← The Leadership Dance
The Leadership Dance
Ep. 16: From NFL underdog to entrepreneur, with Ryan Nece
00:44:12
Episode 16 features Ryan Nece—Super Bowl champion with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and now an entrepreneur, venture capital leader, and philanthropist—in a heartfelt conversation about purpose, resilience, and reimagining success. Ryan opens up about...
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- [00:01]
Ryan Nees
I think we have the wrong definition of success. A lot of people define success by the zeros in their bank account or the zip codes that they've accumulated, or the cars in their driveway, or the number of followers and blue check marks that they have. But for me, I've always felt that success is a measurement of how well you bounce. And what do I mean by that? I. I feel, at least in my life, the number of times that I've been knocked down, that I've lost a battle, that I've faced adversity, that I've been overlooked, that people have worked against me, where I've come up short. It's a lot. But my ability to bounce from that bottom or that point to. To the next level, that delta is how I measure the success in my life.
- [00:53]
Alisa Sue Lynch
Welcome to the Leadership Dance. If you enjoy the show, make sure to share and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Alisa sue lynch and I can't wait for today's conversation with my guest, Ryan Nees. Ryan brings a unique blend of experience as a pro athlete, entrepreneur and investor. After seven years in the NFL, including a Super bowl championship with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he began his investing career at DeBartolo Development and later co founded Straight Cast Media, which was acquired by fox Sports in 2015. Ryan founded Nextplay Capital, now part of Next Legacy, where he's created an investment platform that affords non traditional diverse communities access to venture capital. His investment track record includes companies like peloton, Impossible Foods, HIMSS and ByteDance, and he has served on advisory boards for Docusign, Tonal and most days. Brian has a degree in economics and political science from UCLA and is a Henry Crown Fellow at the Aspen Institute. He is also the founder and chairman of the Ryan Neece foundation, empowering teens to embrace the power of giving. Welcome to the podcast, Ryan. So good to see you again.
- [02:09]
Ryan Nees
Great to see you. I'm excited to be here. Looking forward to this.
- [02:13]
Alisa Sue Lynch
Awesome. So I wanted to start with the fact that you are a Super bowl champion, a venture capital leader, and a philanthropist. Growing up as the son of Pro Football hall of Famer Ronnie Lott, how did your family and upbringing influence your path in life?
- [02:32]
Ryan Nees
Wow, there's a lot in that question. I'm very fortunate to sit in the seat that I get to sit in today. I do not take it for granted. I know where I came from. Having a father that was very famous and had achieved a tremendous amount of success in the football field was phenomenal. I had a role model in my own home. But at the same time, my mother raised me. My mother was lower class to middle class, blue collar worker, a very strong woman about morals and character, and really hardwired me to understand what real value is in life. And it starts on the inside. And so I had these two unique role models in my life. One that showed me what greatness was and what greatness looked like and how greatness moved and how it talked and how it walked and what went into being one of the best NFL players and individuals of all time when it came to playing sports at the highest level. And on the other side, I had a mother who was and a mother that is still very passionate about thinking about others, about service, about love, about faith, about hope, and about these other really important things that make me who I am today and have helped guide me in all areas of my life. The interesting part is most people go, well, did your family want you to play football growing up? And the answer is probably no. I don't know if my dad actually wanted me to play tennis. And so I attempted to try to do that for a little bit and that was disastrous. I wasn't, I wasn't built, wasn't built to be a tennis player. It was, was too polite of a game. There's too much etiquette in it. I didn't have that wiring in me. And needless to say, I found my way onto the gridiron and the rest of his history.
- [04:23]
Alisa Sue Lynch
That's amazing. So it sounds like your mother really instilled this sense of service which you are definitely living today. So I want to hear more about how that's played out for you.
