Reinvention, Intuition & Midlife: Ronnie Ann Ryan on Strengthening Your Intuition for Bold Moves

What if the secret to your next bold move isn’t outside of you, but within?

In this empowering episode, intuitive coach and reinvention guide Ronnie Ann Ryan shares how tuning into your inner wisdom can be the key to navigating midlife reinvention with more ease, confidence, and clarity.

Ronnie knows firsthand the power of trusting the signs, building your “intuition muscle,” and embracing the unknown. Through personal stories and practical tools, she invites us to stop second-guessing ourselves and start leaning into our natural intuitive gifts.

Whether you’re at a crossroads or simply curious about what’s next, this conversation will inspire you to listen more deeply, follow the breadcrumbs, and boldly pursue the possibilities calling your name.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

• 👂 How to recognize and trust your intuitive nudges
• 🤝 Why building a “reinvention dream team” can help you stay aligned and supported
• 🧘‍♀️ Simple ways to practice using your intuition in everyday decisions
• 💡 How setbacks and missteps can still move you forward
• 🧭 The role of signs, synchronicity, and self-awareness in shaping your next chapter

This is a must-listen for any midlife woman ready to ditch doubt, claim her inner knowing, and step into a more empowered version of herself.

✨ You already have the wisdom within. Ronnie shows you how to use it.

Connect with Ronnie:

• Website: intuitiveedge.biz
• LinkedIn: @ronnieannryan
• Instagram: @ronnieannryan

Resources & Links:

• 🎁 Grab your free gift: 100 Ways to Reinvent Yourself in Midlife - wonderful ideas to spark your next reinvention!
• If you're looking for inspiration to thrive in your next act, don’t miss Wellness Wednesday with Sally Duplantier. Her free monthly webinars are full of practical, science-backed tips for living well at any age. Visit MyZingLife.com to sign up and start reimagining what’s possible.

Kick your midlife fears and uncertainty to the curb and start your Reinvention Rebels journey today. Learn about my audio program, Midlife Reinvention From The Inside Out: 8 Essentials to Greenlight Your Life.

Chapters

• 0:00 Intuition and Reinvention in Midlife
• 8:32 Trusting Intuition for Reinvention
• 17:41 Navigating Intuition and Reinvention in Life
• 31:57 Empowerment Through Wellness Wednesdays

Transcript

00:00 - Ronnie Ann Ryan (Guest)
You can use your intuition to figure out your next step, or to tune into the path, or to come up with a creative solution, or to figure out who's going to be the most helpful person and who do you need to talk to, or you know, there's so many ways and reinvention requires all of that. 

00:18 - Wendy Battles (Host)
Welcome to Reinvention Rebels stories of brave and unapologetic women, 50 to 90 years young, who have boldly reinvented life on their own terms to find new purpose and possibilities. I'm your host, wendy Battles. Ready to kick your fears to the curb, do it scared and step into who you are meant to be in midlife and beyond. These amazing women, these reinvention rebels, can help light your reinvention path. Come join us and let's get inspired together. Hey, hey, rebels. Welcome to another episode of the podcast. I'm your host, wendy. I'm so excited you're here. 

01:06
This podcast is all about celebrating midlife boldness and all the things that come with that when we step onto center stage and start to shine our light in new, empowering and some badass ways. And the women I have the pleasure of interviewing are so fierce and on fire, and today is no different. In a moment I'm going to introduce you to my friend, ronnie Ann Ryan. Today is all about leaning into our intuition to help guide our path as we reinvent in midlife, and she's got so many insights to share with us about her own journey of building her intuition and really great tips for how we can do that too, to support us on this journey. And you're going to want to stick around to the end because I've got a special gift. I'll tell you more about it, but sit back and enjoy this dynamic, fun, fabulous conversation with Ronnie Anne Ryan. 

02:22
Ronnie Anne Ryan is an intuitive coach who gets to the heart of the matter quickly with her intuition, keen insights and bioenergetic clearings. Host of the popular mystical podcast Breathe Love and Magic, which ranks in the top 5% globally, she's also a best selling author with six books. Ronnie's background includes 10 years as a Fortune 500 marketing consultant and copywriter and 20 years as a personal coach. And intuitive. Ronnie and Ryan, welcome to the Reinvention Rebels. Guest chair. 

