Season 2: #6 Octagon Labs: Peter Hawks and The Flyin Ryan Foundation

This week we had the honor of sitting down with Peter Hawks for our third Octagon Labs episode. Peter takes us on a journey of the legacy of his son Ryan who lived with passion, purpose, and integrity. Whether Ryan was carving fresh ski lines or spreading kindness to a stranger he left an impact on everyone he met. His zest for life and free spirit continues to inspire thousands. Peter started the Flyin Ryan Hawks Foundation to share Ryan’s 13 Core Values — and to help others live with the same sense of intention and adventure.

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This episode of the Octagon Podcast is brought to you in part by Archery Close and Union Bank. Hey, this is Chris and Taste from Archery Clothes, your go-to boutique. For men's and women's fashion, we carry a curated selection of clothing, footwear, and gifts from unique and emerging brands. We're proud to sponsor the Octagon and even prouder to be local business owners here in Stowe. We love how the Octagon captures the history and characters of this incredible town. After coming off the slopes or the trails, stop by archery close. Located at 1650 Mountain Road in Stowe. Open seven days a week, or always open online@archeryclose.com. Since 1891, union Bank has made banking a little bit easier and more convenient for you by investing in the success of its local community. Your community headquartered in Mooresville Union Bank has 18 branches and three loan centers throughout Northern Vermont and New Hampshire. Union Bank is a proud supporter of the Octagon Podcast, as well as many fantastic community oriented endeavors such as the STO Trails Partnership, the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum, and the STO Land Trust to name a few of the over 200 nonprofits they work with. To learn more, go to ub local.com. Yeah, welcome listeners to the Octagon Podcast, where we explore the stories, people, and places that make Stowe so legendary. Today we're bringing you a special Octagon Labs edition. We are diving into a story that blends passion, purpose, and legacy. The story of Ryan Hawks, a skier who zest for life. It continues to inspire thousands. I'm Mike Carey, joined by my co-host Ted Thorndyke, and today we're joined by Ryan's dad, Peter Hawks, who started the Flying Ryan Hawks Foundation to share Ryan's 13 core values and to help others live with the same sense of intention and adventure. Peter, welcome to the Octagon. Oh, thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. Gorgeous day. sure. Is. Just the best. We had to drag you through, downtown Stowe here to get to our house on a fall foliage crowded day. I was glad I was going north instead of south. Yeah, Yeah. it was backed up to Shaws going, yeah. It's busy out there. this is the heart of it. Yep. We're in it. let's just jump right in. let's understand who was Ryan Hawks? So for those who'd never met Ryan, how would you describe him as a person? Ryan was a Vermont, kid that people just wanted to be around. When he came into the room, it was a breath of fresh air. Not because he did anything but just something permeated. the area that he inhabited. And, he attracted people. He was very, even keeled in terms of, the way he addressed and felt about people. Everybody was the same as far as he was concerned. So there was no caste system in his life. Yeah. and people, just instinctively gravitated toward that, Here's a kid who could basically be the most stupid kid in the room. He was totally inane. and if something looked like it was fun, and it wasn't mean-spirited, he just came because here's a kid who didn't have to look over his shoulder, to see what everybody's thinking. He was self-directed. Yeah. by his own, sense of values. And, and, he really filled, each moment of the day, like he said in his core value statement, live every day, all day. And his job was to live. Yeah. an example would be he'd get done studying around 10 or 11, get a cheat. Up at UVM, where he is a seven year student, not a four year student, because he never let academics get in the way of his life. he had his professors and the dean of the, mechanical engineering school just wrapped around his finger and, and he'd bring them chocolate chip cookies and, he just, he knew how to play the game and get to where he wanted to be, which is on snow in the wintertime. Nice. And at 11 o'clock at night, he'd just round up a bunch of folks, snowboarders included, and he'd head for Mad River. Wow. And they'd climb over to Stark's Nest and have a couple of beers and go to bed. About four, get up about six, and ski down in the fresh powder. Nice. Where the line is assembling at the single chair and they say, sorry guys. It's all used up and the snowboarders are coming down with him. Oh, nice. and he