The Courage Coalition

So much of what we call alignment today is actually just another version of pressure. New year, new energy, new goals go, go, go. But what if that pace doesn’t feel right in your body? In this conversation with Aniston Riekstins, we explore what it really means to redefine alignment, purpose, and connection not as something to chase, but as something to remember. We talk about how our culture has disconnected us from natural rhythms: the seasons, our nervous systems, and especially our own inner cycles as women. Alignment, in its truest form, isn’t about forcing momentum it’s about honoring timing. Winter is not meant for harvest, and neither are we.

Aniston beautifully reminds us that we are energetic beings living inside biological systems that were never designed to run like machines. Our bodies carry wisdom through hormonal cycles, emotional shifts, and intuitive nudges but many of us were taught to override those signals in the name of productivity and survival. When we ignore them long enough, the nervous system bears the cost. Burnout, anxiety, disconnection, and self-doubt aren’t personal failures; they’re signals that our operating system is outdated. The work isn’t about fixing ourselves—it’s about learning how to listen again. Sometimes that bridge back to self looks like cycle tracking, sometimes numerology, sometimes simply walking outside and letting your body remember what safety feels like.

At the heart of this episode is a gentle but radical truth: purpose is not a title, a destination, or a rigid identity. Purpose is the sharing of your natural gifts, rooted in passion and expressed in your own way, in your own season. When we stop gripping for outcomes and start trusting our inner rhythm, clarity follows. This year doesn’t ask you to run faster it asks you to slow down enough to hear yourself. Because the most aligned path isn’t the loudest one or the most crowded one. It’s the one that feels like coming home.

To find out more about Anniston connect here: https://www.instagram.com/annistonblairriekstins/

Contact Corree or find out more about Corree and learn about all the ways she does not choose to stay in one lane go here: https://correeroofener.com/

To Purchase Emotional Money click here: Emotional Money

Are you ready to walk with us for https:/https://fosteringthesummit.org  Join us as we change the statistics for children aging out of foster care.

Also, follow me on https://www.instagram.com/correeroofenercoach/ for more inspiration and practical wisdom for your business and life. 

Until next time, keep shining bright!

- Corree

Some conversations don’t just inspire you they expose you. That’s what happened for me sitting with Kendra Cooke. Yes, she’s a powerhouse in real estate (since 1988, starting as a receptionist and rising all the way to ownership), but what rocked me wasn’t her résumé it was her willingness to take the mask off. We went straight to the thing women avoid: money. Not the polished version. The real version. The “I don’t know if I qualify for this table” version. Kendra named what so many of us carry: we weren’t taught money, we were taught stigma. Don’t talk about it. Marry someone who handles it. And if you do talk about it? You’ll be judged too much or too little, either way you lose. And I felt that in my bones because I remember attaching my worth to a brown station wagon with paneling and whitewashed wheels, pulling up to a “rich” middle school and deciding, right there, that I wasn’t enough.

What I loved about Kendra is she didn’t preach from a pedestal she taught from the pit. Her “rug got ripped out” at 34, and she admitted what most people hide: success can be an addiction, work can be an addiction, and money can become the chase that costs you everything you actually care about. She was selling hundreds of houses a year, the outside looked flawless, but inside she was sneaking out of bed at night to go back to the office until she got busted and forced to face what was true. Coaching didn’t just help her “scale,” it exposed the root: she didn’t have a time problem or a lead problem she had a money problem. Not looking at her numbers. Spending like gross income was hers. Buying every “you need this to succeed” shiny object. Her breakthrough wasn’t sexy: separate business and personal, look at the P&L, track what comes in and what goes out, and build wealth based on what you keep not what you brag about. And here’s the mic drop: when she tracked her leads, none came from billboards or marketing gimmicks. They came from relationships. Past clients. Referrals. Humans.

