SINGLE COPY BUNDLES
NOW AVAILABLE
SINGLE COPY BUNDLES
NOW AVAILABLE
BRAND NEW FROM RYAN LEVESQUE | PRE-ORDER THE HARDCOVER TRIO TODAY
What the world is craving isn’t more. What the world is craving is what’s real.
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…
Looking for multiple copies? Send us an email and we’ll provide the best options for your needs.
“A generational call to arms that will be seen as a literary pivot point, 10 years from now.”
Todd A. Uterstaedt
“Gave me goosebumps and moved me to tears. More than a business strategy, it’s a deeply human reminder of what truly matters.”
Mercedes von Noorden
“An essential handbook for finding meaning and purpose in an age of AI.”
Dave Donoghue
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
Plus Two Companion Guides Included in the Back of the Book
RETURN TO REAL RESOURCE #1
Practices Guide: 30+ Ways to Start Now
The book gives you the why. This guide gives you the how, with 30+ concrete practices, organized around the Three Return to Real Shifts. Each shift is split two ways: how to realign your life, and how to redesign your work. Practical life strategies on one side. Tactical business moves on the other.
RETURN TO REAL RESOURCE #2
Reflections Guide: 30+ Questions to Ask
When you change your questions, you can change your life. This guide includes 30+ questions drawn from the book, starting with four universal ones. The guide takes you chapter by chapter, and is organized for individuals, for families, for book clubs, and for teams — designed to create big breakthroughs in your business and your life.
EXCLUSIVELY AVAILABLE HERE ON THIS PAGE | NOT SOLD ON AMAZON OR IN STORES
Special First Edition Hand-Illustrated Hardcover
RETURN TO REAL • LIMITED FIRST EDITION HARDCOVER
Yours With the Hardcover Trio Below
Choose the Hardcover Trio below and you get a limited first edition hardcover copy of Return to Real.
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Every diagram inside was drawn by hand by the author. The Edge Effect. The Three Colliding Forces. The Great Bifurcation.
Bulk copies are for giving away and sharing with your friends, family, team, and customers. This limited edition hardcover is for your personal library, and it isn’t available in stores or anywhere else.
*Hardcover ships late October / early November.
LIVE ON LAUNCH DAY · SEPTEMBER 29, 2026
Get Access to the Category of One, Workshop the Day the Book Comes Out
The Category of One training is included with every bundle.
Category of One Special Live Training + Recordings
$200 Value
RETURN TO REAL • INCLUDED W/ SINGLE COPIES BELOW
NEW! Define Your Category of One
For the first time ever, I’ll be teaching my newly updated, refined framework, live. This is the same process I take private clients through at $5,000 a session. Live on September 29, with the recording included. ($200 Value)
SINGLE COPY BUNDLES NOW AVAILABLE
Choose Your Single Copy Bundle
Hardcover Trio ships anywhere in the US Free. Digital Duo is available worldwide.
Looking for Multiple Copies? Send us an email and we’ll provide the best option for your needs.
FAQs
The Hardcover Trio is the physical bundle. You get the Hardcover limited edition, plus early access to the digital ebook and the audiobook, plus the Category of One workshop bonus. $49.99 with free US shipping. Because it includes a physical book, it ships to US addresses only.
The Digital Duo is everything except the physical book. Early access to the ebook and the audiobook, plus the same Category of One workshop bonus. $29.99, and because there's nothing to ship, it's available worldwide.
If you're in the US and you want the first edition hardcover on your shelf, take the Trio. If you're outside the US, or you'd rather read and listen than own the object, take the Duo.
With the Hardcover Trio, four things:
First, your own Hardcover Limited Edition copy for your personal library, which ships late October / early November.
Second, personal early access to the ebook and the audiobook, well ahead of the wider release.
Third, your seat at the live Category of One workshop on launch day, September 29, along with the recording.
Fourth, FREE shipping anywhere in the United States.
With the Digital Duo, you get the ebook, the audiobook, and the Category of One workshop with the recording, available anywhere in the world.
This is the copy of the book you want to keep for your own personal library.
Every diagram inside was drawn by hand: the Edge Effect, the Three Colliding Forces, the Great Bifurcation.
It's a live training on launch day, September 29, and it comes with both bundles on this page.
For the first time ever, I'll be teaching my newly updated, refined framework, live. This is the same process I take private clients through at $5,000 a session. Live on September 29, with the recording included. ($200 Value)
The framework answers the three most important questions in your prospect's mind: Why now? Why this? Why you?
The workshop is recorded, and the recording comes with your bundle either way.
Come live if you can, though. I'll be taking questions, and the room shapes where the session goes.
Tuesday, September 29, on Zoom. I'll send the time, the link, and a calendar hold as we get closer. Everything goes to the email address you use at checkout.
The Digital Duo, and it's available worldwide with no US address needed. You get the ebook, the audiobook, and the live Category of One workshop with the recording.
The Hardcover can only ship to US addresses at the moment. If you'd still like a physical copy, one option is to have it shipped to a friend, a colleague, or a forwarding address in the States. Just send us an email at billing@rlassociatesllc.com and we'll help you work it out.
Three reasons.
The Hardcover is available only through this page. Hardcover will NOT be on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or anywhere else. When you pre-order here, you'll be holding something that is truly special and rare.
You get the ebook and the audiobook early, well ahead of the wider release.
And you get the Category of One workshop on launch day ($200 Value), which isn't available anywhere else at any price.
The book comes out on September 29th on Amazon. We will only have paperback, ebook, and audiobook versions available on Amazon. Hardcover will not be on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or anywhere else, and it will not include all the bonuses you see here on this page.
Yes. Send us an email at billing@rlassociatesllc.com  and we'll put together the best option for what you need, whether that's a handful of copies for your team or a few hundred for your audience.
Those were limited-time offers that ran over the last two weeks, and they've now come down.
If a multi-copy order is what you're after, send us an email at billing@rlassociatesllc.com and we'll take care of you directly.
Yes. Everyone who has pre-ordered in any phase of this launch is in. You don't need to do anything, and I'll email you the details along with everyone else.
I always take care of my early adopters :-)
That one was part of the micro-bundle offer for orders of at least 5 copies or more that closed last weekend, and it isn't included with the bundles on this page. If you wanted to get access to that bonus and missed the 5 copy bundle, send us an email at billing@rlassociatesllc.com and we’ll see what we can do to get you in.
Your limited first edition hardcover ships late October / early November.
You get these before everyone else.
I'm aiming to have both files with you within the next few weeks, well before the wider public release, so you can start reading and listening before anyone else and before your physical book begins shipping. We'll email you the moment they're ready.
Physical copies are considered final sale. Unless your books arrive damaged or defective, we aren't able to offer returns or refunds once they've been delivered as ordered.
All digital assets, including the ebook, audiobook, and any bonus modules, are non-refundable once purchased. Because these are delivered electronically, they are final sale except where law specifically requires otherwise.
Choose the bundle that's right for you on this page and place your order. That's it.
Everything after that, when your book ships, when the workshop happens, we'll handle together over the coming weeks. There's nothing else you need to do today.
If you have any questions that are not answered on this page, shoot us an email at billing@rlassociatesllc.com and we'll do our absolute best.
Return to Real is a project I've worked on for the last 2+ years, and I've put my blood, sweat, and tears into this work. I'm genuinely looking forward to getting this book in your hands. Thank you for being a supporter of this work!
