The Company Changed. The Mission Didn't.
Most leaders think commitment means sticking to the plan.
But what happens when the plan stops working?
The numbers no longer make sense. The market shifts. The opportunity you were counting on disappears. Suddenly, you're faced with a decision every leader encounters at some point: do you keep pushing forward, or do you change course?
Entrepreneur and Copper founder Allison Trowbridge spent years navigating that tension. The company she leads today looks very different from the one she originally set out to build. The business model changed. The strategy evolved. Entire approaches were abandoned and rebuilt.
Yet through every version of the company, one thing remained the same: the mission.
Her experience offers a powerful leadership lesson about knowing what should change, what should stay the same, and why confusing the two can keep leaders stuck far longer than they should be.
Prefer to listen? Press play below.
The Difference Between a Mission and a Strategy
One of the most common leadership mistakes is treating a strategy as though it were a mission.
It happens gradually. A leader becomes attached to a product, a process, a business model, or a particular way of doing things. Over time, that approach becomes so closely associated with the work itself that changing it begins to feel like giving up.
But a mission and a strategy are not the same thing.
A mission answers why the work matters and who it serves. A strategy is simply the current way you're pursuing that mission.
The distinction sounds obvious until reality forces a change.
That's where Allison Trowbridge's story becomes so relevant.
While pursuing her MBA at Oxford and navigating the process of publishing her own book, Allison became increasingly interested in a problem she saw throughout the publishing industry. Too many aspiring authors had ideas they wanted to share but lacked a clear path to bring those ideas into the world. The deeper she looked, the more convinced she became that there had to be a better way to serve them.
That conviction eventually became Copper.
What's interesting, though, is that the mission was never simply to build a publishing company. It was to serve authors. As Allison explains, her passion has always been helping close the gap between the millions of people who dream of writing a book and the small percentage who ever make it to publication.
That mission would remain remarkably consistent.
The strategy would not.
Being Early Feels Exactly Like Being Wrong
The original version of Copper was built around a publishing model that Allison believed would create a more equitable experience for authors.
There was only one problem.
The numbers didn't work.
After reviewing the financial projections, it became clear that the business model as originally designed wasn't sustainable. For many entrepreneurs, that kind of moment becomes the end of the story. The market isn't responding. The economics don't make sense. The spreadsheet delivers its verdict.
Move on.
What makes Allison's experience different is that she didn't treat that moment as evidence that the mission was wrong. Instead, she treated it as evidence that the strategy needed to change.
Looking back, she now recognizes that parts of the model were simply ahead of their time. Years later, versions of the same approach would begin appearing throughout the publishing industry. What seemed impossible in 2018 suddenly became viable once larger publishers and more established players entered the space.
That insight reveals an uncomfortable reality many leaders eventually face.
Being early often feels exactly like being wrong.
The market doesn't tell you that your timing is off. Investors don't explain that your idea may work five years from now. All you experience is resistance.
The challenge is learning how to interpret that resistance.
Sometimes it means the idea should be abandoned.
Sometimes it means the approach needs to evolve.
The leaders who navigate uncertainty well are often the ones who learn the difference.
When Growth Pulls You Away From the Problem
Most people assume leadership becomes easier once momentum arrives.
The funding comes in. The opportunities grow. The company gains traction. The future begins to look more certain.
But Allison discovered that growth creates its own set of challenges.
As Copper evolved and entered the venture capital world, new opportunities emerged. Larger markets appeared. Different paths to growth became available. On the surface, all of it looked like progress.
In many ways, it was.
Yet looking back, Allison realized there were seasons when she had started building toward what investors wanted rather than the problem she originally set out to solve.
It wasn't a dramatic decision.
There wasn't a single moment when the company suddenly abandoned its purpose.
Instead, it happened the way drift often happens in leadership: one reasonable decision at a time.
The opportunities seemed bigger. The growth potential seemed stronger. The logic behind the decisions was sound.
But eventually Allison found herself confronting an uncomfortable realization. She had lost sight of the core problem she wanted to solve.
