How to Answer the Call: Overcoming Fear and Doubt When Life Changes
Mindset · From Student of the Game
How to Answer the Call: Overcoming Fear and Doubt When Life Changes
After his Student of the Game conversation with Chris Myers, Brad Noll recorded a solo Huddle on the same theme: answering the call. Brad says he had already listened to Chris's episode three times. What struck him is that Chris, like many guests, arrived unsure whether his story would matter to anyone. "But I tell you what, it impacted me," Brad says.
Chris recently left a successful career to start something new, inspired by the way his grandfather lived. Brad turns that story back to the listener. When a friend changes jobs, it is easy to cheer them on. But would you change careers right now and do something totally different? Answering the call, Brad says, means going after life as big as you possibly can.
Change Is Neutral
Brad borrows a frame from his mentor Brian Buffini, whose podcast is called The Good Life. Hard things happen to everyone, and life is not great every day, but the right perspective can make it the good life. In Brad's view, answering the call is living the good life.
Then he brings it to work. Real estate is going through changes after a legal settlement involving the National Association of Realtors, and Brad says the people who like those changes least are realtors who have to adjust how they do business every day. Is the change good or bad? "No, it's neutral," he says.
Every workplace has its version. Brad remembers when his wife, then a nurse, came home frustrated that her team was moving to electronic charting. She went to school to help people get better, not to learn a computer system. In any change, Brad says, a group of people get frustrated and one person stands up and answers the call. "Is that going to be you?"
For Noll Team Real Estate, answering the call means better communication, better negotiation, and clearer explanations of the process. Brad points out that most of a realtor's work happens behind the scenes. You watch every step at the dentist, but you see your realtor only a small part of the time, so explaining that work matters more than ever.
“In order to answer the call, you have to look at this as an opportunity and not a challenge.”
Brad Noll
A Supporting Role and a Big Leap
Brad's favorite example comes from home. His son likes watching sports but does not want to play them. When a production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory came along, he wanted to try out, and he wanted the lead role of Willy Wonka, even though he had never done a musical. Brad asked whether he would still do it if he did not get the lead. His son said no. He wanted to be the main character.
He was cast as Grandpa Joe, one of the lead supporting roles, and Brad could not be prouder. He hopes his son remembers this moment at 25, 35, and 45, whenever a big challenge shows up. "My man answered the call," Brad says.
What Champions and Coaches Teach Us About Change
Spring sports offered more examples. Brad points to the women's college basketball season, when Dawn Staley's South Carolina team won the national championship over Iowa and the women's title game drew more viewers than the men's. He gives credit to Caitlin Clark and to the female athletes breaking barriers across the game. "You can't do that if you're not willing to answer the call," he says.
On the men's side, UConn won it all, and Brad says both champions played together as a team, were well coached, and executed at a very high level. Winning championships, he says, takes execution, a high basketball IQ, and performance when it counts.
Coaches face their own call with name, image, and likeness. Brad believes some college coaches will get left behind because they cannot figure out NIL, while the ones willing to get a toe in the water will adapt. Accountants face it every tax season when the rules shift. "The game has changed," Brad says, and whatever you do for a living, it will keep changing.
Practical Ways to Overcome Fear and Doubt
Brad believes answering the call ultimately comes down to overcoming fear and anxiety and being intentional about the life you want. Maybe there is a business you want to start, a book you want to write, or a podcast you keep thinking about. "If I can podcast, anybody can do it," Brad jokes. Whatever it is, fear and doubt will show up first. Here is how he suggests working through them:
- Acknowledge your fears. Sweaty palms and nerves are signals, so name them.
- Educate yourself. The more you know, the less room fear has.
- Start small with daily habits, because consistency over time builds trust with yourself.
- Build a support system. It is hard to answer the call if nobody is cheering you on.
- Visualize success with a goal board or a home screen that shows where you want to go.
- Learn from failure. Brad rereads old journals and sees how far past those struggles he has come.
- Embrace uncertainty. It is okay not to have every answer yet.
- Practice self-compassion and give yourself grace.
- Seek professional guidance, even if it is a free mastermind group that meets on Zoom.
- Celebrate every step, refocus on your why, and maintain a growth mindset.
Two of those hit closest to home. Brad starts his journal every day with the same line, "Today I begin a new life," as a reminder not to be too hard on himself about yesterday. And celebrating small wins is something he has had to learn, because his focus on habits over outcomes used to send him straight on to the next thing. "There are some small victories that need to be celebrated every single day," he says.
Refocusing on your why applies to home buyers, too. With low inventory, most buyers get frustrated at some point, and Brad encourages them to remember why they started, whether that was getting the kids into the right school, downsizing, or using their equity to pay off debt.
Is It a Challenge or an Opportunity?
Brad's favorite piece of the list is a growth mindset, which he also calls abundance. As a competitive person, he once believed he was competing against other people. Some of the most freeing thoughts he has ever had came from celebrating his competitors and realizing the real competition is with himself.
Where Brad records hangs a painting Phresh Laundry made for the team's 20th anniversary party, showing his grandfather shaking his hand and handing him a skeleton key. When Brad visualizes, he asks one question: what would his grandfather do with the opportunities Brad has today? Stepping outside his own problems shows him that what feels like a challenge is usually an opportunity. "In order to answer the call, you have to look at this as an opportunity and not a challenge," he says.
He closes by sending flowers to Chris for sharing his grandfather's legacy and his plan to help other people build theirs as a financial advisor. Like Chris, Brad tells listeners, you probably think you do not have a story, but you do. And whatever call you are answering, relationships win.
▶ Listen to the full episode
The Huddle with Brad Noll: Chris Myers, on Student of the Game.
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