Ryan Vaughn

A story about how I went from "Ryan the hotshot CEO," to, simply, Ryan. And why I do what I do now.

Over 15 years I founded and served as CEO to three companies. The last of those, became the largest and fastest growing high school sports marketing platform in the US...

I ask one question in every CEO group I run:

Tell me about the time when you felt most alive.

90% of the answers are the same (and not what you'd expect):

I've never been big on business books.

Most say their point in 3 chapters, then repeat themselves for 200 pages.

But these 5 books changed everything for me - in my business and my life:

For 15 years, I tried to wrench reality to conform to my latest 5-year projection.

Then I took on the biggest challenge of my life - Michael Singer's Surrender Experiment.

Here's why I haven't gone back:

When I first hired a coach while running VNN, it felt like something I had to hide.

Like I was admitting I couldn’t do the job on my own.

But once I opened up, it became the most transformational leadership decision of my life: