From Half a Million Down to Hopeful Horizons with Ryan Pink
In today's episode of "Eye Openers," I had the profound pleasure of sitting down with Ryan, an entrepreneur whose journey is both a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and a compelling narrative on the transformative power of confronting our deepest struggles.
Ryan's story, much like the stories I've been privileged to witness and support through my coaching practice, underscores a fundamental truth: that our greatest trials often pave the way for our most significant triumphs.
Moments that marked me:
🔑The Pivot Point: Ryan's recount of a near-catastrophic financial challenge wasn't just a story of loss and recovery; it was a profound lesson in the power of surrender and the unexpected pathways that open up when we shift from control to trust. This moment resonated deeply with me, as it mirrors the journeys many of my clients embark on—moving from a place of fear and scarcity to one of abundance and opportunity.
💡 Mindset Mastery: Our discussion on mindset illuminated the critical role our beliefs play in navigating the entrepreneurial landscape. Ryan's transformation from a mindset of scarcity to one of abundance wasn't just a strategy for business success; it was a fundamental shift in how he approached life. This insight is central to my coaching philosophy: that by changing our inner narrative, we can dramatically alter our external reality.
❤️Healing as a Foundation for Success: Perhaps the most moving part of our conversation was Ryan's openness about his battle with PTSD and depression. His journey from despair to founding Hope Guide is a powerful reminder that personal healing is not just about recovery; it's about uncovering a deeper sense of purpose and using our pain as a catalyst for impact. This aligns with my deepest belief that our greatest contributions arise from our most profound struggles.
Listen Here:
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify
If today's conversation resonated with you, I encourage you to: Explore the resources available at Hope Guide and consider how your own journey of healing and growth could impact others.
And if you're seeking to deepen your own journey of personal and professional transformation, visit my website for resources and coaching opportunities designed to guide you towards your fullest potential.
Eye Opening Insights:
[00:03:15] Ryan's recounting of the crucial moment he decided to make a significant change in his approach to business, highlighting the spiritual awakening that guided him back from the brink of financial ruin.
[00:10:23] Brittany asks Ryan about navigating burnout and finding balance, sparking a discussion that sheds light on the often overlooked aspect of entrepreneurial life: the mental and emotional toll of constant high-stakes decision-making and the critical importance of self-care and mindset management.
[00:22:46] A pivotal point in the conversation where Ryan delves into his personal struggles with mental health, the journey to healing, and how this experience fueled his passion for making trauma therapy more accessible through Hope Guide.
Watch Here:
About Ryan:
Ryan Pink's journey is a testament to resilience, transformation, and the power of hope. Once an entrepreneur who thrived behind the scenes, Ryan's expertise helped elevate the profiles of thousands, leading to the creation and sale of multiple companies. Despite his professional success and a life filled with global adventures, he wrestled with unseen battles, rooted in childhood trauma that manifested as PTSD. His outward success masked an inner turmoil that nearly cost him everything. Driven by the desire to heal, Ryan embarked on an intensive, personal journey of recovery, exploring numerous therapies and treatments over two years, which not only led to his own healing but also a revelation about the universal potential for recovery and joy.
Motivated by his experiences, Ryan founded HopeGuide, a platform dedicated to guiding others through their healing journeys. HopeGuide is the culmination of Ryan's life's lessons, a project that combines his entrepreneurial spirit with his personal mission to facilitate healing and resilience. Through his work, including the How We Heal Podcast and public speaking engagements, Ryan aims to dismantle barriers to healing and to share the message that, with the right guidance, everyone has the capacity to overcome their past and build a resilient future. His story is one of profound transformation, from a life overshadowed by trauma to one illuminated by hope and dedicated to helping others find their way back to themselves.
Transcript:
Eye Openers 76: From Half a Million Down to Hopeful Horizons with Ryan Pink
This transcript is auto-generated. Please excuse any typos!