- [04:33]
Ryan Nees
Yeah, it has played out in a lot of different ways. I owe my mom a lot. She. She was and is just a very special woman in my life. And I will never forget this one story being in the sixth grade and at our elementary school and the sixth grade was the big grade on campus, so you felt like you were the big dog on campus. And I remember coming home one day from school and I was bragging to my mom about my day and she's like, well, what did you do? And I was like, oh, well, we played kickball and I kicked the ball over everybody's head and I scored all the runs and I got everybody out and I was bragging about how good I was and all the things that I did to, to win the game. And my mom goes and says, oh, that's very interesting. She's like, well, how do the teams get picked? And I go I'm all. I'm the best player, so I'm the captain. And then somebody else gets to be a captain. And you pick one by one until you fill your team. Well, she goes, oh, that's really interesting. And then she goes, well, are there kids that don't get picked? Are there kids that never get selected? And I'm like, yeah, of course the kids that aren't any good, nobody picks them to be on their team. She goes, wow, that's. That's too bad. She's like, well, if you're as good as you say you are, because you sound like you're really good, you should pick that kid that never gets picked first. And if you could win with that kid, you're pretty good. And I didn't understand she was trying to play a Jedi mind trick on me, and I took the bait and went to school the next day. And I remember that kid's reaction and the young man when we. When I selected him, to feel that moment of where somebody feels seen and where somebody feels like they're a part of the club now. And I just. I'll never forget that moment. And I remember, like. Like, light bulb going off my mind. Oh, my mom didn't care about me winning or losing. She cared about what I was doing to help others and serve others.
- [06:24]
Alisa Sue Lynch
She sounds like a very wise woman. And I'll have you know that in gym, we would always play kickball, and I would have been that kid. So I dreaded kickball and was always picked as one of the last. So, Ryan, as you know, I was a professional modern dancer for six years before pivoting into the business world. And there are so many lessons that I learned from dance that I feel benefit me as a leader now. For example, discipline, performing under pressure, agility, adaptability. And as you reflect on your time as a pro athlete, what leadership qualities or lessons have helped you achieve success in the business world?
- [07:05]
Ryan Nees
All right, well, I know you are a phenomenal dancer, and I know that it played a meaningful role throughout your whole life, even now, and how it's helped guide you. And you learn early on when you're. When you're doing things at the highest level, you start to understand what it takes. And I think oftentimes there's a disconnect between the dreams and aspirations people have and their willingness to do what it takes to achieve those dreams. And because of that disconnect, expectations don't get met and people get frustrated. And so what sports taught me is I got around the opportunity to be around the men that played a game at the highest. Only 25,000 men have ever played in the NFL, and half of those men have only played longer than three years. It is a small population of men that have achieved something to do that at the highest level, and it takes tremendous effort. So when I hear people say, oh, I work hard. Well, your definition of what hard is is probably a lot different than my definition. I learned what being a competitor is, and a lot of people say, oh, I like to compete. Well, that's great. Again, relative. But when you're around a room of alphas that are trying to figure out how to put bread on their table and try to find a way to not have to go back and live in the neighborhoods that they grew up in, and they're trying to figure out how to feed their entire community on their one paycheck, that person competes a little different than the way that most people probably compete. And so those lessons are invaluable. Dealing with different people from different walks of life. There are men that I played with. I would not want to break bread with them on a normal basis, but I could set aside our differences and unite together to go achieve a common goal, because we knew that that was important. So understanding how to navigate the world of working with people that may not look like you, may not talk like you, that may not resonate with you, but setting aside your differences to achieve a goal is something of the beauty of unity. Understanding culture, you know, having being able to create an environment that sets a standard. What does culture mean? It means there is a standard that anybody that walks into that environment, they know what is required, what is, what is the basic table stakes that are needed to stay a part of that environment and be a part of that culture. That it is not something that's given, it's something that's earned. And so those are things that I think are invaluable lessons that have helped guide me as a. As a leader and as a business person, I will say it's also helped me develop this ability to know that you're going to make mistakes. That was the thing you're going to mess up. There's going to be mishaps, but it's how you iterate. It's how you correct. It's how you find ways to move forward and don't allow your those mistakes to paralyze you, to not allow those mistakes to hinder you from achieving the goals. I've made a lot of mistakes, and I've come up short a lot of Times I don't always win. I do my best to not allow it to erode my confidence, to not shatter my dream or vision, but to know that it's, you know, I'm playing the long game, and then it may take time and have to make adjustments to get the outcome that we're looking forward. And that's why I think it's so invaluable for young people to play sports, because of the lessons that it teaches you that are applicable in all areas of your life.
