Brave & Big

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Decision Points: How to Make the Big Ones With Confidence Oct 06, 2026

Show notes

Where to go to college. Who to marry. Whether to take the job, move the family, or walk away from a career you spent 15 years building. Joey Odom and Chris Hart call these the decision points of your life, and most of us approach them terrified of getting it wrong.

They start by dismantling that fear. The right-and-wrong decision is mostly a myth: almost everything is temporary, and you'll never get to see the path you didn't take, so second-guessing it is a losing game. Then a harder one. A lot of us walk around convinced we're living outside God's will, or settling for his second best, because of some past choice. Joey's answer: stop putting your faith in your mistakes. God's will is that you become more like Jesus, and he is a redeeming God who makes everything beautiful.

Then it gets practical, in two halves. First, four principles from former poker champion Annie Duke's Thinking in Bets: think in probabilities, separate the quality of your decision from the quality of the outcome, run a pre-mortem, and test it at ten minutes, ten months, and ten years. Then the spiritual side, in order: walk through open doors, inquire of the Lord, align with your spouse, seek counsel, take your time, be willing to walk away, follow your peace, and own the decision.

In this episode:

· Why most decision points feel bigger than they are, and how to separate the life-altering ones from the guardrail ones

· The right-and-wrong myth: you'll never see the path you didn't take, so stop painting pictures of Egypt

· God's will is sanctification, and why you're not stuck living his second best

· Stop putting your faith in your mistakes: God restores as if it never happened

· Life is more like poker than chess: every decision is a bet on an uncertain future

· Separate decision quality from outcome quality, and why judging decisions by results is the biggest error we make

· The pre-mortem: imagine it failed, then work backward

· Ten minutes, ten months, ten years, and Joey's startup that made sense only at year ten

· Walk through open doors until you hit a closed one: either a new opportunity or a stronger yes to where you are

· "They failed to inquire of the Lord": the most haunting line in the Old Testament

· Opportunities are never scarce for someone stewarding what's in their hand, so take your time

· Follow your peace: "The day you decide she's the one, she's the one"

· Make the decision, then own it, and let God make it right

This week's small step: Two things. Get in the Word every day for the next seven days, because that's what fills you with wisdom before the decision point shows up, whether that's next week or next year. And make one confident decision this week. Maybe it's the order at a restaurant. Maybe it's the thing you've been going back and forth on for months. Run it through what you heard today, make it with the information you have, and move forward without looking back.

Be Brave. Live Big.

—

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FOLLOW THE HOSTS
Joey Odom — @joeyodom.life; www.joeyodom.lifeChris Hart — @thechrishart · @thebravecoaches; www.bravecoaches.com
REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE
Annie Duke, Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts. Suzy Welch's 10-10-10 rule. 1 Thessalonians 4:3 (God's will is your sanctification). Psalm 139:17. Ecclesiastes 3:11. 1 Chronicles 10:13-14 and Joshua 9:14 (failing to inquire of the Lord). Job 42:3. Sara Groves, "Painting Pictures of Egypt." Our Guardrails and Stewardship episodes. And watch for our conversation with Jordan Raynor later this month.

Produced by Sonus Podcasts · sonuspodcasts.com

I Am Here: Addison Bevere on Rediscovering Prayer Sep 29, 2026

Show notes

Virtually everyone thinks they're bad at prayer. Addison Bevere did too. He grew up watching his dad, John Bevere, walk outside for two hours of prayer every morning, then tried it himself and ran out of words in two minutes. That gap turned into shame, and the shame followed him into adulthood, through a year-long prayer internship, and into five years of insomnia that nothing could fix. God healed him, and with that healing came an invitation: rediscover prayer.

Joey Odom and Chris Hart sit down with Addison, president of Messenger International and author of Words with God, for a conversation that goes deep and still lands practical. He starts with what it's really like growing up Bevere: humility creates safety, and faithfulness isn't sexy, but it sure is stunning. Then he names the root of our prayer anxiety in Genesis 3. We still approach prayer through the knowledge of what's useful and useless, grasping for answers instead of walking with God.

The turn that reframes everything: prayer is less about getting God's attention and more about how our attention gets healed. And the most radical thing you can do for your attention is protect the first moment of your day. No phone for the first hour. Lie still. Breathe. Three words: I am here.

