Hi, I’m Ryan. I help high performers become founders by using LinkedIn to build real, profitable businesses.

My career didn’t fall apart. I didn’t burn out. I finished every role cleanly - Director, VP - leading hundreds of engineers across the world and helping build multiple billion‑dollar companies.

And still, I knew I wanted to build on my own.

I’ve founded 5 companies and earned multiple exits while scaling teams behind $1B+ in outcomes. I loved the work, but I wanted a life where I could build big things and be present for my family. I wanted ownership. I wanted flexibility. I wanted proof I could do it on my terms.

LinkedIn became the path. I grew from 1,200 to 100,000+ followers in nine months, built a brand that opened doors I didn’t know existed, and stepped fully into my own business.

Since then, I’ve coached 50+ founders to design careers, income streams, and opportunities that match the life they actually want - not the life their company dictates.

Here’s how we work:

- Identify the opportunities you can’t see in your past experience.
- Build a clear, practical brand that attracts the right people.
- Turn your skills into simple offers, real customers, and predictable income.

Today, I own my time. I build, coach, and spend my days with my family - and help others do the same.

If you’re a high performer who wants a business that fits your life, DM me.
Partnerships, speaking, press: ryan@ryanyockey.com

Professional highlights:
• 5× Founder | Multiple exits
• Scaled teams responsible for $1B+ outcomes
• Grew to 100,000+ followers in 9 months
• Coached 50+ founders
• Trusted by leaders at Google, Adobe, Meta

Ryan Yockey

I’ve been watching people for years. The patterns are wild.

The loudest person in the room? Usually compensating.

The flashiest? Probably broke or close to it.

The one who won’t shut up about how smart they are? Not that smart.

Here’s what I’ve noticed about people who actually have it:

The strongest are gentle.
They don’t need to intimidate. Their presence does the work.

The smartest are quiet.
They listen more than they talk. They know they don’t know everything.

The wealthiest are simple.
No logos. No flex. Just compound interest and time freedom.

The happiest are private.
They’re not performing for an audience. They’re living for themselves.

Real power doesn’t need to prove itself.

It just exists.

The person who’s actually built something doesn’t need to tell you about it every five minutes.
Their results speak.

The person who’s actually confident doesn’t need external validation.
They’ve done the internal work.

If you find yourself constantly trying to prove your worth, your intelligence, your success—pause.

Ask yourself who you’re trying to convince.

Because the people who’ve made it?
They stopped performing a long time ago.

They just started building in silence.

That’s what I write about every Saturday. One short note to 135,000+ entrepreneurs who care more about real progress than public applause.

It takes 4 minutes.

And its free: https://lnkd.in/gfyweeTM

No noise.
Just the work.

Actionable strategies to grow your audience, monetize your skills, and build leverage online. | Trusted by leaders at Google, Adobe, Meta

The real luxury isn’t making millions.

And it’s definitely not your internet dream.

It’s easy to confuse money with freedom.

Fast cars.
Big houses.
Screenshots and timelines.

But watch closely.

The people who actually "made it"
optimize for something much quieter.

I control my time.
I can choose when to workout.
I dont have nearly the level of stress I once did.

Slow mornings without guilt.
Rested afternoons whenever I want.
Sleep that isn’t borrowed from tomorrow.

And most importantly:

People you love.
Who love you back.

Money can certainly help create these things and more, theres no denying that.

But chasing money at the expense of them usually destroys the very life you’re trying to build.

I learned this the hard way.

The goal isn’t more.
It’s enough — designed intentionally.

That’s what I write about every Saturday.

One short email to 135,000+ entrepreneurs on building work and lives that don’t collapse under success.

It takes 4 minutes to read.

It’s free. Join here: https://lnkd.in/gfyweeTM

Slow down.
You’re closer than you think.

I waited longer than I should have.

Not because I didn’t have ideas.
Not because I wasn’t capable.

Because I kept telling myself I needed:
More clarity.
More confidence.
More proof it would work.

I thought I needed a better plan.

I didn’t.

I thought I needed permission to try new things.