[00:00:00] Brittany: Hello and welcome to eye openers, where we kick you off with not only caffeine to literally get your eyes open, especially after this daylight savings time. I don't know how it affects all of you, but I definitely had a slow go of it. Sunday morning. A little bit better today. If you're watching us live, it's Monday.
[00:00:37] Brittany: but coffee never hurts when you're looking for an eye opening experience. And so today on Eye Openers, I am here with my friend, Ryan. Ryan, thank you so much for coming.
[00:00:48] Ryan: Thanks for having me, Brittany. I'm excited to be here.
[00:00:50] Brittany: Ryan, what are you drinking?
[00:00:52] Ryan: Well, actually, I've recently started brewing my own cold brew.
[00:00:58] Ryan: I would love to lie to you and say that I'm drinking my own right now, but I'm actually drinking the Starbucks one. I don't know if you can see it. Yeah, there we go. Yeah. Yeah. Right there. Um, and it's really, yeah.
[00:01:12] Brittany: but I love the Starbucks mugs. You, that's one of the places Yeah. Yeah. I had about a hundred.
[00:01:19] Brittany: Uh
[00:01:20] Ryan: huh.
[00:01:22] Brittany: Love it. Love it. I don't know if you know, but I used to live outside of Boston for like 15 years, moved from there. Now it's California. We're learning so much about each other. The show is just, yeah, my husband's a new Englander and I always wanted to live out there, go to school. And so, we had a beautiful life out there, mostly in Providence, Rhode Island, but spent lots of time in Boston.
[00:01:47] Ryan: Oh, it's gorgeous out there. I love that part of the world.
[00:01:50] Brittany: Wonderful. Well, I have about a year ago. I went to a retreat in Arizona called Savannah. I'm not sure if you're familiar with it. Um, a lot of my girlfriends out here in Santa Barbara have gone. I think they had really good Instagram marketing. A lot of people have been that I know.
[00:02:09] Brittany: and. It was just a fantastic, kind of mental reset in a time where I was getting really burned out. We can talk about that later, but, they had a pour over coffee set up in each of the rooms and they usually have like Nespresso or whatever. Like I know when I'm traveling for business, I'm like, okay, sure.
[00:02:26] Brittany: Like before I get out the door, this was such an intentional kind of meditative experience because you want the damn thing, but you gotta wait. At least five, maybe 10 minutes while you do this whole pour over situation. And at first, well, when I was there, I was like, this is fantastic. I have nowhere that I'm rushing off to besides like a sound bath or a gratitude circle.
[00:02:52] Brittany: And they're trying to teach us not to rush first of all. And it was such an amazing experience that I bought the setup and have ever since. been using it at home, even in a life that is much more scheduled and, tied on time, I have turned this into a morning practice that I enjoy fully. So long story long, I am drinking a four over coffee.
[00:03:16] Brittany: I mean, yeah. So, and I have some of those same mugs that you were showing there, which is just a fun way to celebrate different places you've been. So, uh, cheers to Starbucks for making that happen.
[00:03:30] Ryan: Yes, for sure. But besides
[00:03:31] Brittany: all my boring coffee talk here, I want to hear a little bit about you.
[00:03:36] Brittany: So. I know you a bit and we got introduced by a fantastic person, named Jenny, but let's let the audience know why you're here today. Cause they know, I try to be discerning with my guests. I try really hard, you know, to bring the best of the best. That is just not famous yet to share about business insights, to learn from those who maybe you don't recognize on the screen, but have valuable business insights and eye opening moments to share.
[00:04:05] Ryan: Well, I think, I think the reason that you brought me on here is because I'm the best of the best, Brittany, if I'm honest.
[00:04:10] Brittany:
[00:04:10] Ryan: So, so I've been an entrepreneur for about 15, 16 years. started, six companies. I've sold four of them over the last one in 2020. and started two others. One of them that I'm running now called Hope Guide. and you know, I've had a lot of crazy experiences. I mean, I didn't start off as a natural entrepreneur.