By the end of this conversation, the real message wasn’t “get rich.” It was: define wealth for yourself. Kendra’s non-negotiable hit me hard if it doesn’t make me money, save me time, or bring me joy, the answer is no. That’s legacy work. That’s values work. Because wealth isn’t always a bigger house or a higher number it’s the freedom to change your mind, the courage to tell the truth, and the clarity to stop chasing what was never yours. If you’ve been afraid to have the hard money conversations with yourself, with your partner, with your team this is your invitation. Not to feel shame. To feel awareness. And then to choose one next step that’s actually aligned. Love you. Mean it.

To find out more about Kendra Cooke click here: https://kendracooke.com/

Contact Corree or find out more about Corree and learn about all the ways she does not choose to stay in one lane go here: https://correeroofener.com/

To Purchase Emotional Money click here: Emotional Money

Are you ready to walk with us for https:/https://fosteringthesummit.org  Join us as we change the statistics for children aging out of foster care.

Also, follow me on https://www.instagram.com/correeroofenercoach/ for more inspiration and practical wisdom for your business and life. 

Until next time, keep shining bright!

- Corree

Money has never been just numbers. It’s never been black and white. From the moment we are old enough to notice it, money becomes tangled with safety, love, belonging, approval, fear, and shame. We learn often without words that what we earn, spend, or have somehow determines our worth or our place in the world. Emotional Money was created to gently but powerfully disrupt that story. Not by telling you what you “should” do, but by asking the questions most of us have never been invited to explore: Why do I spend the way I do? Why do I save, or not save the way I do? What belief is driving my behavior? This book is not about fixing you. It’s about understanding you.

I chose to put this work into a book one you can write in, pause with, return to because growth shouldn’t only be available to those who can afford one-on-one coaching or expensive rooms. This is about accessibility. This is about meeting you where you are, without shame, without comparison, without the pressure to overhaul your entire life. Every chapter asks one simple but courageous thing: What is one small shift you can make here? Because real change doesn’t happen through massive leaps it happens through honest awareness and baby steps taken with intention. And what’s powerful is that this framework doesn’t just apply to money. It shows up in your health, your relationships, your faith, your leadership, and the legacy you are building whether you realize it yet or not.

On February 24, I’m inviting you into the launch of Emotional Money. Not just to celebrate a book but to step into a different way of relating to money, to yourself, and to what’s possible. Join the mailing list, come to the live launch, and be part of a conversation that is changing how we talk about money from shame to curiosity, from scarcity to alignment, from silence to truth. If this stirred something in you, it’s not by accident. Your story matters. And when you take even one brave step toward rewriting it, you don’t just change your life you help change the world. 

Contact Corree or find out more about Corree and learn about all the ways she does not choose to stay in one lane go here: https://correeroofener.com/

To Purchase Emotional Money click here: Emotional Money

Are you ready to walk with us for https:/https://fosteringthesummit.org  Join us as we change the statistics for children aging out of foster care.

Also, follow me on https://www.instagram.com/correeroofenercoach/ for more inspiration and practical wisdom for your business and life. 

Until next time, keep shining bright!

- Corree

There are some conversations we don’t avoid because they aren’t important—we avoid them because they’re too important. Too personal. Too revealing. Too likely to crack the “I’m fine” mask right off our face. In this episode of The Courage Coalition, I brought back repeat guest Erika Rothenberger a woman who doesn’t just walk into rooms with energy, but with truth. When I asked her what we need to start talking about more in 2026, her answer wasn’t polished. It was a hell yes. Because the conversations that change people aren’t always “safe.” They’re the ones we’ve labeled PG-13: hormones, perimenopause, midlife awakening, money without shame, divorce, addiction, miscarriage, assault real life punches that so many carry quietly, thinking they’re the only one.

