Day 247: Ryan Penneau
“I love to bring people that kind of experience, that kind of conversation, that kind of speech, that kind of anything that allows students to say ‘This is who I am, this is what I’m all about, and I’m okay with that, I’m confident about that, and I’m moving my life forward with that new attitude and that new mentality.’”
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Toni Reece: Thank you so very much, Ryan, for agreeing to be part of the Project, and before we begin, can you please introduce yourself?
Ryan Penneau: Absolutely. My name is Ryan Penneau. I’m the Executive Director of The Life Skills Center for Leadership out of St. Paul, Minnesota.
Toni: Thank you, Ryan. Ryan, when you think of the word inspiration, who do you think you inspire, and how does that happen?
Ryan: You know, for the most part it’s a lot of just my peer group. I’m 25 years old, and when I refer to my peer group, I refer to a lot of young adults, college students in particular, and you know , I work with them on a daily basis just bringing them opportunities and ideas and transformational experiences and thoughts, attitudes, whatever it might be, so that they can move themselves forward and get the most out of their own personal lives. So I guess that’s what I think about when I think about who am I inspiring, that would be what I’m thinking of.
Toni: Which would be that peer group that you’re working with.
Ryan: Yeah …
Toni: Go ahead.
Ryan: Nope, go ahead.
Toni: Give me an example of what happens during that transaction.
Ryan: During that transaction … over the course of a two-day leadership training, these students go from shy and quiet to getting outside their comfort zones, standing up for who they are, speaking up for who they are, and just taking on opportunities at a much higher level than they ever thought possible. Because they’re unleashing their potential, they’re unleashing who they are as individuals, and they’re finally giving themselves permission to be themselves in a comfortable way in which they’re confident about who they are as individuals.
That’s really what I love to do. I love to bring people that kind of experience, that kind of conversation, that kind of speech, that kind of anything that allows students to say “This is who I am, this is what I’m all about, and I’m okay with that, I’m confident about that, and I’m moving my life forward with that new attitude and that new mentality.”
Toni: With that new attitude and mentality, how do you think that helps them to further explore that potential within them?
Ryan: There’s a lot more risk taking. There’s a lot more getting up and taking action on the thoughts of, you know, “I wish I could do this,” or “I should do this.” There’s a lot more people that get up and start acting on the things that truly … that nag at them. I mean, everyone in the world has that feeling or those thoughts that nag at them – “Oh, I should do this, I should do that, I should start my book, I should start this organization, I should talk to that individual,” and no one actually acts on it.
And then it’s just this weight that just weighs on them for so long and so long, and these students … you know, one of my proudest things is when the students just finally take action towards those things. I get emails or phone calls from students saying, you know, “I finally did this. I finally did that. The results weren’t anything like what I was afraid they would be.” That’s kind of the phenomenal aspect of what I love to do.
Toni: What inspires you, Ryan?
Ryan: What inspires me? Oh man, in a lot of ways, a lot of things. Spirituality inspires me. Art inspires me. I’m an Arts Managements major, so that’s just a big part of my life. My family inspires me. The potential to just kind of make this world a better place, and I don’t even mean that from a huge macro level. I just … I mean that from being able to do what I can with what I have, where I am, and that’s a big aspect of what just drives me to make things happen. I love making things happen, and I love being up and moving and shaking, and that’s really … that’s a lot of stuff, but that’s really what inspires me.
Toni: Ryan, how did you show up this way? Were you always this way? Were you, as far as being so passionate about wanting to help your peer group, or the way that you come at inspiration and your own sense of purpose … at the age of 25 you sound incredibly aware of that passion and purpose. So has that been an evolution for you? Have you always known?
Ryan: That’s a great question. It is … let me think … you know, I’ve always been very high energy. I’ve always been very outgoing. I’ve always been just someone that likes to get in, get things done, take action and make things happen. In that, when I was younger, I always wanted to help, like I always wanted to make a difference. I always wanted to do something.
In high school, we always had speakers coming in to talk to our school, and you know, they were good – some of them were better than others. I went to one of my teachers once because we were doing some of these class conferencing – you know, what do you want to do with your life? I said “Well, this speaking thing – I’d kind of like to be one of those speaker-type people.” This was at a time when I was really big in the arts, and I wanted to go into arts in my career, because I believe in what arts can do for communities as far as inspiring them and allowing them the freedom to express themselves and not be self-conscious about how well they paint but, you know, more conscious of the actual act of expression in visual or performance arts.
And you know, I went to a teacher of mine, and they said “You know, you can’t really be a speaker unless you have one of those huge stories that’s just so ‘blow you out of the way’ powerful.” So I put speaking kind of on the back burner, and I put even more time and energy towards the arts. And I apologize that this is kind of a story, but …
Toni: No, it’s okay.