[00:04:27] Ryan: Like some people seem to have the gene for it. You know, that it seems like for I had to learn it. And I, so I think, the beauty of that is because it didn't come super naturally for me. I know what it took me to get here because I had to learn those lessons intentionally.
[00:04:42] Brittany: Right. Of course, I've had conversations with Ryan, not live and, and before the Internet was working and, we would talk about, Some of the kind of highlight reel of those highest highs, which happened in entrepreneurship and those lowest lows that happen.
[00:05:00] Brittany: And oftentimes they're tied together and that's what makes owning a business, such a rollercoaster and really um, for not the faint of heart. But you told me a story about like one time that you lost about a half a million dollars and we're down to your last hour of cash. And I have to, I've begged him to tell you guys the story because it's, this is all of our worst fear.
[00:05:21] Brittany: This is everyone's worst fear and it was like, how did you get there and how did you crawl your way out of it?
[00:05:28] Ryan: Oh, man I can't remember if when we were speaking personally for me. I told you the full scale of how I got out of it, so we'll do that but I mean, basically, what it comes down to is back in, uh, I would say, probably I'm that bad with timing, but 2014, 2015, I had this brilliant idea.
[00:05:44] Ryan: Just like all of my ideas are brilliant. And it was so brilliant. I didn't need to test it in any way, shape or form before going ahead with it. and, It was 1 of our businesses, and we had about a half a million dollars in cash in the business at that particular point. And, and I was all in.
[00:05:59] Ryan: I knew this idea was brilliant. I knew it was going to make us so much money. It was wonderful. and over the course of 3 months, as I went all in on this, we lost everything in the company, except for 300 dollars, it was a roughly about an hour's worth of cash flow. Remember correctly, maybe less than that.
[00:06:16] Ryan: and I hadn't taken a salary that entire 3 months because I could see my spend was going to be a lot. And, you know, I learned some lessons and we can get into that if you'd like, but, that's what brought me to the place of thinking. Oh, my goodness. Like, we might be out of money. we had some personal cash we could bring in, but that, you know, at the spend, rate That wasn't going to last very long. and. I thought that might be the end of my entrepreneurial journey at that particular moment. and so. It's interesting the way that we got out of it, because it's a little bit of a spiritual story. Hope that's okay.
[00:06:49] Ryan: because in times of distress, I start thinking about external resources That I can access. What can I do to help me to get out of this? And, and so I was kind of like. Like, I literally have an hour.
[00:07:01] Ryan: So, I literally went down to the river to pray because I feel moved. I feel connected to nature and the ineffable, the great mystery when I'm, when I'm by water moving. So I went down to the river to pray and I was like, what am I supposed to do? Because I haven't got paid in three months.
[00:07:17] Ryan: I have to pay a team and I have a pretty big payroll. And, and I was out of ideas cause I went all in on this really bad idea.
[00:07:25] Ryan: and, ultimately what happened is I heard this voice kind of in my head say. You're doing this and I want you to do this and it was this idea of like, you're trying to hold on to everything so tight and control everything and you need to let go.
[00:07:40] Ryan: And so in this particular case, what that meant to me is I needed to make a commitment to give to make a substantial donation to an organization that we believed in that helped children and widows in Africa. And so I made that commitment, but I knew that I needed to make that commitment publicly.
[00:07:57] Ryan: So I didn't get out of it because I knew that I'd feel tempted to, to get out of it. Right. Cause I needed the accountability. Like sometimes you do it for show, like, Oh, well, we want people to know we're good people or something. That's not the motivation. I wanted people to say, Hey, did you ever, you promised you were going to give that money.
