What If Your Biggest Insecurity Is Your Superpower with Tracey Napier

We talk with intuitive life coach and author Tracey Napier about learning to use your voice when fear and insecurity have been running the show. Tracey shares how gratitude, spirituality, and small daily actions help her turn a lifelong challenge into purpose and power. 

• Tracey’s background as an intuitive life coach and how she helps women feel unstuck 
• Growing up with a cleft lip and cleft palate and the mindset traps that follow 
• Feeling miserable in a long corporate career and what changed after a 2022 layoff 
• Learning to be vulnerable and the hard lesson of a friendship breakup 
• Building a spiritual practice after grief and using gratitude to reduce fear 
• Reframing a perceived weakness as a superpower and finding confidence through speaking 
• Tracey’s book framework and the seven steps toward self-mastery 
• Micro actions that compound and the basics that matter more than expensive fixes 
• Final advice on self-awareness and self-compassion as the foundation for change 

Transcript

Welcome And Meet Tracy

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Hello there guys and welcome back to the next episode of Overcome Yourself the Podcast. As you know, my name is Nicole, and I'm so excited to be here today with Tracy. Um, now Tracy is an author and she's got a lot going on. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go ahead and hand it off to you, Tracy. Um, I can't wait to hear more about your book. Um, but please let us know a little bit about who you are and who you help.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Sure. I always thank you for having me on your podcast. I'm excited to be here. I am an intuitive life coach, uh speaker, author, like as you said, and uh host of the podcast, the Tracy Napoleon Podcast, conveniently named. Um who I help is women, primarily women. And I help women, uh, two different types of women really. Those who feel like their physical challenges are holding them back in life, and those who are feeling like they are just stuck and not sure what to do, and maybe they're unhappy in their job, is primarily um what uh who I help. They're unhappy in their job, unhop unhappy in their life in general, and I can help guide them using the frameworks of my book to a much better life. That is amazing.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

So tell us a little bit about your journey and how you ended up doing this, like speaking and being an author and helping women, because I know there's gotta be a good story there.

SPEAKER_00 1:41

Yes. So I have a cleft palette and

Living With A Voice Challenge

SPEAKER_00 1:45

cleft lip, and the cleft palette creates challenges with my speaking voice, and I have always let it hold me back. I have been really shy, especially as a child, I was extremely shy and into my adulthood, and have always been insecure about it, and I thought, well, it's my voice. I can't change my voice, so I'm always just gonna be limited. I'm never gonna be able to feel like I fit in with people because people have a hard time hearing me and understanding me. And I thought, this is just my life, it is what it is, it sucks, right? And I had this, you know, victim mindset really. And it was fast forward, it's a really long story, but fast forward to my corporate life, I was miserable in my job, and I was in the mortgage industry for 26 years, and I learned a lot. It was great for me, but it just became so misaligned and I was so miserable, and I kept praying to God, like, God, what are you gonna change my life? Why I I've been praying and you know, just waiting for the right people with the right opportunity to come into my life. Like, what do I need to do? And finally, God answered my prayers. He closed that door, and I got laid off my job in December of 2022. But it was God saying, okay, I will close that door and open a new one for you, but I'm not just gonna hand you a good life. You have to take initiative and step into your power and learn how to create the life that you want. And, you know, this is in hindsight. At the time I thought, yeah, you know, God is opening the door for me, I'm gonna walk through. And it took a while. I it was over the course of about a year, I started becoming really

Misaligned Career And The Layoff

SPEAKER_00 3:55

intuitive, really psychic. And I had been guided to write a book and to speak, use my voice, create a podcast, um, use my voice however way I could. And I thought, oh no, um, I I'm not used to doing that. And so I decided to write the book. I started writing, and not long after I started writing the book, I heard and simultaneously saw the words get changed, how to become the master of your own life. And I knew that was supposed to be the topic and title of my book. And I thought, oh no. You know, I was recently unemployed, but like I'm unemployed, I'm still trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up, and you want me to write a book on mastery life? Like you have the wrong person. And I don't even use that term. Like, who said mastery life? Like, I don't know, it's boring to me. But I went with it and I wrote this book, and it's a a small uh self-calk book on how to step into your power and create the life that you want. And it was really as much for me as it was for the readers. It was learning, me learning how to step into my power and create the life that I want.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

That is amazing. And so, and now now you're doing it. Now you're talking the talk and you're walking the walk.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

It's terrifying. You know, it's funny because I secretly love to be the center of attention, if you will. Like I want to have the spotlight on me, but my inner child is like, no, no, no, no, no. Not gonna happen. Put her foot down. And so I have all this, you know, fear inside me when I speak and use my voice. But it's a matter of doing it anyway, you know. So I'm pushing forward, I'm doing podcast interviews.

