You'll never win a tough conversation if your nervous system is fighting you every step of the way.

In those high pressure moments, it's not just about what you say.

It's about accessing what you know when the stakes are at their highest.

If you've ever walked away from a hard talk thinking, well, why didn't I say that one thing that I knew I should have said?

This episode is for you.

Today, I am joined by Dr. Tracy Marks, a board-certified psychiatrist and one of the most

trusted voices on YouTube where she's helped millions make sense of their minds and emotions.

What's so powerful about her story is that she didn't start in mental health.

She was an engineer who nearly missed her true calling in psychiatry, and now she's leading

the way normalizing emotional well-being with clear, thoughtful insights.

We'll unpack why high performers often freeze up right when it counts, what really is going on in your brain during those high stakes moments, and how to build the emotional regulation skills that bring calm, clarity, and real connection.

And by the end of this conversation, you will walk away with practical tools to show up stronger in your toughest conversations and stay grounded when it matters

most. Let's get into it. A fun place to start would be talking about your background in psychology

as a psychology influencer now, because I'm assuming when you started off, that probably wasn't the goal.

How did that part of what you do start?

Yeah.

So it's funny.

It starts with me clarifying that I'm a psychiatrist, and people say this all the time.

Call me a psychologist.

That's fine. I don't get caught up in that. But I'm a psychiatrist, and people say this all the time. Call me a psychologist. That's fine.

I don't get caught up in that, but I'm an MD.

So I'm a psychiatrist.

...