The Courage Coalition

What is your definition of courage?
 "Courage is the quiet defiance of the impossible
 the choice to move forward when logic, fear,
 and every onlooker say you should not.
 It is standing exposed at the edge of failure
 and walking anyway, fueled not by certainty
 but by the conviction that purpose is worth the fall.”

There are moments in life when you meet someone whose very presence shifts your understanding of what courage looks like in action. That was my experience sitting across from Brittany Stokes, co-founder and CEO of Project Orphans and Tulsa Girls Home—a woman who didn’t wait for permission, applause, or a perfect plan before stepping into the gap for vulnerable youth. What struck me most wasn’t her résumé or accomplishments; it was her willingness to be first. To listen when logic whispered don’t, to act when she had no map, and to trust that conviction would carry her further than certainty ever could. When Brittany left the comfort of a successful advertising career to serve children affected by abuse, trafficking, and system neglect, she didn’t know the whole path. She just took the next right step and then the next. That is what purpose looks like when it becomes louder than fear.

Our conversation unearthed a painful but vital truth: we cannot change what we refuse to look at, and the foster care system in our country has been overlooked for far too long. We talk endlessly about homelessness, addiction, trafficking, incarceration, and mental health…but rarely do we stop and ask why these systems continue to swell. The hard truth is that a staggering percentage of the adults cycling through these crises once spent time in foster care. If we are unwilling to examine what is happening to children before they become statistics, then we cannot be surprised when the outcomes remain the same. Brittany named something profound something I felt to my core: if we were honest about the state of foster care, we would declare a national state of emergency. Because behind every data point is a child who has been moved six, ten, even thirty-two times. A child who has never been allowed to belong. A child who has never been taught how to be part of a family. A child who has learned to hide their needs because vulnerability has only ever made them less safe.

And yet there is hope. Because hope is built by humans, not policies. Hope begins with one person choosing to be first. One home. One advocate. One community willing to say, the way we’ve always done it is not the way we must continue. When I visited Tulsa Girls Home, I didn’t just see a program—I saw family. I saw dignity restored through warm meals, good furniture, therapy, education, dogs, laughter, boundaries, safety, and belonging. I saw teenage girls who—perhaps for the first time—felt chosen. That is what happens when someone refuses to believe that “this is just how the system works” and instead asks, What if this could be different?

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

We measure so much by numbers profit margins, client counts, turnover rates—but the truth is, numbers only tell part of the story. As a financial coach and bookkeeper, I see it every day: business owners chasing growth, retention, and loyalty, wondering why the numbers don’t reflect the effort. The answer isn’t more strategy or another spreadsheet. It’s connection. The number one human need whether we’re employees, consumers, or leaders is to feel seen, valued, and part of something bigger. When we remove connection from our businesses, we strip them of the very heartbeat that sustains them.

The data is undeniable: companies that integrate service or volunteerism into their culture see over 50% less turnover and higher engagement across every level. Why? Because people crave meaning. They want to work for, buy from, and belong to organizations that care about something beyond the bottom line. Connection builds trust. Trust builds loyalty. And loyalty more than any sales strategy is what sustains a business long after the marketing fades.

So as you step into a new year, ask yourself: Do my numbers reflect my values? Does my business story mirror the legacy I want to leave behind? Because money matters, but only as much as the meaning behind it. Build a business that gives back through action, not slogans. Let your team serve, volunteer, and connect in ways that matter to them. When we bring humanity back into business, everything changes. Growth becomes a byproduct of purpose. And that’s the kind of wealth worth measuring.

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 stories don’t thunder in with triumph they arrive quietly, hand to heart, and ask us to breathe. In my conversation with Christina Stevenson certified grief coach, retired U.S. Air Force officer, and author of I Carry You we talked about what courage actually looks like in the dark. The book’s title began with Addie’s toddler hands lifted high “I carry you” and became a ripple: the way our people carry us, the way we carry their light forward, and the way our stories carry others when words feel impossible. Christina reminds us that grief isn’t weakness; it’s love with nowhere to go until we choose to give it direction. That choice begins in the smallest places: noticing the smile in a hospital room, the sunset outside a window, the cardboard box on a doorstep that arrives the exact day you’ve forgotten how to ask.

Christina’s definition of courage took my breath away: courage is choosing what matters most while doubting yourself on a whole new level. It’s saying “home” when hospice asks where your child should spend her last days believing you can’t possibly do it, and doing it anyway. From that place, she offers two journal prompts that can reframe a life: “How could the worst day of my life become the best?” and “What do I value more than the pain?” These aren’t instant answers; they’re invitations to presence. If you’re just beginning, start smaller five lines of gratitude, a simple prayer, one memory you want to keep. Evidence collects. Light gathers. And healing, as we both believe, is an evolution layer by layer, lesson by lesson never a finish line, always a becoming.

