In this episode of The Inner Entrepreneur, Paul sits down with Niall O'Murchu , one of Ireland’s leading wellness and breathwork experts. With over 23 years’ experience in mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing, Niall is a Level 3 Wim Hof Method Instructor and the first Irish person to teach at the Wim Hof Academy.

We explore how modern life keeps our nervous systems stuck in stress mode — and how simple practices like coherent breathing and cold exposure can reset your body and mind in minutes.

Niall explains:

• Why stress quietly rewires your breathing
• The “in for six, out for six” breathing pattern that instantly restores calm
• How kids learn to self-regulate through breathwork in schools
• Why short, 1–2-minute ice sessions are more powerful than long, punishing plunges
• How the cold becomes a teacher of resilience, focus, and emotional control

This conversation is for founders, leaders, and anyone who wants more calm, clarity, and control — without slowing down their ambition.

Quotes:

“How you breathe is how you feel.” “You don’t have to win the cold — you have to respect it.” “The calm is already in you. You’re just remembering it.”

#Breathwork #ColdExposure #WimHof #Mindfulness #Entrepreneurship #Leadership #Calm #Focus #TheInnerEntrepreneur #PaulRyan

About the host:

Paul Ryan is an entrepreneur, 8 figure business owner, mentor, podcaster and creator of the 1-Hour CEO and Life Code Program. As a CEO, Paul has a depth of 'real life' experience of what it takes to be successful in business and life.

Connect with the host:

https://www.theonehourceo.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-ryan-9a98774/

Welcome to The Inner Entrepreneur Bite Size, where we pull the most powerful clips from some of our best conversations. You’ll find links to the full episodes below — and if you’re enjoying the show, please hit subscribe and join nearly 20,000 entrepreneurs on a journey to grow, lead, and live with purpose.

If this episode resonates, please share it. It really helps us continue to grow and bring you great conversations. Thank you — now let’s jump in.

Brian Bosche: Purpose, Delusion & Financial Reality – Finding What You’re Truly Meant to Give the World

In this powerful clip, we explore:

• What purpose really is: “The best of what I have, given in service to others.”
• Why true fulfilment is always tied to contribution.
• The difference between passion and proficiency (and why some people are passionately bad).
• The danger of defining purpose as a job title.
• The myth of overnight success.
• Why purpose must connect both fulfilment and financial sustainability.
• How rejection, often rooted in childhood experiences, stops us from claiming our purpose.
• People-pleasing, perfectionism, and procrastination as fear-based behaviours rooted in rejection.

Key Insight:

“Look at fulfilled people — they are giving away the absolute best of who they are to help other people. Purpose is contribution—but contribution must also create value, or it won’t be sustainable.”

Full Episode:

👉 Link to full episode here:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/33uXSSqL4uvxlyPp9HYQtF?si=Npwv-i1OQpCpehvSUGygOg

https://youtu.be/6YdH1NyhPAI?si=lXcLMnQKyzxPUAjl

About the host:

Paul Ryan is an entrepreneur, 8 figure business owner, mentor, podcaster and creator of the 1-Hour CEO and Life Code Program. As a CEO, Paul has a depth of 'real life' experience of what it takes to be successful in business and life.

Connect with the host:

https://www.theonehourceo.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-ryan-9a98774/

Dr. Chris Winter is a neurologist and sleep medicine specialist with decades of

Tools & References Mentioned

• The Sleep Solution (book)

• The Rested Child (book)

• Sleep Unplugged (podcast) Connect with Dr. Chris Winter • Instagram: @instaDRChrisWinter • www.wchriswinters.com • Podcast: Sleep Unplugged •

Books:

The Sleep Solution;

The Rested Child

About the host:

Paul Ryan is an entrepreneur, 8 figure business owner, mentor, podcaster and creator of the 1-Hour CEO and Life Code Program. As a CEO, Paul has a depth of 'real life' experience of what it takes to be successful in business and life.

Connect with the host: https://www.theonehourceo.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-ryan-9a98774/

Episode Summary:

In this weeks episode, Paul sits down with Dr. Michael Keane to explore how emotions arise before we are even aware of them, why our “gut feelings” often know more than our conscious minds, and how gratitude, meditation, and attention reshape our physiology. We explore whether free will truly exists, how cultural conditioning shapes who we become, and why emotional control is less about not feeling — and more about not reacting. From ice baths to intuition, from evolutionary social pressure to the neuroscience of sleep, this episode blends science, spirituality, and practical human behavior in a transformative way.