Ryan: I’m a storyteller … and then when I was in college … when I was in high school, I gave over 500 hours to my local Appleton Arts Center in volunteering, and I got even more passionate about it. But then when I gradated and I was in college and I was interning with a lot of arts groups, I was disheartened by some of them. I was disheartened with some of the politics.
And it’s not that … these groups weren’t doing anything bad, they weren’t doing anything negative, and they were definitely inspiring and fulfilling people’s lives on a very, very high level, but for some reason I just kind of felt … I was disenchanted, and I don’t even know why because I still love theater, I still love children’s theater, I still love the arts, I still love gallery tours, I still love all of that stuff.
But when I graduated from college, you know, I fell into this role that I’m in with Life Skills Center for Leadership – I almost said Arkansas Art Center – and the Life Skills Center for Leadership, and I found that I truly have a gift to do what I’m doing right now, and that’s just kind of been driving me, and that’s kind of, I guess, my story of my self-awareness.
Toni: So you really took your own need for wanting to reach out, wanting to speak, and it’s interesting that one person will make one comment that will derail a dream, which is you needed a story to be able to speak, and you don’t do you?
Ryan: No.
Toni: You know, you had your own voice, and you’re using that now to help others.
Ryan: Absolutely. And you know, apart from Life Skills, there are two major things in my life right now that I’m very inspired about and very passionate about. There’s two things that are messages to this world that I’m doing my best to get out more and more, kind of on the side. These were just started.
These thoughts have been bubbling in my mind for a while, but they’re just starting as far as like last week, but it’s … and this is part of why I do what I do and why I love to do what I do … but the alcohol and drug abuse on college campuses is very high, and it’s unfortunate what it takes from people’s worlds without them really acknowledging the danger of what it can do.
And then you know, this is kind of a sensitive issue for a lot of people, but one in four college women will be the victims of sexual violence, and I’ve learned this quite a bit as well through working with the students that I work with and hearing their stories on a daily basis of some of these things that are happening on college campuses. And I believe that that has been … you know, it might not be my stories, although I have my own on behalf of both of those issues, but you know, the more I hear the stories of other people, that has really been an inspiring factor in my world. That just in the world of thinking about stories … and that’s really helped me continue my speaking.
Toni: When you find yourself needing inspiration, Ryan, where do you tend to look for it?
Ryan: My wife. My wife … and usually it’s just us going and doing something, whether it’s just a walk in the afternoon. We love going to just cool, unique different places in Minneapolis and the cities. I love to write. I’m a huge writer, so writing always gets me up and moving and thinking in different ways and piecing things together and getting creative and allowing myself to express myself creatively. I love to write. I love just doing stuff with my hands, because it just really helps me to kind of take creativity and inspiration and channel it towards a different thing that I can leave behind for anyone else that were to read something or see something that I’ve created or done.
Toni: So what are you doing now to explore your own potential?
Ryan: My own potential … I think taking on as the Executive Director of Life Skills right now at the age of 25 under a famous Dave Anderson, that is a position and a role in itself in which you are exploring quite a bit of your potential to figure out how are you going get this done, how are we going to take this to the next level, where are we going to go from here? So there’s a lot of exploration in my own just professional development and exploring my potential there and how far and how great and how big can I build – can we build – this company? That’s a huge, huge part of my potential exploration.
Another thing is Stephanie and I are expecting our first on July 18, so I’m …
Toni: Congratulations.
Ryan: Thank you. That will be a huge potential exploration exercise …
Toni: Oh, yeah!
Ryan: And you know, outside of that, it’s really just taking the time to just do the things that I love to do, and stop wasting time on things. I don’t mean wasting time, but spending less time on the things that aren’t adding value. Things like the video games or the TV and stuff like that I think we all … you know, it’s not bad – it’s not bad at all that people get in the habit of just crashing and saying “You know what? I’m not going to think for a while, I’m not going to do anything for a while.” But that becomes a slippery slope. That half hour turns into an hour, turns into two hours. So I’m doing a lot right now to just curb the time I put towards activities that aren’t helping me to push my potential.
Toni: Well, Ryan, it sounds like that the work that you’re doing is phenomenal and at your age to be so aware of what drives you, and helping others. You have shared a lot of really good information here about yourself and what you do for others, and also best of luck to you and your wife with your new baby.
Ryan: Thank you.
Toni: You’re welcome. It’s been a pleasure to talk to you.
Ryan: Oh, I appreciate the time this morning. Thank you very much.
Toni: All right. Take care, Ryan.
Ryan: Have a great day.
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For more information about Ryan Penneau: lifeskills-center.org
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