That may be one of the most valuable lessons in the entire story.
Leaders don't usually lose their way because they stop caring. They lose their way because success introduces options that failure never could.
The challenge is remembering which problem you exist to solve.
The Company Changed. The Mission Didn't.
One of the clearest insights Allison shares is surprisingly simple.
"The how of what you do has to iterate and evolve. But if you are laser-focused on the why and the who and the what, that's where you lock in."
That idea explains nearly every chapter of Copper's journey.
The company changed.
The business model changed.
The technology changed.
The strategy changed.
What remained constant was the commitment to serving authors.
That clarity allowed Allison to make difficult decisions without feeling like she was abandoning the work that mattered. She could let go of a strategy without letting go of the mission. She could rethink the model without questioning the purpose.
That's a distinction many leaders never fully make.
They become so attached to the current approach that they mistake changing the plan for giving up on the goal.
In reality, the opposite is often true.
Sometimes the best way to remain faithful to a mission is to become willing to abandon the strategy.
Leadership in the Messy Middle
Most success stories are told from the finish line.
We celebrate the company that made it. The book that became a bestseller. The idea that finally worked.
What we rarely talk about are the years in between.
The pivots.
The experiments.
The setbacks.
The moments when the numbers suggest walking away and no clear path forward exists.
Those are the moments that reveal what leaders actually believe.
Because leadership is not tested when the plan is working.
It's tested when reality forces the plan to change.
Allison Trowbridge's story isn't ultimately a story about publishing. It's a story about staying committed to a mission while remaining flexible enough to rethink everything else.
The leaders who build things that last aren't the ones who refuse to change.
They're the ones who know exactly what should never change.
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Allison Trowbridge: I had just launched my app and was going out to raise another round, and it was crickets. You know when a bomb is gonna go off and there's, like, those red digital- Uh huh, yep ... counters that are counting down? I felt like every morning I was waking up and looking at this countdown clock, and I will never forget the day I got a call from my CFO where he says, "Ali, you realize you're last paycheck's on Friday."
It was like the world stopped.
Dr. J.J. Peterson: 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 if you've ever tried to launch something, whether it's a business or any dream, you know, like writing a book or a screenplay, you know, and I mean you know that the thing you're building is almost always gonna be harder to build than you expected.
There are moments when the dream stops feeling exciting and starts feeling heavy, when there are setbacks and pivots and rejection and moments that you quietly wonder if you're actually capable of pulling this off or even if you should. And if you're about to launch something, maybe you've never launched something before, but you're about to, you need to know those moments will come.
They are a part of building anything important, which is why I'm so excited for today's conversation, 'cause I think a lot of times we talk about things after they're built, but not what the process is like to build it. And so I'm talking today to my friend Allie Trowbridge, who... Allie is the founder and CEO of Copper, which is this innovative publishing company that's helping authors bring their ideas into the world.
I mean, her work has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Newsweek, and before building Copper, she even spent years working in the anti-trafficking movement and impact investing. And she is an author herself, and she has seen how books can actually spark movements and change lives, so she has chosen to give her life to investing in authors and helping them get their messages out to the world.
But honestly, this conversation was less about publishing and much more about the journey she went on as a founder and a builder. And I'm so grateful because Allie talks really honestly about building something before fully knowing if it would work or how it would work, and all the things she was feeling and doing.
And I'm so grateful for this vulnerability because I know so many people who've gone through this exact same thing. And I want you to hear this conversation because if you are building something meaningful, there will be moments that feel messy and uncertain and slower than you hoped, and that is normal, and that is okay.
This conversation is really about how to keep going anyway. So I'm so excited for you to hear my conversation today with Allie Trowbridge. You know, we met when you, uh, we met through Donald Miller. Yep. And you actually were a part of the Building a StoryBrand podcast- Yeah ... very early on, and that's how we really got to know each other, is we ha- you were a co-host with us- Yeah
on multiple things. You interviewed people and helped kind of build StoryBrand's reputation out there in some really fun ways. And I, even back then, just was watching how you were kind of living and doing things. And That's when I first heard you talk about building this business, this idea that has changed multiple times called Copper.
