Sky High Coaching Conversations

You've worked hard to get into leadership. You've earned your place. So why does that little voice keep asking, "What if they realise I don't know what I'm doing?" Impostor Syndrome in leadership can show up in surprising ways, even for highly capable, experienced and successful leaders. Having navigated those doubts herself while building high-performing teams in lar...

Why is work-life balance so difficult for high achievers, even when you genuinely want more time for yourself? We usually blame an overflowing calendar, work stress, too many responsibilities or simply not having enough time. But, there may be another reason work keeps getting your attention, and traditional advice about boundaries and time management can completely miss it. In this episode of Sky...

How do you solve a problem in your life when you’ve already thought about it from every possible angle? You’ve analysed it. Researched it. Talked it through. Made lists. Considered the options. Gone backwards and forwards. And still, the answer isn’t there. For high performers who are usually very good at problem-solving, this can be particularly frustrating. When thinking has helped you create su...

What do you believe you deserve? At work. In your business. In your relationships. In the way you are treated, paid, heard and valued. That question has been showing up in conversations with clients this week, and underneath it sits something deeper: self-worth. Not the obvious kind. The quieter kind that shows itself in what you ask for, what you accept, what you tolerate, what you explain away a...

What if there are opportunities, ideas, people or completely different ways forward already around you that you simply can’t see? We tend to believe we’re looking at reality as it is. We assess what’s happening, what’s happened before, what makes sense, what feels realistic and what appears to be available to us. Then, from all of that, we decide what is possible. But we don’t see everything. Some...

What if creating the life you want requires more than simply working harder? In this episode, I share a very personal thread that has followed me since childhood: my fascination with what we can’t see, what we don’t yet understand and what might be possible. From imaginary friends and séances to neuroscience, quantum physics, mindset, identity, emotional regulation and years of coaching people thr...

What if discomfort is not a sign to stop? In this episode of Sky High Coaching Conversations , Janelle Ryan explores why growth can feel uncomfortable when your beliefs, stories, excuses and patterns are challenged, and when the familiar way of seeing yourself no longer holds. She shares the client feedback that made her smile, why good coaching does not mean automatic agreement, and what can happ...

“I don’t want to waste my time” can sound like a sensible reason to wait, walk away or leave something unexplored. But what if time isn’t the real issue? In this episode of Sky High Coaching Conversations, Janelle looks beneath one of our most convincing explanations for not beginning. Whether it’s a career move, relationship, conversation, course, idea or change you’ve been circling, the desire t...

There’s a difference between being welcomed into a room and feeling as though you truly belong there. Fitting in can look like success from the outside. You’re included, accepted and perhaps even admired. Yet beneath the surface, you may still be watching yourself closely, adjusting what you say or waiting for someone else to confirm that you’ve earned your place. In this episode of Sky High Coach...

You probably think you know what is influencing your choices. The obvious worries. The familiar doubts. The thoughts that tell you to wait, stay quiet, prepare a little longer or assume something probably won't work. But what about the thoughts that pass through so quickly you barely notice them? In this episode of Sky High Coaching Conversations, Janelle explores the surprising connection be...

The words you say to yourself and others are not neutral. They shape your confidence, your leadership, your relationships, your decisions and the way you meet the moments that matter the most to you. In this episode of Sky High Coaching Conversations, Janelle Ryan draws on more than a decade of coaching leaders, business owners and high-performing professionals to explore how language influences t...

What does it really take to keep going when you are creating something bigger for your life, work, family, leadership, relationships or next chapter? In this episode of Sky High Coaching Conversations , Janelle Ryan explores resilience, not as pushing through, pretending everything is fine or doing it all alone, but as the capacity to stay connected to your vision when the path becomes uncomfortab...

We all know the person. The colleague who complains before the meeting has even started. The family member who can’t let a happy moment stay happy. The friend whose drama somehow becomes everyone else’s afternoon. Negative people can be exhausting, especially when you can’t simply avoid them. In this episode, Janelle talks about how to be around negativity without absorbing it, fixing it, joining...

