It’s Not What You Know, It’s What You Do With It: Tracey Walker’s Full-Speed Rule

You already know more than you’re using. If you have been building an online business for any real stretch of time, you have watched hours of training, bought the courses, taken the notes, and still find yourself putting off the actual video, the actual post, the actual outreach for one more day. Tracey Walker built a talk almost entirely around why that gap exists, and she starts it with the moment she stopped being willing to live inside it.

What did almost dying teach Tracey Walker about wasting time?

At 23, in grad school and about to graduate, Walker was rushed to the hospital hemorrhaging during a pregnancy loss, awake through emergency surgery because there wasn’t enough blood in her system to safely put her under. She describes the fear of that moment plainly, and the promise she made in the middle of it.

I promise I will not squander my life.

That line is doing more work in her talk than a single dramatic memory. She is explicit that she used to tell this story with tears still attached to it, unable to get through it without reliving the fear. Now she can tell it with distance, and that distance is exactly what let her turn it into a working principle instead of a wound: when something in the business feels frustrating, she measures it against the actual worst thing that has happened to her, and the frustration shrinks fast. Somebody didn’t go all in. Somebody flaked on a call. Compared to nearly dying at 23, none of it holds the same weight it used to.

Why does “run full speed” beat mastering every platform?

The second half of her talk is a direct challenge to anyone quietly trying to learn everything at once, paid ads, organic social, blogging, video, email, all simultaneously, and never getting good at any one of them. Her volleyball coach’s old line comes back as the frame: don’t practice a soft, pretend version of the drill and expect to jump for real when the game starts.

As Tracey Walker puts it, “I’m not pretend jumping. I’m jumping as high as I can jump every single time, full out.”

She names the specific behavior she is calling out: half-effort disguised as busyness. Watching a training video while telling yourself you’ll implement it later. Signing up for another platform instead of getting good at the one you already picked. She is blunt that the person who suffers first from that pattern is you, and the people who suffer after that are the ones depending on you.

• Pick one, maybe two platforms you’ll actually go all in on, not all of them at once.
• Watch the specific training that teaches that platform, not the entire library in sequence out of habit.
• Act on what you just watched immediately, then come back and watch the next piece.

What’s the real reason smart people don’t make money from what they know?

Walker’s sharpest point borrows from Bob Proctor, and it targets exactly the kind of reader who has already collected plenty of credentials and information. School, she points out, rewards you for knowing something long enough to pass a test, then lets you sell the book back and move on without ever acting on what you learned. That habit follows people directly into their own business.

As Tracey Walker puts it, “But what you know doesn’t pay you. It’s not about what you know. It’s about what you do. With what you know.” The gap she is describing is not a knowledge gap. It’s the trained habit of consuming information as an end in itself, mistaking the act of learning for the act of building.

The pain she is naming is real and specific: doing everything correctly on paper, watching all the trainings, buying all the products, and still not seeing the income move, because the actual bottleneck was never the material. It was the pace and the follow-through. Her challenge back to the room is simple. Pick what you actually like doing. Watch only the training on that. Then go do it, immediately, at full speed, the way you would if you actually believed your next chance mattered as much as the one she almost didn’t get.

The full session goes deeper into exactly how she structures that one-thing focus in her own business. Watch it in full, free, when you Create your free account.

The full session transcript follows below.

Transcript

So, who I'm talking about right now, yes, they have hit the stage once before this weekend, but obviously I couldn't give the best intro, so this is a little play. When you look at a leader, you wonder what makes them so successful. Some people say it's consistency. Some people say it's luck.

Like, some people say that it's a lack of, you know, just never quitting. You know, just crazily moving forward no matter what. And some people say it's talent. Some people say it's skill.

Some people call it practice. Some people say they have a gift. And what you normally hear from people who are, what people say is, what you really want to listen to is the other leaders talk about them. And what you hear from other leaders when they talk about each other, well, for one, it's never negative.

