Kate Milford is an Enneagram 4 who values community above all else. Kate is a travel and lifestyle photographer who travels the world capturing epic imagery for her clients and their businesses and brands. A native Floridian, Kate currently calls Denver, Colorado home but can most often be found camping and hiking in the mountains with friends or trekking the globe in search of the perfect lighting and backdrop for her latest brand production.

Sharon Hodde Miller is an Enneagram 7, wife of 14 years, mom of three kids, and the author of three books. She has a Master of Divinity and a Ph.D. in Educational Studies. She and her husband founded Bright City Church in the Raleigh/Durham area of North Carolina in 2018 and co-pastor the church together. Sharon is a passionate teacher about faith, culture, and the Bible.

Sherry Hougard is a lifelong California beach gal. She has been married for 30 years and has three adult children. She has spent the last 20 years helping women learn to tell their stories and find beauty in whatever season they are in, including the mundane moments.

Jenn Cohen and Laura Demuth are the hosts of Mighty as a Mother podcast. Both Jenn and Laura are former New Yorkers who live in Southern California. They are both millennial moms of toddlers as well as busy corporate executives in healthcare technology companies. They started their podcast with the goal of helping moms, especially moms who work outside the home, to not feel alone.

Nancy Elmore, a native Californian, lives part of the year in Southern Central Texas and part of the year on California’s Central Coast, with her husband of 50 years, Don. Since her retirement from her job as a hospital nurse executive in 2002, Nancy has worked enthusiastically to provide educational scholarships for women and veterans. Family and friends are the focal point of Nancy’s life – when she and Don aren’t with their great-grandchildren and greater family, they’re living life with friends, new and old.

Diane Ward is a lifelong California beach gal. She is Mom to four and Grandma to 10 and loves every minute that she gets with her family. Diane has had a lifetime passion for clothes and has been helping women look and feel their best since the 1960s, including the last 18 years as a fashion stylist with cabi. She has served and advocated for the children of San Luis Obispo County as a school board member since 1989, and has volunteered for multiple other worthy causes, most recently as a Chaplain for a Tenet Health hospital.

Instead of waiting for the end of the year to talk about my favorite books, I decided, for this episode of Courage Becomes Her, to share the best books I read in the first half of 2023.

I talk about the memoirs, self-care, soul-care, and personal growth books that have been life-giving to me this year. I also share about some of the changes in my reading practices, why I read the genres that I do, why I don’t read fiction, and how I choose what to read.

In this episode of Courage Becomes Her, Laurel Emory talks about her birthday traditions and the outcome of one of her traditions being the recognition that she is being called to have courage in seven specific ways and areas.