Courage Is Something You Practice
What if courage isn’t something you have to find before you make the hard decision? After a year of conversations with leaders, entrepreneurs, authors, and people willing to question their own definitions of success, Dr. J.J. Peterson has come to see courage differently. It isn’t the absence of fear or a personality trait some people are born with. It’s something you practice—and sometimes the people you surround yourself with make the next brave thing possible.
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A year ago, Dr. J.J. Peterson launched Badass Softie with more questions than answers.
What if nobody listened? What if people thought the idea was stupid? What if he invested time, money, and energy into something that went nowhere? Underneath all of those questions was an even more uncomfortable one: Who am I to do this?
Those aren't unusual questions when you're attempting something that matters. But they're easy to mistake for evidence that you're not ready yet. We imagine brave people don't have these doubts, or that confidence eventually arrives and quiets them.
A year of Badass Softie has convinced Peterson of something different. Brave people ask those questions, too. They just don't always let fear make the decision for them.
That idea has surfaced again and again through conversations about business, leadership, visibility, identity, relationships, and success. Taken individually, those conversations explored very different subjects. Together, they point toward a different understanding of courage—and of what it means to be ambitious without losing what makes us human.
Courage Doesn't Always Mean Pushing Forward
Persistence gets a lot of praise in business, and for good reason. Building something worthwhile usually requires continuing long after the excitement of starting has worn off. But persistence can become stubbornness when sticking to the original plan becomes more important than accomplishing what you actually set out to do.
In his conversation with Ali Trowbridge, Peterson was struck by the distinction between being committed to a mission and being committed to a plan. Sometimes the brave thing is persistence. Other times, it's admitting the approach isn't working, changing the plan, and asking for help.
Trowbridge also talked about what happened when things became difficult and, rather than hiding the struggle or shame, she invited other people in. That's another version of courage that doesn't always get celebrated in business: admitting you don't have everything figured out and allowing someone else to help you find the way forward.
The same idea showed up differently in Peterson's conversation with Allison Fallon. They talked about authenticity and what happens when the life you're living begins to feel like somebody else's version of success. A business can grow. Opportunities can multiply. From the outside, everything can look like it's working—and the person living that life can still know something is wrong.
In those moments, courage may not require doing more. It may require paying attention to yourself and being willing to say, This isn't working anymore. I don't actually want this.
Jen Hatmaker offered an even more dramatic example. Their conversation explored what it takes to change a very public life and make choices that allow you to come back to yourself. Sometimes the brave choice is the one that makes the least sense to everyone watching from the outside.
Courage, then, isn't synonymous with forward motion. It can look like continuing, stopping, changing direction, or letting go. The harder leadership skill is recognizing what the moment actually requires.
Visibility Requires Vulnerability
Courage also shows up in the decision to let yourself be seen.
Peterson has spent much of his career communicating publicly, yet launching something under his own name felt different. Badass Softie meant putting his ideas, questions, money, reputation, and even a phrase he wasn't entirely sure people would take seriously out into the world.
His conversation with Heather Adams helped him reconsider what that kind of visibility means. Putting yourself out there doesn't have to come from a desire for attention. If you have something that might genuinely help someone, allowing yourself to be seen can be an act of generosity.
But generosity doesn't eliminate the risk. The moment people can see you, they can also judge you.
“You don't get visibility without vulnerability,” Peterson reflected.
That's the bargain. Leaders with something useful to contribute can't control how everyone will respond. Waiting until there's no possibility of criticism usually means waiting forever.
The courageous choice is not convincing yourself that nobody will judge you. It's deciding that what you have to contribute matters enough to risk being judged.
Sometimes Safety Is What Makes People Braver
We tend to picture courage as an individual act: one determined person standing alone against the world.
But many of the conversations from the first year of Badass Softie suggest the opposite. Courage is often relational. The people around us can change what we're willing to attempt.
