The Speakeasy

This episode continues an unexpected but timely series focused on strengthening families at the start of the year. Blake sits down with Pastor Greg Thompson, author of Fighting for Your Family, for an honest, practical conversation about marriage, parenting, and spiritual warfare.
Too often, the hardest battles feel like they're inside the home—spouses clashing, tension with kids, constant frustration. But Greg reframes the fight: your spouse and your family are not the enemy. The real shift happens when couples stop fighting each other and start standing back-to-back, fighting for their family's mission and future.
Together, they unpack:
What spiritual warfare actually looks like in everyday family life

Why humility, prayer, and "going first" matter more than being right

How fighting your own flesh changes everything

The power of encouragement, honor, and apology in marriage

Why community and the local church are essential for healthy families

If you're carrying tension from last year—or want to protect what God is building in your home—this episode offers biblical clarity and tangible next steps. Whether you're married, dating, parenting, or preparing for the future, this conversation equips you to stand firm and fight well.
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Your family is worth fighting for—together.

Download the planning PDF here!
This episode is an invitation to rethink what January is actually for. If you've felt pressure to reinvent your entire life on January 1st (or swung the other direction and rejected January altogether) this conversation lives in the middle.
Blake makes the case that January isn't meant for revamps or visible productivity. Historically and biologically, it's a hinge month: a season for taking stock, repair, learning, and quiet preparation. For most of human history, the "new year" was tied to nature and spring, not politics or calendars. That's why the urgency of January often feels off in our bodies and nervous systems.
In this episode, Blake walks through what our agrarian ancestors actually did in winter and how it applies to modern life:
Taking honest inventory of time, energy, relationships, finances, and faith

Creating margin and reducing overstimulation

Repairing what's worn down before starting something new

Letting learning, wisdom, and integration settle

Setting intentions, not rigid resolutions

Rather than goals and hustle, Blake shares her approach to choosing words, Scripture, posture, and direction for the year ahead, held with open hands. Her word for 2026 is Rooted Hope, grounded in Psalm 1 and a desire for steadiness, healing, and deep faith after a hard year.
January matters. Not as a restart, but as a foundation. This episode is about going slow, growing deep, and preparing for what's coming without forcing it..
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Happy New Year and welcome to the very first Speak Easy episode of 2026. To kick off the year, Blake dives into a topic that impacts every family—even if we avoid talking about it: healthcare.
In this episode, Blake sits down with Andy Schoonover, CEO of CrowdHealth, to unpack why so many people feel trapped in traditional health insurance, how the system actually profits, and what alternatives exist for families who want more agency, transparency, and community-driven care. Andy shares his personal breaking point with insurance denial, how cash-pay medicine exposed the cracks in the system, and why CrowdHealth was built to give people a real exit ramp.
Together, they explore rising deductibles, denied claims, negotiated medical bills, prescription costs, and why "healthcare" often feels more like "sick care." This conversation goes beyond policy—it's about autonomy, informed choices, and breaking out of systems that no longer serve us.
If you've ever asked, "What am I even paying for?" or wondered if there's another way, this episode may open a door you didn't know existed.
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Sometimes opting out is the first step toward freedom.

Welcome back to the Speakeasy Podcast—and to the very last episode of the year. To close out this season, Blake sits down with Erin Wilkins, a friend and voice she deeply trusts, to talk about something countercultural but necessary: slowing down.
Erin has walked this road just a little ahead—moving from seasons of intense advocacy, visibility, and urgency into a quieter, more intentional life rooted in peace, obedience, and presence. Together, they reflect on what it costs to stay in the fight too long, how good assignments can still have an expiration date, and why obedience doesn't always look brave to the world—but often is.
This honest, friend-to-friend conversation explores burnout, identity, motherhood, boundaries with technology, and learning to be informed without being consumed. They talk about passing the torch, protecting family rhythms, resisting urgency culture, and embracing winter as a God-designed season of rest.
If you're feeling stretched thin, conflicted about slowing down, or wondering how to end this year in a way that actually prepares you for the next, this episode is for you. Sometimes the strongest finish isn't louder or faster—it's slower, quieter, and more faithful.
"Be still, and know that I am God." – Psalm 46:10
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Merry (belated) Christmas and welcome to "dead week"—that weird, quiet stretch between Christmas and New Year when nobody knows what day it is… and honestly, it's kind of wonderful. This is the final Friday of the year, which means we're wrapping up the Ending Well series—seven weeks of looking back at 2025, redeeming the hard parts, and hunting down the goodness God planted along the way.
Today's episode is where everything comes together.
Not as separate lessons—hearing God, going a different way, pruning, embracing the ordinary, releasing usefulness, becoming the wife and woman I want to be—but as integration: when revelation becomes rhythm. When what God taught you doesn't just live in a journal… it starts living in your nervous system, your choices, your peace, and your presence.
We talk about what it means to become the same person everywhere—at home, at work, in conflict, in rest. Not the performing self, people-pleasing self, or defensive self—but the authentic self God created. The shift from constantly feeling "split" to finally feeling rooted. From Romans 7 ("why do I keep doing what I hate?") to Psalm 1—steady, nourished, bearing fruit in season.
This episode is a testimony: God is big enough to change you. To grow self-control. To cultivate peace. To help you stop showing up to every battle you're invited to—and still keep your courage when it's time to stand firm. The fire of 2025 didn't leave me untouched, but it refined me. And the fruit is showing up: steadier peace, clearer discernment, deeper roots, anchored hope, and—maybe for the first time—actually liking who I'm becoming.
If you feel stuck, scattered, or like you'll never change… come with me. The water's a little scary, but it's good.
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