Rose Lanham: Founder of Players for Good - Sports Business Conversations

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Rose Lanham: Founder of Players for Good

Episode 55 • 10th September 2024 • Sports Business Conversations • ADC Partners

00:02

Rose Lanham

I'm always on the other side, like, prepping them and giving, like, these are your questions, these are this true?

00:08

Dave Almy

You do sort of have that skill set here. You brief all. So finally, like we talked about, like the, you know, you are on the other side of the equation now. It's a little terrifying. I can only imagine. Let's just dive right in. I want to start by talking about your origin story. As you described to me earlier, you had some exposure to some pretty remarkable athletes that I think kind of set a tone for you. Some of the names you mentioned, like Lou Dolson, you mentioned Pat Tillman and Tony Gwynn, and these are exceptional competitors, highly successful in their disciplines, but they were a lot more than that. And you really got to see some of that firsthand.

00:51

Dave Almy

So I wonder if you can recall some of those exposures, some of those moments, and how they kind of set your perspective for what was to come for you.

01:01

Rose Lanham

Growing up in Tucson, Arizona, I was exposed to Lou Dolson's incredible wildcat basketball program. It was very influential in seeing players like Steve Kerr and Stoudemire. And not only were they bringing home the trophies, I think the impact on the community was so strong beyond the winds. The community knew he was raising men of character first, basketball second. He made sure they were positive role models throughout every effort, throughout every game. They were class act that carried over into college. I was fortunate enough to run at ASU and cross paths with Pat Tillman. We were there the same years, and seeing the impact that he has had across the nation, across the world with his service is incredible. And remembering football player, but leaving professional sports to go serve his country and ultimate sacrifice.

01:59

Dave Almy

Yeah. I mean, I think people think about Pat Tillman in that capacity before they think about him as a football player. He was a pretty remarkable football player in that regard. But it speaks to that idea of, yes, successful in their disciplines, but so much more.

02:13

Rose Lanham

They are so much more than the professional athlete. And he recognized the impact he could have. And then his family carrying on his legacy with races and scholarships across the.

02:24

Dave Almy

Country, and then Tony Gwynn is his own sort of remarkable story in its own right.

02:30

Rose Lanham

Yes. One of my earliest jobs was for the San Diego Padres. We were fortunate to have incredible leadership at the top with President Larry Lacchino and Charles Steinberg leading community relations. And it was clear to every employee and every player, there was a strong commitment to giving back to the community, and the fans came first.

02:51

Dave Almy

Yeah.

02:52

Rose Lanham

And San Diego loved Tony Gwynn.

02:55

Dave Almy

Yeah. It's almost hard to define just how crazy that relationship between that city and that player was.

03:00

Rose Lanham

And today you see at the new ballpark, huge mural dedicated to the late Tony Gwynn. But I got to see firsthand the impact he had when we'd take him into the fans or just a handshake, a wave, and then certainly when he would do bigger programs to impact large groups. Talk to a child one one, probably the sweetest ballplayer there could be. And he was larger than life in that city. But I, at a young age, the power that this athlete had to bring good to the world.

03:34

Dave Almy

So you had this sort of broad, general perspective of it, like seeing what those people could do just with their Personas and when they would engage with people. And I know you went through this period of time where you're putting on corporate events for Yahoo. And that led to a opportunity with Danny Warfle and his foundation. Darren Warfle, of course, a Uf grad Heisman trophy winner. How did that transition take? How did it go from Yahoo and putting on these major corporate events to helping out with Danny Werfel's foundation? Seems like a big switch, but maybe they're more, it's more organic than that. How did that take place?

04:18

Rose Lanham

Yes, there were a few years in between where I worked in philanthropy in the Bay Area, and again, seeing how when you gather a group of people committed to positive change, we saw that in the Bay Area with Stanford Children's Hospital. When you bring a group together, how much an impact you can have on a community. So I spent about ten years working with different philanthropic boards while I was raising our children. And the opportunity came, dear friends who are Uf alums asked for help starting Danny's foundation just out of the blue.

04:54

Dave Almy

Just kind of like, hey, you've got some experience doing this kind of thing. How can you help out?

04:59

Rose Lanham

Transition to sports philanthropy was a natural transition, bringing passion and professional background of sports, of events, of philanthropy together in one. And with Danny, we sat down, spent a lot of time, several months, defining what his legacy will be, what his passions are, what he stands for.