- [10:35]
Alisa Sue Lynch
Yeah, so many of those lessons resonate for me as well. And I draw parallels to dance. Although dance can be somewhat of an individual, I won't call it a sport, but, you know, endeavor at times. But when you are within a company, you know, the teamwork, the building the culture, understanding other people and where they're coming from, all of that plays out. I'm curious on the making mistakes, because in dance, I think a lot about failure in that when you're learning something new, a new step or something you've never done before, you fail over and over in order to actually be able to accomplish that, that step. So I didn't always think of it as making mistakes, but I don't know if you have any examples of the mistakes that you're talking about.
- [11:21]
Ryan Nees
I think that that's the beauty of sport, is it exposes or the idea of trying to achieve greatness is you're exposing your weaknesses. You're not. You have to address the areas where you're weak or deficient or lack, and that's the areas that you work on to progress and to move forward. And so people think they watch football. They think it's obviously a physical game. It's a violent game. I don't even like to say physical. It's a violent game. It takes its toll. But as a defensive player, oftentimes you would want to go and run and you'd want to hit somebody really, really hard. There's a difference in hitting somebody, in tackling. And when you would run to hit, you may not be a very good tackler. And tackling actually takes place in your hands. And your ability to wrap your arms and grab cloth and bring somebody and wrestle them to the ground, and there is an art to do that in an effect, in a very effective way. A lot of people can run and try to run and hit somebody and knock them out anyways. I used to make the mistake of thinking that I needed to hit people all the time when really I needed to be a really good tackler. So I had to work on shifting my mindset to being a great tackler versus being a hitter. I think the other thing too is it's the mental part, the ability to prep the mind before the play, maybe even before the dance, to go through your steps, to put yourself in the mental position where you. You're putting yourself and preparing your mind to experience that situation when it's coming in the future so that your body then can react. And so that was an area. The more that I could prep and do the film, study and work in the playbook and really enhance the mind, it actually, that's really where I grew as a player. The game actually slowed down. That allowed me to move faster.
- [13:17]
Alisa Sue Lynch
Yeah, I love that concept. And I think you and I have talked before about this concept of flow and how you can achieve that when you're just fully in the moment. And it does seem like time slows down. And it's because you've put all that preparation into it that you can then find freedom within, you know, the structure that your body is trained to do. Have you had a lot of moments like that? I guess maybe every time you play, just pinching.
- [13:42]
Ryan Nees
No, it's what you chase. You chase that. It's like a. It's like a drug. It's. Yeah, you know, you maybe get glimpses of it each time, but to actually stay in the state of flow, to stay in this place where every move feels perfect. Every. Every step is, Is the right step. There's no wasted move, and everything is efficient. And it all seems to be going in your. In your favor. Uh, that's what you're, that's what you're chasing. And that's the beauty of playing at the highest level. You start to. There's games within the games. There's. There's an art within the art that you're constantly refining and calibrating to, to seek this state of flow. And I, I wish it happened all the time in every game and, and, but not always. But I definitely worked to try to. To try to put myself there as often as possible.
- [14:37]
Alisa Sue Lynch
Now, have you ever felt that state after playing football? So in work.
- [14:41]
Ryan Nees
That's a good question. As you, I know as you. As we were talking, I was sitting there thinking, like, oh, man, am I in the flow state when I'm knocking out a hundred emails a day and blah, blah, blah. Probably not. Actually where I feel, where I'm in the state of flow for me is when I can sit back and give myself space to allow my mind to wonder and to have vision about what's the business's needs to put us in the position on how to win in moving forward. In the day to day environment where I'm being reactive to what's coming at me, my teammates, my inbox, you name it. Probably harder for me to be in a state of flow, but I, I know for sure when I'm in an environment where I can be proactive that I've made space to think and give myself the ability to try to set the intentionality about having vision of, of what we need. That's. Yeah, I like that. I need to create more of that.
- [15:34]
Alisa Sue Lynch
Yes. Yeah, I think it's that creative state of mind and I feel like I've also achieved flow at work. Maybe in a performance situation like when I've been preparing for a big talk and then you're actually, I guess makes sense for me, but actually on stage delivering that talk and you know, it's not like you're thinking about what you're going to say, it's just all flowing there.
- [15:56]
Ryan Nees
Yeah. When you're speaking on stage, I know you're a pro. So at times when I've had the opportunity to present. Yeah, it's effortless. You're. You're not searching for all the right words. You know it like the back of your hand. That's, that's a good feeling.
