Brand new from Ryan Levesque
If You Are Not Analog by Design, You Will Become Digital by Default...
The same thing your body, heart, and spirit are starving for is what your market is starving for too. Return to Real shows you how to build your life and business around the craving that exists in the world, while there’s still time…
“The first time Ryan shared this message, I was in tears because I knew it was deeply true. Then I went back to my company and put it to work, and the results have been worth millions."
Megan Hyatt Miller
“A masterpiece. Beautifully crafted, rigorously argued, and deeply human.
One of the defining books of this era.”
Mike Kim
"In these topsy-turvey times, it's easy to lose your nerve and your way. This book helps you to come back to what matters. Set your stance, open your heart, clear your gaze, and return to real.”
Michael Bungay Stanier
In an Age of Artificial Everything, What If Real Is the Last Advantage Left?
The first thing you reach for each morning is your phone. From there, your days are spent in your head, in your inbox, in meetings. You’re successful. And underneath it all is a nagging sense that something isn’t right.
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With AI rewriting the rules of work in real time, it’s never been easier to get into the game, but it’s never been harder to stand out.
So you work faster. Stay visible. But underneath it all, there’s a pull. Your body, your heart, and your spirit telling you to reconnect with something you’ve been starving for.
Your market is starving for the same thing.
After a $70 million deal to sell his company collapsed overnight, Ryan Levesque moved his family to a two-hundred-year-old hill farm in Vermont, where they learned to raise 80 percent of the food they eat. On that journey, he eventually led his company to a successful exit. What he learned along the way became the three contrarian shifts in this book.
This is not a book about unplugging. It’s about the last human advantage left in an age of artificial everything, and how to build your life and business around it—while there’s still time.
“If you are not analog by design, you will become digital by default.”
FROM CHAPTER 1: THE WAKE-UP CALL
From the First Readers
of
Return to Real
“This book insightfully tackles the defining challenge of our time: how to thrive in a world transformed by AI while reconnecting with deeper sources of value and meaning.”
Anna Kompanek
“In a world of insanely rapid change, Return to Real offers a grounding anchor and path forward that feels hopeful and deeply human.”
Dr. Andrew Powell
“Return to Real gave me language to something I’ve been feeling for a very long time. It’s the kind of book you’ll want everyone in your inner circle to read.”
Heba El-Hakim
About the author
Who This Book Is For & Why I Wrote It.
If you’re a founder, a leader, or an entrepreneur who feels a growing distance between your success and the life you actually want to be living, I wrote this book for you. Most ambitious people I know have had some version of the same thought: I just want to move to an island. Disappear into the mountains. Buy a farm somewhere. Just escape from it all. And most dismiss it just as quickly. I’ve got kids. A mortgage. A team. Investors. Responsibilities. So they keep going. Keep grinding. Keep ignoring what their body and soul are screaming for. But what if there’s a third path?
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I wrote this because I lived it. Over twenty years I built and sold two companies, generated more than $100 million in revenue, made the Inc. 5000 list seven times, and wrote two #1 national bestsellers. Then a seventy-million-dollar deal to sell my company collapsed days before signing. I moved my family to a two-hundred-year-old hill farm in Vermont, where we learned to raise 80 percent of the food we eat. What I learned there eventually led our company to a successful exit, and became the Three Shifts you’ll find inside. What’s emerging in the world right now is an unexpected opportunity, and that’s the reason this book exists…
“You don’t need a farm. You don’t need an exit.
You just need to start where you are.”
FROM CHAPTER 1: THE WAKE-UP CALL
Previous Work & Books
Have Been Featured In:
About the Book Preview of What’s Inside
Part I
Brace for Impact: The Great Sea Change
There is a Great Sea Change upon us. Can you feel it?
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Three colliding forces are reshaping the post-AI world as we know it: an Economic Unraveling, an Ecological Breaking Point, and an Existential Crisis. They are converging in a way that creates a singular moment in history unlike anything the human species has faced. In response to this confluence of forces is a movement taking shape: The Return to Real.
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Through the lenses of behavioral economics, the history of market cycles, and the neuroscience of desire, we will explore the Double Craving that’s emerging in the world: That what your body, heart, and spirit are starving for, is very likely what your customers are craving right now as well.
