How to Turn Fear Into Action, And Change Your Life | Ep. 24

How to Turn Fear Into Action, And Change Your Life with Jim Tracy

Fear usually gets labeled as the problem.

But what if fear is actually the tool that changes everything?

In this episode of The Story Lab, Jonathan Howard sits down with Jim Tracy to break down how fear works, why most people misunderstand it, and how you can start using it instead of avoiding it.

From overcoming a stutter and a deep fear of public speaking to becoming a pilot later in life, Jim shares real stories that prove one thing:

Fear doesn’t disappear when you wait.
 It transforms when you act.

This conversation also dives into something most creators completely miss…
 stories change behavior, facts don’t.

Because people don’t remember what you tell them.
 They remember what they feel.

In this episode, we cover:

•  Why fear is a “great slave but a terrible master” 
•  The real reason you’re afraid to show up on video 
•  How to understand risk instead of blindly avoiding it 
•  Why public speaking fear is more common than you think 
•  How storytelling creates emotional connection and drives action 
•  The difference between giving information and creating impact 

The big takeaway:

If you keep waiting to feel ready, you’ll stay stuck.

Action is what rewires fear.

Connect with Jim Tracy:

•  Website: https://thejimtracy.com
  
  
•  YouTube: The Grampian 

If you enjoyed this episode:

•  Follow The Story Lab
•  Leave a review 
•  Share this with someone who needs to hear it 

And if this episode hit a little too close to home… good.
 That’s usually where change starts.

Transcript

Relaxing On Camera

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Yeah, number one, I think you should just relax. No one's gonna come through the video and punch you. It's gonna be okay. And you know, we have these beautiful editors that they can even make an old timer like me look good. So, well, they can make me look not bad. So in any event, one of the things about video that people sometimes fail to grasp is that video is your friend.

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Welcome to another episode of the Story Lab. Thank you very much for joining us. And Jim, thank you for joining me today on this episode.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

Well man, my pleasure. It's a it's a treat to be here.

SPEAKER_00 0:49

Thank you. And I and I know I'm kind of talking about a weird thing with you. I I wanted to talk about fear. Because a lot of what you you um what I saw in your profile and stuff is how you talk about fear and the benefits of fear and all the different that fear brings. So why do you talk so much about fear and why is it important to you?

SPEAKER_02 1:09

Well, for starters, fear is a great slave but a lousy master. If you use it to benefit you, then it becomes something that you can that you can generate and harness and gather momentum with, which is really important, whether you're in business or in school or in life, whatever. Fear alone is the natural consequence of not understanding risk. Because if you know you're gonna die, then you just like you understand the risk, you just don't do it. But sometimes when you truly understand that you should be afraid, be afraid. But sometimes when you just don't know, maybe you gotta do some investigation.

What People Fear Most

SPEAKER_00 1:49

I love that. I love that because so many people fear public speaking. They fear things that you know aren't necessarily things that we should fear. How do you work with people to understand what they should and shouldn't fear in certain situations?

SPEAKER_02 2:04

Well, you know, a lot of times what I do is I get an opportunity to tell them about me because stories that people can relate to. Uh you talked about fear of public speaking. When I was a young man, I was a stutterer. And so I suffered from glossophobia or a fear of public speaking. And as I grew out of stuttering, I actually grew into, and my father encouraged me and made me fight back against that fear by public speaking. And actually, when I was in high school then, I won a state competition in prepared speech. It was pretty awesome. But it's not just that. If you look at the fears that Americans have, and I'm going to read these in order: fear of public speaking, fear of heights, fear of insects, fear of drowning, fear of needles, fear of small spaces, fear of flying, number seven, fear of strangers, number nine, fear of zombies, and ten, fear of darkness. And if you look at those, I guess those are the top ten common fears in the world, we speak every day. We talk to people, we talk with people, we talk about people. Everything that we do to communicate begins after observation with a verbal gesture. And that verbal gesture says, Hey, how are you doing? I mean, if I come up and I say, Jonathan, what's happening? We've never met before, but you know that I mean you no harm. And actually, when you find out what public speaking can do for you, you get up on stage. And if you engage the audience immediately, they're rooting for you. They're on your side. So it's just been a long history. I was afraid of heights, so I started a tower business. I still don't like insects, I'm not gonna lie, but I'm not afraid of them anymore. I don't have a fear of drowning, I don't have a fear of small spaces, although they're a bit uncomfortable. Fear of flying. I didn't really like flying that much, and I am now a pilot of a twin-engine jet. When you can establish command and control over fear, you can you can have a resolution do it. So yeah, it's uh it's a natural consequence of understanding the rest.

Beating The Fear Of Video

SPEAKER_00 4:10

I don't know if I'm ever gonna get over my fear needles. That is one that I'll get over. But I have overcome the fear of public speaking and actually showing up on video, one of the things that I used to be terrified of doing, and one of the things that many of my clients actually struggle with is that fear of showing up on video. So based on what you know from showing up on you know, public speaking and stuff, what could you what tips could you give people if they want to overcome that fear of showing up on video like we're doing right now?

SPEAKER_02 4:40

Yeah, number one, I think you should just relax. No one's gonna come through the video and punch you. It's gonna be okay. And you know, we have these beautiful editors that they can even make an old timer like me look good. So, well, they can make me look not bad. So, in any event, one of the things about video that people sometimes fail to grasp is that video is your friend. This gives you the ability to communicate in mass, but you can do it in a conversation that's one-on-one. So, as I'm talking to you, Jonathan, our message is going much farther.

