Brave & Big

Joey Odom
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Christianity

What if you could live a Brave and Big life? One where you have great friends, a thriving marriage, a plan to accomplish your goals; a life where you’re fit, spiritually healthy, and constantly becoming everything God created you to be.Welcome to Brave & Big. We are Chris Hart, founder and CEO of Brave Coaches, and Joey Odom, public speaker, author, and former tech co-founder, and we have been friends for over 25 years. Throughout our friendship, we have had thousands of conversations, have gotten better from each one, and want you to be part of those conversations. We’ll talk about what it means to be Brave and live Big - things like grit, living with no excuses, following Jesus, being a great parent, spouse, and friend. Sometimes it will just be the two of us and sometimes it will be high performing athletes, business leaders, and performers. At the end of each episode, you will walk away with a small step that you can immediately implement to take ground in your life.We’re glad you’re here. Let’s be Brave & live Big.

  1. 1d ago

    Guardrails: How To Protect The Vision For Your Life

    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. — SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW  If this episode hit, do us a favor: subscribe wherever you listen, and leave us a 5-star review. It's the single biggest thing you can do to help us reach more people with this show. 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

  2. Aug 25

    The Man in the Arena: Vanderbilt’s Blaze Berlowitz & Cole Adams

    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. — SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW  If this episode hit, do us a favor: subscribe wherever you listen, and leave us a 5-star review. It's the single biggest thing you can do to help us reach more people with this show. 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

  3. Aug 18

    Wartime: How To Win The Hardest Season (Part 2)

    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. — SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW If this episode hit, do us a favor: subscribe wherever you listen, and leave us a 5-star review. It's the single biggest thing you can do to help us reach more people with this show. 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

  4. Aug 11

    Wartime: Marriage & Parenting In The Hardest Season (Part 1)

    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. — SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW If this episode hit, do us a favor: subscribe wherever you listen, and leave us a 5-star review. It's the single biggest thing you can do to help us reach more people with this show. 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

  5. Aug 4

    Protecting Purpose: Overcoming Isolation, Insecurity, and Inconsistency

    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. — SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW  If this episode hit, do us a favor: subscribe wherever you listen, and leave us a 5-star review. It's the single biggest thing you can do to help us reach more people with this show. 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

  6. Jul 28

    Leadership: How to Be a Leader Worth Following

    Pastor Bill Scheer looked at a twenty-year-old Chris Hart and said something that changed the trajectory of his life: you can't make a mess I can't clean up. That's what a leader does. They take someone somewhere they couldn't get on their own. Joey Odom and Chris open this episode with a simple reframe: start looking at every facet of your life through the lens of leadership. Not just the boardroom, but the grocery store, the sideline at your kid's game, the dinner table tonight. Because the world is looking for someone to follow, and the question isn't whether you have a title. It's whether you're worth following. From there they get practical. Chris walks through the questions that reveal how you actually lead: what naturally flows out of you, what energizes you, what drains you, and then the two big ones, what's your uniqueness and what's your eliteness. Most people can't name theirs because it's so innate they assume everyone has it. He tells the story of a five-foot-three boat captain in Cabo who, after four hours of catching nothing, refused to go chase small fish. Then they close on the three things every leader owes the people following them: support, confidence, and hope. In this episode: — Leadership as influence: taking people where they couldn't go alone  — Why the evidence of real leadership is trust and confidence in the people following you  — Three questions to find your lane: what flows, what energizes, what drains  — Uniqueness and eliteness, and why your superpower is the thing you assume everyone has  — On this boat, we catch Marlin: the case for refusing to chase small fish  — Position vs. posture, and why leaders out front are the ones who take the hit  — If you're not in your lane yet, be great where you are and watch where it leads  — Support, confidence, hope: how to infuse courage, because good leaders build leaders  — Why presence becomes a leader's superpower in the age of AI  — The elevation shift: driveway, rooftop, helicopter, 30,000 feet This week's small step: Answer two questions for yourself. What's your uniqueness, the thing you do that most people don't? And what's your eliteness, the thing others do that you simply do better? Then take your answers to someone you trust and ask whether they agree, or what they'd add. It's a few minutes of reflection that can change how you show up in every room. Be Brave. Live Big. — SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW If this episode hit, do us a favor: subscribe wherever you listen, and leave us a 5-star review. It's the single biggest thing you can do to help us reach more people with this show. FOLLOW THE HOSTS Joey Odom — @joeyodom.life; www.joeyodom.life Chris Hart — @thechrishart · @thebravecoaches; www.bravecoaches.com REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE Pastor Bill Scheer. Andy Stanley on wisdom as the recognition that everything in life is connected. Victor Wembanyama's confidence with the Spurs down 3-1 in the 2026 NBA Finals. The idea that we suffer more in imagination than in reality (commonly attributed to Seneca). Produced by Sonus Podcasts · sonuspodcasts.com