Intuition Awakens And Writing A Book

SPEAKER_00 6:10

I started my own podcast and recently started interviewing guests on that podcast, and I am doing uh videos, short videos on social media, I'm writing poetry, which I love, and so uh, you know, getting my voice out there is not just my physical voice, uh, it's through writing too. And so I'm I'm putting myself out there as hard and challenging as it is.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

I bet. Um, but you're being vulnerable and being vulnerable, especially like Brene Brown says, especially in today's age, is it's brave. It's so it's a very scary thing to do. Um, but it's the humanity that connects us, right? Just because you're doing it and you're inspiring someone else. Well, if she can do it, I can do it too. Um, and so I just want to commend you for that because that is brave. And um, I'm sure your inner child is scared. I think we can all relate to that. Um, you know, but you're showing her that it's okay, that it's safe, and that it's important, right? Um, just using your voice in different formats as well. Because like you mentioned, you know, writing is just another way that we can use our voice. Um, and you sound beautiful, you look beautiful. So I just want to tell that, tell you that as well.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

So I wanted to say thank you for bringing up the vulnerability piece because I have been told now in my adult life that I need to be more vulnerable. In fact, I had a best friend,

Vulnerability And Friendship Lessons

SPEAKER_00 7:55

uh, we were glued as a hip for a few years, and she ended up just walking away from me. Like she never responded to my text messages. Like I knew I didn't do anything wrong, so I couldn't figure out why. And long story short, a few days later I ran into her. Um, we ended up working together again. And I said, can we go out to dinner? Like, I need to figure out like what happened. And so she finally told me it was because I wasn't being vulnerable with her. And she was offended because we were supposed to be best friends and she felt like I shouldn't open up with her. And I thought, oh, really? Like I felt like I was an open book and you know, it certainly wasn't intentional. And so um, so thank you for saying that I'm being vulnerable because you know I always felt like I was, and so now I'm still kind of I think struggling with, well, am I being vulnerable enough or am I not?

SPEAKER_01 8:56

Oh, that's interesting. Um and it's interesting because it would have been vulnerable to say that to you, and then it didn't happen. So that's interesting dynamic there.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

Um yeah, it was a hard lesson learned. Um but now I'm you know trying to be more mindful of what I share and being more open and speak for my heart. And I think for me, at least that is really what globality is, is speaking for my heart and and learning to do that. And so it's um I'm a working progress.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

Of course, we all are, aren't we?

SPEAKER_00 9:36

Yeah, yeah. But it's really funny, um, and so I if you don't mind, I wanted to share really quick about how I kind of started making this ship into not being as afraid to use my voice. Let's do it. Yeah, and so it's been a gradual process and it's still ongoing, of course. But I like I said, I always thought my voice

Spiritual Practice And Belief Shifts

SPEAKER_00 10:05

was gonna hold me back. And after my mom passed away in 2018, I was grieving, you know, significantly, and uh a long story short, it really prompted me to um start a spiritual practice. That's when I really started getting into spirituality and wanting to learn more about God and connecting with God. And I went to church for a while and then I started shifting to more spiritual because religious and kind of different things. But in this process I started becoming more self-aware and started digging into my belief system. And once I started digging into my belief system I realized that it was never my voice that held me back. It was my thoughts and beliefs about it that I did. And that's what really changed everything for me. And I around this time I joined toastmasters and I realized how much I loved speeching. I loved giving speeches. And I asked myself, why do I love it so much? And I realized that it was because I felt heard for the first time. And people were quiet, they were paying attention to me. Whether they were checked out, I don't know. But I felt heard for the first time, and I loved it. So those are really what transformed my my belief and my approach about my voice. And started helping me become more comfortable uh using it. Um, you know, like I said, it's an ongoing journey. And sometimes I'm more confident than others, but other times I'm a terrifying little girl. And it's a matter of like you said, doing it anyway and proving to my inner child that it's safe.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

I love that. Um when you talk about your thoughts, um, one of the things that I talk about in my book that we talk about on the podcast all the time, um, and I use it in terms of perspective, right? Like adjusting your perspective on a situation. So I think it goes in line with the thoughts, right? Because our thoughts direct the story, which directs our uh perception of things. But I want to know in your journey, what role has gratitude played along the way?