was a free ride coach at Mad River. Okay. And normally that would be considered bad behavior, but he could just pull it off. He'd just give him a smile and say, Hey, I didn't wanna waste all that good inventory. And is that where you grew up skiing? Did you grow up ski at Mad River or did you grow up? I grew up skiing just, all over Vermont. Brattleboro was my hometown. Oh, okay. I was a jumper and a four. Yeah, the old ski jump in Brattleboro, we had the Harris Hill there. Yeah. Was that the hockey rank? In Brattleboro, was that right? By the hockey rink? The gym? I don't know. I've been there for a while. There might be a hockey, it used to be a big field, but there might be a, I think so now. Yeah. Yeah. I played hockey growing up. I remember. So it's growing up and the hill's larger. Bigger than it used to be. It used to be a natural takeoff. You'd hit it about 60 miles an hour. We didn't wear goggles back then. We didn't wear helmets, and we had to go away before you get over the knoll. So you had to be really trucking. Clocked at about 60, when we hit the takeoff. A long takeoff is a nice ride down there until you finally, now we see where Ryan got some of it, right? Yeah. Yeah. You're no s slot yourself. you mentioned, his passion for skiing. Could you maybe just give some background, was he competing? free ride skiing? it was very interesting. He just loved to ski. And, he did not go out for the ski team at South Burlington High School until his junior year. And because he was such a good skier, he just fell into the whole race scene. And the coach Al Dvo said, Ryan, where the hell have you been? All this stuff. And, he made it very clear, he enjoyed, competing in Alpine. but he said. These alpine racers, they're standing around all the time. Yeah. I'd rather be skiing. Yeah. So he never got suckered into The compete in an urge to win kind of situation. He just wanted to be out on the hill. Yeah. He wanted to be exploring. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Very cool. So he never got distracted from his just passion for the sport itself in its purest form. Yeah. Got it. Loved the woods, and had lots of adventurous places to go. And ultimately he and Lars Chickering heirs, a Barry boy who was very well known as a skier. winner of a number of tour events. he and Ryan traveled around the west in a van. They called the general Nice. And it was, it was an oil consuming van, vegetable oil, and it was very cantankerous, and fortunately. Lars would win some events and they'd get hotel lodging. Yeah. That's pressure to win. and yeah. And Lars was not really a big people person, so he always had the van to go back to for peace and quiet. But Ryan would beat him to it because he'd find three or four kids who didn't have a place to stay. Said, no problem. We got a place for you. And he'd have'em all stuffed into the van, and Lars would come out there and say. There's no room at the end tonight. But they were good buddies and and he was very welcoming on the tour. He was highly respected on the Free Ride World Tour in its inception, okay? and it's, it got to be a pretty complicated political mess as time went on. But that was beyond Brian's time. Okay. pretty pure sport back in his day, developing. Got it. Developing sport. Got it. so just kinda maybe take us through, his accident and bring us into sort of the Yeah, it is, he was out at Kirkwood, California. in an event and he had a line picked out. That was a pretty, pretty gnarly line. Both he and Lars were, we're gonna do this line. And it wasn't really on the beaten path. It was a little bit off the main line where most people were going. And Ryan, executed about a 40 foot back flip. And put it down in an approved landing area. But there's a little spire of rock under the snow about like that. And 99 times out of a hundred, if not more, that'd be a deflection.'cause you're coming out of the sky and you got momentum and you skied de flex and you just ski off. in this case he hit it just perfect. storm of misfortune. Just went straight under the foot, straight up through his body and just raised holy hell. And, And I know he would've said, Hey dad, the way he was put together, he had no rear view mirror. He'd say, Hey dad, I knew the risks. It is what it is. Yeah. Yeah. he wouldn't have been crying tears'cause he got taken out. Yeah. But when he did leave, they left my helicopter and went down to the renowned hospital in Reno. Yeah. And people came from all over the west. He hung on for three days, massive amounts of blood. He tore his aorta and he wrecked his insides. And femur was toast. And just a lot of injuries. and, people were just holding court in the, In the, emergency area waiting area. they just came from all over. Yeah. and it was a real testimony to, the impact and the heartfelt urge for, to help Ryan. Hang