There’s a quiet voice that shows up at the worst possible moments — just before you step forward, just before you do something brave. It whispers, “I’m not good enough.” In this episode of The Inner Mentor Series, Paul explores the lie most of us believe about ourselves and why imposter syndrome doesn’t disappear with success. Drawing on conversations with seasoned CEOs and his own experience stepping onto a stage outside his comfort zone, he reveals why self-doubt is often a sign of growth — not inadequacy.

About the Host Paul Ryan is a CEO, 8-figure business owner, mentor, and host of The Inner Entrepreneur Podcast. 👉 https://pauljryan.net/

Work With Paul You can book a discovery call with Paul here: 👉 https://calendly.com/inner-entrepreneur-podcast/discovery-call-with-paul-ryan

In this episode, Paul sits down with EFT practitioner, trainer, and author Sarah Tobin to demystify EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), often called “tapping,” for complete beginners. Sarah explains tapping as a self-administered, body-based tool designed to calm the nervous system—helping switch off fight/flight/freeze so we can return to grounded neutrality (and sometimes even genuine positivity). She unpacks the core idea that emotions are “energy in motion,” and that when emotions aren’t fully processed—especially in childhood—they can become stuck and later show up as chronic stress, repeating patterns, limiting beliefs, or even physical symptoms.

Sarah Tobin is an EFT (tapping) practitioner and trainer, as well as an author and speaker. Her work focuses on helping people regulate their nervous system, safely process stored emotion, and shift the beliefs and patterns that keep them stuck. She’s also the creator of wisdom tools including her book Tapping Into You and The Rainbow Oracle deck.

https://www.tappingwithsarahtobin.com/

About the Host Paul Ryan is a CEO, 8-figure business owner, mentor, and host of The Inner Entrepreneur Podcast. 👉 https://pauljryan.net/

Work With Paul You can book a discovery call with Paul here: https://calendly.com/inner-entrepreneur-podcast/discovery-call-with-paul-ryan

Bitesize: Why You’re Born Superhuman (You Just Forgot) - Dan Metcalfe

In this powerful bite-size conversation, Dan Metcalfe shares a journey that sounds like fiction—but isn’t. From being scouted by Crystal Palace and trained under Brian Clough, to dancing in the West End in Andrew Lloyd Webber productions, to fracturing his spine on stage in Las Vegas and being told he may never recover—Dan’s story is about identity, resilience, and choice.

Paralyzed, facing a system that would have preferred to manage him rather than restore him, Dan made a decision: he would not become a statistic. He would become the hero of his own life. What followed was not instant inspiration—but fear, anger, legal battles, and a slow, determined fight back. He began coaching football from a wheelchair. He rebuilt himself physically. And ten years later, he stood on the start line of Ironman Canada—not to prove he was the fastest, but to prove he could step forward again.

Dan Metcalfe is a speaker, coach, and performance mentor known for his “Born Superhuman” philosophy—helping individuals and teams reframe adversity, unlock resilience, and take ownership of their next level of growth.

Links to full episode:

https://youtu.be/E8QJcCrTUFY?si=7CC29uzJ0jqiIYiY

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6ZHDlZZiLdMNCNOE4oCF8q?si=POx4iJWjT8acW6blOVD8dg

About the Host Paul Ryan is a CEO, 8-figure business owner, mentor, and host of The Inner Entrepreneur Podcast. 👉 https://pauljryan.net/

Work With Paul You can book a discovery call with Paul here: https://calendly.com/inner-entrepreneur-podcast/discovery-call-with-paul-ryan

In this episode of The Inner Mentor Series, Paul explores a powerful but uncomfortable question: how are you measuring success — and is that measurement quietly shaping your life? Through two contrasting entrepreneur stories and his own wake-up moment, he challenges the default scoreboard of money, scale, and status, and invites you to consider a broader definition that includes peace of mind, alignment, health, relationships, and fulfillment. Because you can be winning externally while losing internally — and the scoreboard you choose will ultimately determine the life you live

About the Host Paul Ryan is a CEO, 8-figure business owner, mentor, and host of The Inner Entrepreneur Podcast. 👉 https://pauljryan.net/

Work With Paul You can book a discovery call with Paul here: 👉 https://calendly.com/inner-entrepreneur-podcast/discovery-call-with-paul-ryan

In this episode, Paul sits down with Stacey Putka — and the conversation begins with a line most podcast intros never get to use: they met in prison. Paul shares what it was like entering Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility: handing over his phone and passport, being reduced to a badge number, and feeling that subtle loss of control that incarcerated people live with every day. Together, they unpack the emotional impact of walking into a room full of men serving serious sentences and discovering something unexpectedly human — real presence, eye contact, openness, and a level of vulnerability that challenged every stereotype.

