The Inner Entrepreneur

Bite-size: Why 9 out of 10 Businesses Fail - Damion Lupo #150

In this bite-size episode, Damion Lupo dismantles one of the most dangerous myths in entrepreneurship: that failure is something to be avoided. Drawing on decades of experience across more than 70 businesses — including losing everything and starting again — Damion reframes failure as the tuition fee for wisdom. He explains why most businesses don’t survive, not because of bad ideas, but because of a lack of real commitment. There is no “trying” in entrepreneurship — only deciding, persevering, and learning fast. Those who succeed are not luckier or smarter; they are more resilient, more decisive, and willing to move before everything feels certain.
Damion also explores the deeper evolution required to build lasting wealth and freedom. He argues that true financial security isn’t about accidentally reaching a number, but about becoming the person capable of recreating it. From knowing when to persevere versus when to quit, to understanding why environment, mentorship, and vision shape outcomes more than tactics, this conversation is a masterclass in long-term thinking. It’s a powerful reminder that almost nothing in business is fatal — and that growth comes from action, not waiting for perfect conditions.
 
Links to full episode:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/599FJBEVZyGGbhAazhSqD6?si=GsbLxGN0Rja0GVkqdR-8wA
https://youtu.be/N0r-qol9MU4?si=Gija1CEUNzE2c71s
 
About the GuestDamion Lupo is an entrepreneur, investor, and financial educator who has founded and operated over 70 companies. After experiencing both extreme success and complete financial collapse, including a period of homelessness, Damion rebuilt with a deep focus on resilience, decision-making, and sustainable wealth creation. He is the creator of the Turnkey Retirement framework and is known for helping entrepreneurs think differently about money, risk, and long-term freedom.
About the HostPaul Ryan is the host of The Inner Entrepreneur Podcast, where he explores the inner world behind entrepreneurial success — mindset, resilience, purpose, and personal growth. Through candid conversations with founders, investors, and thought leaders, Paul helps entrepreneurs build businesses that support a meaningful, well-lived life. Learn more at pauljryan.net.
 

Why You Procrastinate - and How to Stop it for Good | Fuschia Sirois #149

In this episode, Paul explores the real truth about procrastination with Professor Fuschia Sirois — one of the world’s leading researchers in the field. Far from being a time-management issue or a character flaw, procrastination is revealed as a behavior rooted in emotional regulation. Professor Sirois explains how delaying tasks may offer temporary relief, yet creates long-term stress, undermines confidence, and quietly damages both our health and performance.
Together they examine how avoidance reshapes our nervous system, drives anxiety, and increases the mental load we carry each day. They discuss why self-criticism makes procrastination worse, why high achievers often hide it behind productivity, and how early emotional patterns carry into adulthood. What emerges is a deeper understanding of procrastination as a well-being problem — one that drains potential and prevents people from becoming who they know they could be.
This conversation invites you to look beneath the surface: What are you really avoiding — and what is the emotional cost of delaying it?
About the Guest – Professor Fuschia Sirois
Professor Fuschia Sirois is an expert in social and health psychology whose research on procrastination, emotion regulation, and wellbeing spans more than 20 years. She is the author of Procrastination: What It Is, Why It’s a Problem, and What You Can Do About It.
About the Host – Paul Ryan
Paul Ryan is an entrepreneur, CEO, mentor, and host of The Inner Entrepreneur. As the creator of The One-Hour CEO and The Life Code, Paul works with elite entrepreneurs trapped in their businesses, helping them break free and design lives they really want.
Work With Paul
To explore Paul’s coaching, The Life Code, or programmes such as The One-Hour CEO, visit pauljryan.net.

Bite-size: Master Your Money with Laura Tynan #148

In this bite-sized episode I chat with Laura Tynan –The Witch of Wall Street – to explore the powerful intersection of wealth creation and personal transformation.
We dive into:
Why financial empowerment requires both strategy and mindset.
The “ostrich effect” – why most people avoid looking at their finances.
Simple steps to take control of your money (even if you’ve been ignoring it).
How fear, scarcity, and inherited money stories silently sabotage wealth.
Why wealthy people often still feel poor — and how to heal self-worth.
The science and practice of intentional creation (beyond “woo-woo” manifestation).
How to pass on a healthy money mindset to the next generation.
The power of persistence, focus, and belief in creating long-term success.
This is a grounded, practical, and inspiring conversation about building not just wealth in your bank account — but richness in your life.
 