I didn't

I thought I needed someone to tell me it was okay to start.

I didn’t.

What I actually needed was to stop questioning myself.

Every meaningful thing I’ve built started the same way:
Messy.
Incomplete.
Uncomfortable.


The people I know who’ve built real businesses didn’t wait for the right time.
They started before it made sense.
They figured it out while delivering.
They gave themselves permission to start.

Most people do the opposite.

They plan.
They ask.
They wait.

Your competition isn’t other people.

It’s your own hesitation.

Stop asking if you’re ready.
Start doing the thing you keep thinking about.

That’s what I write about every Saturday.

One short note to 135,000+ entrepreneurs who stopped waiting and started building.

It takes 4 minutes.

It’s free: https://lnkd.in/gfyweeTM

Start sooner than you feel comfortable.

The most valuable skill isn’t productivity.

It’s knowing what matters.

Anyone can work harder.
Anyone can move faster.
Anyone can optimize their calendar.

That’s not the edge.

The edge is knowing what not to do.

Because efficiency on the wrong things is still wasted energy.

I see this constantly.

People obsess over:
• Morning routines
• Task managers
• AI workflows
• Productivity hacks

But they’re applying them to work that doesn’t matter.

So they feel busy.
They feel exhausted.
And they wonder why nothing compounds.

Real leverage comes from clarity.

Knowing:
• Which decisions actually move the needle
• Which problems are worth solving
• Which work creates momentum instead of maintenance

Most professionals don’t need better systems.

They need better filters.

Once you know what matters, productivity becomes obvious.
Until then, it’s just motion.

That’s what I write about every Saturday.

One short email to 135,000+ entrepreneurs on building conviction, making clearer decisions, and designing work you’re proud to stand behind.

It takes 4 minutes to read.

It’s free. Join here: https://lnkd.in/gfyweeTM

Keep building.
The right people notice.

🚀 Executive Coach | Helping High Achievers Navigate Career Crossroads & Lead Powerfully | Strategic Clarity · Emotional Intelligence · Resilience | McKinsey Alum | Founder: Bravo Darlings

You’re not “starting over.”
 You’re navigating a pivotal transition senior leaders rarely talk about publicly.

• A role that stopped fitting (even if it looks great on paper)
• A restructure or redundancy that forced a reset
• A senior step-up with new politics, visibility, and consequences
• A reinvention: closing one chapter and deliberately shaping the next

Career pivots drag on because you’re trying to solve identity, strategy, positioning, and execution all at once — while still performing at a high level.

That’s where I come in.

I work with Directors, VPs, and C-suite leaders who want their next move to be faster, cleaner, and aligned — without sacrificing health, energy, or reputation.

Why I’m credible in this work
I’ve spent 30+ years operating inside complex organizations, leading and advising at senior levels.

My background includes McKinsey, Credit Suisse, and Singtel, where I:
-led global and regional teams
-navigated restructures, leadership changes, and industry shifts
-operated in high-visibility, high-stakes environments where decisions had real consequences

I’ve lived these transitions personally — and supported hundreds of leaders through them professionally.

What derails senior transitions isn’t lack of intelligence or ambition.
It’s misreading the moment, over-functioning, and moving too fast without clarity.

How I work
Through The Bold Shift™, I act as a strategic thought partner during these moments — not to motivate you, but to help you choose the right next chapter and step into it with clarity, credibility, and pace.

We focus on:
-clarity before commitment
-positioning before performance
-capacity and pace, not just capability
-decisions that hold up over time, not just under pressure

Proof this works
• Headhunted and offered a role with a +30% salary increase within 90 days
 • Secured interviews and offers in a tough market
 • Unblocked long-stalled headcount and achieved a 35% salary increase by reframing visibility and impact
 • Built next chapters that fit real life — capacity-first, not hustle-first

“This doesn’t just set me up for the next move. It positions me for the next 10–20 years.”
 — Cynthia, Comms Chief of Staff, Switzerland

Who this is for
This is for senior leaders who:
 • are at a crossroads and tired of overthinking
 • want to be chosen, not just available
 • are done with “pushing through” as a strategy
 • want a transition that protects wellbeing and credibility

If you’re in a genuine “what’s next?” moment — pivot, redundancy, step-up, or reinvention — let’s talk.

