John Yeager: How Courage Keepers Help Us Move from Fear to Action

When fear shows up—on the field, in the boardroom, or in a hospital waiting room—who helps you step forward anyway? In this episode, we explore how “courage keepers” create agency, unlock brave decisions, and turn everyday fear into meaningful action.

In this episode, Gary and John Yeager discuss:

Early lessons in courage from lacrosse and sportAgency, parenting, and formative leadership momentsCrisis counseling, psychological safety, and helping others tell their storyEight pathways to courage and the dance between fear and loveMoral courage, leadership, and recovering after a life-changing health scare

Key Takeaways:

Courage often begins in ordinary moments—like saying yes to an unexpected role—that later become templates for how we handle fear and pressure.Giving people true agency (“it’s your call”) can be a powerful catalyst for confidence, resilience, and long-term leadership growth.Creating psychologically safe spaces, staying in someone’s emotional “space,” and letting them tell their own story are foundational to helping others find their courage.Brave leadership is inseparable from moral courage; it requires taking real risks in service of meaningful, noble goals rather than clinging to comfort or status.Courage is not a rare, heroic event but an ongoing process of choosing approach over avoidance, guided by values, curiosity, self-compassion, and presence in the moment.

"Whether a person's an entrepreneur, a leadership consultant, a lacrosse player, whatever they do, when you have agency, there's a level of confidence in there that you can believe in yourself and you can move forward." — John Yeager

About John Yeager:

John is an educator, coach, and storyteller who has dedicated his career to studying the motivations behind human action and the mechanics of courageous leadership. As the Chief Education Officer at Yeager Leadership, he works across the corporate, healthcare, education, community, and athletic sectors to help leaders embrace courage as a daily, repeatable process. Driven by a mission to empower others, he combines extensive research with decades of experience to foster grit, vulnerability, and growth within teams and organizations.

A veteran teacher and a graduate of the Master of Applied Positive Psychology program at the University of Pennsylvania, he is also the author of The Coaching Zone: Next Level Leadership in Sports.

He roots for the underdog and those striving to live life well. Courage Keepers: A Guide to Brave Lead