03:02 - Ronnie Ann Ryan (Guest)
Thank you, wendy, and it's a comfy chair too. 

03:05 - Wendy Battles (Host)
I love it. I'm so excited that you are joining me today and, Ronnie, I have to say we go way back. 

03:13 - Ronnie Ann Ryan (Guest)
We do, we do. I don't even remember where I met you, because I think it was before the New Haven Chamber, I think so I think it was at some networking group for women in Milford way back when, which seems like forever ago now. 

03:28 - Wendy Battles (Host)
So this is great and I'm really happy that you're here and we're talking all kinds of reinvention. I can't wait to dive into your reinvention story and have you inspire us with some of your wisdom and insights. I'd like to begin by talking a little bit about your most recent reinvention. I know that you've reinvented yourself many times throughout your professional career, as many of us have, but I'd love for you to talk a little bit about reinventing yourself in midlife. What's been different about reinventing yourself in recent years? 

04:08 - Ronnie Ann Ryan (Guest)
Okay, so I was a dating coach for 20 years. I did other things during that time as well, but COVID really brought an end to the dating coaching world for me and it was a hard transition for me because my identity was really tied in with being a dating coach and I had, I loved it and I had so many parts of it. You know, I had hearts all over my office and I had. I'm just like I swam in it. 

04:40 - Wendy Battles (Host)
I know you. 

04:42 - Ronnie Ann Ryan (Guest)
I dream of it. You know I. I just I know you, I dream of it. You know I just I loved it, loved it, loved it. But it was time to move on. 

04:49
So I wasn't really sure what to do. And this is why I focus on intuition now, because, honestly, I have a lot of girlfriends but my intuition is my best friend. So I'm going to say intuition can be your BFF, because I wasn't really sure, I didn't know which way to turn, I wasn't positive, and so I had to follow the spiritual breadcrumb trail, and that required using my intuition and trusting myself and that kind of thing. So once I moved away from the dating coaching, then I tried past life. I did a whole year of internet radio shows about past life readings and let me tell you there were some amazing readings. That was really fun. I did a lot of readings for people and that was fun. But it didn't really turn into more readings, which I was kind of surprised. But okay, so I thought, all right, well, what else do you want to do? Well, really, I like intuition too. So now that's what I'm focusing on, and at the same time I did that radio show. 

05:57
I also started Breathe Love and Magic. So Breathe Love and Magic as a podcast gives me the opportunity to meet the most fascinating people, which you yourself also know all about, I'm sure. Being a host gives you the opportunity to talk about and meet all kinds of cool subjects and meet cool people and that kind of stuff. So that has been feeding the work that I do as well the work that I do as well. Being a podcast host opens so many doors and gives you a peek into so many other people's world and how they do things and what they're working on. So I get to talk to psychic mediums and healers and shamans and all kinds of things, so that has been really fun. Almonds and all kinds of things so that has been really fun. And all of this requires using my intuition and that has been my focus pretty much for the last two years. So that's what I've been doing. So I have a manifesting group and I had an intuitive mastermind for a little while and I do the full moon group, so that's what it looks like. 

07:04 - Wendy Battles (Host)
I love it, and I love this idea that you have become an intuition coach, and you did that partly by leaning into your own intuition, because I think that sometimes, when we're reinventing ourselves, we can feel unsure Am I going down the right path? Is this going to work out? I think it's normal that we all have fears about things. We don't know what that experience will be like, being the intuitive person that you are. How did you know that this was right? 

07:36 - Ronnie Ann Ryan (Guest)
Wow, what a good question. So I'm not going to tell you I knew all at once. And this is what I mean by the breadcrumbs, because you have to follow the trail. And this is what I mean by the breadcrumbs, because you have to follow the trail. You know how I look at it is you get a little bit, and then you get a little bit more, and then you get a little bit more, and then, before you know it, you're really on your way and you're on your journey, and that's how I look at it. So you have to keep your eyes open for the clues, whatever they are, and you know, it's not always easy to identify them. But when you take that next step, then you get more clues and then you go oh, I must be going in the right direction, because things keep adding up, or synchronicities keep happening, or little magical moments happen, and you're like, oh my gosh, that's unbelievable. So that's what I look for as my proof, my proof of life I'm going in the right direction. 

