“Throughout his career, Ryan has demonstrated a desire and ability to make things happen. He’s not the kind of guy who passively sits around and waits his turn, opting instead to take responsibility to change your organization for the better. His intellectual horsepower, combined with strong customer empathy, enables him to manage complexity and synthesize opportunities faster than most business strategists I’ve worked with. With an ever-increasing breadth of marketing knowledge, and the ability to effectively communicate and convey ideas and strategy, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Ryan to any business leader in need of a hungry and unrelenting marketing strategist.“
— Lewis Howes, Entrepreneur at LewisHowes.com
“From day 1 it was clear that Ryan’s marketing toolbox was robust and that he had sound foundational knowledge of Business Development. He wasted no time showcasing that he was a standout strategic planner and analytical thinker that used data driven insights, combined with a breadth of business experience, to make decisive and informed decisions designed to drive measurable return on investment.
With a keen emphasis on customer-centric approach, Ryan leveraged his gifted storytelling ability to provide a consistent experience across all marketing channels. This was especially evidenced by his achievement leading our initial (successful) Kickstarter campaign and BSX Insight product launch.
Most notably, Ryan was one of the more collaborative leaders I’ve worked with. He worked hard to understand each vertical and silo – from engineering to web development. In addition to his willingness to learn from others, he also spent lots of time educating and mentoring other colleagues and empowering all of us to be our best selves.
He was curious, agile, innovative, detail driven and one of the most hardworking and accountable people I’ve encountered. It goes without saying he was a positive influence on our culture and that working alongside him amplified my own skills and responsibilities.“
— Bryan Kraham, Director of Corporate Partnerships at Circuit of The Americas
(Colleague at BSX Athletics)
“To say that Ryan is a hard worker would be an understatement. His drive and ability to grow a company through strategic integrated marketing and brand messaging in unparalleled.
Ryan’s business acumen and vast marketing experience allow him to provide the entire enterprise, from entry level to executive, with innovative concepts while always keeping the big picture in mind. His communication ability and teaching style made him the perfect leader to help less experienced team members understand even the most complex items.”
— Geoff Lancaster, Principal Architect, DevOps and Developer Experience at Ping Identity
(Colleague at BSX Athletics)
“Ryan is the rare blend of a strategist who enjoys rolling up his sleeves and executing. He has a keen understanding of how to apply proven social sciences to drive community development. He is able to proactively increase engagement and retention that positively impacts the bottom line. His intellectual bandwidth for the fast-paced, constantly evolving, digital landscape puts him in unique company, but it is his passion and unbridled enthusiasm for helping people that make him a pleasure to work with. He is a conduit that effortlessly connects others. His appetite for knowledge and continued education is contagious.“
— Sean Malarkey, President of Inspired Marketing
“Ryan is the complete package when it comes to social media. He understands the big picture, best practices and the tiniest of details of each technology.
Whenever I need a project completed, I feel completely confident is asking Ryan to step in. He’ll take the smallest piece of direction and run with it.
His skills are extremely versatile as well. He is great at the ideation portion of the process, while still being a follow-through individual. In my experience those that can create and execute are rare individuals.“
— Jake Rosen, Global Head of Insights & Analytics, YouTube Marketing
(Managed Ryan at Sports Media Challenge)
“Ryan’s ability to take sustainable and successful theories and practices from business/marketing and apply social media is unique in the current online consulting arena. While many are content to sound off on the latest programs and networking tools available, Ryan takes the time to not only investigate their technology and “workings” but more importantly the utilization behind them and how they will individually work for your business.
Ryan’s primary motivation in consulting and social media is not just in creating a bull horn for your business to annoy and “turn off” consumers. Instead it focuses on the importance of relationships in marketing and attracting loyal and devoted clients through authentic relationships and pure “good business.” This is a rare practice amongst many social media consultants.
Any business who prides themselves on a good public image and the importance of the clients to their business model would find themselves at an advantage to hire Ryan to help them with the marketing plans.“
— Elisa Doucette, Writer/Editor at ElisaDoucette.com
“Ryan has such a hunger to learn and he is someone that you can always count on to get the job done, and do it beyond your expectations. This drive and work ethic has the ability to inspire and invigorate those working around Ryan in an almost infectious manner.
Ryan has an advanced understanding of social media, but even more importantly, his strong background in traditional marketing helps him view the social media tools and practices from the “big picture” point of view. Ryan also has a knack for explaining complex ideas in a very clear fashion, as is evident on his blog.
