July 1, 2025 • 14 mins
🎧 Episode Summary:
In this solo episode, Tracie peels back the curtain on one of the biggest myths holding people back — motivation. Spoiler alert: motivation isn’t something you wait for — it’s something you create. Listen in as Tracie shares how taking imperfect, bold action fuels momentum, which in turn, builds motivation. If you’ve ever caught yourself saying, “I should really…” — this episode is your wake-up call.
✨ What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- Why waiting for motivation is a trap (and what to do instead)
- The sneaky damage of the word should in your self-talk
- How momentum, not magic, builds motivation
- A simple formula to shift from stuck to in-action
- The truth behind “Consistency beats intensity”
🛠️ Actionable Tips from Tracie:
- Ditch the word should — replace it with intentional action
- Decide what you’re going to do, when, and tell someone about it
- Start small — any action counts and builds momentum
- Lean on consistency — even imperfect action fuels motivation
- Write down your next action and share it with a trusted person
🎤 Memorable Quote:
“Motivation follows momentum — and momentum starts when you take bold action, even when you don’t feel like it.”
🔥 Bold Moment of the Episode:
When Tracie admits recording solo episodes isn’t easy — and does it anyway, live and unscripted, showing us all how to walk the talk of bold, imperfect action.
📱 Connect with Tracie:
Find Tracie in The Gather Community on Facebook or connect on LinkedIn. Share what action you’re taking — she'd love to cheer you on!
🚀 Join the Bold and Brilliant Podcast Community:
Love these conversations? Be part of our growing circle of women taking bold action every day. Search The Gather Community with Tracie Root on Facebook and plug into the support and inspiration you need.
🌟 Rate & Review:
Are you loving these bold conversations? Rate, review, and share the podcast — your feedback helps other brilliant women find their next spark of motivation.
Thank you for supporting The Bold and Brilliant Podcast!
Find out what's up with Tracie by connecting on your favorite social media channel, and with The Gather Community by joining us at an upcoming online event or receiving our mailing list. Go to:
https://www.tracieroot.com/links
to find upcoming events, workshops, courses and more!
We're just getting started, so I hope you subscribed, and please leave a review so we can start building some podcast-momentum!
xoxo
Your host,
Tracie Root
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tracie (00:35):
Hey everyone, it's Tracie, and I am here because
the Bold and Brilliant podcastis my podcast.
And when I created it lastyear, when I came up with the
concept, I decided I wanted todo a combination of interviewing
amazing women, which I lovedoing, gather communities based
on connecting and highlightingother amazing women leaders and
(00:56):
entrepreneurs.
But I also wanted to share someof my thoughts and my expertise
honestly, related to buildingcommunity, entrepreneurship,
leadership coaching, holdingspace for people so that they
can grow and thrive, all thesekinds of things.
And most of the podcasters thatI talked to as I was creating
(01:20):
the, all of these ideas told methat the interviews are easy.
Because there's someone elsethere.
But making yourself sit downand do solo episodes is not as
easy, is a little morechallenging.
And I have so found that to betrue.
So here I am doing a soloepisode, bringing you some
(01:41):
thoughts, and what did I do?
I decided to just get anaction.
I don't know how it's going togo.
That is okay, becauseperfection is not required.
Really what I wanna do is be anexample for other podcasters,
for other people in my communityto show that even when you're
(02:02):
not sure what to do, the mostimportant thing is to take
action.
Take bold action.
This is what I always say.
So what did I do?
I ask my friend over here on mysecond screen, Mr.
Chat, GPT, I've decided that.
He or she, they, I'm gonna callmy chat.
GPT.
(02:22):
They, I'm very LGBT inclusiveanyway.
Gender, neutral.
They are going to help me witha bunch of topics with bullet
points and my chat.
GPT knows me quite well nowbecause the support that they
give me related to, helping mework through ideas has been
(02:43):
monumental for my business.
Don't knock it till you try it,people.
And one of the 30 topics withbullet points it just gave me is
called the truth aboutmotivation.
It's not what you think.
And so this is the one I'mgonna talk about because it's
just so spot on for exactly whatwe're talking about already.
(03:04):
So here we go.
The truth about motivation isthat it's not.
A thing like motivation isn't athing you can get.
It's something that comes fromwithin after you already take
action.
So the biggest trick of all ofthis motivation stuff is to get
(03:29):
into action.