08:32 - Wendy Battles (Host)
So it feels to me like that is self-awareness, that we have to become self-aware If we're going to be kind of looking out for these signals. It feels like we can't do that if our head is in the sand, that we have to actually pay attention, focus in right, which to me could be anything like from a sign that you know it could be someone we've lost. It could be from someone that calls us. It could be anything, right, it could be anything. It's not any particular thing, but it feels to me like when our radar is on, we can use that, we can build that muscle to help us get clarity and insight about what that reinvention might look like. 

09:21 - Ronnie Ann Ryan (Guest)
Yeah, absolutely true. And there have just been so many instances in my life where I just had to trust my gut. You know and I do a whole presentation on why you need to you know 500 million reasons why you need to trust your gut, because that's how many neurons there are potentially 100 to 500 million neurons between your gut and your brain. And you know, people always say, well, use your heart, that's only got 40,000 neurons. I'm going for the millions. You know what I'm saying. 

09:52 - Wendy Battles (Host)
Yes, yes, and because I think sometimes that's hard, though, like I know, I've had times where that gut feeling was so clear and I was right, right there and I went for it. And, ronnie, I've also had times where I didn't, where I felt like logic took over. Instead of trusting that gut feeling, I kind of was. You know, I was in my head about things and, you know, later on I was like, oh man, I should have trusted my gut, like I. I always feel like in times like that, at the end, you know, in hindsight, I'm like I should have trusted myself more. What do you think we can do? As people are listening, they're saying, oh, ronnie's an intuitive coach, she's honed her intuition skills, she's got gotten better at listening for signs or looking for signs. These feelings, how does these feelings, how does someone lean more into the trust part and less into the logical head part? 

10:53 - Ronnie Ann Ryan (Guest)
So I'm not going to lie, that's not easy and I have had a lot of practice. But there are times when I can't go against my gut. There's just like I can't, and you know when that happens. That's really clear. But when you're wavering and you're not sure, or whatever, then you can ask for a sign, and that's one of my freebies. 

11:12
I have an audio class on how to ask the universe for a sign and it's very specific method where you actually ask for what the sign is and you give it a time frame and everything else. So I have a very specific method that I sometimes use, but also be willing to listen internally and then you can also do all the other things Use your pendulum, choose a card, ask your friends to help you tune in. I definitely have people I call and go. Can you do me a favor and just help me tune into this for like a minute and let's see what we both get, and we like kind of team up to use our intuition, because then you can get confirmation, which is such a big help. So I don't do it alone all the time either. 

11:58
By the way, I have some friends that I really leverage, are working together and how I look at it is and this is what I loved about the intuitive mastermind when you are four people, you're like 16. It's the energy is amplified and magnified. So when you're working with you know another friend like if you and I were going to tune in intuitively to see what the right path is, what my next step is, which way I should go, or whatever then we're like four people instead of just two. So that's how I get through it sometimes, because it's not always screaming loud and clear. 

12:38 - Wendy Battles (Host)
Yes, it is so true, and I love when it is, but then when it's not, it's like, hmm. So what you suggested is a fantastic idea, which is that we don't have to go it alone, that we can tap into resources to help us. Just like, as we're reinventing, we can ask our friends to help us, we can form what I call a reinvention dream team to help us with ideas or talk us down from no, that's not a crazy idea. You should go for it. That kind of thing the people in our lives, people we trust, our go-to people to help us, which I think is a fantastic idea, because I think these days, especially where people are more isolated, where we often feel like we're maybe doing more things alone or we don't have the support that maybe we used to, for whatever reason, that that's a powerful way to help build those skills. 

13:36 - Ronnie Ann Ryan (Guest)
That that's a powerful way to help build those skills Absolutely, and I'm also big on practice and I think the best way to practice is not when you're in a crisis, you know. The best way to practice is when you're working on little things. I recommend to my clients that they determine which way they want to drive to work, if they commute, and then they turn on the GPS and see if they're right, and then you build a track record to know if you can trust yourself by doing non-risk, associated intuition. 

14:07 - Wendy Battles (Host)
You know what I mean. 

14:08 - Ronnie Ann Ryan (Guest)
You got to try, you know, guess what temperature it is outside and then check the weather app on your phone. It's just those little unimportant things when you practice your intuition that way where there's no risk and there's no pressure, Because when you're really in a crisis and you need to know, a lot of times your intuition just shuts down because there's too much pressure. 