If you are navigating loss (of a person, a season, a dream), let this be your permission slip: tell your story on paper, to a friend, or just to yourself. Share the parts that still shake your voice. Vulnerability doesn’t erase the ache, but it transforms the way we carry it. Christina said it best: death isn’t the worst thing; not living is. May we choose the next brave step toward presence, toward gratitude, toward being fully here with the people we love. And if this conversation touched you, pass it on. You never know who needs to be carried today.

Find "I carry you" the book by Christina Stiverson here: https://a.co/d/1Enhu6p

Follow Christina here: https://www.facebook.com/christina.stackstiverson

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

We all have it, the grip. That quiet, relentless need for things to look a certain way before we believe they’re “right” or “working.” I’ve gripped dreams, businesses, parenting, even the way joy should unfold. But the truth is, that grip is exactly what keeps us from seeing the beauty, the shift, the growth waiting to happen. At our first women’s retreat in Costa Rica, everything changed when I released it. We pivoted, lost money, and redesigned from alignment instead of expectation and that’s when women said yes. Not because it was perfect, but because it was real.

That same lesson showed up again as we kayaked through the bioluminescent waters of the Nicoya Peninsula. Our guide gripped the experience, trying to make it go “right,” and for a moment, joy disappeared until I realized I was doing the same thing. When I let go, I saw laughter, courage, and pure play from women who were terrified of water but brave enough to say yes anyway. Their light wasn’t in perfection; it was in presence.

On the flight home, a flight attendant ended every announcement with, “Love you, mean it.” And I felt it. It reminded me that our purpose isn’t found in control, but in connection. When we loosen the grip on our dreams, our timelines, our need to know we create space for flow, for faith, for what’s meant for us to actually find us. So today, ask yourself: Where am I gripping so tightly that I’m missing the miracle in front of me? Release it. Let it breathe. 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 are moments in life when courage doesn’t look like the roar of a lion it looks like a whisper that says, not yet. In this week’s episode of The Courage Coalition, I sat down with Kristy Barkley, a woman whose story reminds us that sometimes the cracks in our lives are exactly where the light gets in. Once a high-powered sports executive for the Nashville Predators, Kristy’s life changed overnight when a series of concussions left her unable to work, care for herself, or even trust her own memory. Doctors told her she would never work again and later, that she would not live beyond 2020. But what unfolded instead was a series of miracles, heartbreaks, and Godwinks that brought her back to life physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Kristy’s story isn’t just about survival; it’s about resurrection. After a suicide attempt and years of living in the shadow of her diagnosis, she was told she was “not done yet.” That moment of divine intervention became the foundation for everything that followed. Through unexpected healing, curiosity, and a simple decision to try again, Kristy reclaimed her health, her faith, and her purpose. From overcoming early-onset dementia and severe brain injury to raising a son who faced the same struggles and later another with autism. Kristy’s journey reminds us that courage often comes disguised as ordinary decisions: taking a new supplement, saying yes to a 5K, or choosing to live when everything inside you wants to quit.

Today, Kristy is a life coach, marathon runner, and living testimony that faith over fear isn’t just a mantra it’s a way of life. She describes courage as “choosing faith when fear feels better,” and I can’t think of a more powerful truth. Her story challenges each of us to ask: Where have I stopped believing that healing is possible? Where have I decided I’m done when God is still saying, not yet? Because sometimes the bravest thing we can do is simply to wake up, take the next step, and trust that we are not broken we are being rebuilt.

Learn more about Kristy here: https://www.instagram.com/kristybarkley/

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

So often, we search outside ourselves for answers that were never meant to come from anywhere but within. Intuition is that sacred knowing the whisper that speaks before logic catches up. 

I’ve learned that it’s not about trusting something mystical, but about remembering that our instincts were designed to protect and guide us. The problem is, most of us are too busy listening to the noise to hear the knowing. 

For years, I ignored my gut because it didn’t make sense, or because others told me I was overreacting. But every time I’ve had the courage to listen to reach out, to say yes, to walk into a room I felt drawn to something in my life shifted for the better. The more I quiet the noise and choose trust over doubt, the clearer my path becomes. Intuition isn’t a luxury; it’s a birthright. The question is, are you still enough to hear it? Are you courageous enough to follow?

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

We all say we’ll never repeat the patterns we grew up in, until our body tells the truth. Collapse is clarity. The story we explored today isn’t about hustle or heroics; it’s about a woman who finally chose communication over coping. That’s the pivot: not louder effort, but honest connection about money, schedules, mental health, faith. Simple does not mean easy. Simple means: we share the calendar, we talk about the bill, we tell the truth before resentment does. Legacy isn’t a headline; it’s what our kids quietly inherit when we stop pretending and start repairing.