[00:08:14] Ryan: and so it wasn't like, A ton, but it was, I think our minimum was 30, 000 and it was going to scale up to an unlimited amount based on an event we were doing. But we promised a minimum of 30, 000 and because I knew I needed to change my perspective and I was sitting from a place of loss and of, I don't have enough And scarcity. And so, and so we had an event that was about to go live, I think it was the next day. and when that event went live, and it being our most successful event to date, and, we ended up making every penny of that 500, 000 back, plus some, yeah, now that the event lasted five days.
[00:08:53] Ryan: but over the course of five days, we made every penny of that back plus some, and that's after our pledge that we made to, the other organization. and so I was like, well, I'm going to go down to the river to pray more often.
[00:09:03] Brittany: Ryan, you're onto something That is super important. I was literally just on a call with some very, very high level, other executive coaches, consultants, that, you know, work with executive teams, whatever. And so much of what we were just talking about was mindset.
[00:09:21] Brittany: And feeling like that's what can set you apart from other business owners is not that you have this incredible set of knowledge that makes you superior, but it's really, it's like this resilience or this like inner strength and part of that comes with like that mindset that you just described. Like, Not coming from a place of scarcity all the time and being able to transition that having that faith or that abundance, right?
[00:09:45] Brittany: That the universe has taken care of me before, how will it take care of me again? And again,you said, is it okay to be like spiritual about this? But I think the truth is maybe that's the path, like when we. And so when we pretend like there's nothing mystical about what's going on, I think that's when we actually miss the point or when we miss the opportunities, or we don't actually see everything that's available to us.
[00:10:07] Brittany: And so, like you said, when you were in that place, and you were kind of calling upon that energy to show up for you, it did. What would it, what would. be possible, right? if we stayed in that place, in that mindset and stayed open to that more often.
[00:10:23] Brittany: And so what, you know, we had touched on this subject earlier about burnout, but you know, like you said, you've been for several of, these building and selling,situations with, your companies, but getting to a place, where you had been burnt out, how do you get around that?
[00:10:40] Brittany: Because I'm going to be totally transparent with you. My husband owns a business. I own a business. I'm helping with both. I work with big companies. There are some weeks where I am working way too much and it feels completely overwhelming and I know other entrepreneurs too, who are just burning at both ends.
[00:11:00] Brittany: What did you learn from being in those situations yourself, and how do you do it better now?
[00:11:05] Ryan: You know, this is, this seems to be a lesson that I've been put on this earth to learn over and over and over again. And I learn something, and then I sort of unlearn it, and then I learn it again.
[00:11:14] Ryan: And I keep learning to do it better and better. The first time I learned that lesson, I was We had sold 1 company and we were running 2 others at the time, a few months away from starting another 1 and and I was a terrible entrepreneur. I didn't really know what I was doing.
[00:11:31] Ryan: And so that I was compensating for that by doing everything myself. I wasn't. Trusting the people that I had hired. I didn't have good processes in place,
[00:11:40] Brittany: um,
[00:11:40] Ryan: processes for you Americans. and I knew that I needed to escape this, micromanaging over controlling kind of, nature that I had, which is the reason I was burning out.
[00:11:50] Ryan: I wasn't doing things well. I was just. Working harder, you know, they say work smarter, not harder. I was working harder, not smarter all the time. So I knew the path, but I wasn't taking it. And so we made a decision. I said to my wife at the time. I said, I think the only way that I'm going to learn the lesson that I need you to be the entrepreneur I want to be is to leave the country and leave my local business behind.
[00:12:15] Ryan: and there's a few things that I had to do in order to do that. I need to hire some good people. I needed to trust them. I need to have really good processes in place, but I had all those things and I need to just trust it's either going to sink or swim and I'm going to learn a lesson. and so we ended up leaving the country and going to, well, it was, it was a one year trip.
[00:12:31] Ryan: We did 32 countries, every continent. Over the course of the year, we moved on average every 3 days. So it really was difficult to run a business about, you know, in that environment. Oh, by the way, with 4 children as well. 1 of them was 8 months old.it was spotty Internet and all that kind of stuff.