About Laura Tynan
Laura Tynan, known as The Witch of Wall Street, is a former finance professional turned entrepreneur who helps people, especially women, break free from money blocks and build true financial independence. 
Links & Resources
Connect with Laura: lauratynan.com
Follow Laura on Instagram: @lauratynanofficial
Links to Full episode:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4VZ2xwXN6J7hY63mjVpvqN?si=k-CYUtxeSymxsA9zDfleGg
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4VZ2xwXN6J7hY63mjVpvqN?si=k-CYUtxeSymxsA9zDfleGg
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:
Pauljryan.net 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-ryan-9a98774/
 
 
 
 
 
 

The Hard Truth About Finding Inner Peace- Jerry Colona #147

About Jerry Colona: Jerry is a coach, writer, and speaker who focuses on leadership, business, and the practice of radical self-inquiry. He is the Co-founder and CEO of Reboot.io, a company born from the rallying cry that work does not have to destroy us. Work can be the way in which we achieve our fullest self. In this deeply reflective conversation, Jerry Colonna — former VC, author of Reboot and Reunion, and one of the world’s most respected CEO coaches — explores the inner journey every entrepreneur must eventually face.
What begins as a discussion about his now-famous out-of-office message becomes a profound exploration of peace, equanimity, grief, identity, and the universal human impulse to return to our true selves. Jerry shares how the high-flying identity of “Prince of New York” once overshadowed the quieter, truer part of him — the poet, the contemplative, the man seeking wholeness rather than achievement.
Through stories of depression, breakdown, meditation, ancestors, and impermanence, he illustrates how inner turbulence and outer success often coexist — and why the real work is learning to return, again and again, to what matters.
https://www.reboot.io/about/coaches
 
About the Host:
Paul Ryan Paul Ryan is an entrepreneur, mentor, and host of The Inner Entrepreneur. As the creator of The One-Hour CEO and The Life Code, Paul helps business owners design lives of fulfilment, clarity, and balance. His work blends entrepreneurship, personal growth, and purpose.
Work With Paul:
If you're ready to build a business and life that’s aligned, intentional, and deeply fulfilling, explore The Life Code and The One-Hour CEO — coaching and tools for high-performing entrepreneurs.
Connect with the host: www.pauljryan.net https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-ryan-9a98774/

Bite-size:It Took A Car Crash to Save My Life – Seamus Fox #146

In this Bite-Size episode, Paul explores the powerful turning point in Seamus Fox’s life — growing up in Derry during the conflict, navigating poverty, and drifting into destructive paths before a near-fatal car crash forced him to confront who he was becoming. Waking in a blood-stained flat after a night in a cell became the moment that pushed him back toward what had always grounded him: sport. From bodybuilding to personal training to building multiple thriving fitness businesses, Seamus uncovered the deeper thread running through his life — mindset, purpose, and human behaviour.
 
About the Guest
Seamus Fox is a mindset and human-behaviour coach with over 20 years of experience. His journey began in the fitness industry, where he built multiple successful businesses while helping people unlock their potential.
 
About the Host – Paul Ryan
Paul Ryan is an entrepreneur, CEO, mentor, and host of The Inner Entrepreneur. As the creator of The One-Hour CEO and The Life Code, Paul works with elite entrepreneurs trapped in their businesses, helping them break free and design lives they really want.
 
Links to full episode:
https://youtu.be/kycQR0eWojc?si=iLguOMNDNgcLiplc
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5oEf2MwIokR3MsPkUmhcO6?si=E5hr-POVT2y3oouD_NGM8w

The Inner Game of Peak Performance with Enda McNulty #145

In this conversation, I sit down with high-performance coach Enda McNulty to explore what it really means to perform under pressure – not just on the pitch in front of 80,000 people, but in the boardroom, in a hospital corridor, or at your kitchen table having a hard conversation with someone you love. Enda shares the story of walking into the 2002 All-Ireland semi-final with his confidence “in his socks” and how tools like meditation, breathwork, affirmations and what he calls incantations helped him shift from panic to presence. We talk about the “inner game” of entrepreneurs – how daily rituals, mental toughness, gratitude and purpose compound over time so that, when life blindsides you (like flying to Houston to say goodbye to a dying cousin), you have something solid to lean on.
We also go deep into what peak performance means for “ordinary” lives: the teacher who quietly shapes thousands of kids, the local leader who regenerates a community, the parent who shows up with presence for their family. Enda challenges the idea of scaling for the sake of scaling and instead makes the case for scaling impact, not ego – defining your own scorecard for success and building a life and business around what you truly care about. Along the way we touch on mentors, meditation, finding your tribe, the unseen impact of great teachers, and why passion and purpose matter far more than revenue charts if you actually want to sustain high performance over a lifetime.
 
About Enda McNulty
Enda McNulty has over 35 years of experience coaching elite performance in sports, business.
https://mcnultyperformance.com/
 
Work With Paul
Explore The Life Code and The One-Hour CEO — frameworks and mentoring for designing a successful life with purpose, alignment, and humanity.
www.pauljryan.net
 

Bite-size: Facing failure & scaling Everest with Pat Falvey #144

In this bite-size episode, we revisit my conversation with Pat Falvey: adventurer, entrepreneur, expedition leader, and the first Irish man to summit Everest not once, but twice. Pat’s story reaches far beyond the mountains. He speaks to growing up in poverty, building and losing fortunes, standing at the edge of suicide, and finding purpose through contribution, courage and self-belief.
This conversation reminds us that every one of us has a personal Everest to climb. The mountain isn’t the point. The person you become along the way is. Pat’s journey shows what happens when resilience meets meaning, and how the greatest victories are the ones won inside ourselves.
 
