The Power of Persistence and Communication in Sports and Life

Tim Newman [00:00:09]:
Welcome to Speaking with Confidence, a podcast that’s here to help you unlock the power of effective public speaking. I’m your host, Tim Newman, and I’m excited to take you on a journey to become a better public speaker. Our next guest, Ryan Pederson, is the vice president of positive athlete program, an all encompassing recognition and development program focused on encouraging young athletes to find their own value outside of their athletic ability to affect the world around them positively. For the past 10 years, he and his father, Scott, have grown and developed this program, which has accepted over 60,000 nominations for high character, high school student athletes and given away over $550,000 in college scholarships. Brian, welcome to the show, bud.

Ryan Pederson [00:00:51]:
Thank you. Super excited to be here.

Tim Newman [00:00:53]:
Yeah. So so you and I have been we’ve known each other for a while. We we’ve worked together. And I’m so happy that that you’re here because you and your dad are doing really good things in the community. You know, you’re you’re you’re you’re based right here in in Atlanta. You do do some stuff in Western Pennsylvania, and, you know, we’ll we’ll get to that. But but, you know, you’ve been doing this for 10 years with your dad. And 1st and foremost, must be great to be able to work with your dad on something that you’re both so passionate passionate about.

Tim Newman [00:01:24]:
And second, can can you tell us how the whole idea of Positive Athlete came about?

Ryan Pederson [00:01:29]:
Yeah. That’s a great question. Well, you’re right. It is, it’s a blessing that every day I get to come to work with with my dad. It’s kind of, it’s been a dream, that I didn’t really know that I had. I kind of started out with a thought that I wanted to go forge my own path and then when I got done with, grad school at the University of South Carolina, I knew he was starting something new and he kind of made the offer to say, hey, you know, if you want you can come work with me for a couple years and, you know, help me build this thing and if it works then great, if not go do something different. And, so back in 2014 I got done with grad school and I said okay, you know, I’ll take you up on that offer and so I moved in back at back in their new house, here in Atlanta and, been working ever since with with him. The way Positive Athlete got started was, my dad is a long has had a long career in sport management, sport marketing, has owned his own sport marketing company, and, around that time, he kind of had this idea to do, something that really just made a big impact, in the world.

Ryan Pederson [00:02:36]:
And, if you think back to that time in the world of sports, a lot of really challenging stories had come out about athletes around that time. There was, stories of dog fighting and domestic abuse and those types of things and, and, he had just gotten done, a few years earlier working on all the PR and marketing for the for Nike’s Livestrong campaign. And what he kinda saw during that campaign was that, oh, people really do like to talk about positive things and and and, you know, a 100000000 wristbands later, obviously, people loved what Nike put out with Livestrong and talking about either somebody that had fought cancer and and succumbed to it or somebody that overcame it. And so he kind of took that, I guess you could say, that that, feeling of, hey. Like, let’s celebrate the good things that people are doing and and all that kind of thing. And he started with Hines Ward a program up in Pittsburgh, where he wanted to invite all the all the most positive high school athletes down to the city of of Pittsburgh, now down Pittsburgh, and tell stories of kids that were either overcoming difficult circumstances or giving back to their schools or communities in a unique way, or maybe just kids that had an awesome attitude that a coach said, hey, this kid may not be the best player on my team, but, man, if we lost him, then we’d lose, you know, our entire culture on our team. These are the types of kids that we want leading our schools and, that we wanna be putting out into the community as a representative of who our team is. And so started that up in Pittsburgh and very quickly realized that the corporate community loved it and the schools loved it.

Ryan Pederson [00:04:11]:
And so, him and Heinz had a real, conversation about saying, hey, well, we’re we’re running this program from 500 miles away in Atlanta. Why are we not doing this in Georgia too? And so very quickly, the Georgia program was hatched, and that’s kinda where I came in, to be able to start things in Georgia. And so now our program, just in Georgia, which is kind of our model program, has about 450 high schools every year involved in it, which is about 80% of the market, sending us in the neighborhood of 6 to 7000 nominations every year, which is, a crazy number of kids that are doing amazing things. And not all of them have unbelievable stories, but so many of them do. And so every day I get to go to work and read stories about kids that are I mean, I remember one of the kids last year that we had won our baseball award, was a kid that had was born with one hand, his his arm on his other arm, stopped basically right below the wrist, and he had just signed to play junior college baseball, playing in the field as a one handed baseball player. And so, you know, we just we see those types of stories all the time, kids that are overcoming stuff, kids that are using crazy circumstances to give back, and so it’s super, super, fun to be able to go to work every day recognizing those kids. But it also, as we always kind of talk about, it also kind of makes you think, well, what was I doing in high school? School? These kids are all super inspiring. What what was I doing when I was, you know, a 16, 17 year old, you know, high school athlete? So, so that’s what I get to do every day and, and so we have the corporate community involved.

Ryan Pederson [00:05:46]:
They sponsor a lot of different awards and give away scholarships, corporate community involved. They sponsor a lot of different awards and give away scholarships, and it’s been super successful. We’ve got some cool plans in the future, hopefully at some point to take this to a national level. But what was cool is is that we saw during COVID that it was COVID proof because even though kids weren’t playing on the field, all the coaches in schools were like, hey, please don’t take away this program. This is, like, the only thing we have to be able to celebrate in the world of athletics around our schools. So, it’s fun. It’s super rewarding, to be able to do that, and, I can’t imagine doing anything else right now.

Tim Newman [00:06:23]:
Yeah. And and again, you guys are doing such good work. And one of the things you said when you first opened was, you know, you talk about culture, you know, of a of a team, of of an organization, and and so much of that, I I think, gets lost. You again, you you and I have talked about personal relationships and and how they have to be developed and and and said and grown. They don’t just happen. And when you when you talk about culture, especially with with young kids and young professionals today, trying to get them to understand how important relationships and organizational culture is is sometimes a challenge.

Ryan Pederson [00:07:00]:
It is a challenge, because everything is, a lot of relationships are formed and sustained via technology now but the reality is is that, so much of our business world, so much of our, you know, romantic relationships, friendships, all that kind of stuff, If you took all the tech away, we’d still have person to person contact and, at the end of the day, you know, people like doing business with people that they enjoy being around, people like, forming relationships, obviously, with people that they enjoy being around and people that are intentional to invest into their relationship. And so, one of the things that we continue to try to push and have tried to find ways to be able to help better kids is saying, okay, it’s great that you have, you know, you have all these things that you do like playing sports and all that kind of stuff, but what is your value to society outside of playing sports? You’ve been gifted in a way but every every kid’s, you know, career, sporting career comes to an end at some point. And so what are you doing after that? And so, what we try to do is just help them understand, hey, you have a value to not only your your circle, but your your community and everything outside of what you do as as an athlete. And whether you stop playing sports at 18 or 35, at some point, you’re gonna have to be a a productive member of society. So it’s super important for you to be able to formulate relationships, sustain relationships, care about one another, because at at the end of the day, you know, your playing career is gonna be over at some point. So make sure that the people that are around you understand, you know, what you mean to them, what they mean to you. And as you develop your personal kind of network, you’re gonna end up be way more successful. You’re gonna have way more people that are willing to to do things for you.