All right, so that's a tip. And when they talk about them, you hear certain things like, she's amazing, dynamic, servant leader that will do anything for her team and is willing to serve and help in any way that she can and is talented. She's tirelessly always looking for another way to help her team and enable them to get even better results. Somebody who has wisdom, somebody who has a heart for their team that exudes through.

You can't miss it just even being in proximity with them. They exude something because they have this positivity because when they walk in a room, it's not about them, it's about other people. You see, there's this rite of passage that goes on when you transform and grow into a leader. And it's realizing that it's not about you anymore.

You know, I'll tell you guys, before I really had my major realizations and started things to fall into place into my life as I grew into a leader and made multiple six figures as an affiliate here in Empower Network, I was really cocky. I was arrogant. I was annoying, actually. Some of you are like me.

So when you see someone who's humble enough to lead by example and then have the just knowledge and skill because they've worked day in and day out to master their craft, that's what I respect. And that's why I want all of you to get on your feet. Oh yeah, come on up. And make sure you give Tracy Walker the biggest respect you can.

Welcome to the stage, Tracy Walker! All I do is win And they stay there Tracy Walker, ladies and gentlemen. Hello. I was backstage doing a periscope and didn't hear my name.

Listen, in production, she's there next to me to make sure we hear my name. But she and I are talking about periscope and we both missed my name. So I'm going to put this down. Sorry for the…

That was an epic fail. So I was living in Tallahassee, Florida and I was probably about 23. And I got this phone call. It was from the hospital in Tallahassee.

I was in grad school. In fact, I was getting ready to graduate December. This was 1999. So I'm getting ready to graduate December.

This is September. So I run in there. I'm like, oh my God, please. Somebody's had me to the hospital.

So they rushed me to the hospital and I could barely walk. Like, literally, there were days leading up to this. I would get in the shower. I would get in the shower.

And the steam from the shower, I would pass out. So once I realized that happened, I would have to keep the door open, the shower curtain open, and always make sure somebody was at my house because nobody wants to take a shower. You pass out, knock your head, and then you're out. Nobody knows that.

And maybe you… I don't know. It's too much, right? Like, I don't want to give that visual, but…

So we get to the hospital and I had to have an emergency DNC. You guys know what that is, right? Some of you? I had to have an emergency DNC.

So I was hemorrhaging. I was pregnant. And I lost my baby. I was hemorrhaging to death.

I was in a lot of pain. Like, ladies, you have cramps. Well, we have cramps, right? This…

Oh my God. I can't even explain to you how I would ball over on the ground just to try to contain the pain a little bit, right? So I get to the hospital. I'm fully awake.

I'm scared. I'm nervous. I don't know what's going on. And they say, well, because your blood, you don't have any, barely, we can't give you anesthesia.

So we're going to have to do this. Put your big girl panties on, basically. Or take them off, really. And so they do this DNC, and I feel everything.

Everything. I'm crying. I'm hollering. I'm screaming.

My boyfriend at the time, he's right there. I mean, I'm just, like, hysterical, right? Calm down, calm down. Relax, relax, relax, relax.

And it was almost like my life flashed before my eyes. I felt like I was dying. And I… I…

Didn't I want to tell my mom? For a couple reasons. My mom… was very, very particular about not bringing kids in the world until you can take care of them.

So she had instilled the fear of God in me already. But I wasn't, like, 12. You know, I was 23. I was graduating from grad school.

It wasn't the end of the world, but… So I didn't want to call her and tell her that, A, I was pregnant, because technically I wasn't, but then I had to tell her why I wasn't. So I called my dad. .

One of my parents had to know that I'm, like, in the emergency room with this, you know, tragic thing happening. The doctor says, Listen, you got to call somebody. Call one of your parents or something. So I called my dad.

So this is… So I come out of the surgery. I'm in ICU. I call my dad.

I tell him what's going on. And he goes, Are you safe? Are you good? I say, Yes.

