MEET

Dr. Rod

The CEO and Founder of Chief Empowerment Network, LLC, Dr. Rod is dedicated to the wellness of each and every teen/adult with whom he interacts. He was born to a 15-year-old mother in the housing projects of Jacksonville, FL, and his 19-year-old father passed away two-weeks before his birth.

Dr. Rod joined the Air Force where he discovered his love for leading and mentoring others. He rose to the Senior Executive Leader position of Chief Master Sergeant (E-9), the top 1% of the enlisted corps.

NEW 2026 — ELEVATE YOUR MONEY MINDSET: Breaking Free from Financial Trauma

A Guide and Workbook for College Students

By Dr. Roderick C. Cunningham and Valerie N. Cunningham

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About the Book

Financial success begins long before you create a budget. It begins with your mindset.

Why do some students experience overwhelming anxiety about money, even when their finances are stable? Why do others struggle with impulsive spending, financial avoidance, or the belief that they will never achieve financial security?

The answer may lie in financial trauma, inherited money beliefs, and emotional experiences that shape financial decisions.

In ELEVATE Your Money Mindset: Breaking Free from Financial Trauma, Dr. Roderick C. Cunningham and Valerie N. Cunningham take college students beyond traditional financial literacy to explore the powerful connection between emotional wellness, mindset, and financial behavior.

Building upon their acclaimed ELEVATE series, the authors introduce an interactive, trauma-informed approach that helps students understand how their past financial experiences influence their present decisions and how they can begin creating a healthier financial future.

What Students Will Discover

• Recognize Financial Trauma: Identify how childhood experiences, financial instability, shame, and family money patterns influence financial behavior.

• Understand Your Financial Emotional Bucket: Discover how unresolved financial pain can contribute to overspending, avoidance, anxiety, and self-sabotage.

• Develop a Growth Money Mindset: Replace limiting beliefs with empowering perspectives that . encourage financial confidence and personal responsibility.

• Rewrite Inherited Money Scripts: Recognize unconscious financial beliefs passed down through families and develop healthier financial habits.

• Strengthen Financial Wellness: Apply the F7 Financial Wellness Framework, integrating Faith, Family, Finances, Fitness, Friendships, Fun, and Frequency.

• Master Practical Money Skills: Learn strategies for budgeting, saving, managing debt, preparing for emergencies, and making purpose-driven financial decisions.

•Break Generational Financial Cycles: Develop the awareness, resilience, and actionable strategies needed to create a different financial legacy.

More Than a Book. An Interactive Financial Wellness Experience.

Unlike traditional financial literacy books that focus primarily on numbers, ELEVATE Your Money Mindset addresses the person behind the financial decisions.

Featuring a structured two-hour seminar workbook, 15 in-depth chapters, self-assessments, relatable scenarios, reflection exercises, affirmations, and actionable financial strategies, this resource is designed for both individual learning and facilitated college seminars.

An Essential Resource for Colleges and Universities

Ideal for college orientations, first-year experience programs, student success initiatives, financial aid departments, counseling and wellness centers, and financial literacy programs.

This workbook provides educators and student support professionals with a practical resource for helping students build healthier relationships with money, strengthen financial decision-making, and prepare for life beyond graduation.

Your financial past may have shaped you, but it does not have to determine your financial future.

ELEVATE Your Money Mindset Today!

In these Revolutionary College Success Workbooks, Your Students and Staff will Discover:

How to build their emotional strength using the 5 Steps to Emotional Wellness

How to make positive decisions by managing and reducing stress, anxiety, anger, and sadness

How to increase their GPA and graduate on-time or help others to achieve these results.

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About the Book

CLIMB is a set of strategies designed to help the reader out of emotional isolation. This workbook offers five transformational steps that empower the reader to take action in the present so they can own their future and ultimately fulfill their life’s purpose.

PURPOSE AND NEED: This workbook serves as a coaching tool to help teens and adults face unresolved issues or past hurts that often keep them from living their best life. Whether the past hurt stems from parental abandonment, loss of a loved one, trauma/abuse, or rejection/bullying, a person cannot overcome what they refuse to confront. When you haven’t been given the tools to properly confront the pain of the past, it often leads to negative behavior such as alcoholism, marijuana use, gambling, or sexual promiscuity (which leads to teenage pregnancy). Unresolved emotional pain can also manifest itself in non-violent ways such as eating disorders, being consistently withdrawn, excessive gaming, tobacco usage and listening to explicit music, all of which can negatively impact your most important relationships, which impacts your future.

ELEVATE: Mastering Mindset, Emotional/Financial Wellness, & Self-Care

How to build their emotional strength using the 5 Steps to Emotional Wellness

How to make positive decisions by managing and reducing stress, anxiety, anger, and sadness

How to increase their GPA and graduate on-time or help others to achieve these results.

