Biography

What has fear ultimately cost you, your team, your organization? In times of challenge and great uncertainty it’s easy to feel paralyzed by fear, but what if you could stand in the face of fear and know that these are the exact moments in life where you can rise to be your best self? These are the real and deeply human conversations that leadership expert Ryan Leak is addressing with global C-Suite audiences in Fortune 500s, All-Stars in the NBA and over 50,000 people that he reaches monthly through his keynotes.

Over the past decade, Ryan has become a sought-after speaker, coach and consultant with deep domain expertise in empowering leaders to reclaim a new self-awareness that enables them to connect with their people more effectively. Rooted in the idea of Chasing Failure, and not being afraid of stretching further, Ryan has been hired by Fortune 500 companies and professional sports franchises to work internally with specialized teams, add value for leaders and their customers, and create new initiatives for the business to better connect with the broader world. Ryan trains 15,000+ entrepreneurial leaders and speaks to over 200,000 people each year as a curator of relevant leadership content and transformational storytelling.

In his new book, Chasing Failure: How Falling Short Sets You Up for Success, Ryan blends personal stories, motivating anecdotes, relevant psychology, and practical step-by-step guidance, to show how chasing failure just may be the quickest way to success.

Seen as a deeply aware coach and connector who can seamlessly operate across the spectrum of a business, Ryan helps leaders better understand where their teams are capable of going by addressing the friction of where teams stand today. Using humorous wisdom and poignant narrative, he inspires audiences to recognize the value in chasing failure to become even more than they are – to become the best version of themselves.

Ryan uses his unique principle-based perspective as a keynote speaker to create significant value to organizations of all shapes and sizes that recognize the tremendous impact in responding to changes in employee mindset and expectations. Ryan’s presentations have gone from an employee engagement perk to a massive competitive advantage for the organization.

Ryan is CEO of the Ryan Leak Group, a leadership development firm, and he is also on the teaching team of a few well-known U.S. based churches. Ryan lives in Dallas, Texas, with his wife Amanda and two sons, Jaxson and Roman.

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CHASING FAILURE: What Our Goals Require Most is the Bravery to Fail

What would you do if you knew you could not fail? Chasing Failure is all about having a vision for a dream, a goal, a mission, and knowing that the road will be paved with failure, but still proceeding with conviction and passion. This is what sets those who succeed beyond measure, from those who simply exist. The fear of failure will keep you inside a box, stall innovation, and make sure you hesitate anytime you even think about taking a risk that could help you achieve goals beyond your wildest dreams. As leadership expert Ryan Leak shares, you don’t actually have to get over the fear. Just do it scared and take really good notes.
When you’re Chasing Failure, you’re either going to win or you’re going to learn. Hopefully, both will happen. Ryan shares the blueprint for success by giving you an approach to see what the predictable failures might be, so you can circumvent those more easily, or deal with them more effectively when they arise.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

- How chasing failure will take you further than chasing success.
- A roadmap to the discipline needed to succeed through failure.
- Understanding how to become today who you intend to be tomorrow.

SELF-LEADERSHIP: 7 Tools to Help You Lead Yourself Better & Inspire Others

Have you ever wondered, “What’s it like for people to be led by me?” When someone is hired to be a leader in an organization, what often doesn’t come with the gig is a leader… for the leader. One of the biggest hurdles leaders face is not actually leading people but leading themselves. Most leaders are often given titles with very little vision. They’re often given expectations with very little direction. The old saying rings true. It’s lonely at the top. Leaders desperately need a go-to strategy and system they can rely on when they feel like they’ve got no one in their corner to guide them.
Through his consulting work, Ryan Leak has been guiding 15,000+ C-Suite leaders every year through 7 key steps toward better self-leadership that leads to better people and organizational leadership.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

- What’s it like to follow me? (The Self-awareness Question)
- What credit can I give away? (The Team Player Question)
- What mistakes can I own? (The Humility Question)
- How can I get better? (The Self-improvement Question)
- Why am I doing it? (The Purpose Question)
- Who am I equipping for the future? (The Legacy/Succession Question)
- Who knows who I really am? (The Transparency Question)

STRENGTHENING DIVERSITY EQUITY, AND INCLUSION IN YOUR ORGANIZATION

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are more important now than ever before. And here’s why: Only 50% of the U.S. population under the age of 18 is Caucasian. The data tells us by 2045, that will be the case for all ages. The future of your organization is a lot more diverse whether you prefer it that way or not. In light of your future customer base and your human resources, diversity, equity, and inclusion are conversations you desperately need to have a great understanding of. It can’t be something that’s simply on paper. It can’t be something of just hiring more people of color. It’s one thing to give a person of color a job. It’s another thing to give them a voice of influence at a decision-making table.

Testimonials

Ryan Leak was AMAZING today. Our clients have been singing his praises all day long!
– AbbVie
To close out 2020, our firm hired Ryan Leak to speak to our colleagues and some key partners about the importance of taking care of themselves, to inspire them to get uncomfortable and to chase failure as these are some of the pillars of personal growth. His willingness to serve our organization and customize his message made it extremely easy to work with Ryan and his message was an absolute HOMERUN - the chat function was blowing up with positive messages and I my inbox was being lit up with messages of gratitude for Ryan. I was particularly impressed with how his message resonated with every demographic of our audience. I highly recommend Ryan to serve the needs of your organization.
– Ryan Watkins - President & CEO, Marsh & McLennan Agency
Our business resource group had the pleasure of having Ryan facilitate an enneagram workshop for our organization. Ryan was knowledgeable, informative, and able to captivate our audience with both learning and life skills for self-awareness and career development. We had over 90% of participants report increased learning and knowledge and numerous people ask for Ryan to come back for workshops for their departments.
– Ashleigh Hargrave - Senior Diversity, Inclusion and Health Equity Practitioner
Ryan by far is one of the best speakers/presenters/educators in his field. Ryan can take you from doubled over laughter literally to tears in 3 minutes and draw you into his stories where you feel it and can touch it and your senses are awaken. His story telling ability and his way to lead you to lesson after life lesson is so powerful. Highly recommend Ryan as a speaker or full day seminar on his expertise in the Enneagram training. Have heard plenty of speakers over the last 35 years and rank him in the top ten of all of them.
– Sarah Middleton - President of Sales & CEO of Fairway Ignite

Booksby Ryan Leak

Chasing Failure: How Falling Short Sets You Up for Success

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