I actually was talking with myteenager about this very same
thing not long ago, that whenyou're feeling unmotivated.
The number one thing you can dois to take action.
Any kind of action, just dosomething.
Because here's the thing, ifyou don't feel like getting
(03:50):
started, you are not gonna startthose feelings like they ball
up inside us to when we decidethat not only do we not feel
like it, but even if we did,it's just gonna turn out
terrible and.
So why should we even start?
And there's that word shouldcreeping into the narrative.
(04:15):
It's the worst word I literallyhave done, literally is another
one of those.
I have done everything I can totry to remove the word should
from my vocabulary entirely.
I don't really know of any goodplace where the word should can
live and be helpful.
Because anytime we think Ishould do this, I should do
(04:39):
that.
That should be that way.
They should be that way.
Life should be easy.
It's just, it's like a, it'snot necessarily that it's a
judgment, although a lot oftimes it is a judgment that we
are judging it for beingdifferent than what we think it
should be, but that.
(05:01):
There is no one way foranything to be, so how can we
say it should be anything?
Even when we're talking aboutpeople like this is a good
example, people treating peoplewith kindness.
People should treat people withkindness.
That's a phrase that I don'tknow that anyone at a first
(05:21):
glance would really argue about.
'cause treating people withkindness is great.
I love it.
It's my goal to treat everyonewith kindness.
Doesn't mean being a doormat,it means, not treating them with
unkindness.
But to say people should treatpeople with kindness implies
(05:44):
that you know all of thesituation and you know the
relationships and you know allof the details inside and out
and up and down and throughrelated to one person treating
another person with kindness.
So that's a good example of theidea of should not.
Being a great like philosophy.
(06:04):
And so when we tell ourselves Ishould do these things, if I
had told myself I should do somesingle solo episodes if I had
let that kind of fester in me, Ithink that I would've felt
really poorly about my own.
I don't know what the rightword is.
I would've felt poorly.
(06:25):
I would've felt bad.
I dunno if poorly is the rightword.
I would've felt bad about whatI've done to date and how I
haven't done the things that Itold myself I was going to do,
and I clearly am not movingforward with my goal and all
those things.
So if I listen to myselfsaying, I should do this thing,
I probably will do the opposite.
(06:47):
That's kind of like a toddlerthing too, right?
You tell a little kid youshouldn't do that, and of course
they're gonna do it, right?
You tell a teenager that's, youshouldn't do that.
They're gonna do it becausethat's all about pushing
boundaries and growing.
Well, if we're gonna tellourselves now that we're grown
adults, that we should orshouldn't do something.
(07:08):
Well, we might actually listento ourselves because sometimes
we're not in that toddler orteenage stage where we are
trying to push boundaries.
We're adults and we're kind oftrying to stay safe and sane.
So when you don't feel likegetting started, we don't wanna
(07:29):
tell ourselves, oh, you shoulddo something or you shouldn't do
something.
Just know that it's okay to notfeel like doing it.
Then do it anyway.
If you know it's the rightthing to do for your progress or
goals or growth, because youdon't have to feel like it to
get started.
(07:49):
You just have to start.
My mentor, you know, when Ifirst started working with my
business coach, the concept of.
Just making a decision andgoing with it that day was very
not where I was at the time.
That's why I hired a coach, andwhen she told me to decide
(08:13):
when, where, what you're gonnado, and then schedule it and
then tell someone about it, andthen keep telling people about
it, and then figure out whatyou're gonna do with it.
I, it was frightening.
It was terrifying.
And I did it anyway because Itrusted her.
To guide me.
'cause that was the wholereason we were working together
in the first place.
(08:34):
And why I made the investmentin my time and in my thoughts
and in my money.
And I still think back to thatday where, wow, it was such a
simple formula.
Decide what you're gonna do,when you're gonna do it, what
you're gonna charge, what it'scalled, how to talk about it a
little bit.
And then get started.
Just get started.
(08:54):
Take action.
Take bold action.
And ever since that day I'vebeen in action.
Now, am I perfectly consistent?
No, because perfection is notrequired, but consistency is
huge.
And the thing is thatmotivation, back to the truth
about motivation, motivationfollows momentum so much like a
(09:16):
rock rolling down a hill.
You know, you see a, you'veseen boulders at the tops of
mountains and they're justsitting there.
But if that boulder gets inmotion.
It's not only gonna startrolling and keep rolling, but
it's probably gonna keep rollingfaster until it gets to, you
know, a certain velocity.
