The Personal Success Podcast with Ryan Watts

#168 - Externalizing Executive Function: How Organization Frees Your Time, Energy, and Self Trust with Lisa Woodruff

In this episode of The Personal Success Podcast, Ryan Watts sits down with Lisa Woodruff, founder and CEO of Organize 365, creator of the Sunday Basket, host of the Organize 365 Podcast, and author of Escaping Quicksand. This conversation explores the hidden weight of modern life…the paper, decisions, household management, invisible work, interrupted attention, and emotional load that many people carry without language for it. Lisa shares her personal story of becoming a stay at home mom, navigating infertility, adoption, caregiving, entrepreneurship, ADHD, and the realization that organization is not about having a prettier home. It is about creating enough time and capacity to do what you are uniquely gifted and created to do. Ryan and Lisa also discuss ADHD, executive function, the power of external systems, the female mental load, why paper still matters, and how the Sunday Basket helps people move from reactive living to proactive leadership inside their own home. IN THIS EPISODE Ryan and Lisa discuss: • Why organization is a learnable skill • How ADHD impacts executive function, planning, working memory, and task switching • Why many adults need systems that externalize executive function • The difference between visible housework and invisible household management • Why the head of household often becomes “Google” for the family • How paper reduces emotional friction and helps transfer information clearly • Why productivity only matters when it is connected to meaning • How women can reclaim permission to invest in themselves • Why home management deserves to be treated like business management • How Lisa’s Sunday Basket helps people stop reacting to life and start leading it • The story behind Lisa’s new book, Escaping Quicksand The core thread of the episode is that organization is not really about clutter. It is about capacity. Lisa repeatedly names how unseen household management, paper, caregiving, ADHD, and decision load can quietly drain energy when there is no system to hold it. KEY TAKEAWAY The invisible load becomes heavier when it stays invisible. When tasks, papers, decisions, and responsibilities live only in your head, your brain has to keep carrying them. Lisa’s work helps people move that weight into a system so they can recover time, attention, clarity, and self trust. FEATURED GUEST Lisa Woodruff is the founder and CEO of Organize 365, creator of the Sunday Basket, and host of the Organize 365 Podcast. Her work helps people organize their homes, paper, and household management systems so they can free up time and capacity for what matters most. Her book Escaping Quicksand offers practical steps for women who feel buried by the mental load of modern home life. The book is positioned as a psychology driven roadmap for women ready to rise above overwhelm and run their households with more confidence and clarity.   RESOURCES MENTIONED Organize 365 https://organize365.com [https://organize365.com] The Sunday Basket https://organize365.com/sunday-basket/ [https://organize365.com/sunday-basket/] The Sunday Basket is Lisa’s system for organizing household papers, to dos, bills, planning, and active projects. Organize 365 describes it as a system for processing mail, kitchen counter papers, and household projects that clutter both your counter and your mind.   Escaping Quicksand https://organize365.com/escapingquicksand/ [https://organize365.com/escapingquicksand/] Lisa’s book focuses on overcoming the overwhelm of modern home life.   Escaping Quicksand on Simon & Schuster https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Escaping-Quicksand/Lisa-Woodruff/9781637635643 [https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Escaping-Quicksand/Lisa-Woodruff/9781637635643] Organize 365 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/organize365/ [https://www.instagram.com/organize365/?utm_source=chatgpt.com] Organize 365 Podcast https://organize365.com/podcast/ [https://organize365.com/podcast/] Also available on major podcast platforms. The Personal Success Podcast https://www.ryanwattslifecoaching.com/thepersonalsuccesspodcast ABOUT THE PERSONAL SUCCESS PODCAST The Personal Success Podcast exists to help you define success for yourself and build a life that reflects your values, goals, relationships, and deeper sense of purpose. Hosted by Ryan Watts, the show explores personal growth, leadership, self trust, healing, mindset, and the practical inner work required to create a meaningful life. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT: Steve Lang's Aura Marketing Agency: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevelangauraaiagency/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevelangauraaiagency/] CLOSING CTA Listen to more episodes of The Personal Success Podcast here: https://www.ryanwattslifecoaching.com/thepersonalsuccesspodcast

You Might Like: The Private Leadership Reset Podcast || Achievement vs. Aliveness