Stacey explains why she founded Breakthrough: because punishment alone doesn’t create healing, accountability, or safer communities. They tackle the hardest question head-on — are some people simply “bad”? — and Stacey offers a deeper framework: holding two truths at once (real harm was done, and real change is possible), while prioritizing accountability and protecting future victims through transformation.

Stacey Poka is the founder and Executive Director of Breakthrough, a U.S.-based nonprofit that delivers transformational programming inside prisons and provides practical, emotional, and community support after release.

https://timetobreakthrough.org/about-us/

Paul Ryan is an eight-figure CEO and the host of The Inner Entrepreneur Podcast, where he explores what’s really going on beneath the surface of success — purpose, identity, values, leadership, and the inner work that shapes the outer results.

https://pauljryan.net/

https://calendly.com/inner-entrepreneur-podcast/discovery-call-with-paul-ryan

In this bite-sized episode, Paul sits down with Carl Honoré, the voice behind the global Slow Movement, to challenge one of modern life’s most damaging assumptions: that faster is always better. Carl reframes “slow” not as laziness or withdrawal from ambition, but as the discipline of finding the right speed for the task at hand. Drawing on neuroscience, culture, and everyday experience, he explains why multitasking is a productivity myth, how monotasking actually leads to better results, and why slowing down improves focus, creativity, relationships, and wellbeing — often while helping us get more done, not less.

The conversation explores how constant acceleration is reshaping our brains, our work, and even our art — from shorter attention spans to the erosion of deep thinking. Carl also shares his own wake-up moment as a parent, the origin story behind In Praise of Slow, and why so many people tell him his work gave them “permission” to slow down. From mindful walking to cultural shifts around technology and boundaries at work, this episode is a powerful reminder that slow isn’t something we need to invent — it’s something we need to reclaim.

About the Guest Carl Honoré is a bestselling author, speaker, and leading advocate of the global Slow Movement. His books, including In Praise of Slow, have been translated into dozens of languages, and his TED Talks have been viewed millions of times worldwide. 👉 https://www.carlhonore.com/

About the Host Paul Ryan is a CEO, 8-figure business owner, mentor, and host of The Inner Entrepreneur Podcast. 👉 https://pauljryan.net/

Work With Paul You can book a discovery call with Paul here: 👉 https://calendly.com/inner-entrepreneur-podcast/discovery-call-with-paul-ryan

In this first Inner Mentor Series episode, Paul shares the pivotal experience that quietly reshaped the course of his life. Twenty years ago, despite outward success, he felt trapped in a business and life that drained him—until a last-minute decision to attend a weekend event in London changed everything. What began with skepticism and a firewalk evolved into a far deeper reckoning: a visceral confrontation with the future version of himself he was becoming, one of quiet misery, the other of purpose and fulfillment—Paul made a choice that would demand far more courage than he expected.

Work with Paul: visit: https://pauljryan.net

I work closely with a small number of clients - application required:

👉 https://calendly.com/inner-entrepreneur-podcast/discovery-call-with-paul-ryan

About the Host Paul Ryan is an 8-figure CEO, mentor, and host of The Inner Entrepreneur Podcast. Through the Inner Mentor Series, Paul shares personal stories and hard-won lessons from decades in business and personal development, helping entrepreneurs design lives of clarity, purpose, and fulfillment.

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In this episode, Paul sits down with leadership author and culture-change advocate Kyle McDowell to unpack a hard truth: many “successful” corporate environments are quietly toxic—and leaders often help create the very dysfunction they later complain about.

Kyle shares how, after decades in senior Fortune-level roles leading tens of thousands of people, he hit a point of apathy, burnout, and personal cost that forced a reckoning. The turning point wasn’t a new strategy—it was a new way of leading: human connection, real accountability, and the courage to stop rewarding fear-based results-at-all-costs leadership.

Kyle McDowell is a leadership speaker, consultant, and author of Begin With We, best known for his “10 We’s”—a set of behavioral principles designed to build cultures of accountability, trust, and excellence.

https://kylemcdowellinc.com/