on. Yeah. but, ultimately we, we had to make the decision of Jackie and I, we don't always see eye to eye. We're husband to wife. But, we both felt, that, it was best that we let him go. He'd had a full life. And when you think about time, not only millions, but billions of years and we try to hang on for a hundred years. What's the difference if you get 25 or 75 or a hundred? Yeah, it's not a big deal. the big deal is how you use your time when you're here. Absolutely. and he maxed out. And so we accept that and as I've said many times, we lost his body to that accident. But his spirit a hundred percent intact. Yeah. His spirit is energy and energy is matter. And matter doesn't fail to exist. It just changes form. Like snow to ice, to rain, to do those clouds, all the same stuff. Yep. It just reincarnates. And so as far as I'm concerned, Ryan is in every respect, a current event. Not only in my life, but in thousands of lives. Yeah. There's so many people who ask themselves before they do something. What would Ryan do? he has that. if that is a legacy, I don't know. What is the fact that he has that kind of currency, 15 years beyond, after he, he's passed and we of course foster, that thinking. And we want people not to be. Pulled around on a string of the expectations of others. We want people to take responsibility for their lives and understand that everything you do in life, everything is a choice. And it's not what's going on around you. It's not the stuff you can't change, the stuff you can change, and all these things that are happening. What counts is how you react. To what's happening and what's that? That's a choice. And so if you have a foundation, a solid foundation that's built on core values that you constructed from your core spirit, you can't get away from it. when you're on track and you know when you're off. And and life is more intentional and likely to be more fulfilling. And the more we can get people to really shift gears. And take ownership of who they are and responsibility for their decision making, the better it's gonna be. Yeah. in terms of the way life goes. Yeah. and people sense it. When you start living in a deliberative way, you attract people and friends come your way and the whole nine yards. so we're trying to basically make the world a better place. One person, one day, one event, one core value, one decision at a time, power one. Talk to a hundred people. I get one. It's a home run. Yeah. That's great. It's all That's awesome. really powerful stuff. Thanks you for sharing that. It's, it really is powerful stuff and, And it's not being given the attention that it should have in the education system. And here in Vermont, we're a step ahead of the game. We have what's called the personal learning plan, which is legislated mandated curriculum. That's supposed to be in every single school in the state. Yeah. It was mandated roughly eight or nine years ago, and roughly 20% of the schools in the state today use it. We found out about the program and we got ourselves inserted into the program. We're a special exercise that precedes the personal learning plan. So technically we are qualified within the curriculum to be in every school in the state, in front of every student. But we're not, because most of the schools, just because they don't know how to teach it or to teach or, yeah. It's complicated. Yeah, it's complicated. I'll use South Burlington High School as an example. We've had about 3000 kids go through the program, at South Burlington High School. the school principal, is just. An incredible guy who said is the most powerful program he's ever seen in terms of the impact on the climate and the culture of the school. But here's the reality of the 3000 kids who've gone through the program, there are 30 teachers for the sophomore class facilitators each having about 10 kids. It's a 300 class person class, and a third of the teachers never get there. A third of the teachers give it. Lip service. And a third of the teachers really embrace it. Yeah. So 3000 ain't 3000. It's 1000. and that's with the kids who are really impacted by it. that's with all that positivity that they have to offer to the people around them, they're still not getting there. Even at home base. So it's not a given. Yeah. It's an option. And each one of his, its choices, everybody's making choices, and it's so easy to go along with a crowd and get sucked in by all the other noise, the negativity of the noise. Yeah. I call it the static. Yeah. And we want, we want people to put the noise in the back of the bus. Yeah. Yeah. And, and we're starting to have some interesting, extensions. To our footprint. we, participate in the Vermont Charities Golf Tournament, which is run by Vermont National Life through the Vermont Agency over in Burlington. And the lady who heads up their innovative