[00:12:46] Brittany: I'm speechless. I mean, you had 4 kids, 4 kids, like, just in 1 location.
[00:12:53] Ryan: We continued until we had six and then we kind of stopped for a minute, but,I was in Argentina and I said to my team, it was a music school in Vancouver, BC, Canada. I said, listen, I'm going away.
[00:13:04] Ryan: Don't talk to me for a month. And that was like the big idea, you know, it was like, let's see how this does for a month. And Brittany, I got to tell you, I was so stressed that whole month. Like it was like. Because I just imagined everything was falling apart the whole time, you know, but I was really disciplined for like three weeks and at three weeks, I reached out to the director of the school.
[00:13:25] Ryan: And I said, I basically, the tone is basically like, okay, tell me everything that's, you know, that's blown apart. And essentially called an emergency meeting a week before I was supposed to talk to them because I hadn't heard anything from them. And it was stressing me out.
[00:13:37] Ryan: I told them, don't talk to me. And they didn't talk to me. And then I thought that meant everything was blowing up. So we had this emergency meeting. I met with the team and I said, okay, lay it on me. What's going on here? Like, how is everything falling apart? You know, and they were like, nah, everything's been going great.
[00:13:53] Ryan: Actually. I don't remember the exact number, but it was somewhere between 10 and 15 percent that the business had grown in the month. And since I'd been there, we had a great influx of clients. and the funny thing is my first response was not gratitude. It hurt my feelings. It was like, I thought I was more important than that.
[00:14:14] Ryan: and it turns out they were doing a better job without me there. yeah,
[00:14:18] Brittany: that's such an important story and I really am so glad you can be candid about that and laugh about it now. Because in the moment. It is scary and it is our literally our brain, like telling us, no, no, no, we like have to be important.
[00:14:34] Brittany: We have to be needed. We have to be valuable because what if we're not, and that threat can take you all the way back into, you know, if I'm not a valuable part of a group, am I going to be accepted? And am I going to have that? Kind of protection that, that part of us that, that feels safe. It's a hierarchy of need, literally.
[00:14:55] Brittany: Right. And so to question your ego almost in that way, and it's such a bad name, but,we need our ego to stay alive. It's part of our self preservation. having a healthy ego is really important for having a good life. And to when your ego gets questioned in that it's really, really challenging time, but it's can be such an eye opening moment to realize, Oh, the way I thought I needed to exist the way I thought I needed to be important or be so centralized in this business ecosystem or whatever I had created.
[00:15:32] Brittany: Yeah. That's the thing that is probably not true. Do I add value? Do I deserve to exist? That's totally different. Do I need to operate in this way? And potentially, is there a better way to operate? Wow. What an, what a great opportunity.
[00:15:49] Ryan: Oh, it was. And speaking about mindset, you know, like it was really a mindset update that was required.
[00:15:55] Ryan: and the mindset for me was I am getting my personal need for validation for like worth out of my activity in this business. And that's fine. I mean, it's not great, but it's fine if that's what you want to do. but, it was costing me everything. Including burning me out, and it wasn't worth it.
[00:16:13] Ryan: Ultimately, that business went on to, you know, become the four hour work year. I did that for five years. I did a quarterly meeting with my director for five years, and continued to grow, and then I sold it. So, you know, It didn't need me not in that way out in that way.
[00:16:29] Brittany: Yeah. Wow. I mean, I just love the story so much.
[00:16:33] Brittany: And, and it brings me to like this point about neuroscience because so many entrepreneurs I meet they actually have a pretty good risk tolerance versus like the, I guess any like segment of the population. And so I've always been so curious and I ask people about their stories and what's led them to this place, because there's gotta be some patterning that gets us there.
[00:16:59] Brittany: And oftentimes in entrepreneurship, There's some kind of comfort in the chaos,that people write though, like, I find for some entrepreneurs, there's some part of that, that either, is familiar or gives them, that thrill ride that, that they need, but there was some patterning previous to them starting their business that was there in a similar way.