Ultimately, Ryan would be a tremendous asset for any organization and I would be honored to work with him again in the future.“
— Jackie Adkins, Account Executive at GMR Marketing
(Colleague at Sports Media Challenge)
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“I worked with Ryan closely in a Marketing Team for Gallery Furniture. He has an impressive work ethic and has a lot of fresh ideas. He has a very positive attitude and isn’t afraid to voice his opinion on any matter.“
— Ian Cameron
“Two years ago, I did not have a Twitter account, and I laughed at people on Facebook. “Complete waste of time,” I said. After working with Ryan (while he was at Sports Media Challenge), he changed my view of social media, and showed me how I can integrate SM into my work — particularly for marketing and PR — while adding new skill sets to my repertoire. Ryan made me a believer. Great guy, too, and miss working with him.“
— Mark Wright
“Ryan is passionate about marketing and more importantly about building business relationships. With regular articles and videos Ryan talks about how and why building those relations and conversations will help your business.“
— Jared O’Toole (30 Up and Coming Blogs Every Entrepreneur Should Know)
“Ryan Stephens is the ultimate relationship guy. He is incredible at leveraging social media to start conversations, build relationships and spread ideas. In its truest form, social media is all about being social and forging bonds with human beings, not the cool new technologies. Ryan will show you the why and how of REAL social media marketing.“
— Brenton Geiser (Top 30 Young Entrepreneur Blogs of 2009)
“I can’t leave out the man who inspired this post in the first place, can I? Ryan Stephens is great at what he does – he writes about marketing for both individuals and businesses, and usually infuses sports into the topic at hand. You can see his passion for marketing and PR in everything he writes – and has established himself as one of the primary thought leaders within the Gen-Y community. He is spot on in his belief of relationship marketing, and preaches the mantra of successful business being foundationed in the forging and nurturing of relationships.“
— Matt Cheuvront (13 Generation Y Rockstars)
“Stephens is a huge advocate for relationship marketing, and he loves to incorporate sports and sports theory into a lot of his marketing advice. His blog is fun, interesting, and always ahead of the curve.“
— Lizzie Gilbert (14 Generation Y Blogs That Do NOT Mess Around)
“Ryan is young but knows his stuff. He words as a media analyst for sports media challenge while running his own business, Ryan Stephens Marketing, on the side. More than anything else, Ryan makes a point to make each article original, thought provoking and open to conversation. Where many social media blogs seem to merely regurgitate the big names and blogs, Ryan brings a fresh, new voice to the arena.“
— Trace Cohen (10 Thought Leaders of Our Generation)
“I think the biggest thing I can say about Ryan is that he instantly sees things for what they are. He doesn’t get distracted by the superfluous and focuses on what will actually help your company grow. When Ryan began consulting with my company, he instantly knew of connections he had who could help me, and they already are. Ryan isn’t the kind of consultant that tells you what to do, but instead, helps you find out what would be the best for you and your company. The feeling of confidence you get from that has been, at least for me, incredible.“
— Brian Manning, Owner of 360 Sports Software — May 15, 2009
“Ryan Stephens has been a great mentor and friend. I have been following his work for quite some time now. I was impressed by his internship with Squidoo understanding how hard of an internship that is to obtain. I reached out to him and he truly understands Relationship Marketing. I am continually enlightened by his fresh and innovative perspectives expressed on his blog at ryanstephensmarketing.com. I have experienced tremendous results with Cellucor.com through Social Media Marketing, and I must say thanks to Ryan for helping me along the way.“
— Kevin Dalaeli, Marketing Director of Cellucor – April 30, 2009
“Many thanks to you, Ryan, for getting me started on Twitter! You had many great suggestions for us that got us off to a quick start. Now that we know what this Twitter thing is all about, we can use it as a nice marketing tool for sharing my music with many creative, professional people!“
— Tess Henley, Musician TessHenley.com
“Ryan has provided valuable insight into the direction I need to take with my entrepreneurial endeavors. He as gone far beyond what was expected of him. He has worked tirelessly to provide budding business people like me with the marketing and relationship building information and guidance needed for success.“
— Alan Hammond
“I just wanted to drop you a note and let you know that after implementing your suggestions, my website traffic and membership enrollments have more than doubled. The process you suggested for handling the combination of marketing and product development has simplified my daily routine to the point where I now feel like I am in charge of my future and no longer just spinning my wheels.“
— Kirk Ward, Instant Practice Builder
“Ryan is definitely not your average marketing consultant. After his guest post on my blog he inspired a great conversation among my subscribers regarding brand building. In just one short post he was able to make a point and give us actionable steps to take in our pursuit of “brand nirvana.” He is welcome back as a guest blogger anytime!“
— Daniel Martin, Mad Mortgage World
“Ryan is a uniquely insightful marketer and a great writer. I had the pleasure of working with him during the summer (2008) when we were both interns for Seth Godin. Ryan’s project designs, personal work ethic, and depth of knowledge inspired and challenged me to new levels. I know I’ll be seeing his name appear in publication soon, since he’s sure to make his mark on the marketing world.“
— Bert Hart Bert Thinks Thoughts
“Ryan was an incredible addition to the team of Interns working for Seth and Squidoo. He always put in the extra effort (even when it meant staying up all hours of the night to finish work for us, which he was doing for free on top of another full time job) and was one of the top 5 most successful interns in a group of over 100 students. I worked with Ryan directly to build a list of Top 10 Gen Y Blogs and he was punctual and effective on this project. He is amazing professionally, but also just a genuine guy and truly a pleasure to work with.“
— Jess Neil, Fellow Squidoo Intern Summer ’08