Stop Spinning Your Wheels, Energy Determines Results

Beyond the Brand with Tracy Stroderd is a space for real conversations, honest storytelling, and those quiet aha moments that change how we live and work. In this episode, Tracy dives into a topic many of us feel but rarely slow down enough to name: energy.

Have you ever felt like you’re doing all the things—working harder, checking every box—yet nothing seems to flow? Tracy shares her personal journey through anxiety, burnout, fear-based decision making, and the ruts that can keep us stuck on a hamster wheel of effort without momentum. Through candid stories from her twenties, navigating divorce, single motherhood, career pivots, and entrepreneurship, she unpacks how doing less—with intention—can actually create more clarity, alignment, and results.

This episode is an invitation to slow down, catch your breath, and reflect on the patterns shaping your life. Tracy explores how fear blocks creativity and connection, why alignment feels calm instead of forced, and how momentum is created when your energy is working for you—not against you.

If you’re feeling exhausted, stuck, or disconnected from the life you thought you were building, this conversation will remind you that another way is possible—and you’re not alone in finding it.

✨ Grab your coffee, get comfy, and let’s go beyond the brand—together.

If this episode resonates, take a screenshot, share it to your stories, and tag @TracyStroderd. Tracy would love to connect with you.

Transcript

0:02

Hey friend, I'm Tracy Strader, and welcome to Beyond the Brand. I'm all about real conversations, fresh perspectives, and those little aha moments that help us grow in business or life. Over the years, I've built a multi six figure online community by doing one simple thing. Bringing people together through open, honest storytelling. I've been coaching and mentoring entrepreneurs for nearly three decades. My passion is helping others find direction, balance, and healing, and creating spaces where people feel safe enough to just be real. So grab your coffee, get comfy, and let's go beyond the brand together. Good morning. I hope you had a wonderful weekend, and I am looking forward to our time together this morning. Today I wanna talk to you about your energy. Have you ever felt like you're putting in all the hours, checking all the boxes, but nothing? Seems to click. Nothing flows easily. Life might even feel a little bit forced. Today I wanna share with you how doing less can actually produce more, and it's all about managing your energy. I remember in my twenties feeling so overwhelmed and riddled with anxiety because no matter how prepared I was in my day-to-day life, nothing ever seemed to go right. And as I began to reflect on the things that were happening around me. I was looking at my mindset and just trying to gain clarity in how I could improve the quality of my life, my energy. I was tired of being sleepy all the time and I knew something had to change for me. And as I started through that process, I realized that I was really not happy in my marriage. And when I made the decision to divorce my husband at the time, I started to gain some clarity about the life that I wanted to live. Now as I tell you this, please know that. It wasn't always glamorous. I made a lot of mistakes along the way, but I knew that it was possible for me to live a life that was full of joy and purpose and that it was designed by. To do that, that I could be the mom I wanted to be. I could eventually have a new partner and that relationship would flourish. I, I believed all of that was possible. So as we navigate the conversation this morning, keep your, please keep in mind that, I am not trying to tell you. I have it all figured out, but I do know through the reflection process, there have been a lot of times in my life where the strategies that I'm gonna share with you have worked extremely well for me. Let's talk about the rut. I know you've probably been stuck in the mud before and your wheels are spinning and you keep doing the same things over and over, expecting different results, and nothing ever changes. That's the rut. A lot of times the ru. Fear-based energy. And when you have that fear-based energy in your world, it blocks creativity, it blocks confidence, and most of all, it blocks authentic connection because you're very guarded in this fear-based energy. So it's not the most comfortable version of yourself. In order to get out of this rut, you actually have to do the opposite of what your brain wants you to do. Let me share an example. So as I was contemplating divorce, the last thing I wanted to do in that moment in time was be divorced a second time. I didn't want that in my life. And I was operating in this fear-based energy of what are other people gonna think about me? I'm only in my twenties this, how is this gonna work? What's this gonna look like? So I was very worried about other people's perceptions instead of my own wellbeing. Through that time, what ended up happening is I was pushing harder and trying harder, and I remember my mom saying to me, she said, Tracy, you have got to get out of this relationship, or it's literally gonna kill you. I knew that she was right. I knew that I had to make the shift, so I did. Fortunately, I had her support and her confidence was unwavering in me way before my confidence was. But I made the shift and I started a