[00:17:22] Brittany: Do you mind sharing how that resonates for you?
[00:17:26] Ryan: For sure. I mean,yes, I grew up in a very chaotic environment and so chaos is comfort for me,anything other than that meant that I had to listen to my body, I had to listen to the silence and that meant I had to like become comfortable with uncomfortable thoughts, though there was a certain amount of
[00:17:48] Ryan: escaping from the pain of dealing with the difficult things I experienced as a child that I was seeking after. And so there is a certain element of going beyond what would be a normal risk tolerance and perhaps even a reasonable risk tolerance in order to find the chaos as a salve,or maybe a distraction.
[00:18:05] Ryan: Maybe it's more like a distraction from dealing with that stuff. interestingly, I went to,a clinic called Amen clinics. are you familiar with them? yeah, they did great work. and they did spec scans. and he saw this, he showed me this pattern. He says, this is called the trauma diamond.
[00:18:22] Ryan: and he says, you're lit up like a Christmas tree. I was trying to figure it was talking about
[00:18:25] Brittany: the brain for those of you who aren't familiar with that scan of your brain. He showed you.
[00:18:30] Ryan: Yes. Yes. It's a spec scan of your brain. Yeah. and, he says, you're lit up like a Christmas tree on this diagram.
[00:18:37] Ryan: It says, by any chance, are you an entrepreneur? And I said, that's a weird question to ask, but yeah, I am an entrepreneur. He's like, Hmm, I see a lot of entrepreneurs with this pattern. and so back to your point, Brittany, I think that, and I've met a lot of entrepreneurs that, that we made a decision somewhere along the line because of something we experienced often as children, that we are never going to be dependent on somebody else the rest of our lives.
[00:18:59] Ryan: And the best way to do that in our culture, especially where we're rewarded for it, is to go into entrepreneurship. So we have more control over our own.
[00:19:09] Brittany: Right, right. It's wild. but it can also again, here's like another eye opening opportunity to look at that. So, like, when you were presented with that information, you could maybe see the places where.
[00:19:23] Brittany: Oh yeah. Like I can see the makeup of what led to this that led to the next that led to me becoming this serial entrepreneur. And like you said, there's so much of our society and our culture that rewards you for it. Like it's cool to be an entrepreneur right now. It's awesome to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, but there can also be a dark side to that too.
[00:19:46] Ryan: Oh, very much. I mean, for me working, I mean, I would regularly work 40 hours straight. Not sleeping, not eating, having a little bit of water. and I thought I was invincible. I would do that at least once a month, sometimes once a week, because my thought was I'm going to get 40 hours in right away, and then I'm going to do 40 hours in the rest of the week and I'm getting, or sorry, not 40 more than that.
[00:20:10] Ryan: It was more like 60 hours the rest of the week. And I'm getting way more done than anybody else. and it ended up. Not just burning me out. I had really negative effects over time. on my body, on my health, something I dealt with for years. Yeah. So there is a dark side for sure.
[00:20:26] Brittany: Yeah. and sometimes we're chasing something that feels, it's almost unattainable because you just keep changing the metric on yourself.
[00:20:34] Brittany: Oh, right. The goalpost. And it's like this never ending race that you can find yourself in. And then you just think now I have to work 120 hours a week to get rid of it. Now I have to do something just even crazier. and that's how we. perpetuate this, this almost like unhealthy cycle with it. And so talk me through how you worked to kind of heal yourself out of that and how it's led to your most recent venture today.
[00:21:03] Ryan: Okay. well, I mean, you talk about the dark side, Brittany, I had a number of brain injuries. So that contributed. I've had 25 concussions. I'm into some extreme, again, high risk tolerance. So I'm into some extreme sports and I do some crazy stuff. and. Back in, I'm bad with timing. I'll say 2018 probably.