Have you ever walked into a money conversation knowing what you wanted to ask for, then heard yourself ask for less? Maybe it was a salary conversation. Maybe it was a fee. Maybe it was a proposal, a scope change, a promotion conversation, or that “quick extra thing” that quietly became part of the job. In this episode of Sky High Coaching Conversations , Janelle Ryan explores one of the most expe...

Promoted from within? That moment can feel exciting, validating… and unexpectedly awkward. One day you’re sitting beside people as a peer. The next, they’re looking to you for decisions, standards, feedback and direction. In this episode of Sky High Coaching Conversations , Janelle explores the identity shift that happens when you become the boss of people who used to be your colleagues. Not the p...

Why do some success strategies work beautifully for other people, but feel wrong, heavy or impossible when you try to follow them? In this episode of Sky High Coaching Conversations , Janelle explores why the answer isn’t always to try harder, be more disciplined or find yet another plan. For high-achieving professionals, leaders and business owners, this conversation is about the quiet cost of co...

Have you ever felt like you’re about to be found out at work, or in business? Impostor Syndrome is often treated as proof that we don’t belong, but what if it’s sometimes a sign of something else? In this episode of Sky High Coaching Conversations , Janelle Ryan explores why high performers, leaders, employees and entrepreneurs often feel like impostors just as they’re stretching into more respons...

What do you do when you care deeply about your work, but it keeps coming home in your head? This episode is for the employee navigating workplace pressure, change, restructuring, unclear communication or high expectations, and for the entrepreneur or business owner carrying the emotional weight of clients, launches, visibility, money and results. If you’ve ever found yourself replaying work conver...

Some of the most capable professionals I meet keep finishing second when they go for executive and director roles. Not because they’re not qualified. Not because they don’t interview well. And not because they didn’t 'prepare enough'. At senior level, interviews aren’t really about competence. They’re a ' real job' conversation . The panel is assessing what it will feel like to...

What if the exhaustion you are feeling has nothing to do with how hard you are working - and everything to do with five very specific, very fixable things? Leadership burnout is one of the most common, and least talked about, experiences in the lives of high-achieving women. It shows up as chronic fatigue, anxiety, irritability, and that hollow feeling that used to come only on Sunday nights but n...

What if the next level of your life asks you to be more visible than you’ve ever been before?  In this episode of Sky High Coaching Conversations , Janelle Ryan explores what it really takes to move through the fear of visibility and show up more fully in the rooms that shape your life. From leadership and business to dating, family and everyday conversations, this episode unpacks why so many high...

There’s an African proverb that says, "I f you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together". In this episode, I challenge the first half of that idea. Because the more I watch human beings create, struggle and rise, the less I believe that doing it alone is always the faster path. Sometimes the very thing slowing us down is not a lack of ability. It is isolation. Too mu...

From the outside, a woman’s life can look successful, steady, even impressive. She’s capable. Intelligent. Reliable. She gets things done. And yet underneath it, something feels off. In this episode, I’m talking about a pattern I see often in my work. A woman knows she can’t keep going in quite the same way. She feels unfulfilled, unhappy or restless. Something is no longer sitting right. But when...

Why do we seek validation at work, and what happens when our sense of worth starts living in other people’s hands?  In this episode, I unpack the very human desire for recognition in the workplace and explore why so many capable women can still find themselves looking outside themselves for reassurance, approval and proof that they are enough.  We talk about confidence at work, self-worth, belongi...

Does your team feel psychologically safe at work or do people stay quiet, hold back, and tell you what feels safest to say? In this episode, we explore one of the most important ingredients in healthy leadership and high-functioning teams: psychological safety . What is it, why does it matter so much, and what does it actually look like in real workplaces? You’ll hear how psychological safety shap...