Melissa Schmidiger

Here’s my honest take.

Burnout at senior levels isn’t about resilience or mindset.

It happens when the system puts people in roles where:
 • they’re accountable but can’t actually decide
 • they’re visible but can’t influence outcomes
 • they’re expected to deliver without clear direction

Anyone would struggle in that setup.

So when the response is:
 “Take time off.”
 “Do a resilience course.”
 “Look after yourself.”

It completely misses the point.

You can rest.
You can recover.
But when you come back to the same structure, the problem is still there.

Burnout at this level isn’t a personal failure.
It’s what happens when the system doesn’t match the role.

And pretending otherwise just keeps the cycle going.

🚀 From pivot to offer in 2–4 months - without burnout│ Executive coach for senior leaders in transition│ The Bold Shift™ │ McKinsey alum.

I need to say this plainly, because too many people are learning it the hard way.

HR is not there to protect your career.

That doesn’t make HR evil.
It makes HR predictable.

HR’s job is to protect the organisation:
 • from legal risk
 • from internal noise
 • from instability

Your long-term trajectory is not the priority.
Your growth is not the mandate.
Your “next chapter” is not on anyone’s KPI.

And yet I still see senior, capable people assuming:
“If I work hard, someone will take care of me.”

They won’t.

Not because they don’t like you.
Not because you’re replaceable.
But because the system doesn’t work that way.

What actually happens instead:
 • restructures happen quietly
 • decisions get made before you’re in the room
 • narratives form without your input

And by the time you’re told, the story is already written.

This isn’t about being cynical.

It’s about being awake.

At senior levels, you have to own:
 • your positioning
 • your narrative
 • the timing of your moves

If you don’t, the system will decide for you — politely, professionally, and without malice.

And that’s the part people struggle to accept.

Most people don’t regret the jobs they didn’t get.
They regret the ones they stayed too long in.

Yesterday, a few people mentioned how powerful it is to choose yourself,
to value alignment over being chosen, clarity over validation.

This is the other side of that truth.

Because when you don’t choose, something else does.

The role slowly reshapes you.
The pace becomes normal.
The version of yourself that once questioned things learns to comply.

And by the time it’s clear something is off, the cost is already paid:
– health
– relationships
– confidence
– optionality

What makes this hard isn’t lack of ambition.
It’s lack of clarity.

Not clarity about what you could do —
but clarity about:
• what kind of work fits now
• what kind of leadership you’re no longer willing to perform
• what you’re protecting as you move forward

This is the work many senior leaders skip.

They optimise for the next role
before deciding who they want to be in it.

And that’s how you end up successful…
and misaligned again.

The leaders I work with don’t come to me to “get a job.”
They come because they don’t want the next decade to cost them what the last one did.

Clarity doesn’t rush you.
It steadies you.

And from that place, the right moves stop feeling like guesses.

💬 If saying yes feels heavier than it should,
that’s usually not hesitation — it’s information.

They were negotiating her redundancy package.
Then sh*t hit the fan.

Suddenly, she was the most important person in the building.

The CEO wanted her in every room.

Because she could:
	•	manage risk when things got messy
	•	hold the strategy when people panicked
	•	handle internal stakeholders without creating landmines
	•	make decisions when everyone else was stuck

And yet… they had just managed her out.

Why?

Because when you’re doing your job well, everything looks like it’s “just flowing.”
No drama. No escalation. No noise.

So leadership decides your work is non-essential.

Until you’re gone.
And the absence is loud.

That’s the trap with roles that prevent problems.

When you’re good, you make it look easy.
When you leave, it looks like chaos.

Here’s the hard truth:

If your value only becomes obvious in a crisis, you’re under-positioned.

Not because you’re not valuable.
Because you’re describing your impact like it’s “support,” not infrastructure.