In his conversation with Matt Turner, Peterson explored the consequences leaders create far beyond the office. People don't leave their experience of work behind when they close their laptop or drive home. Feeling invisible, anxious, or constantly on guard follows them. So does feeling trusted, challenged, supported, and cared for.
Creating psychological safety doesn't mean removing conflict or protecting people from every difficult experience. Sometimes safety is precisely what allows people to take bigger risks.
Peterson recognized the same dynamic in his own life in his solo episode about his dad. One of the greatest gifts his father gave him was the knowledge that someone was on his side. His dad wasn't going to prevent every failure or rescue him from every bad decision. Peterson simply knew he had somewhere safe to land.
Strangely enough, that safety created independence.
Knowing there was somewhere he belonged made him braver about going out into the world.
That may be one of the most important tensions inside the idea of being a Badass Softie. Softness and strength aren't necessarily opposing forces. Sometimes the softie part is exactly what makes the badass part possible.
Great leaders don't merely ask people to be brave. They help create environments in which people become brave enough to try.
Business Is Still Human
Not every lesson from the past year was about a dramatic decision. Some were reminders that small human choices still matter, particularly in a business culture increasingly fascinated by scale and optimization.
Will Guidara gave Peterson one of the simplest ideas he carried forward from the year: never let a gracious impulse pass.
Most people know that moment. Someone comes to mind and there's an impulse to call them. A colleague does something worth recognizing. You think about sending a note, offering encouragement, making an introduction, or simply telling someone what they mean to you.
Then comes the hesitation. It might feel awkward. You're busy. You can always do it later.
Guidara's challenge is to stop negotiating with the impulse and act on it. Peterson has found himself remembering those words when his own instinct is to shrink away from one of those moments.
That same commitment to humanity surfaced in his conversations with Kris Jones and Raj Lulla about marketing and business.
Jones talked about having the courage to get specific about whom you want to serve rather than trying to be everything to everyone. Lulla challenged the growing tendency to make marketing about tactics, algorithms, and pleasing what Peterson jokingly calls the “digital gods.”
Those conversations return business to something remarkably simple: there are human beings underneath all of it.
Generosity matters. Trust matters. Making someone feel seen matters. Being genuinely useful matters.
None of that sounds particularly revolutionary. But in a world increasingly obsessed with automation, AI, optimization, and scale, choosing to remain deeply human may be becoming a little revolutionary.
Courage Is Something You Practice
Looking back, these conversations aren't really seven or ten separate lessons. They're different expressions of one larger idea.
Courage keeps showing up.
Sometimes it's changing the plan. Sometimes it's telling yourself the truth about what success means to you. Sometimes it's allowing yourself to be seen, asking for help, having a difficult conversation, acting on a generous impulse, or creating enough safety for someone else to take a risk.
And none of those things require fear to disappear first.
Peterson points to research from Peter Norton and Brandon Weiss that defines courage as approaching something despite experiencing fear. That distinction matters because people often treat fear as a stop sign. They tell themselves they'll start when they're more confident, ask when they're more certain of the answer, or put something into the world when they know it will work.
But courage isn't the absence of fear. It's movement in the presence of it.
That means courage and bravery are less like identities and more like practices.
Every time you do something while your brain is supplying a thousand reasons not to, you gain another piece of evidence about yourself: I did that. I survived that. Maybe I can do the next thing.
That doesn't mean every scary thing is worth doing. Fear is useful. Sometimes it's correctly telling you to get out of a situation.
Other times, fear appears because you're getting close to something that matters.
Love can be scary. Vulnerability can be scary. Starting something can be scary. Ending something can be scary. Telling the truth and allowing yourself to be seen can be scary. Asking for what you want can be scary.
Sometimes the only way to discover who you can become is to move toward one of those things before you know exactly how it will turn out.
Badass Softie itself became an experiment in exactly that.