Ryan Pederson [00:08:54]:
You’re gonna have people that are willing to recommend you for things.

Tim Newman [00:08:57]:
Mhmm.

Ryan Pederson [00:08:58]:
And so helping people understand that from an early age is is really important because, that’s how the world works. Right?

Tim Newman [00:09:05]:
Exactly.

Ryan Pederson [00:09:06]:
So, you take all the technology and all that kind of stuff away, being able to talk to somebody is a super valuable thing.

Tim Newman [00:09:13]:
Right. And, you know, we we talk about it all the time. You know, it it’s always about the relationships. It doesn’t matter what industry you get into. It’s it’s always about that that individual relationship that you have with with other people. Again, personal, professional, romantic, what have you, if if you’re not working on that and and building that relationship, it it it it’s gonna die.

Ryan Pederson [00:09:36]:
No doubt. No doubt.

Tim Newman [00:09:39]:
So so let let let’s let’s talk about you for a second here. You know, you you went k. You’re you’re from Atlanta. You went to South Carolina for school and grad school. Did did you ever have any, fear of public speaking or were picking up the phone and doing cold calling, you know, a prospective client?

Ryan Pederson [00:09:54]:
Yeah. I think there’s always a tension. I don’t think anybody really loves cold calling when they start. Right? I mean, that’s just it’s a challenging thing to do, especially calling somebody you’ve never talked to before, especially if you’re trying to sell them something. Really challenging to be able to do that. And so, I think there’s always a value, in in experiencing that in some form or fashion. I remember actually at Georgia State, I, for one summer, sold tickets to a football team that was 1 year into operation, and most of the 120,000, graduates in the metro area of Georgia State didn’t even still know that there was a football team. And so calling a lot of people to tell them, hey.

Ryan Pederson [00:10:37]:
Did you know that your university that you graduated from has a football team? And, yeah, we’d love for you to be able to come join us for a game. That was a challenging undertaking. So, yeah, that I think there’s always a tension when you start, doing that, but I wouldn’t say that I necessarily ever had a dream of of doing that from a cold calling perspective. But what I realized pretty early on was that I enjoy interacting with people. And it doesn’t matter what type of organization you work for or what you do, for work, you’re probably gonna interact with somebody. And if you’re not interacting at work, you’re interacting at home or you’re interacting in friendships and all that kind of stuff. And so, I remember early on my dad taught me, he just said, hey, look. Even as a kid, you’re gonna you know, as a 5 year old kid, you’re gonna learn how to talk to adults.

Ryan Pederson [00:11:23]:
Yes. And if you can learn how to talk to adults, adults will open doors for you that you never thought could be opened before. Mhmm. And if you’ll do this and if you will look a person in the eye and you’ll tell them how you are when they ask you how they are and you’ll ask them back, how are you? You you never understand what that’s gonna do for you long term. And so I’m glad that 5 year old Ryan took him up on that and said, okay. That’s something I’m gonna do because he’s tell he told me that’s important. And I can’t tell you how many people that I’ve met, even now in business that say, hey. I remember when your dad brought you along to a Christmas party or whatever, and you were 7 years old running around.

Ryan Pederson [00:12:01]:
But I just remember the first time I talked to you was I was blown away by the fact that you you spoke to me. And so, so I realized pretty quickly, hey, adults aren’t scary and other people aren’t scary. Everybody is a person. Everybody deals with problems. Everybody deals with successes and failures, and finding a way to connect with somebody is is super important early on as you’re formulating a relationship, but you’re never gonna be able to connect with somebody if you don’t ask them about themselves too. And so showing an interest in somebody is is super important. So, yeah, I got done with school, and, I my friends from grad school will all all still give me a lot of stick for it, but they’re like, you got done with grad school, and then you went home and worked for your dad. And, you know, I thought I wanted to work in college athletics.

Ryan Pederson [00:12:45]:
My my uncle, my dad’s brother was a, division 1 athletics director for many years, and my dad had a really successful, career and still is has a con sec a really successful career in the sports marketing world. I knew I wanted to do something like that. I didn’t know whether it was gonna be selling. I didn’t know what it was gonna be, and this role that I have now, facilitating relationships with schools and school systems, selling to sponsors, all that kind of stuff has kind of, just kind of grown with me over the course of time, but, but it’s been a cool ride to just kinda see all the little experiences I’ve had, growing up kind of resulting in where I’m at now.

Tim Newman [00:13:23]:
Yeah. Yeah. I I really like what your dad did to you as a 5 year old. That’s awesome. And so you’ve got you’ve got young kids now and and my, you know, my kids are now grown and and I’ve got I’ve got grandkids. And when my kids were young, I I told them, you know, if you have a problem in school with a teacher, don’t come to me about it. You need to go talk to your teacher. And this is in kindergarten, 1st grade, all the way up.

Tim Newman [00:13:46]:
And my wife said, you can’t do that to them. I said, I have to do that to them. They’ve gotta learn how to to to to, number 1, advocate for themselves and and talk to people that they may have a disagreement with.

Ryan Pederson [00:13:57]:
And I said Yeah. There’s no doubt. Well

Tim Newman [00:14:00]:
I said, if if after you’ve talked to them, if you still feel like you’re being treated fairly, then you can come to me and and I’ll I’ll step in. But but you have to you have to start figuring these things out for themselves. And and, you know, I I I see the difference. I’m not patting myself on the back here, but I I see the difference in my kids compared to their peers in terms of communicating because they’re they’re a lot more free and open with voicing their opinion and and and reaching out and talking to people.

Ryan Pederson [00:14:29]:
Yeah. No doubt. Well and and the the cool thing is is, yeah, being able to translate that similarly to my kids has been a really fun process to watch them kind of grow up and and formulate their own relationships both at church or at school or wherever that is. And I’m hoping it turns out the same way for them to be able to have success in whatever they want to end up doing, but the reality is, is that you’re going to be around we’re on this earth to affect, you know, other people and to positively affect other people. That’s what I believe. You know, our creator’s given us all the license to be able to go and form relationships. That’s why it gave us, you know, each other. And so, that’s what, that’s what hopefully I get to do every day, I try to do every day, and then instill into the next generation.

Ryan Pederson [00:15:14]:
And so when you called, you know, to to come speak on something like that, I jumped at the opportunity because any chance I get to be able to to encourage people in this way is is is really a a blessing. So, excited to be here today.

