From Silence to Self-Trust: How Tracey Napier Turned Her Perceived Limitation into Her Purpose

Tracey Napier Interview

Tiff Carson: Have you ever looked at a part of yourself, your voice, your body, your story, and thought, this is the thing that makes me unworthy. This is the thing that holds me back. I know I’ve been there, and I know many of you listening have too, but what if the part of you that you’ve spent your whole life trying to fix isn’t something to fix at all? What if it’s actually the very thing that’s meant to set you free. Today I’m sitting down with Tracey Napier, an intuitive life coach, speaker, and the author of the book Get Changed, and I already feel that it’s going to shift something for both of us. Tracy was born with a cleft palette, something that for years made her believe her voice was a barrier, but now she’s using that same voice to help people unlock their truth, heal their pain and reclaim their lives. I’m so curious to learn how she went from silence to speaking, from hiding to leading, and what she had to unlearn to step into her power and I want you to be curious with me. So before we dive in, I’ll ask you this. 

Tiff Carson: Is there something you’ve been calling a flaw that might actually be your calling? Let’s get started. Welcome to the podcast, Tracey. How are you?

Tracey Napier: Hi!  Thank you for having me. I’m doing well. 

Tiff Carson: Thank you again for being willing to share your story on my podcast. You’ve been a coach, a speaker, a podcast host, and now an author. But before all of that, you were just a girl navigating life with a cleft palate and a big, bold spirit. Can you take us back to who you were before all of this healing work began, and what shaped the woman that you are today?

Tracey Napier: Sure. You know, of course, growing up I was extremely shy and insecure because of my voice. You know, kids would make fun of me. Kids are kids and adults even today make comments like, “I can’t understand a word you’re saying or you’re gonna have to speak up so I can hear you”. And it really got into my spirit. I let it, I allowed it into my spirit. As a kid, you don’t know any better. You have all these voices coming at you and you don’t know who you are and you don’t know the truth from what other people were just saying. And I allowed it to sink in and to define me. I always held myself back.

I was shy. I didn’t wanna talk to anyone. I literally taught myself not to speak unless spoken to then it was a yes or no answer if possible. 

Tracey Napier: I did not wanna talk. I would’ve rather been silent and alone than run the risk of being made fun of. Into my adulthood, I was really shy. I didn’t know how to interact with people. My social skills were not that great. And over time, I just wanted to feel like I fit in. I started talking to people more and over time I feel like I kind of overcame my shyness. Little, little by little, but it really wasn’t until my mom passed away in 2018, I really made a major shift. 

Tracey Napier: I went on this journey of healing and self-discovery, and I really started digging into who I really was, and I realized that it was never my voice that limited me because I always felt, oh, I’m just gonna be limited my entire life. My voice limits me, it’s a barrier. It is what it is. But I realized doing that inner work and discovering what my beliefs were and, and who I was, that it was never my voice that limited me. It was my thoughts and beliefs about it that did, and that really shifted how I approached my life. And it’s not like a light switch where all of a sudden, oh I’m confident and I can use my voice. There’s no issues. It’s a process you know. I still have fear today using my voice, but I am pushing through those fears. I feel the fear and I do it anyway.

Tiff Carson: Mm-hmm.

Tracey Napier: And over this time period, another major milestone, I don’t know if milestone is the right word, but event I guess in my life, was in December of 2022. I was laid off from my job. I had been in corporate for 26 years and miserable for a lot of it. It wasn’t the right fit and after the initial, “oh my gosh, what am I gonna do?” Which lasted maybe 15 minutes…I realized this is a blessing in disguise. I know God is giving me the opportunity right now to take charge of life and figure out what I wanna do and be happy, make the changes I wanna make to be happy. And during this time I became a Reiki practitioner and I started also doing this inner work.

And I think between the two of those things I started becoming really intuitive and psychic.  I was being guided to write a book and to speak, to use my voice in various ways. But the number one thing was write a book. Like, okay, I’ll write a book. And so I started writing this book and about, I don’t know, a few weeks into it, I was sleeping and I heard and I simultaneously saw “Get Changed. How to Become the Master of Your Own Life.” And I thought, oh no, I knew that that was supposed to be the topic and the title of my book.