In This Episode, We Explore:

• How EEG sparked Dr. Keane’s fascination with the unconscious brain
• The neuroscience of REM sleep & psychophysiology
• Why emotions hit the body BEFORE we consciously feel them
• How free will might be an illusion — or at least, limited
• The gap between stimulus & response — and how to widen it
• “Red, Blue & Green Circles” — A powerful model for emotional regulation
• The truth about gratitude & why forced gratitude backfires
• Why two people in an ice bath can have opposite physiological responses
• Attention as modern humanity’s most valuable commodity
• The impact of cultural conditioning on life choices & success
• Intuition as pre-language intelligence
• Why meditation is not about stopping thoughts – but about breaking reaction loops

• Guest: Michael Keane – MD, PhD in Behavioural Neuroscience, neurotechnology expert, co-founder of multiple startups and neurotechnology labs, specialist in psychophysiology and emotional regulation.

Connect with Dr. Michael Keane:

Website: drmichaelkeane.com Neurotech Company: evolveneuro.ai

If this conversation reshaped how you think about your emotions or attention, share it with a friend who’s into peak performance, psychology, meditation or leadership.

About the host:

Paul Ryan is an entrepreneur, 8 figure business owner, mentor, podcaster and creator of the 1-Hour CEO and Life Code Program. As a CEO, Paul has a depth of 'real life' experience of what it takes to be successful in business and life.

Connect with the host:

https://www.theonehourceo.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-ryan-9a98774/

In this bite sized episode of The Inner Entrepreneur, Paul sits down with Brendan McGurgan, co-founder of Simple Scaling, creator of the ScaleX Accelerator, and former CEO who scaled a small engineering firm from 15 people to nearly 700, and from £3M to over £100M+ in global revenue — long before “scaling” became a buzzword.

Brendan believes that if you have a great product or service, you don’t just have an opportunity to grow — you have an obligation to share it with the world. Yet less than 1% of SMEs ever achieve true scale.

Links to Episode:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6Xsb1mJrjUX2T8sFZjzVIG?si=aLfYPXTYTVSUR94BboG1fA

https://youtu.be/LAfqXnofcXk?si=V27Kpa2OCPW49t5e

We unpack: ✅ What scaling really means (beyond revenue) ✅ Why most SMEs never break past “stuck” ✅ The cultural DNA required for exponential growth ✅ How Brendan reverse-engineered scaling success into a proven 10-principle framework ✅ Why scaling without purpose is dangerous ✅ And how SMEs can impact millions — with the right mindset, vision, and leadership tools

Whether you’re doing €1M or €50M in revenue — this is a masterclass in thinking and acting like a scale-ready leader.

👤 Guest Bio

Brendan McGurgan is the co-founder of Simple Scaling and co-author of Simple Scaling: 10 Proven Principles to 10X Your Business. A former CEO who scaled a Northern Irish engineering company from 15 employees to nearly 700 across six continents, he now coaches SME leaders through the ScaleX Accelerator, helping them scale with purpose, culture, and impact. His mission: to inspire and enable millions of SME leaders to scale consciously and change the world through entrepreneurship.

🔑 Key Themes & Topics Covered

• What scaling actually means (OECD definition vs Brendan’s philosophy)
• Why scaling is an obligation if your product creates real value
• How 28,000 scale-ups contribute over 50% of SME revenue in the UK
• The “forgotten middle” of entrepreneurship — why SMEs lack real scaling support
• The DNA of leadership teams that successfully scale
• The danger of growth for growth’s sake (scaling with purpose)
• Creating a shared vision that ignites people
• Why cultural alignment matters more than strategy
• How Brendan built a 40,000 sq. ft. HQ and scaled globally without a playbook
• The ScaleX 10 Principles for Exponential SME growth
• Why a £1M business is just the start — not the finish line

💬 Standout Quotes

“If you’ve sold £1M worth of anything, you’ve already delivered significant value. The real question is: why not £10M… or £100M?”

“Scaling with purpose means creating something that does good for people, for the planet, and for the team who builds it.”