He goes, Well, listen. Don't ever be afraid to call and tell us what's going on. Right? So what happened was that that for me was a turning point.

Have any of you ever had a turning point? And many times people ask me, How do you stay motivated? What keeps you going? Even in the midst of, like, people running amok and nonsense and chaos and what feels like destruction.

And I say, I almost died. I almost died. And I say, God, please, if you let me live, if you let me live, I promise, I promise I will not squander my life. I promise I will not squander my life.

I promise I will not squander my life. Say, I promise I will not squander my life. So for me, sometimes when things aren't going the way I want them to go, I'm like, Damn, Trace, you almost died. Like, really?

It's not that bad. It's not that bad. Somebody did not go all in. Just chill out, girl.

And some of you guys get so wrapped up emotionally in the things that other people are doing or are not doing, don't you? Sometimes we lose sight of what's important, what's most important. Now, I… You guys have never really heard me tell that story.

I usually skip over that part. It's in between the, Hey, I went to college. I graduated with a master's degree in business. Right?

I got a job. I moved to Atlanta. And I was laid off. You guys know that part, most of you, yes?

But I skip over that part. So I was talking to Dave last night. We were up to like 3 in the morning. So if my eyes are bloodshot red, that's why I don't drink or smoke.

But we were talking about some things, and I said, You know, let me… Let me, um, think about what I want to talk about. I don't usually always know. I'm kind of like that, too.

I just kind of let the spirit guide me in that way. They asked me that I want a whiteboard. I said, Well, yeah, I'm not really sure. I said, It's like my blankie, like Linus.

Right? Just give me a whiteboard. I feel better. Because you never know what's going to happen.

And if I have the urge to teach something and write it down, I want to be able to capture it. But I thought, I said, You know what? What could I share that could be of, in my opinion, greatest impact for you that has taken place in my life that caused a turning point? That caused a, you know, mama-don't-play attitude.

What causes that? What caused that for me? I was done playing around is what caused it for me. I realized my life could be taken like that.

And I just decided I'm not putting up with the bull. I'm just not. I'm not putting up with the bull from a job, a person, a relationship, um, you know, forces of evil, any of it. I'm just, I'm not going to do it.

Because if I do do it, how is that serving me to do that? Is it? It's usually a hang-up of some sort. So I don't, I don't deal with it.

So that's what happened to me. So people say, Oh my goodness, Tracy, you just, you know, so much energy and you just this and this and this and this. And I'm like, Yeah, that's what happens when you almost die. And then you don't.

And you have another chance. So each morning when I wake up, I can't say I think of that. See, I used to be able to. There was a point where I would not tell the story.

And then if I did share the story with a select group of people, I was still emotional about the story. Right? Like tears are coming down. I could barely even tell the story because I could go back and I could feel I could relive all of it.

But now I can tell the story and have like a detachment a little bit from it. That that was an old me. That was an old me. When I look at my son now, I'm just I just feel so grateful and so blessed because they told me that if I had of waited another 24 hours, two things.

A I could have I would have been dead because I had Dr. Steve, right? What is what is a five? What is a hemoglobin of five really mean?

No oxygen. I'd have a blood transfusion. I'd have a blood transfusion. I had no blood in my body.

Do you guys understand what that means? So when I look at my son, I'm very grateful because it was either the die situation or hysterectomy. Or hysterectomy. And I'm thinking, man, I'm gonna lose the opportunity or the chance to even be a mom.

Dang. So when I see my little happy face running around, I'm just like, man, it's amazing. It's amazing that there's no scar tissue. It's amazing how God can do this.

He can heal something. That was once so broken. Right? Whether it's physically broken or emotionally broken or spiritually, spiritually broken or even financially broken, it can be fixed.

And there's joy in knowing that, isn't it? There's joy in knowing that. You hear stories this whole weekend about miracles and things taking place. For me, that was a miracle.