Tim Newman [00:15:29]:
Well, you you know, you you interact with a number of different types of people on a regular basis, and you and you could be jumping around, you know, when when you get off for this call, you you could go on and be talking to a high school coach and then hang up and go talk to somebody from from a brand. So, you know Mhmm. As I was thinking about this, you’ve got student athletes, brands, coaches, parents, athletic directors. You know, how do you navigate that? And and what are some examples of how you change the wording or terminology or focus, you know, of the message based on the audience that you’re actually talking with?

Ryan Pederson [00:16:04]:
It’s a great question. I’ll try to give examples kind of in each bucket, if you will. I’ll try to kinda, combine some of them. But, the the baseline thing that I’ll say is is that everybody that you’re talking to, either they either are somebody that you’re affecting by what you’re doing or somebody that you’re wanting them to affect you. Right? And so, no matter whether you’re in the sales position or the buyer position of whatever the conversation is, and it could be just, you know, a a normal conversation, but, but people people enjoy finding connection points. Whether they tell you it or not, they do. And so one of the things I always try to do when I talk to let’s we’ll take for for example a coach. If I’m going into a coach’s office, the first thing I start doing when I when I go into a coach’s office is I start looking around the office and I try to see, okay, what are the things that are important to them, right? In most offices, in a home office or something like that, you’ve got a picture of your kids or you’ve got, you know, a diploma or you’ve got a picture of, you know, these guys have oftentimes pictures of high school teams that they were a part of that did really well, and so I just start asking them about it.

Ryan Pederson [00:17:19]:
You know, in a way, you can ask them, tell me a little bit about yourself or you can say, oh, I see you went to Tennessee. You know, when were you there And what did you do when you were there? And, oh, how did you get to this point? And, it’s amazing how quickly walls will come down when you allow somebody to start talking about themselves because that’s almost everybody’s favorite thing to talk about is their experiences and, you know, and if somebody’s actually showing genuine interest in that, that will bring walls down immediately.

Tim Newman [00:17:46]:
Absolutely.

Ryan Pederson [00:17:47]:
Now thankfully, not every single situation I’m in is selling selling to somebody. But if I can even just take 2 or 3 things from that immediate conversation about what’s important to them or, you know, what they’ve surrounded themselves with, then that’s gonna help me find a connecting point of, oh, you have kids, so do I, or, oh, you went to Tennessee. I I went to an SCC school too. I remember when we played you guys this year. Or maybe it’s a a superintendent, and and they are their whole day is is, completely consumed with trying to make the best decisions possible for their for their school system and put their school system in the best light possible. I come in with a, hey. Look. We run a program that’s hopefully gonna provide you a ton of good publicity for your school or for your company or for whatever.

Ryan Pederson [00:18:34]:
And so trying to show them immediately that you have some value to them, whether that’s by connecting with them or showing how what you can do can help them, even before getting into a sales pitch or anything like that, I think that personal connection immediately helps. Oftentimes, I get contacted by parents and what I try to do immediately when I’m on the phone with a parent, I wouldn’t suggest to do this while you’re driving or anything like that because it’s happened to me sometimes while I’ve been driving, but, I try to look up the profile that we have on a kid and I try to figure out, oh, what is this kid interested in? And I start asking their parent, hey. I saw that your kid’s really involved in Habitat for Humanity. You know, why did they get involved in that? And there’s nothing a parent loves talking about more than their kid.

Tim Newman [00:19:14]:
Thank goodness.

Ryan Pederson [00:19:15]:
You know? And so, so what I try to do is is bring that initial wall down of even if there’s any other preconceived notions about me or who I am or what I’m trying to sell or whatever, getting somebody to talk about something that they love or themselves oftentimes puts somebody in a light of, okay, I’m in a I’m in a better mood talking to this person. And so that that’s something that you can do no matter what you’re doing is is is intentionally asking somebody about themselves, and you’ll find that if you go into a conversation like, you know, like a sales pitch or whatever, it actually puts you in a much more comfortable mood because, you know, you know what you’re going and asking about. You know what you’re going and trying to find a connection point with somebody. And, you know, the conversation’s already going. Right? If you go in armed with, I’m gonna ask them about themselves or what they’re interested in.

Tim Newman [00:20:02]:
Right. You know, it’s it’s so important, you know, knowing who you’re talking to. And and I and I really stress with, you know, with the with students, young professionals, how how important knowing your audience is and and doing just some some basic research on who they are before you talk to them can can go can can really be truly beneficial. Yeah. Let alone doing some doing a deep dive on somebody. You know, as as an example, you know, I tell students all the time to do do some informational interviews. You’ll find out, you know, you know, about different types of job positions. And when you go and you talk to these professionals, you shouldn’t be asking them where they went to school or, you know, how long they’ve been there.

Tim Newman [00:20:45]:
You should know these things and be able to talk about them, you know, so you can go in and and and ask really good solid questions and really good solid information from that informational interview.

Ryan Pederson [00:20:57]:
Yeah. No doubt. Well, a lot of times people don’t have a whole lot of time to talk to you. Right? And so being able to quickly gather information on somebody, it helps you kind of understand the perspective that they’re coming from. And even if you know the information, knowing that, hey, if there’s if if that’s if something like that is listed in a bio that’s listed on a company website, it’s probably important to them. And so even being able to ask them about something that’s important to them is gonna help you in that conversation, understand how they work, understand if that’s important to them or not, understand if there’s another connection point that’s available to you, all of that’s just just, you know, gravy in terms of being able to put yourself in the best possible situation to either get what you want out of the conversation or just listen. Right? You know, being able to

Tim Newman [00:21:42]:
I can’t

Ryan Pederson [00:21:43]:
tell you how many times I’ve yeah. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve I’ve learned more about the industry by just listening to somebody talk about how they got to where they’re at. You never really understand, the industry until you hear how people get to the positions that they’re in or whatever industry you’re in, that’s gonna help you learn way more about your path forward or, you know, who you’re looking to hire or whatever.

Tim Newman [00:22:08]:
Right. And and listening to any conversation is is not only so important, but also forgotten about. Because, you know, like you said, peep people wanna talk about themselves. And a lot of times when they’re in a conversation, all they wanna do is wait until that person’s done talking so that they can talk about themselves. But if you take some time and and actually listen to what they’re saying, it’s gonna change the whole conversation.

Ryan Pederson [00:22:34]:
No doubt. I think that’s, that’s such a a wise a wise piece of information to continue to share. Listening is is a forgotten art oftentimes. I I was joking, in a meeting I was just in recently, it’s better to be a seagull, in an interview than a dog barking on the beach. The seagull sees everything. He just kinda soars up there and up observes. Right? And then when it’s time to go down and grab the sandwich or whatever that they are trying to do, they know the perfect time to do it because they’ve been observing for a long time. But the dog on the beach is just barking and, you know, waiting for the next word to be able to to say.