In this episode:

· Growing up Bevere: humility creates safety, and four decades of faithfulness tell a bigger story than any platform
· Dads, be a signpost, not the figure: why your humility points your kids to their Heavenly Father
· The two-minute prayer, the two-hour prayer, and the shame that grew in between
· Five years of insomnia and God's way of delivering us to himself, not just from a thing
· Genesis 3 and prayer: why we grasp for the useful when God invites us to walk with him
· His daughter's midnight confession, and learning that the lesson was how to stop
· Prayer is less about getting God's attention and more about how our attention is healed
· Attention is a moral act: Psalm 5:3 and your morning sacrifice
· Why your first movement of the day sets what you notice for the rest of it
· Ask, seek, knock, and the discovery that Jesus is already at the door
· You're not the hero or the villain of your prayers. You're a participant.
· The launchpad: lie still, breathe, pray "I am here," then Scripture, then bring your worries to God

This week's small step: For the next seven days, don't grab your phone when you wake up. Stay still in bed for a moment, take a few deep breaths, and pray three words: I am here. You're here, in this place and this moment, and the great I Am is here with you. Then give God the first hour before you give it to anyone else. And if you've got kids, give them the same small step. Call that quiet moment holy, not lazy.

Be Brave. Live Big.

—

FOLLOW THE HOSTS
Joey Odom — @joeyodom.life; www.joeyodom.lifeChris Hart — @thechrishart · @thebravecoaches; www.bravecoaches.com
MORE FROM ADDISON BEVERE
Book: Words with God
Prayer guides and more: addisonbevere.com
Messenger International and the MessengerX app: messengerinternational.org

REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE
Genesis 3 and Genesis 16:13 (the God who sees me). Psalm 5:3 (in the morning I lay my requests before you). Psalm 119:92. Matthew 6 and Luke 11 (the Lord's Prayer). Matthew 7:7 (ask, seek, knock). John 7:38 and John 15. Revelation 3:20. Iain McGilchrist on attention as a moral act. The desert father tradition that the perfect prayer is not knowing you're praying (commonly attributed to Anthony the Great). Our Daily Rhythms episode and the PRAY acronym.

Produced by Sonus Podcasts · sonuspodcasts.com

Q&A: Family Meetings, In-Laws, and How to Actually Keep Your Friends Sep 22, 2026

Show notes

Every Brave coaching call starts with the same question: what's on fire? So for the first time, Joey Odom and Chris Hart opened the DMs, pulled the questions you sent, and answered them the way they would on a call, unprepared and in the moment. And mid-episode, the surprise: Luke Collins, the friend you've heard referenced a dozen times, is sitting in the studio. Two days' notice, one text, a flight confirmation, and he was on the plane.

The questions hit where people actually live. How do you run a family meeting? (Both families do Sunday. One celebrates and casts vision, the other gets ruthlessly logistical, and both agree that alignment on the calendar kills more strife than almost anything.) How do you grow without your spouse feeling judged or left behind? How do you make and keep friends as an adult? How do you build a life that's yours without letting everyone down? How do you handle in-laws, a spouse in a different place spiritually, and a schedule that leaves no room for your community?

Three threads run through every answer. Live it before you lead it. Give yourself permission to set boundaries. And stop trying to resolve the tension, because the tension is where the juice is.

In this episode:

— Family meetings, two ways: high-low-buffalo and a two-minute message in the Hart house, calendar and give-save-spend in the Odom house
— Learn, live, lead: why we skip "live," and why you shouldn't tell anyone to put their phone away until you've nailed it for months
— Let your fruit speak: the 50-year-old client whose wife started asking to be woken up for the morning walk
— Luke on friendship: loyalty as a family value, pursuing the friends who make you better, and pulling out your phone the moment someone says "we should grab coffee"
— Your three and your twelve, and why the biggest pandemic wasn't COVID
— Never get offended, always be a great responder: "your response is equity"
— The hallmark of a great friendship is how short the calls can be
— You're not letting anyone down: the two kinds of people who'll question your process, and why the only real letdown is not answering your calling
— In-laws: a united front with your spouse, permission to set boundaries, and not carrying weight that isn't yours
— When you and your spouse are in different places: fight for spiritual alignment now, and let the personal preferences differ
— Living in the tension: scheduling your community like a business meeting and building a team so you can be in more than one place

This week's small step: Set one healthy boundary in one area of your life. Extended family, your schedule, your community involvement, wherever things have gotten unclear. Name it, live by it for seven days, and watch what it frees up. (Bob Goff used to quit one thing every week. Start with one.)