My son being born was a miracle. I had no complications in my pregnancy. I had no issues. Everything was as if that DNC never even took place.

Right? I spoke on stage when I was pregnant. I crossed the million dollar ring when I was pregnant. Right?

We drove down on a big tour bus when I was pregnant. We did everything. Josiah subconsciously knows all that. He knows all that, right?

So the gift of life. So I wanted to share that with you. Just to let you know I'm a lot like everybody else. No different.

You know, Will Smith has a quote that I saw. Either it was on Facebook or Instagram. It was one of those memes. And it says, you know, I am just a regular guy that is obsessed with persistence and consistency.

Regular guy. And that rang so true to me. Like, I'm just a regular person. You know, when we hang out with the leaders of Leadership Council, we're just having fun.

We're hanging out. You know, it's not, nobody's talking about, I don't know what you guys think we're talking about. We're not talking about secrets, really. Except for Alex's secret.

You want to know what Alex and Anna are doing? They obviously have a secret. Silvio, there's a secret there. So we might kind of throw that in, but then we're done.

And then we just hope they get drunk and then tell us the secret. And because I don't drink or smoke, I'm always waiting. But that's not what we're doing, right? We're just regular people.

We're just vibing. We're just hanging out. We enjoy being with each other. I love coming to the events.

I want you to love coming to the events. I want you to make friends. To build relationships. To build bonds with people.

Because I am telling you, you never know. I did not know that in June 2012, when we were at our first event in Atlanta, Georgia, that when I first met Dee Varengia, and I first met Justin Varengia, I had no idea, right? Who knew the power that lied so deep within both of them? Who knew that a couple years later, Dave would save Justin's life in this turn of event where Justin did what?

Almost died. Now, I'm not saying find something to almost die. I'm just saying if you do, and you make it, it's like something you could use to propel yourself. I know it sounds weird.

You know, we say stuff that sounds weird. It's all about perspective, right? It's all about perspective. And not everybody can understand what we're saying, how we're saying it, what it's meant to say.

And so, therefore, we're weird, we're unique, and we only can communicate with us. Right? Guys, there's only a few people that I can really talk to about things that I like to talk about. Right?

I don't gossip on the phone with my girls that often. I don't… It's not my deal. I don't go out and kick it and party too much.

I mean, even before I had the baby, I really didn't do that. I would try to because I'm like, stop being a freaking hermit. Like, go get a life, right? I don't do that.

I like to work. That's what I like to do. So when you look at results that people have or don't have, there's usually some sort of work ethic behind everything that you don't see. See, I was a kid in high school.

In fact, my best friends to this day, we've been all friends since high school, since I was 13. Two of them are doctors. One has her own business. I have my own business.

Now, I got one friend who's still working, and every month, she's like, okay, girl, I'm gonna get with you about this Empower Network. We all got that one, right? I've known her since we were in the fifth grade. We call her the social director of our group because anything going on, party, kicking it, she know.

We ask her, what's going on? April, what's up? We're on a text thread. I'm keeping track of who's partying, who's homecoming, and what's going on, and, you know, sometimes I'm interested, sometimes I'm not.

I'm like, well, even if I do go, I'm hurrying up to get home so I can go back and work. So the point is, this group of girls that I have, we were all top ten in high school. We were on the pom-pom team, we were on the volleyball team. I was on the swim team as well.

And I danced. So I was very, very busy and active and, you know, preoccupied with positive things. And what people did not know about us is that we were really nerds. We were like the cool nerds.

And we would hang out at the games, the football games, basketball games, do whatever. We would go out to little parties and things like that. But when we got home, we got in our books. Everybody else is sleepy and tired and laying it down, and we're not.

And when I think back, I say, I'm just like that now. We leave out of this room at 10, 11 o'clock at night, and I go to my room and I don't do the things that most people are doing. I'm not sleeping. I'm not worried about eating too much.