- [16:11]
Alisa Sue Lynch
So I want to talk about the transition from football to what was next. Did you know what you wanted to do after retiring from your football career and how did you approach that whole transition?
- [16:24]
Ryan Nees
A good question. You know, every athlete has to face the inevitable, the end of their career. And that transition for every athlete isn't, is not easy and it's difficult and it's, you know, you're embarking in an environment where it's unfamiliar and it's intimidating at times to try to navigate this next chapter of life. I was fortunate to have a father that played in the league. And so I had another, a role model that I saw navigate what life looked like after sport. And so that gave me confidence that not only could you transition, but you could find ways to thrive. I also knew that I wasn't going to have the career that my father had. So I was constantly working in the off season figuring out what I would try to spend time so interning and trying to connect with different men and women that were doing things at a high level so I could learn from them about opportunities that I may be interested in. And so I was always curious and I think because of that curiosity it helped make my transition easier. I had a little, I guess, a little hack that I did while I was playing that in Tampa. I tried to identify all the major nonprofits in the city, and there were some big nonprofits, the Tampa Bay Lowry Zoo, the Straz Performing Arts center, the Metropolitan Ministries, or these amazing organizations. And I said, I mean, I would love to join your boards and I would love to sit on your board. And. And most of the time, a pro athlete, that's not where they would spend their time. They would want those people to come to the gala or to the golf event and shake hands and kiss babies or maybe make a donation. But they were. All of them were very, very open to me joining the board because they got a lot more time from the pro athlete. But it was. It was my opportunity to start to learn how these men and women that were business leaders operated in a boardroom, how they ran these organizations, the decisions that they made and the trade offs that they were thinking about and how they were thinking about the P and L. And, you know, it was an opportunity to start to learn about business that way. And so that was really helpful for me. I had no idea that I would become a founder and the managing director of Next Legacy. That was not my. My goal. I actually thought I might go work at my father's firm. He was in venture, but the year that I retired, he sold the firm, so I couldn't go there. I had built a foundation that was headquarters in Tampa, and so it felt natural to try to stay in Tampa. And I reached out to the DeBartolos and said, hey, would you guys let me come work in the office and figure out what I'm trying to do? I kind of like this real estate thing that you guys do. And a gentleman named Ed Coble let me come and squat in there and try to start to figure out what it meant to be an investor and an analyst and navigate that world. And so I did that for about two and a half years. And I'll be honest, it was uncomfortable. I'll never forget, you know, like the first three weeks, all I knew was to be the first one there and the last one to leave. And then whatever they told me to do, you know, do it fast and do it better than anybody else. About the week three, somebody knocks on my door and goes, hey, do you like to eat lunch? I said, yeah. And they said, well, why don't you ever go to lunch? And I said, well, nobody told me I could. They said, nobody has to tell you you can Go to lunch whenever you want. And like, because as an athlete, everything's, you know, there's a schedule, there's an agenda, there's. Everything's written out for you. So it was foreign that I had this freedom to kind of go and come as I pleased. And that's a good thing and a bad thing. You had to be very disciplined. You had to understand how to maximize your time. I could work harder and longer than everybody because I had over that. But I could also squander that time and waste time and not be as productive as I needed to if I wasn't disciplined. So, yeah, I was thankful that I had really good leadership that I was exposed to early that were flexible and thankfully forgiving of all the mistakes that a young kid that didn't know a lot gave me an opportunity to try to figure things out.
- [20:25]
Alisa Sue Lynch
I'm sure they recognized your drive and your discipline and the fact that you wanted to learn.
- [20:32]
Ryan Nees
And honestly, that's probably an asset that I look for a lot in people is curiosity. You know, when we're thinking about hiring or we're thinking about partnering, people that are curious, that want to find ways to constantly learn, to constantly iterate for the better. That is a really attractive quality.
- [20:51]
Alisa Sue Lynch
Absolutely. And very much needed today in leaders. Talk to me about becoming an entrepreneur. Uh, so you co founded Straight Cast Media, which was later acquired by Fox Sports. How did that all come about? And what did you learn from that experience?