Allison Trowbridge: Mm-hmm.
Dr. J.J. Peterson: And so today I kinda just wanna walk through that story a little bit, because I know there's a lot of other founders and leaders who are listening who probably can identify themselves in some of the phases that you went through.
Allison Trowbridge: Yeah,
Dr. J.J. Peterson: yeah. From anybody who is dreaming, building, launching, inviting anybody into a story about something pretty powerful, I bet they can see themselves in this story.
So first off, let's start with just explain to us what you do right now with Copper, and then l- and then we'll go back to the beginning.
Allison Trowbridge: Okay. Well, I love this, JJ. So we spent a year podcasting together- Yeah. ... and it was probably one of my mom's favorite things that I did- ... because she was your number one fan.
I remember you said that. She was a listener to the podcast before I joined, and she's like, "You get to hang out with JJ Peterson?" His laugh. She loves your laugh- ... as does the world. Um, so it's fun to be back on the other side- Yes, it is ... of the mic with you. I love it. So my mission has always been to serve authors, to serve the person who says, "I have this dream of writing a book, and I know I have a message that I, I need to share.
It won't le- leave me alone, and how do I do that? Where do I go from here?" And one of my favorite statistics is that 81% of Americans want to write a book someday.
Dr. J.J. Peterson: Really?
Allison Trowbridge: Two to 3% ever start, and less than 1% ever get published.
Dr. J.J. Peterson: That is insa- I mean, I, it, I mean, it surprises me and also doesn't surprise me.
Yeah. But say the first one, 80
Allison Trowbridge: s- 81%- 81% ... of Americans-
Dr. J.J. Peterson: Yeah ...
Allison Trowbridge: have a dream of writing a book someday. Have that little niggling of like, "Oh," like, "I want to write."
Dr. J.J. Peterson: Yeah.
Allison Trowbridge: Whether it's their story or an idea they wanna share, and 1% ever get published. And so my passion is helping to close that gap and to help the people who are really committed to doing this become a part of that 1%.
And so the mission of my company, while the company itself has really iterated and evolved over the years, the mission has actually never changed, and so staying focused on that, I think the, the how of what you do has to iterate and evolve. But if you are laser-focused on the why and the who and the what, that's where you, you lock in on.
And so yeah, serving authors. Oh
Dr. J.J. Peterson: my gosh. I l- I love that. That's so important because- Like I said, so even going back to the beginning, th- I've heard you s- talk in this language and these words and this mission for ever since I've known you.
Allison Trowbridge: Yeah.
Dr. J.J. Peterson: But when it started, it was... Uh, didn't it start really you were gonna do kind of like an app and community?
Is that really where it like initially- Well, you- ... how you were gonna serve authors is through like an app?
Allison Trowbridge: Y- uh, y- yes Or did it become an app? Or But actually even before that. Yeah. Before that. So here's the wild thing. So I did my MBA, and I was publishing a book while I was doing my MBA. And going through the process of publishing had me looking around, asking questions around how I could make the publishing experience better and more equitable- Mm
for the author. Mm-hmm. And to be honest, I had a professor at Oxford who kept nudging me and pulling me aside saying, "I really think someone needs to reimagine this industry." And at the time I was like, "No, thank you. I'm burnt out. Not interested. Not trying to be an entrepreneur." I was really there for the nonprofit focus.
I was thinking I was going to stay in the social impact world. Um, but I couldn't shake this need to serve essentially the aspiring author, the person that I was. And so I incorporated in 2018 as Copper Publishing House. And so the initial vision of the company was essentially a hybrid publisher, and I was too early I was actually...
So I raised a tiny, tiny bit of, of money for it, a few angel investors. Don was my second investor in the company. He was like, "You can publish all my books going forward." It was so sweet. And then maybe six months in, I had done the financial modeling for the company, and we, my... I was doing a little meeting with my CFO and we kinda mapped it all out, and we looked at the numbers, and it was like, "This is not gonna work."