Tracey Napier: And I thought, oh gosh. I’m unemployed, still trying to figure out what I wanna be when I grow up, and you want me to write a book on mastering life? I’m pretty sure you have the wrong person! 

Tracey Napier: But I started writing this book and you know, I started with an outline and quickly realized an outline is not for me because I felt just intuitively I would just write. So I wrote from beginning to end, and it wasn’t until the very last chapter, that I pulled everything together and the last chapter is called Step Into Your Power. And as I was writing it, I realized this whole book has been about learning how to step into your power and that it wasn’t just for the readers, it was just as much for me as it was for them. It was God saying YOU need to learn how to step into your power, and the best way to learn is to teach right.

Tiff Carson: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Tracey Napier: And so it was a challenge for me. And, you know, I still get messages. I pull Oracle cards and sometimes I’ll get the card and I’ll step into a power, take your power back.  But it was a lesson and through that, I’m learning to trust myself and trust the divine, trust God that I am on the right track and that I am meant to be using my voice.

Tracey Napier: And that it’s safe and I’m practicing using it. I call it practice, practicing through that fear and doing it anyway.

Tiff Carson: So let’s talk about your book more Get Changed. You talk about becoming the master of your own life. What’s one belief or mindset shift that you wish every person could make, especially someone who feels stuck or not enough?

Tracey Napier: I’d say, learning how to trust yourself and believe in yourself, and you do that. One way to do that is to start doing what you say you’re going to do. If you say, I’m gonna go to gym today, and you don’t do it, that just proves that you can’t trust yourself and that you don’t have belief in yourself. So, little micro actions, when you set the intention, okay, today I’m going to write a chapter in my book, or a paragraph, whatever it is. I’m gonna go to the store today and do this, so I’m gonna help my mom do this. You say you’re gonna do, do it because even the littlest things add up to learning how to believe and trust in yourself, and when you do that, you actually learn how to become more calm. It calms your nervous system because you are not on high alert. You’re trusting it, it calms you. I would say just learn to believe and trust in yourself, and of course, believe that you’re worthy because you are. 

Tiff Carson: So you have said that your voice used to feel like a limitation for you, but now you use it to guide others to their power. What helped you shift that story and when did you really realize that your voice was actually a gift, and when did you really start using it?

Tracey Napier: Within the past couple of years, ever since I got laid off, I have been on this journey. Once I got laid off, of course I had more time to do the inner work and I’m still learning…it’s a lifelong journey. I think a lot of people, when I tell people a name of my book, they’re like, oh yeah, they think there’s a misconception about what mastery of life means. A lot of people think, oh, your life is perfect, and that’s not what it is at all. You still have challenges with self-development and growing on this journey and learning about yourself and improving yourself. It’s that constant evolution and learning and growing and that’s how you master your life. You keep learning and growing, and it’s not about perfection. It’s not about not having challenges, it’s learning through them.

Tiff Carson: So you talk about getting laid off as one of the catalyst moments for you. Was there any other specific moments or breakdowns or breakthroughs that pushed you into your personal development and the spiritual exploration? Because I know for me, in my spiritual awakening, I have had one after the other, after the other, after the other. But it’s how I’m moving through those now that’s very different since I’ve been on this healing journey. Is that the same for you or how did that look?

Tracey Napier: Yeah, so I get messages from my angels and guides, I don’t know if you’re intuitive as well?

Tiff Carson: Mm-hmm.

Tracey Napier: Right. So yeah, so I get my messages from Angels and guides primarily when I’m sleeping early in the morning or during meditation right now. So I’m still developing it, you know, it’s an ongoing journey.

Tiff Carson: Mm-hmm.

Tracey Napier: But I get a lot of messages and so I really listen to those. And a lot of them are really quick and I don’t know what they mean. They try their best, but there have been messages that terrify me! 