- [21:07]
Ryan Nees
So I was at the family office. And this is also, I think, you know, one of the things that I've learned in life, that whatever you do, hopefully you do it well. And what I mean by that is how you treat people. Friends, family, coworkers, strangers. You never know when that's going to come back to fruition to be helpful or beneficial for you. I had a teammate, a gentleman named Jeb Terry, that I played with for two years in Tampa. He left the NFL to go to business school, but we stayed in contact and we stayed engaged. And as he was just finishing up business school, he called me and said, hey, Ryan, I've always respected you. I've always enjoyed working with you. We've always talked about a lot of things that were more than just football. We would talk about a lot of things about life and our dreams as. As men in the world while we were teammates. And he said, hey, I have an idea that I think you could help me with. And as we talked about this idea, we decided that both of us would go and co found this business. And that's when I left the family office to go and co found Straight Cast. And if I didn't build and foster that relationship with Jeb and treat him the way that I felt, you know, a friend should be treated, he probably wouldn't have called me, he probably would not have trusted me with this idea that he was mulling over. And yet because of that we were able to go and embark on creating a company. Now mind you, this was the hardest thing that I've ever done in my life. Two guys and a napkin. I would much rather run down the football field and hit 300 pound linemen over and over. Thank, uh, gosh. To go back to those days of trying to figure it out, it is hard, it is complicated and quite frankly you need a lot of help from the good man upstairs to conspire on your behalf to give you some good luck so things go out, go in your favor. But we created a company and we just were at this unique intersection where we saw technology starting to penetrate the sports and media landscape. And we had so many teammates and friends in sports that were tweeting and writing these two dimensional types of content and we felt there was a better form of content. So we said, we think video is the future. We think video is going to be the medium that people will use to communicate, to connect, and it's the most authentic form of content. And so we created Straight Cast to create a mobile video platform that enabled athletes to create HD videos from their phone and send it across any social platform or connect to any TV network in real time and send videos to those networks to be pulled up in television in 15 seconds. Now this is 2010. If you remember at that time, it was a while ago to send a video file just from your phone to a friend. It was hard. I mean it was almost impossible if it wasn't a short form. So you had to compress that file and you had to get it in in a way that it would be able to be received. And then obviously the output also had to be high quality so that it can, they can be used. Long story short, we worked on that and built that. I, I tell you, I. It was so funny that people, when we would go and pitch and talk to the guys in Sand Hill Road, they would, oh man, you guys are really cool, you guys played football. But I don't think this idea is ever going to work. You guys are really nice guys. We really like this idea, but not sure this that we don't know if video is going to be the future. We were early. And Jeb and I talk about it still to this day, that we probably didn't fully appreciate how big video was going to be and how it was going to permeate all of our lives. But needless to say, we created it to a point where we could build it. And then Fox saw the opportunity to acquire it and own the technology outright. And so they decided to make the move to acquire us. And it was a good thing because we were slaving away as four and a half years into it, we found a way to be stubborn enough and unyielding that we found a way to, you know, get it across the finish line. But we learned a lot. There's nothing like being in the fire that'll teach you a lot of life lessons. And I would not trade that experience for a moment. Would I go back there? Absolutely not. But everything that it's taught me has made me a much better investor, has helped me in what I do today as a leader in building my firm. Now, you know, both Jeb and I have gone on to continue to try to pursue our dreams. And he now currently runs a company called Cosm. That's unbelievable and immersive experience technology. So really proud of him and proud of the work we did with Straight Cast.
- [25:47]
Alisa Sue Lynch
Yeah, thanks for sharing that story. And you are now managing partner at Next Legacy Partners. Can you talk about what are you investing in? So what's your investment thesis? And maybe what emerging trends are you excited about?