Ryan Pederson [00:23:16]:
Right? And a seagull, even though people don’t like seagulls, they’re really smart because they just sit there and they hover and they watch and they observe and they take in information. And then that’s why oftentimes seagulls are very successful stealing stuff from people on the beach and all that kind of stuff but, we were laughing about that, my dad and I were, because my dad is certainly somebody that likes to talk a ton in meetings and when I’m in a meeting with him I’m often very reserved kind of just observing, understanding what’s going on. And then, that’s oftentimes when you can be most effective, as, as either a salesperson or a business person by just observing. Observing is a really, really important piece of things.

Tim Newman [00:23:55]:
And then and then when you do speak up, they know that it’s important.

Ryan Pederson [00:24:00]:
Correct. Yeah. It it makes what you say way more important because they understand, oh, this person isn’t just filling time or filling the void with sound. They’re actually meaningfully listening to what I’m saying and then connecting and finally being able to contribute to, you know, a productive conversation.

Tim Newman [00:24:16]:
Exactly. And so, you know, you you and I have talked about the importance of developing soft skills for years. Mhmm. And, you know, when when I talk about, you know, public speaking, it’s it’s not just being on the stage. It’s not giving a presentation. It could be a team meeting. It could be a phone call. It could be a networking event.

Tim Newman [00:24:36]:
It could be a 1 on 1 personal conversation. You’re in a position where you do a lot of hiring, whether it be interns or, may maybe first jobs for some people. And what are some key things that you’re looking for from a communication perspective? And what are some deal breakers for you?

Ryan Pederson [00:24:55]:
Yeah. That’s, I could go on for a long time about that. You know, one of the unfortunate pieces of the reality the via email or even just in person, because they just don’t that’s not their natural practice. Right? And, one thing that I think that people don’t realize is that if you’re sending so let’s just take the example of somebody interviewing for a job. You don’t know it yet, but the first email that you send to somebody about an interview is the first foray into your brain. Right? And so if the first thing that I see is misspelling I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had somebody misspell my name, my last name. It’s a different last name. It’s Pederson spelled differently than most other people.

Ryan Pederson [00:25:54]:
But if somebody writes mister Phenderson or they write Pederson with a t, I can see immediately there’s not a lot attention attention to detail. Right? And so that’s, like, the first thing that I think of. Okay. This person doesn’t have a ton of attention to detail. But in addition to that, if the first email you send to me is super informal, right, and it’s something that makes me it makes me sound like your best friend immediately, I’m gonna sit there and go, okay, if I was to put this person in front of a sponsor or a client or something like that, would I have the utmost confidence that they’re going to represent my organization well? Probably not, right? And so those things are things that are kind of deal breakers to me because I don’t care if you make a mistake. I don’t care if, you know, if if along the way you make mistakes, but if the mistake is in attention to detail or the mistake is in professionalism, those are things that that you can control just with preparation. Right? Those are things that you can control with rereading something or making sure somebody else puts eyes on it before sending it out. If the mistake is, hey, I made a bad decision or something like that, we can get through those things.

Ryan Pederson [00:27:07]:
Those things happen all the time. I make mistakes all the time. But there’s enough things out there. There’s chat GPT. There’s spell check. There’s all sorts of stuff out there that are aids to be able to make sure that you’re presenting yourself, especially in emails and and resumes and all that kind of stuff, that basically, if there’s a mistake there, that means that you haven’t prepared. And preparation is something that that I put the utmost importance on. Now on the other side of things, if somebody is super thoughtful and I can see has spent a lot of time on putting detail in, even if there’s not a lot there, I’m willing to hear from that person and and listen to them.

Ryan Pederson [00:27:48]:
Right? Because it may be that this person’s super inexperienced but looking for a first shot. Or it may be that, hey. They have a ton of experience, but it’s not in the area that they’re trying to get into. I’m still willing to have a conversation with that person because it may be that some of their life experiences outside of work contribute to a good hire or somebody that, you know, maybe just maybe doesn’t have any experience but can show me that they have the work ethic because maybe maybe they’ve been doing a job where I know that that job, they have to get up and they have to work 10, 11 hour days and, like, they’ve been doing it for a while and they’ve been successful at doing it. I’m gonna listen to that person because I want somebody that I know is gonna work hard. Right? So it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with whether you have experience or not. Maybe that ends up being the final thing that disqualifies you from getting a job. But if you’re able to professionally represent yourself, spell things correctly, you know, show people that, hey, I can function outside of your oversight, inside of your organization, then I have all the time in the world for people like that.

Ryan Pederson [00:28:53]:
But that’s something that you have to really prepare in doing and spend some time doing being intentional about it because, anybody can slap words onto a sheet. Anybody can text a, hey, you know, I’m on my way. But not everybody can write an email to a sponsor telling them, hey, we have, you know, met the deliverables or we have underperformed or we’ve overperformed and represent your, you know, your company in in the best light possible while doing it. So, so those are things that I look for immediately. And then, you know, conversationally, it’s, is this person comfortable talking to me? I’m I’m I feel like I’m a pretty approachable guy. Yeah. A lot of times, the people that I that I, interview are younger than me or the people that I interact with are younger than me or maybe in the same, you know, age range. I’m 33.

Ryan Pederson [00:29:42]:
If somebody can’t have a conversation with me and look me in the eye and tell me about themselves, then that oftentimes is is a a deal breaker for me too because, that’s your ballpark. Right? That’s that’s your that’s that’s your playground. Right? You know all those things. Now if I ask you a question you don’t know the answer to it, then that’s okay. But you know about yourself, so tell me about yourself. Right? You know, just like just like you would anybody else, you can tell me about yourself. And so if you struggle doing that, then that’s kind of a that’s a deal breaker for me because it’s one of those things where it’s like, okay, you’re not confident enough in what you’ve experienced, to be able to communicate it. So those things, you know, I don’t know that I don’t know that that’s something something sometimes people that comes really naturally to them.

Ryan Pederson [00:30:23]:
But even just being able to, you know, find somebody close to you and say, hey. Can I just practice telling my experiential story of what I’ve what I’ve done in the last 5 to 10 years? Being able to re repeat that and feel confident in what you’re saying is that’s so huge. That that you end up you end up clearing so many of the other people that are gonna be up for the whatever job you’re looking to try to get and all that kind of stuff if you can speak with some confidence. I know that’s a pun here with the, the name of the the podcast, but

Tim Newman [00:30:54]:
Well well, we’re talking about practice here. You hear me?

Ryan Pederson [00:30:57]:
And and No doubt.

Tim Newman [00:30:58]:
You know, I I I joke about it, but it’s it’s practice is so important. It’s the whole idea of the 10000 hours or 10000 repetitions of if you’re gonna do something that for that long, you’re going to get better at it. And if you don’t do things, you’re not gonna get better at it. And anything that you wanna be good at, you have to practice. It it’s just Correct. It you you have to practice. It doesn’t doesn’t come natural. I actually had a conversation, yesterday with a student.