Peterson didn't know whether people would listen or even exactly what Badass Softie would become. He started anyway. A year later, the questions haven't disappeared, but he's no longer the same person who asked them. The conversations changed him. The people around him changed. His thinking changed.
Doing the brave thing didn't require becoming fearless first.
Doing it became part of how courage was built.
You Don't Have to Practice Courage Alone
There is one more idea connecting the past year: courage is rarely as individual as it looks.
Trowbridge talked about inviting people into the struggle. Turner showed how safety can change what people become capable of. Peterson's father gave him somewhere safe to land. Adams connected visibility with vulnerability. Again and again, the people around us became part of what made the next brave thing possible.
“Sometimes courage looks like saying, ‘I don't know what to do next. Will you sit with me while I figure this out?’” Peterson said.
For the past year, Badass Softie has given him the opportunity to do exactly that: sit across from people, ask questions he genuinely wanted answered, challenge his own assumptions, and let other people's experiences change his thinking.
Now he's building the room where other leaders can do the same.
On October 9 in Nashville, Peterson will join previous Badass Softie guests Julie Firth and Sonya Whittam for Become the Obvious Choice, a one-day intensive for business owners and leaders who are ready to put real decisions, challenges, and opportunities in front of people who understand what it means to build and lead.
The idea behind the event is simple: the quality of the room changes the quality of your thinking.
This isn't a day designed around sitting in rows and collecting more information. Participants will bring the things they're actually wrestling with—the decision they've been thinking circles around, the challenge they're too close to see clearly, or the idea that needs outside perspective—and work through them with experienced people who can question assumptions, share what they've learned, and help identify practical next steps.
Because sometimes practicing courage means starting before you know whether it will work. Sometimes it means changing direction, letting yourself be seen, asking for what you want, or finally saying out loud that you don't know what to do next.
And sometimes the next brave thing is putting yourself in a room where you don't have to figure it out alone.
If that's where you are right now, maybe you don't need another answer from the internet. Maybe you need the right room.
Learn more and apply to join Become the Obvious Choice in Nashville on October 9.
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Courage Is Something You Practice
[00:00:00] One Year of Badass Softie
Dr. JJ Peterson | Host Badass Softie: This episode is kind of special for me because Badass Softie is one year old.
Welcome to Badass Softie, a podcast for leaders who are unapologetically ambitious and want to lead with heart because you're allowed to chase big goals without losing what makes you human. I'm your host, Dr. JJ Peterson, and, um, this episode is a little bit special for me because Badass Softie is one year old today.
Which is, oh, it's kinda crazy to say. I mean, I get a little teary saying that. And 90% of podcasts don't make it to year one, 90%. And you know what? We did it, guys. We made it. And I'm so grateful and so honored, uh, that you would join me in this journey. And for me, I've, I, I've learned over the years that it's so important to kind of just, when there are moments, uh, I, I call them moments of demarcation, moments to just pause and reflect on what has happened, celebrate that, mourn the things that didn't go the way you thought, and then also look forward to the future and dream about what could be.
You know, when we were in school, we had these kind of moments. You know, at the end of a school year, you know, whether you got an A or an F, the year was done, right? It was over. You kind of marked a moment, and then you moved on. And then as we become adults, y- you don't really have those same moments. I mean, there are seasons, and you know, New Years and all that stuff, but often we're just kind of rushing through life, and we don't take moments to just pause and reflect, celebrate, mourn, and then move forward.
And that's what I kinda want to do today. So today we are going to be doing a little bit of kind of personal reflection on this past year, looking back at some of the highlights from the interviews, and also share some exciting things that are coming in the Badass Softie world. So thank you for being here, and here we go.
When I launched Badass Softie, uh, you know, a year ago, it really was for a couple of reasons. The first was I had spent the past 10 years working for StoryBrand and was very identified with that brand and with Donald Miller. I mean, I was the head of StoryBrand. And I absolutely loved my time there, and I loved Don, but I was wanting to build something with a separate identity that was on my own.
