Podcast | Mindset
Episode 51| December 7, 2024

How to Overcome Fear w/ Marisa Shadrick

She Was Put in Remedial English. She Became a Top 100 Speaker in the World.

As a kid, Marisa Shadrick was placed in remedial English and decided she must be the dumb one. Writing was the last thing she would ever do.

Fear ran the whole show. Public speaking, being judged, being seen.

Then one day, journaling, it hit her. She had no free will. Fear was making every choice before she could.

So she started tearing the fear down, one reframed thought at a time.

In this episode of the Happy Healthy Hustle Podcast, copywriter Marisa Shadrick shares how she went from paralyzed by fear to a top one hundred speaker in the world, and the simple bracelet trick she used to rewire an anxious mind.

Her big reframe: success is the courageous decision you make in this moment.

If fear has been quietly running your choices, this conversation is your first step out.

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“I had no free will. Fear had already made my choices.”

– Marisa Shadrick

Fast Skim & Timestamps

0:00 Meet Marisa: Gratitude as a Superpower
1:45 The Day She Realized Fear Ran Everything
5:07 Where the Fear Came From
7:15 From Toastmasters to Caesar’s Palace
9:10 Turning Your Struggle Into Service
11:47 The Bracelet Trick That Rewired Her Mind
13:25 From the Dum-Dum Class to Copywriter
16:00 Success Is a Daily Decision

Key Takeaways

Gratitude can be a superpower. It is the soil the rest of your values grow in.
Unexamined fear quietly makes your choices before you know you had one.
Your struggle is raw material. Overcome it, then use it to serve others.
Reframe fearful thoughts in real time. Marisa moved a bracelet arm to arm every time she did.
Sometimes growth is tearing down fear and insecurity, so there is room to build.
Redefine success as the courageous decision you make right now. You can practice it many times a day.

Three Petite Practice® Questions

1. Where is fear making my choices before I even notice?

2. What struggle have I survived that could now serve someone else?

3. What would success look like if it were today’s brave decision instead of a far-off destination?

Transcript Chapters

0:00 Meet Marisa: Gratitude as a Superpower

[00:00:00] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Welcome back to the Happy Healthy Hustle podcast. I am here with a special guest. Marisa, please introduce yourself. [00:00:11] Marisa Shadrick: Thank you for having me. I am Marisa Shadrick, an online marketing consultant and certified copywriter. I help people take their ideas and knowledge and turn them into a profitable business online. [00:00:41] Marisa Shadrick: My superpower is gratitude. Everything stems from that place. It is why empathy, service, and community are my core values, and a lot of it comes from the things I had to overcome to even have a business.

1:45 The Day She Realized Fear Ran Everything

[00:01:45] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: What has been your biggest challenge in life, and how did you overcome it? [00:01:49] Marisa Shadrick: It was fear. I love disaster movies, and my husband could never understand why. It is because there is always someone who rises up with courage in the middle of the fear. For a long time I was so much in fear that I did not even realize it, because I stayed very comfortable. As my kids got older and I thought about a career, I saw I had a lot of fears. I worried what people thought. I was afraid of public speaking. I wanted to write, but I was afraid people would think I was dumb. [00:03:30] Marisa Shadrick: One day while journaling, it hit me that I had no free will. My choices were already made by fear. I realized I was a prisoner in my own body, just existing, and I had to change that.

5:07 Where the Fear Came From

[00:05:07] Marisa Shadrick: I looked back to figure out where it came from. I could tell when a thought was fear based, because the moment something felt challenging, the emotion would stir and make the choice in a split second, usually do not do it. I had read that it all starts with what you are thinking. My childhood was a bit broken, with a lot of insecurity. A classmate was murdered when I lived in Los Angeles, my parents divorced, and the fear kept piling up. So I made anxiety my trigger. Every time I felt it, I would stop and ask, what are you thinking, is it true or false, and reframe it. I did that over and over.

7:15 From Toastmasters to Caesar’s Palace

[00:07:15] Marisa Shadrick: I joined Toastmasters to overcome public speaking, because I knew I would need it if I wanted to write. My first icebreaker speech, just five minutes about myself, took me six months to give. They kept telling me to compete. To get them off my back, I wrote something meant to inspire the audience and turned it into a speech. I kept winning at every level, and I ended up speaking in the semifinals at Caesar’s Palace and becoming one of the top one hundred speakers in the world that year. All I was trying to do was overcome my fear, but every time I got on stage, I knew I was doing it for the people who would hear it.

9:10 Turning Your Struggle Into Service

[00:09:10] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: When we struggle with something ourselves, we can use that struggle to help others. A struggle can be a burden, or an experience you share once you have overcome it. You are probably not alone in it. [00:09:53] Marisa Shadrick: So true. Many people built their careers from the ashes, from the broken pieces. A lot of coaches want to share how they overcame something, and that is where it comes from. When I meet someone on a similar path, I understand what they are feeling, because I walked a parallel road.

11:47 The Bracelet Trick That Rewired Her Mind

[00:11:47] Marisa Shadrick: I do not want to oversimplify it. During that six-month competition I gave the speech maybe fifty times. I had a set of about twelve matching bracelets. Every time I got anxious, I would stop, reframe my thinking, and move one bracelet to the other arm, so I could physically see myself renewing my thoughts. In business we think we have to build, build, build. I discovered it is more about tearing down the fears, the insecurities, even pride, so that we can build. Purging all of that felt like freedom.

13:25 From the Dum-Dum Class to Copywriter

[00:13:25] Marisa Shadrick: Copywriting was the furthest thing from my mind. My parents are immigrants from South America, I was very shy, and they put me in remedial English from first grade through high school. I thought I was dumb, so I thought the last thing I should ever do was write. And now copywriting is part of my career. It is amazing what can get in the way of something that is part of your destiny. [00:14:31] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: You do not need expensive equipment to start a podcast or a publishing house to write a book. A diary, or joining Toastmasters, these are simple tools, petite practices you can own and build from. We all play the long game, and consistency is where the power is.

16:00 Success Is a Daily Decision

[00:16:00] Marisa Shadrick: As I grew, I protected what went into my mind. I do not have to accept what culture says. I had to define success for myself. It is not somewhere in the future, because then I could not have it today, and it is not my identity, because plenty of successful people have broken lives. For me, success is the moment-by-moment decision to be courageous. We can practice success many times a day. [00:18:03] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: The more comfortable you get sharing your opinion, the more your tribe aligns with you, and the ones who do not, that is fine. [00:19:33] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Where can people reach you? [00:19:42] Marisa Shadrick: My website is marisashadrick.com, with free resources, and I am always on LinkedIn. [00:20:08] Dr. Christiane Schroeter: Thank you, Marisa, for being here today.

Meet My Guest

Marisa Shadrick

Online Marketing Consultant & Certified Copywriter

Marisa Shadrick is an online marketing consultant and certified copywriter who helps people turn their ideas and knowledge into a profitable online business. A former top one hundred speaker in the world through Toastmasters, she knows firsthand how to move through fear.

Find her free resources at marisashadrick.com or connect with her on LinkedIn.

Meet Your Host

Dr. Christiane Schroeter

TEDx Speaker & Leadership Strategist

I’m Dr. Christiane Schroeter, TEDx speaker, leadership strategist, and host of the Top 1% ranked Happy Healthy Hustle Podcast. I help leaders think clearly, speak with conviction, and take the next step during change.

About Dr. Christiane

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