How we'd initially conceived it was doing a 50/50 joint venture with authors. And what's, so what's interesting is fast-forward today, they're actually, that actually is a very popular model now. Um, but it really wasn't- Yeah ... a thing at the time. I just kinda had made it up. And the, the problem is you have to have, um, a pretty big reach with big-name authors in order to do that.
So Madeline McIntosh, the former, uh, CEO of Penguin Random House, is actually doing that now at her company called Authors Equity, and we talked shortly after she started the company, and I was like, "I have to tell you, I tried to do this," you know, at the time, like six years ago, "and I couldn't pull it off for all these reasons," 'cause she's, she's publishing the James Clears and the Seth Godins, and me as a newbie, I didn't have that reach at the time.
And she starts laughing, and she's like, "Well, it's li- like Liz Gilbert. When you have an idea, if you can't execute it- "... it'll go to someone else." And I'm like, "You're totally right. I couldn't do it, and so it went to you- Yeah ... and you can actually do it." And so what's interesting, and we can go back on this, but I, I did end up flipping the company into, again, same mission, how do I serve the author?
And so I moved into building technology for that purpose, and how do I help bring readers around authors' books and help sell the books, the marketing, all this, and we launched an app. But cut to one of my big revelations that brought us back to the hybrid model is that traditional publishers operate exactly like VC investors.
And this is neither a good or a bad thing. It is just the reality of how the financial m- model works. And so traditional publishers, for every 10 investments they make, for every 10 titles they acquire, eight out of 10 are tax write-offs. They're total losses. One out of 10 breaks even, and then one out of 10 needs to hit big and quote, quote, unquote, "Return the portfolio."
Yeah. So that book that hits big is going to pay for all of the future high-risk bets that the publisher is making, which is why so many authors then, as the book is launching, come back and are so discouraged 'cause they're like, "Why don't I have any support? Why don't I have any marketing dollars? Why don't, why doesn't my publisher care?"
And it's like, because they've already... They've looked at the early numbers, and they've already written it off as a loss, and so they're not gonna double down on a loss unless something shifts in the market and the book starts organically taking off. And so what I say is that just like VC investing or VC investors are the right financial partner for a very, very small percentage of startups, same thing, traditional publishing is a right fit for a very small percentage of authors and prospective books.
And just because a traditional publisher either isn't interested in your model or, you know, leaping to give you money, they're an investor. It doesn't mean that your book isn't actually gonna be a huge hit and have a huge impact. And so I'm really passionate about opening up, widening the access in the landscape, and helping authors understand what the options are and what's available to them, um, and not have a one-size-fits-all type of model.
Dr. J.J. Peterson: And each thing you're iterating is trying to solve a new problem for... It's like, all right- Yeah ... so we're gonna create the app in this community because we need authors to have more access to people who they don't, might miss out on their book if it was just at Barnes- Mm-hmm ... & Noble or, you know, on Amazon.
And so you move into that, and then how many Would you say big, other big iterations have happened in Copper since, I mean, now again, eight years ago?
Allison Trowbridge: Yeah. So going into 2019 was when I shifted into, okay, let me think in terms of technology, and I had a few investors look at my initial model and they're like, "It's not scalable."
So as I was thinking about platform, it was like, what can I build to help bring people together? So the first concept was around book clubs, so how do I gather people together into groups and provide a technology foundation for that gathering? And so I kept raising little investor checks along the way and hiring engineers part-time to try to just duct tape and fishing wire an initial version of this.
And you know, what was interesting is at the... This would've been the end of 2019, I'd actually talked to a VC that got so close in investing and backing us, and then they're just like, "It's too early. We don't- you know, we don't see it. We don't understand it." And so when they then didn't come through, I mean, I was devastated.
Devastated, devastated. And that's when I decided I just need to build something, so I started building an MVP. And again, it was like every month, can I, you know, raise little tiny angel checks to, like, keep this idea going? 'Cause I have to prove myself. I'm an untested, non-technical female founder. Female founders raise less than 2% of venture money, and if you're building technology, especially then, pre-AI, pre-vibe coding, you needed engineers, like, man hours that are very expensive building the technology behind the company.