And, and no shade to StoryBrand. In fact, I still work with StoryBrand a lot. I, I have a title. Uh, my title there is now Professor in Residence, which means, uh, I do some teaching and curriculum and webinars and writing with the staff, but uh, I don't have to show up to any meetings. And so I'm still involved with StoryBrand, but I really wanted to build something of my own.
And Because I had been in that space and was so identified with it, I really didn't want it to just be a copycat, just another marketing podcast, another marketing business. I wanted it to have my own voice And that's another reason I, I kind of wanted to, in many ways, rediscover my own voice. I had been working with StoryBrand and carrying that voice for so long that I kind of wanted to get back to what, what's the voice of Dr. JJ?
[00:03:35] Can You Be Ambitious and Still Have a Soul?
Dr. JJ Peterson | Host Badass Softie: So the second reason I wanted to do this podcast is because I wanted to have conversations with people around this tension that I often felt between feeling like I had to choose between being ambitious and doing big things and losing parts of myself. Because I think for all of us in business, we always have these tensions of trying to figure out, like, how do I do this and this?
And I'm looking at all these other people, and I'm like, "But what's my voice? What's my voice in leadership? Who do I wanna be?" And I wanted to learn from people. And I had been, you know, for the past 10 years, around some of the most successful brands and successful thought leaders in the world. I mean, I've worked with Microsoft, uh, Tempur-Sealy, Berkshire Hathaway, Certified Angus Beef, the U.S.
Olympic Committee, and a, a whole bunch of New York Times belles- best-selling authors, and even more and more and more brands. I mean, hundreds of, and really thousands of brands. And I learned so much from them, and I was so inspired to do bigger things and have a greater influence, especially by these huge brands.
And what they do works for them, but when I tried to be exactly like them, what I found is it not only didn't fit for me, but it actually didn't feel good. I felt misaligned a lot of times when I was trying to be like other people. And I, I say that without any judgment, that great companies, great leaders.
But when I tried to do it exactly like them, it didn't work for me. And so I felt like a lot of times, well, maybe I don't belong at these tables. And if you've ever felt this tension, which I imagine you do, which is why you're still hanging out on this podcast, then I, I think you know what I'm talking about.
You know, because whether it's true or not, often in business it feels like in order to be ambitious, you have to be a little bit cutthroat, that in order to do big things, you have to be willing to potentially step on other people or, you know, just think about the bottom line, or building something great means willing to sacrifice other areas of your life.
And I, I know these feel like extreme statements, and very few people actually kind of own up to having those thoughts, but I think it's a real tension that a lot of people live in, that in order to succeed in life and do big things, you have to sacrifice part of your humanity or who you are, that you can be successful or you can have a soul, you can be driven or you can be soft, or you can be powerful or you can be kind.
And I, I, I just didn't think that was true, and I knew I was tired of the idea that somehow we have to choose And I wanted to have conversations with people who seem to be living in the middle of those things, because those people are out there, and I have worked with many of them, and they exist. So I wanted to learn from them.
That's why I started this podcast. 'Cause there were people who were building and creating things, and leading people, and taking risks, but were also such cool and amazing people . And they were the most human humans I know, right? And selfishly, I wanted to figure out some of this for myself, 'cause I really did.
I want to be a more... I wanna be more of a badass softie. So what actually makes someone a badass softie? I, I, I still don't think I have a definitive answer, but after a year of conversations, I, I do think I know more than I did. That's why I've talked to people who are therapists, to help me understand how to understand ourselves a little bit more.
I've talked to authors, who are bringing new and inspiring thinking to the world. I've talked with marketers and PR professionals who are getting the message out there, but in a way that doesn't feel slimy. And through it all, I've had so many conversations with people who have made me feel less alone, and I think that's the community we're building here.
