The Courage Coalition

Whose story are you living the one the world handed you, or the one you’re here to write? Lately we’ve been unpacking how early beliefs become “truth,” and how easily we outsource our next step to noise: the perfect niche, the perfect avatar, the perfect strategy. Tools matter—books, coaches, conferences have shaped me but they are not my compass. Alignment is. When I try to force my business into...

On this week’s episode of The Courage Coalition, I had the privilege of sitting down with Malik Mack serial entrepreneur, speaker, and now author of 101 Side Hustles, Small Businesses, and Income Streams A Guide to Your Financial Freedom . Malik shared how his entrepreneurial journey started in middle school, selling gum for a profit and learning the math of return on investment before he even kne...

Our beliefs shape the lens we see life through but many of them aren’t actually ours. They were placed on us when we were five, six, seven years old, as our little brains were still wiring. Words spoken, experiences endured, and cultural messages absorbed became “truths” that we rarely stop to question. Over time, those beliefs become so ingrained we no longer even recognize them as beliefs they s...

Some stories punch the air out of the room. Amara’s did. She aged out of foster care, and for years the only people who truly knew her her siblings were scattered. The day she volunteered at a park serving breakfast to the homeless, she saw a face that looked familiar. It was her oldest brother. She was there to serve; he was there to be served. They cried, hugged, tried to make sense of a system...

This week on The Courage Coalition , we close out the BEAM process with the letter M—Mindset . Mindset is a circle it always brings us back to our beliefs and our values. Too often we attach our worth to numbers in the bank or benefits on paper and call that success. But true abundance isn’t just a dollar figure. Abundance is freedom of time, freedom of relationships, freedom of choice, and the co...

There’s a quiet kind of courage in the way Jessica tells her story: a little girl in a house without electricity, pulling Salvation Army pieces from a closet and stepping into a “magic mirror.” Clothing wasn’t status—it was sanctuary. It was imagination when life felt unsafe. It was the first tool she used to see a future bigger than her circumstances. That muscle—imagination—became her superpower...

This week on The Courage Coalition , we arrive at the “A” in the BEAM Blueprint: Action . After uncovering our beliefs and values and gathering the evidence of where we’ve been and where we are, it’s time to do the brave thing take a step forward. Action doesn’t have to be complicated or overwhelming. In fact, the most powerful changes often come from the smallest, simplest shifts. One baby step c...

This week on The Courage Coalition , I sat with Gena Floro—a former foster youth whose story cracked my heart open and stitched it back together with hope. Between ages eight and eighteen, Gena was placed in 32 homes and attended 17 schools . Those aren’t just numbers; they’re 32 sets of rules, 32 beds, 32 times of being reminded she didn’t get to belong. In care, even simple choices ear piercing,...

In week two of the BEAM process, we step into evidence . Numbers can feel intimidating P&Ls, budgets, balance sheets, but evidence isn’t just the black-and-white of what comes in and what goes out. Evidence is also the story of what you’ve already overcome. Maybe you put yourself through college on next to nothing, or you found a way to save for that first big family trip, or you had the coura...

When I met Dani Malanche on the Tour du Mont Blanc, I knew right away she was someone I needed to know. We shared a few days on the trail together, and what unfolded was more than conversation, it was a lesson in courage, persistence, and what it means to live fully. Dani is a solo backpacker who has logged more than 2,000 miles, including the 800–mile Arizona Trail. But she’s also a former educat...

This week on The Courage Coalition , I had to sit with a hard question: Where do I go from here? The truth is, I was wrestling with clarity — not because I don’t have stories or lessons to share, but because sometimes the message feels heavy. Then a conversation with a prospective client reminded me of something simple but profound: we all live in cycles. The same story, the same belief, the same...

Sales often gets a bad reputation, something “sleazy” or uncomfortable that we’d rather avoid. But as my guest, bestselling author and sales coach Mandi Graziano , reminded me, we are all in sales every single day. Whether it’s a mom negotiating with her kids to get out the door, a teacher guiding students, or even a doctor helping a patient choose the best path, sales is everywhere. The differenc...