SEND US YOUR QUESTIONS
This format is coming back. DM Joey your question for the next Q&A: instagram.com/joeyodom.life

Be Brave. Live Big.

—

FOLLOW THE HOSTS
Joey Odom — @joeyodom.life; www.joeyodom.lifeChris Hart — @thechrishart · @thebravecoaches; www.bravecoaches.com

REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE
Matthew 7:16 (you will know them by their fruit). Genesis 2:24 (leave and cleave). Psalm 37:23 (the Lord directs and establishes your steps). 1 Corinthians 15:58 (steadfast, immovable). Bob Goff, Love Does. Our Wartime episodes (communication as a combat multiplier) and our Purpose episode on isolation, insecurity, and inconsistency, which Luke cites from memory.

Produced by Sonus Podcasts · sonuspodcasts.com

From the NFL to Parenting in Crisis: NFL Vet Dustin Hopkins & Gabby Hopkins Sep 15, 2026

Show notes

Dustin Hopkins kicked in the NFL for more than a decade, from Buffalo to Washington to the Chargers to Cleveland, after an All-American career at Florida State where he scored 466 points. His wife Gabby is a photographer and dancer who has moved 21 times in 14 years of marriage. And their oldest son, Wake, is nine years old, on the autism spectrum, and nonverbal. This is the most personal conversation Brave & Big has recorded, and we welcome Gabby as our first female guest!

It starts with football, and it's good football: playing for Bobby Bowden in his final season, what "the best hands come from the best eyes" taught Dustin about focus, and how he managed pressure with two things, an overarching trust that God works everything for good and a simple process in the moment. His job, he says, is simple enough to explain to a two-year-old. That doesn't mean it's easy. Then a ninth-grade hamstring tear that ended his running and started his kicking, because the devil always overplays his hand.

Then Gabby joins, and the conversation goes somewhere else. Losing her identity as "just Dustin's wife" and how she found her way back. Sensing something was off with Wake at a year old, getting brushed off by a pediatrician, and refusing to leave the office without a referral. The two-year waitlist, the one time they played the football card, and the realization that families without their connections face this alone, which is why the Well Foundation exists. And the insight Dustin shared with Joey and Chris on a pickleball court months ago: the same way he longs to hear Wake's voice, God longs to hear ours. It doesn't have to be dressed up. He just wants to hear you.

In this episode:

— Playing for Bobby Bowden in his last year: "get your juice," and why the best hands come from the best eyes
— Bowden vs. Jimbo Fisher, and the coach who took a family photo on an empty field after the Orange Bowl
— Managing pressure as a kicker: Romans 8:28 as the foundation, a prayer before every kick, and process cues in the moment
— Simple doesn't mean easy, and what a pre-kick routine teaches the rest of us about walking into a meeting
— The hamstring tear that turned a safety into a kicker, and why God uses the setback
— Sports-parent advice from an NFL dad: let your kids lead you in what they love, and care more about character than the scoreboard
— Gabby on identity: "I'm Gabrielle, daughter of a King," and the season she lost herself anyway
— The diagnosis: pink flags, mama bear, a two-year waitlist, and why the Well Foundation was born
— Loving Wake without words: reading his cues, the three-inch stare, and the day Wiley said "ketchup's my favorite"
— He just wants to hear your voice: the prayer insight that started this whole friendship
— Tears in a bottle: why God doesn't store things he doesn't plan to use
— Gabby's charge: put all your trust in Jesus. It's the boldest thing you can do.

This week's small step: Do what Dustin and Gabby asked. Give to the Well Foundation at thewellfdn.com, even ten dollars, so Wake's voice reaches families who are where the Hopkinses were. If you can't give, pray for them and for every family navigating special needs. And the next time you see a kid who's different at the coffee shop, don't tell your kids not to stare. Walk over and say hello.

Be Brave. Live Big.