[00:21:23] Ryan: I started to get really, really depressed. Really depressed, really anxious. and I didn't know why and I couldn't get out of it like before. I could just work more. And that seemed to be the cure for any negative feelings. But it really started to drag me down to the point where I wasn't even very functional.
[00:21:39] Ryan: and I later realized I had PTSD, I was diagnosed with, acute, PTSD, but the doctor said complex PTSD and, and that's, you know, gave me sort of an understanding of what I was experiencing. He said to me,you know, you have PTSD. I said, I don't know about that because I didn't go to war, you know, and, and I said, well, tell me what PTSD is.
[00:21:59] Ryan: He started to describe the experience and I said, but I've never not felt that way. Isn't that like what living is? Like, isn't that just how every human feels? And he's like, no, this is not,this is not how every human feels and maybe, but it gave me hope that maybe I could feel better. And so I ended up, I mean, I was suicidal, Brittany, every single day, and, and extremely suicidal.
[00:22:24] Ryan: I had 6 kids, so I had to, like, figure out how I had to do something different. I couldn't follow that impulse because I didn't want that to transfer to them. and so I ended up, I said, okay, well, I've sold my company at this last company. I have some money. I'm just going to spend like, what's the point of having it if you're dead, you know?
[00:22:43] Ryan: So I ended up spending 300, 000, throwing money at every possible thing I could do to try and figure out a way to heal from this experience so that I could be there for my kids in the way I wanted to. and. And maybe even have a good life myself because I was always feeling a sense of like danger my entire life.
[00:23:02] Brittany: And
[00:23:02] Ryan: so I spent all that time, all that money. and I realized at the end that most of it wasn't even necessary. I was grateful that I had the ability to just throw money at the figure throughout the problem. but most of that wasn't even really necessary. What I needed was someone to give me some guidance along the way.
[00:23:21] Ryan: I need someone to say, Hey, I understand the thing that you're experiencing and I've taken the time to understand as best as I can your experience. And this is the bridge from point A to point B. I would have saved a lot of time. I would have saved a lot of money, but that's not even the big issue because I was sitting thinking I was fortunate enough to have the money to solve this problem.
[00:23:44] Ryan: But what if I only had 250, 000? I probably would have been dead. Or how about like so many people, a hundred thousand, 50, 000, 20, 000, 10, 000, or like some people I have enough for five sessions this year. Is that going to be enough for me?
[00:24:00] Brittany: Right.
[00:24:01] Ryan: The answer is in many cases, it's probably best not to start.
[00:24:05] Ryan: and it broke my heart. And I just felt this calling, like I had retired. I'd sold this company and retired. and I was like, I feel like I'm supposed to do something meaningful with my life. Instead of this time, starting with where can I make money? I wanted to start with, where can I find meaning?
[00:24:22] Ryan: Like where's the purpose in the meeting? And so I started a trauma therapy company in Canada, which I've since.transitioned to my partner there so I could focus on the company in the U S but that was my first foray into helping people. I'm heal from trauma and now I run an organization called the hope guide.
[00:24:39] Ryan: and our objective is to reduce the barrier of entry for people to heal from trauma so that
[00:24:45] Brittany: they
[00:24:46] Ryan: don't have to spend 300, 000 and spend 5 years or 10 years or 15 or 20 years trying to solve this problem. we're trying to bridge the gap between very good research that's out there. We understand actually trauma very, very well.
[00:25:02] Ryan: we understand what is helpful for people overcoming trauma, creating the bridge between their experience and those particular, not just modalities. It's also habits, practices. you know what we call like analogs, which is like. the simple things you can do for yourself that mirror those kind of modalities.
[00:25:19] Ryan: and so that's our mission at Hope Guide is to bring that to people and,and make it as a trauma therapy, trauma healing accessible to as many people as possible.
[00:25:31] Brittany: Fantastic. this story. It just rings. So I guess, like, near and dear to my heart, because over the course of my work, I went from working in community mental health to having a private practice to then transitioning that to working with entrepreneurs, their teams, their businesses in, you know, The truth is I never stopped being a therapist because in, it's just, the setting is different and what I need to call myself in that setting to be most effective changes.