05:24

Dave Almy

If you really were able to help him, like, he knew he wanted to do something, but you really helped clarify it for him.

05:32

Rose Lanham

Me and others, yes. I don't want to take full credit that, but we, it was all you.

05:37

Dave Almy

It's funny, it's all me.

05:40

Rose Lanham

We spent a lot of time, I think, reflecting, and he's so smart and so committed to using his platform to inspire others. So it's very important to get clarity of who he is, what he stands for, beyond the football player. And that's really what's important to him.

06:01

Dave Almy

And it was a difficult process to drill down into something that he felt was the word that came to my mind was actionable, which is maybe the wrong word here, but like, providing that definition and helping define it, was it a challenging process and was he fully integrated into it, or did it really come out naturally just through conversations as you worked with him?

06:21

Rose Lanham

Danny is fully integrated into inspiring service in multiple ways and every touch point he can. And the biggest program he has is the Warfall Foundation Warfle Trophy honors college football servant leaders. It's a wonderful program to celebrate the service and the impact these players are having at their school and in the local communities.

06:49

Dave Almy

When you think about that original interaction with Danny Warhol and some of the work that you were doing along with that, can you talk about the moment when the idea for players for good started to germinate in your mind?

07:07

Rose Lanham

Players for Good is a speakers bureau for professional athletes who are committed to bettering the community around them. They're all. They are professional speakers who happen to be wonderful humans who excelled in sports. When I was working at the Warfield foundation kept crossing paths with like minded athletes like Danny, who are just incredible giving back to others. And he gets asked to speak a lot. And I would call other athletes, would you like this gate? Or. We have this opportunity. And I really enjoyed matching the speakers with the events. And that goes back to 20 years ago, picking keynotes and finding the right fit and briefing the speakers.

07:53

Dave Almy

Right. Some of the big events you were doing on a corporate scale, trying to figure out who that was going to be. So that kind of was fairly seamless for you. I imagine you sort of saw where that opportunity led.

08:02

Rose Lanham

Yes, it was very comfortable. Instead of reaching out to corporate leaders and finding the right fit, it's really enjoyable to hear what an event is looking for, what type of speaker, what tone, and help a wonderful athlete speaker to find that opportunity.

08:22

Dave Almy

And so there's obviously a ton of places where people can go and find athlete speakers. Right. There's a lot of speakers bureaus and some that feature, you know, athletes as well. What's the distinction that you were trying to create here with players for good? How did, how did you want to.

08:37

Rose Lanham

Try to make it different with players for good? I'm creating a boutique experience for both the athletes, athlete speakers and the corporate booking contacts. Yeah, you work with a speaker sphere, often they may have access to thousands of people. I'm really keeping players for good small. They're all people I've worked with before or know about their foundations, their commitment. So if someone is asking, I really want a speaker who can address cancer in real way. Meryl Hodge, you know, has been and can dive deep, or I know his tone. I enjoy kind of the matchmaking of hearing what the client is looking for, and they may come with one idea. And when you hear what they're, the tone or who their audience is, say, oh, you actually really. Perhaps a Chicago bear, your event is in Chicago.

09:31

Dave Almy

We have sort of the natural connection points.

09:33

Rose Lanham

Or you want someone to speak about finance. Well, we have three mbas who have finance degrees, and they happen to be NFL players, but they really are well versed in this industry.

09:45

Dave Almy

But there is this unique intersection that you've arrived at in identifying athletes and their philanthropic endeavors. Right. And it can be a really powerful combination. And I'm wondering if you have insights onto when that works best, like, which athletes have done that you consider have really figured out, like, how to use their Persona and to advance a philanthropic agenda that they have.

10:17

Rose Lanham

Yes. I think a lot of athletes, when they're starting, perhaps they don't have just money to give away. But if they recognize the power they have in mentoring, just speaking, interacting with youth, whatever their causes. Typically an athlete's foundation is based on a very personal event or a person in their life that had a life changing, life altering event.

10:41

Dave Almy

Yeah.

10:41

Rose Lanham

Something that impacted them, impacted their family in a major way. And they want to use that experience to help others.

10:49

Dave Almy

Is it difficult? Sometimes you have this image of athletes, and they're supposed to be these, you know, sort of a traditional, stoic people who are playing sports. It's supposed to be tough and all that kind of stuff. Is it sometimes hard to get them to crack open these foundational moments, to really own them, for lack of a better term. What's that process like?