wellness center really liked what we did, had us come in and do the core values. What we call the core values challenge. Step one is learn about core values. Step two is right down the core values. Step three is to turn the core values into pictures to make it more meaningful. Step four is where the rubber hits the road. As the owner of your identity now with your core values, you then in the school invite the people who are important to you to come in and you tell'em who you are and where you're headed in life. And I've been to about 40 of these presentations and it's mind blowing. I've seen parents in tears. I've seen kids blossom. Kids who were not public speakers by nature grow inside their presentation of who they are. in number of cases, say it's a real game changer. Yeah. they've got ownership that, the biggest issue in this country, according to some new friends we just inherited this last year through Vermont Agency, which I started to talk about, they gave us an introduction to a, an outfit called Sweethearts and Roses. And if you want somebody to talk to. Talked to Tom Murphy from Sweethearts and Moses. He's an old mixed martial arts guy. he is like Dwayne Johnson, big dude. And we were given an opportunity to talk to him. And his big mission is that the pandemic in this country much bigger than the pandemic of, COVID-19 is hopelessness. Said hopelessness is a critical ingredient. That needs to be addressed. over half the people in this country don't have two extra nickels to make life work. They're living under stress and they feel that government's failed them. Whole lot of people are having a hard time fighting quality of life. And this sense of hopelessness is, is a really serious issue. Yeah. Yeah. So this guy is addressing this up in St. Albans. Huh? Up in St. Albans. He with what he's doing is addressed, suicide and bullying is the two major faces of hopelessness. And he's got four programs that are designed for K through 12, grades, one through three, four through six, seven through nine, nine through 12. Four layers of leadership on how to overcome hopelessness. And I'll just give you an example of one of'em is what he calls his circle. You put people in a circle and all of a sudden they're connected and they talk in ways that are different than if they were not in a circle. he has had, access and been in front of over 2 million, 2 million kids, K through 12. He's getting government funding, state funding. he has a capacity for outreach. That totally dwarfs anything we've done in the last, we've been around since 2011 and it's 2025. But he has the capacity to totally dwarf what we're doing and he likes what we've done. And so he had his production crew,'cause he has people all around him doing this, that and the other things. Had his production crew come down with the lights and the cameras and and four hours. He got a four hour. Dose of flying Ryan. Nice. And he's now in the process of incorporating the core values exercise that we feel so strongly about into all four modules of leadership. And it's taking some time and some expertise. It's well beyond and we've given it green light. Whatever you wanna do, Tom, fine with me. That's great. But if you want, if you really want to have somebody who's compelling to talk to. Awesome. That's great idea. Ah, yeah. When I met him for a one hour interview, he said, I, and he said, be there at 12.'cause I got a one o'clock meeting. He said, I'll be there. And we sat down and the first thing he did, he said, tell me about your mom and dad. I what to talk about. Is this a therapy session? And 40 minutes later he is still drilling down. Yeah. Yeah. Into my life. Yeah. And he's, and he's the kind of guy who, when he looks at you. He is not intimidating. He's a big guy. Yeah. His biceps are out to here and all that shit. But, he looks at you like he's a fricking sponge. He just sucks in everything you're saying and not too much escapes him. you had mentioned 2011. Yeah. Was that, that's when Ryan died? Yeah. Okay. So maybe just share, when did the inspiration come with you and your wife to, do something in, in honor of Ryan? the first thing that happened is before the sun even set that day, the people who ran the tour. Put together a memorial fund Yeah. For the Flying Ryan Foundation. Cool. And then we found Ryan's core values on his computer and we wanted to, extend the impact of his life. And he just did this on his own. The core values? Yeah. Yeah. All on his own. Chances are. Chances are, it was after midnight. Chances are he had the headphones on. He was, listen to the rega, maybe at the top of Mad River. Who knows Who am I? Yeah. it's a great question. Ask. he could exist on very little sleep. he, people marveled it. he'd go to bed late and he's up early. Hot to truck. I dunno if it was the best thing for him, but that's