What made this conversation hit deeper wasn’t just the topics it was the thread running through all of them: control, belonging, and the cost of silence. Erika shares what it was like growing up with alcoholism inside a home that looked “successful” from the outside, and how those early beliefs wire us to walk on eggshells, perform for safety, and achieve as a coping mechanism. We also talk about eating disorders through a lens that most people miss: not vanity, but nervous-system survival. When life feels out of control, the body will reach for one thing it can manage food, movement, restriction, numbing. And as someone who fostered for 15 years, I’ve seen that same survival strategy in children who had nothing else they could control. This is the part the world doesn’t understand: behavior is often a language of unmet needs. Most of the time, it’s not about the surface issue at all it’s about longing to feel safe, seen, and accepted.

And then the conversation takes a turn into something that reshapes you: Erika’s brutal assault and what she did with her pain afterward. She didn’t just “get through it.” She used it to fight for change, working to shift legislation in Pennsylvania around strangulation laws. That is the definition of audacity: not letting trauma define your legacy, but letting it refine your purpose. If you’re listening and you feel that quiet knowing—there’s more for me—I want you to hear this clearly: you are not behind, you are not too late, and you are not alone. Start where you are. Make your own “audacious badass list.” Collect your evidence. Because courage isn’t the absence of fear—it’s the decision to move anyway… and to stop pretending you’re fine when you were made for more.

To get Erika's new book Audacious Expansion click here: https://a.co/d/eQi2JNr

To find out more about Erika and her Audacious movement click here: https://www.instagram.com/stories/erikalearothenberger/

Contact Corree or find out more about Corree and learn about all the ways she does not choose to stay in one lane go here: https://correeroofener.com/

To Purchase Emotional Money click here: Emotional Money

Are you ready to walk with us for https:/https://fosteringthesummit.org  Join us as we change the statistics for children aging out of foster care.

Also, follow me on https://www.instagram.com/correeroofenercoach/ for more inspiration and practical wisdom for your business and life. 

Until next time, keep shining bright!

- Corree

Every January we make promises to ourselves about money, habits, change and by February many of us are already sitting in the quiet shame of why didn’t I keep it this time? What I’ve learned, both personally and through years of financial coaching, is that shame is one of the loudest drivers of our money behavior. Not income. Not intelligence. Shame rooted in old beliefs, inherited values, and definitions of success that were never ours to begin with. The most damaging belief I see is I don’t make enough, so this will never work for me. That belief doesn’t protect you it keeps you stuck.

Here’s the truth: Chad and I have never made what culture would call “a lot” of money. We’ve never hit the numbers people casually throw around online. And yet, we’ve built a life that feels aligned, intentional, and deeply ours. Money doesn’t change when the number changes it changes when the why becomes clear. That’s why I created Emotional Money. Not as another plan or set of rules, but as a framework to help you understand the beliefs and values shaping your decisions. Most of our money stories were written long before we ever earned a paycheck, and until we understand them, no budget or strategy will stick.

If 2026 is the year something truly has to change, the question isn’t what plan should I follow? It’s what behavior am I willing to change? Money is rarely just about money it touches our health, relationships, worth, and freedom. When you understand your why, everything begins to shift. You are not behind. You are not broken. You are uniquely created, and your story deserves understanding, not shame. If any part of this resonated, stay in the conversation—share the episode, download it, leave a review. And be brave enough to ask yourself the questions you’ve been avoiding.

Love you. Mean it.

Contact Corree or find out more about Corree and learn about all the ways she does not choose to stay in one lane go here: https://correeroofener.com/

To Purchase Emotional Money click here: Emotional Money

Are you ready to walk with us for https:/https://fosteringthesummit.org  Join us as we change the statistics for children aging out of foster care.

Also, follow me on https://www.instagram.com/correeroofenercoach/ for more inspiration and practical wisdom for your business and life. 

Until next time, keep shining bright!