—

FOLLOW THE HOSTS
Joey Odom — @joeyodom.life; www.joeyodom.lifeChris Hart — @thechrishart · @thebravecoaches; www.bravecoaches.com

FOLLOW THE GUESTS
Dustin Hopkins: instagram.com/dustinhopkins3
Gabby Hopkins: instagram.com/gabriellehopkins
The Well Foundation: thewellfdn.com · instagram.com/thewellfdn

REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE
Romans 8:28. Psalm 56:8 (you have kept count of my tossings, put my tears in your bottle). Psalm 139:4 (before a word is on my tongue). Coaches Bobby Bowden and Jimbo Fisher at Florida State. Kohl's Kicking camps. The Kennedy Krieger Institute at Johns Hopkins. Our Daily Rhythms episode, where Joey first shared Dustin's insight on prayer.

Produced by Sonus Podcasts · sonuspodcasts.com

Vocation: Give It Your All Without Giving It Everything Sep 08, 2026

Show notes

You'll spend about ten full years of your life working. And the ache most of us feel about that isn't failure, it's futility: did anything I did today actually matter? Joey Odom and Chris Hart open with one of history's darkest illustrations of that feeling, prisoners forced to carry heavy stones across a camp and then carry them right back, and Solomon's blunt version of the same question: what's there to show for a lifetime of work?

The answer starts with a word swap. Not job. Vocation, a word whose root means a calling. Whether you're a stay-at-home parent, running a company, or making sandwiches, you are called to the work in front of you, and there's purpose in it, even when the purpose is just the weight itself, because you grow in proportion to the weight you take on. Chris tells the story of Michelangelo painting an angel's wing into a dark corner nobody would ever see, as the story goes, because he wasn't painting it for anybody's eyes but God's.

Then the framework, three principles that only work held in tension. Steward your assignment: it's temporary, so give it your all while it's in your hand. Manage your ambition: the ardent desire for rank, fame, and power will make you distracted by the future instead of propelled by it. And protect your identity: triumph and disaster are both impostors, and even your calling is not who you are.

In this episode:

— The golf update: what Joey actually meant, and using hobbies to connect with your family instead of escaping it
— The great job-list showdown: plasma donors, pizza delivery, Footaction salesman of the year, and the restaurant where they waited tables together
— Why futility, not failure, is the core tension of work
— From job to vocation: the word's root is a calling, and it covers every kind of work
— You grow in proportion to the weight you take on, so the weight might be the point
— Michelangelo's dark corner: working as unto the Lord when nobody's watching
— Principle 1, steward your assignment: temporary by definition, so be great while it's in your hand
— Principle 2, manage your ambition: propelled by the future, never distracted by it
— The paradox at the center: give it your all, but don't give it everything
— Principle 3, protect your identity: triumph and disaster are impostors, and even your calling isn't who you are

This week's small step: Write out your identity in Christ. Actually put it on paper this week. Then carry it into your work with all three principles in hand: steward your assignment, manage your ambition, protect your identity. The vocation will change someday. Who you are doesn't.

Be Brave. Live Big.

—

FOLLOW THE HOSTS

Joey Odom — @joeyodom.life; www.joeyodom.life

Chris Hart — @thechrishart · @thebravecoaches; www.bravecoaches.com

REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE
Ecclesiastes on the meaninglessness of toil. Colossians 3:23 (work at it with all your heart). Philippians 3:7-8 (the surpassing worth of knowing Christ). Psalm 37:4 (delight yourself in the Lord). Frederick Buechner on vocation as the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet. Rudyard Kipling, "If." Jordan Peterson on voluntarily carried weight. The story of Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel. Our What's In Your Hand episode on stewardship. And watch for our conversation with author Jordan Raynor, coming in October.

Produced by Sonus Podcasts · sonuspodcasts.com

Guardrails: How To Protect The Vision For Your Life Sep 01, 2026

Show notes

Where there's no vision, people cast off restraint. Joey Odom and Chris Hart build this episode on the half of Proverbs 29:18 most of us skip: vision isn't only about where you're going. It also decides what you're willing to say no to along the way. The bigger the vision, the bigger the guardrails.

They lay the groundwork first. Without vision, life turns responsive instead of proactive, and comparison moves in. And guardrails aren't just for destructive things: some of your most needed boundaries go around good things that are misplaced or mistimed, like Ironman training in the middle of wartime, or a business call on the sideline of your kid's game. A guardrail scuffs your paint and keeps you in the lane. Without one, you're in the ditch.

