In this Episode:

The hosts focus on Imposter Syndrome, the feeling that you don't deserve your position and are waiting for someone to call you out.

• Defining the Doubt: Erny shares his first managerial experience (being a young boss to older, more experienced employees) and the blunt question that triggered his earliest professional imposter syndrome.
• Early Career Terrors: Ryan recounts being a 19-year-old Lance Corporal marksmanship coach, tasked with instructing NCOs and officers who had far more time in the service than he did.
• Winning Over the Team: The hosts discuss the challenges of being the "FNG" manager, including Ryan's struggle to earn the trust of seasoned drivers at a waste collection company, and how his dedication eventually won them over.
• Ego and Trust: They explore the pitfall of meeting an employee's ego with your own, and how over-controlling or overly defensive leadership kills trust.
• Breaking the Cycle: Learn the practice of humble leadership: admitting you don't have all the answers and collaborating with your team.
• The Pyramid of Leadership: Erny shares a powerful analogy that helps leaders recognize why they are the right person for the job, despite feeling like they're "nothing special."

This episode is about embracing the struggle, staying humble, and leading anyway.

Leading Ain’t Easy is hosted by Ryan Calkins and Erny Epley.

• Ryan is the founder of Reframe & Rise, a career and leadership coaching practice helping veterans and other professionals realign their work and lead with purpose.
• Erny runs Bus Pro Network, supporting school transportation leaders across California with training and development.

Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram for clips, prompts, and behind-the-scenes updates.

If this episode resonated, please leave a review, as it helps more leaders find us.

Leadership isn’t all highlight reels, motivational quotes, or textbook frameworks. It’s messy, isolating, full of self-doubt, and it rarely looks the way it does on social media. That’s why we created Leading Ain’t Easy.

In this special intro episode, Ryan Calkins and Erny Epley pull back the curtain on what this show is all about. We share our leadership journeys; from the Marine Corps, student government, and private-sector consulting to public-sector transportation leadership and building our own businesses. Along the way, we’ve faced plenty of challenges: leading teams who didn’t trust us, managing under public scrutiny, building culture from the ground up, and wrestling with imposter syndrome ourselves.

Here’s what you can expect from this podcast:

• Real stories about the side of leadership no one puts on their résumé.
• Honest conversations about the doubts, failures, and hard calls leaders face every day.
• Practical lessons, fresh mindsets, and validation that you’re not alone in the struggle.
• Occasional guests who will share their own unfiltered leadership truths.

We’re not here to preach from a pedestal. We’re still learning, still screwing up, and still showing up, and we want to create a space where leaders at all levels can do the same.

If you’ve ever felt like a fraud, second-guessed yourself, or carried the weight of decisions with no playbook, this show is for you.

Our first full episode will dive into Imposter Syndrome (the quiet fear that you don’t belong and someone’s about to find out). Spoiler: we’ve both been there.

Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen so you don’t miss an episode. Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram for clips, prompts, and more. And if this resonates with you, leave a review to help other leaders find the show.

Because leading ain’t easy... but you don’t have to do it alone.

🎙️ Leading Ain’t Easy is hosted by Ryan Calkins and Erny Epley.

• Ryan is the founder of Reframe & Rise, a career and leadership coaching practice helping veterans and other professionals realign their work and lead with purpose.
• Erny runs Bus Pro Network, supporting school transportation leaders across California with training and development.

👉 Subscribe to the show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
👉 Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram for clips, prompts, and behind-the-scenes updates.
👉 If this episode resonated, please leave a review, as it helps more leaders find us.