SPEAKER_00 5:19

Yep. Yeah, so many more connections that we're reaching because we're having this conversation.

SPEAKER_02 5:25

Exactly. And I have no risk talking to you, even though we've never met. I assume that you don't mean me harm. You're not gonna throw me out of an airplane, you know, hook me up with a zombie jab needles in me, and you can't because you're in New York and I'm in Idaho. Understand the risk, mitigate the risk with intelligent knowledge, and then apply that knowledge, which is called wisdom. So, yeah.

Learning To Fly Later In Life

SPEAKER_00 5:46

Absolutely. I love that, and it's so so useful for people. So, flying a jet. Talk to me about flying a jet and how you got to that point.

SPEAKER_02 5:57

Yeah, I when I was 47 years old, I was out in South Dakota with my dad, and we looked up saw a saw plane, and he said, It's been a long time since I've done that. This is in April. He said I'd give anything to do that again. The following October, I gave him a flight, and that turned into serving my wife and serving my grandkids because it was a five-hour drive to see our grandkids or a one-hour and 15-minute flight, and that served our company and served our culture. And pretty soon I'm flying over mountains and I'm looking down and I'm going, this is probably not a great idea to fly over these mountains with a single engine. It was actually over the River of No Return wilderness area. I thought this would be a prophecy if my engine went out, so I got a twined and they started flying jets at 63. That is true.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

And you know, I'm obviously a big fan of stories with the story lab. So I love to hear all these stories about, you know, how people got to do certain things. And while I don't know that I should be flying a jet, I love that that's you know, something that at 63, if I decide, okay, I can fly a jet.

SPEAKER_02 7:01

And not to follow reach. It's within reach for everybody, yeah.

Leading With Stories Not Rules

SPEAKER_00 7:06

So you're also a fan of stories. So how do you use stories in your business, in the things that you do, and how have they helped you?

SPEAKER_02 7:16

Well, you know, I think anybody who has been a leader has to be or has to become an effective storyteller. Because if you think back, if I give you information, facts and figures, and you know, safety's a great topic. If I tell you, wear your safety glasses, put your, you know, steel toe boots on, don't forget your hearing protection, you're gonna go la la la la la la. So instead I took guys that were in a very high risk occupation, and I said, Let me tell you about Charles. I told him time and time again to put the saw blade down. Time and time again he didn't do it. I didn't correct him, so it's my fault. I made him stop, but I never actually got after him hard enough where he changed his behavior. One night I got a call, and Charles' fingers were laying on the ground next to the table saw. I had to go get his fingers and take them to the hospital. That wasn't the hard part. The hard part was when I had to go to his house and had to get his wife and wake up his children. And the fifty feet between my car and his porch is the most intimidating walk I've ever had. And I never want you to have to make that walk, and I never want to meet your wife in that fashion. And now people think about whoa, there's consequences that go way beyond a boss getting mad at me. There's consequences about about what happens to my co-workers, my boss, my wife, my children, etc. etc. When they can visualize what safety actually could mean for them, not to them, but for them, all of a sudden now you're changing behaviors through illustration of reality. And emotion. That emotion, especially emotion.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

That makes it that makes it real. And yeah. Yeah, because I'm sitting here thinking about that 50 feet to the door and what I would be feeling if I had to make that walk. And I'm going, I'm glad I'm not playing with saws.

SPEAKER_02 9:28

And when they can relate to it through the eyes or the depth of their own experience by using your experience, that's really low tuition learning. And stories they remember, facts they flush.

A Safety Story That Sticks

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Yep. Absolutely. I just did a presentation recently about how facts don't matter. It's all about how people feel. Absolutely. I love that. Um, because we're getting close to that, you know, that silly time limit I put in place, Jim. Um, what is a way that people can reach out to you if they want to learn more, they want to hear more of your stories, they want to connect with you?

SPEAKER_02 10:02

Yeah. Um, I have a website called the Jim Tracy T-H E, because there's more than one of us. I am the Jim Tracy, P-R-A-C-Y.com. Or you can find me on YouTube at thegrampian, G-R-A-M-P-I-O-N.

SPEAKER_00 10:17

Tell us quickly how you got that at that uh Okay.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

Um my son or my grandson Wesley and I were playing a card game at a lake cabin, and uh, Wesley's a really competitive kid, and I beat him, and he stood up with a start and he said, You're not my grandpa. And I'm like, What? Are you kidding me? He goes, Yeah, you're not the champion. And then he smiled, he got that wry Wesley smile on his face. He says, You're my grampian. And that was a moniker that I will wear forever, man. I'm not bold enough to give it to myself, but I'm sure loving that he gave it to me.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

There you go. There you go. Hey, you gotta take what you're giving. Perfect. And that's a great one. That's great. Yeah. Well, thank you very much for being here. I am so happy we were able to talk a little bit about fear and storytelling and all those things. I think it'll be really beneficial for the audience. Is there anything else I missed that you want to make sure you get in before the end?

Where To Find Jim

SPEAKER_02 11:09

No, I just want to say thank you and thank your audience. And if you haven't liked and subscribe on the Story Lab yet, you need to do that.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

Well, thank you. Yes, like, subscribe, and if you haven't, write a review if you love what you're hearing, because I want to hear what you like, and I do want to hear what you don't like, so send me some of that information separately, too.

SPEAKER_02 11:29

So perfect.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

Thank you very much for being here, Jim. I appreciate it. And uh look forward to seeing you again and talking to you soon.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

All right, my pleasure. Take care now.

SPEAKER_00 11:38

Take care.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Stand up.