Then it gets specific: four guardrails that cover most of us. The opposite sex, where you decide the boundary before temptation ever shows up. Devices, where Joey shares the passcode trick that erased most of his phone tension overnight. Substances, where Joey tells the story he's never loved telling, the night three years ago that led him to draw a hard line with alcohol. And money, with a framework simple enough to start this week. It all lands on the promise buried in the second half of that verse: the one who lives within the guardrails, happy are they.

In this episode:

— Proverbs 29:18 flipped: vision determines your no, not just your direction
— Why a lost vision leads to cast-off restraint, and the athlete's story that proves it
— Guardrails around good things: misplaced priorities, mistimed pursuits, and the restraint on the restraint
— Can the people closest to you articulate where you're going? Vision has to be visible
— A placeholder vision that actually works: love God, love people
— Guardrail 1, the opposite sex: decide before temptation shows up, and why this isn't about anyone but you
— Guardrail 2, devices: the downtime passcode only Joey's wife knows, and why environment beats willpower
— Guardrail 3, substances: Joey's hard line with alcohol, three years in, and the question that simplifies it all: does this help you be at your best?
— Guardrail 4, money: give, save, invest, spend, and the purchase threshold you align on with your spouse
— Two more worth building: a guardrail for your pride and a guardrail for your comfort

This week's small step: Take 10 minutes and write down the four categories: opposite sex, devices, substances, money. Under each one, write one to three guardrails you'll keep in place. Then run the list by your spouse, or a covenant friend if you're single, so you're in alignment. A guardrail you've written down and shared stops being negotiable.

Be Brave. Live Big.

—

FOLLOW THE HOSTS

Joey Odom — @joeyodom.life; www.joeyodom.life

Chris Hart — @thechrishart · @thebravecoaches; www.bravecoaches.com

REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODEProverbs 29:18. Our Vision episode, where these four guardrails first appeared. Clayton Christensen, How Will You Measure Your Life? (holding your principles 100 percent of the time is easier than 98). The Billy Graham rule. Andy Crouch on money as a spiritual stronghold.

Produced by Sonus Podcasts · sonuspodcasts.com

The Man in the Arena: Vanderbilt’s Blaze Berlowitz & Cole Adams Aug 25, 2026

Show notes

Joey Odom wrote a card to Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea after this one, because he'd never been more impressed with two young men. Quarterback Blaze Berlowitz and wide receiver Cole Adams sit down with Joey and Chris Hart, and what comes out is less a football interview than a masterclass in how young people become worth following.

Blaze came from Cushing, Oklahoma with one Division I offer and spent years waiting behind a Heisman runner-up, learning that belief is a practice and that obsession will override skill. Cole left Alabama after an injury that he says made him the man he is, and now starts every morning with a scripture text from his grandpa's pastor. Together they talk about detaching identity from performance ("football is what I do, not who I am"), staying present when an entire fan base ties its happiness to your Saturday, and what actually kills a locker room (jealousy, pride, and talking about money).

Then the conversation turns to the people who built them. Both credit parents who were supportive but never overbearing, who drove hours to every workout but never wanted it more than their kids did. Their closing advice to parents, from a couple of guys barely out of the house themselves, is worth the whole episode.

In this episode:

— "Be patient in the results, impatient in the process," and the other Coach Lea lines these players quote from memory
— Why repeated words become ingrained identity: "What's the mission? Winning."
— Obsession over skill: why reps aren't the point, pouring your soul into it is
— Iron sharpens iron: what a twin brother and a loud, competitive house build into you
— How an injury at Alabama became the making of Cole's faith
— Identity: football is what you do, not who you are, and how to actually hold that under SEC pressure
— The Man in the Arena, rabid fan bases, and refusing to let critics inside
— What makes a locker room great, what kills it, and why grown adults need locker rooms too
— Be available, not overbearing: the parenting these two say got it right
— Cole's dad's three rules: don't sag, don't litter, don't smoke, and why the broken record works

This week's small step: Pick one person you're pouring into, a kid, a player, a friend, and say the thing you've already said a hundred times, one more time. Repetition is how seeds take root. Then send this episode to a young athlete, a parent, or a coach who needs it.

Be Brave. Live Big.