  7. Jul 21

    Technology and Relationships: How to Become a 1% Family

    Joey Odom looked down at his phone and missed his five-year-old's first soccer goal, and the moment his son turned to the sideline to find his face. That miss reframed everything, and it opens this conversation about technology, attention, and the relationships that actually matter. Joey, who co-founded a company built entirely around changing our relationship with technology, makes a case that's more hopeful than the usual doom: our least valuable relationship, the one with our phones, has the greatest impact on our most valuable relationships. And that relationship is something you can edit. He and Chris Hart get honest about their own convictions (the "daddy, watch me" moments, reading a bedtime story with one eye on a screen) and name what's actually at stake, from loneliness and isolation to phones dulling our ability to feel and AI dulling our ability to think. Then it gets practical and doable. Start with the mirror, not your kids. Watch the 3M parent trap (you model a bad relationship, your kids mimic it, then you get mad at them for it). Get aligned with your spouse. Set one sacred time and one sacred place that stay phone-free. And when someone you love says "watch this," put the phone down and mean it. In this episode: — Why your least valuable relationship has the greatest impact on your most valuable ones  — The good news hidden inside "Dad, you're on your phone too much"  — Why proximity is the whole ballgame (91% of us keep our phones on us around the clock)  — How phones dull our ability to feel deeply and AI dulls our ability to think deeply  — The isolation trap, and why the promise of connection so often leaves us lonelier  — The 3M parent trap: model, mimic, mad, and how to break it  — Sacred times and sacred places: one of each, phone-free, to change the culture of your home  — The date-night phone swap, and the six words that tell someone they matter more than your screen This week's small step: For the next seven days, spend 20 minutes a day physically distant from your phone. Not in sight, not on your body. Anchor it to something better: quiet time, a family show, a walk around the block. Treat it like a muscle and build from there. (For scale: two hours a day of distance would hand you back a full month of your year.) Be Brave. Live Big. — SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW If this episode hit, do us a favor: subscribe wherever you listen, and leave us a 5-star review. It's the single biggest thing you can do to help us reach more people with this show. FOLLOW THE HOSTS Joey Odom — @joeyodom.life; www.joeyodom.life Chris Hart — @thechrishart · @thebravecoaches; www.bravecoaches.com REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation, and his 2026 TED talk on AI. The idea of cognitive offloading. Blaise Pascal on our inability to sit quietly in a room alone. Stranger Things (the Vecna and "Mr. Sandman" illustration). Produced by Sonus Podcasts · sonuspodcasts.com

  8. Jul 14

    Vision: You Can’t Build a Life You Can’t See

    Plenty of people have sight and no vision. Joey Odom and Chris Hart spend this episode on the difference, and on the fact that vision isn't reserved for the naturally visionary. It's something you can go get. They start with blind Bartimaeus on the roadside in Mark 10. When he starts calling out for Jesus, the crowd tells him to be quiet, and he gets louder. Chris makes the case that this is where vision actually begins: refusing to let other people's voices (or your own pride, or your fear of looking foolish) talk you out of asking for something big. Bartimaeus threw off the beggar's garment before he was healed, because he knew he wasn't going back. Then it turns practical. David didn't see himself as a shepherd boy with a slingshot, he saw himself as someone who had already killed a lion and a bear, and Goliath was simply the next thing standing between him and the vision. So you take inventory of what you've already overcome. And once vision shows up, you protect it, because where there's no vision, people cast off restraint. Chris lays out four guardrails every person needs, and the guys close on writing the vision down so plainly that other people can read it and run. In this episode: — Vision as imagination plus wisdom, and why both halves matter  — Bartimaeus and the courage to get louder when people tell you to be quiet  — Why pride and the fear of embarrassment quietly kill vision, especially once you've had some success  — How Chris got a chunk of his own vision on day four of a fast, and what happened two weeks later  — Why vision turns opposition into opportunity  — The lions and the bears: taking inventory of what God has already brought you through  — You're a giant killer, and the giants worth naming (generational patterns, addiction, a lid at work, a lie your kid believes)  — Four guardrails to protect the vision: the opposite sex, what you consume, your devices, and money  — Vision, strategy, tactics: where you're going, how you'll get there, and what you do today This week's small step: For the next seven days, take 30 minutes each morning with the distractions killed. Ask God for vision, personally and professionally, and write down what comes. It may not be the full picture yet, but write down what you get and let it start pulling you. Be Brave. Live Big. — SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW  If this episode hit, do us a favor: subscribe wherever you listen, and leave us a 5-star review. It's the single biggest thing you can do to help us reach more people with this show. FOLLOW THE HOSTS Joey Odom — @joeyodom.life; www.joeyodom.life Chris Hart — @thechrishart · @thebravecoaches; www.bravecoaches.com REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE Blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10). David and Goliath (1 Samuel 17). Habakkuk 2:2 (write the vision and make it plain). Proverbs 29:18 (where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint). Helen Keller on sight without vision. Produced by Sonus Podcasts · sonuspodcasts.com

See All (19)

Trailer

About

What if you could live a Brave and Big life? One where you have great friends, a thriving marriage, a plan to accomplish your goals; a life where you’re fit, spiritually healthy, and constantly becoming everything God created you to be.Welcome to Brave & Big. We are Chris Hart, founder and CEO of Brave Coaches, and Joey Odom, public speaker, author, and former tech co-founder, and we have been friends for over 25 years. Throughout our friendship, we have had thousands of conversations, have gotten better from each one, and want you to be part of those conversations. We’ll talk about what it means to be Brave and live Big - things like grit, living with no excuses, following Jesus, being a great parent, spouse, and friend. Sometimes it will just be the two of us and sometimes it will be high performing athletes, business leaders, and performers. At the end of each episode, you will walk away with a small step that you can immediately implement to take ground in your life.We’re glad you’re here. Let’s be Brave & live Big.

Information

  • Creator
    Joey Odom
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    19
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Brave & Big
  • Show Website
    Brave & Big

You Might Also Like