So, um, spent a year, like, you know, m- iterating this, this very basic model, and a year later, I st- went out and started fundraising again. This is all through the first year of COVID. Yes. So every month, like, I'm like, you know, the, the world's shut down. I don't know how to... I'm gonna pay rent. Yeah. I mean, it was not a pretty picture, but I just kept going.
And y- I have to say here, one of my, one of my best guy friends is a, he's a big crypto, um, technology founder, very early in that space, and when I was first starting the company, his advice to me, w- well, number one, his first piece of advice was, "You could have a great life. Why would you do this?"
Dr. J.J. Peterson: Uh
Allison Trowbridge: huh. He was like, "Just go write books- Yeah
and enjoy your life" Yeah And I'm like, "Nah." He's like, "Okay." His second piece of advice was, "Just don't die." And that was kind of a mantra. I, I always joke in terms of entrepreneurial spirit, I'm like a cockroach in the nuclear, like- ... apocalypse. Like, I will, I will not die. Yeah. I will just find a way to keep going.
Uh, sometimes I'm looking at myself saying, "Am I out of my mind to keep going at this point?" But, but I will say I was so fixated on there's a huge market of authors and aspiring authors who need to be served and who are wildly underserved. And that mission focused on serving the authors. Because that was unchanged, I was open to iterating the product and what I was building for them.
I think if I was constantly changing who I was serving and my why, that would've been a, a sign to cut my losses. Um, 'cause sometimes that's wisdom too. But knowing that there was a need in the market m- had me keep going.
Dr. J.J. Peterson: As I... As you're talking, I'm getting so much from what you're saying because I think f- for a lot of people, the end goal is, "I'm gonna launch a business."
Allison Trowbridge: Yeah.
Dr. J.J. Peterson: And so if that's, like, the end goal and y- the focus, you don't have the why behind it, it really does become so much easier to quit. Yeah. And, and the book. Yeah. Like, if your whole goal in writing a book even... Like, the reason may be part of the reason why maybe 87% of people want to write a book and then don't is because their goal is to write a book.
Allison Trowbridge: Right.
Dr. J.J. Peterson: But if you're, if you're really starting from a place of how do I impact people, how do I actually share my heart, my wisdom with the world, how do I entertain, how do I... Like, I want to create and I want to connect, and I... Like, there's more why behind it. Then how that happens can change along the way.
Allison Trowbridge: Completely.
Dr. J.J. Peterson: But I love that you're going back to this whole thing of that the mission never changed, that you believed in it so much from the beginning because it served you. Like, it would've served your younger you, right? Yeah, yeah. You're actually going back and serving your younger self in this process.
Were there moments when people told you that you should quit?
Allison Trowbridge: Oh, completely. Yeah? There was one point where the CEO of PayPal who's a, a friend and an investor... W- I had just laid off my entire team. We can backfill into the- ... the story there. Um, and I, and we got lunch, and I was just, like, a ghost. I mean, I was just so traumatized by the whole thing.
I'd laid myself off, and he's like, "Shut it down. You're done. Call it." And we actually, um... Interestingly enough, I just saw him and his wife a couple days ago in New York, and he was like- I can't believe you're still here. Like, I'm like, "I can't believe he kept going." And he's like... You know, but, like, I'm so proud of you.
Yeah. Uh, you know, I, I heard a, a VC say once that you are in business until you run out of money. And my philosophy was, well, if I can keep a dollar in the bank and not pay myself and float it until it starts making money again, you know, I'm not out of the game. And so i- in terms of the, the the process to get there, so when I mention that, that VC that devastated me because they...
I thought they were gonna come in, and then they came out. They came back a year later and ended up investing more than double what we had initially talked about. And this was such a unique moment in... This is, like, a year into COVID. Uh, the venture space is just going gangbusters. There's so much energy and capital and excitement and momentum.