Gratitude That Dissolves Fear

SPEAKER_00 13:00

Oh, immensely. I you know, it's funny because I uh I went to a crystal shop one time, and I think it was a weekish, I'm a wiki practitioner, and I think I went there for a wiki show that day, and the shop owner said, you know, and she's highly psychic intuitive, and she said, you know, I have this book over here called The Magic by Ronda Burns. And um, I think you should read it. And um, so I read that book, and then I read uh the Louise Hay book. Um, oh I'm Sean of Link. Uh Incontelian Life. There's another one. Anyway, I forgot now. It's um about gratitude. Oh gosh, I'm John of Lane. But anyway, um, but those books really open me up to the gratitude practice. And, you know, I be paying now, I am practicing gratitude. I feel like I'm constantly expressing gratitude to God, to the universe, my angel guides. And, you know, I pray before every meal and I express gratitude. I express gratitude when I wake up in the morning before I go to bed, and it has been profound. And when I am truly expressing gratitude for my heart, and I feel it with every ounce in my being, it takes away the fear that I have. I notice so I am learning to really try and be in that state all the time. Like once it's possible. It's really helpful.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

I love that. Yeah. Um, yeah, it doesn't coexist with fear, right? And so when you start focusing on it, the fear has to go somewhere. Like you gotta go somewhere else because I'm being grateful right now.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

Right, yeah. I love that. It's amazing how that works. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

So did that did did that gratitude practice play a part in that perspective change that you were talking about as far as your thoughts and things?

SPEAKER_00 15:11

Yeah, I think it's it because uh, you know, during this journey, so many things happened. You know, I was experimenting with different practices and and and things, and around that same time I had uh went to a psychic reader, had a psychic reading, and

Angel Numbers And Reframing A “Weakness”

SPEAKER_00 15:30

she introduced me to angel numbers. And she was like, you know, angels are trying to communicate with you through numbers. And I realized after I got the call that I had been seeing the number 808 for about two years. And it was too quite good that it's gone in like the 80s and 90s. I I forgot the name of it now, but I was seeing that in my head, like Amy Wait, oh, because and I laughed because I was seeing Amy Wait so much. I don't know, I never heard of angel number. But once I started connecting with angels, through angel numbers, or cards, uh, that really helps me with my gratitude practice too, because I became so great cool for the given. And so it is it's just kind of evolved into really grateful for anything that I have, even the voice that I don't love, um, I frequently gifted it. It's my gift, it's my superpower. And, you know, it's challenging, it doesn't make it less challenging, but uh it's what I'm here to uh learn and do, it's like to our schools are here to learn and grow. And the lesson for me is to embrace uh spiritual growth, embrace myself and love myself wholeheartedly as I am, and learn how to use my voice and be confident despite the challenges I face. And so these spiritual practices and crucial growth practices have been tremendously helpful, and now I am encouraging others to embrace them as well, because they're powerful.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

Yeah, I love that in my book. Um I talked about learning to find the superpower in what I thought was my weakness. Um and I think you might be a great testament to that. And one of the things about superheroes, like one of the things that we know, like you know, the basic story is when someone finds out that they have a superpower, they don't just go out and use it, they have to learn how to use it and they have to decide to use it for good, right? Like that's that's like the origin story is like how do I take this and what am I, where am I gonna apply this power? Um, and so you took what you thought might have been your weakness and you turned it into your superpower and you direct that energy um and you get to help others using what's most you, right? Like it's yours. I love that so much.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, it's interesting. Yeah, I love your analogy in your book. That sounds amazing. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

Um, now, uh, what about your book? Can you tell us a little bit? I know you mentioned the framework. So can you tell us a little bit more about your book and

Seven Steps To Master Your Life

SPEAKER_01 18:30

um the transformation that happens upon reading your book?

SPEAKER_00 18:34

Yeah. So like I said, it's called Get Change, How to Become the Master of Your Own Life. And you know, I think a lot of people, including myself at first, didn't really understand what master your life means. You know, I think a lot of us think, oh, you know, does anyone really master their life? Does anyone have this perfect life without any challenges? And you think, no, that's not what it's about. Master your life is learning to, you know, continuously evolve and grow, you can throw, grow through me, and taking control of your thoughts and your life and making it what you want. And it's learning to persevere through challenges. And just learning through and evolve. And and so my book, uh, you know, after I had received the title of the book, a couple of months later, I heard seven steps to master your life. And so I knew those seven steps. And so those seven steps are eliminate bad habits, get out of your comfort zone, get to know yourself, nurture your health, change your thoughts, develop a spiritual practice, and step into your power. And my book is uh uh people have told me it's kind of a lighthearted self-help book, and I use a lot of metaphors. It's only about a hundred pages. It's uh a light read, but I call it small but mighty. But uh, there's a lot of metaphors. I share a lot of stories. Uh, I feel like stories connect us and make the concepts easier to understand. So I do have a lot of stories in there. And uh it's really about taking time to become self-aware and doing small little microactions to change your life and to learn and grow and make life what you want. And at the end of the chapter, I ended up writing it from beginning to end, and when I got to chapter seven, I knew step into power was gonna be the last chapter. And I realized as I was writing that last chapter, I thought, oh, this whole book has been about stepping into power. And uh I it just I kind of had an epiphany. And so I kind of outlined how each chapter is about stepping into power. And uh so that's really what it's about is learning about yourself and going within and growing and taking little action steps to create the life that you want.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

I love that. So many parallels with my book as well. Um one of the things that I I really got to understand was like you said, the the micro actions. But what are those tiny little things that you're doing every day? Because those things add up. Um yes, there was I don't remember. It left. Yeah, I was like, run away like a little bird.