the way he floated his boat. But at any rate, he was just, he just, put these things down as a private note. From Ryan to Ryan. It wasn't for broadcasting. Yeah. That wasn't the way he operated and found, yeah, it wasn't doing it for fanfare or anything. Yeah. We found that just who it was. We found it out on his computer and I said, that's a set of rails we're running on. So we just shared that for a couple of years and then we said, this isn't making the world a better place. Ryan's good. People liked what he wrote down and so we said, let's turn it into an action program. Nice because, core value is a basis for decision. It's gotta have a verb. And you ask some kids, what's core value? They say, family, no. That's a noun, right? That's nothing. You, but how do you treat family? Be the best son, uncle I can be. Yeah. as Ryan. And that was one of core values there. That's one of his core values. Yeah. And so we make sure that people know that it's not a numbers game. You don't have to have 13'cause Ryan had 13. Yeah. It's quality, not quantity. It's what's in your heart and tap into it. And it's a marathon with our core values challenge. We finally took us 10 years. I'm not the swiftest tack on the block, but it took us 10 years to realize that we gotta have a faster way to get people actually doing something about, changing the way they go about life. And so we came up with a core values challenge, which basically sits in a QR code, that it goes right to your phone and for the phone, it goes right to why we think core values are important. And the next thing you know, you're write down my first core value right there. It's not a application or anything. It's in our website's, embedded in our website. So they start writing down their core values and they submit'em. We get to see'em. We put'em up on the core values wall on our website, and we put their name on the core values wall, and we built the source. If there's a source like Jersey Mike's, Jersey, Mike's is nothing but Jersey Mike's except. For the Flying Ryan decal on the front door, and except for our big 24 by 30 poster with Ryan halfway to heaven and his core values. And the QR code at the bottom saying, why don't you do the same thing he did, start writing your core values and it boom puts him right into the website. Yeah. and, sweethearts and Heroes is gonna be working with this and, sports and fitness Edge. He's just getting going after five years of a Yep. Mating dance. Getting on board. Yeah. they're on board now. Awesome. And, their leadership team on the 16th of, October. it's gonna come together. Mike pulled up. I've got Ryan's, he's pulling up the core values. Values live every day, all day. Yeah. Never stop exploring life. That's right. Never lose my adventuresome attitude. Be the best friend I can be. Be the best brother, son, uncle. I can look out for others. Look out for myself. Look out for our surroundings. Yeah. He goes both sides. Like the Yeah. that's important though. Work hard, live easy. If you're giving to other people. Yeah. Yeah. You gotta take care of you too. Be resourceful. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Yeah. Humility, and Yeah. Play like I'm 13. That's one of my favorite. I like that one. That's one of my favorites.'cause Ryan didn't need the approval of the crowd. Yeah. we went to a big formal wedding at the Shelburn Farms. And, people were all over the place standing up and having drinks and having looking well dressed and all of that. Ryan had his shirt off. He was rolling around with five or 6, 5, 6, 7 year olds. He was grass stained and he was just rolling around on the grass, and loving it. He was having more fun. Yeah. Than most of the people standing around talking about Very little. Yeah. Yeah. the older you get, the less you. Keep playing like you were 13. Yeah. You have to think of, most people look around, but they can't help but think, how's this gonna be perceived? If I do this or do that. Yeah. Because it's a little bit true. Little bit silly. Yeah. So true. Ryan didn't have that. Yeah. He didn't have that holdback. Yeah. And that's why he was so refreshing to be around.'cause you never know what insanity was gonna come. and then, and you're living free, you're living, it's the way you describe it, he was living free. Perfect. There was no. There's no baggage, there's no inner dialogue about should I do this, should I not? What are people gonna think? and that's, that's amazing. Spot on. Spot on. And that's freedom. we talk about this country, land of the free yeah. Most of us aren't free. It's also how you discover new things and you have to throw yourself out there to, oh, I like to do that. I didn't even know I would, might try that. Kinda open-minded. Open-minded. I'll just read his last few'cause I think they're all great. So we had play like I'm 13. Be