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE: RYANWATTSCOACHING.COM/LEADERSHIPPODCAST [http://ryanwattscoaching.com/leadershippodcast] The Hidden Cost of Being Able to Handle Anything In this episode of The Private Leadership Reset Podcast, Ryan Watts explores a quiet but powerful leadership tension inspired by a clip from Misha Saidov, founder of the Metacognitive Programming Institute. The tension is simple: What happens when the same emotional suppression that helped a leader succeed starts making leadership feel heavy, disconnected, and internally expensive? Many capable leaders are praised for being able to handle anything. They stay composed. They absorb pressure. They carry responsibility. They keep going. But over time, that capacity can come with a cost. When leaders learn to suppress discomfort, they may also lose access to joy, desire, intuition, clarity, and inner guidance. The result is not always visible burnout. Sometimes it is something quieter. More second guessing. More internal negotiation. More effort behind clean decisions. More performance with less inner contact. This episode explores the difference between true calm authority and emotional numbness…and why leadership becomes clearer when achievement no longer requires self abandonment.   Ryan explores: • Why many successful leaders learn to disconnect from what they feel • The difference between resilience and emotional inhibition • How emotional numbness creates decision drag • Why a leader can still perform while feeling disconnected internally • The hidden cost of always being the person who can handle anything • Why emotions are not interruptions, but information • How internal friction often begins when a leader cannot clearly sense what is true • The difference between performing calm and actually being settled • Why leadership requires contact, not just competence • How to begin reconnecting with your emotional system without becoming emotionally reactive Core Leadership Tension “I can handle anything” vs. “I can actually feel my life.” This episode names the internal cost many leaders carry quietly. They are not failing. They are not weak. They are not incapable. They may simply have become better at enduring than feeling. And when endurance becomes identity, leadership can begin to feel heavier than it should. Key Insight A leader who cannot feel may stay efficient. But a leader who can feel without being ruled by feeling becomes more precise, more human, more trustworthy, and often more decisive. Decision making gets cleaner when the leader is no longer divided from themselves. Reflection Practice From The Episode Before one decision, meeting, or conversation this week, pause for sixty seconds and ask: What am I feeling? Use one word. What is this feeling pointing toward? A boundary? A desire? A truth? A fear? A need? A conversation? What would change if I trusted this signal as information, not as a problem? Take the LeaderShift Scorecard: https://www.ryanwattslifecoaching.com/scorecard [https://www.ryanwattslifecoaching.com/scorecard] Take the Leadership Friction Assessment: https://www.ryanwattslifecoaching.com/friction [https://www.ryanwattslifecoaching.com/friction] Learn more about Ryan Watts Life Coaching: https://www.ryanwattslifecoaching.com [https://www.ryanwattslifecoaching.com] Closing Thought The goal is not to become someone who cannot handle difficulty. The goal is to become someone who can handle difficulty without abandoning yourself. That is a different kind of strength. And sometimes, that is where leadership begins again.

#167 - Reset Your Life: Burning Bright with Mikael Avatar

In this episode of The Personal Success Podcast, Ryan sits down with Mikael Avatar…Inner Freedom Architect, artist, coach, creator of The Mikael Avatar Method, and author of Life Reset: Practical Guide to Resetting Your Life. Mikael’s story begins in a way few stories do. He was born clinically dead for 45 minutes. He was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. He was told what would be difficult, what might not be possible, and what life could look like inside other people’s limitations. But Mikael did not build his life around someone else’s prognosis. Instead, he chose to burn bright. This conversation explores what it means to reset your life without forcing it. Ryan and Mikael talk about pain, presence, humor, awareness, cerebral palsy, Thailand, identity, leadership, laughter, and the small shifts that can quietly change everything. Mikael shares how moving to Thailand helped him experience life without pain for the first time, why reflection is essential for true resilience, and how tiny moments…like five seconds of eye contact with your child or one breath before reacting…can create a chain reaction across your whole life. This is not a conversation about becoming someone else. It is a conversation about removing the mask, noticing what is real, and choosing the next honest step. In this episode, Ryan and Mikael discuss • What it means to be “born dead” and still choose to burn bright • Living with cerebral palsy without letting it define your identity • Why humor can interrupt autopilot and help us let go • The difference between forcing life and creating space • How Thailand helped Mikael become pain free and discover a deeper version of himself • Why many high performers misunderstand resilience • The power of silence, reflection, and presence • Mikael’s “1% shift” philosophy • How small awareness practices can reset your life • Why successful people often lose connection with joy • The role of laughter in healing and perspective • How old emotional patterns keep showing up in the present • What it means to find the “mask free me” Featured guest Mikael Avatar Inner Freedom Architect | Creator of The Mikael Avatar Method Mikael Avatar is a coach, artist, speaker, author, and creator of The Mikael Avatar Method. His work helps people see life from a wider perspective, reconnect with inner freedom, and move from impossible beginnings toward authentic living. Born dead for 45 minutes and diagnosed with cerebral palsy, Mikael has lived a life shaped by resilience, humor, reinvention, and deep awareness. He is also the author of Life Reset: Practical Guide to Resetting Your Life and has been featured in Authority Magazine, including The New Portrait of Leadership and Happiness and Joy During Turbulent Times. His message is simple and powerful: Born dead. Chose to burn bright. Now helping others do the same. Guest links Website: https://mikaelavatar.com Email: mikaelavatar@gmail.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/mikaelavatar LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/mikaelavatar TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@mikaelavatar YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MikaelAvatarStjernvall Facebook: https://facebook.com/mikaelavatarstjernvall Book Life Reset: Practical Guide to Resetting Your Life Available on Amazon: https://a.co/d/0g2Cyl3S Listen if you are exploring • Life reset • Personal transformation • Inner freedom • Resilience • Cerebral palsy and possibility • Presence and awareness • Coaching and self discovery • Authentic leadership • Humor and healing • How to stop forcing your life • How small changes create major transformation About The Personal Success Podcast The Personal Success Podcast explores what it really means to create a successful life from the inside out. Through honest conversations with coaches, authors, leaders, healers, entrepreneurs, and everyday people doing meaningful inner work, Ryan Watts invites listeners to redefine success, deepen self trust, and build a life that actually feels like their own. Host: Ryan Watts Life Coach | Host of The Personal Success Podcast Website: https://www.ryanwattslifecoaching.com Advertisement ADVERTISEMENT: Steve Lang's Aura Marketing Agency: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevelangauraaiagency/

