The Personal Success Podcast with Ryan Watts

Coach Rizwani spent a couple of decades in corporate leadership, including time at a Fortune 50 company, before burnout pushed him to leave. A second burnout, years later in a business he helped build, pushed him to rebuild his work around purpose. He is now the founder of Sahara Supplements, which he describes as the first halal-certified sports nutrition company in North America, and he coaches leaders on health and wellness.

In this conversation with Ryan Watts, he explains how he told the difference between a hard stretch and a real misalignment, and why six months of new morning and evening routines did not fix it.

You will hear:

Why "keep pushing through the wall" stopped making sense once he had kids

What he told himself the week before he knew he had to leave

How he defines discipline: what you say no to

Why environment, including the people around you, decides whether consistency holds

How he built a bootstrapped, self-funded company that avoids debt and interest

Why he chose to manufacture in Canada and stack third-party testing and certifications

How his definition of success moved from net worth to impact

Which international market he enjoyed most, and why

 Sahara Supplements

Sahara Supplements store: https://saharasupplements.com. I opened it, and it is the official site

Listed on the official Sahara site (I didn't open these)

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saharasupplements/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@saharasupplements

Ryan Watts (host): 

https://ryanwattscoaching.com/thepersonalsuccesspodcast 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanwattsmba

Listener offer: Coach Rizwani is offering listeners 10% off the entire Sahara Supplements store.

If this conversation raised a question about your own leadership, follow The Personal Success Podcast for more conversations like it.

Most of us can name the boss who changed everything. The one who saw us, asked real questions, and fought for us. Fewer of us stop to ask what it would take to become that person for someone else.

Susie Gidseg spent years as an actress and theater director, running companies on passion and gas money, before moving into corporate marketing in tech. She became a leader overnight, two weeks before COVID, with no roadmap. Her new book, BOSS: Becoming the Leader You Always Wished You Had, is the guide she wished someone had handed her.

Ryan and Susie talk about why so many people are promoted into leadership without wanting it, what she learned when her team started challenging her, how she led through workforce reductions and then lived through two of her own, and the quiet pull every caring leader feels to be liked.

In this episode:
- Why one leader who sees you can change your career and your sense of yourself
- The two paths people take into leadership, and why it matters
- Why a team that challenges you is a sign of safety, not failure
- What nurturing a team looks like on an ordinary Tuesday
- Leading through layoffs with care, and rebuilding after being laid off twice
- Wanting to be liked versus making the right call
- The say-do ratio and two practical habits for first-time managers
- Why you should never lose yourself in a job

Get the book:
BOSS: Becoming the Leader You Always Wished You Had
https://a.co/d/07Y4C0m5 

Follow The Personal Success Podcast for more conversations on success, leadership, and the choices behind both.
https://thepersonalsuccesspodcast.com

Many leaders were taught that regulating yourself means staying calm. Lisa Danahy offers a different definition: regulation means moving your state to match what the moment needs, which sometimes means raising your energy instead of lowering it.

Lisa is the founder of Create Calm Inc., owner of Radiant Child Yoga, a yoga therapist, educator and author of Creating Calm in Your Classroom. She spent 15 years in law firm management before running an early childhood program for twenty years.

In this conversation, Ryan and Lisa explore:

Mentioned in this episode: The Awakened Brain by Lisa Miller, Ph.D.; Chase Hughes, whose work Ryan is currently reading; Internal Family Systems.

Connect with Lisa: createcalm.org

If this conversation was useful, subscribe to The Personal Success Podcast so you do not miss the next one: thepersonalsuccesspodcast.com

A family business paid bonuses of 20,000 pounds and staff still complained. Dave Williams asked the directors one question: is money really the motivator? The room went silent.

Dave Williams is a UK-based master coach, keynote speaker, and two-time #1 bestselling author of Confidence for Life!: 23 Proven Strategies to Improve YOUR Confidence, for Greater Success! He took his first management role at 18 and has spent forty years leading teams and troubleshooting organizations.

In this conversation with Ryan Watts, Dave explains why most people want recognition more than money, why the most negative letter in the alphabet is T, and why leadership sits at the center of every performance problem. He walks through his Management M.A.S.T.E.R.Y. framework and shares the personal loss that rebuilt his approach to coaching.