What's that called?
(09:38):
Terminal velocity, right?
The fastest it could probablygo, but it's all about getting
it started because when itstarts, then it continues and it
builds up momentum.
It builds up its speed, itbuilds up momentum so that it
can keep continuing with lessand less effort.
So when you start by takingaction, you keep taking action.
(10:02):
Now, taking action doesn't seemso difficult.
So mo motivation followsmomentum.
And the last thing, which isthe whole reason why I started
today is that consistency beatsintensity.
Now did I ask my chat, GBTFriend to give me.
A topic to talk about today?
(10:23):
No, I asked them to give me 30topics.
And what's today, June 13th?
Well, 30 topics.
I'm not gonna be doing thisevery day, or at least I'm not
gonna be releasing the episodesevery day.
But 30, honestly, 30 might be ayear's worth of content.
(10:44):
But even if with these 30, if Ionly like 20 of them.
I'm gonna be good till like Q4this year.
That's exciting.
That's like, that's enough to,again, give you more like
excitement about taking action.
So the motivation continues.
(11:04):
It's thrilling to think that infront of me I have at least
probably 20 topics that I could.
Honestly sit down and recordright now.
They don't have to be long.
They don't have to take a lotof thought because these are the
things when you've beencoaching as long as I have is my
13th year that we can talkabout anything we've experienced
(11:28):
so much.
I've left corporate.
I started a business.
I had a team.
I lost that team.
I opened a brick and mortarthat closed because of a global
pandemic.
I mean, the things that we havelearned in the last 13 years,
every single one of us are alot.
I don't need to like doresearch to talk about these 30
(11:52):
topics.
I already know them, and it'sjust time to be in action.
To let the momentum carry methrough, and so I'm inviting you
to do the same thing today.
What have you been putting off?
What have you been tellingyourself?
I really should do that?
Well, if you take should out ofit, what could you do right
(12:14):
now?
Or maybe you're not, what ifyou're driving a car but even
right now, if you are driving acar, what could you decide right
now?
Will allow you to take actionagain and again with consistency
so that you can build momentumso that the motivation is within
(12:39):
you and it just starts to comeout.
So that's my invitation for youtoday.
Decide what action you're gonnatake, and as soon as you can
take it, take it.
If you're driving a car, youdon't have to take it right this
second, but think about it.
If you're at your desk rightnow and you can write something
down, think to yourself forright for a second, right now,
(13:02):
what is it that I really dowanna take action on that I've
been holding myself back from?
Let the action build yourmotivation, and if you're
willing.
Tell me in the comments orwherever you're listening to
this, wherever there might becomments or come into our
Facebook group in the Gathercommunity or connect with me on
(13:23):
LinkedIn or whatever, whereveryou can find me.
Let me know what you got fromhearing this, because every
single one of you that arelistening to this, if you like
listening to podcasts, if it'sabout listening to people who
help you with personal orprofessional development, you're
looking for this kind ofmessage.
I know you are because I amyou.
(13:44):
So decide what you're gonnatake action on.
Write it down, send it to me,write it to me, send it to your
accountability partner or yourcoach or whoever, but send it to
someone.
Let it live in the worldbecause once you say it to
another person, it is already inaction.
So let's do it.
(14:05):
We'll talk to you soon.
Thanks.
Hey everyone, it's Tracie, and I am here because
the Bold and Brilliant podcastis my podcast.
And when I created it lastyear, when I came up with the
concept, I decided I wanted todo a combination of interviewing
amazing women, which I lovedoing, gather communities based
on connecting and highlightingother amazing women leaders and
(00:56):
entrepreneurs.
But I also wanted to share someof my thoughts and my expertise
honestly, related to buildingcommunity, entrepreneurship,
leadership coaching, holdingspace for people so that they
can grow and thrive, all thesekinds of things.
And most of the podcasters thatI talked to as I was creating
(01:20):
the, all of these ideas told methat the interviews are easy.
Because there's someone elsethere.
But making yourself sit downand do solo episodes is not as
easy, is a little morechallenging.
And I have so found that to betrue.
So here I am doing a soloepisode, bringing you some
(01:41):
thoughts, and what did I do?
I decided to just get anaction.
I don't know how it's going togo.
That is okay, becauseperfection is not required.
Really what I wanna do is be anexample for other podcasters,
for other people in my communityto show that even when you're
(02:02):
not sure what to do, the mostimportant thing is to take
action.