#166 - How TRE Helps the Body Release Stress, Trauma, and Burnout with Richmond Heath

In this episode of The Personal Success Podcast, Ryan Watts sits down with Richmond Heath, an Australian physiotherapist, TRE Certification Trainer, and National Coordinator of TRE in Australia. Richmond shares how chronic pain, high functioning anxiety, and the inability to switch off led him into a deeper understanding of the body’s natural recovery systems. The conversation explores TRE, formerly known as Trauma Release Exercises and now often described as Tension and Trauma Releasing Exercises. Richmond explains how spontaneous shaking and tremoring can be understood not as weakness, anxiety, or loss of control, but as the body’s natural way of releasing stress, tension, and protective activation. Together, Ryan and Richmond discuss burnout, nervous system regulation, flow states, somatic awareness, trauma, physical expression, recovery, and why true performance depends on the ability to come back down. This episode is a deep look at what happens when success is no longer just mental, strategic, or motivational, but physical, embodied, and regulated. TOPICS COVERED • Richmond Heath’s journey from physiotherapy and chronic pain into TRE • Why burnout often begins with the inability to switch off • The difference between feeling activated and being sustainably regulated • How shaking and tremoring may help the body discharge stress • Why the body holds tension we are not consciously aware of • The distinction between controlling the nervous system and allowing it to regulate itself • How TRE uses spontaneous movement rather than forced movement • Why recovery is essential for performance, leadership, parenting, and wellbeing • The relationship between trauma, suppression, authenticity, and connection • Why flow states require surrender rather than more control • How Western culture often pathologizes natural recovery responses • Why TRE should be approached with safety, self regulation, and appropriate support GUEST BIO Richmond Heath is a physiotherapist, TRE Certification Trainer, and the National Coordinator of TRE in Australia. His work focuses on helping people reconnect with the body’s natural ability to release stress, reduce tension, and restore nervous system balance. TRE Australia identifies Richmond as a physiotherapist and TRE trainer with a background in Pilates, Bowen Therapy, mental health, Aboriginal studies, and youth suicide prevention.   KEY IDEAS FROM THE EPISODE 1. Burnout does not always begin with exhaustion. Richmond explains that the first stage of burnout can feel like the opposite of burnout. It can feel like being alive, productive, activated, and “on.” The real warning sign is not always fatigue. Sometimes it is the inability to slow down. 2. Shaking is not always a problem. TRE reframes spontaneous shaking and tremoring as a natural recovery response. TRE Global describes TRE as a body led modality developed by Dr. David Berceli that aims to release tension and restore calm.   3. Regulation is not just calming down. True nervous system regulation includes the ability to activate when needed and recover when needed. Richmond emphasizes that many people can turn on, perform, and push, but struggle to return to rest. 4. The body often knows what the mind cannot access. Richmond points out that we consciously control only a small portion of our movement system. TRE works by allowing the body’s own spontaneous movement patterns to emerge, rather than trying to manage everything through thought. 5. Recovery is not optional for sustainable success. The episode draws a clear line between recovery and performance. Whether in sport, leadership, parenting, or work, the ability to recover deeply affects the ability to show up well. IMPORTANT NOTE TRE can be powerful, but it should be approached carefully. Richmond notes that people with significant trauma history, chronic anxiety, medical conditions, or mental health conditions may benefit from guided support rather than experimenting alone. TRE Global offers a provider search for finding certified TRE providers worldwide.   LINKS MENTIONED Richmond Heath and TRE Australia https://www.treaustralia.com [https://www.treaustralia.com?utm_source=chatgpt.com] Richmond Heath’s Introductory TRE Course https://content.trecourse.com/p/tre-course [https://content.trecourse.com/p/tre-course?utm_source=chatgpt.com] Find a TRE Provider Worldwide https://treglobal.org/tre-provider-list/ [https://treglobal.org/tre-provider-list/?utm_source=chatgpt.com] TRE Global https://treglobal.org [https://treglobal.org?utm_source=chatgpt.com] David Berceli’s Official Website https://david-berceli.com [https://david-berceli.com?utm_source=chatgpt.com] The Personal Success Podcast https://thepersonalsuccesspodcast.com [https://thepersonalsuccesspodcast.com] Ryan Watts Life Coaching https://www.ryanwattslifecoaching.com [https://www.ryanwattslifecoaching.com] ADDITIONAL RELEVANT RESOURCES CDC Information on Adverse Childhood Experiences https://www.cdc.gov/aces/about/index.html [https://www.cdc.gov/aces/about/index.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com] Original ACE Study Publication https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(98)00017-8/fulltext The CDC describes adverse childhood experiences as potentially traumatic events occurring before age 18, including abuse, neglect, exposure to violence, and household instability.   The original ACE Study connected childhood adversity with increased risk for later physical and mental health challenges.   ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT: Steve Lang's Aura Marketing Agency: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevelangauraaiagency/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevelangauraaiagency/] LISTEN AND SUBSCRIBE Subscribe to The Personal Success Podcast for conversations on personal growth, leadership, healing, success, purpose, and the inner work required to live with greater clarity. Listen here: https://thepersonalsuccesspodcast.com [https://thepersonalsuccesspodcast.com]