And I, you know, had... I think I celebrated for 30 seconds of, like... And it is wild to see millions of dollars hit your bank account, business bank account. But to see that h- after struggling for so long, and instantly my stress went through the roof The myth is that if you get a big investor, it will decrease your stress 'cause now you have capital.
Suddenly, the pressure's on, and it was, "Okay, so have you hired the team, and what's the deliverables, and what's the timeline to launch," and, and, and, and, and. And so, a- and I have to say through all of this, I, I really found myself in a role where, I mean, I was leading a technology stand-up every morning, and I'm not a technologist.
And so as we're building this app and building it towards launch, and we eventually did launch and threw a launch party in New York, that was when... A- and this is what's so fascinating about the business world. Russia invaded Ukraine. And, and you... No, no one would ever think that that would affect an app for book lovers.
Yeah. However, when that happened, um, I had friends raising money who m- had just closed a $50 million round that the capital call went out and the investors couldn't pay. It's like you realize how interconnected the financial ecosystem is. And so when that happened, all of these venture investors have big investors behind them, they're called limited partners, that are wiring them the money when they go to make an investment.
And so the whole financial back end kind of went, stalled out and went to a stop. And so we entered what was called VC summer, where all the venture investors went on vacation. And I had just launched my app and was going out to raise another round, and it was crickets. That was a moment of do I call it?
Do I shut it down? I, I decreased my burn rate about, by, I don't know, 40%. So it's like how can we tighten, batten down the hatches? I raised a, what's called a bridge round, so that's like a, you know, how do I raise enough to get me six to nine months so that I can wait and then go out and fundraise again?
But I want you to imagine, it's like waking up every morning and looking at... You know, you know when a bomb is gonna go off and there's, like, those red digital- Uh huh, yeah ... counters that are counting down? I felt like every morning I was waking up and looking at this countdown clock that was going down and going down and going down.
And through that summer, I mean, again, so I'm raising this bridge round, and I had smaller investors come in that would get delayed months sometimes in wiring their funds. And it was like, "Okay, if it doesn't come in 48 hours, we're laying off the team." And I will never forget the day I got a call from my CFO where he said...
And, and we had these, um, Excel spreadsheets where we would track every single engineer and how long we had on each person's, like, how m- how long we could keep each person in the burn every week. And I get this phone call, and he says, "Alli, you realize your last day, your last paycheck's on Friday." And I had not...
When I tell you, it had not even crossed my mind that I was also on the cut list. I was so hyper-fixated and hyper-focused on my team, and I, I also think to, to be a- an entrepreneur you have to have this, like, blind optimism that it's going to work out, and when it doesn't work out you are going to find a way.
So I just had, had kept, like, running at it knowing that something was gonna come through. And getting that phone call, it was like everything... It was like the world stopped.
Dr. J.J. Peterson: Yeah.
Allison Trowbridge: And I laid off my entire team. I laid off myself. Um, I ended up losing my house 'cause I stopped taking a salary and tried to find a sub-letter and my roommate was like, "I'm not into that, I'm gonna move out."
And so then suddenly my beloved home was... I was moving everything into a storage unit. When I say it was devastating, I mean, it was like... 'Cause it's not just business, right? And then it's not just finances and income. It's... This is the... I mean, I think I've had, like, 70 investors in the company. This is, like, social relationships, this is reputation.
This is people who've bet on me, who've trusted me. This is letting down our invest- I mean, it just, the wh- it could not have been more personal.
Dr. J.J. Peterson: Well, and, and also I think there's an element, too, pro- I mean, I would imagine you would feel this too, is that you, you put it out there even just for, like, not even your close friends.
Like, so there's the close friends- Yeah ... a lot of your friends invested in you. But then there's, like, the peripheral friends who you've told and you're doing it- Yeah ... and it's all the things, and the last they talked to you it was, like, moving forward. Mm-hmm. And now it's like, what are all they gonna think?
But then the reality hits of where you literally saying, like, "No, I lost my house for- Yeah ... for this."