In this episode:
- Why being busy is not the same as being productive
- The client who waited 50 years to hear "I'm proud of you"
- The question that silenced a boardroom about bonuses
- How "can't" becomes the most expensive limiting belief
- What he learned as an 18-year-old manager
- Why knowing your team is the first leadership skill
- The one sentence Dave would put in every manager's office

Content note: between roughly 53 and 55 minutes, Dave speaks about bereavement and a period when he nearly took his own life. If you are struggling, in the US you can call or text 988. In the UK, Samaritans are available on 116 123.

Connect with Dave Williams:
Website: https://davewilliamscoaching.com
Management M.A.S.T.E.R.Y. University: https://managementmasteryuniversity.com
Book, Confidence for Life! (Amazon US): https://us.amazon.com/Confidence-Life-Strategies-Improve-Greater/dp/B0B4GPFFP2
LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/davewilliamscoaching

Connect with Ryan Watts:
Website: https://ryanwattscoaching.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanwattsmba

Follow The Personal Success Podcast so you never miss a new conversation.

Most people problems at work are leadership problems.

Michelle Edwards spent nearly 30 years in operations, human resources, and head of talent roles, watching thousands of careers move through organizations. One pattern held every time: the leader decided the trajectory.

What does people-first leadership look like in practice? For Michelle, the job changes the moment another human is in your care. You stop managing the work and start developing the person. You set clear expectations, have courageous conversations, and remove barriers. Take care of the people, and they take care of the work.

In this conversation, Ryan and Michelle talk about:
- Why she promoted high performers but held back direct reports until they proved they could lead
- Why people are judged quickly and leaders are judged softly
- Two commandments from her book DEI Died. Leadership Lives.: fire leaders who refuse to lead, and data doesn't lie
- The career database she built on nights and weekends to see every person's full picture
- Why most people don't trust HR, and what changed when she chose to protect the people
- Her GAS strategy: go deeper, take a stand, lead with love, and self-efficacy
- What grace looks like when you stay in the fight
- What to do this week if you lead a team of eight and something feels off

CHAPTERS
00:00 Who Michelle Edwards is
01:49 From managing work to taking care of people
05:39 Prove you can lead before you get direct reports
09:59 People are judged quickly, leaders are judged softly
11:20 DEI Died. Leadership Lives.
15:33 Fire leaders who refuse to lead
17:19 Data doesn't lie
21:20 The rooms where careers get decided
25:08 The leader who truly saw her
31:36 Why people don't trust HR
34:45 Designing HR from a blank canvas
38:21 The GAS strategy
42:36 What she couldn't fix, and grace
45:18 The database no one saw
52:55 Staying true to herself
55:03 How her definition of success changed
55:49 Leading a team of eight: what to do this week
56:35 Why we avoid real connection
59:07 Where to find Michelle
1:02:21 Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable

CONNECT WITH MICHELLE EDWARDS
Website: https://michelleedwardsspeaks.com
Book, DEI Died. Leadership Lives.: https://a.co/d/06470JmH
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellekedwards/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michelleedwardsspeaks/

CONNECT WITH RYAN WATTS
Ryan Watts Coaching: https://www.ryanwattscoaching.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanwattsmba

FOLLOW THE PERSONAL SUCCESS PODCAST
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-personal-success-podcast-with-ryan-watts/id1699785392
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0poXmaxpjA6ViNDy1KOh9c
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@thepersonalsuccesspodcast
Web: https://www.ryanwattscoaching.com/thepersonalsuccesspodcast

New episodes weekly.

Most leaders can tell you exactly how they're performing. Fewer can tell you whether they're actually present.

Leadership and self-leadership coach Ruth E. Andermatt joins Ryan Watts to talk about the difference between performance and presence, and why connection is what makes performance last. Ruth has coached leaders one-to-one for 28 years. Before that, she was a competitive athlete, worked in the physio department of a mental institute, sold for Xerox, trained sales teams for one of Canada's first cell phone companies, and spent nearly a decade as a director of operations.

Ruth shares the story of a branch manager she was told to fire, and how one honest conversation turned his branch into the top store against plan in Canada within 90 days. She explains why leaders who focus only on performance get compliance while they're in the room and complacency when they leave. She also shares what executives admit privately that they would never say in a meeting, and a 90-second practice to use before every meeting you walk into.

