Ryan Wallace · Founder of Awarely · Creator of the iACT NOW Method
Why high performers flatline.
What's the one thing you want most, but can't seem to make yourself do?
What holds you back isn't motivation, willpower, or knowing what to do. It's your subconscious mind firing a false alarm that keeps you stuck. Awarely teaches you to catch those self-sabotaging thoughts and act while they're still firing.
The Action Gap
The distance between what you know you should do and what you actually do.
It shows up in the conversation you avoid, the decision you delay, the opportunity you overthink, and the work that never ships.
The Method
iACT NOW
A repeatable method for closing the gap between knowing and doing, especially when discomfort tells you to stop.
Intention
Set your intention before your old patterns decide how you show up.
Awareness
Catch the Code Red. You can't change patterns you can't see.
Conscious Choice
Choose the action that aligns with your intention.
Take Action
Take action while the Code Red is still firing.
The Vow
I ACT NOW.
I choose courage until I become the person my goals require.
5 Common Code Reds
They sound reasonable. That's what makes them powerful.
Code Reds don't always show up as obvious fear. More often, your subconscious predicts a negative outcome and gives you a perfectly reasonable reason to stay where you are instead of taking action toward the life you want.
Readiness
"I'm not ready yet."
Busyness
"I'll get to it later."
Perfection
"It's not good enough yet."
Self-Preservation
"This could cost me."
Loyalty
"I owe them."
What Awarely Delivers
Bring iACT NOW into the room.
Keynotes start the shift. Workshops build the skill. Coaching makes it personal. Every Awarely program is built around closing the gap between what people know and what they actually do.
Speaking
CODE RED, the signature keynote for conferences, leadership summits, and sales kickoffs, shows people why they get stuck and how to move while the alarm is still firing.
Workshops
Interactive half and full-day workshops and seminars that turn the method into a skill your team keeps using.
Coaching
Private executive coaching for leaders who want to close the gap over time, one-on-one.
Why it sticks
Action changes more than the outcome. It changes you.
Every time you act through a Code Red, you create evidence that you can do the thing you were avoiding. Repeated action turns that evidence into identity. What once felt uncomfortable becomes familiar. What once required courage becomes how you operate.
That is how change sticks.
Coming soon
iACT NOW: How Change Sticks
Knowing what to do was never the problem. Doing it when it's uncomfortable is.
iACT NOW closes that gap by revealing why capable people freeze at the moment of action and how repeated action outside your comfort zone builds an identity that makes change stick.
The complete method behind Ryan Wallace's keynote and workshops.
Be first to know when the book launches. No spam, ever.
Awarely Speaking
Keynotes with Ryan Wallace
Awarely delivers keynote and educational experiences designed to close the gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it.
Built on the iACT NOW Method, Ryan's signature keynote, CODE RED, reveals why capable, driven people freeze at the moment of action. Audiences learn to recognize the subconscious Code Reds that keep them stuck and take action while the alarm is still firing.
Your audience leaves with more than inspiration. They leave with a practical method they can use at their desks, with their teams, toward their biggest goals, and in the moments when something inside them says stop.
The signature keynote
CODE RED
Why High Performers Flatline
Capable people hesitate not because they lack skill, ambition, or information, but because the brain subconsciously mistakes discomfort for danger, which keeps them from taking the action they know they need to take. Ryan calls these moments Code Reds.
On the morning of January 13, 2018, Ryan was standing on a hotel terrace in Maui when every phone in Hawaii went off at once: BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. For thirty-eight minutes he waited for missiles that were never coming. Every thought he had, every emotion he felt, and every decision he made that morning was shaped by a threat that did not exist.
Anchored by that event, and by the baseball that shattered his face at fourteen, CODE RED shows audiences that there is a space between the alarm and what happens next, so the next move is a conscious decision instead of a subconscious reaction.
Signature Keynote
Learn the full CODE RED framework, identify all five Code Reds, and leave with one defined next action.
Interactive Workshop
Apply the framework to your own goals and decisions, with guided practice and extended Q&A.