Take bold action.
This is what I always say.
So what did I do?
I ask my friend over here on mysecond screen, Mr.
Chat, GPT, I've decided that.
He or she, they, I'm gonna callmy chat.
GPT.
(02:22):
They, I'm very LGBT inclusiveanyway.
Gender, neutral.
They are going to help me witha bunch of topics with bullet
points and my chat.
GPT knows me quite well nowbecause the support that they
give me related to, helping mework through ideas has been
(02:43):
monumental for my business.
Don't knock it till you try it,people.
And one of the 30 topics withbullet points it just gave me is
called the truth aboutmotivation.
It's not what you think.
And so this is the one I'mgonna talk about because it's
just so spot on for exactly whatwe're talking about already.
(03:04):
So here we go.
The truth about motivation isthat it's not.
A thing like motivation isn't athing you can get.
It's something that comes fromwithin after you already take
action.
So the biggest trick of all ofthis motivation stuff is to get
(03:29):
into action.
I actually was talking with myteenager about this very same
thing not long ago, that whenyou're feeling unmotivated.
The number one thing you can dois to take action.
Any kind of action, just dosomething.
Because here's the thing, ifyou don't feel like getting
(03:50):
started, you are not gonna startthose feelings like they ball
up inside us to when we decidethat not only do we not feel
like it, but even if we did,it's just gonna turn out
terrible and.
So why should we even start?
And there's that word shouldcreeping into the narrative.
(04:15):
It's the worst word I literallyhave done, literally is another
one of those.
I have done everything I can totry to remove the word should
from my vocabulary entirely.
I don't really know of any goodplace where the word should can
live and be helpful.
Because anytime we think Ishould do this, I should do
(04:39):
that.
That should be that way.
They should be that way.
Life should be easy.
It's just, it's like a, it'snot necessarily that it's a
judgment, although a lot oftimes it is a judgment that we
are judging it for beingdifferent than what we think it
should be, but that.
(05:01):
There is no one way foranything to be, so how can we
say it should be anything?
Even when we're talking aboutpeople like this is a good
example, people treating peoplewith kindness.
People should treat people withkindness.
That's a phrase that I don'tknow that anyone at a first
(05:21):
glance would really argue about.
'cause treating people withkindness is great.
I love it.
It's my goal to treat everyonewith kindness.
Doesn't mean being a doormat,it means, not treating them with
unkindness.
But to say people should treatpeople with kindness implies
(05:44):
that you know all of thesituation and you know the
relationships and you know allof the details inside and out
and up and down and throughrelated to one person treating
another person with kindness.
So that's a good example of theidea of should not.
Being a great like philosophy.
(06:04):
And so when we tell ourselves Ishould do these things, if I
had told myself I should do somesingle solo episodes if I had
let that kind of fester in me, Ithink that I would've felt
really poorly about my own.
I don't know what the rightword is.
I would've felt poorly.
(06:25):
I would've felt bad.
I dunno if poorly is the rightword.
I would've felt bad about whatI've done to date and how I
haven't done the things that Itold myself I was going to do,
and I clearly am not movingforward with my goal and all
those things.
So if I listen to myselfsaying, I should do this thing,
I probably will do the opposite.
(06:47):
That's kind of like a toddlerthing too, right?
You tell a little kid youshouldn't do that, and of course
they're gonna do it, right?
You tell a teenager that's, youshouldn't do that.
They're gonna do it becausethat's all about pushing
boundaries and growing.
Well, if we're gonna tellourselves now that we're grown
adults, that we should orshouldn't do something.
(07:08):
Well, we might actually listento ourselves because sometimes
we're not in that toddler orteenage stage where we are
trying to push boundaries.
We're adults and we're kind oftrying to stay safe and sane.
So when you don't feel likegetting started, we don't wanna
(07:29):
tell ourselves, oh, you shoulddo something or you shouldn't do
something.
Just know that it's okay to notfeel like doing it.
Then do it anyway.
If you know it's the rightthing to do for your progress or
goals or growth, because youdon't have to feel like it to
get started.
(07:49):
You just have to start.
My mentor, you know, when Ifirst started working with my
business coach, the concept of.
Just making a decision andgoing with it that day was very
not where I was at the time.
That's why I hired a coach, andwhen she told me to decide
(08:13):
when, where, what you're gonnado, and then schedule it and
then tell someone about it, andthen keep telling people about
it, and then figure out whatyou're gonna do with it.