Tracey Napier: They’re trying to guide me to be more present and I’m working on being present and it’s hard. It’s not something like, okay, I’m honestly present today. And it’s a process. And when you’re nervous system is on high alert and has been on high alert for so long, it’s hard to really calm it down. It takes time.

Tiff Carson: Mm-hmm.

Tracey Napier: And so they’re reminding me like, be present. Be present. It’s gonna help you. And sometimes they are like, I need your full attention. Do you know what full attention is? When I ask you for full attention, oh, I know what you, I know what you mean. Okay. I’m sorry. I get messages like, there’s not much time left to do this. So it really keeps me on track.

Tiff Carson: Sorry to interrupt you, but how long did it take you to trust those messages and know that they are there to help and guide you?

Tracey Napier: You know, it was more about learning to trust myself. The messages I know are always for my highest good. I’ve never doubted them. It was more like trusting myself and then trusting my interpretation of them because, a lot of them are affected. Like, I don’t know what that means, like what does it mean when I am seeing myself wearing chaps in a grocery store! What does that mean? I dunno, so it’s trusting the interpretation and myself and taking the action.

Tiff Carson: Mm-hmm.

Tracey Napier: So it’s not really about trusting the message, it’s an ongoing journey. I’m learning to trust myself more because I am learning to do what I say. And it’s building that belief in myself and it’s a process. It doesn’t happen overnight. 

Tiff Carson: Yeah, for sure. I know on my journey I have been learning about somatic healing, breath work and how trauma gets stored in our bodies. Have you used breath work or energy work or movement in your healing journey to help release what your words and your voice couldn’t release?

Tracey Napier: Yes, so like a lot of us, I have a lot of stuck energy in my body.  But I have meditated on the question, how can I release this stuck energy from my body? I’ve done that, a handful of times and one time they showed me an image of me like dancing, like, ah, okay they want me to dance. Another time they showed me the very end of the movie Dirty Dancing, where Jennifer Gray and Patrick Swayze where her arm was on his shoulder and they showed me that image of them walking down like moving. Okay, I need to dance. Okay. 

Tracey Napier: Another time I heard “squat”.

Tiff Carson: You heard what?

Tracey Napier: Squat. Two squats.

Tiff Carson: Oh, squats. Whoa. 

Tracey Napier: Movement.

Tiff Carson: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tracey Napier: So it was squats. And then I don’t the name of the yoga pose. but last week I had the image of me doing the yoga pose where you’re leaning down on one knee and you kind of up like this. 

Tiff Carson: Sun Salutation maybe? 

Tracey Napier: I think?  So I’ve been doing that and movement is really, really important. I mean, I was doing in yin yoga for a while, and yin yoga isn’t the only yoga, like we need more movement, so I do yoga flow now and then tapping.

Tiff Carson: Mm-hmm.

Tracey Napier: Tapping has been really important for me. I have a love hate relationship with tapping. I absolutely love what it can do for me, but I hate doing it because I hate hitting myself. Sometimes I’ll tap out my frustration with having to do tapping. I hate tapping. 

Tiff Carson: And you find it releases your frustration of tapping?

Tracey Napier: It does. I’ve been guided, and tapping is really important for me to get my energy unstuck. And I’m a Reiki practitioner so I give myself reiki every night before I go to bed and it knocks me out like that. It really shifts energy and sometimes I’ll do it during day, but it makes me a little tired, so I’ve been doing it more at night.

Tiff Carson: So I know I’ve had other guests on that I’ve spoken of Reiki, but if someone were listening who knows nothing about Reiki, what does that do and how do you help someone with reiki?

Tracey Napier: Yeah, so it really balances your energy field. It is my energy, it flows through and it goes to where your body needs it and it restores balance in your energy field. And I tend to focus on my chakras.

Tiff Carson: Mm-hmm.

