What I learned from Interviewing 244 Badass Women
Hi, I’m Bonnie Marcus. Welcome to Own Your Ambition, a weekly newsletter where I offer my best advice on how to successfully navigate the workplace as a woman today. A former CEO who made it to the C Suite from an entry level, executive coach and published author, I share my experiences and lessons learned from my tenure in corporate, focusing on giving women proven tools and strategies.
For the past five years, I’ve hosted the podcast, Badass Women at Any Age. Last week, I released the last recording.
Today, I not only celebrate my guests and my listeners, but explore what I learned from my conversations, and it’s alot!
Last week, I posted the final episode of Badass Women at Any Age.
Two hundred and forty-four interviews. Hundreds of hours of conversations. And one overwhelming feeling: deep gratitude.
When I launched this podcast, I wasn’t trying to define what it means to be a badass. I was trying to understand it. What makes a woman resilient? Where does courage come from when life knocks you flat? How do women reclaim their power after loss, failure, betrayal, illness, ageism, or invisibility?
After 244 conversations, I can tell you this:
Being a badass has very little to do with bravado—and everything to do with becoming.
As one guest, Becky Galli told me, “Sometimes the challenges that women face, no matter how significant, can lead to opening up new opportunities.”
Badass Is Not a Personality Type
The women I interviewed were founders, executives, entrepreneurs, artists, activists, athletes, caregivers, healers, and reinventors. Some were bold and outspoken. Others were quiet, thoughtful, and deeply introspective.
What they shared wasn’t a personality trait. It was a choice.
A badass is not the loudest voice in the room. She’s the woman who decides—again and again—not to abandon herself.
She listens to her inner knowing even when it contradicts expectations.
She speaks the truth even when her voice shakes.
She walks away from what no longer fits, even when it costs her status, certainty, or approval.
Badassery is not fearlessness. It’s fear plus forward motion.
Or, as another guest, Pam Luk put it, “Fear is really trying to protect you from things that could hurt you, but it also keeps you from the really good stuff that could come from trying something new.”
Courage Is Built in the Hardest Moments
Nearly every woman I spoke with could point to a defining challenge:
A career derailment or public failure
A health crisis that forced a reckoning
A divorce, death, or devastating loss
Being dismissed, underestimated, or erased because of age or gender
A moment when the life she built no longer felt like her own
What struck me wasn’t the hardship itself—it was what came after.
Courage didn’t appear as a lightning bolt. It arrived quietly, through small decisions:
To ask for help
To rest instead of push
To say no without apology
To begin again, imperfectly
Resilience, I learned, isn’t about “bouncing back.” It’s about bouncing forward—changed, wiser, and more self-trusting than before.
Bianca Best shared her motivation: “I have always leaned into pursuing what has excited me and followed the potential opportunities, even if I felt a bit scared.”
Purpose Is Often Discovered, Not Planned
Many of these women didn’t set out to find their “purpose.”
Purpose found them—in the rubble of what fell apart.
A layoff became a calling.
A diagnosis became a mission.
A breakdown became a breakthrough.
Again and again, I heard versions of the same truth:
“I never would have chosen this—but I wouldn’t give it back.”
Purpose wasn’t about titles or productivity. It was about alignment.
As Jodi Silverman shared, “Women often find their purpose in the process of overcoming their own challenges.”
Doing work that mattered.
Living in integrity with their values.
Using their hard-earned wisdom to make things better for someone else.
Power Is Reclaimed From the Inside Out
One of the biggest myths I want to call out is that power is something bestowed—by a job, a partner, an institution, or a stage of life.
The most powerful women I interviewed didn’t wait to be chosen.
They chose themselves.
They stopped shrinking to make others comfortable.
They redefined success on their own terms.
They learned that boundaries are not selfish—they’re self-respect.
And perhaps most importantly, they stopped apologizing for their ambition, their voice, their age, and their earned authority.
Power, I learned, is not domination. It’s ownership.
Karin Moore captured it perfectly: “Holding yourself small is never the right answer.”
Age Is Not a Liability—It’s the Advantage
The phrase “at any age” was never a tagline. It was a declaration.
The women over 40, 50, 60, and beyond brought something extraordinary to the conversation: perspective.
They knew what mattered.
They had survived enough to trust themselves.
They were less interested in proving—and more committed to living.
If anything, age didn’t diminish their badassery.
It refined it.
As Stella Fosse, in her 70s, told me, “We’re all unique and freeing ourselves to step out of the box and enjoy life is truly badass.”
What This Podcast Gave Me
Hosting Badass Women at Any Age changed me.
It deepened my empathy.
It strengthened my conviction.
It reminded me—over and over—that there is no expiration date on courage, reinvention, or impact.
One guest, Frieda Birnbaum, described a badass mantra perfectly, “Absolutely throw out the rules and life your life.”
If there’s one thing I hope listeners take away, it’s this:
You don’t become a badass by having it all figured out.
You become one by staying awake to your life.
By meeting hardship with honesty.
By choosing growth over comfort.
By claiming your purpose—even when the path is unclear.
That is what 244 women taught me.
And that lesson will stay with me—at any age.
Thank you to every woman who shared her story, and to every listener who found their own reflected back.
I love how you reframed “badass” from bravado to becoming. The through-line of women choosing themselves, especially after loss or derailment, feels both powerful and deeply human. Your point about age refining courage rather than diminishing it is such an important counter-narrative. Two hundred and forty-four stories later, it’s clear the real lesson is this: power is ownership, not permission.
I am going to save this post and read it when I need a boost!! To remind myself why I do what so do, when the walls feel like they are closing in and I give in to taking on too much. I’m late to the party but glad I have 100s of episodes to listen to!