Ryan Wallace · Founder of Awarely™ · Creator of the iACT NOW Method
Code Red
The Hidden Traps That Keep Successful People Stuck
A Code Red is the internal alarm that mistakes discomfort for danger. It rarely sounds like fear. It sounds like a reasonable reason to wait: I'm not ready yet. I'll get to it later. It's not good enough yet. Awarely helps successful people recognize these hidden traps and follow through on what matters.
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
Intention. Awareness. Conscious choice. Take action 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 Hidden Traps That Keep Successful People Stuck. The signature keynote for leadership events and associations helps audiences recognize what's holding them back and leave with a repeatable way to follow through on what matters.
Workshops
Interactive workshops where participants apply iACT NOW to a priority they've been postponing and leave with a plan to act on it.
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.
What people say
From the room, the workshop, and the coaching call.
“If you want someone who will make your people feel understood and then inspire them to take action, Ryan is the person I’d recommend.”
Keynote · Raleigh Metro SHRMFounder, HR consulting firm
“The workshop helped me recognize some of the patterns that keep me stuck, especially perfection and self-preservation, and gave me an actual method for taking action even while those internal alarms are still firing.”
Workshop · RaleighWorkshop participant
“Ryan helped me move from thinking about starting my own business to actually launching it. His coaching helped me reach a place I genuinely don’t believe I would have gotten to on my own.”
1:1 CoachingEntrepreneur, coaching client
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.
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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: The Hidden Traps That Keep Successful People Stuck, helps audiences recognize what's holding them back and leave with a repeatable way to follow through on what matters.
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
The Hidden Traps That Keep Successful People Stuck
When staying productive becomes a way to stay protected.
Busyness can crowd out the work that matters most. Preparation can become a reason to wait. Perfection can delay a decision. Loyalty can keep you from having an honest discussion. CODE RED helps audiences recognize these patterns and follow through on the decisions, actions, opportunities or conversations they've been postponing.
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.
“It didn’t take long for everyone in the room to feel seen. He has an uncanny way of describing exactly what’s going on inside your head, and he does it with such empathy and humor that you can’t help but nod along (and laugh) in recognition.”
Founder, HR consulting firm · on Ryan’s talk to Raleigh Metro SHRM
Keynote
For leadership events and associations. Audiences learn the CODE RED framework, recognize the five Code Reds, and leave with one postponed action and a plan to take it.
Interactive Workshop
Apply iACT NOW to a postponed priority, with guided practice and a specific date and time to act.
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.
Recently delivered
Ryan, live in Raleigh.
Recent sessions of CODE RED and the iACT NOW Method, from a professional association chapter to open public workshops.
Raleigh Metro SHRM
The iACT NOW Workshop for HR professionals. Participants identified their own Code Reds through live exercises and left with an action plan.
Souly Holistic · Evening
“When Something Inside You Says Stop,” a two-hour public workshop applying iACT NOW to postponed priorities.
Souly Holistic · Lunch
“When Something Inside You Says Stop,” a two-hour public workshop applying iACT NOW to postponed priorities.
The iACT NOW Workshop
Participants learn the Code Red framework and the iACT NOW Method through live exercises and personal pattern identification, then apply it to a priority they’ve been postponing. They leave 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.
What participants say
They leave with a method, not just notes.
“The workshop gave me new insight into some of my own hangups and, more importantly, practical ways to push past them and keep moving toward my goals. Ryan is an engaging and informative presenter who makes the material both accessible and useful.”
Online workshopWorkshop participant
“Ryan’s presentation was excellent and very empowering for implementing the iACT NOW method and addressing long avoided accomplishments.”
Workshop · RaleighWorkshop participant
“The workshop helped me recognize some of the patterns that keep me stuck, especially perfection and self-preservation, and gave me an actual method for taking action even while those internal alarms are still firing.”
Workshop · RaleighWorkshop participant
“The workshop helped me see a blind spot in my thought process and understand my need to ruminate over issues.”
Workshop · RaleighWorkshop participant
“After this workshop I feel empowered to challenge my unhelpful thinking patterns. The iACT NOW method provides a framework to evaluate and change my thoughts to support me in moving forward.”
Workshop · RaleighWorkshop participant
“I loved the simple and effective iACT NOW process and relating it to my intention. I leave with a new tool that will help me move forward in living my life fully.”
Workshop · RaleighWorkshop participant
CODE RED Interactive Workshop
Apply iACT NOW to a postponed priority, with guided practice, and leave with a specific date and time to act. 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.
What clients say
"Ryan helped me move from thinking about starting my own business to actually launching it. He challenged the limiting beliefs that were keeping me stuck, pushed me to get out of my own way, and held me accountable to taking action. His coaching helped me reach a place I genuinely don't believe I would have gotten to on my own. Since then, I've continued to successfully grow the business and reach new milestones, and Ryan played an important role in helping me build the confidence, clarity, and momentum to get started."
Entrepreneur, 1:1 coaching client
“Ryan has a special talent for asking thoughtful questions, listening closely, and then synthesizing what he hears into a clear picture of your biggest challenges and strengths. From there, he helps you figure out how to use those strengths to move through the challenges.”
“I came away from our session with real insights, a clearer perspective, and tangible ‘homework’ I could put into practice right away.”
1:1 coaching client
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
The Hidden Traps That Keep Successful People Stuck
When staying productive becomes a way to stay protected.
Busyness can crowd out the work that matters most. Preparation can become a reason to wait. Perfection can delay a decision. Loyalty can keep you from having an honest discussion. CODE RED helps audiences recognize these patterns and follow through on the decisions, actions, opportunities or conversations they've been postponing.
Ryan calls these moments Code Reds: internal alarms that mistake discomfort for danger, 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. CODE RED teaches people to find the space between the alarm and what happens next, so the next move is a conscious decision instead of a subconscious reaction.
On 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, every thought, emotion and decision he had was shaped by a threat that did not exist. That morning, and the baseball that shattered his face at fourteen, anchor the keynote. 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 threat or Code Red?
Recognize when your alarm is responding to actual danger and when it's protecting you from discomfort.
What keeps you putting it off?
Recognize how readiness, busyness, perfection, self-preservation and loyalty can turn into reasons to delay what matters.
What will you do next?
Choose one action you've been postponing and leave with a plan for taking it, including a specific date and time.
Choose your format
Keynote
For leadership events and associations. Audiences learn the CODE RED framework, recognize the five Code Reds, and leave with one postponed action and a plan to take it.
Interactive Workshop
Apply iACT NOW to a postponed priority, with guided practice and a specific date and time to act.
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.
On speaking to Raleigh Metro SHRM
"When Ryan spoke to the Raleigh Metro SHRM members, it didn't take long for everyone in the room to feel seen. He has an uncanny way of describing exactly what's going on inside your head, like the avoidance tactics we all fall into and the ways we hold ourselves back, and he does it with such empathy and humor that you can't help but nod along (and laugh) in recognition. You'll spot yourself almost immediately, and you'll understand why you do what you do.
Ryan warmly but firmly challenges you to do something about it, and he gives you practical ways to start. Several people who attended have since moved past things that had been holding them back, and to me that's the real measure of a great speaker. If you want someone who will make your people feel understood and then inspire them to take action, Ryan is the person I'd recommend. He brings real substance, and he's a genuinely great guy."
Founder, HR consulting firm
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 speaker profile, 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.