Ryan Stephens

Ryan has delivered talks and workshops to over 40,000 people to-date, raised over £30,000 for various charities, ran over 20 marathons & ultra-marathons, and been wild swimming every single day for 1700 days and counting (4+ years). 

Ryan offers a range of services from one-to-one well-being & mindset coaching, motivational speaking, well-being workshops and training, mindset development programmes for young people, and through his business Wild Minds Gower offers social wellness events, corporate well-being days and well-being workshops.

Ryan’s mission is to empower people with the tools and strategies to live well and create communities with well-being built into the foundations. 

From being awarded Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2013, to  setting up his first business (a tattoo studio) at the age of 19 and subsequently hitting the lowest point of his life and going to prison at the age of 21, to re-building himself back up and setting-up multiple other businesses in various sectors, including a clothing store. Ryan took his experiences in his stride and ended up supporting people with mental health challenges and substance use issues and discovered that he had a passion to help people. 

In 2019, Ryan created a social self-development community called Ideas & Beers with two friends, which led to the discovery that he is passionate about creating communities and bringing people together. This led onto him creating The Wet Bandits community in 2020 at the height of covid-19 lockdowns, to get people out in nature and doing good things for their well-being by jumping in the cold sea. 

In 2020, Ryan also left his job at Swansea University to go fully self-employed doing the work he does today, a ‘burn the boats’ moment which ended up being one of the greatest decisions he has made. 

The freedom working for yourself provides is second to none, but it isn’t always easy-going - business requires sacrifice and hard-work, which is why finding things you’re excited about and passionate about is so important. 

Doing things which you love to do or have a genuine curiosity for will allow you to persist in the face of adversity, overcome hurdles which arise on the journey and to do it all with a smile on your face.