14:32 - Wendy Battles (Host)
I can totally see that, because you know it's easy to get overwhelmed by whatever that thing is, and then you just kind of I don't know, you just lose focus, You're just scrambling for the answer, You're feeling sometimes desperate, and I think those things all take away from that that listening, that that voice that's inside, that inner wisdom which we all have, and I think it's just a matter, to your point, of building that muscle. So I like this low stakes approach. You have to practice it which then you can apply to really anything, including reinventing yourself, to really anything, including reinventing yourself. 

15:17 - Ronnie Ann Ryan (Guest)
Yeah, absolutely. And reinventing yourself, I think, definitely requires trusting yourself. And the other thing I want to say is that, even like I've gone down paths that haven't worked out oh, me too, yes, but that doesn't mean it was the wrong path, exactly Because you picked up some information, or you learned a new skill, or you met somebody, or it was entertaining for a little while, or whatever, or the timing wasn't quite right until you got to the next thing. So I don't really think you make that many wrong turns. I sort of believe we're on the path. And even if you think, oh, I never should have done this, I should have gone the other way, this and that, blah, blah, blah, you don't really know that for sure, because it could have been that what looks like that misstep is actually the thing that sent you off in the right direction and it was perfect. So it's kind of hard to know, but I can tell you I've made most of the very biggest decisions in my life in the last 20 years trusting my gut. And can I share a story? 

16:27 - Wendy Battles (Host)
with you. 

16:28 - Ronnie Ann Ryan (Guest)
So last year I had a friend in the coaching industry who told me about a company where they were looking to hire a whole bunch of coaches and the money was really good. It was like a hundred thousand dollars and all I had to do was do one coaching session, a group session, a week and go to one meeting a week and do some social media and answer some questions. And I'm like, where do I sign up? That sounds amazing, right. And I got dollar signs in my mind and I'm thinking, well, you know. So anyway, I meet the head of this group and I'm like, eek, I'm not loving this guy. But I'm like, shut up, stop being judgmental, you know, just try to go with the flow for a change. And you know, okay. So I push myself and I go on three interviews and then I get hired, I get selected, yay. And then we go through all of this training there were a lot of training sessions and then, right before we're ready to get started and get paid, he sends out an email that says, ok, we have I don't remember what it was a thousand subscribers. I don't remember what it was, but he wanted X number of subscribers before he would start paying people. But the classes were going to start and I thought, or the coaching groups? I thought I'm a little confused by that what has your number of subscribers got to do with me getting a paycheck? So that put me on high alert. And he wasn't an accessible kind of guy and we didn't really hit it off. So I didn't want to call him and ask him and say, hey, you're not being transparent, what's up? I thought I'm going to just use my intuition. So I pull up his picture on the website and I look at his picture and you know, this is how I started using my intuition way back in high school when I would look at other, or actually in college when I'd look at other people's high school yearbooks and I'd look at people's pictures. So, anyway, I'm looking at his picture and I said, I told him I was uncomfortable, I don't understand what is this. And so in my head I hear not my problem. That's what I heard from him. I'm like, not my problem, like in a million, trillion years if I were coming up with something and going to make something up, yeah. So I said, ok, I are you saying that you don't really care if you're transparent and you don't really care how we feel about this. I'm just making sure that I got the same answer again. Not my problem, oh my gosh. So I quit before we started. 

18:54
Now, I walked away from one hundred thousand dollars, which is nuts, but I had to trust my gut, all right, 18 months later I was just kind of tooling around on the web and I got really curious and I wouldn't let myself look. I hadn't asked anybody who I knew who was in the program and I thought, okay, 18 months later I got to know. So I start Googling the company. Okay, 18 months later I got to know. So I start Googling the company. And I see Indeed has a couple of reviews about the company and I'm like, oh, let me go read those. So the first one says nice idea, never got paid. And the other one said heart is in the right place, but not enough funding. And I was like, oh my gosh. So I didn't really walk away from a hundred grand because it wasn't there, but it was really hard, yeah, but that's such a great example. 

