This is an I-Heart podcast.

Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of IHeart Radio.

Good morning. This is Laura.

Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

Today's tip is to be smart about your fears.

Sometimes fears can be conquered, and sometimes they are there for a reason.

Wisdom is about knowing the difference.

So I've been thinking about fears recently,

one because this is airing around Halloween,

and also because I've been reading Farnush Torabi's new book,

A Healthy State of Panic,

which is about how acknowledging your fears can be helpful

for building your career and achieving success.

Anyway, fears are a complicated topic.

Some fears are deep-seated, and some are just about what is unfamiliar.

Once upon a time, I got really nervous and scared of public speaking.

Getting up in front of big numbers of people and needing to entertain them for an hour is not easy.

But then, eventually, I learned that if you write nonfiction books, speaking about them, is going to be part of your business.

I did a lot of speaking, and speaking got easier. If you give a speech

once, it's scary. If you give a speech a hundred times, it just feels like Tuesday. Soon enough,

I was in the Tuesday camp and didn't feel frightened by this sort of thing anymore. I assume that this is what happens with people

in any line of work that involves some common phobias. If you spend a lot of time in airplanes,

...