It's been so fun, and, and if I'm honest, it's not always been easy. Sometimes it has been work. But the biggest thing was, just getting started, to be very honest. Starting this podcast scared, excuse my language, but it, it scared the shit out of me. Which might sound a bit ridiculous, because I've hosted podcasts before.
I've spent most of my career on stages or in classrooms or teaching people how to communicate. Uh, talking into a microphone is not new to me, but this felt different and new because it was my name on it, my ideas, my questions, uh, my money, my investment, and my weird little phrase, badass softie, that I was asking people to take seriously.
There's no other company or, I, I, I have people who will work with me on this, but there's nobody kind of standing behind me saying, "This is us." And there were all of these questions when I was getting started that showed up that so often show up when you're trying something new that actually matters to you.
You know, the questions that I was asking were, well, what if nobody listens? W- what if people think it's stupid or I'm stupid? What if I spend all this money and time and energy on something that goes nowhere, it has no impact, and doesn't matter? And maybe the scariest question of all was, who am I to do this?
Or who do I think I am to do this? The world doesn't need just another podcast, so who am I to bring this into the world?
[00:09:18] What Brave People Do With Fear
Dr. JJ Peterson | Host Badass Softie: And I, I, I think we often imagine brave people don't ask these kind of questions. But after this year and all these conversations, I'm increasingly convinced that brave people ask all of them.
They just don't always let those questions or fear make the decisions for them One of the gifts of doing this show has been getting to sit across from people I admire and ask questions I genuinely want answers to. And when I look back across these conversations, there are a few things that I keep seeing.
The first thing is really that being a badass softie requires knowing what matters enough to risk something for it. I think about my conversation with Ali Trowbridge, and one of the things that we talked about was the difference between being committed to a mission and being committed to a plan. These are not the same things.
You know, sometimes the brave thing is persistence, to keep going even in the midst of the questions. Sometimes the brave thing is admitting the thing you were so certain would work isn't working and you have to change the plan and ask for help. You let people see that you don't have it all figured out.
Ali talked about the role community played when things were getting hard, and instead of hiding the struggle or the shame, she invited people in. And I loved that, and it, in this year I have found that with this community. There have been so many p- of you who have... I, I ran into somebody even at the 4th of July celebration in my hometown in Oregon who stopped me and said, "Your podcast," named a specific podcast, "changed the way that I think about things."
And then the other day I had breakfast with, uh, somebody who said, "When I heard your podcast with Ali Fallon, I went and immediately bought that book and it's changed my life." This community has come together and even inspired me. I, I think we often think of courage as this individual thing, that there's like this lone person standing against the world.
But I don't think most courage actually looks like that. Sometimes courage looks like saying, "I don't know what to do next. Will you sit with me while I figure this out?" And allowing other people to come speak into your life in a way that allows you to keep going when things get hard.
[00:11:42] Visibility Requires Vulnerability
Dr. JJ Peterson | Host Badass Softie: Sometimes the softie part is what makes being the badass part possible I think about my conversation with Heather Adams, who of course I adore.
I adore everybody. That's been the funnest part about this. I have loved everybody I've had conversations with. But with Heather, we talked about publicity and putting yourself out there. And, you know, especially with this podcast, this one hits pretty close to home because I don't love self-promotion. I don't particularly enjoy social media, I don't love pitching myself, and there are parts of it that can feel, uh, performative to me.
But Heather really helped me think about visibility differently, that putting yourself out there doesn't have to be about wanting attention. Sometimes you step into the spotlight because you have this thing that might actually help people. There is generosity in letting yourself be seen, and there is bravery in it, too, because the moment you let yourself be seen, you also give people the opportunity to judge you.
That's the deal. But you, you don't get visibility without vulnerability. And I think it's so important to understand that getting out there isn't about getting attention, it's about being vulnerable, and again, reminding people, you're not alone in this. I think about Ali Fallon, who I mentioned, and our conversation about authenticity and about paying attention to yourself and about what happens when the life you're living starts to feel like somebody else's version of success.
