Let me start with a question. What is one thing you know you should be doing, but you keep putting it off because it scares you? Is it starting that business? Or maybe you're launching a podcast? Could it be you want to speak up in a room? Maybe share your ideas publicly. Fear rarely shows up yelling, don't do it. Fear is much more smarter than that. It whispered things like, wait until you're more prepared. People might judge you. Or you should learn a little bit more before you try it. And before you know it, months, sometimes years, have gone by. Today we're going to talk about something that holds more people in the chokehold than the lack of talent, money, or opportunity. And guess what? Her name is Fear. Or his name is Fear. More specifically, how Fear convinces capable people to stay small and how you can move forward anyway. Welcome back to the Pivot to Profit podcast, where personal growth meets business strategy. This podcast is for people who understand that building something meaningful, whether it's a business, a nonprofit, an initiative, whatever it is, requires more than strategy. It requires growth. Growth and how you think, growth and how you lead, and sometimes growth and how you are willing to continue to show up in spite of. I'm your host, Tavier Woolley, a nonprofit leader, communication strategist, an entrepreneur, an all-around pivot queen. And more importantly, I'm someone who has learned that most of the pivots that change your life start with one uncomfortable decision. Y'all, it gets very uncomfortable. The decision to act even when you feel uncertain. Today we're talking about fear. How it works, why it feels so convincing, and how to stop letting it make your decisions. Let's get very open and honest. Fear is a liar with good marketing. Yeah, I know, right? Those are some headlines. Fear has excellent branding. It knows exactly how to package itself so it sounds responsible. Fear rarely introduces itself as fear. It doesn't say, hey Tavier, I'm fear. I'm coming to distract you. Instead, it disguises itself as practicality. It sounds like maybe you should research just a little bit more. Maybe now isn't the best time. And maybe you should wait until things are more stable. You've heard some of these before? Yeah, I know, right? And those thoughts can feel very reasonable. But sometimes what we call being realistic is actually fear trying to delay action. So let me hit you with a mini lesson. Number one. Yep, there is. I know. Preparation moves you towards the goal. Preparation keeps you cirgling around the idea without any actual action. Preparation sounds like I need to outline my plan this week. And procrastination, well, it sounds a little bit like this. I should probably read five more books before I try. At some point, the learning phase has to turn into the doing phase because experience will teach you more than endless preparation ever will. So here's an action step. Take one goal you've been preparing for and write down the next real step that requires action, not research. For example, instead of research podcast equipment, the action step becomes record the first test episode. Instead of learn more about starting a business, the action step becomes register the business name or domain. Your rule this week: one action before one information. So let's talk about why fear feels so real. We're going to include a little bit of the brain science here. So let's talk about something that I find deeply fascinating about how our brains work. Because understanding this helps explain why fear can feel so powerful, even when you're not actually in danger. Our brains are designed to keep us alive. Right? Thousands of years ago, our survival depended on recognizing threats quickly. Predators, dangerous environments, and things that quite honestly could just take us out at any moment. So our brains develop something called the fight or flight response. Y'all heard that before? Well, great. When your brain detects a threat, it releases stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. Your heart rate will increase and your breathing changes. Your body prepares to either fight the danger or run from it. That response is incredibly useful when you're facing a real life threatening event. But here's the interesting part. Your brain doesn't always know the difference between a physical threat or a perceived psychological threat. Your brain can trigger the same response when you are speaking in public, posting content online, starting something new, or taking a professional risk. Even though those things are not life-threatening, your body reacts as if they might be. So are you ready for mini lesson number two? Feeling nervous is not always a warning sign. Sometimes it's simply your brain reacting to uncertainty in unfamiliar territory. So here's your action step. The next time fear shows up, pause and ask yourself, am I actually in danger right now? Or am I simply doing something new? If it's the second one, take three slow breaths and immediately complete one small forward action. This trains your brain to associate growth with safety. Now I want to share something personal because I think a lot of people quietly struggle with this. The fear that showed up the strongest in my own journey wasn't the fear of failure. It was the fear of visibility. It was the idea of stepping forward and using my voice publicly, speaking on issues that matter and advocating for change, taking up space in conversations that affect communities, especially when you're speaking about systems, inequities, or things that challenge the status quo. Visibility comes with attention. And let's be honest, not all attention is positive. For a long time I worried about what that could bring. Criticism? Unwanted attention? People misunderstanding the work? Eventually I had to ask myself a hard question. Was staying quiet protecting me or limiting the impact I knew I could make? The truth is the work I care about, such as building opportunities for the overlooked in our community, creating platforms for the voices that aren't always heard, requires visibility. Are you ready for mini lesson number three? Sometimes the fear isn't about the work, it's about what comes with the work. Visibility, responsibility, criticism, and attention. So let's jump into an action step. Choose one way to use your voice publicly this week. That could be simply posting an idea, record a short insight, andor share a perspective you normally keep to yourself. Visibility grows with repetition. One of the most common traps people fall into is waiting until they feel ready. Mmm. Did I strike a chord right there? But psychological research actually shows that humans are very bad at predicting when they feel ready for something new. There is a concept in behavioral science called action bias. Action bias suggests that taking action, even imperfect action, tends to produce better outcomes than waiting for the perfect time. Another important concept comes from psychologist Albert Bandura, who introduced the idea of self-efficacy. Self-efficacy is your belief in your ability to succeed at something. But here's a key insight from decades of research. Self-efficacy does not grow from thinking about success, it grows from experiencing progress. Bandura identified four primary ways people build confidence. Let's get into it. Mastery experiences, doing something successful. Number two, social modeling. Seeing people like you succeed. That is one of my personal favorites that has helped me along the way. Number three, encouragement from others. And number four, managing emotional responses like anxiety. Notice something important. Actually doing the