“The businesses that scale are led by teams with a shared vision, not just a hunger for bigger numbers.”

“Revenue is just the echo of the value you’ve created.”

📈 Entrepreneurial Takeaways

✅ Scaling is not just revenue growth — it’s about increasing the impact your product has on the world. ✅ If you’ve hit £1M, you’ve proven value — now it’s about leadership, process, and vision. ✅ Culture is not hired — it’s created by leadership alignment. ✅ Scaling without purpose becomes toxic; with purpose, it becomes transformational. ✅ SMEs are the backbone of economies — scaling them changes lives beyond the P&L.

About the host:

Paul Ryan is an entrepreneur, 8 figure business owner, mentor, podcaster and creator of the 1-Hour CEO and Life Code Program. As a CEO, Paul has a depth of 'real life' experience of what it takes to be successful in business and life.

Connect with the host:

https://www.theonehourceo.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-ryan-9a98774/

Guest: Adie McGuiness — Co-Founder of Sigmar Recruitment

Episode Summary

In this bite-size episode, Adie McGuiness shares the story of how his team came together during one of the toughest periods in business. Facing financial uncertainty, his staff personally contributed €200,000 to help save the company—an extraordinary act of loyalty that revealed the power of trust and genuine leadership.

Adie and Paul discuss how real leaders show vulnerability, prioritize people over profit, and build cultures where employees feel valued, even in crisis. They also explore the deeper question of fulfilment—how Aie’s lifelong meditation practice and search for inner peace have shaped his outlook on success, purpose, and life after business.

Key Themes:

• Leadership in crisis and the power of transparency
• Building loyalty through trust, humility, and shared purpose
• How sincerity and authenticity outcompete large corporations
• Why inner peace is the ultimate measure of success.
• Transitioning from achievement to fulfilment after business exit

Memorable Quotes:

“Nobody deserves a salary cut—but everyone deserves a stable job.” “People don’t work for me; they work for themselves and their families. My job is to make this the best place for them to do that.” “You can give me ten million, but if I lose inner peace, I have nothing.”

Full Episode:

https://youtu.be/8SAvKEdG0rA?si=mizwCSh3CT6jNdmr

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1m7yXcJwuZMVX56hMIowbi?si=i4V3G7fHSxu63Kdk9tDBTw

About the host:

Paul Ryan is an entrepreneur, 8 figure business owner, mentor, podcaster and creator of the 1-Hour CEO and Life Code Program. As a CEO, Paul has a depth of 'real life' experience of what it takes to be successful in business and life.

Connect with the host:

https://www.theonehourceo.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-ryan-9a98774/

The Intelligence Trap: Why Smart People Make Bad Decisions: David Robson #133

Episode Summary

Award-winning science journalist David Robson joins Paul to explore the big ideas behind his three books — The Intelligence Trap, The Expectation Effect, and The Laws of Connection. We get practical about intellectual humility, how beliefs shape physiology and performance, and why most of us underestimate how much other people like us. From Nobel laureates falling for “earned dogmatism” to positive aging, placebos in sport, and the “Beautiful Mess Effect,” this episode is packed with evidence-based ways to think clearer, feel better, and connect deeper.

What We Cover

• The trilogy thread: Challenging assumptions to make wiser choices, feel better, and build stronger relationships.
• Intelligence vs. wisdom: IQ is engine power; wisdom is steering, suspension, and navigation.
• Sternberg’s three intelligences: Analytical, creative (multiple perspectives), and practical (people & meta-skills).
• Intellectual humility: The keystone of wise thinking; why “earned dogmatism” traps high achievers.
• Real-world traps: Why brilliant doctors/dentists can be poor investors; “do you want to be right or rich?”
• Genes, environment & lifespan: How influence shifts from childhood to adulthood—and why lifestyle still wins.
• The Expectation Effect: Placebo & nocebo explained; beliefs measurably shape stress responses, inflammation, blood pressure, gas exchange, and muscle fiber recruitment.
• Sport & belief: Caffeine vs. decaf deception; the Tour de France “glucose syringe” story; accessing more of your strength.
• Positive aging: Mindset can add ~7.5 years of life; Patty Jones, the 80-something acrobatic salsa dancer.
• The Laws of Connection: The Liking Gap (we think others like us less than they do), the Beautiful Mess Effect (vulnerability increases warmth and trust), and why asking/offering help and apologizing work better than we expect.