Tracey Napier: I volunteered at a hospital to give reiki to patients. And in California you can’t charge for Reiki unless you’re a massage therapist and I’m not, so I just volunteer to give Reiki and the patients loves it. It helps with their pain, it helps them with their anxiety. It’s great for anxiety and stress. It just provides a sense of calm. It really balances you out and it opens you up. I really believe that reiki is a large part of how I became psychic.  It works on the inner work of releasing fears and doubts.

Tiff Carson: I have a question about fulfilling life and what that means to you now and what are some of your non-negotiables that you have had to put protection in place to keep that fulfilling life, especially right now in this new season of your life of leadership and purpose.

Tracey Napier: Yeah. So I am on a journey to this fulfilling life, I am so much happier now than when I was in corporate. And what’s non-negotiable for me is going back to corporate. That’s not gonna happen. I’d rather struggle financially than to go back to corporate because I know that I’m on the right path to fulfilling my purpose and it is important to me to fulfill my purpose and so I am doing what I need to do to do that. So non-negotiable, not going back to corporate and really focusing on what I want not what I don’t want, and that’s hard to do. 

Tracey Napier: We naturally think the worst or have all these fearful thoughts and so it’s shifting that to focusing on what I want. You know, I’ve been guided time after time to use visualization. Visualize the picture you want. Feeling as if it’s really happened because you need your energy and your body to feel that its frequency and the vibration and what you. Vibrate what you can attract. So when you vibrate fear, then you can attract what you’re fearing the most.

Tiff Carson: Mm-hmm.

Tracey Napier: And it’s so much easier said than done, but I am using the visualization to attract what I want in my life. And it’s a process and I’m on this journey.

Tiff Carson: What practices are you using to stay grounded and connected to your truth? I know for me, I have to be in nature. That is just a non-negotiable for me. I have to get outside or be by water or a tree. What are your ways of staying grounded?

Tracey Napier: I go for walks. I  have to walk. It keeps my energy going, it clears my mind. And then movement like stretching is really, really good for me. And then meditation, I’ll just sit there and do breath work and meditation. I do it together, back to back, and I just sit there and try to be present in the moment, like, I’m in this room, be in this room right now and be grateful. Gratitude is incredible and it does powerful things to your body. It changes your frequency.

Tiff Carson: So can you remember, I often think of this for myself….so my spiritual awakening, my knowing started around 2018 and I remember pre 2018 and after, and it’s like night and day. Would you say that’s the same experience for you, where you wouldn’t even recognize that person anymore?

Tracey Napier: I am not at all the same person…from my dietary habits to my social habits. You know, I used to drink a lot. I used to drink to excess honestly. It was too much, and I consumed massive amounts of sugar. I watched a bunch of crime shows and spent a lot of time watching tv that was kind of pointless.

Tiff Carson: Mm-hmm.

Tracey Napier: And I was angry, bitter and I didn’t realize I was miserable. I was negative. I was a complainer. I hated my job and I let everyone know about it who was in earshot. I hated my job. And now I have people telling me literally, you have such good energy, I love your energy. You’re so calm. So I’m  a completely different person.  I still have my moments where I’m frustrated by something, or I say or do something I’m not proud of, but yeah, night and day difference.  

Tiff Carson: I think it’s when people see that growth in you, in me, in all the other people that are doing this healing work, that it’s showing them that, okay, like they saw us before and how we were, and now how our energy feels and maybe that will inspire them to do the same inner work and inner healing.

So if someone is listening right now and still feels like we did, or like their voice or body or their story is too different or too broken, what would you want them to know today? 

Tracey Napier: I would really take a hard look at your beliefs because what you were told growing up is probably not what you truly believe today if you gave it some thought, and I think you’ll find that you are much stronger and courageous and worthy than you probably believe you are now. So digging into that is really important and helpful in creating a more harmonious state within you and to bring more joy into your life and, and peace and balance. I would just encourage doing that work because you deserve it. 

Tiff Carson: So, let’s talk about your coaching work, your speaking, your podcast and your book. Let’s get into all of that. So, where do you wanna start? Do you wanna start with your coaching? What do you do to help people?