A tiny shift I teach clients:

❌ “I handle stakeholder issues.”
✅ “I reduce business risk by keeping stakeholders aligned when decisions change.”

❌ “I manage governance.”
✅ “I create decision clarity so strategy can move without blowback.”

Same work. Different language.
And it changes how people value you before the crisis.

Question: Have you ever watched a team realise someone was “essential” only after they tried to remove them?

Tomorrow I’ll share a simple framework to turn “invisible work” into executive language you can use in reviews, board updates, and interviews.

Some people don’t get stuck because they’re underperforming.

They get stuck because they make everything look easy.

Nothing breaks.
Problems don’t escalate.
Things just… work.

And when things work, leadership assumes nothing is being held.

I’ve seen this with senior leaders who are capable, reliable, and trusted — and who keep getting told “no” when they ask for more support.

What changes things isn’t doing more.

It’s learning to talk about the impact of what doesn’t happen because you’re there.

The risks avoided.
The consequences managed.
The stability you create for others.

If this resonates, sit with this:
What do you do that people only notice when it’s missing?

That answer is often the start of a very different conversation.

It’s been a magical four days with Women of the World (WOW) in El Nido.

We slowed down together.
We moved our bodies.
We let the noise drop long enough to actually listen.

In a setting that felt both safe and expansive, something important happened:
clarity returned.
courage softened.
connection deepened.

When we give ourselves permission to pause, we don’t lose momentum, we regain perspective.

We left not just restored, but more grounded in who we are as leaders and women.

Sisters, in the truest sense. 🩷👯‍♀️

Isa Buencamino-Agbayani Sharon Goh Jeannie Loo Nicky Bright Emily Orcullo Jovilyn Cotio Hwee Jia Tan Ana Marques

#pausewithpurpose #wowretreat #womenoftheworld #womenempowerment #executivecoaching #leadershipdevelopment

“I want my influence to outlast my inbox.”

I ask leaders this all the time—and I ask myself too:

If my inbox disappeared tomorrow,
what would remain as proof of my influence?

There were seasons when the honest answer was: not enough.

My impact was buried in meetings, decks,
and “urgent” threads that evaporated by morning.

What changed for me was noticing what actually lasts.
Years after I left one role, a former colleague sent me a note
thanking me for reminding him to really listen in briefings.

In another, a manager told me
she still teaches her team the way I frame decisions.

That’s when it clicked:
the emails were busy; the thinking was legacy.

These days my measure is simpler:

- Not just the problems I solve today,
  but the people who solve them tomorrow because we worked together.

- Not just the projects I deliver,
  but the frameworks and language others keep using when I’m not in the room.

The work is big today.
Legacy is bigger.

Inbox work resets every morning.
Teaching someone to think differently can last a career.

👉 If your inbox vanished, what would still prove you mattered—people, practices, or both?

Feeling stuck about what to pursue next?
Start here: pursue you.

I work with ambitious, high-achieving leaders every day, and one of the most common things I hear is:
“I don’t know what I want next.”

Here’s the truth:
Career clarity doesn’t always come from job boards, podcasts, or planning.
It often comes from reconnecting with yourself.
The part that gets buried under deliverables, deadlines, and other people’s expectations.

If you're in a season of uncertainty:
→ Choose curiosity over urgency
→ Build inner clarity before chasing outer validation
→ Focus on energy, not just outcomes

Here’s how to begin the self-pursuit:

1. Audit your energy
What lights you up? What drains you?
Track it for a week. Notice what meetings, people, or projects give you energy—or take it away.

2. Revisit your wins
Not the resume wins. The real ones.
When did you feel proud, powerful, or fully at peace?
These moments are breadcrumbs that can lead you back to alignment.

3. Create space to hear yourself
Take a walk. Write things down. Sit in silence.
Your next move won’t shout.
It will whisper. And you’ll need quiet to hear it.

Pursuing yourself isn’t passive.
It’s often the most strategic thing you can do when the road ahead feels unclear.

If you’re in a season of uncertainty, which part of “pursuing yourself” feels hardest right now?