new career. Now, at that time when I made the shift, single mom, three kids. My ex-husband was not supportive. Financially, he wasn't supportive. In the timeshare planning, there was zero support. So this was all on my shoulders and they were my priority. So I took a job and it was an eight to five job. I was very nervous about that because at that point I had been, I. Basically self-employed for a decade. I did do during that 10 year str sprint, I did work in property management, but I really felt like that was self-employment too, because my office was actually connected to my condo and my hours were nine to four. The kids caught the bus right at my office. They came home from school right at my office and I had a lot of flexibility in that management role that I had there. So it had been a good 10 years. By the time I took this job where I had to work eight to five, there was a dress code, business suits, high heels, pantyhose, and it was horrible fitting into this eight to five box within the first 90 days. I loved the work that I was doing. Don't get me wrong, I love, love, love that, but the box that I was being forced into did not work for me at all. So after 90 days, I gave my notice and I recall my employer saying to me that, Tracy, you've got a lot of irons in the fire. And he said, if you wanna close those deals, I will still pay you a commission on those deals. And I said, great, thank you. The next week I close nine deals. Yes, nine. And I took him all the contracts and he said, what happened? And I said, I was me. I wore the clothes I wanted to wear. I was comfortable, I was authentic, and there was just this beautiful flow and energy. And he said, okay, let's rethink the dress code. Come see me next week. I did and we made some adjustments. I stayed on and it was only probably another F, another three or four months, and I had given my notice and this time I took a role where I got to work from home and I had a steady paycheck. There was no commission. It worked out nicely and I was very successful in that role. But where I really thrived was in the role of being an entrepreneur. And so ma, no matter what kind of work I was doing, I always had this little side hustle because I had learned along the way that. Once you had a relationship with somebody and somebody trusted you, they could come to you for all kinds of different things, and my wheelhouse happened to be advertising, marketing, branding, all of those things. And so that was my first real experience with being in a rut. Figuring out what it was that I actually needed to get out of the rut and get that energy freed up and moving in my life for the longest time. I remember thinking, is this what adulthood is supposed to be like? Because if it is, this is horrible. I don't wanna be a part of this. So I had to figure out that way to design what worked for me. And this is where the whole creating your life on purpose came from for me, that I like. I truly believed that. So as we move forward in this conversation, I wanna share with you one of the things that really helped me through that process. And the first part was catching my breath. I really had to slow down, catch my breath, look at the patterns that I had going on in my life. Analyze my feelings, the behaviors, both good and bad, and looking at those things allowed me to really gain control. It gave me clarity, and when you have clarity, it's much easier to make decisions. So I remember I was so scared to say, I want a divorce. I don't wanna be here anymore. And my brain was telling me to stay. This is safe. Yeah, it doesn't feel good, but it's safe. You know it. And making that decision to do the opposite of what my brain was telling me was very freeing and the, when I knew that I was in alignment, my decisions felt clear. They weren't forced. I was attracting new opportunities. Effortly. My energy felt calm and not chaotic like I was in a hamster wheel. Synchronicities happened regularly for me in my life. I. I felt excited about the direction that I was going, even though I didn't know where it was gonna take me. Ultimately, I was excited about it and my body felt relaxed and not tense for the first time, and over 14 years. Momentum. Let's talk about momentum. This whole process of understanding your energy. When you're living with momentum, you are creating results, and you do not have to have this forced push and feel like you're checking all the boxes and showing up at all the events and doing all the things that are not even humanly possible to do. Efficiently and effortlessly. So if you find yourself feeling stuck in a rut, find yourself feeling exhausted and dreading the day, dreading the week. I wanna encourage you to slow down, catch your breath. Do a little reflection. Look at your patterns, analyze your feelings, analyze your behaviors, and really determine the kind of life that you wanna live, because I am here to tell you it is possible. And if you need help or support in navigating this process, I would be honored to coach you through that process and help you understand the tools. That's what I got for you this week. Thank you for joining me. If there is anything about this episode that resonated with you, please do me a favor and take a screenshot of this podcast and post it on your stories and tag me at Tracy Strader. I would love to connect with you. So thank you in advance and I appreciate you. I'll see you next week.