self-sufficient. Don't be afraid to ask for help. Work hard. Live easy. Live simply. Absolutely. These are great ones, right? Like it's got me thinking. I tonight, I know. What are you thinking? I need some time to reflect. I need some time to tap into my heart, really dig into it, to be honest, because otherwise I'd just be saying it, seeking approval. I feel like I have some that I think I live by, but I probably do need to think about this. I remember what I forgot now. It's amazing that mine comes back to me every once in a while. Oh, I wanted to talk about Ryan and money. Okay. Ryan recognized the need and the necessity to generate revenue to make life work, but he was never held prisoner to money. He had a really mature attitude, toward money. If he loaned you, if he loaned you money, for whatever reason, he didn't keep books, he didn't expect to be paid back. If you paid back, that was your business, not his business. Once he made the loan. that was history. As far as he was concerned. Yeah. he worked for a Vermont tent company. Yep. That's tough work. Put it tent. Oh yeah, that is, and he loved it because he said, this is like training for skiing and I'm getting paid for it. And so in no time at all, he became a crew chief and he would turn all kinds of these onerous tasks into games and competitions. he had a high spirited crew that was having a ball and getting paid. And they were very sad not to have more Yeah. Of Ryan than Yeah. Than they got. Yeah. and subsequently, whenever we want a tent, we get a tent for an event. They just had been very good to us. Yeah. Majestic Mount Mansfield embodies the spirit of Stowe heritage. And we're proud to present the Octagon Podcast, a true reflection of our amazing community. Stowe Living is honored to sponsor this podcast. We're helping you live your best life daily with stunning furniture, unique design, kitchenwares, thoughtful gifts sourced from around the world. Thank you Stowe for your continued support of Stowe Living and the Octagon Podcast. When it comes to luxury real estate in Stowe Trust, Meg Kaufman of Land Vests, Christie's International Real Estate. Meg Kaufman knows the market inside and out. She's been a part of the Stowe community for over 20 years. Whether you're buying or selling, Meg Kaufman offers a concierge level of service. Taylor, just for you. Backed by the power of land vests and Christie's International. She brings proven success and local insight to every transaction, luxury real estate, local expertise. Meg Kaufman and Land Vests are the team you want on your side. but Ryan was, was not held hostage to money. And in large measure, he learned a little bit of that from me, but my attitude had to mature to catch up with his, and I'll give you an example. It was really fun. He was on the bus one day up at UVM and it was crowded. and he saw a girl in the back of the bus and the girl had a one of these home spun, heavy knit. Peruvian hats. And he said, I gotta have a hat like that. Look at that hat. That hat's awesome. And he starts shoveling his way back through the bus and he gets to the colonel, he said, I love your hat. Could you make me a hat like that? And she said, yeah, I guess I could. He said, great. And it was time for him to get off. He said, here's$20. I'll see ya. End of transaction. She didn't know his name. Yeah, he didn't know her name. He just had that trust and his friend said, Ryan, are you half crazy? Yeah. You just gave away 20 bucks there. you're dead meat there, man. That was our burn drinking money to me. And four or five weeks went by. He's on the bus again. Low ball. This girl shows up. Wow. She takes into her pocket book. I love that story. I mean that, that's just pure Ryan. Yeah. Yeah. Doesn't make any sense for most people wouldn't be qualified transaction, but for Ryan, yeah. hat living forever of attach that hat and proud of Joy. Either way. Hat joy. Either way. That hat was his one way or the other. That's it. That's it. That's very cool. Yeah. So that was Ryan and Money, and I learned that from Ryan. Yeah. And I appreciated that. Yeah.'cause he was as much my mentor as I was. We were very symbiotic. We went. Yeah. Yeah. Sounds like place. Yeah. Yeah. So tell us, how could we start thinking about our core values? how do you help people think through this? Because I think maybe, like you said, people may get hung up and don't see it through. So take us through a little mini. Core values session. It's not that hard. Okay? All you have to do is say, who am I? And then you start asking yourselves, who am I? And ask yourself who you are through the lens of your inner spirit. Each one of us has a unique core spirit. Yep. That's ours. Nobody else's. Absolutely. And you tap into that. That's your heart and your gut, and. And it, this is no place to tell stories to yourself. I would