When I booked Ryan Shazier for the first-ever live taping of Thought Liters: On Tap, I figured we’d talk a little about football. The hit. The injury and recovery. The resilience.
That isn’t the story we told.
We ended up going a different path. Watch and read:
“Forced Pivots”
Ryan’s career as a star NFL linebacker was undoubtedly stripped from him too soon. Overnight, he had to find a new way to live, and to thrive. But that road was perhaps as difficult as his recovery from the spinal cord injury he sustained.
His first big swing into business post-football? A whiff. The advice he got from early mentors? Shit. The time and energy he invested into his off-field activities? Not good enough.
"I thought I could just put money and resources into it. But if it doesn't have your time or your energy…you're the reason that it goes."
The first-ever Thought Liters: On Tap set. (working name for live tapings.)
Learning to Walk (the business talk)
Ryan was an open book in this interview — abnormally honest about the hits he’s taken personally and professionally.
As entrepreneurs, we’re used to our own pivots. A business fails; a sale doesn’t close; industries change; talent moves on. I’m 99% certain that nobody reading this right now has operated within those pivots under as intense a scrutinous public light as Ryan has. Now, part of that may be of his own making — but the truth remains that, as someone generally seen as universally successful in their craft as seen on TV, it can be particularly hard to not immediately win off the field as well.
In the world of business, Ryan had to learn to walk just like all of us — and that means taking the ups and the downs, being responsible for your kid’s plate, and ultimately being infinitely coachable in pursuit of high-level impact. Some of that Ryan picked up naturally. Other parts, not so much — and he tells all with us in front of a live studio audience.
Why You Should Watch
You may know part (or all) of Ryan’s story. You may know the headlines. Here are a few key points of the interview, which you almost certainly don’t know but will learn from:
Vetting Mentors: How Ryan entrusted the wrong voices early (and paid the price).
The "Trickle Down" Effect: Why hiring cheap labor cost him more than top-tier talent ever would have.
The Rock Bottom Moment: The specific day he realized his business decisions were affecting "the food on my kid's plate."
The Play Today: How he used those painful lessons to build the Ryan Shazier Fund the right way.
Special thanks to Tequila Komos, Babb, Inc., and VPO for your support of this episode.
And, thanks to everyone who showed up for the live recording!
Recorded live at StudioME in Pittsburgh, PA.
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Cheers!
Adam