- Corree

There’s a conversation we don’t have enough in foster care and adoption because it’s loaded with fear, judgment, and that quiet ache of “What will people think?” Today on The Courage Coalition, Trisha Collins (Director of Missional Impact at Child Bridge Montana) and James Newell (adoptive dad, husband, builder, and a man willing to speak honestly about the hard) helped open the door on the topic: what happens when it doesn’t work. Because our culture loves a tidy ending. “They’re adopted now, so it’s all good.” “You’ve had them since they were tiny, so of course it’s a perfect fit.” But real life doesn’t follow a script and children aren’t a fairytale plotline. Sometimes the most loving decision isn’t forcing a forever that doesn’t fit. Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is admit, this isn’t in this child’s best interest, even when your heart is breaking and your worth is trying to tie itself to the outcome.

I shared a piece of my own story when we had a medically fragile little one from infancy, and adoption came onto the table. From the outside, it looked like it should have been automatic. But inside our home, the reality was complicated. Her sensory needs were so intense that the outdoors wind, smells, the very life our family lived made her physically sick. And because only my mom and I could care for her, it became clear: keeping her would have been about my grip, not her healing. The shame was real. The feeling of failure was loud. But then the gift came later the part you don’t see in the moment. We helped with the search for her forever family. We met them. And now, years later, I’ve watched her thrive exactly where she belongs loved, understood, and supported in a life that fits her nervous system and her joy. Trisha said something that hit me right in the chest: foster care isn’t always a marathon; sometimes it’s a relay race. Batons get passed. That doesn’t mean someone failed. It means the child is still moving toward what’s right.

And maybe that’s the reframe we all need: success isn’t “I did it all.” Success is love with wisdom. Love that stays honest. Love that gets curious instead of condemning. James brought a powerful perspective from the male side how shame shows up when you feel responsible to protect your home, your kids, your marriage, and you’re still wondering, What’s wrong with me? Trisha offered a line I won’t forget: if the car is in the ditch, we don’t have to obsess over how it got there we have to focus on getting it out. So if you’re in the thick of it right now fostering, adopting, supporting reunification, or grieving a placement that didn’t work here’s what I want you to hear: perfect love casts out fear… and love does. It shows up. It tells the truth. It apologizes when it misses. It stays open-handed. And it refuses to measure worth by whether the story turned out the way you thought it “should."

Contact Corree or find out more about Corree and learn about all the ways she does not choose to stay in one lane go here: https://correeroofener.com/

To Purchase Emotional Money click here: Emotional Money

Are you ready to walk with us for https:/https://fosteringthesummit.org  Join us as we change the statistics for children aging out of foster care.

Also, follow me on https://www.instagram.com/correeroofenercoach/ for more inspiration and practical wisdom for your business and life. 

Until next time, keep shining bright!

- Corree

Fear is one of the most misunderstood forces we live with. We’re taught that fear is the signal to stop, to turn around, to stay safe. But what if fear isn’t the enemy at all? What if it’s simply a messenger an ancient survival system that was never updated for the life you’re living now? In this solo episode, I reflect on how fear has shown up in my own story, not as the thing that stopped me, but as the very thing that invited me forward. Fear is what surfaces when we’re standing at the edge of something honest, something true, something that asks us to be seen. And in a culture that prioritizes belonging over authenticity, being seen can feel terrifying.

So many of us are walking a tightrope in the fog unable to see what’s ahead, unable to see what’s below, only aware of the pounding of our own hearts and the pull to retreat back into what’s familiar. We stay because it’s accepted. We stay because it’s safe. We stay because belonging feels like love. But the cost of belonging to what has always been may be the very thing costing us our dreams, our purpose, and the impact we were born to make. Growth isn’t about leaping off a cliff; it’s about small, quiet steps taken in courage steps that often feel scarier precisely because they ask us to release identities we’ve never known life without.

As this new year unfolds, my invitation is simple but not easy: notice where fear is leading you. Is it guiding you forward by asking you to listen more deeply, get quieter, and trust what your heart already knows? Or is it keeping you bound to old stories, old roles, old expectations that no longer fit? Fear works both ways. It can handcuff you or it can hold your hand. And the legacy you leave isn’t built only by what you do, but also by what you choose not to do. Someone is always watching. The question is: will you let fear silence you, or will you let it be the companion that walks you into the life you were always meant to live?