#165 - How to Engineer Belonging in a Disconnected World With Matt Kaufman

In this episode of The Personal Success Podcast, Ryan sits down with Matt Kaufman, summer camp director and author of The Campfire Effect: How to Engineer Belonging in a Disconnected World. [https://a.co/d/09pRPtlB] Matt explains why summer camp is more than fun. It is a designed environment for belonging, trust, challenge, confidence, and human development. Together, Ryan and Matt explore how the same principles that help children grow at camp can be applied to leadership teams, workplaces, schools, families, and communities. IN THIS EPISODE Ryan and Matt discuss: • Why summer camp creates lasting confidence and belonging • The neuroscience of trust, stress, and growth • Why “stress + support = growth” • The Wire Mother experiment and what it teaches us about leadership • Why many workplaces provide structure but not connection • How leaders can create psychological safety • Why laughter, rituals, and shared experiences matter • How AI may increase the value of human skills • Why empathy, trust, and belonging are leadership skills • What it means to “leave it better than you found it” KEY IDEAS Belonging is not accidental. Matt argues that high quality camp environments create belonging through intentional design. Safety, challenge, dignity, shared joy, and clear goals all work together to help people grow. Leadership is not just about performance. It is about creating an environment where people feel safe enough to try, supported enough to stretch, and connected enough to stay engaged. GUEST Matt Kaufman Author of The Campfire Effect: How to Engineer Belonging in a Disconnected World and The Campfire MBA. LINKS Get Matt Kaufman’s book: https://a.co/d/09pRPtlB [https://a.co/d/09pRPtlB] Connect with Matt Kaufman: https://www.ilove.camp [https://www.ilove.camp] Subscribe to The Personal Success Podcast: https://youtube.com/@thepersonalsuccesspodcast Explore Ryan Watts Life Coaching: https://www.ryanwattslifecoaching.com [https://www.ryanwattslifecoaching.com] Take the LeaderShift Scorecard: https://www.ryanwattslifecoaching.com/leadershift [https://www.ryanwattslifecoaching.com/leadershift] ADVERTISEMENT: Steve Lang's Aura Marketing Agency: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevelangauraaiagency/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevelangauraaiagency/]