P.S. I shared two more self-pursuit steps in the comments if this resonates. 👇

The people who prevent disasters get punished for it.
Because leadership doesn’t reward what they don’t feel.

They reward:
the person who “saved the day”
the person who “fixed the mess”
the person who’s loud in the moment

Meanwhile, you’re quietly making sure the mess never happens.
And because nothing breaks, they decide you’re… non-essential.

And here’s the part nobody says out loud:
Most companies are built to reward visible urgency, not quiet prevention.

They notice the person who walks in with a “crisis update.”
They don’t notice the person who designed the system that stopped the crisis.

So the loudest work gets labelled “leadership.”
And the work that keeps the business stable gets labelled “support.”

That’s not a you problem.
That’s an incentives problem.

So if you’re in Legal, Risk, Ops, HR, Finance, Compliance, Insights…
you can be the backbone of the business and still get treated like support.

Here’s how you stop losing to the loudest person in the room.

The 3-line Impact Framework
Use this in reviews, stakeholder updates, board decks, interviews.

1) The risk or outcome you protect
What gets worse if you’re not there?

2) The system you built
What did you create that makes things run smoothly?

3) The proof
What changed because of it? Speed, cost, risk, trust, delivery, revenue.
Examples:

❌ “I manage stakeholders.”
 ✅ “I reduce execution risk by keeping stakeholders aligned during high-change decisions, so strategy moves without blowback.”

❌ “I handle governance.”
 ✅ “I built a decision system that increased clarity and accountability, reducing rework and speeding up approvals.”

❌ “I oversee risk.”
 ✅ “I created early-warning indicators and escalation pathways that prevented avoidable issues from escalating.”

If you want the one-line version:
“I enable [business outcome] by building [system], which results in [proof].”

You don’t need to become louder.
You need to stop describing strategic work like it’s “help.”

Because in most companies, the people who prevent fires don’t get promoted.
The people who talk about fires do.

If you want help translating your work into executive positioning, I’ve opened a few spots for my Clarity + Positioning Sprint (4 sessions) for February starts.

DM me “SPRINT” with your role + what’s shifting right now, and I’ll send the details.

A few people messaged me after Monday’s post and said the same thing in different words:

“This is exactly what I do.”

And usually what follows is quieter:

“But I don’t know how to explain it without sounding like I’m overselling myself.”

Here’s the thing most senior leaders don’t realise until it costs them:

Absorbing risk, stabilising change, and keeping things moving is not “being helpful.”
 It’s holding the organisation together.

When that work stays unnamed, it becomes easy to overlook.
Not because it lacks value, but because no one has translated it into the language decisions are made in.

This is why so many capable, trusted people only get recognised when something breaks.

And by then, it’s usually too late to protect the role.

If this feels familiar, you’re not alone.
And no — the answer isn’t becoming louder or more performative.

It’s becoming precise.

Have you ever struggled to explain the value of work that mostly prevents problems?

If things feel heavier at work lately, you’re not imagining it.
The rules did change.

What used to work:
 • keeping your head down
 • letting results speak
 • trusting the process

doesn’t carry the same weight anymore.

Not because performance stopped mattering.
But because context matters more.

Markets tightened.
Risk moved up the organisation.
Decisions became faster, quieter, and more political.

That means fewer bets.
Less patience.
And far less tolerance for ambiguity.

In this environment, doing good work isn’t enough on its own.

If you’re not:
 • clear on where you add value now
 • visible in the right rooms
 • intentional about how you’re positioned

you slowly lose leverage, even while delivering.

And that’s what’s catching people off guard.

They’re working just as hard, if not harder,
but the rules they built their careers on are no longer the ones being used.

It’s not the strongest who succeed.
Or even the most capable.

It’s the ones who are most adaptable to change.

Let that be your advantage in 2026.

When I work with executives in transition, I see the same pattern:

The ones who reposition early don’t just land a role, 
they shape the decade that follows.

Years ago, I realised the market’s memory had me filed under an older version of me—brilliant past, smaller rooms than I should be in.

So I sent a simple note to my network:

“Here’s the kind of problem I love solving.
 Here’s what I’m building next.”