I'm not standing in line complaining about how long the line is. I'm not making all these excuses as to why I can't do what I need to do today because I need to wait till tomorrow. My computer, my cord. Kevin, by the way, I got your text about the cord.

Or your Facebook. Guys, look, when you almost lose your life, all that shit is, it's malarkey. I was trying to think of a word that's a funny word. Right?

My old volleyball coach used to say, look, cut it out with the yaki-dok. Right? You get up there, when you run your drills, you jump like you would jump in the game. Don't pretend jump in practice and then think you're going to be able to jump for real in the game.

Muscle memory. And some of you guys are like pretend jumping. You're pretend jumping. You're at the event.

This is practice, but you're pretend jumping. I'm not pretend jumping. I'm jumping as high as I can jump every single time, full out. Every single time.

Full out. Any of you guys played sports? You know what I'm talking about? Did your coaches tell you that?

Like, run full speed. Run full speed. If you're running a basketball drill and you're running back and forth, or you're doing suicides or whatever, it's run full speed. It's don't yaki-dok around with the drill.

Don't yaki-dok around in your business. The only person that suffers, well, not the only person, but the initial person that suffers is you, and then the other people that suffer are those that depend on you. And it's absolutely selfish, unfair, and just mean to do that when you know better, don't you? How many of you guys honestly do not know what to do, therefore you're not doing anything?

In your mind, you don't know what to do. Let me see your hands. You don't know what to do. Looks like you guys are pretty smart.

Even if you don't know, you're not going to tell me. So we need to make one of the forces of evil lying. So if I take everyone at face value and you know what to do, then the question becomes, why aren't you, if you know what to do, then why aren't you doing it? Bob Proctor says this.

He says, listen, unfortunately, we live in a society today where most people are awarded and rewarded. We are given degrees for things that we know, not things that we do. I have to think about that. What did I do to get my degrees?

I learned some stuff. I demonstrated that I knew the stuff, whether it was passing a test or a couple of tests or writing a paper or doing some research. I demonstrated that I knew some stuff, and they said, here you go. Take this piece of paper and tell the world that you know this stuff.

Not that you can do it. Just that you know it. And that is a plague. Because some of you guys are brilliant.

You know stuff. But what you know doesn't pay you. It's not about what you know. It's about what you do.

With what you know. And what if you don't know a lot? See, if you work in a job, what happens is that you have to know everything. You have to be the go-to person.

You have to be super astute. Because the moment that you demonstrate you don't know something, it's almost like you suck at your job. Right? And then they want to either, you get passed up for a promotion or whatever is going on in the bureaucracy of that system place.

Right? All this nonsense goes on. And all we're saying here is that, you know, you don't have to know all the strategies. You don't have to know how to do paid ads on every platform where you could ever do a paid ad.

You don't have to be a master at solo ads and banner advertising and email marketing and blogging and video marketing and Pinterest and Instagram and Periscope and let's not forget YouTube and let's not forget whatever the hell else they come out with while we're on stage today. Because something is always coming out, isn't it? So if you are trying to keep up with everything that's coming out and that is causing you to procrastinate with taking action on things that you already know to be doing, do you see how you get caught in the cycle of never doing anything?

Who cares? Who cares? Now, do I want to learn how I can make more money more effectively on Instagram? Sure.

But that ain't my thing. That's not my primary thing. Do you guys understand that? My primary thing is blogging.

That's me. That's Tracy. That's what I like to do. There's something that you like to do and out of all of those different platforms either you're going to write it, you're going to video it, you are going to speak it, you are going to tap dance on it, you are going to do a cartwheel about it.

You've got to find something that you are going to do and then leverage the existing platform that helps you to showcase that thing that you're going to do. Do you get that? And do you understand that everyone that comes on this stage has a different way of how to do it? You get that?

And do you realize it is not your job? We are not requiring you to go back to your room and become a master of every single strategy. You guys do understand that? Your job is to find one, maybe two things that you are going to bust your ass to get to know and learn and master and then be on the stage teaching somebody how you did it by doing something that everybody else thought they were doing anyway.