11:13

Rose Lanham

led the Dallas Cowboys to the: 2003

12:03

Rose Lanham

And at every event, every opportunity, he is sharing his journey and his struggle with addiction when he was in the NFL, with hopes that others will find inspiration, go a different path and to learn from his mistakes. It takes a lot of humility to say, hey, I had it all. I was quarterback of America's team, and don't let this happen to you.

12:28

Dave Almy

I mean, so that example, that idea of athletes really digging into their own personal stories, I'm assuming that's a underlying theme for success in a lot of this. I mean, how have you seen audiences really moved by a speaker and their stories? I mean, can you, are there examples that you look back on and go like, wow, that was a fun, phenomenal event and that person did a great job of this, that produced that experience.

12:57

Rose Lanham

As speakers on stage, and you can tell the audience is captivated, what's really powerful and Mark Pattison, a former Raider and Saints player who has climbed the seven summits, because I don't want them to leave talking about me, but when you hear, overhear the message between the audience members and how it relates to them, how it relates to their life, because most people in the audience, they're not going to play in the NFL, they're not going to home run at Wrigley, and they're not going to climb the seven summits. But there are lessons to be learned that lead people transformed and inspired. Each of these athletes has reached the 1% and 1% and 1% that they're able to translate. The experiences, the lessons learned to all.

13:46

Dave Almy

Of us to really find that piece of connectivity. It goes back to the idea that we spoke to about previously, which is, the more personal, the more they can own these experiences and share them with folks that create those inspirational moments is really where success comes from. I'm wondering what other common threads you see in the really effective speakers and presenters, whether they're athletes or not? Because I think there may not be a ton of athletes listening to this podcast, but everybody listening certainly has those moments where they need to be in front of people and trying to be compelling. So what are some of the things that you've seen are particularly effective?

14:27

Rose Lanham

For sure, they are smart, humble and authentic. I think very clear sense of self, and they own their journey. Also, most of our speakers have professional media experience, have been on national outlets.

14:44

Dave Almy

They come with a little bit of game already in place.

14:46

Rose Lanham

They are very comfortable on stage with the microphone, and they enjoy connecting all of our events, have a prep call with the host and the athlete. And people might think, I don't want to get on the phone, or why would. I don't want to take up their time. 15 minutes of briefing a speaker about what's happening in your organization or what your CEO's favorite team is. All the information that you can provide upfront to a speaker can help them connect with the audience. And that's really what we're going for. A unique experience. While each of them have their themes with their speeches, they wanna customize. They want to know, oh, there were layoffs last quarter, or there's a new CFO. Whatever you can provide to a speaker to brief them is gonna make it a more memorable conference.

15:39

Dave Almy

It's funny you bring that up, right? They do have media channel media experience. They are used to playing in front of sometimes tens and thousands of people at any given time. But I'm wondering if public speaking presents its own unique challenge. For some people, it's a different environment. Is there prep work, is there training that you do with a lot of these people to make sure that they're in a position to succeed?

16:05

Rose Lanham

It's unique to every individual. It's not like every baseball player is going to enjoy getting on stage. There's one in 30 or every soccer player. Great example. Heather mitts at three time gold Olympiandhennae. I mean, how unique is she? Twelve years she was at Olympic caliber, she reached out and said, I love speaking. I enjoy sharing what the gold medal mindset is. It's enjoyable and fuels her. There's going to be other people who you might pay them a lot of money. They just don't want to go on stage. It's okay, I'll sign some autographs. So it's really finding players, speakers who I find that fuels them. Probably like any executive or business speaker.

16:50

Dave Almy

One, have you ever had to work with somebody and say, maybe this just isn't for you? And like, how do you. Is that a difficult conversation to have?

17:00

Rose Lanham

Fortunately, I have not, because the people I'm working with, a small group of media trained people who are already attracted to speaking, they're coming to us because they want to speak. I would say some, and I. It's clear on all sides they prefer, and I see it, they would rather be panelists or side chat than deliver a keynote. And that's important when you're booking a speaker is to know where are their strengths. And I think these larger speakers bureaus don't always know that, but I do ask them the first time we sit down to meet about where are your passions? What do you enjoy doing? What format works best for your.

17:41

Dave Almy

Yeah. Where are you going to be most comfortable?