Within weeks, I was in a new country,
leading a team in a new industry.

My capabilities hadn’t changed.
My story finally caught up.

Here’s the hard truth I share with clients:

The market rewards the last version of you it understood.
If you wait too long, that version goes stale—
and you get invited into smaller rooms than you belong in.

Two equally capable leaders can diverge fast:

 • One resets the narrative in time
and negotiates from strength for years.

 • The other waits
 and spends the same decade proving they’re more than their last title.

This isn’t indulgence.
It’s asset protection.

The next 10 years of income and influence, 
often depend on how you reposition in the next 10 months.

👉 If the market introduced you today, which version would it describe—and what one sentence would you change?

I’m still high from the retreat.

Not the “vacation” kind of high. The kind that comes from witnessing women soften, tell the truth, and remember who they are underneath the doing.

Through Women of the World (WOW) I co-hosted a retreat with Isa Buencamino-Agbayani  women in needof  a strategic pause. Last week in El Nido, our circle included mothers, artists, founders, and consultants—women who flew in from Jeddah, London, Queensland, Melbourne, Singapore, and Manila.

And one of the moments I can’t stop thinking about came through Jovi.

I’ve known her as a force: fast-thinking, direct, and naturally gifted at solving problems. She’s not “naturally calm.” She doesn’t float through life in soft focus.

So watching her guide our cacao ceremony on Sunday morning—and then close the retreat on Monday with a sound healing—stayed with me.

I had never experienced her in this role before, but I was certain she would be wonderful.

Because presence isn’t a personality trait. It’s a practice.

And witnessing someone who is wired for action choose allowing—choose intuition, softness, and trust—was powerful.

Afterwards she wrote:
“The weekend was a practice of BEING and of ALLOWING. I got a glimpse of how ease and grace feels like—no forcing, just being.”

That line captures what the retreat offered so many of us: a return to ease, without losing depth or impact.

And it captures something else I keep coming back to—how leadership (and life) expands when we let ourselves be seen in a new way.

May this weekend allow all of us to explore a new way of being. 

Jovilyn Cotio Ana Marques Jeannie Loo Sharon Goh Hwee Jia Tan Naely Narayanan

Most capable people don’t realise they’re becoming undervalued.

They notice it slowly.

Quietly.

Nothing is “wrong.”
You’re still trusted. Still relied on. Still delivering.

But when decisions are made about roles, scope, or priorities, your impact suddenly feels harder to name.

Not because it isn’t there.
Because it hasn’t been articulated.

That’s usually when the real risk appears.

This week’s newsletter explores the quiet cost of invisible work — and why being relied on is not the same as being clearly valued.

Value doesn’t announce itself.
It needs language.

If you’re carrying more than your title suggests, this one is for you.

The full reflection is in this week’s Rise & Thrive. 👇

Dear High Achiever, Most capable people don’t suddenly realise they’re undervalued. They notice it quietly. They’re relied on. They’re trusted. Things

Open article: When Competence Becomes Invisible by Melissa Schmidiger • 2 min read

Most high performers don’t lose confidence overnight.

They lose clarity first.

Quietly.

Nothing is “wrong.”
You’re still performing. Still respected. Still delivering.

But decisions feel heavier.
Saying yes takes more energy than it should.
And you start second-guessing instincts that used to be sharp.

That’s usually when people ask the wrong question:

“Do I need a new role?”

This week’s newsletter is about the clarity problem that shows up before big career mistakes — and how to slow things down enough to hear what the tension is actually telling you.

Clarity doesn’t shout.
It steadies.

If you’re in a season of decision, this one is for you.

I shared a short reflection exercise and a practical clarity tool in this week’s Rise & Thrive. 👇

Dear High Achiever, Most high performers don’t lose confidence overnight. They lose clarity first. It happens quietly. Decisions feel heavier. Instinc

Open article: The Expensive Mistake High Performers Don’t See Coming by Melissa Schmidiger • 2 min read

The Expensive Mistake High Performers Don’t See Coming

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