"Performance is very simple to measure. Connection is not." – Ruth Andermatt

IN THIS EPISODE
- The manager Ruth was told to fire, and what happened when she told him the truth
- Why performance is easy to measure and connection is not
- Power over, power for, and power with
- What "coming home to your own power" means, and why self-trust is a skill
- Rethinking performance reviews
- Making space instead of adding force
- The first signs a leader is performing instead of leading
- What executives say privately that they won't say in a meeting
- The quiet cost of a performing organization
- A 90-second practice to do before every meeting

CHAPTERS
00:00 Who Ruth Andermatt is
01:13 Why connection drives leadership and self-leadership
03:35 Performance is easy to measure, connection is not
09:18 Being with your team
10:41 Power over, power for, power with
13:31 Ruth's path: mental institute, Xerox, sales leadership
22:25 Owning who you serve
23:31 Why the top gets quiet
26:04 Coaching, counseling, and connection
30:33 Coming home to your own power
31:57 Rethinking performance reviews
35:51 The simple practice of being seen
37:28 Where self-trust comes from
40:35 Listening, silence, and making space
48:38 What to put down to pick your power back up
52:08 The first signs a leader is performing
56:35 The one thing to do before every meeting
59:50 What executives say privately
01:01:18 The cost of a performing organization
01:02:21 When the energy is gone but the calendar isn't
01:03:34 Stop harassing yourself
01:04:52 Why we need leaders who speak up
01:09:24 Self-leadership is a constant practice
01:12:12 Where to find Ruth

CONNECT WITH RUTH E. ANDERMATT
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coachruth/
Andermatt Consulting Experience Inc.: https://andermattconsulting.com
About Ruth: https://andermattconsulting.com/about/

CONNECT WITH RYAN WATTS
Ryan Watts Coaching: https://www.ryanwattscoaching.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanwattsmba
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ryanwattslifecoaching

THE PERSONAL SUCCESS PODCAST
Show page: https://www.ryanwattscoaching.com/thepersonalsuccesspodcast
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-personal-success-podcast-with-ryan-watts/id1699785392
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0poXmaxpjA6ViNDy1KOh9c
YouTube playlist: https://www.youtube.com/@thepersonalsuccesspodcast

Have a story worth telling? Apply to be a guest: https://www.ryanwattscoaching.com/podapp

New episodes every Monday. If this conversation helped, share it with one leader who is carrying more than they say out loud.

Nik Kinley spent over a decade as a forensic psychotherapist in prisons before moving into business, and he has assessed and advised senior leaders ever since. In this conversation he explains why the moment you gain power over someone, they start filtering what they tell you, and why you are the last person in the room to notice it happening.

We get into what power actually does to judgment, why nice bosses often silence their teams more effectively than difficult ones, and why public praise is more dangerous to a leader than criticism. Nik also walks through the tells of cognitive overload, which almost nobody spots because the early symptoms feel like sharpness rather than strain.

The last section covers AI. Nik uses it heavily and is direct about what it is doing to information flow inside organizations, and to the quality of thinking that reaches the people making decisions.

YOU WILL LEARN
- Why people stop telling you the truth the moment you become their boss, and what that costs your decisions
- What power actually does to judgment, from overconfidence to how you process expert advice
- Why public praise damages a leader more than private criticism, and the exact words to deflect it
- The four early tells of cognitive overload, and why the first one feels like being on top of things
- Two prevention measures that work better than anything you can do in the moment
- Where a small amount of narcissism helps a leader, and where the line sits
- How AI is amplifying distorted information flow inside leadership teams

CHAPTERS
00:00 Who is Nik Kinley
02:36 "I don't have a mission"
05:54 What working in prisons teaches you
09:49 Why we turn people into monsters
13:00 Echo chambers and the pull of certainty
19:12 Why behavior change is so hard
24:45 What actually made one habit stick
28:26 Caring boss versus feeling cared for
30:11 The one trait that predicts real change
31:08 What senior leaders can't see in themselves
33:17 Power doesn't corrupt. It amplifies.
35:57 Why public praise is poison
40:02 How power degrades judgment
45:50 Close the gap: the countermeasure
49:41 How to refuse flattery without being rude
51:55 The tells of cognitive overload
56:10 Sleep and if-then rules
1:01:34 Why leaders need a little narcissism
1:06:49 Does AI amplify the distortion?
1:14:48 What drives eight books
1:17:01 What the work taught him about himself

ABOUT NIK KINLEY
Psychologist Nik Kinley is a leadership assessor, consultant and coach. With over 30 years' experience, he has worked with the CEOs of national banks and $90b businesses, hedge fund bosses, and engineering leads in Formula 1, as well as royalty, politicians, and heads of national security. Unusually, his background also includes forensic and clinical work with criminals, drug addicts, and children, helping shape his understanding of judgement and behaviour. He is the author of multiple internationally translated leadership books, has appeared as a leadership expert on major television networks, been featured in outlets such as The Economist, Forbes, and The Times, and regularly lectures at leading business schools including IMD in Switzerland.