To be able to come back to yourself, that takes courage, too, and there are times when brave things isn't, isn't doing something more, it's telling yourself the truth that this isn't working and I, I don't want this anymore. And the thing that looks incredibly successful from the outside does not feel like success to me, and having the courage to listen to that.
Uh, I, I think about Matt Turner from last week's episode and our conversation about work, that we spend an enormous portion of our lives working, and yet so many people experience work as something they simply have to survive. What Matt reminded me is that leadership has consequences far beyond the office.
The environment you create around people goes home with them. If people feel safe all day, that goes home with them. If they feel invisible all day, that goes home with them. But the opposite is true. When people feel trusted and challenged and cared for, when they know somebody is for them, that changes what becomes possible.
And that idea connects with something I even talked about with one of my solo episodes with my dad. One of the greatest gifts my dad gave me was the sense that he was on my side. Not that I would never fail, not that he would rescue me from every bad decision, just that I had somewhere safe to land. And strangely, that safety gave me the independence.
It, it made me braver. And I go out into the world because I, I, I knew that- There was somewhere I belonged when I came home. Maybe that is part of being a badass softie too, that we create safety for everybody, that they become brave enough to leave and go do the thing. And speaking of bravery, I loved my conversation with Jen Hatmaker about her being brave enough to change everything in her life, to blow it all up, a very public life, and actually do the things that, uh, got her back to being herself.
And it, it actually... The reason I kinda laughed about it, 'cause it was a very serious conversation, but it was also my favorite laugh of this past year on the podcast when I shared with her about how my youth pastor told my youth group that if we liked AC/DC, it was a secret signal that you were bisexual, because AC/DC meant you would go both ways.
And speaking of favorite moments, my, my f- probably another favorite m- m- the thing that sticks with me the most really was from my conversation with Will Guidara, where he told me to never let a gracious impulse pass. And there have been moments since then that all of a sudden I have a thought about somebody, that I'm gonna write them, call them, say something, and I, my instinct is to shrink in that moment, and instead, because of Will's words, I lean in and I don't let that moment pass.
[00:16:05] Business Is Still Human
Dr. JJ Peterson | Host Badass Softie: And then some really practical conversations, like the ones I had with Chris Jones and Raj Lulla about business and marketing, they reminded me of something I think we desperately need right now. Business is still human. Marketing is still human. Leadership is still human. Chris talked about the courage to get specific about what you want and serve instead of trying to be everything to everyone.
And Raj talked about how marketing has become about tactics and algorithms and trying to please the digital gods, and how easy it is to forget that underneath all of that, we are actual human beings. Generosity matters. Trust matters. Making someone feel seen matters. Being useful matters. That might not be revolutionary, but in a world obsessed with scale and automation and AI and optimization, choosing to be deeply human starts to feel a little revolutionary And I think that may be one of the biggest things that I've learned this year.
Being a badass softie is not about finding some perfect balance between being hard and soft. It's about knowing what each moment requires. Sometime love requires tenderness, and sometimes love requires a difficult conversation. Sometimes ambition means charging ahead, and then sometimes ambition means changing directions.
Sometimes courage means standing on a stage, and sometimes courage means admitting you are scared. Sometimes being a badass softie means fighting for what you believe in, and sometimes being a badass means letting someone else help you. All of these conversations have been so impactful for me, and if you didn't get a chance to hear some of these, go back and listen.
[00:17:53] Courage Is Something You Practice
Dr. JJ Peterson | Host Badass Softie: They're all there the past year I think through it all, if I'm, if I really think back on all of it, as I listen to myself even recount these conversations, I think the biggest thing of all for me is that I'm learning to be brave enough to just do the damn thing. Because doing brave things changes us.
And I started thinking about this because of this, starting this podcast itself, I was scared to do it. And then I did it. And now a year later, I am not the same person who started it. These conversations have changed me. I have a bigger tribe. I have more information. I have more support. I have more, uh, challenges.