19:45 - Wendy Battles (Host)
I mean, that's such a great example of getting that feeling, getting this knowing about something, and part of me in the past would have been like, oh well, that's probably nothing. You know, I might've gotten that feeling but like ignored it or poo-pooed it. But to get that feeling and say, hmm, it doesn't feel right and take the action based on that is very telling. Like you knew, you knew on some level, you knew, I knew. 

20:15 - Ronnie Ann Ryan (Guest)
I knew and I can honestly tell you that my intuition in those big places has never, never let me down. So that's why I trust it so much. 

20:25 - Wendy Battles (Host)
Yeah, and I think that as we work on building that muscle to help us reinvent or to help us navigate, whatever the thing is that's going on in our life, as we do that more and we see the results, then I think you know we can feel more confident doing it even more. You know, continue to build that muscle. So it does take getting out there. It does take that action that you talk about to do it. I know you also mentioned that often. You know we might choose a path that doesn't work out, and I do agree with you. 

20:55
It's always not for nothing. There's always value in that, even though it doesn't always work out the way I expect. Like when I was a health coach that's how I met you, I think. When I was health coaching, that's right, but that was really never my passion. I mean, I liked helping people but it wasn't like like figuring out that this is what I meant to do and it's a whole and that's like a knowing about things. But I also think that if I hadn't done that and not been successful, I wouldn't have known the power of persisting. And so I do feel, like you know, when we are reinventing, sometimes we go down a path that doesn't work out, but there's always something we can gain from that experience, whatever. That might be some lesson or something that we can apply to the future as we continue to refine the process. 

21:46 - Ronnie Ann Ryan (Guest)
And I think that's why so many people talk about the journey, because it's really not just about arriving at some place. It's about the journey and what you learn on the path and what happens on your way to wherever you're going, because wherever you arrive, you're not done yet, so the journey is going to continue anyway. It's not like you're going to arrive at some place and then that's it. You're still going to keep going as long as you're here on earth. 

22:17 - Wendy Battles (Host)
You're on the journey, exactly, exactly. So it makes such a difference when you have that kind of perspective. So it kind of really speaks to our mindset, like our mindset is so powerful in determining the outcomes of whatever it is we're doing, whether it's reinvention or something else. Ronnie, I'm curious as you step back, you think about the many times reinvented. Your most recent kind of tuning into you were in the dating world. That was like your thing. I remember how passionate you were about being a dating coach. Like that's how I knew you, ronnie and Ryan the dating coach. But I appreciate, though, how you've moved on, because I think we can always see new possibilities as we age, as we reinvent. Sometimes one door closes, but it opens up new possibilities on our journey. As you step back and you think about this, what would you say has been your biggest lesson learned about yourself as you've reinvented? My biggest lesson. 

23:22 - Ronnie Ann Ryan (Guest)
There was a time when I couldn't think of an idea. I just I don't know. I just didn't have any ideas. And the more I reinvented, the more ideas. And now it's ridiculous how many ideas I have. And somebody once told me could you just write them down? Just write them down, you know, and then close the book. 

23:48
I have so many ideas and you can't try them all. You can't. You know, there isn't enough time in the day to try every idea you have. So then you have to pick and choose or see which ones are aligned with where your current path is going, or decide you're going to make a haywire right, turn somewhere else or whatever. So I think one of the things I've come to realize is which amazes me is I have so many ideas. I just it's just a never ending like fountain. And that's reassuring because if I don't know what to do, just give it a little time, because I'm going to have ideas. So I think that has been very reassuring for me because, as I said, there was a time when I'm like I don't know, I don't know what to do, I don't know where to go, and now that's not. Now I have a plethora. 

24:42 - Wendy Battles (Host)
I love that. I love that and I think what's interesting is that sometimes when I'm meditating or being really quiet, or sometimes maybe just standing at the sink looking out the window in the kitchen or doing the dishes, like ideas come to me and I feel like when I'm tuning into my intuition, that naturally happens and I take note because often it's like some great idea about something and it doesn't mean it doesn't require work or effort to make it happen. You know, an idea is just an idea till you do something with it. But I do believe that we can tune in and use that to our benefit. 

25:28 - Ronnie Ann Ryan (Guest)
Right. It's another way to use your intuition. You can use your intuition to figure out your next step, or to tune into the path, or to come up with a creative solution, or to figure out who's going to be the most helpful person and who do you need to talk to. Or you know there's so many ways and reinvention requires all of that. It can be as broad as completely changing your direction, or as little as just making those refining tweaks, that everything comes together. 