His latest book is The Power Trap: How Leadership Changes People, and What to Do About It.

Get the book: https://a.co/d/0gNh6WfC

Website: https://nikkinley.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikkinley
Substack: https://substack.com/@nikkinley

RYAN WATTS
Website: https://ryanwattscoaching.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanwattsmba

Subscribe to The Personal Success Podcast for a new conversation every Monday.

Steven Ferrara built a small family insurance business in Newark, New Jersey into a large financial services firm and served as CEO for 25 years. He was 49 when his son Christopher died in a car accident at 23. In this conversation he tells I talk with Steven about what that did to a spiritual foundation he had been building since he was a teenager, and what he found on the other side of it.

This is not a grief episode dressed up for executives. It is a conversation about identity. Steve spent a career deliberately not getting entangled with his title, and he explains why that turned out to be the thing that let him survive what came next. He talks about the five minutes he took behind a closed door between back-to-back meetings, about the coach who told a room of high performers they did not need more work ethic, and about the day his teenage daughter asked him why everyone at his office respected him.

If your title is currently holding you together, this hour is worth your time before something proves it cannot.

YOU WILL LEARN
- Why Steven stopped asking "why" after his son died, and what replaced it
- The specific practice his executive coach named as more valuable than work ethic or motivation
- How not identifying with your title changes what you can survive
- What transcendental meditation actually does, and why Steve says guided meditation is easier
- How to let sadness pass through without turning it into a story you live in
- Why slowing your voice down in a leadership meeting makes people listen harder

CHAPTERS
00:00 Who Steven Ferrara is beneath the titles
03:40 Learning transcendental meditation as a teenager
07:06 What "transcendental" actually means
11:21 The five minutes he took between meetings
13:24 High quality free time, and why leaders skip it
15:16 Building a financial firm from cold calls
19:51 Why he never got caught up in being CEO
21:52 His daughter's question about respect
23:38 The morning after Christopher died
26:04 Giving up the question "why"
28:24 From what could have been to what can be
31:54 Ryan on losing his closest friend
32:19 Thinking about loss versus experiencing it
34:40 Finding gratitude without agreeing with the loss
37:03 The journal entry that changed everything
39:00 What an ongoing relationship really means
41:48 Who "Grief to Gratitude" is for
44:38 A Course in Miracles, Eckhart Tolle, Michael Singer
51:03 The bridge for leaders who have not faced loss
55:42 Why slowing down makes people listen
57:02 Reframing sadness as another form of love
1:01:49 What peace looks like now
1:05:14 A new paradigm for death, and therefore life
1:06:57 Where to find Steven and the book

ABOUT STEVEN FERRARA
Steven Ferrara expanded a small family insurance business founded in his hometown of Newark, New Jersey into a large financial services firm, serving as CEO for 25 years before selling the company in 2020. For two decades he taught universal and spiritual principles for the Concept-Therapy Institute alongside his father and sister. His work has been shaped by A Course in Miracles and the teachings of Eckhart Tolle, David Hawkins, and Michael Singer. After the death of his 23-year-old son, Christopher, and later his wife, Alie, he turned two decades of daily journals into "Grief to Gratitude: Embracing the Inner Pathway to Healing and Peace," published by Amplify Publishing Group and endorsed by Jack Canfield.

STEVEN'S LINKS
Website: https://www.stevenferrara.com
Book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/4oTDtDJ
Book at Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/grief-to-gratitude-steven-a-ferrara/1148376266?ean=9798891388116

Book at Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/grief-to-gratitude-embracing-the-inner-pathway-to-healing-and-peace-steven-a-ferrara/14aa1bc309656c55?ean=9798891388116
Substack: https://stevenferrara.substack.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stevenferraraauthor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stevenferraraauthor
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@stevenferraraauthor

RYAN'S LINKS
Ryan Watts Coaching: https://www.ryanwattscoaching.com
The Personal Success Podcast: https://www.ryanwattscoaching.com/thepersonalsuccesspodcast
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanwattsmba

If this conversation landed, subscribe to The Personal Success Podcast. New conversations every week with people who have walked through change and found a deeper way forward.