Working Session
Use the framework to work through real challenges, make decisions, and leave with clear commitments and an execution plan.
Want the room to actually practice the method, not just hear it? That is the Awarely workshop, where people run iACT NOW on their own challenge and leave with a plan.
The Speaker
Ryan Wallace
Ryan Wallace is the founder of Awarely and creator of the iACT NOW Method. He spent more than two decades living the problem he now teaches, across a career spanning pharmaceutical marketing, executive leadership, and multi-million dollar enterprise AI technology sales, including serving as an Executive Director of Marketing. He spent those years getting caught by the same resistance he now teaches others to recognize.
Every successful person gets stuck: on a goal they keep restarting, a decision they keep deferring, a conversation they keep rescheduling. Ryan helps them identify the internal alarm driving the hesitation, challenge it, and move forward with intention. He teaches audiences to catch the alarm, recognize the pattern, choose a response aligned with their intention, and act while it is still firing.
Ryan is a certified executive coach through Fielding Graduate University's Certificate in Evidence Based Coaching, a graduate-level program grounded in leadership, psychology, and the science of behavior change. He earned a BA from the University of Mississippi and an MBA from Arizona State University. Raised in New Orleans, he has twice traveled to Uganda to install water wells.
Awarely speaking programs are provided by Awarely.
Awarely Workshops & Seminars
Training that turns insight into action.
Awarely workshops turn CODE RED and the iACT NOW Method from something people understand into something they can use under pressure. Participants apply the method to real decisions, conversations, and patterns, not hypothetical exercises, and leave knowing how to run it when their own Code Reds fire.
Upcoming Events
See Ryan live in Raleigh.
Ryan is presenting "When Something Inside You Says Stop" at Souly Holistic. Same talk, two times, so you can pick the one that fits.
Evening session
7:00 to 9:00 PM · Souly Holistic, 5540 McNeely Drive, Suite 101, Raleigh.
Lunch session
12:00 to 2:00 PM · Souly Holistic, 5540 McNeely Drive, Suite 101, Raleigh.
The iACT NOW Workshop
Ryan introduced participants to the Code Red framework and the iACT NOW Method through live exercises and personal pattern identification. They left with an action plan, not just notes.
Bring this workshop to your team
Tell us about your team and we'll design a session that fits.
CODE RED Interactive Workshop
Apply the framework to your own goals and decisions, with guided practice and extended Q&A. Best for teams meeting the method for the first time.
CODE RED Working Session
Use the framework to work through real challenges, make decisions, and leave with clear commitments and an execution plan.
Team Action Gap Session
Where does your team already know what needs to happen, but still isn't doing it? This facilitated session surfaces the shared patterns behind stalled decisions, avoided conversations, slow execution, and unspoken friction, then creates a common language and accountability structure for moving forward.
Public & Virtual Seminars
Live and online sessions for individual professionals who want the method without a corporate sponsor.
Awarely classes, seminars, conferences, and workshops are conducted by Awarely.
Awarely Executive Coaching
Close the gap between knowing and doing, one leader at a time.
Private, one-on-one coaching for high performers who have hit a ceiling that has nothing to do with skill.
Some leaders look successful from the outside while privately knowing they're capable of more.
The problem usually isn't another skill they need to learn. It's a pattern they need to see.
What it looks like
It isn't a knowledge problem. It's the gap between what they know and what they do. Awarely coaching helps leaders see the patterns they can't see from inside them, make more conscious choices, and build new ways of operating through repeated action and accountability.
Start with a chemistry call
Coaching begins with a conversation. We'll tell you honestly whether it's the right match.
The engagement
Virtual, confidential, and built around outcomes.
Structured around the outcomes the leader and sponsor set at the start.
Break the Pattern
Focused work on one stuck decision, transition, behavior, or leadership pattern.
Change the Way You Operate
Enough time to identify recurring patterns, practice new responses, and turn insight into a different way of leading.
