Founder & CEO, Capital City Roofing | Co-Founder & CEO, BuilderLync | Co-Founder & CEO, Airus Advisory | Founder & Chairman, Feeding the Future Project, Inc.

On October 8, 2026, I published my first book, Courage Is a Practice: A Field Guide for Builders, Leaders, and Operators Under Pressure.

It is not a motivation book. Most people misunderstand courage. They believe it is a personality trait, something the naturally confident possess and the rest admire from a distance. That belief is the persistent enemy of the book, and every chapter takes one swing at it.

The line that sums up the whole argument is the one on the back cover: courage is not a feeling. It is a system.

The Practice Code

The system has a name. I call it the Practice Code, and it is four disciplines. Each one corrects a place where most people lose courage in ordinary life.

  • Doctrine: a predetermined standard of behavior that governs your action when emotion would otherwise take control.
  • Discipline: the practice of acting before confidence arrives. Confidence is built by repeated action under uncertainty, not generated by introspection beforehand.
  • Perseverance: the willingness to continue when results are delayed, attention is absent, and the work has stopped feeling new.
  • Faithfulness: obedience to principle when the scoreboard is silent and the reward has not arrived.

Where It Came From

The ideas in the book were not formed in theory. They came together during the first months of independent ownership at Capital City Roofing, when the standards I had committed to were being tested by conditions that were not yet rewarding them. The framework kept taking shape during the growth that followed, when the same standards were tested in the opposite direction, by the temptations that come with success.

What I learned across both seasons is that the architecture matters more than the conditions. If you want the longer personal story behind the book, start with The Brad Strawbridge Story.

The Eleven Chapters

The book is eleven chapters. Every chapter ends with five Practice Drills, specific exercises that most readers can run within seven days.

  1. Chapter 1: Grit Is Incomplete. Why grit alone is insufficient and what must replace it when emotional fuel runs out.
  2. Chapter 2: Courage Is Not a Personality Trait. Dismantling the belief that courage belongs to certain personality types.
  3. Chapter 3: Doctrine Over Emotion. Predetermined standards of behavior as the most underrated tool for sustained performance.
  4. Chapter 4: Discipline Before Confidence. Why discipline must precede confidence, not follow it.
  5. Chapter 5: Courage Under Doubt. How to move forward without pretending doubt is absent.
  6. Chapter 6: Faith Without Results. Maintaining faith during seasons when effort produces no visible return.
  7. Chapter 7: The Boredom Test. The quiet enemy that ends more pursuits than failure ever does.
  8. Chapter 8: Identity Is Built by Repetition. How repeated action under pressure builds who you become.
  9. Chapter 9: The Power of Quiet Wins. How small, invisible victories compound into durable success.
  10. Chapter 10: The Cost of Visibility. What public leadership actually costs and how to pay it without losing yourself.
  11. Chapter 11: Perseverance Is Leadership. Endurance as the form of leadership people actually trust.

A Reading Guide with discussion questions at the back supports book clubs, leadership teams, men's groups, mastermind cohorts, and EOS off-sites.

Who the Book Is For

It is a field guide for operators, founders, executives, contractors, team leaders, pastors, coaches, and anyone else carrying responsibility that exceeds their title. It is the system I run my own businesses on, written the way I would explain it to another operator across a kitchen table.

Inquiries and Speaking

Courage Is a Practice was published on October 8, 2026, and is independently published through Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.