Links to full episode:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2FGMSKmgNpk8wGHmV8UEZ3?si=K-EGnj90QuOOC2aYxW3RbA
https://youtu.be/LkRDhI75Auk?si=6IYEMbgHD7VPse_f
 

The Truth About Alcohol That No One Tells You - Karolina Rzadkowolska #143

In this episode, Paul sits down with author and coach Karolina Rzadkowolska to explore our everyday relationship with alcohol—not from the perspective of addiction, but from the socially accepted drinking habits most adults consider “normal.” Karolina shares how a simple Dry January experiment transformed her confidence, creativity, sleep, mood, and sense of purpose, ultimately leading her to build a global alcohol-free movement. Together, they unpack the beliefs we inherit about alcohol—confidence, relaxation, sociability—and why many of these assumptions simply aren’t true. They discuss how alcohol often numbs the very signals that point us toward change, meaning, and a more fulfilling life. This conversation isn’t about judgment—it’s about possibility, self-awareness, and what might open up when you give yourself permission to explore life without the weekend buzz.
 
About the Guest – Karolina Rzadkowolska
Karolina Rzadkowolska is the author of Euphoric: Ditch Alcohol and Gain a Happier, More Confident You and the founder of Euphoric AF, where she helps people explore an alcohol-free lifestyle without labels or shame. After leaving her corporate career, she now coaches, writes, and speaks globally on sober curiosity, mindset, and building a life filled with clarity, purpose, and joy.
https://euphoricaf.com/
 
About the Host – Paul Ryan
Paul Ryan is an entrepreneur, mentor, and host of The Inner Entrepreneur. As the creator of The One-Hour CEO and The Life Code, Paul helps business owners design lives of fulfillment, clarity, and balance. His work blends entrepreneurship, personal growth, and purpose—challenging listeners to create success that genuinely feels good.
 
Work With Paul
If you're ready to build a business and life that’s aligned, intentional, and deeply fulfilling, explore The Life Code and The One-Hour CEO — coaching and tools for high-performing entrepreneurs.
Connect with the host:
 
www.pauljryan.net
 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-ryan-9a98774/
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Bitesize: AI, Reshaping Society & The Future of Being Human with Dr. Lollie Mancey #142

Bite-size: AI, Reshaping Society & The Future of Being Human with Dr. Lollie Mancey
In this bite-size episode, I chat with Dr Lollie Mancey to explore how AI is changing society at every level: how we work, how we connect, how we find meaning, and who gets included or left behind. Dr. Mancey shares a compelling example from a Dutch supermarket — where customers can choose between fast self-checkout, traditional tills, and a “slow lane” designed specifically for people who want to talk and feel seen.
This becomes a wider discussion about entrepreneurship, culture, loneliness, inequality, the limits of upskilling, and why universal basic income may prevent hunger but will not create purpose. We also examine how algorithmic decision-making can unintentionally filter out people with life experience — and how echo chambers distort our understanding of reality.
At the heart of this episode is a critical truth:Technology should serve humanity, not replace it.
And we all have a role in shaping what comes next.
 
Links to full episode:
https://youtu.be/eAywpaMAHnk?si=IW13dcqju9ixQJOd
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0JTLCKMSqv0iQPqOhpWp0x?si=6WBw7UpNTNmoTZAIucCL5A
 
About Dr. Lollie Mancey
Anthropologist, educator, and futurist exploring how society adapts to technological change. Lollie helps individuals and organisations think critically, design intentionally, and build futures that support human flourishing.
Work With Paul
Explore The Life Code and The One-Hour CEO — frameworks and mentoring for designing a successful life with purpose, alignment, and humanity.
www.pauljryan.net

The Human Advantage: Leading With Intuition in an AI World - Dr Diana Dimitrova #141

Many leaders today are surrounded by data, tools, and metrics, yet feel increasingly disconnected from themselves. In this conversation, Dr. Diana Dimitrova and I explore why high performers often suppress intuition, how emotional disconnection shows up in leadership, and the real cost of building companies while losing connection to our inner compass.
We discuss why intuition is not “soft” or irrational, but a form of intelligence we all have—and how it becomes even more valuable as AI accelerates. We talk about the emotional masks leaders wear, why vulnerability enhances credibility, and how to design cultures where people feel safe to speak up, learn, and grow.
We also introduce regenerative leadership: helping organisations replenish people rather than exhaust them. Because in a world where AI can replicate knowledge and efficiency, the leader’s differentiator is humanity, presence, and wisdom—not more data.
What You’ll Learn
Why intuition strengthens decision-making (not replaces it)
How high achievers become disconnected from their inner world
The link between emotional suppression and burnout
How to build speak-up cultures that learn fast and avoid silent failure
Practical ways to rebuild intuition as a daily leadership tool
Why your humanity becomes your competitive advantage in the age of AI
About Dr. Diana Dimitrova
Diana blends strategic consulting experience with deep personal transformation work, helping leaders reconnect to their inner guidance and build regenerative cultures that support both people and performance.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-diana-dimitrova
Work With Paul
If you're ready to build a business and life that’s aligned, intentional, and deeply fulfilling, explore The Life Code and The One-Hour CEO — coaching and tools for high-performing entrepreneurs.
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:
 
www.pauljryan.net
 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-ryan-9a98774/