Build the New Baseline
For significant leadership transitions or deeper behavioral change where the goal is not simply solving a problem, but changing how the leader operates.
Awarely executive coaching is provided by Awarely.
Awarely for Meeting Planners
Make the decision to book Ryan easy.
Program details, audience outcomes, A/V requirements, recording guidelines, and speaker materials, everything your team needs to evaluate the keynote and execute the event.
The Signature Keynote
CODE RED
Why High Performers Flatline
Every organization has capable people operating below their potential. They know the conversation they need to have, the decision they need to make, the idea they need to ship, the move they need to make next. And still, they hesitate.
Not because they lack skill, ambition, or information. Because the brain subconsciously mistakes discomfort for danger, which keeps them from taking the action they know they need to take. Ryan calls these moments Code Reds: false alarms triggered by protective patterns built from past experience. They show up as five deceptively reasonable traps. None of them sounds like fear. That is why they work.
But there is a space between the alarm and what happens next. CODE RED teaches people to find that space and use it, so the next move is a conscious decision instead of a subconscious reaction.
On the morning of January 13, 2018, Ryan was standing on a hotel terrace in Maui when every phone in Hawaii went off at once: BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. For thirty-eight minutes he waited for missiles that were never coming. Every thought he had, every emotion he felt, and every decision he made that morning was shaped by a threat that did not exist.
Anchored by that event, and by the baseball that shattered his face at fourteen, CODE RED gives audiences a practical way to recognize the alarm, question it, and act while it is still firing. The method underneath it is iACT NOW. This is not a motivational high that disappears by Tuesday. It is a way to catch the pattern while it is happening, in the meeting, before the conversation, at the moment a decision gets uncomfortable.
Common Code Reds
Readiness
"I'm not ready yet."
Busyness
"I'll get to it later."
Perfection
"It's not good enough yet."
Self-Preservation
"This could cost me."
Loyalty
"I owe them."
What your audience walks out with
Real risk or false alarm?
Learn the one question that separates legitimate risk from resistance so you can make decisions aligned with your goals.
What Code Red is keeping you from taking action?
Identify the patterns shaping your decisions and the language your brain uses to keep you stuck.
What am I committed to doing next?
Choose one clear action, set a deadline, and commit to taking it even when the alarm is firing.
Formats
Signature Keynote
Learn the full CODE RED framework, identify all five Code Reds, and leave with one defined next action.
Interactive Workshop
Apply the framework to your own goals and decisions, with guided practice and extended Q&A.
Working Session
Use the framework to work through real challenges, make decisions, and leave with clear commitments and an execution plan.
Why book CODE RED
It holds the room
Designed for a general session, breakout, after-lunch slot, or closing keynote. Strong storytelling and three audience-participation moments keep people involved instead of passively watching slides.
It sounds like your event
Ryan interviews the conference chair, executive sponsor, or event lead beforehand, then works your priorities, language, industry, and theme into the keynote, so the message lands in your audience's language and connects to what the room is already there to work on.
It connects to the work
CODE RED addresses behavior change, leadership development, decision-making, and difficult conversations, which makes it relevant for HR, L&D, leadership, and professional development audiences.
It is easy to produce
A microphone. A screen. No band, no elaborate staging, and no complicated production rider.
Association and chapter conferences · HR and L&D events · Sales kickoffs · Leadership offsites · Manager development programs
Simple A/V
A lavaliere microphone, plus a projector and screen for slides. If there is a head table, set it back two to three feet so Ryan can present in front of it. That is all a great session requires.
Available by written approval
Recording is welcome with prior written approval. When it is approved, Ryan asks that:
- A professional audio or video technician does the taping
- Awarely receives the master copy within 30 days of the program
- No copies are sold
- Usage is limited to internal staff only
- No posting occurs on YouTube or any other internet source
Tell us your recording needs early and we will work them out together.
Everything to brief your team
A one-sheet, full bio, a ready-to-read introduction, and a program details form, branded and current, ready to forward to your committee.
Awarely keynotes and educational programs are provided by Awarely.