Contact Corree or find out more about Corree and learn about all the ways she does not choose to stay in one lane go here: https://correeroofener.com/

To Purchase Emotional Money click here: Emotional Money

Are you ready to walk with us for https:/https://fosteringthesummit.org  Join us as we change the statistics for children aging out of foster care.

Also, follow me on https://www.instagram.com/correeroofenercoach/ for more inspiration and practical wisdom for your business and life. 

Until next time, keep shining bright!

- Corree

As we open Season Three of The Courage Coalition, I found myself reflecting deeply on what this podcast was always meant to be and what it’s now being called to become. From the beginning, the heart of this space has been real people living courageous lives: choosing growth over safety, stepping forward in fear, and doing the hard things even when the noise around them said, stay comfortable. That intention has never changed. But as 2025 came to a close, there was a stirring in me a quiet but persistent knowing that something needed to shift. We’ve shared brave stories, yes. But we haven’t always asked the hardest questions. And courage, real courage, doesn’t stop at what’s inspiring it goes straight into what’s uncomfortable, messy, and deeply human.

Season Three is about going there. It’s about creating space for conversations we’ve avoided for too long because they feel risky or taboo conversations around sex, money, mental health, menopause, fatherhood, motherhood, foster care, education, faith, politics, body image, trauma, and intuition. Not from a place of argument or division, but from shared humanity. From curiosity. From a willingness to listen and to sit with perspectives that may differ from our own. Growth doesn’t happen when we stay safe; it happens when we ask ourselves why something makes us uncomfortable, angry, or afraid. As a culture, we say we want change, but we resist being the ones who change. And until that shifts, nothing actually moves forward.

This season is an invitation and a challenge. I’ll be bringing back familiar voices and welcoming new ones, asking different questions, and holding deeper space. But this isn’t just about me or my guests. It’s about you. If there’s a conversation you know needs to happen, a question you’ve been afraid to ask, or a topic you wish someone would finally address reach out. Every episode includes my contact information because this is meant to be a living, breathing community. Change begins with connection, and connection begins with courage. Season Three is about strengthening the heart of this coalition anchored in safety, love, and acceptance so we can challenge the status quo and create a ripple that actually leads somewhere. If it resonates, share it. If it challenges you, stay curious. Either way, this is where the real work begins.

Contact Corree or find out more about Corree and learn about all the ways she does not choose to stay in one lane go here: https://correeroofener.com/

To Purchase Emotional Money click here: Emotional Money

Are you ready to walk with us for https:/https://fosteringthesummit.org  Join us as we change the statistics for children aging out of foster care.

Also, follow me on https://www.instagram.com/correeroofenercoach/ for more inspiration and practical wisdom for your business and life. 

Until next time, keep shining bright!

- Corree

As this year comes to a close, I’m reminded once again that I don’t do resolutions I do reflections. Not the kind that measure accomplishments or accolades, but the kind that ask, Who did I become this year? What did I learn? What quiet truths rose to the surface when I allowed myself to slow down enough to hear them? This year, my practice was simple: gather the evidence of my becoming. Not the big moments, but the shifts. The whispered yes. The dream spoken out loud. The moments of choosing courage over comfort… again and again. And it surprised me how much clarity arrives when we stop trying to rush into the next thing and instead honor what has already unfolded.

2025 was a year of unraveling and remembering. I walked into it with five words connection, clarity, purpose, light, authenticity words that didn’t just guide me, but taught me. They asked me to stop performing and start listening. To stop shrinking and start rising. To connect deeper, not wider. To return to the truth of who I’ve always been: a mother, a creator, a vessel, a visionary, a woman who was born on purpose for a purpose. This year clarified who I am beneath the expectations, the noise, and the pressure to do things the “right” way. And what I discovered was that living aligned financially, spiritually, creatively wasn’t just possible, it was the exact path where everything finally clicked into place.