I, it was frightening.
It was terrifying.
And I did it anyway because Itrusted her.
To guide me.
'cause that was the wholereason we were working together
in the first place.
(08:34):
And why I made the investmentin my time and in my thoughts
and in my money.
And I still think back to thatday where, wow, it was such a
simple formula.
Decide what you're gonna do,when you're gonna do it, what
you're gonna charge, what it'scalled, how to talk about it a
little bit.
And then get started.
Just get started.
(08:54):
Take action.
Take bold action.
And ever since that day I'vebeen in action.
Now, am I perfectly consistent?
No, because perfection is notrequired, but consistency is
huge.
And the thing is thatmotivation, back to the truth
about motivation, motivationfollows momentum so much like a
(09:16):
rock rolling down a hill.
You know, you see a, you'veseen boulders at the tops of
mountains and they're justsitting there.
But if that boulder gets inmotion.
It's not only gonna startrolling and keep rolling, but
it's probably gonna keep rollingfaster until it gets to, you
know, a certain velocity.
What's that called?
(09:38):
Terminal velocity, right?
The fastest it could probablygo, but it's all about getting
it started because when itstarts, then it continues and it
builds up momentum.
It builds up its speed, itbuilds up momentum so that it
can keep continuing with lessand less effort.
So when you start by takingaction, you keep taking action.
(10:02):
Now, taking action doesn't seemso difficult.
So mo motivation followsmomentum.
And the last thing, which isthe whole reason why I started
today is that consistency beatsintensity.
Now did I ask my chat, GBTFriend to give me.
A topic to talk about today?
(10:23):
No, I asked them to give me 30topics.
And what's today, June 13th?
Well, 30 topics.
I'm not gonna be doing thisevery day, or at least I'm not
gonna be releasing the episodesevery day.
But 30, honestly, 30 might be ayear's worth of content.
(10:44):
But even if with these 30, if Ionly like 20 of them.
I'm gonna be good till like Q4this year.
That's exciting.
That's like, that's enough to,again, give you more like
excitement about taking action.
So the motivation continues.
(11:04):
It's thrilling to think that infront of me I have at least
probably 20 topics that I could.
Honestly sit down and recordright now.
They don't have to be long.
They don't have to take a lotof thought because these are the
things when you've beencoaching as long as I have is my
13th year that we can talkabout anything we've experienced
(11:28):
so much.
I've left corporate.
I started a business.
I had a team.
I lost that team.
I opened a brick and mortarthat closed because of a global
pandemic.
I mean, the things that we havelearned in the last 13 years,
every single one of us are alot.
I don't need to like doresearch to talk about these 30
(11:52):
topics.
I already know them, and it'sjust time to be in action.
To let the momentum carry methrough, and so I'm inviting you
to do the same thing today.
What have you been putting off?
What have you been tellingyourself?
I really should do that?
Well, if you take should out ofit, what could you do right
(12:14):
now?
Or maybe you're not, what ifyou're driving a car but even
right now, if you are driving acar, what could you decide right
now?
Will allow you to take actionagain and again with consistency
so that you can build momentumso that the motivation is within
(12:39):
you and it just starts to comeout.
So that's my invitation for youtoday.
Decide what action you're gonnatake, and as soon as you can
take it, take it.
If you're driving a car, youdon't have to take it right this
second, but think about it.
If you're at your desk rightnow and you can write something
down, think to yourself forright for a second, right now,
(13:02):
what is it that I really dowanna take action on that I've
been holding myself back from?
Let the action build yourmotivation, and if you're
willing.
Tell me in the comments orwherever you're listening to
this, wherever there might becomments or come into our
Facebook group in the Gathercommunity or connect with me on
(13:23):
LinkedIn or whatever, whereveryou can find me.
Let me know what you got fromhearing this, because every
single one of you that arelistening to this, if you like
listening to podcasts, if it'sabout listening to people who
help you with personal orprofessional development, you're
looking for this kind ofmessage.
I know you are because I amyou.
(13:44):
So decide what you're gonnatake action on.
Write it down, send it to me,write it to me, send it to your
accountability partner or yourcoach or whoever, but send it to
someone.
Let it live in the worldbecause once you say it to
another person, it is already inaction.
So let's do it.
(14:05):
We'll talk to you soon.
Thanks.
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