25:58 - Wendy Battles (Host)
Yeah, exactly, exactly. So it can be many different things on that continuum and I think just building that muscle can help us. It can really help aid us in feeling like it doesn't have to be so hard. We could do it with more ease. I feel like I've gotten to a certain age, ronnie, where I don't want anything to be so hard anymore. You know, I want to have more ease to figure these things out and I feel like our intuition enables us to do that if we're open to it. 

26:29 - Ronnie Ann Ryan (Guest)
Well, it's so funny that you say that because over the summer I had a revelation about how I want to walk the path of ease and grace. And that is not language from Ronnie and Ryan in my past, but that's who I am, that's who I'm reinventing to be someone. I want to be the Ronnie and Ryan who walks the path of ease and grace. And so I did a piece of artwork. 

26:58
It's like art journaling, where you paste a bunch of stuff together and then there's a banner and all this stuff. So I have words on the page and so I look at that all the time going are you on the path of ease of grace? Right now? I don't think so. So you have to kind of check. If you're on the path and that's actually my current reinvention program is I am reinventing my path to be one of ease and grace. And when I have that eureka moment and I go, oh look, I figured that out without having to get all wound up and crazy about something, and I figured that out in just a couple of seconds, I'm like woohoo, then I'm on the path to be the grace. I just love that. 

27:42 - Wendy Battles (Host)
I love that. It just goes to show you that we can invite in a lot of things. We can live with intention and then manifest those things, whatever it is, when we pay closer attention. So I really like that. I know Ronnie. As we're wrapping up, the people listening want to know where to find Ronnie and Ryan. Where can I soak up more of her wisdom? How can I find her on all the socials? Tell us where people can find you. 

28:16 - Ronnie Ann Ryan (Guest)
Oh, my pleasure. So my website is intuitiveedgebiz and you can find me on LinkedIn. That's where I hang out the most. You know I'm Ronnie and Ryan on Instagram and it still says Ronnie and Ryan Love Coach on Facebook, or just Ronnie and Ryan. You can find me that way on Facebook too, but I hang out the most actually on my own website and LinkedIn. 

28:45 - Wendy Battles (Host)
Wonderful, thank you. All of that will be in the show notes for easy access. Ronnie, I can't thank you enough for joining me today. It was such a pleasure to have you. 

28:58 - Ronnie Ann Ryan (Guest)
Yeah, it was really fun. It's always fun to talk to you and see your smiling face Likewise. 

29:03 - Wendy Battles (Host)
Likewise. So thank you. Fun to talk to you and see your smiling face Likewise, likewise. So thank you so much. Thank you. 

29:09
I love the idea that intuition is a muscle that we can build, and if you haven't been one to lean into your intuition as much as you'd like to, or you think you can really strengthen it. Well, she had so many great tips to share with us, and I love this idea about just beginning to practice in simple, easy ways to kind of build that muscle, and I would love to know how you are already doing it or you plan to do it based on ideas. You heard that Ronnie mentioned in today's episode, but it feels to me like there are so many possibilities for us to build our muscles around our intuition, and I'm really curious because I'm trying to lean more into that myself. So I'm definitely going to be putting some of these ideas into play. And speaking of ideas, because this is all about us reinventing and sparking new possibilities, I do want to tell you about a free gift. I have for you 100 Ways to Reinvent in Midlife. You can download it there's a link in the show notes but I literally have a host of great ideas to spark your thinking, and then you can use the intuition skills you're developing from our talk with Ronnie to help aid you along the way, but ideas to get you into that space of seeing new possibilities. So you'll find all the details in the show notes. 

30:42
Now, speaking of inspiration and I don't think we can ever have too much of it but if you're looking for other ways to thrive as you work on this next act, I want to tell you about Wellness Wednesdays with my friend, sally Duplantier. Her free monthly webinars are full of practical, science-based tips for living well at any age, and you can visit myzinglifecom to sign up and start re-imagining what's possible. I'm going to tell you, sally is amazing. We are kindred spirits. You will love what she has to say. So details about her webinar and website are in the show notes. Rebels, thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. I'll be back shortly with a brand new episode, but until that time, keep shining your light. The world needs you and all that you have to offer.