- [26:03]
Ryan Nees
I'll start with, you know, when I go back to whether starting my own foundation or Straight Cast or even Next Legacy, it was always built on meeting a need. I never looked at anything as, wow, this is an opportunity to go make a lot of money. This is an opportunity to go do something that was transformational. We just, like, saw a really specific need and we felt like, well, can we build something to solve and meet that need? And if we could do that, we'd probably find joy in it. And if we could find joy in it, maybe we could get compensated for our efforts to get that done. And so I say that that when after we got acquired by Fox, there was an earn out, I decided to leave. Jeb decided to stay and do the yearn out because I felt that there was a need that was going unmet and I felt the calling and I felt like God had put on my heart to find a way to give our community the opportunity to have a seat at the table to invest with the best venture funds and hopefully get access to maybe some of the Best companies in the world. And what do I mean by that? There was so many athletes and executives and leaders and folks that I had built relationships with over the years that I became their tech guy because I was in tech. And so they would say, Ryan, hey, I'm going to invest in this company. What do you think? I want to start this company. What do you think? I want to invest in this fund. Let me know your thoughts. And it was frustrating. It was embarrassing what I saw A lot of people work really hard, put their money into things that had such a low probability of success. I knew that there was a better way to approach allocating to the asset class. And I felt like if we could create a unique value proposition that we could start to find ways to invest with the best venture funds and the best men and women that do things at the highest level on I knew if we could create this very diverse community of athletes and influencers and philanthropists and change makers that were doing good in the world, that hopefully these firms would let us in and we could find ways to be helpful to them and their portfolio companies. And so that was the mission and that was well over a decade ago and we've been, we've been at it for quite some time. And so now what do we do? We have a traditional fund to fund where we're thankful to invest in some of the, the best firms in the entire world. We're very grateful for our partnership with those firms. And then we also have a co invest strategy where we have the ability to co invest directly alongside those managers. Typically we invest series A and B. We look at Enterprise SaaS, we look at consumer and there's some amazing things that are happening in this world now because of this fascinating thing called AI. I don't know if you've heard of it, if you haven't. Probably, definitely, yeah, yeah, exactly. You probably definitely live under a rock. It's probably the really honestly the first time in, in my time as an investor in over a decade that I've seen universally across every sector, folks this excited about a particular technology that is helping people make more money, save money and, or save time instantaneously. And so fascinating to be in this world right now. Fascinating to hear these men and women that are trying to make the impossible possible and talk about what the future is going to look like. It's indeed a time to be optimistic and a time to be excited about what's around the corner.
- [29:31]
Alisa Sue Lynch
Absolutely, yeah. I know you've shared some of the hardships with becoming an entrepreneur, but You. You make it sound so easy to be successful, which I know it hasn't been, but can you share? Like, did you face any major barriers or have some really tough moments that you felt you had to overcome to get to where you are today?
- [29:52]
Ryan Nees
Yeah, I think we have the wrong definition of success. I think I define my success. Maybe it's because I make it sound easy, but I. You know, a lot of people define success by the zeros in their bank account or the zip codes that they've accumulated, or the cars in their driveway, or the number of followers and blue check marks that they have. And I. Those are. Those are unique metrics. Those aren't just given out. But for me, I've always felt that success is a measurement of how well you bounce. And what do I mean by that? I. I feel, at least in my life, the number of times that I've been knocked down, that I've lost a battle, that I've faced adversity, that I've been overlooked, that people have worked against me where I've come up short. It's a lot. But my ability to bounce from that bottom or that point to the next level, that delta is how I measure the success in my life. And I think about all the way back to a time where right before my senior year in high school, you know, it's probably one of the most challenging moments in my life that's given me a. Again, I wouldn't take that moment away, but it helped shape me. I was in a very severe car accident. I was almost pronounced dead in the summer before my senior year in high school. And to go through that, such a traumatic car accident like that, and to then find a way to battle back, that, for me was. Was a. Was a measurement of success for me because in a moment where I felt very invincible, I was very cocky. I was top of my class, captain of every sport, homecoming king, you name it, I achieved it. That's how I was wired. And instantly that was taken away because I was in a. In this car accident. To be humbled to then lose it all, and at the same moment, to lose it all, to then gain. Gain it all. I gained everything that I needed in life, and that was my faith. I knew that in that moment that all I needed was to have breath and to have my faith in my Lord and Savior and that I could. All things were then possible from there on. Because of that. I think that I try to speak with an optimism and navigate around the complexities and the adversities of life and Just wall thing, because I know. I know what the bottom, at least for me was. And I try to stay very grounded and grateful that I keep having the opportunity to breathe and keep fighting the good fight to advance forward. So. And then at the same time, and you think even more within, you know, playing, going into the NFL, you know, I'm coming out of ucla. I was a semifinalist for the Buckets Award, which is given out to the best linebackers, college football. All indications were that I was going to have the opportunity to get drafted. My teammate that I played next to, a guy named Robert Thomas, was a Bucket Award semifinalist. He gets drafted. So I'm like, I'm great. I'm going to get drafted as well. Well, I go undrafted all of a sudden. Instantly. Now I have no control over my outcome that this dream of getting the opportunity to play in