Tracey Napier: Sure. Yeah. So this journey is all new. I haven’t been doing it for years. It is new. But, I am helping women specifically to change the way they think about themselves, to really learn to love themselves and believe that they’re worthy. 

Tracey Napier: And you know, people tell me all the time, you need to niche down, you need to be more specific.I’m like, well, that’s what I’m being guided to do and that’s what I know how to do. So that’s what I’m doing. So it’s really just helping women shift their perspective about how they think about themselves.

Tiff Carson: So I know for me, I did my first keynotes last year and I was terrified. Was it the same for you?

Tracey Napier: Yes. Yeah. And I’m still beginning stages. I talked about two weeks ago, and I was terrified. It’s a 20 minute talk and I was terrified.  It was a practice talk and it was my first time doing it and so I looked at my notes more than I wanted to, but it was a really good practice because every time you speak, you learn and you throw and you get good feedback and overall it was a really good experience, but yes, I was terrified. 

Tiff Carson: Congrats on doing that because not everybody would put themselves in that situation and I know how hard it is. So big congrats for doing that hard thing. 

So, I know you also have a presence on YouTube and TikTok. Do you wanna talk about what people could find there on those channels?

Tracey Napier: I have a small little following, but I do Oracle card readings and then I have my podcast, I’m calling it a podcast. I started about a year ago when I was guided to start using my voice and they recommended doing a podcast, so I started to get more comfortable. It was solo episodes and I’m actually revamping my podcast to doing a more traditional interview style podcast.

Tiff Carson: Mm-hmm.

Tracey Napier: And so it’s gonna be on YouTube and other platforms as well. And so that’s coming up. But right now YouTube has my like older videos and then my Oracle card readings and TikTok all do my Oracle card readings. I’m on Facebook and Instagram but don’t really post a whole lot there. But yeah, TikTok and YouTube is where I primarily focus.

Tiff Carson: It’s so funny because in 2019 when I started really listening and being like, “did I just hear that?” Did I just, did they, what I just heard start a podcast in my head I thought it was in my head and then I kept hearing it and I’m like. No, I am an introvert to the extreme. Thank you very much. And I didn’t listen and take action until middle of 2020, so I am stubborn and I was just like you are crazy, so it’s interesting that you are getting that nudge to start a podcast.  You can’t see it on the back of my wall, but it says, “Use Your Voice”. And they told me that that’s what I need to say is use your voice. So people, if you’re getting the nudges, you need to listen because they are there to help and guide us, do what we are meant to do and help other people.

Tracey Napier: Absolutely.

Tiff Carson: So if you want to get in touch with Tracy, this is where you can find her in all of these places, on her website, TikTok, on LinkedIn, and on YouTube. All of these links will be in the show notes. 

I end every interview asking my guests what they are grateful for, because there is always something to be grateful for. What are you grateful for today?

Tracey Napier: I am grateful for this journey that I’m on and just God allowing me and giving me this opportunity to learn and grow and to use my voice. 

I know that he’s giving me so much mercy on this journey, and I’m so grateful for it.

Tiff Carson: Thank you so much, Tracey, for just the beautiful reminder that our perceived limitations are often our biggest teachers and our greatest bridges to connecting with others. And to everyone that is listening, take a breath right now and ask yourself, what if the thing that I’ve been hiding is the very thing that could help someone else heal and let that question sit with you. And let it stir something in you. And if today’s conversation brought that little whisper of possibility into your heart, come join us in the Healing Heart Journey community on Facebook. It’s a place where stories like Tracey’s are not just celebrated, but they are held. And you don’t have to do it alone. And if you wanna explore more, check out Tracey’s book and all of her other wonderful offerings @tracynanapier.com and on all of the socials that will be in the show notes. You can also join me for the Healing Heart Journey, my signature framework to help you move from heartbreak to wholeness, and you can learn more on tiffcarson.com. Until next time, keep breathing and keep taking care of yourself. 

Thank you again, Tracy, for being here. I truly appreciate you sharing your journey with us.

Tracey Napier: Thank you so much for having me. I’m so grateful.