Tim Newman [00:31:31]:
And we were talking about, you know, being confident and being a a a good public speaker. And he said to me, well, I I am. I said, may maybe you are. Maybe you think that you are. But if you don’t practice it, you’re not gonna get better because you’re not Steve Jobs. You’re not Tony Robbins. Right? And I’m not suggesting that you should be Steve Jobs or Tony Robinson, but, you know, when you when your job is going to be talking to people, because that’s gonna be everybody’s job. I don’t I don’t care what you get into.

Tim Newman [00:32:01]:
When your job is gonna be talking to people or interacting with people or communicating with people, you should be working on your craft and trying to get better at it.

Ryan Pederson [00:32:09]:
Yep. Well, a lot of that comes just with preparation. Right? Yeah. I I could tell you probably 5 years ago, I’d probably give a very similar speech to, superintendents and athletics directors than I do now, but I’m way better at it now because I’ve practiced it so many times. But even now, I like to hone and change things, you know, along the way to to make myself better. When I go to these superintendent meetings that I go to probably twice a month and talk to a roomful of people that are running school systems that have, you know, tens of 1,000,000 of dollars invested into a local community, being able to sit and listen to all the different things that these people talk about, you it starts it starts to kind of dawn on you what’s important to them. And so I’m sure that my my value proposition that I’m bringing to the table when I’m bringing, you know, the Positive Athlete Program to schools is different than 5 years ago because I’ve sat down and I’ve listened to what these people talk about, what they care about, right? But along the way I’ve had to practice, okay, how can I be as efficient as possible but show them I have value to what they, you know, what they’re trying to the end that they’re trying to get to, and quickly hit that so that they understand and they’re listening and engaging with what I’m saying? Right? But 5 years ago, I would have told you, yeah, I’m a really confident speaker. Right? But I’m way better now, I’m sure, and I will be way better now way better in 5 years than I am right now.

Ryan Pederson [00:33:43]:
And that’s just because of practice. You’re correct on that for sure.

Tim Newman [00:33:46]:
Right. And let let’s go back to, you know, the the hiring process. You talked about the the first thing that that somebody’s gonna send is an email, and that’s the the part of their brand. You know, when they send an email or they’re they send you the resume and then you talk with them, the the whole idea that the the written communication and the verbal communication has to match. Otherwise, they’re they’re you’re in conflict of who am I actually interacting with? Is it this this real piece or this this, you know, the in person piece? So you they’ve gotta find a way for for them to marry and match. So, like, for for me, and and you’ve known me for a while, I’m I’m way more way more informal. My writing is way more informal than so if I were to send you a very formal email or very formal letter, you would you would look at that and say, Tim, what what’s going on? What’s why why is there a disconnect here?

Ryan Pederson [00:34:46]:
Yeah. Yeah. I think that comes with with building a relationship. Right? You know, somebody that I’m meeting for the first time is gonna is gonna have a different I’m gonna have a different sponsor that we’ve had for 8 or 9 years, right? Right. You learn how you learn the comfortability with somebody over time of of how they operate and all that kind of stuff.

Tim Newman [00:34:59]:
Now there’s

Ryan Pederson [00:34:59]:
some people that we’ve had as sponsors for 8 to 10 years that are still very formal, and you better believe that when I send them something, it’s gonna be super buttoned up. Right? But coming into a communication as informal and you’ve never met somebody is like one of the first things that you can do to put yourself behind the 8 ball because if somebody’s gonna act like your best friend immediately, you’re like, well hold on a second, you don’t know anything about me, why are you know why are he why are you acting this way? But I think also there’s a tact to Tim, you know, being able to say, okay. Yeah. I have known you for a while, and so so speaking a speaking a certain way that’s that’s somewhat informal to you is is is natural, right, because we’ve had many conversations. But, you know, if I was gonna go if I’m trying to pitch somebody on a, you know, a multi year partnership or something like that, until I have that working relationship with them, which is probably years down the road, I’m not gonna come into their office and throw my feet up on their desk and say, oh, tell me what’s new. Right? Exactly. That’s a dangerous game to play. That’s a that’s a game that you’re gonna probably lose a sponsor on.

Tim Newman [00:36:15]:
Absolutely. Absolutely. And let’s talk about, you know, the written communication for a little bit too. Because so because, again, sometimes, you know, that kinda gets lost in the shuffle. With the number of different publics and constituents that you’re working with, how important is that whole aspect of written communication?

Ryan Pederson [00:36:37]:
I think, I think it’s changed over the years in a way. Because life moves so fast now, I think one of the things that I’ve had to change is just how how detailed I I am with when I’m sending out correspondence. A lot of times, people actually just kinda wanna in written communication, wanna hear the headline pretty early because they don’t read their entire email. Right?

Tim Newman [00:37:01]:
Right.

Ryan Pederson [00:37:02]:
And so, I think one of the things that that I have started to try to have to do just from a personal growth perspective is I love to be able to write out all the detail and all the facts and all that kind of stuff, but I started to realize, wow. People aren’t getting all of this information, and I can tell that they’re not getting all this information by the decisions that they’re making around the the information that I’m giving them. Right? Right. If they were reading everything, they would have made a different decision on something like this. So one of the things that that I’ve tried to kind of get better at is is, hey. You know, number 1, you gotta be professional, but number 2 is, hey. What’s the headline that you’re trying to trying to help make sure that they get? Right? So if you’re reporting to somebody, what’s the headline of, hey. We’re doing you know, we’re 80% of the way done on this project.

Ryan Pederson [00:37:49]:
Right? You wanna make sure that you get that out early on. Now if somebody wants more information about that, they’re gonna keep digging. Right? If they want more information about, okay. Yes. You’re 80% of the way done, but how have you gotten there? Or tell me more about these specific deliverables that you’re on? Or, you know, what are your plans to finish that final 20%. That can all kind of come right after that, but helping helping communicate if there’s a difference between communicating and communicating effectively. Right? Yes. I can write out a whole report for somebody and tell them everything that they want to know, but if they have to spend a ton of time getting to the headline of we’re 80% of the way there, then they’re gonna feel like, okay.

Ryan Pederson [00:38:30]:
I’m just confused with what’s going on. So I’ve tried to start elevating when I communicate with people the headline to the top and say, okay. This is where we’re at. This is what I’m trying to communicate. And And then if they want more information, I make sure that I provide all of that kind of stuff. But, as time has gone, it’s just something I’ve learned about people. It’s like they don’t people don’t read their full emails and all that kind of stuff. Now people will notice if you’re informal or whatever while you present this stuff, but, but if you’re trying to be an effective communicator, being able to get out at the top, hey.