Here’s the value I want you to take forward. When life is heavy, build three anchors:

1. Communicate: Put reality on the table—finances, appointments, triggers. No villains, just facts.
2. Calibrate: Choose one next right thing for each foundation—physical (10 minutes of sun), mental (one therapy session or journaling page), spiritual (five minutes with “Be still and know that I am God”), relational (daily check-in question), financial (one shared money review per week).
3. Contribute: Service is a shortcut to purpose. A “small” hobby done in community can become a lifeline because being seen is medicine.

If you’re standing at the edge of familiar pain, don’t muscle through it name it, frame it, and right-size it. Name what’s true out loud. Frame it inside your values. Right-size it into one actionable step today. This is how we change the ending: not with grand gestures, but with consistent, values-aligned choices that our future selves and our children can trust.

Find out more about Angelina here: https://angelinarivera.com/

Find out more about Operation 11 Charlies here: https://www.o11c.org/

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 was a time in my life when control was my safety net. If I could plan it, predict it, or manage it, then I believed I could protect myself and the people I loved. Faith felt intangible something I couldn’t measure or touch. But over time, life kept nudging me toward something deeper. Intuition. Knowing. God. Energy. Whatever name you give it, it’s that quiet whisper that says trust me when every part of you wants to grip tighter. For me, intuition wasn’t born in a single lightning bolt moment it grew slowly through the cracks of loss, motherhood, and surrender. I started realizing that the prayers I whispered and the dreams I barely spoke out loud had power. They weren’t just thoughts floating in the air, they were the seeds of my future being written in real time.

When I look back now at the words Chad and I wrote in a notebook years ago about saving money, moving to Montana, and living a simpler, more intentional life I see the truth of that intuition. We didn’t have all the answers. We just had belief. We spoke life into our desires and unknowingly began to align our energy, choices, and faith toward them. That is the magic of intuitive living: what you focus on with love and awareness expands. Fear silences intuition; love amplifies it. So if you’re standing in a life that feels too small, too noisy, too safe get still. Listen. Write it down. Speak it out. You don’t have to know how it will unfold. Just believe that your heart’s whisper is already leading you home.

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 moments on the podcast feel less like an interview and more like a remembering—and my conversation with Katie Farinas was exactly that. Katie is a yoga teacher, podcast host, and Dharma coach who helps midlife women come home to who they’ve always been. We unpacked Dharma not as a single “magic pill” purpose, but as a through-line: Dharma = your essence + the expression of your essence. The essence never leaves; life just layers over it. As Katie said, our job isn’t to find purpose so much as to uncover what’s already there. I shared a story from childhood, little me on a playground, drawn to the kid sitting alone, and how that same “protect the unseen” thread has followed me into motherhood, business, and advocacy. Different expressions, same essence. That’s the work: gently peeling back the layers so you can see the evidence of who you’ve been all along.

We also went deep on intuition and nervous system regulation. Intuition, Katie reminded us, is love-based quiet, steady, grounded while fear rides in loud on old beliefs, unregulated nerves, and cultural scripts. Yoga, in its truest form, is a science of nervous system regulation that reconnects mind, body, and spirit so we can actually hear that inner wisdom and then trust it. Every time you notice your thoughts wander and you return to the present, that’s a win. Every boundary set from love, not fear, is alignment. And if you’re in midlife wondering why everything suddenly feels both raw and real, Katie names it beautifully: this is your second adolescence. The biology shifts, the brain remodels, and the roles you’ve carried start to wobble. Culture may go quiet here but your soul doesn’t. This is your next becoming.

If you’re feeling that tug, try this: Ask, What’s the through-line of my life? When did I feel it most as a child? How is it asking to be expressed now? Then check the source of the next thought that arrives does it sound like love or fear? Choose one tiny action from love today. Legacy isn’t just money or milestones; it’s the felt experience of who you become and what your presence makes possible. 

Find out more about Katie Farinas here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiefarinas/ 

Here: https://katiefarinas.com/ or

Here: https://www.instagram.com/katie.farinas/

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

The world is loud so loud that sometimes it feels like we’re living in a constant hum of urgency. “Hurry up.” “Do more.” “Don’t fall behind.” It shows up everywhere our businesses, our homes, our volunteer roles, even our dreams. For a long time, I thought that was what ambition sounded like. But what I’ve learned is that the noise is what keeps us from the knowing. It’s what keeps us from hearing our own voice, our own alignment, and the quiet whispers from God. Because God doesn’t shout. He whispers. And that whisper the one that feels like a nudge, a thought that drops out of nowhere only shows up when we’re quiet enough to hear it.

True clarity the kind that builds peace, purpose, and longevity is born in stillness. And stillness isn’t laziness. Stillness is strategy. It’s the space where we can see things from a higher perspective, where we can ask: Is this next step aligned with who I am and what I’m building? Sometimes “what’s next” isn’t adding more it’s releasing what no longer fits. 

So, I’ll leave you with this question: What noise are you listening to right now, and is it aligned with your values? Because your values are your North Star. They guide your choices, your finances, your purpose, and even your legacy. 

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