Buy Book

About the Book

"Elevate: Mastering Mindset, Emotional/Financial Wellness, & Self-Care" is an indispensable Success Workbook for college students crafted by the acclaimed authors Dr. Roderick and Valerie Cunningham. Building on the foundation of their successful books, "CLIMB" and "CLIMB II," this new guide dives deeper into the essential aspects of thriving in college beyond the classroom.

This workbook is meticulously designed to guide students through mastering their mindset, enhancing their emotional resilience, and understanding financial wellness—all intertwined with effective self-care strategies. It covers crucial topics such as developing a growth mindset, managing stress, budgeting and financial planning, cultivating healthy relationships, and prioritizing mental and physical health.

Through interactive exercises, real-life case studies, and actionable tips, "Elevate" equips students with the tools to navigate the complex college environment successfully. It encourages self-reflection and practical application, making it a vital resource for any college student aiming to achieve holistic success.

Ideal for college orientations, counseling centers, and student success programs, "Elevate" promises to transform the college experience by empowering students to take control of their personal growth and well-being, ensuring they not only survive but thrive throughout their college years and beyond.

ELEVATE FOR VETERANS

Mastering Mindset, Emotional/Financial Wellness, and Self-Care

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About the Book

ELEVATE FOR VETERANS transforms military discipline into civilian success through proven wellness strategies. Written by retired USAF Chief Master Sergeant Dr. Roderick C. Cunningham, this guide addresses the reality veterans face when comprehensive military support systems disappear overnight.

The Challenge

Military service provides total life support: guaranteed paychecks, automatic healthcare, built-in community, structured fitness, and clear purpose. When you separate, this entire ecosystem vanishes. You must rebuild every life system: housing, healthcare, finances, social connections, meaningful purpose…often without understanding what you've lost until crisis hits.

Traditional transition advice fails because it ignores the psychological impact of losing institutional support while processing military experiences civilian advisors cannot understand.

The Solution

Dr. Cunningham developed veteran-specific frameworks combining 29 years of Air Force leadership with extensive transition research:

The Emotional Bucket System processes military experiences sabotaging civilian success through five proven methods: spirituality, forgiveness, counseling, purpose, and creative expression.

The F7 Neuro Mindset Method rebuilds comprehensive life support through Faith, Family, Finances, Fitness, Friendships, Fun, and Frequency; replacing military institutional support with personally-owned systems.

Additional frameworks cover financial security, VA compensation maximization, relationship repair, career alignment, and smart entrepreneurship decisions protecting family stability.

Practical Implementation

Each chapter provides assessments, exercises, and action plans designed specifically for veteran psychology. Approaches are evidence-based, tested with hundred of veterans, and focused on measurable outcomes.

Keynotes | Interviews | Seminars | Panel Discussions

Full Speech: 1-Hour Video

Black Brown College Bound Summit Hillsborough Community College

CLIENTS

#1 Largest community college in the nation (Miami Dade College)

#3 Largest school district

in the nation

(Miami-Dade Public Schools)

One of the most respected Healthcare Systems in the World (The Johns Hopkins Hospital)

About Dr. Rod

As a mental/emotional wellness educator, he has participated in 100's of panels, spoken to over 40,000 youth, parents, and community leaders, and was called upon by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA-Tampa) to educate 21 Florida counties on the dangers of opioids and its direct correlation with mental and emotional wellness. He is the former Vice President of the Pinellas County Urban League where he worked on Poverty Reduction with a heavy focus on mental/emotional wellness. Additionally, he is a former member of the U.S. Congressional Military Selection Board for the 5 Military Service Academies.

Dr. Rod has been called upon multiple times to deliver keynote speeches on Self-Care for healthcare professionals for one of the largest and most respected hospitals in the nation.

Dr. Rod customizes every presentation and seminar. His workbooks and programs use EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICES. Dr. Rod authored two books on emotional wellness, one book on parenting, and mentors 150 boys in 3 different youth programs monthly. Additionally, he is a former Board Member for nine schools, representing 9,000 youth.

Dr. Rod started this work over 10 years ago to be a caring, communicative haven for people of all ages to address their emotional pain. When Rod isn't using his magic touch to ease emotional pain of college students, he's attending classes and conferences to implement the most innovative practices and technologies to address students' needs.

Video Testimonials

SPEECH TITLES

COLLEGES | ASSOCIATIONS |

CORPORATIONS | CONVENTIONS

Dr. Rod's Mindset Speeches are designed to inspire, motivate, and equip participants with essential tools for navigating the challenges of today's world.

Our engaging and impactful speeches and seminars are centered around three crucial topics:

Emotional Wellness | Self-Care | Mindfulness

Speeches:

1. "Prioritizing Self-Care and Building Resilience for Personal and Professional Success"

2. "Embracing Change"

3. "Using Mindfulness and Vibration to Hit Your Sales Goal"

4. "It's OK, Not to Be OK"