Ryan Pederson [00:39:00]:
This is the valuable piece of information I’m trying to get to you, both in written and in spoken form, I think that’s super, super key because that’s gonna draw them into what you’re trying to talk about. If you’re trying to build up all this process of trying to report everything else, all the facts, all the different things that you put together and then get to the final piece, then you’re gonna lose people along the way because a lot of times people don’t care about that stuff. So, I’ve always kind of I’ve I’ve kind of seen, I should say, I don’t always, but I I I’ve seen over the course of time the effectiveness of, okay. Let’s present the information I know they want to know, and then if they want more, then I can give them more. Right? Right. But, but that would be kinda, I would say, the main way that I’ve kind of developed over the course of the last, I would say, 5 to 7 years. But then in terms of written, you’re right on it. It has to match kind of the way that you speak to people, but also it’s okay to default it’s okay to default to being professional.

Ryan Pederson [00:39:59]:
Right? Yes. What you don’t want is to default to being completely informal and then, you know, lose the lose somebody’s interest because they’re like, I don’t know why this guy’s talking to me this way. This is really strange. I don’t know them that well. So, that’s kind of the the way that I see myself, like, change over the course of time. I’ve seen a lot of other people change in that way. The effective communicators have really started kind of prioritizing information up top. And then again, most people, if they want more, they’ll dig more.

Ryan Pederson [00:40:30]:
Right? And they’ll they’ll be able to find out more, but we’re trying to get a ton of information to schools. We’re trying to get a ton of information to nominees and to sponsors and all that kind of stuff. And the hit rate in which people respond the way that I desire for them to respond has gone way up as as I’ve elevated the most important things to them. Because a lot of times, people really value their time, more than you value their time, and so they’re gonna they’re gonna look for the headline and then keep moving. Right?

Tim Newman [00:40:57]:
Exactly. Yeah.

Ryan Pederson [00:41:00]:
A

Tim Newman [00:41:01]:
friend of mine, Chris Fanning, he’s he’s got a book called The First Minute and another book called Effective Emails. And when he when he writes about ineffective emails is an effective email is 3 to 4 sentences. And if Yeah. If the reader wants more information, they’ll ask about the they’ll ask for that information. And, and that’s really the best way to to get the the message, you know, the message across. And to go along with that, when he talks about, you know, the the first minute, how the first 30 seconds of a conversation is so important. Because if you don’t get that right, if you don’t frame it perfectly, you spend the rest of the conversation trying to get back to to reframing it and and getting that information, you know, across to to whoever that is. Yes.

Tim Newman [00:41:47]:
So you you you nailed it. You nailed it.

Ryan Pederson [00:41:49]:
No doubt.

Tim Newman [00:41:51]:
So is Ryan Ryan, is there anything that we haven’t talked about that you think we we should have talked about?

Ryan Pederson [00:41:59]:
Man, that’s a great question. You know, I think that, I guess my my main not it’s not a soapbox, but it’s something that I kinda continue to see with young people is that they’re not confident when you talk to them or you communicate them or communicate with them, either written or or in person, and, my whole thing is is just and I think we’ve mentioned it a little bit is having confidence in what you’re saying and confidence comes from repetition and confident confidence comes from preparation. Yeah. I’ll relate it to sports. Right? You’re gonna feel way more confident stepping into the batter’s box against a guy that throws 90 miles an hour if you’ve taken a ton of batting practice with a pitching machine or somebody throwing to you hard from a shorter distance and all that kind of stuff because you put in the work. Right? And so you know the way you’re gonna feel when you step into the batter’s box. If that’s the first time if you’re stepping into the batter’s box and that’s the first time you’re seeing 90 miles an hour, you’re gonna be petrified. Right? Doesn’t matter what sport you’re talking about.

Ryan Pederson [00:43:08]:
You can relate it to any other sport. Right? And so a lot of us, a lot of people have either played sports or done performing arts or whatever and you see the natural progression of practice, right? That’s the beauty of that’s the beauty of athletics and activities when you’re growing up. You learn so many life lessons through those types of things. Practicing makes you better. Right? Doesn’t matter what it is. Even if it’s super incremental, it’s making you better. And if you can learn those disciplines early on of why that’s important and why putting time in is important, you’re gonna start seeing benefits at some point because you’ve seen, okay, this is the way I respond and and when I see a 90 mile an hour fastball or this is the way I respond when all of a sudden I get a ball up and in. Right.

Ryan Pederson [00:43:53]:
If that’s the first time I’ve ever seen it, I’m gonna be scared. And then if I get a ball up and in, I’m gonna be even more scared and I’m not gonna wanna even still crowd the plate. My complete plate discipline’s gone. Right? But as it relates to the business world, if I’ve continued to have conversations with people that are higher level, if I’ve continued to try to have conversations with people that are in the industry that I wanna get into, even if it’s just picking their brain, right, Go find somebody that works in that industry that you wanna go work in and just ask them about themselves. See if they’ll take 10 minutes and let you get them coffee or something like that. The more that you practice talking to people in those types of positions, the way you’re gonna be way more comfortable in that situation, right? And that’s one of the things I always tell younger people is like, hey what do you want to do when you grow? And a lot of times, you know, in this industry it’s, oh I want to be a sports agent or I want to I want to work in, you know, I want to be a general manager or whatever, You know? And so I say, okay. Well, what’s the, you know, what’s the what’s the chances you can talk to somebody that’s a general manager? Probably pretty low. But what’s the next step down from a general manager? Probably somebody that works in the front office or a scout or something like that.

Ryan Pederson [00:45:03]:
I guarantee you, if you if you shoot enough messages out there, there’s gonna be somebody that’s willing to take 10 minutes and have you talk to them. Right? And so if that’s your end goal, start learning about the way that you can get to that point that you wanna get to by talking to people that have held that position before. You’re not going to be a general manager right out of school. You’re probably going to be a scout or you’re probably going to work in the front office, you know, as an intern or something like that. So even those people that are interns now, the job that you’re trying to get, see if you can go create a conversation and start learning about them and understanding how do these people work so that when you’re in a situation then where you’re talking to somebody that’s a little bit higher level, you’ve you’ve you’ve already had this conversation 10 to 12 times, and you feel really comfortable about the type of person that you’re going to talk to.

Tim Newman [00:45:51]:
Exactly.

Ryan Pederson [00:45:52]:
Now is that easy? Not always. But persistence, if you get to the point where having persistence, you know, like, that’s gonna that’s gonna create a lot of value for you and it may not be the exact job that you want or whatever, but but go find somebody that that holds a a c a c level position at a company and see if they’ll take some time to talk to you. You realize all these people, doesn’t matter whether they’re a c suite employee or, you know, an entry level employee, they’re all just people.

Tim Newman [00:46:17]:
Yes.

Ryan Pederson [00:46:18]:
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gone into, situations where, especially in athletics I mean, I talk to a lot of professional athletes. They’re all just people. Just people. Right? And and they respond way better if you treat them just like a person as opposed to, oh my gosh. This is somebody that I idolize and all that kind of stuff, and I’m super nervous and stumbling over my words because I just can’t even believe that I’m meeting this person. Every single person that you idolize is just a person, right? And at some point, they’ve been in a similar position, as you or they’re meeting somebody that they hold in very high regard. So if you realize that they’re all just people, doesn’t matter what you’re talking about, then you’re gonna you’re gonna get way farther because people enjoy talking to people that treat them like people, not as not as gods and all that kind of stuff.