the NFL was going to happen. What happens when you go undrafted? The moment the draft ends, people think, oh, it's over. Well, in that moment, all the guys like me that are undrafted, they start getting phone calls from teams to say, hey, would you come, you know, come to training camp? We'd love you to be a tackling dummy. Basically, we need some bodies for guys to beat up on so that they don't get hurt. And, I mean, if you get a chance to make the team, maybe you will. Well, in that moment, all these teams started calling me because they were like, ryan, you didn't get drafted. We'll bring you in. And all of a sudden, I whittled it down to two teams, and I had Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Raiders on the phone. The Raiders were in the Bay Area, still in Oakland. My dad played for the Raiders, but I was conflicted in my spirit. I wasn't sure where I was going to play. And I said, you know what? I'm not going to. I'm sorry, I can't give you guys an answer. And they said, oh, well, if you don't, you know, tell us immediately somebody else is going to take your spot. I said, I'll call you back. If the spot's there, I understand, and I'll hopefully get a chance to play with you. If it's not, I understand that as well. And I said a prayer. And as soon as I said that prayer, instantly I knew in my heart that I needed to go to Tampa. Now, everything on paper said to go to the Raiders, but I decided to go to Tampa. Now I go to Tampa undrafted, and I make the team. People like, that's. Wow, that prayer was amazing. That you were able to go to the team and it got you on the team. What's amazing about that prayer is at the end of that year in the super bowl, it was Tampa Bay and the Raiders. So by saying that prayer, I went to the team that not only did I make the team, but I found the super bowl team so the winner. So when there's these moments where you face uncertainty and setbacks, heartbreaks from girls that you were going to propose to that left you like that, I've been through it all. I come back to my faith. I come back to my breath. I come back to what I know has gotten me through all of those complexities. And we move forward.
- [35:36]
Alisa Sue Lynch
Thank you so much for sharing that. And you know, Ryan, I've always been so impressed. We've had a couple of conversations, but I've been so impressed at the perspective that you have in your life and how grounded you are. So I really appreciate you sharing more about that.
- [35:52]
Ryan Nees
Yeah, thank you.
- [35:53]
Alisa Sue Lynch
So I want to talk about the foundation. Sounds like you started that while you were still playing football. So what motivated you to establish the Ryan Nees foundation? And can you share what the mission is and the impact that you hope to make?
- [36:08]
Ryan Nees
I'm very proud of the foundation. I can't believe it's 17 years old when I say that. I feel very old. But when I first moved to Tampa and I get drafted there, I don't get drafted. I go to Tampa as a free agent, make the team, and I start living in the city. I did not like the city of Tampa. I was an LA guy. I was exposed to a lot. Tampa fell, dated. It felt slow. I just was having a hard time getting acclimated to this new city. And so, you know, I decided to start volunteering. And I volunteered at non profits and I volunteered at churches, and I started volunteering and giving back to the community. And the more that I gave back to the community, the more I started to fall in love with the community because I started to meet the people and I started to spend time with the men and women that made up the fabric of what makes Tampa such an amazing place. And that was awesome. And I just started. It became a drug. And the more that I did it, the more I enjoyed it. And then I found myself all of a sudden going, oh, my gosh, I'm on all these different nonprofit boards. I'm volunteering at all these different places. I'm doing way too much. Let me think about where I could take all my energy and passion and direct it towards something that was near and dear to my heart and put my resources and efforts there. And so my will started turning and trying to think about how I could generate impact. And what I realized was there was all these amazing organizations. We are so lucky, America. We are so fortunate that we have men and women that are so committed to giving back in the non profits and foundations and the philanthropist and all these people that do so much for others. It's not like that in other countries. And so I started to see all these amazing organizations that were trying to eradicate homelessness or cure cancer or help single moms. And I said, wow, these are amazing organizations. But what I also saw at the same time is young minds were being attacked. And what do I mean by being attacked? Young minds were being told to only think about themselves. When you think about commercials like obey your thirst or have it your way or, you know, these are just slogans that you're constantly planting seeds, that only thing you should worry about in life is yourself. And I felt if we were going to have these amazing nonprofits and foundations long in the future, we better start teaching young minds about how to think about others so that they can join those boards and that they can be donors and supporters and find ways to continue to, you know, support these amazing organizations. And so I decided to write a curriculum around the power of giving that teaches young minds about serving others and meeting the needs of others. And so we now have the Ryan east foundation, which is focused on impacting young minds and teaching them about the ability to serve others and embrace the philosophy of the power of giving. And so through their junior and senior year, they go through the program learning how to think about the needs of others, volunteering in other organizations, working with our curriculum on leadership skills and how to be courageous and lead from the back, serve from the front, and finding unique ways to teach these young minds the importance of meeting the needs of others. And it comes down to a very simple question. It's the first question that every student gets asked when they enter the organization, and it's the last question they get asked when they leave. When's the last time you asked a family member or a friend, how can I help you today? What can I do to make your day better? And if we can find a way to ask that question more often on a regular basis, all of us, man, I promise our days, other people's days, will continue to be better and on the rise. So that's the organization. And now we've created curriculum that's in 18 schools in the Tampa Bay region, so students now can take a class around the power of giving. So proud of the work that the team and the board are doing there.