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What this means is that the thing you’ve been hungry for in your life right now might simultaneously be the biggest opportunity in your business. The question is what to do about it?
Part II
The Return: The Path To Real
If Part I is the diagnosis, Part II is the prescription.
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Three courageous acts of rebellion answer the three colliding forces: Hands in the Dirt. Heart, Humor, Humanity. Seek & Speak Truth. Each one resolves a tension you are already feeling in your work: What to keep artisanal vs. what to automate; where to focus on your audience vs. the algorithm, where to remain authentic vs where to rely on the artificial.
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Through the lenses of biological design, the neurochemistry of trust, and the science of positioning, we will explore what each shift unlocks: the Analog Advantage, the Oxytocin Advantage, and the Contrarian Advantage.
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What this means is that the shift you make in your own life becomes the operating principle of your business. In the final chapter, we turn all of it inward, exploring what the Return to Real looks like for you and your path for getting there.
What Readers Are Saying
“In this world of AI everything this is the book you need to read. It will ground you and offer a realistic approach to business and life for you and your family's future.”
– Jane Lynch
“Return to Real provides a sense of hope and optimism that we can navigate this brave new world.”
– Jennifer St. Clair
“Whether you're an avid AI user, or avoiding it like the plague, this is a must read. It makes you think through these coming changes in a new and better way.”
– David M. Frees III, J.D.
“It’s a book that helps you look beyond the AI frenzy and gives you a solid foundation for finding a real differentiator for your business.”
– Alberta Bosco
“A vitally needed call to action, not just to stand out in business today but for a profoundly meaningful life in the age of AI.”
– Bernardo Méndez
"My business faced significant disruption from AI. Return to Real has helped me emerge stronger, happier and more resilient."
– Olly Richards
Already have the book? Claim your bonuses.
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Practices Guide
30+ concrete practices from the book. The how behind the why.
Reflections Guide
30+ questions drawn from the book. For you, your family, or for your team.
Chapter 1
The Wake-Up Call, the book's opening chapter. Easy to share with someone who needs it.
The Missing Chapter
A brand new chapter that isn’t in the book. Updated as AI keeps evolving.
Share it with your clients, colleagues, and community
5-Book Bundle
What comes with it:
The Ebook and the Audiobook, both included.
Five (5) Hardcover Copies to give away to your community, with shipping starting at the end of October.
Free US shipping on everything. On a practical level, you can have your five copies shipped in bulk to one address, or we can send them out individually on your behalf.
10-Book Bundle
What comes with it:
Ten (10) Hardcover Copies to give away, shipping starting at the end of October.
The Ebook and the Audiobook, both included.
Free US shipping on everything. On a practical level, you can have your ten copies shipped in bulk to one address, or we can send them out individually on your behalf.
30-Book Bundle
What comes with it:
Thirty (30) Hardcover Copies to give away, shipping at the end of October.
The Ebook and the Audiobook, both included.
Free US shipping on everything. On a practical level, you can have your thirty copies shipped in bulk to one address, or we can send them out individually on your behalf.
100-Book Bundle
What comes with it:
A 90-Minute Private Return to Real Category of One Session with Ryan.
The Ebook and the Audiobook, both included.
One Hundred (100) Hardcover Copies to give away to your community, with shipping starting at the end of October.
Free US shipping on everything. On a practical level, you can have your one hundred copies shipped in bulk to one address, or we can send them out individually on your behalf.
Looking for other Bulk Orders? Send us an email and we’ll provide the best option for your needs.
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Work with Ryan
Advisory & VIP Days
Direct, one-on-one time with Ryan, focused entirely on your business, your strategy, and your next move.
- Advisory: 12 months of one-on-one strategy, access, and accountability.
- VIP Days: A full private day with Ryan, in person, built around your business.
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Speaking and Workshops
Bring Return to Real to your stage or your team, built around your business and your room.
- Speaking: A keynote for your event, conference, or company.
- Workshops: A live session for your team, leadership offsite, or mastermind, in person or online.
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The Return to Real Mastermind
A small room of entrepreneurs building analog-by-design businesses, getting together in person with Ryan twice a year.
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