Tim Newman [00:47:04]:
Exactly. Exactly. You know? And I I really like that you brought up the whole idea of of that it’s gonna take work. You know, if you look at people that went from interns to high level positions in sports, Theo Epstein, you know, he he started as an intern. There you go. Eric Bolstra. His father was a was a was a basketball general manager, and and Eric started off as as the film guy in Miami. Yeah.

Tim Newman [00:47:36]:
Yeah. You know, and and understand that you’re not gonna graduate and be running a company unless you your own company. It it takes work. It anything that you that we’ve already talked about. Anything that that is worth doing is gonna take work and time and practice. You know, you it everybody starts at the bottom at some point and has to work their way up. And it takes patience, takes persistence. You know? Yeah.

Tim Newman [00:48:01]:
No doubt. You it it’s not something that you you’re just gonna walk in and start running the company. You’re not gonna walk in and be a general manager. You’re not gonna walk in and be a sales manager even. Right? You you you’ve gotta you’ve gotta start somewhere. Embrace that. Learn your craft, get better at it, and and you’ll start moving up.

Ryan Pederson [00:48:22]:
Yeah. There’s there’s there’s no better place to be able to show your value in an organization. If if you’re wanting to become a general manager, there’s no better place to start than at the bottom to show somebody above you the value that you can create. Right? Right. And if you’re talented or even if you’re not talented, but you’re you’re you’re willing to put in the work, people are gonna notice it, right? Right. And you’ll quickly earn their respective people around you. There’s that job that I got at Georgia State, they weren’t even hiring for that job. The person that was in charge of the athletics the the the I think he was what was he? He was, like, the assistant athletics director for revenue development, and I knew I needed a job, and it had to be in Atlanta because I didn’t have any money to be able to go, you know, find a find a paying job somewhere, but I knew I needed an internship and I knew I wanted to work in college athletics.

Ryan Pederson [00:49:16]:
And so I was like, well, I don’t I know my lease is up in in Columbia at the end of May. I need to go back to Atlanta to find a job, but I got it’s gotta be in college athletics. So where can I commute to go work in college athletics? Eat the money that I that it takes to to get down there, maybe have my parents help me a little bit, but, like, I need to go find a job. And so I called the athletics department, and there’s ‘s a guy named Kevin Miller, who I know I think he ended up going to University of West Virginia, and he’s he’s either a high executive there or somewhere else. I can’t remember. But, we we talked on the phone, and I just said, hey. I’m really interested in coming to help you sell tickets. And he said, well, I don’t really have an internship for that right now.

Ryan Pederson [00:49:56]:
And I said, okay. Are you guys are you guys interested in at least giving me a month to see if I can do I don’t even care if I have a desk. Right? I’ll I’ll I’ll do all the phone calls in the car and make sure that I’m in, you know, in the meetings that you that you’re, you know, that you’re putting together with your wholesale staff. I’ll make sure I’m in there, and I’ll work from the car the rest of the time. And he was like, well, I’m not gonna tell you no because we need help tell selling tickets, you know, but I don’t even have a desk for you. And so it ended up it ended up working out. And 3 weeks later, the receptionist in that department left, and they were like, hey. We have an extra desk if you wanna come down there and sit.

Ryan Pederson [00:50:36]:
You know? And so I took a seat there, and I said, is there anything else outside of selling tickets that you guys need help? And he was like, well, we got some presentations that we’re trying to put together if you I mean, you want to take some of them home and fiddle around with them and stuff and see if you can add any value to them, I’ll you know, I’m I’m willing to let you do that. So I started doing that. And then all of a sudden, my internship started to to to, like, form into this thing where I was selling tickets, I was helping with special projects, and I was trying to create value for myself in a bunch of different areas. And at the end of the day, I was only there for 3 months, right, for a summer internship. But I ended up getting to touch a bunch of other pieces of the organization because I offered my help outside of what outside of just selling tickets. Right? I was like, what else can what else do you guys need help with that I can either take home? I’m just going home, and I’m sitting at home at night watching Monday Night Football or whatever it was. I guess it wasn’t Monday Night Football because it’s in the middle of summer, but I’m just watching Gravesendes. Can I be touching any other piece of things just to at least see what you guys do and learning from you? And at the end of the internship that that that summer, Kevin said, honestly, when you called me, I didn’t really even understand what I was gonna do with you, but I just knew I was gonna have an extra body to be able to pawn some work off of.

Ryan Pederson [00:51:49]:
And, you know, I was just like, well, I’m not in a position to say no to somebody that’s willing to work for free and come down and show me if they have have what it takes. And Right.

Tim Newman [00:51:57]:
You know,

Ryan Pederson [00:51:57]:
he was like, it’s the best decision I made this summer was to have you come down. And And it was because you were willing to put put in the effort to do it. You showed up every single day. We didn’t pay you a dime. The only thing I got in terms of, in terms of of payment or anything like that was on Fridays. They’d buy me lunch when everybody went out to lunch. And but but at the end of the day, I was able to I’m I’m able to put off put on my resume, hey. I spent 3 months selling tickets and then and in rev revenue development for Georgia State.

Ryan Pederson [00:52:25]:
Right? And so those are the types of situations that not everybody’s willing to do and not everybody’s and and, like, did I have to do that? No. Would I have gotten the job with Positive Athlete? Probably still. Yeah. Because my dad’s the that my dad’s the CEO of the company. But what it was what what it was really formative for me was I realized, number 1, this is how revenue generation works in college athletics departments because I was able to get my hands on more. It also helped me make a decision that I didn’t wanna work in college athletics. It helped me understand, hey. This is not something that I wanna do, but I could only understand that by doing.

Tim Newman [00:53:03]:
By doing that.

Ryan Pederson [00:53:04]:
And so going and going and taking that internship helped me understand, okay. This isn’t a this isn’t a lane that I’m really interested in doing because I’ve I’ve seen it. I understand how it works, and I think I want to do something different. And that’s totally fine. Even a situation like that, you could look at it and say, well, that was a failed summer because you didn’t you didn’t gain any experience. It’s like, no. I gained a ton of experience.

Tim Newman [00:53:23]:
You gained ton of experience.

Ryan Pederson [00:53:24]:
I under I now understand, you know, how stuff works inside an athletics department. I know I’ve checked something completely off I thought I wanted to do. Now I know I don’t wanna do it. That’s totally fine. That’s an experience that I had to have. And now I’ve got a guy who’s an assistant AD at a college athletics department that I know if I called up today I haven’t talked to Kevin in probably 5 years. But if I called him up today and I and I asked him for a favor, he would be immediate in saying yes because Right. Of that summer summer that I spent working for him.