Sure, they didn't go away, but I have more opportunities than ever before. And when I look back, it was all still scary. It, and yet having the courage to actually do it and put it out there changed me as well. There's a definition of courage from researchers Peter Norton and Brandon Weiss that I really like.
Mm-hmm. They describe courage as approaching something despite experiencing fear. It's really, it, it's not, w- when, courage is not the absence of fear. It's moving forward in light of fear, and I love that distinction because I think a lot of us are waiting for fear to disappear. We tell ourselves, "When I feel more confident, I'm gonna do it.
When stuff settles down, I'm gonna do it. When I know it's gonna work better, I'll start it. When I know people will say yes, I'll ask. When I know I won't embarrass myself, I'll put it out there." And I don't know about you, but I feel this all the time. We think brave people somehow feel less fear than the rest of us.
They don't, unless you're a psycho. But they don't feel less fear. They've just learned that being afraid doesn't have to be the thing that makes the decision for us. What this means is that courage and bravery are less an identity and more of a practice, right? People are not just they are brave or not brave.
Courage and bravery are a practice. You do something while your brain is telling you you are, there are thousands of reasons not to. And afterwards, you have a new piece of evidence about yourself. I did that. I survived that. Maybe I can do the next thing. And I wanna be careful because I don't believe that really every scary thing is worth doing.
In fact, fear can be useful. Fear can protect us, and there are times when fear is telling you to get the hell out of there, and you should listen. But There are other times when fear shows up because you are getting close to something that matters. Love can be scary. Vulnerability can be scary. Starting something new is scary.
Ending something can be so scary. Telling the truth is scary, and being seen is scary. Here's a big one for me: asking for what you want and going for it is scary. And I'm starting to believe that sometimes the only way to discover who you can become is to move towards one of those things before you know exactly how it's gonna turn out.
That is what this podcast has been for me. I, I didn't know if people would listen. I didn't even really know what Badass Softie would become. I, I didn't, if I'm honest, know what Badass Softie meant, but it was a journey of discovery. I just knew there was something here that I wanted to explore, and then something beautiful happened.
People listened. You sent episodes to friends. You wrote me. You told me about conversations that mattered to you. Uh, guests said yes, and I made new friends. I learned those thing, new things, and those conversations changed me. So a year later, I, I don't feel like I've finished defining what a Badass Softie is.
In fact, I, I hope I never will. I wanna keep learning. But I understand it a little bit differently now. I think it's about having the courage to care, to want something, to risk something, to be ambitious without making ambition your god, to be kind without confusing kindness with weakness, to stay open, to let yourself be seen, to make safe places for other people so we all feel a little less alone And maybe most importantly, to do it all imperfectly and with a little bit of fear.
[00:22:45] Putting Your Next Big Decision in the Right Room
Dr. JJ Peterson | Host Badass Softie: Which actually brings me to now what's coming next, the next scary thing that I'm actually launching into in this Badass Softie world.
After a year of sitting across from people and having these conversations, I want to create more spaces where more of us can have them together, not from a stage, not from a screen, not from podcasting, which I'm gonna continue to do. If any of this sounded like I was like, "And so I'm quitting Badass Softie," that's not happening.
This is still going. But I wanna create some place where we can actually do this together in a room, phones down, looking each other eye to eye. And so this fall, I am launching an event for the first time with some dear and like-minded friends who are incredible humans, but also so badass. I'm hosting my first event in this space with my friends Julie Firth and Sonia Widham from Sony- Story 22.
You've heard them on the podcast. And it's gonna happen October 9th here in Nashville. We are bringing together a small group of business owners, leaders, consultants, and marketers for a day that we're calling Become the Obvious Choice. It's about building your business in a way that makes people wanna choose working with you, making it obvious, you know, uh, and being a little ambitious about that 'cause I, I think for many of us who are in business and have our own business or are running teams, you know, it can...
