How Does It Get Better Than This?

In January of 2010, I was hired as a coordinator in the Player Development (now Engagement) department at the league office for the NFL. You can find the story of how that came to be here (shorturl.at/euxRZ). It was achievement I’d long dreamt of and it fulfilled a desire I put out into the world years prior (shorturl.at/ejtJ7). At my job, I loved serving our players through programming that supports continuing education, career development, financial education, life skills, and beyond. It was extremely satisfying to notify an applicant that they’d been accepted into the Business Management and Entrepreneurship programs at Harvard and Wharton. It was rewarding to assist players in determining their best option for completing a degree or pursuing another one. The aspect of my job I most enjoyed was when a player would call seeking an internship in a certain industry, in the city of their preference during the offseason, and I would reach out to companies to create that opportunity for them. In my time at the league office, I was also blessed to work for Troy Vincent, the best boss I’ll ever have. He was hired as our new department VP shortly after I started and under his servant leadership, I grew leaps and bounds. He is my friend, my mentor, and one of my guardian angels.

While there were many rewarding moments at the league office, there were also moments of frustration. I’ll never forget lining up a prestigious internship opportunity in Homeland Security, at the request of a player in the DC area, only to ultimately be told the drive into DC was too far. We offered an array of amazing programs and opportunities, but fewer players than I’d hoped for were taking advantage of them. I wondered what might prevent them from saying yes to these offers, especially knowing the challenges that could come with their inevitable career transition. The ONLY guarantee in sports is that the day will come where one can no longer play competitively. If this is the only certainty, why weren’t more players taking advantage of everything we offered, particularly in the offseason?

Having worked in elite athletics for a while, I’d seen how our society builds athletes up for their physical abilities while often ignoring their development as human beings. It can lead to an athlete’s identity solely being rooted in their athletic skills, rather than encompassing the totality of their qualities. I wondered if some players felt that they weren’t ready for our opportunities, or felt they couldn’t perform well in them, because they were outside of their comfort zone. It’s human nature to talk ourselves out of developmental opportunities because we don’t think we are ready, but I firmly believe the opportunity is there because we are. The intense pressure a player can feel to focus exclusively on the game, in order to keep their spot on the roster, can also hinder exploration in other areas of life. I believe there is a way to make room for both. I wanted players to leverage the game for all that they could when they could.

Personally, there were also aspects of working in a corporate environment that didn’t align to who I am. I find corporate structures stifling and limiting. I didn’t enjoy dressing business casual every day. My job required a lot of data entry and report writing, which is standard for a coordinator position, but I’d come from a role providing direct services and discovered how much I missed that. In a conversation with Troy one day, he said that I didn’t want to be the one in the corner taking meeting notes; I wanted a seat at the table. The beauty about Troy was that rather than pushing me out because he knew (before I did) that I wanted something different, he walked me the whole way home to Denver. In fact, it’s because of Troy that I found my next position. I’d been coordinating an education initiative of his, so he invited me to join him at an education conference in Philadelphia. At a conference breakout session led by Denver Public Schools, I met an attendee who introduced me to my next career opportunity with the federally funded pre-collegiate program GEAR UP. I met with the program director on a visit home to Denver and was told that the job was mine, if their funding was renewed (it was). Just after the NFL lockout of 2011 started, I moved back to my hometown of Denver and started working at Bruce Randolph School, helping first generation students on the path to higher education. People thought it was wild that I left the NFL but when you know something isn’t aligned, you can make another choice, no matter what other people think.

GEAR UP was a great program to work under and I was grateful to provide direct services again. I loved my students, I loved watching them grow, and I loved providing them with access to the greater world. After a few years on the job, an opportunity to advance to the collegiate level was presented to me but I'd also been feeling the urge to try my hand at entrepreneurship again. I decided that I’d reached an important fork in the road: if I got the job to advance within GEAR UP, I would take it. If I didn’t, that was the sign to follow the dream in my heart of entrepreneurship again. What I remember about that interview was how confident I was in my skill set and what I brought to the table. I knew I’d rocked it and was told so by my boss. However, there were people with more longevity and seniority who’d interviewed just as well. One of them was offered the position instead. I remember not even being upset because it was simply the indication to take the redirection toward entrepreneurship. While I was sad to leave my students, I knew I had to set the example for them. If I was too scared to pursue my dreams, why should they? I was grateful they understood this reasoning when I informed them I was leaving and I was touched by their support to take the leap. The question now was, what offerings could I provide to help people in a way that could make a difference in their lives?

Before I left NYC, and while back in Denver, I was training in improv. With each class I took, I felt myself growing. Improv is the most powerful tool for creating an environment where people can stretch their limits, take risks, be courageous, learn, grow, and develop. It is also a tool accessible to nearly everyone in the world. Improv is a learning system and training system. It’s not about making jokes, being outgoing, or putting on a show. It’s a skillset and a mindset. To improvise is to take the resources available to us, whether we like them or not, and build and create with them. It's a tool filled with alchemy. It’s about collaborating, listening, and connecting. It’s a mindset that says, “yes, and” to life…no matter what may come our way. It’s a mentality that can adjust on the fly and one that creatively responds to challenges and setbacks. My training inspired me to share the gift of improv with others. It also reminded me that improv develops the mindset I wanted the NFL players I'd been serving to have. I took my improv skills, and my athlete development expertise, and created a program to support rookie success. I sent a proposal to five of the NFL teams that I thought would be open to improv and two of them responded. The Seattle Seahawks expressed interest but they’d already booked out their spring rookie programming. We would have to wait until the following season. The other team that expressed interest were the Baltimore Ravens and after a follow-up telephone pitch, they hired me for my first NFL Player Engagement Development Lab. The rest is history.

When I wrote in my journal years prior that I wanted to work with NFL players, the idea of having my own business facilitating improv athlete development labs was not something I could have imagined. Often, the vision we have for our dreams is much smaller than what the world has in store for us. I thought working at the league office was my peak but there is a bigger role that I’m supposed to play in the athlete development field. It is a privilege to create environments where people can learn, grow, develop, connect, and have fun. My work is my joy. Improv is also not just for athletes though, it’s for everyone. We improvise every day of our lives and when we do it with more intention, we are able to tap into our creativity, get further faster, and have fun while doing it.

I hope that in sharing my story over the last three weeks, I have been able to inspire others in the pursuit of their dreams. I hope it shows that staying the course, trusting your gut, and being curious to what life offers takes us to unimaginable places. I also hope it shows that we do nothing alone in this life. There is always someone, somewhere, who's done something to help us along the way. Trust that the dream that's in your heart is there for a reason. Be open to the lessons and redirections. Listen to your intuition. It will get you where you are supposed to be. And when you've reached the place you've long dreamed of, keep asking the question, "how does it get better than this?" Then see what shows up. It will probably be bigger and better than you could have possibly imagined.