thing. You build confidence by collecting small wins. This means waiting to feel ready is often backwards because readiness is usually the result of action, not the prerequisite. Another concept that supports this is what Stanford psychologist Carol DeWack calls growth mindset. A growth mindset recognizes that ability develops through effort in learning. People with a growth mindset don't wait until they're confident. They start with the expectation that they'll improve through practice. Here's mini lesson number four. Confidence is not something you wait for. Confidence is something you build through experience. Every action you take provides your brain with evidence that you are capable of learning and adapting. So here's an action step for you. Use what I call the 70% rule. If you feel about 70% prepared, begin. Write the post. Submit the proposal. Record the episode. Your goal is not perfection. Your goal is data and experience because experience is the fastest way to increase confidence. So let's talk about the cost of inaction. When people think about risk, they usually focus on the cost of failure. But behavior economists have studied something called loss aversion, a concept introduced by psychologists Daniel Kamen and Amos Traversky. Forgive me if I have butchered those names. Lost aversion means humans feel the pain of potential loss more strongly than the excitement of potential gain. So our brains naturally focus on what could go wrong. But here's the problem. This bias causes us to underestimate the long-term cost of doing nothing. There is also a concept called opportunity cost. Opportunity cost is the value of what you miss out on when you choose one option over another. When someone delays starting a business, they aren't just avoiding risk. They are also giving up experience, skill development, relationships, and networks, and, of course, financial opportunities. Research on career development also shows that early experimentation leads to better long-term outcomes. People who try ideals earlier gain more information and adjust faster. People who delay experimentation often lose time that cannot be recovered. So here's lesson, many lesson number five. The real risk isn't always failing. Sometimes the real risk is never starting. Years of hesitation can quietly erase opportunities you never even get to see. So your action step, do something called a future regret test. This is what I do for all things. Ask yourself this question. Five years from now, which will I regret more? Trying and failing or never trying at all? Then take one concrete step within the next 72 hours toward the option you would regret not pursuing. Small actions compound into major outcomes. So up to this point, we've talked about what fear is and why it happens. But the real question becomes: how do people actually move through fear in a practical way? Psychology research gives us some helpful answers. One of the most well-documented methods is something called exposure therapy. Exposure therapy is widely used in cognitive behavior therapy and it's based on a simple idea. A simple idea, but it's not simple, so don't think you're a therapist, okay? The more you gradually expose yourself to something that feels intimidating, the less power that fear has over time. Your brain learns through experience that the situation is survivable. This process is called habituation, where repeated exposure reduces the intensity of the emotional response. For example, the first time someone speaks in public, their heart races and their mind goes blank. But if they speak again, and again, and again, their nervous system slowly recalibrates. The situation stops feeling like a threat. The same principle applies to professional growth. Publishing your ideas, starting a business, and recording your voice or sharing your story. The first attempt often feels overwhelming. And yes, I get overwhelmed and experience these things still. But repetition rewires the brain. Another useful framework comes from acceptance and commitment therapy, often called ACT. Now remember, I'm not a therapist. You're probably not a therapist, but maybe you are. So we're just taking these concepts very lightweight. Instead of trying to eliminate fear, ACT encourages people to acknowledge the emotion and still take action aligned with their values. In other words, fear can exist in the room. It just doesn't get to control the outcome. Mini lesson number six fear loses influence when you build evidence through repeated action. Your brain stops treating something as a threat once it has enough experiences proving that the situation is indeed manageable. So here's an action step. Choose one activity that currently triggers discomfort, something that matters to your goals. Then create a graduated exposure plan. Start small and repeat consistently. For example, if public speaking makes you nervous, then step one, share an idea in a small meeting. Step two, record a short video explaining your perspective. Step three, speak to a small audience. And step four, accept a larger speaking opportunity. Consistency is what retrains the nervous system. The goal isn't dramatic leaps, the goal is progressive exposure to growth. One of the biggest misconceptions about courageous people is that they feel less fear. I don't know why people think that. Psychologists' study and motivation often point to values-based decision making. When people are clear about their values, what they care deeply about, they are more willing to tolerate discomfort and pursuit of those values. Think about people who advocate for change. Entrepreneurs who build companies despite uncertainty. Leaders who challenge broken systems. Their courage doesn't come from the absence of fear, it comes from clarity about why the work matters. When purpose becomes stronger than hesitation, behavior shifts. This is why so many people experience a turning point when they connect their work to something meaningful. For me, that realization became clear when I thought about the issues I cared deeply about. Once I framed visibility around the impact it could create, the fear of attention became less important than the possibility of change. Purpose reframes risk. Mini lesson number seven. Fear becomes easier to move through when your actions are anchored in clear values and purpose. When people know why something matters, they develop more resiliency in the face of uncertainty. Your action step. Take 10 minutes this week and write down three answers to this question. What kind of impact do I want my work or voice to have over the next five years? Then ask yourself, what actions today would move me slightly closer to that vision? Not perfect actions, not massive actions, just directional progress. Clarity about purpose is one of the most powerful andotes to hesitation. If you're listening today and you're feeling nervous about your next step, let me remind you of something very simple. Fear doesn't always mean you're going the wrong direction. Sometimes it means you're standing right at the edge of growth. The life you're building will ask you to step outside of what feels comfortable. Not perfectly, just courageously enough to take the next step. If this episode resonated with you, share it with someone who might be letting fear hold them back. And if you're building something meaningful, whether that's a business, a movement, or something more personal, keep going because the world doesn't need more people who feel ready. It needs more people who are willing to move forward anyway. This is the Pivot to Profit Podcast where personal growth meets business strategy. I'll see you in the next episode. Y'all come back now, you hear?