Business and leadership can often feel like a lonely place where you have to make a lot of decisions in a silo. But this room on October 9th i- is gonna be full of people who are going through what you're going through, and they are gifted at what they do, and we are coming together to link arms in a generous way that makes us all better.
We wanna grow our business, and we wanna have a greater impact, but there are days when we're so close to our business that we can't see the forest through the trees, and we need outside perspective from people who can help us see a new way of doing things, who are going through what we've gone through and maybe are even further ahead than us, where we can come together and overcome specific challenges that are holding us back and challenge each other to actually just do the damn thing.
Because one of the things that I've become even more convinced of this year is that the quality of the room changes the quality of your thinking. And I wanna build some really good rooms with people who all challenge each other to be a little bit more badass without losing the softie. And that's what this first event is really all about.
Um, we're gonna talk about marketing, and messaging, and hospitality, and customer service, product creation, identify areas that you might be holding you back, and create strategies, actual practical strategies for moving forward. Plus, it, it's in Nashville, so of course we're gonna have some good music.
We're gonna have some good food. And because this is our first event, we wanna keep it intimate. And so we want people who are actually coming to participate and share from their experience, as well as come with some problems that they can get help with. So we're limiting the number of attendees, and these spots are already, 'cause we've already started talking about it with a few friends who are coming, uh, they're filling up.
If this sounds like something you wanna be a part of, if you've enjoyed this podcast, if you really are in the same space and like, "I wanna be a ro- in a room with people who are on this same journey"- And you wanna find more out about this event, the link for the event is gonna be in the show notes. But you can also go to become-the-obvious-choice.com, and there is a, uh, a dash in between each of those words, so become-the-obvious-choice.com.
And s- sign up. Sign up for it. Again, October 9th, here in Nashville. I'm gonna be in the room. Julie and Sonia are gonna be in the room, and a number of other people who are gonna be there working on these, and problems in their business, being around people who are like-minded and helping each other grow.
And I, I'm just, I'm so excited to be in the room with you and grow our businesses together. So if you're interested, go to become-the-obvious-choice.com. Again, become-the-obvious-choice.com, and apply today, even if it requires being a little bit brave. L- let's come together and be brave together. One year ago, Badass Softie was an idea, and then a fairly, um, expensive garage renovation, a lot of questions, and some incredibly valuable conversations happened to get us here today.
And today, it's still an idea, a growing idea, and I still have questions, but now there's a year of conversations sitting behind it that you can go back and listen to and I can go back and listen to. There are people I didn't know a year ago who I now consider friends. There are ideas I believe more deeply.
There are ideas that have changed my mind. There are things I understand differently because somebody sat across from me and trusted me with their story, which is what we're trying to do on October 9th, and all of this has changed me And then there is you. If you have listened to one episode or every episode, thank you.
Truly, thank you for joining a community of people who are asking these type of questions. It's so inspiring to me. Thank you for letting me figure out some of this in public, and thank you for being a part of whatever this is becoming, 'cause I don't know exactly what year two is going to look like, and I kinda think that's a little appropriate.
That's probably the point. You don't always get to know what is on the other side before you do the brave thing. Sometimes you just know that something matters enough to take the step forward. And so as, as we close out this one an- one-year anniversary episode, let me leave you with this. May you find the things that matter enough to scare you a little bit.
May you have people around you who remind you who you are when you forget. May you create that kind of safety for somebody else so we all feel a little bit less alone. And may you stay soft enough to care deeply and badass enough to do something about it. And when the next brave thing shows up, may you not wait until you aren't afraid.
May you take the next step anyway. Because we believe you can be both ambitious and kind, fun and driven, powerful and deeply human. Your leadership can inspire, your success can have soul, and your ambition can make space for everyone. That's why you're a badass softie. Here's to year two, and we'll see you next week.
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