Real Talk Fridays: FEAR

Real Talk Friday: FEAR

Real Talk Friday started for a stupid simple reason:

I’ve got a bunch of thoughts written down that I never do anything with.

So this is me doing something with one of them.

Let’s talk about fear.

Not the cute “I’m nervous” kind. The kind that sits in your chest and makes you second-guess your own leadership. The kind that shows up right when you’re about to do the thing you know you have to do.

November 1st, 2023. We moved to Arizona.

Most people don’t know this, but when we pulled up to our new apartment… we had $300 left. That’s it. No cushion left over after bills. No safety net saved up somewhere else.

Just $300.

We didn’t have jobs lined up. We didn’t have some pipeline of work waiting for us. We didn’t have a big network out here. I knew one person.

So yeah… the fear was loud.

And what’s wild is it wasn’t fear of failure...

Failure wasn’t even an option in my brain. There was no “go back to Utah and figure it out.” That wasn’t the deal. That wasn’t in the vocabulary.

It was more like… fear of success.

Like: what if this actually works?

Because if it works, then everything changes.

If it works, that means this isn’t a temporary experiment.
If it works, it might mean we have to make this a real shift.
If it works, it affects my business, my family, my kids, the way we live, the way we move, all of it.

And that’s where the fear gets sneaky.

It disguises itself as logic.

It pretends it’s just you being “responsible” and “careful.”

But really it’s your nervous system trying to keep you in the familiar… even if the familiar is slowly killing your momentum.

For me, in Arizona in the beginning was this constant flip-flop:

One day it was excitement, drive, possibilities, “let’s go.”
The next day it was: what am I doing? Did I just gamble my whole life?

And here’s the part I don’t say enough:

I had to pull something out of myself that I didn’t want to access - relentlessness....

Relentless was my word for 2023. And then it stayed. 2024. 2025.

Not because it sounded cool... because I needed a word that could hold me steady when my emotions couldn’t. Relentless meant: you keep moving even when you don’t feel brave.

Relentless meant: you don’t wait for reassurance.
Relentless meant: you don’t let fear be the decision-maker.

And if I’m being honest, most people are living inside of “what if.”

What if it doesn’t work.
What if I look stupid.
What if I lose money.
What if I mess it up.
What if it’s harder than I thought.

But there’s another “what if” that people don’t talk about enough:

What if it works?

What if you actually get what you say you want?

What if you actually become the version of you that you keep thinking about late at night?
What if your life asks you to level up permanently?

That scares people.

Because success has weight.
Success demands decisions.
Success demands responsibility.

So here’s my challenge, and I’m saying it to you and to me: stop living in your comfort zone if you already know it’s not where you’re supposed to stay.

If you want the change, you don’t get to wait until you feel ready.
You figure it out.
You take the step.
You deal with the emotions after you move.

No one is coming to upgrade your life for you.

And if you’re in a season where fear is loud… good.

It usually means you’re standing at the edge of something real.

That’s what I’ve been learning out here.

That’s my Real Talk Friday for today.