17:43

Rose Lanham

Your message, and we'll seek that out. If you don't want to speak to 10,000 people, we'll look for 500 or 50 person organizations and events. There's opportunities. It could be online endorsements. It could be a 10,000 person conference. Also asking, do you like to travel? Or we have a lot of athletes in Chicago and in Atlanta who can do locally, that's in Orlando who don't need to leave. They will travel. But when you can hire a local speaker, either with ties to that city or saves you on airfare and hotel, that's really smart. For the event planner.

18:22

Dave Almy

It creates a level of efficiency, too. So there's been a bit of advice for organizations that are thinking about booking an athlete as a speaker. What else should they be thinking about to make sure that they're putting both the event and an athlete speaker in a position to succeed? Like, how do you work with organizations to make sure that they've got it figured out?

18:42

Rose Lanham

Preparation, like anything. Preparation key. And when you're putting on a large conference, you probably have multiple speakers, you have a lot of stakeholders. But providing a briefing, always print out a one sheet paper, although we're all on phones, but providing your speaker, no matter who it is, a one sheet about your organization, the boilerplate, who the key execs are, and also setting expectations before the event. If you want ten footballs autographed, please.

19:11

Dave Almy

Let us know beforehand.

19:13

Rose Lanham

Yes. Or if there's someone you need to meet and greet with your speaker that they know where to go. Also assigning them someone to really hand hold and escort. Even the most efficient professional speaker will appreciate having one person assigned to them. Just get them from point a to b and help them get to the car when it's time to go.

19:36

Dave Almy

Yeah, it's the little things, isn't it? It's the details associated with the event that a lot of people think about. It's up here at the major, like, oh my gosh, where am I going to find a facility to just making sure people know where to go and have that as mapped out as clearly as possible. It really is down to the details, isn't it?

19:53

Rose Lanham

It is. And when I would produce events, this might sound silly, but I would think of your writing instructions for a five year old. I mean, you have to.

20:04

Dave Almy

We podcast hosts really enjoy that kind of mentality as well. I'm like a five year old.

20:10

Rose Lanham

When you have a speaker or executive coming on stage just giving them bulleted details of when is rehearsal, what type of microphone will they have? When exactly how many minutes do they have on stage? Have a countdown clock. Speakers don't want to go over. They don't want to violate that. But if you don't have a clock, they might not know.

20:32

Dave Almy

Yeah, I don't have an internal clock running in my head at any given time. And gosh knows when I get a microphone in front of me, it's off to the races. You got to put some clear guidelines around me.

20:41

Rose Lanham

Yes. And if you're having Q and a manage that, help them, maybe prepare the questions for those speakers ahead of time. There's a lot of little details, and I'm always happy to work with. If it's a younger planner, work with. Here's some things. We can provide the speaker to make it a smooth event. That's really important to me at the end of the day. I've told some it's not about the money or more bookings. We need to produce magical events for the attendees and the speakers so that it's a win for all.

21:12

Dave Almy

Rose Lanham. She is the president of players for good. Thanks so much for spending the time today, Rose. Before I let you go, though, I got to put you into the lightning round. I realize this is something that you weren't expecting. I just want to make sure that you are as prepared as you can be for the lightning round. That is not a laugh. Did not say confidence. Okay, so here we go. The lightning round. Rose Lanham, generally understood that public speaking is people's number one fear. What is yours? Public speaking come from the right. Who knows it better than you would? Okay. Understood. So you fall in that number one fear category. You currently live in Atlanta, where it's. It can be quite hot. I think it's probably pretty. Getting pretty hot there right now.

22:01

Dave Almy

What is your best southern expression for describing how hot it is?

22:08

Rose Lanham

I live in Hotlanta.

22:09

Dave Almy

It's hot, Landa. It's just as simple as that. All right. You are. What other flower would you like to be named after?

22:15

Rose Lanham

Daisy. I had a grandma Daisy.

22:17

Dave Almy

Oh, well, that was pretty interesting. This is another. That was easy. Another heat related question. You ran both track and field and cross country for Arizona State, a state not known for its coolness. So I'm wondering if you maybe had considered a university in a cooler climate might have been to your advantage.

22:39

Rose Lanham

sure like the. I think it was: 06:30

22:46

Dave Almy

ho ever said they enjoyed the: 06:30

22:57

Rose Lanham

Thank you.