When Changing the Plan Feels Like Failure

More from Badass Softie All episodes →

1. 

   E61 · 12 Oct 2026 · 33 min

   What If Your Job Is to Create More Magic? | Will Guidara

   What if part of your job is to create more magic? After attending Will Guidara's Welcome Conference in New York, Dr. J.J. Peterson found himself returning to a conversation that had already changed how he thinks about work, creativity, and the people around him. Listening again, he discovered new meaning in an idea that sounds simple but can be surprisingly difficult to practice: making ordinary moments extraordinary. Will Guidara, bestselling author of Unreasonable Hospitality, helped turn Eleven Madison Park into the number one restaurant in the world by caring as much about how people…

2. 

   E60 · 5 Oct 2026 · 35 min

   Some Answers Only Come After You Start | Jill Pickering

   You have an idea you keep coming back to. A book you want to write. A podcast you want to start. A business, creative project, or next chapter you can see yourself pursuing. But starting means finding out what happens when the idea leaves your head. What if it isn’t as good as you thought? What if nobody wants it? What if you don’t know exactly what you’re doing yet? Jill Pickering has spent more than 20 years making creative work as a musician, songwriter, producer, podcaster, and author, including touring with Kelly Clarkson. She’s also learned that you can’t answer every question about an…

3. 

   E59 · 28 Sep 2026 · 42 min

   When Good Communication Isn’t Creating Connection

   We have more language for healthy communication, boundaries, and emotions than ever before. So why can our relationships still leave us feeling so disconnected? Dr. Lee Long believes part of the problem may be where we put our attention. When a conversation becomes difficult, we often focus on finding the right words to get the other person to understand, respond differently, or change. We may genuinely believe we’re trying to communicate better, without realizing how much energy we’re putting into managing the outcome. Dr. J.J. Peterson and Lee explore what changes when we bring some of…

4. 

   E58 · 21 Sep 2026 · 35 min

   Let AI Make Room for What Only You Can Do

   AI can write, research, organize, automate, and produce at a scale that would have been impossible for most people a few years ago. But Dan Cumberland thinks the more interesting question is what all of that frees you up to do. As AI takes on more of the execution, it can create room to go deeper—to spend more time on the ideas that are working, the problems worth solving, and the decisions that need your experience and judgment. It can also force a bigger question: If technology can perform more of the tasks you associate with your work, where do you bring the most value? Dan and Dr. J.J.…

5. 

   E57 · 14 Sep 2026 · 20 min

   What Can You Do When You Can’t Fix It?

   What do you do when a problem is so big that anything you could possibly do feels insignificant? On September 11, 2001, Dr. J.J. Peterson was thousands of miles from home, volunteering with a medical clinic in a rural village in the Dominican Republic. With almost no information and no way to change what was happening back home, someone in his group finally asked a simple question: “What can we do?” Twenty-five years later, J.J. still comes back to that question when the suffering in the world feels too big to hold, much less fix. He reflects on the difference between control and agency,…

6. 

   E55 · 31 Aug 2026 · 31 min

   Staying Grounded When Things Get Hard

   Something will eventually not go according to plan. Maybe a project doesn’t turn out the way you hoped, a difficult conversation catches you off guard, or life takes you in a direction you didn’t expect. You can’t control all of it, but you can get better at what happens next. Dr. J.J. Peterson talks with wellbeing educator, author, and Self-Care Sensei Jan Raeder about how knowing yourself can help you stay grounded when things get hard—and respond with more intention when they do. Drawing from positive psychology, behavioral change research, and 30 years in martial arts, Jan offers a…

7. 

   E54 · 24 Aug 2026 · 30 min

   Courage Is Something You Practice

   A year ago, Dr. J.J. Peterson launched Badass Softie with a lot of questions. What if nobody listened? What if it went nowhere? And maybe the hardest one: Who am I to do this? A year later, the fear wasn't the thing that disappeared. J.J. changed. After a year of conversations about ambition, vulnerability, leadership, visibility, work, and what it means to stay human while doing big things, one idea keeps rising to the surface: courage isn't something you either have or you don't. It's something you practice. Sometimes courage means moving forward. Sometimes it means changing the plan,…

8. 

   E53 · 17 Aug 2026 · 40 min

   Are You Being Kind—or Just Avoiding Conflict?

   It’s easy to tell yourself you’re being kind when you decide not to say the hard thing. You don’t want to hurt someone, create tension, or turn a small problem into a bigger one. But what if avoiding the conversation isn’t actually kindness? Matt Turner learned that putting people first sometimes means making people uncomfortable. After growing Clownfish Events into a multimillion-dollar company recognized as one of the UK’s best places to work, he built a culture where employees practiced giving honest feedback—even when that meant telling the person running the company what was difficult…

9. 

   E52 · 10 Aug 2026 · 26 min

   The 3 Marketing Emails Every Business Needs

   Ever spend more time deciding what to write than actually writing it? If marketing feels harder than it should, the problem may not be your writing. You may simply be asking the wrong question. Dr. J.J. Peterson remembers sitting down every week to write emails and wondering what to say. Everything changed when he stopped asking, "What should I write?" and started asking, "What does this email need to do?" Dr. J.J. Peterson closes out this marketing series by sharing three email frameworks you can return to again and again. Each one has a different job, helping move a customer forward at a…

10. 

    E51 · 3 Aug 2026 · 37 min

    Stop Marketing Like Everyone Is a Stranger

    If your marketing feels exhausting, you're not imagining it. Every week there's another platform to learn, another algorithm to understand, and another tactic promising to help you reach more people. But what if the problem isn't that you need more attention? What if it's that you're acting as though every customer relationship starts at zero? Marketing strategist Raj Lulla believes we've been taught to chase strangers while overlooking the people who already know us, trust us, and want to see us succeed. In this conversation with Dr. J.J. Peterson, he challenges the assumption that growth…