Allison Trowbridge: Yeah. "
Dr. J.J. Peterson: And I also had to fire people who I-
Allison Trowbridge: Yeah ...
Dr. J.J. Peterson: convinced to come work with me." Yeah. Like, all of those things. But, like, do you feel like you are in a space now- Not necessarily light at the end of the tunnel, but a little bit more blue skies in where Copper is today?
Allison Trowbridge: Yeah, and, and you know, it's, it's wild because I, I kind of liken entrepreneurship to skydiving, and you make this big jump, and when you ha- haven't done it before, you're like, "Of course it all works out." I'm like, "I know they say nine out of 10 startups fail, but like that's everybody else" kind of thing.
And then to have it, you know, I, I mean, not to be dramatic, but it's like the chute doesn't open, and then you spend a long time healing all those broken bones and convalescing, and then going to jump again and keep going. It is very different to jump again once you've experienced what it feels like to fail-
Dr. J.J. Peterson: Mm
Allison Trowbridge: and to have it not work. And I never appreciated... You always hear that investors wanna back serial founders, and I'm like, "But I know myse- like, why do I have to have done it before for you to wanna back me?" And now I get it in the sense that there's so much that can't be taught, that has to be learned, and to be able to metabolize disappointment and failure and the grief of all of that.
And it took me years to really work through all of that. And, um, the, I think if I had just self-funded it or if I had only ever had institutional investors in the company, I would've shut it down. But because I had had friends and family who had bet on me, it didn't feel in integrity for me to let the ship sink and float away on a rowboat waving.
Um, and there would've been an argument to doing that. I had an investor offer to buy the company and ba- for scraps, pen- pennies on the dollar and give me a job. Um, and I couldn't do it. I couldn't do it 'cause I did not feel like it would be in integrity with the fact that I had asked people to bet on this thing with me.
It's like captain goes down with the ship, so to speak. And so what I kept coming back to... And I, and I wanna pause and say the greatest gift of that season was seeing my people show up for me. The next... I'm working on my next book right now, and it's called Relational Equity, and I got to viscerally experience when your world falls apart- And all of your people are still there standing, cheering you on, supporting you, caring for you.
I had friends putting me up in their guest rooms and offering me consulting gigs to, so I could buy groceries. I mean, you name it. And zooming out now a few years later, it's really a grace because even if I had raised that next round of venture funding, there's... The world we were building in, the type of market we were building in, doesn't exist anymore.
I mean, I have... We had investors whose website said, "We invest in community-based companies." Those all refreshed one day and now they're all AI. Yeah. Like, there's no, there's no world in which I could have continued, um, the way that we had been because the world was, we didn't know it then, but the world was changing so fast.
And so there was a grace that we didn't... We would've been met with the same problem 18 months later if I had been able to keep going. Um, but during that season, I kept coming back to the fact that the need was still there. I always say this to, whether it's to an entrepreneur or to an author, it's like, solve a problem that people are willing to pay for, and if you're truly solving a problem for people, there is a bridge towards that solution that will create a business or, in the case of publishing, a book is a product that solves a problem for the reader.
So that's where I, in that season, kind of came back to our roots, where I looked at what we had built, which was a app for authors and readers, and when I zoomed out, really who was showing up in the app was the aspiring author. It was people who were publishing their first book or wanted to publish a book and were trying to navigate the space and figure out how to do it.
And I said, "What, what would this look like if I doubled down on serving the aspiring author?" And what aspiring authors needed was new ways, new innovations around publishing, and it took us back to the very roots of the company.
Dr. J.J. Peterson: That's wild. And then that's when you're now kind of finding that- Yeah ... the new foothold- Yeah
in moving forward. You know, I think just to kind of wrap, I mean, we could talk about it forever, but, like, to wrap things up a little bit, like, for, for people who are out there who are in the beginning and sometimes middle phases of where they want to be, 'cause I don't think there's ever an end to these stories, like Copper's gonna continue to evolve and change.
But for people who are in the beginning or middle of the journey and are not where they want to be-
Allison Trowbridge: Mm ...
