Steve Schlafman

I started an old-school blog. It's called Field Notes: short, rough notes on what I'm learning as a father, husband, coach, and human in this season.

I'm not posting much on social these days, so the best way to follow along is email, RSS, or directly on the site.

Link below.

After nearly a decade as a solopreneur, I’m ready to be part of a team again.

Today, I’m excited to introduce Camerado, an executive coaching studio founded by @RyanHVaughn, @DRHaswell, and me.

My coaching practice has given me an incredible amount of freedom. I’ve been able to choose who I work with, set my schedule most days, and follow my curiosity. I loved the independence, but I missed having teammates.

I wanted peers I could learn from, create with, and count on to challenge me as a practitioner and entrepreneur.

Last fall, Ryan, Derek, and I were at a retreat in the Catskills. One evening, we peeled off from the larger group and sat on the porch, talking about our lives, our coaching practices, and how technology might change human development over the next decade.

An idea began taking shape: a small studio of deeply committed practitioners who had built and led companies and spent years doing their own inner work.

We imagined a firm with both coaching and building in its DNA. We could bring our different strengths to supporting clients and help one another create products, services, and experiences we couldn’t bring to life alone.

That conversation eventually led to a daily text thread, a weekly Zoom, an offsite at my house, and a commitment to become partners. After six months of working behind the scenes, we’re ready to share what we’ve been building.

Ryan spent fifteen years building and leading multiple venture-backed companies before becoming an executive coach. He brings directness and operational rigor that inspire and stretch me.

Derek co-founded Ten Percent Happier and helped build it into one of the top meditation brands in the world. He brings a product builder’s mind, deep care, and an attention to detail that often leaves me thinking, how the hell did he do that?

I bring my years as an operator, venture investor, and coach, along with my love of helping people navigate meaningful transitions.

Between us, we’ve coached hundreds of founders. We bring different strengths and experiences to the studio, and I love what we bring out in each other.

We serve founders, leaders, and investors at the frontiers of their work and lives. That could mean leading a company that’s scaling faster than you are, navigating a conflict with your co-founder, finding the courage to leave the startup you’ve poured your life into, or pursuing your ambitions without missing your kids growing up.

Each client works closely with one of us, with the whole studio behind them. We help each other think through the challenges our clients are facing, question assumptions, and bring in another partner’s perspective or expertise when it would help.

We’re guided by a belief that the company we keep shapes who we become and what becomes possible. We’re putting that belief into practice in how we support each other and our clients.

Our name comes from Walt Whitman’s “Song of the Open Road.” A camerado is a fellow traveler on the open road, which captures what we want to be for our clients and each other.

There’s more we want to create together: retreats, workshops, and new ways to support the leaders we work with. Part of the adventure is discovering what we can build that none of us could have imagined alone.
I’m excited, a little scared, and proud to be taking this step with Ryan and Derek. I’m grateful I don’t have to navigate it alone.

Come meet my partners and check out what we’re building. Link below.

Big day tomorrow.

Launching something new and it’s my daughter’s birthday.

It’s going to be a special one. Grateful.

Playing Zelda with my kids for the first time. Being a dad really is the greatest.

If I go missing now you know why.