When the world gets loud, I’ve learned to choose quiet. Not the kind that avoids life, but the kind that lets me hear it. Lately the static, the shoulds, the strategies, the scroll, has blurred what matters. So I’ve been sitting with my core values: family, health, courage, faith, service, and freedom. When I get still, I can finally see what’s out of tune. For me, it’s been family, little tension...

Some conversations leave you nodding, some leave you teary, and some leave you completely rethinking the stories you’ve been carrying. My recent talk with Cristina P. Simmons , bestselling author of Eat Your Feelings , was one of those. Her story is raw, real, and full of courage, not the shiny, social media version of courage, but the kind that’s born out of grief, forgiveness, and rebuilding whe...

Time is the one resource we can’t earn back, yet it’s often the first thing we waste. We fight for our opinions, hold grudges, and defend our “right” to be right, only to realize later those things carried no real weight. When people reflect at the end of their lives, their regrets aren’t about making more money, building bigger houses, or winning more arguments. Their regrets are about time : tim...

There are moments in life when the truth is so raw, it offends the soul. That’s what this conversation with Alani Bankhead felt like,  a jolt of reality we can’t look away from. Alani has spent over 20 years in human intelligence, hunting down traffickers and protecting the vulnerable across the globe. From military operations to international investigations, she has stared into the darkest corner...

This week’s solo cast is a raw one, friend. I’m peeling back the layers and sharing what it’s been like to reintroduce myself to feel that soul-stirring nudge that something was waking up inside of me. It wasn’t loud. It wasn’t even clear. But it was present . And sometimes that’s all it takes to know we’re being called into something deeper. A woman named Anniston Riekstins came into my life thro...

There are people you meet who feel like a memory like someone you’ve known before in another chapter of your life. That’s how it was with Anniston Blair Riekstins. The first time she looked me in the eye and said, “You’re going to be amazing,” I felt an immediate connection one of those deep soul nudges you can’t ignore. This episode of The Courage Coalition with Anniston is a layered conversation...

When I first received the whisper of what would become the AwakeIn retreat, it didn’t arrive as a polished plan. It came in stillness on a quiet walk here in Montana wrapped in curiosity and conviction. I didn’t know exactly what it was yet, but I knew this: it had to be a space where women could reconnect with the truth of who they are. Not in hustle. Not in sacrifice. But in sacred stillness. Be...

There are moments on this podcast that feel less like a conversation and more like sacred space. This was one of them. Jessica Phillips sat down with me for one of the most raw, redemptive, truth-telling episodes we've had and I'm still letting it settle in my soul. Jessica is a coach, a speaker, and a woman who radiates light—but that light was hard-earned. Her story is one of deep pain...

As I sit with the weight and wonder of this month—finishing the hike, celebrating 30 years of marriage, and standing in the unfolding of a vision that once felt too big to say out loud—I keep circling back to one word: purpose . Not the Instagram version of purpose. Not the perfectly worded mission statement. But the kind that whispers through discomfort, nudges you in quiet moments, and feels lik...

There are some conversations that crack you wide open—and this one did just that. On this episode of The Courage Coalition , I had the absolute honor of sitting down with Tiffaney Childers, an accountant turned coach, speaker, and now author. But titles don’t capture her story. What does? A fierce devotion to show up in the raw grief of suicide loss, in the silent ache of chronic pain, and in the...

As we wrap up one of the most physically and emotionally demanding journeys of our lives—hiking the 100-mile Tour du Mont Blanc—I’ve been reflecting on how this all began. Not with certainty, not with a mapped-out plan, but with a quiet whisper that said, "You're not done yet." That whisper turned into Fostering the Summit, a nonprofit born not from ease but from deep listening. It...

This week’s episode of The Courage Coalition was one of those raw, real conversations I’ll be holding onto for a long time. My dear friend Andrea Sullenger joined me to share the winding, holy, and brutally honest journey of adoption—from the seed planted in her 12-year-old heart to saying yes decades later in a season that was anything but perfect. We talked about obedience, timing, and the gritt...

As you read this, we’re likely somewhere along the Tour du Mont Blanc trail—mud on our boots, breath a little short, hearts wide open. This 100-mile hike isn’t just a physical challenge or a dreamy European adventure. It’s a living metaphor for everything we believe in: the uphill battles, the false summits, the grit it takes to keep going when you're not sure what’s around the next bend. It’...