And maybe the biggest lesson was this: becoming is rarely loud. It’s not the roar on the mountaintop it’s the whisper inside your chest. It’s choosing the uncomfortable next step, the thing that doesn’t make sense on paper but makes perfect sense to your soul. It’s saying yes to the vision even when you’re scared. It’s trusting that every shift, every surrender, every tear, every brave conversation, every mile walked, every boundary set, every moment of faith was preparing you to be seen. Not for attention. But for impact. For legacy. For the generations watching. For the woman you were always meant to rise into.

As we step into a new year, I hope you take a moment to gather the evidence of your own becoming. Not the outcomes your evolution. The quiet defiance. The whispered yes. The courage you didn’t even realize you were practicing. Because sometimes the most profound transformation isn’t what you plan—it's what you finally allow.

Contact Corree or find out more about Corree and learn about all the ways she does not choose to stay in one lane go here: https://correeroofener.com/

To Purchase Emotional Money click here: Emotional Money

Are you ready to walk with us for https:/https://fosteringthesummit.org  Join us as we change the statistics for children aging out of foster care.

Also, follow me on https://www.instagram.com/correeroofenercoach/ for more inspiration and practical wisdom for your business and life. 

Until next time, keep shining bright!

- Corree

There’s a whole lot of noise around social media, isn’t there? Post three times a day. Niche down to one tiny topic. Be on every platform. Dance, point, lip sync, perform. No wonder so many of us would rather hide than hit “publish.” In my conversation with social media strategist Jordan Reynolds, we talked about what happens when you stop trying to be the “perfect creator” and start showing up as a whole human. Jordan shared how posting 5–10 videos a day about one narrow topic left her completely burned out and honestly, I felt that in my bones. Because I am not just a bookkeeping firm. I’m a mom, a wife, an adventurer, a nonprofit founder who is obsessed with flipping the foster care narrative. When we let ourselves be seen in all of that, people don’t just consume content they connect. And connection is where trust lives.

But here’s the part a lot of us resist: sustainable visibility requires structure. Not hustle-till-you-collapse structure supportive structure. Jordan and I both agreed that batching and scheduling aren’t “fake” or “inauthentic”; they’re how you protect what matters most. When your content is scheduled, you get to go on retreat, be present with your family, or focus on serving your clients without social media nipping at your heels. You don’t need to post seven days a week or be on every platform. Start with one platform. Start with three days a week. Pick the same days so consistency becomes a habit, not a guilt trip. Let scheduling be the thing that frees you up to live the life you’re actually talking about online.

Underneath all of this is courage. The courage to be seen as you are not just as a polished “brand,” but as a human with dogs rolling in the mud, kids needing breakfast, and a heart that cares deeply about something bigger than metrics. The courage to admit you’ve been hiding behind perfectionism or “it has to feel organic” and decide to try a different way. The courage to set boundaries, to take a break with intention, and to come back on purpose. You are not for everyone, and that’s a gift. Those people need you, not a copy of whatever the algorithm is shouting for this week. As you look toward 2026, maybe the question isn’t, “How do I beat the algorithm?” but, “How can I honor my capacity, tell the truth about who I am, and show up consistently for the people I’m actually here to serve?” Because if your work changes even one life, every moment of courage will have been worth it.

Learn more about Jordan here: https://www.instagram.com/jordankylieofficial/

OR

Here: https://jordanreynoldscoaching.com/

Contact Corree or find out more about Corree and learn about all the ways she does not choose to stay in one lane go here: https://correeroofener.com/

To Purchase Emotional Money click here: Emotional Money

Are you ready to walk with us for https:/https://fosteringthesummit.org  Join us as we change the statistics for children aging out of foster care.

Also, follow me on https://www.instagram.com/correeroofenercoach/ for more inspiration and practical wisdom for your business and life. 

Until next time, keep shining bright!

- Corree