Ryan Wegenast
Founder of Golden - A Soul Creation Studio for Leaders & Creators
Nashville, TN
thegolden.studio
instagram @ryanwegenast
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Q What do you do?
“Specifically, at Golden, we work closely with leaders and creators of many sorts helping them produce their best work and life.”
We do this primarily in three phases. First, by helping them navigate, understand, and transform the deeper parts of themselves - bringing their soul's fullest expression forward. Second, by learning to access higher perspective, energy, ease, effort, and creativity. Lastly, we weave this all together into expanding their current work or bringing to life new ideas, innovations, and business growth. We are quite versatile at Golden. We’ve worked with British award-winning designers, Hollywood producers & actors, and Web3 founders, to name a few. We facilitate through private one-to-one work, group and team retreats, creative consulting, and, lastly, psychedelic ceremonial experiences for those looking for a more mystical experience to their evolution as a leader/creator.
Q What steps did you take to get to where you are now?
Ha! How much time do you have? I have over 10,000(hrs) of physical steps and over 10,000(hrs) of non-physical steps that have gotten me to where I am today. Starting with my time in the military special forces, becoming a surgical PA, ditching it all, and traveling the world to work with indigenous healers and insanely talented artists and creators, then my MBA in business ideation and my Ph.D. in Eastern Wisdom / Western Psychology. All these physical steps are great, don’t get me wrong, but I’m where I am now mostly because of my 10,000 non-physical steps. All the moments along my path where I’ve had to learn to trust myself, soften the resistance in my heart and mind, and develop my ability to see beyond the chaos. Sitting, listening, and learning from nature on what it truly means to be a creator and balancing my family life amidst all this.
Q How do you stand out in your field?
I think I stand more “In” than I do “out.” I see standing out as a projection of I’m here - you are there. Paradigms of separation bore me, and it’s not how we move our world forward. I would say if you asked those I work with why they work with me - they’d point out three things. 1. My unique ability to see what others can’t see inside the whole human experience and collapse the time/space between the parts of yourself that feel fear and freedom. 2. The in-person wisdom immersions/retreats that we create and facilitate are out of this world; the magic we put into helping leaders and creatives heal, evolve, create, and expand their work is something like - Harvard meets Hogwarts 🙂 3. There’s a fine wine, nothing by force, energy to the way I do business and lead my life. I think that’s refreshing for those in industries like entertainment, startups, and busy agencies.
Q What are you working on right now?
A few things that are exciting to me right now are, I’m creating my first physical product called The Journey Box. A super well-done, refined box with a guidebook, golden egg, and seven maps of the self inside. It’s a self-guided experience for individuals that desire to transform the deeper parts of themselves. This is an expression of my life's work weaving together spirituality, psychology, and art all together.
The next thing that excites me is my wisdom immersion, and it’s a five-hour experience in a large white endless studio where we guide six individuals at a time through many layers of self, soul, and creative expression. Imagine a theater production meets projection mapping meets a sacred ceremony. Once again, I believe creative leaders heal, evolve, learn, lead and create differently from others. So these experiences are heavy on senses, drawing out the parts of your self, engaging in modalities to really help you transform the way you move through life.
Q What’s your style?
Style - Es Devlins work:
Perspective - My Own. Your own is the only one you get to experience. I’ve had many teachers on how to perceive: Hafiz, the poet, and Richard Rudd, creator of the gene keys, have been anchors for me.
Taste - anything unique in their expression. Especially if nature and elements are involved, that will always attract me.
Q Out of all your slashies, which one do you wish you could do more often?
If I had my way - which I do, so I guess I should double down and trust myself. I’d love to create a wisdom immersion tour. Focus on that, go from city to city, facilitating my foundational six-person experience in different venues for different types of creators and leaders. Or work on securing resources to scale it to a 3-day experience in a castle for like 20 leaders/creators. Something in this project wants to scale with focus, still feeling it out.
Q What is frustrating you right now?
Any task that doesn’t excite me keeps me frustrated and moving in circles. I’m a Generator in Human Design, so if I’m not doing something exciting - I’m not fun to be around - Ha!
Q If you could hire someone for $20/hour, what would you have them do to make your day easier?
Help manage my three daughters - school, activities… I don’t want someone to replace me; I love parenting. Just someone to ease the space between.
Q What do you wish you could have told yourself, when, and why?
I would travel back to my 20-year-old self because he felt like he had so much to offer the world but didn’t have any guidance and often felt like he was wandering - I’d tell him everything is going to be ok, you are exactly where you need to be. But here are a few things you want to know to create a life of ease and fulfillment: 1. You may not understand this yet, but you will in time - Life isn’t hard. Don’t buy into the outside noise; relax to your fullest expression. 2. You won't believe what you believe now in 10 years, so skip the need to believe and start learning to trust yourself with what to do next; travel, explore, follow that impulse, oh and put $300 a month into savings, you’ll have a million at 40. 3. You don’t recreate around you what you say - you recreate around you how you feel - study that, embrace that, live that.
Q If you could talk to an expert to gain more insight on something, what would it be about?
Since I have three daughters and didn’t grow up in a wealthy home, I’d love to sit down with an expert in family wealth creation and learn all the ins and outs of how to create, organize, and structure a legacy of wealth that I can pass on to my children.
Q What kind of opportunities/projects are you looking for?
There has to be a connection beyond the transaction.
This is more than business; we are creating a new way for our world and society to move through life. The transition the world is in, a Renaissance 2.0 - I want to work with others who see this and want to be part of something truly magical. It’s less about the project and more about the alignment between me and my client/collaborators - I learned that from Es Devlin. Opportunities that feel good are working with leaders & creators who are at a threshold, turning point, or transition in their life and work and truly desire to lead themselves in a new way. Teams and Groups who value taking time away from the office to experience higher states of connection and creativity, creative projects that require outside energy and perspective, and those who want to explore the edges of themselves in an authentic and safe ceremonial environment.
Q Describe your ideal job/client/collaboration.
Golden has a rich history of working with Designers, Producers, Actors, Web 3 Innovators, Fortune Leaders, Ivy League Schools, Artists, Creative Agencies, and Private Equity Firms. So our ideal client is someone creating, building, and leading with the resources to invest in themselves and or their business venture.
Q What is your rate?
Our services range from $7,000 - $250,000, depending on what you are looking to create. We’ve had large companies want us to facilitate week-long retreats for 50 people, while high-level creative leaders have wanted more deep dive private 1:1 work.
Q How should someone approach you about working together?
1. The best way is to send an email to ryan@ryanwegenast.com
2. Communicate what part of Golden has caught your attention.
3. The Golden world works off radical honesty - so tell me where you are really at on your journey as a leader/creator and what you really want - if you don’t know, we can help.
4. Get creative - send me a poem or piece of artwork that inspires you.
Q Who is a creative you admire?
Es Devlin: She’s taught me so much about space, design, living unapologetic, and refining your craft.
Q Oh! and… how do you stay creative?
Spend an absurd amount of time in Nature.
This member profile was originally published in January 2023.