Key Takeaways

1. Be actively open-minded. Ask, “How might I be wrong? What would change my mind?”
2. Train wisdom, not just IQ. Practice perspective-taking, project planning, and metacognition.
3. Mindset moves metrics. Your expectations can alter hormones, inflammation, pain, breath exchange, and perceived exertion.
4. Confidence via evidence. Use small, repeated wins (like conquering one brutal hill) to reset your “possible.”
5. Aging ≠ inevitable decline. Focus on abilities, stay social and physically active — mindset steers behavior.
6. Connect by being human. Most people like you more than you think; vulnerability signals honesty and builds trust.
7. Humility beats hubris. Past success doesn’t transfer by default; in new domains, act like a beginner.

Resources & Mentions

• David’s books: The Intelligence Trap, The Expectation Effect, The Laws of Connection.
• Concepts: Earned Dogmatism, Active Open-Minded Thinking, Placebo/Nocebo, Liking Gap, Beautiful Mess Effect.
• Story highlights: PCR inventor case study; caffeine/placebo in sport; Patty Jones (acrobatic salsa dancer).

Connect with David Robson

• Website: davidrobson.me
• Substack: Sixty-Second Psychology
• Instagram: @DavidARobson
• X/Twitter: @DavidARobson

Connect with Paul

• Subscribe to The Inner Entrepreneur and leave a review.
• Share this episode with a friend who geeks out on psychology & performance.
• Explore Paul’s programs: The One-Hour CEO & The Life Code.

• About the host:
• Paul Ryan is an entrepreneur, 8 figure business owner, mentor, podcaster and creator of the 1-Hour CEO and Life Code Program. As a CEO, Paul has a depth of 'real life' experience of what it takes to be successful in business and life.

Connect with the host:

https://www.theonehourceo.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-ryan-9a98774/

Most people think “trauma” means war, abuse, or catastrophe. In this Inner Entrepreneur Bite-Size clip, Laurel Wiers (trauma therapist and creator of the MINT Method) explains why that’s incomplete — and how little-t experiences can quietly shape your personality, decisions, and success until you learn to reset back to your truest self.

This isn’t just theory. We dig into Gabor Maté’s definition of trauma (“not the event, but the imprint”), how generational patterns live in the body, and why your gut rarely lies even when your mind does. Laurel shares a step-by-step way to trace reactions back to origin memories, metabolize them, and return to calm, choice, and clarity — without losing the lessons.

🔑 What you’ll learn

• Big-T vs little-t trauma: why everyday “aversive events” wire in the same way.
• Personality vs protection: the parts you call “me” might be old coping strategies (IFS lens).
• Trust your body: sensations tell the truth; the mind often rationalizes.
• A practical process: feel → locate in the body → allow images → find the first memory → integrate.
• Reset, don’t erase: keep the wisdom, release the hyper-vigilance.
• Inner work reality: most avoid it… until the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change.

🧭 Episode Highlights (bite-size)

• Redefining trauma: it’s the imprint, not the incident.
• How “little-t” moments (like a parent’s offhand comment) become lifelong patterns.
• Using body cues to uncover origin memories (and change reactions fast).
• The food example: one small childhood moment → decades of compulsion — then release.
• Firewalk insight: a temporary fear “dial-down” reveals what life can feel like on the other side.
• “Reset to who you were before the event” — while keeping your hard-won wisdom.

📌 Key Quote

“If it’s distressing — and you wish it were different — it may not be your personality. It’s a stuck moment asking to be healed.”

🔗 Listen to the Full Conversation

This clip comes from our full episode with Laurel Wiers. Dive deeper here: 👉 YouTube: https://youtu.be/d6qPt0EWfX8?si=Jl6z4lR-a7yXd98t 👉 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0caDBICWh3mJWj2SKy1jPt?si=v02kCznVT4GoxGGzGqHmcw

🙌 Support & Subscribe

About the host:

Paul Ryan is an entrepreneur, 8 figure business owner, mentor, podcaster and creator of the 1-Hour CEO and Life Code Program. As a CEO, Paul has a depth of 'real life' experience of what it takes to be successful in business and life.

Connect with the host:

https://www.theonehourceo.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-ryan-9a98774/