SPEAKER_00 22:02

I know, I do that too. But connecting for me, I know like little actions every day that I take are really my spiritual practice. I connect with my angels and guides. And you know, gratitude practice, like we talked about. Um, but meditation. I connect with my angels and guides through meditation and breastwork and my dreams. I get so many dreams and visions. You know, obviously that's when we're most open and more reflective, and I receive so much wonderful information and guidance in that state. And so I connect that way. And then I do little things like move my body and honor my body. Of course I'm not perfect at it. Uh, you know, I I learn tool sometimes with my body. Um, but I I honor um my needs and uh and do little things like journal and just be consistent

Micro Actions And Simple Daily Habits

SPEAKER_00 23:05

and taking action every day to do something to learn and grow.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

And what I was gonna say is that the actions are all very like I I don't wanna downplay them because they're very important, but it's they're very basic things that we don't need a lot of time and we don't need to invest a lot of money into doing them. So this is kind of like the foundation, the basics, and I I think that's so important. That's something that I wanted to focus on in my book. I didn't want to be, you know, talking about like go to the gym and buy this and buy that because it's not about any of those things, it's about what can I do, the the human things. What are the human things? Like I need to drink water, it could come from the faucet, doesn't matter, but you gotta get some water, you gotta move your body. Like I count 10,000 steps, but maybe you don't want to walk around. Maybe you like to dance, maybe you want to lift some weights if you can't, you know, there's days that I can't walk, and you know what? You can still move, right? Like you can still do something. Um, and you know, get your blood pumping. I follow a girl who does sitting cardio, so she just gets her body moving, you know. And if you're doing that for 30 minutes and you're doing all the exercises, your blood rate goes up, and that's what's important, right? Um, versus getting like an outfit and putting on like expensive shoes and going to the gym and taking pictures of machines and then leaving. Oh my goodness. Anyway, um, so I just wanted to commend you for that as well because it's just there's just like the basic human foundational things that we've got to focus on, like paying attention to your habits. You don't even have to write it down. Like you could just be like, oh, you know what? I do this every day and it's probably not great. What can I do instead? Um, so yeah, I love I love all the things you mentioned. Um, I was like, we're gonna have to exchange books and read each other's books. Um because they are, I feel like they're just very in alignment. Um but what I want to know is how can the audience stay in touch with you? Like speaking of your book, how can we find out more about you and where we can check it out?

SPEAKER_00 25:23

Sure, yeah. The best way to connect with me is through my website. Um, I have a link to my book there, and you can get

Where To Find Tracy And Final Advice

SPEAKER_00 25:30

to know me a little bit through there. Um, but I also have all of my social links on my website too. So you can connect there if you want to um follow me on social media. I'm really active on TikTok and YouTube and LinkedIn. Uh, but I am also on Facebook, not as much on Instagram though.

SPEAKER_01 25:49

Okay, I feel that. Me too. Um, okay, that is amazing. And all of those links will be available down in the show notes. Um, and now before we sign off, I'd like to know um what's like your biggest best tip, the best advice you have. Um, you know, like the the one that's worth all the money that your clients pay you.

SPEAKER_00 26:12

Oh, I have lots of advice. Um, I would say becoming self-aware is critical in your journey because you can't change what you're not aware of. And to mess with the foundation of any personal growth journey, become self-aware and of course be compassionate with yourself. Yeah, yeah. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

Being honest with yourself, it starts with you. That too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So being able to see yourself and just be honest. Um, nothing changed in my life until I realized that the problem was me. And I was like, okay, it's me. It's not everybody else. It's me. I gotta fix this. So yeah, that's that's great advice. Um not really something that anyone can tell you, unfortunately. Um I think that one's a very well-learned one. But if you can listen to this and you can be like, you know what, the problem is be great. Um, sometimes it takes getting to rock bottom, and we find ourselves there, and you're like, uh, so we want to save you from that. So hopefully. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But um, okay, this has been an amazing episode, Tracy. Thank you so much for joining us, and we will catch you guys next time on the next episode of Overcome Yourself the Podcast. Bye.