—

FOLLOW THE HOSTS

Joey Odom — @joeyodom.life; www.joeyodom.life

Chris Hart — @thechrishart · @thebravecoaches; www.bravecoaches.com
FOLLOW THE GUESTS

Blaze Berlowitz: instagram.com/blaze_berlowitz

Cole Adams: instagram.com/cole.adams07

REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE
Vanderbilt head coach Clark Lea. Theodore Roosevelt's "Man in the Arena." Proverbs 27:17 (iron sharpens iron). The saying "comparison is the thief of joy." Over the Top (1987).

Produced by Sonus Podcasts · sonuspodcasts.com

Wartime: How To Win The Hardest Season (Part 2) Aug 18, 2026

Show notes

Part one named the season. Part two is the playbook. Joey Odom and Chris Hart pick up right where they left off with the first-ever Brave & Big two-parter, and this time it's all practice: what a wartime life actually looks like, day to day, for you, your spouse, your family, and the people around you.

The framework is five C's, each with the word "pursue" in front of it, because none of them happen by default. Consistency with yourself, because consistency is the foundation of trust, and the default setting of wartime is a drift toward comfort. Clarity with your spouse, because clarity is power and confusion is expensive. Connection with your family, in five-minute plans when five-year plans are impossible. Community with others, because isolation is the killer and it always disguises itself as productivity. And culling: taking an honest look at the things that don't belong in this season, even good things, from the golf habit to the scroll to the drink to the friendship that needs a boundary.

There's also a word for people outside the season: grandparents whose kids are quietly drowning, and the pre-wartime crowd who can build the rhythms now that they'll hold onto when the war starts. It ends where part one did, because it's the best news in the whole framework: this war will end, and how hard you fight today decides what tomorrow looks like.

In this episode:

— A word for grandparents: your kids are in wartime, and how to actually help (follow the instructions you're given)
— Pre-wartime prep: the habits you build now are the ones that hold later
— Consistency: as ambitious about the mundane as the exciting, and why it's the foundation of trust
— The one thing you shouldn't be consistent in: the pursuit of comfort
— Winning the driveway: saying yes to the trampoline, the practice drive, the princess dress
— Clarity with your spouse: fighting to see the world the way they see it first
— Clarity is power, confusion is expensive, and simple is hard
— Connection: weekly date nights (a candle and takeout counts), daily micro-moments, eyes on eyes
— Community: why the friendship that gets you in shape spiritually and physically is worth the sacrifice
— Culling: honest looks at golf, alcohol, scrolling, and opposite-gender friendships in this season

This week's small step: Two questions, written down. One: in what area of your life do you need to be more consistent right now? Name it simply. Two: where do you and your spouse both know you need clarity? Start there, and the rest of the five C's start to follow.

Be Brave. Live Big.

—

FOLLOW THE HOSTS

Joey Odom — @joeyodom.life; www.joeyodom.life

Chris Hart — @thechrishart · @thebravecoaches; www.bravecoaches.com

REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE
Part one of this conversation (Wartime: Marriage & Parenting In The Hardest Season). David Brooks, How to Know a Person. Hebrews 12:1 (throwing off what entangles). Andy Stanley on planned generosity and the honest look at drinking. The Army Field Manual on shared understanding, from part one.

Produced by Sonus Podcasts · sonuspodcasts.com

Wartime: Marriage & Parenting In The Hardest Season (Part 1) Aug 11, 2026

Show notes

Joey Odom was in a Las Vegas casino at 3 a.m. with a five-year-old and a three-year-old back home when the phone rang: his wife's parents were in crisis. Looking back, he can name exactly what was wrong with that picture. He was in wartime, living by peacetime rules.

That's the frame for this episode, part one of two. Wartime is the season when your kids are young and at home, you're building a career, your parents are aging, your marriage is squeezed, and everyone needs you at once. It's not a bad season. It's just a season, and the people who thrive in it are the ones who recognize it and change how they operate. The people who fail are the ones who keep applying peacetime principles to wartime moments.

Joey and Chris Hart build the case from 2 Samuel: in the spring, when kings go off to war, David stayed home, and one of the greatest men in Scripture made his most catastrophic mistake in the fog of comfort. From there they lay out six things to know, from fighting for rest (rest isn't recovery, it's readiness) to tightening your guardrails, treating flexibility as the plan itself, and turning communication into a combat multiplier. And they end with the truth that carries all of it: this war will end.

