is built through authenticity, not external approval

Website: https://melissaakiewiley.com/ Speaking and workshops focused on disability inclusion, belonging, empathy, and redefining beauty standards

In this episode of Roots+Rebirth™, Terri sits down with psychic medium and spiritual coach Snowy Rodeo for a deeply personal and expansive conversation about intuition, lineage, grief, and purpose. Snowy shares how her gifts emerged in childhood, how they were shaped by both Catholic faith and a Cuban lineage of healers, and how she ultimately reclaimed her calling after stepping away to build a successful career in fashion.

This conversation explores what it means to trust your inner knowing, navigate grief while staying connected to loved ones in spirit, and build a life aligned with purpose even when the path is not easy or understood by others.

In this episode, we discuss:

• Roots in lineage, spirituality, and early intuitive gifts
• Rebirth through career loss and reclaiming purpose
• Balancing religion and spirituality through faith
• Grief as connection rather than separation
• The emotional responsibility of spiritual work
• Intuition as a skill everyone can access and strengthen
• Love, alignment, and trusting divine timing

Key Takeaways:

• Intuition is not something you gain, it is something you remember
• Spiritual gifts often require courage to fully claim
• Grief can deepen connection rather than end it
• Alignment requires boundaries and energy management
• Purpose is revealed through both loss and trust

Notable Moments:

• Snowy's first spiritual experience at age four
• Learning tarot at nine and keeping the same deck for decades
• Leaving a high-level fashion career and returning to her calling
• Helping families during a tragic flood and navigating emotional impact
• Meeting her husband through her mother's intuitive guidance
• Receiving a spiritual sign from her mother on her wedding day

Where to Find Snowy Instagram: @snowyrodeotarot

Services: Tarot readings, yoga, sound healing, retreats, and classes

Follow and connect with Terri @terrirbroussard & follow Roots+Rebirth! @rootsandrebirthpodcast

Grief isn't something that simply happens to us—it's something we actively move through.

In this deeply meaningful conversation, Terri sits down with renowned grief scholar Thomas Attig to explore a transformative perspective on loss, love, and what it truly means to heal.

Drawing from over 40 years of research and teaching, Thomas challenges the traditional idea that grief is passive or something we "get over." Instead, he reframes grief as a process of relearning how to live in a world that has been profoundly changed .

Together, they unpack:

• Why the concept of "closure" doesn't hold up when it comes to love
• The shift from loving someone in presence to loving them in absence
• How our relationships continue to shape us—even after loss
• The role of soul, spirit, and connection in navigating grief
• Why you are more equipped to handle grief than you may believe

Terri also shares personal reflections on losing her father and grandmother, offering a vulnerable look into how grief can open the door to deeper connection, awareness, and even spiritual growth.

This episode is both grounding and expansive—a reminder that while loss changes everything, it doesn't end the relationship. It transforms it.

If you've ever been told to "move on" or "find closure," this conversation offers a different path—one rooted in connection, meaning, and the evolution of love.

🎧 Listen now and discover how grief can become an invitation to live, love, and carry forward what matters most.

What happens when life doesn't go according to plan—and you realize it was never meant to?

In this powerful episode of Roots+Rebirth™, Terri R. Broussard sits down with resilience expert, author, and speaker Courtney Clark to explore what it really means to navigate life's unexpected turns with courage, clarity, and ownership.

Courtney shares her deeply personal journey—from surviving a life-altering traumatic event to rebuilding her identity, redefining resilience, and choosing to live with intention instead of fear. This conversation is not about bouncing back. It's about moving forward with truth, agency, and grace.

Together, Terri and Courtney unpack how resilience isn't something we're born with—it's something we build. And sometimes, the most powerful rebirth comes from the moments we never asked for.

This episode is a call to reclaim your narrative, honor your growth, and lead your life from a place of deep alignment.

• Courtney's personal story of trauma and survival
• The difference between "bouncing back" and moving forward
• How to redefine resilience on your own terms
• Letting go of the life you planned to embrace the life you have
• The role of mindset in navigating adversity
• How to take ownership of your story without minimizing your pain
• Leading with authenticity after life-changing experiences
• Why resilience is a practice, not a destination

• Resilience is not about returning to who you were—it's about becoming who you are now
• You don't have to minimize your pain to move forward with power
• Your story is yours to own, rewrite, and reclaim
• Unexpected moments can become defining turning points for growth
• Healing and leadership often happen at the same time
• You can choose meaning, even when you didn't choose the moment

Website: https://courtneyclark.com/

Instagram: @courtney_l_clark

Website: https://terribroussard.com/

Instagram: @terrirbroussard & @rootsandrebirthpodcast