- [40:26]
Alisa Sue Lynch
Yeah, such wonderful work. And I love that idea of the power of giving. I'm wondering, are you still focusing it only on Tampa, or are you tempted to spread that mindset and that that sentiment more broadly?
- [40:41]
Ryan Nees
Well, I'll tell you, running a nonprofit is definitely different than running a for profit. And so your constraints are a little different. And so you can have really big aspirations, but those aspirations can only be fulfilled if you can find others to believe in the dream as well and support you. So the answer is, yes, we'll continue to grow, but we'll grow at the at in which we continue to receive the support to allow us to execute and maintain the quality work we do. So there's a lot of people that want me to bring it here to the Bay Area, and we'll see if we can convince the board to make that happen.
- [41:15]
Alisa Sue Lynch
Makes sense. Okay. So, Ryan, I learned that your wife, Willa Ford, was on Dancing with the Stars. Can you tell us about that story? And is she the better dancer or are you.
- [41:28]
Ryan Nees
Oh, by far, she's the better at everything. My wife is super talented. My wife was a very famous pop singer in the early 2000s. Willa Ford, she had a couple hits back in the day. She's actually now going back in the music, and we may see an album come out here shortly. So sneak peek about that for your listeners.
- [41:48]
Alisa Sue Lynch
Exciting.
- [41:49]
Ryan Nees
But because of her fame from singing, she had the opportunity to go on Dancing with the Stars and really enjoyed that. My wife is very talented, trained opera singer, unbelievable dancer. I have no musical gifts. I'm not even allowed to hum in my household. It's pretty sad. So, yeah, my wife's really special.
- [42:10]
Alisa Sue Lynch
So, last question. What advice would you give to your younger self? Or. It's probably advice you give to many, many people that you mentor about navigating your career while staying true to yourself.
- [42:21]
Ryan Nees
Oh, wow. The advice that I like to give to younger people is sometimes you have to do what you don't want to do to be what you want to be. And everybody wants to, but not everybody's willing to. Everybody want you talk to anybody, anybody. Everybody wants to achieve or succeed and progress and obtain, but very few people are willing to do what it's needed to do that. And you have to really be honest with yourself of what you're willing to do and what you're willing to give up. More importantly, and even even more importantly, what you're willing to suffer to obtain. And so my advice, if I got to go back to my younger self would be probably to loosen the tie a little bit more when I was younger and probably have a little, a little bit more adventure, adventures outside the box. I was, I was pretty, pretty rigid. That would be my, that would be my little advice. We all got to have fun. We. It's important for us to smile and laugh and joke and enjoy the companionship of others and have good time with other people.
- [43:31]
Alisa Sue Lynch
I love all of the advice that you've given throughout this episode, Ryan. It's been amazing to chat with you, to get your insights, to learn from you. And I'm so inspired by your leadership as a change maker in particular. And I want to thank you for being on the podcast.
- [43:47]
Ryan Nees
I'm extremely grateful that you allowed me to join you. So thank you for your amazing questions and I, I'm a big fan of yours. That's why I'm here. So thank you for all you do.
- [43:55]
Alisa Sue Lynch
Oh, thank you so much. Like follow and Share the Leadership Dance, where we explore how to choreograph the career of your dreams and chat with visionary leaders who are breaking barriers in the arts and business worlds. Until next time, keep dancing.