[00:26:03] Brittany: But, the ability, the privilege to sit with people in that space and to, be a resource or validate their experience or whatever is something that, I feel so honored to do with people. But even specifically, like we mentioned, working with these group of people identified as entrepreneurs, there's a lot of trauma, there's a lot of pain and struggle.
[00:26:27] Brittany: And even if you don't identify as having trauma with a capital T, like each one of us has been in those moments where you were losing sleep at night or things felt really uncertain for you. And you probably had some sort of reaction in your body. And, in, I. I, my dream is for us to get closer and closer to this place where we can all talk about that.
[00:26:48] Brittany: you know, my husband, he works in psychedelics and I dream of there, there being this bridge between those that identifies these like really high functioning, like people who Can make a big impact in the world, but creating this insight and awareness, connecting them more to themselves, like kid, not running away from those feelings that come up, not creating such a high level distraction for yourself.
[00:27:14] Brittany: That is either your business, your team, your latest venture, like whatever it is, but. Actually tapping in to whatever those signals that you're being sent and then like leveraging that, I just think, imagine what we could create in the world. If we actually were in resonance that we, if we were in, you know, like, rhythmic attunement with who we are, and maybe with our, those closest to us, our communities, I just think it can be.
[00:27:40] Brittany: so amazing. So I'm so, so excited to feature you here on Eye Openers and have this conversation with you, Ryan, because you have literally taken what you've learned over, over the years and have now turned it into something that's going to create really great, positive impact in the world. And so, uh, thank you for being a person of such integrity.
[00:28:03] Ryan: Oh, thank you, Brittany. Thank you for the work that you do too. I 100 percent agree with you on the entrepreneurs that we have such an opportunity for impact and, and. You know, helping them to, work through trauma, is such, it's like a, it's like a one to many, like it's, it has so much potential to really make a difference in the world.
[00:28:22] Ryan: So thank you for doing that.
[00:28:24] Brittany: Yeah. Yeah. And just, you know, what I've seen when I've helped, I can be at like a CEO example. The other day I was doing a whole VIP day with him and I asked, what's been the most impactful thing we've done in these last 8 hours. And he said, oh, this. Yeah. That we spent two hours like reflecting on for parts of his narrative that got him to where he is today.
[00:28:47] Brittany: Like the good, the bad, the ugly, like, and that's shaped his leadership style. And he's like, wow, that was so impactful because I wasn't able to make those connections before between the things that have happened in my life, the meaning I made out of those things impacted my behavior and really the way I lead and the way I touch other people every day.
[00:29:08] Brittany: Right. And if we're not even aware of it, if we're not even thinking about it, then we're not conscious about it. Right. So if we can make that connection and then we can, we stand the chance, right. to have some awareness, be more intentional, be more conscious about, the mark we're making in other people's lives.
[00:29:27] Brittany: Absolutely.
[00:29:28] Ryan: Yeah.
[00:29:30] Brittany: Well, again, I'm so grateful for you coming in and sharing, especially about, Hope Guide. How can people reach you if they're curious to learn more?
[00:29:38] Ryan: Yeah, they can go to hopeguide. com, to learn more about my organization. And, they can go to ryanpink. com if they want to learn more about me.
[00:29:46] Brittany: Awesome. We'll make sure that that, is,linked in all the show notes, wherever you're seeing this now, if you're watching this live, then, you can certainly reach out to my team and we can put you in touch with Ryan as well. you know, without those of you guys watching and engaging, it would just be.
[00:30:02] Brittany: Me chatting with Ryan, which isn't so bad or me talking to myself, which you know, is questionable, but, we really, really love that there are people out there interested in this message and engaging with it and helping us spread the good word on eye opening moments in business and your life. So until next time, thank you all for watching.