Now, another important thing for me to say is some of you are not going through your products either. How do I know? Because I will do like little secret recon test webinars. Right?

And I have, I kid you not, I have sneakily, is that a word? I have sneakily gone into our products, snatched out information, and said, I am going to teach this on the webinar. And I have gotten people on the webinar say, Oh my God, Tracy! That was excellent!

And I am like, it is in top producer formula. Right? It is in unstoppable dream. It is in team building formula.

It is in mass influence formula. You guys are buying products, how many of you guys are all in? Okay. That is financially.

So how many of you financially all in people are also all in educationally? See, it is a slightly different number. A massively different number. Because you are taught to buy things and not turn that thing into profit for yourself.

That is school. That is what they teach you in school. Do you get it? You buy the book, you go learn something, and then you don't ever act on the something because you got four more years of school before you can ever act on something.

Right? So all you do is read a little bit, enough to pass the test, and then when you pass the test, you sell the book back to the bookstore and you don't give a shit about it anymore. How many of you guys went to college? You know what I am talking about.

So then what happens is you get in a power network and then you don't even have to read. Like, imagine that. All you got to do is log in, click on the product, right? Choose the module, like how much work have we done so far?

Like literally you might have a cramp in your index finger. Like you press the button and then you sit and you learn. And then if you don't get it right away, it doesn't dawn on you to just hit rewind. What you do, is you call customer service and you say, I want to sell my book back to the bookstore.

It's sad really. And this is why it is a force of evil. Because even with all the information in the world, your training and your programming will not even allow you to receive multi-million dollar information to change your life in the next 90 days, the next 100 days, the next 30 days, the next 60, some of you guys will do it, because you'll get what I'm saying to you. Some of you will still go back and try to watch every freaking video inside the Top Producer Formula tonight like it's a marathon of Sanford and Son.

And all I'm saying to you is you have got to change your habits on how you teach yourself stuff. So if you want to learn how to do video marketing, then what you do is you go into the Unstoppable Dream and then you find the module on video marketing and then you watch the training on video marketing. Yes? If that video, I don't know, if that video is number 10, you don't stare at the name video number 10 and then torture yourself by watching videos 1 through 9 because you've been taught you've got to do it exact, you cannot watch 10 before you watch 7.

So you're going to watch all the crap that causes you pain and discomfort and just uneasiness just to get to the one thing that you really want to do. But who's torturing you like that? You! Why guys, why?

Please. Please. Look, this ain't that hard. This ain't that hard.

Okay? This is what we're going to do. 32 seconds. Let's see if we can make it.

This is what we're going to do. I did need the whiteboard. What you're going to do is you're going to identify what you like. Everybody just scream out what you like to do.

Blogging, Facebook, video, right? You are then going to go into your Empower Network suite of products. You are going to find and watch and study all of the trainings on that! That!

Don't worry about the other stuff. That! Yes? And then what you are going to do is you are going to take action simultaneously.

You're going to watch and then you're going to stop it and then you're going to go do. Then you're going to post, right? Then you're going to come back. You're going to play.

You're going to watch. You're going to say, oh, I get it. Then you're going to go do, right? It's same time.

It's same time. Everybody with me? Like, can you get unpassionate about this? Same time.

It's not watch for seven years of your life and then go try to regurgitate what you… It's like, come on, really? Okay. So listen, guys, I just wanted to leave that with you today.

I wanted to share a little bit about my story, a little bit more about the turning point. For me, that's a turning point in everybody's life and I want you to identify what that is and let that propel you. As it propels you, understand how you learn. Understand how to take information and make it actionable and then all I want you to do is go out there and do it.

Can you guys go out there and do it? Okay. Can you go out there and do it? Can you go out there and do it?

All right. One, two, three. All right. Talk to you guys later.

Give it up for Tracy Walker.