Complacency rarely looks like laziness. It looks like a full calendar.

I sit down with Marty Hofmann, author of Kill Complacency and host of the podcast by the same name, for a conversation that starts with a confession. Their first attempt at this recording was unusable, and Ryan pushed through the entire thing anyway rather than call it. What he found underneath that is the spine of the episode: he cares about quality, and what he was actually protecting was the schedule.

Marty has built his work around the idea that drift is the real threat, not failure. He argues that complacency is a self honesty problem before it is a discipline problem, because discipline has nothing to stand on until you have named what is actually happening. From there they get into the self audit most people skip, why your environment will outlast your willpower, how to tell rest from drift when you genuinely cannot tell, and what it takes to stop doing the work yourself and start designing it.

Marty also tells the story of the marathon he finished on two blistered feet with leaves stuffed in his socks, and what his wife Ginger said when he called to quit.

IN THIS EPISODE
00:00 Two takes, and the value of sounding human
03:34 The recording that did not work
06:38 Choosing the calendar over the quality
08:59 Killing complacency: Marty's mission
09:56 Content versus whole
11:20 The self audit most people avoid
13:25 Friction as resistance training
14:50 Rest or drift: the three seasons
18:39 Did success cause it or fund it
20:45 Why relationships turn into a mirror
23:47 The dip, and what is on the other side
28:42 Push through or start over: the blister story
33:59 Discipline problem or self honesty problem
35:22 Why leaders know the thing and still don't move
37:52 The Seven F's and where to start
42:00 When fitness and family collide
43:16 Does killing complacency ever stop
44:49 Drive versus self punishment
52:07 Love styles, and how you were comforted as a kid
55:32 Do ultras prove something or quiet something
59:13 What is running on autopilot
1:01:26 Be the engineer, not the DIY guy
1:04:56 The $5,000 duplex
1:06:53 What faith is doing in the framework
1:09:08 What he would change about the book
1:10:36 The final message

ABOUT MARTY HOFMANN
Marty Hofmann is an entrepreneur, real estate investor, ultrarunner, and the author of Kill Complacency: Stop Drifting and Start Living the Life God Designed for You. He hosts the Kill Complacency podcast, founded OKC REIA, and lives in Oklahoma with his wife Ginger and their six children.
Book: https://a.co/d/03qmQ1x8
Website: killcomplacency.com

MENTIONED
Willpower Doesn't Work by Benjamin Hardy
Atomic Habits
The Dip
How We Love by Milan and Kay Yerkovich

ABOUT THE SHOW
The Personal Success Podcast is hosted by Ryan Watts of Ryan Watts Coaching, where he works with senior leaders on removing internal negotiation and leading with clarity.
https://ryanwattscoaching.com
https://linkedin.com/in/ryanwattsmba

CONTENT NOTE
At 1:06:53 Marty shares that he was suicidal at sixteen. If you are struggling, you can call or text 988 in the US to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

Most people never ask whether the goal belongs to them.

Andrea Mancuso is a licensed mental health counselor, an ICF-certified coach, and a former New York City public school psychologist who spent 14 years in the system before founding Intentional Healing & Wellness. Her book, The Space Between: Navigating the Journey from Dream to Success, is about the part of the journey nobody documents: everything that happens after you decide and before you arrive.

In this conversation she names something that catches a lot of high achievers off guard. When a client brings her a goal and they start taking it apart, the goal often turns out to belong to someone else. It was suggested. It was gifted. And that is usually why finishing it produces so little.

Ryan tests it against his own twenty years of completing a checklist he never chose.

They also get into why change is so hard even when it clearly helps, why flexibility is an emotional intelligence skill and not a personality trait, why healing tends to happen in community rather than alone, and Andrea's answer to the question most ambitious people are quietly afraid of: does doing the inner work slow you down?

Her answer is no. It makes you travel lighter.

What you'll take from this episode:

Chapters

Mentioned in this episode

Connect with Andrea Mancuso

Andrea asked listeners to reach out. If something in this conversation lands, send her a DM and tell her you heard it here.

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