In this episode:

— The 3 a.m. casino phone call, and what "peacetime principles in wartime" costs
— What wartime is: the all-hands-on-deck years, named so you're not surprised by them
— David and Bathsheba: how comfort in wartime compounds into catastrophe
— Fatigue is a combat multiplier for the enemy, so fight for rest as readiness
— The fog of war: why you can't see the full picture right now, and why that means tightening your guardrails
— Deciding your standards before the situation shows up
— Flexibility is the plan, not the backup plan, and why that's grace rather than sloppiness
— Communication as a combat multiplier: the Sunday meeting, the shared calendar, and tailoring it to each kid
— Anxiety needs a plan: how preparation preempts the spiral
— The best news of all six: this war will end

This week's small step: Listen to this episode with your spouse. Reassure each other that it's supposed to feel like wartime, because it is. Then pick which of the six you'll apply first, whether that's a Sunday meeting, a shared calendar, or a guardrail you decide on ahead of time. And come back next week: part two picks up right here, with advice for people entering wartime, people coming out of it, and the action items to walk through it.

Be Brave. Live Big.

—

FOLLOW THE HOSTS

Joey Odom — @joeyodom.life; www.joeyodom.life

Chris Hart — @thechrishart · @thebravecoaches; www.bravecoaches.com

REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE
2 Samuel 11 (in the spring when kings go off to war). Psalm 27:13 (the goodness of God in the land of the living). The Mike Tyson line about plans. The U.S. Army Field Manual on communication and shared understanding. Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation. The podcast is also on YouTube at @BraveBigPod.

Produced by Sonus Podcasts · sonuspodcasts.com

Protecting Purpose: Overcoming Isolation, Insecurity, and Inconsistency Aug 04, 2026

Show notes

Chris Hart kept noticing the same three problems in every pastor he met with. Then in every CEO. Then in everybody. Isolation, insecurity, and inconsistency: three attacks on your purpose that don't have to knock you out to win. They just have to slow you down.

Joey Odom and Chris spend this episode naming each one and handing you its antidote. Isolation gets solved by a team, and the test is simple: who notices when you're somewhere or when you're not? Insecurity is a symptom of misplaced identity, so the fix is anchoring who you are in something no scoreboard, title, or bad day can touch. Chris tells the story of his five-year-old son Brave stepping in front of his sisters, taking a punch in the nose, and explaining afterward, "Because I'm the one." He didn't have time to think. He acted out of who he already knew he was.

Then the third eye, the one underneath the other two: inconsistency. If you're isolated, you've been inconsistent in your pursuit of friendship. If you're insecure, you've been inconsistent in your pursuit of God. Success doesn't come from what you do occasionally. It comes from what you do consistently.

In this episode:

— One question that opens doors everywhere: "Is there anything I can pray for you about?"
— The three I's: isolation, insecurity, inconsistency, and why they aim at your purpose
— The team test: who notices when you're there and when you're not?
— How to be a multiplier: notice what people are good at and tell them
— A self-diagnosis for isolation: do you see or talk to three of the same friends weekly?
— Why a close friend you see weekly is worth the happiness of a $150,000 raise
— Insecurity as misplaced identity, and why it can look like the most confident person in the room
— "Because I'm the one": how repeated identity becomes instinct under pressure
— Winners win: what the phrase means when the scoreboard doesn't go your way
— Why consistency is the cornerstone, and how non-negotiables stop being negotiable

This week's small step: Write three sentences. One action this week to build your team (start by noticing and naming what someone's good at). One statement of your identity in Christ. And your three non-negotiables, the things you will do consistently, no negotiation. Then hand that list to someone on your team and invite them to ask you about it.

Be Brave. Live Big.

—

FOLLOW THE HOSTS

Joey Odom — @joeyodom.life; www.joeyodom.life

Chris Hart — @thechrishart · @thebravecoaches; www.bravecoaches.com

REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (two are better than one). 2 Corinthians 5:17 (a new creation). Jeremiah 17:7-8 (a tree planted by the water). 1 Corinthians 15:58 (be steadfast, immovable). Research on friendship and happiness. The PRAY acronym (praise, repent, ask, yield).

Produced by Sonus Podcasts · sonuspodcasts.com

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