Dr. J.J. Peterson: in this time, what- Would you say to them as they are kind of in these spaces that are maybe in the low part of the up and down?
Allison Trowbridge: Mm. I would say first get really clear on the problem that you're solving.
I think that was one of my learnings through going the venture route, building an app. There were times where I think we started building the product towards what the big investors wanted, which was, "Readers are a bigger market, and let's serve readers." And I lost sight of what the core problem was that I was solving.
And I think whether you're writing a book as an author or building a product as an entrepreneur, getting really clear and staying laser-focused on who are you serving and what is the problem you're solving for them, the problem that is a pain point so strong that they would spend their hard-earned money to solve it.
And that sounds really simple, but it's actually quite complicated to really get a clear definition of that. Um, and so I think that that's really important when you're feeling lost and kind of in the dark to go back to what, what is that and who... a- and visualizing who it's for. The other thing I would say is you have to have good people around you.
You have to be in community. Entrepreneurship can feel so lonely and so isolating, and even as I experienced people showing up for me, I think I felt so much shame and so much, um, uh, y- yeah, just such a, a sense of failure that even some of my best friends didn't know what a dark place I was in and how hard what I was going through was.
I mean, it was, it was dark. It was very, very dark. And I joke that I wouldn't wish entrepreneurship on my worst enemy, but it really... I, I think I, I bore more of the weight of it than I needed to when I could have invited people in. Because the people who love you, they're not there for the trophies.
They're there to be there for you, and it is a gift to your friends and your community when you invite them into the process, and there's so much wisdom in that. I am a different person because of what I've walked through and what I've lived through, and even though I wouldn't wanna do it again, there are many ways in which I wouldn't change it because of how it shaped me and how it formed me.
Dr. J.J. Peterson: Allie, I'm so grateful for your willingness to come share and be here and just your friendship and the way that you inspire me. And, um, I cannot wait to see what Copper continues to become and all the authors that get to be out there and all the people who get to be changed because of those books. I am so very excited, so thank you for being here, and thank you for being a badass softie.
Allison Trowbridge: Thank you, my friend. Grateful for you.
Dr. J.J. Peterson: What a great conversation. I am so grateful. Ally, thank you for being vulnerable and sharing all of that. You know, there have been so many times in my life where I have been building things, and I feel like, it, should it be this hard? I mean, i- is it really worth it? Am I s- dumb for keeping going? And the reality is, when I believe in the mission, and I know that it is good and I'm capable, I can't not keep going, like Ally talked about.
Like, I have to keep going. But those moments are really hard. They are. And I want to acknowledge that, and I wanna honor that, but I also wanna say to you, if you are in that, keep going. Keep going, 'cause it's worth it. And I think that, you know, there's so many things to take away from today, but one of the things that I was just reminded of is it's so important to surround yourself with people who will tell you the truth, who will encourage you, and who will show up in those moments of when you're in that hole, building the foundation, don't see a lot of light at the end of the tunnel.
It's so important to, to keep your people close, and even today, I, I wanna make sure that I'm reaching out to people who I know who are going through some of those hard things. So maybe for you, it's time, if you are going through something hard, to reach out to somebody that you know can be there for you, and w- don't walk it alone.
And if you know somebody who's going through something hard and building a dream, reach out to them, encourage them, and help them to keep going, because the mission matters. So as we close out today, let me leave you with this. May you remember that staying true to your mission matters more than staying attached to the specific version of your dream.
May you find your people, the ones who remind you who you are when you forget, the ones who tell you the truth kindly, and the ones who sit beside you in the uncertainty and help you keep building anyway. And if you find yourself in a hole right now, may you remember that foundations are built underground.
Nobody sees the late nights or the doubt or the quiet work it takes to prepare something strong enough to hold what you are trying to build. And may one day people look at your life or your work and call it an overnight success. 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. We'll see you next week. Thanks for listening. Follow and subscribe so you don't miss an episode. Badasssoftie.com is crafted by Fruitful Design and Strategy.