Ryan Pederson [00:53:53]:
So, so that part I think is is just I look back on my my career and I’m like, you know, now with with 3 kids, it’s hard for me to say, yeah. No. I’d pick up and just go, you know, work for free for somebody and all that kind of stuff. But it was formative in in understanding, okay. What am I capable of doing, and how am I capable capable of providing value in an organization? And it gave me all the confidence to say, yeah. I can do that. I know I can do that.

Tim Newman [00:54:19]:
And, you know, you you you you said a lot there that I think we need to unpack for everybody. Number 1, you you were persistent and you created something that wasn’t there. You you Mhmm. You were gonna show value, you you know, for for people that, didn’t necessarily know that they needed that value yet. Right? Number 2 Yeah. And and don’t get me wrong here. I I understand there’s this whole idea of work life balance, but you’re either gonna sacrifice now or you’re gonna sacrifice later. And Yeah.

Tim Newman [00:54:48]:
You know? No doubt. You know, when you sacrifice as a young professional, it’s gonna pay off. Now that you’re older, you have 3 kids, you don’t have to to do some of those things. You you can take some time. You you you’re more established. You you have the experience and and the role that you’re in that you kinda grew into because you worked hard leading up to it. Yeah. And understand that we we don’t get me wrong.

Tim Newman [00:55:13]:
Work life balance is important. But For who? You also have to understand to be able to have a good work life balance, sometimes you’re gonna have to not have it. And if that takes 3 months, if that takes 6 months, if that takes a year, it’s going to pay off long term, you know, 5, 10, 15, 20 years down the road.

Ryan Pederson [00:55:34]:
Yeah. Well, I think about it this way too. Like, I could if I if I didn’t get that internship, maybe I would have started working in college athletics, and then I would have realized in the same time frame after getting a first job that I didn’t wanna do it. And now I’m now I’m 2 years down the road having to understand that decision of I don’t wanna work in college athletics. But I got that experience at the time and that probably propelled me 2 years down the road of saying, okay, I know this isn’t an area that I want to go work in, right, and so now I’m not having to make that decision as a 24 year old. I made it as a 22 year old and was way further down the line in doing what I wanted to do. I don’t know that I would have accepted accepted the job at Positive Athlete had I not had that internship because I may have still been trying to seek out, do I want to work in this industry? And I would have the the boat would have been gone. Right?

Tim Newman [00:56:22]:
Right.

Ryan Pederson [00:56:22]:
So, but you’re right with the work life balance stuff. You’re gonna sacrifice anywhere but especially when you’re young, you know, experiences are great, friends are great, and all that kind of stuff. There’s a way to be able there’s there’s plenty of hours in the day, Right? There’s plenty of hours that we spend doing stuff that really doesn’t matter and now, you know, I realized too early on that that in my career, my dad was present for everything when I was growing up and it was because he owned his own company and worked for himself and he was around for every single one of my kid my, you know, brother and sisters, you know, events and all that kind of stuff, and that was something that was really important to me. Guess what I realized when I worked in college athletics for 3 months? You don’t get that opportunity. Right?

Tim Newman [00:57:06]:
You don’t.

Ryan Pederson [00:57:06]:
And so I realized, okay. If this is something that I want to do later on and is have a family and all that kind of stuff, this isn’t probably the area that I want to go work in because it’s probably not conducive to that, But I was able to learn that through some experience when I wasn’t when I didn’t have a family and all that kind of stuff. And so I’m so thankful for that for that 3 months because did I get better at selling tickets? Would I be as good selling tickets now as I was back then? Probably just about the same because I haven’t sold a ticket since. But I learned so much just from a professional perspective of being inside of an organization, understanding how revenue works, understanding chain of command, and understanding a challenging job where I was gonna get told no over and over and over and over again. And that helped me frame the perspective now that when a sponsor says no, it’s not the end of the it’s not the end of the day. There’s another sponsor out there for me to be able to go get, right? There’s another there’s another organization out there that’s interested in what I’m doing and I’m not gonna be just completely crestfallen because a sponsor said no. Right? Exactly. I learned that when I was selling tickets.

Tim Newman [00:58:09]:
Exactly. Well, Ryan, where can people find you and and and Positive Athlete that may may be involved?

Ryan Pederson [00:58:17]:
Yeah. That’s a great question. So positiveathlete.org is our website. That’s where all of our nominations take place. There’s probably you know, most people listening to this probably know, a a high school student athlete somewhere in their sphere of influence, and hopefully that kid’s a good kid. And if it’s if that kid’s a good kid, we’d love for you to nominate him. Especially here in Georgia, we run a program where we give away, you know, tons of scholarship dollars, recognition, all that kind of stuff, and the reason that we the reason that we exist is because we want kids to be recognized for doing the right thing. And so if you know a kid that’s that does the right thing, that is a leader on their team, has nothing to do with what they do on the court or the field, has everything to do with the person that they are, please nominate them because you never know how much that’s going to mean to them where an adult took 5 minutes to recognize a kid for doing things the right way.

Ryan Pederson [00:59:08]:
So if you know somebody like that, we just we urge you to nominate them. Get them get them nominated for our program because even if they don’t win an award, we provide cool experiences, recognize them, and and we always tell the kids, hey, if you get nominated, that’s something you should put on your resume because most of these kids have nothing on their resume when they go into college. And so just the fact that they have a nomination for something like this, an organization like this, can mean the world to them and do a lot for them. So we’d love for you to nominate them. We’re hoping that in the next, in the next little bit, we’re gonna be opening up nationally. We’re we’ve got some plans to be able to do that, and so hopefully around the country, our organization is gonna be operating here soon. But, thankful to be here, Tim. Thanks for the invite.

Ryan Pederson [00:59:52]:
I’m sure that you’ve had a number of people that are much more eloquent and probably more professional and all that kind of stuff, but, but it’s a it’s a passion of mine to be able to help invest into whatever generation, wants to listen, and so, thankful for the time, man.

Tim Newman [01:00:08]:
Well, Ryan, again, thank thanks so much for joining us. And and we’re really, you’re you’re the type of people that we that we wanna have because you’re the ones dealing with young professionals on the front line. You’re you’re the one that’s that’s seeing what what what needs to be worked on and how we can help them, and and you’re doing great work in the community. You you really are. And that’s something to me you know, again, we’ve talked about this. We may not be able to affect things that are 3 countries away or, you know, a a state away, but we can have a a positive impact on our local community. And if we can have a positive impact on our local community, that it’s like dropping a a pebble in a pod. That that Mhmm.

Tim Newman [01:00:50]:
That ripple just keeps going out and out and out. And what you and your dad are doing with Positive Athlete is is doing really good work. I appreciate it.

Ryan Pederson [01:00:58]:
Thanks, Tim. Appreciate it.

Tim Newman [01:01:00]:
So so be sure to visit speaking with confidence podcast.com to join our growing community and register for the form of public speaking course. Always remember, your voice has the power to change the world. We’ll talk to you next time. Take care.