say, who am I really, if I wanna be my best self? And you start working on some of these ideas and eventually it starts to gel into, the core values, which become a basis for action. So I want my life to subscribe to who I think I am. Which is gaining the freedom That you're talking about. Yeah. Get out from under, the guise of the expectations of others. Yeah. Because so many people are trying to bring you down as well. Not everybody's in your camp. Yeah, that's true. They can do it very gracefully or gracelessly one way or the other. Either way, they're trying to get you off your pens, particularly if they're jealous. A hundred percent and shortsighted. And a victim of the hopelessness. Yeah. When they're hopeless, you get mean. Yeah. And mean manifests itself in, in, in, difficult behavior. Yeah. and you gotta be able to float above the fray and not get taken down. Yeah. It's true. and core values is important stuff. Yeah. And the education community hasn't quite figured that out. And the various elements of the, secular community, the religious community. My god's better than your God. Yeah. That ain't the answer there. 15 gods out there all competing for first place. Now that's religion. so bottom line is the freedom Yeah. Is in, the, the authenticity Yeah. Of, of having self identity that you cannot escape. Yeah. Yeah.'cause it came from the right spot. and I think you'll know when you create your core values, when you stray off of them, you're, gives you guardrails. You're feel it. You guard rails helps you make decisions. You're gonna feel it. Yeah. one guy who took core values to a bit of an extreme was Ben Franklin. He wrote down his core values. Huh. And every night in his night down, he would sit at the side of the bed and review the day in terms of his core values. And it was in a book about Ben Franklin. And that may have been the inspiration that, that got Ryan thinking about his core values. Because I know that he and his best friend, one of his best friends, Matt Ceroni, both read that book. This has really got me thinking, Mike. Yeah, this is great stuff, Peter. really, I appreciate being here. I know for me, standing on my little pulpit here, that I've shared another podcast. I'm, I've been sober 11 years, I had a battle with addiction and as I reflect now, yeah, that's one of my core values, and every day for 11 years. I wake up in the morning, and that is one of them. It has brought its challenges, but I've embraced it as who I am and it has created so many good things in my life and it's non-negotiable for me. That's right. And that's, so it's just reflecting, you're on both sides of that equation. Yeah. And so you're the only person you're reporting to. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. and you can't cheat on yourself. Yeah. And it's just wild. the things that, when you have core values, whatever, how you treat people, whatever it may be, what happens around you after that? Yeah, that you could think you have a core value, whatever it may be like, okay, I'm just doing this, it might feel like drudgery, but as life goes on, things happen around you. Oh yeah. In a good way. Oh, yeah. When you commit to them. Yeah. A hundred percent. Like ab Absolutely. Yeah. It's, it's choices. Yeah. Everything is a choice. It is a choice every day. Yeah. How you get out of bed in the morning, put your foot on the floor is a fricking choice who you spend time with. Who do you surround yourself with? Yeah. Surround yourself with people who Lift you up. Yeah. I was just thinking I think for me, like one is don't follow the herd. yeah, that's right. like when I first moved here 15 years ago, I do software sales. I lived in Boston. Everybody lived in a city that did what I did. And I was like, I wanna move to Vermont. People kept saying, you can't do that, you can't do that. You can't live there. You gotta live near a city. I said, I'm gonna go try it. particularly now, particularly right, but you followed the herd. You kept total freedom in terms of where you're located. so I was way ahead of that, right? this was, the internet was just, so like you bought some freedom. I bought freedom. So when you made that decision, like how many people rough guess, were just perplexed or tried to talk you out of it? hundred hundreds. yeah. You said you're crazy. You can't do that happen. No. It's like you can't do that. Yeah. You can't do that. You just can't do that. Watch me. And I've tried to always think about that. don't fall the herd. Do what you wanna do. Don't worry about the noise. Absolutely. Can always go back. Can always go join the herd. If you're It's true. It's a good point. Absolutely. It's a good point. So I don't dunno if that's I'm gonna refine that, but that's in there somewhere. Yeah. But to answer your question, it just, you start thinking about it is one way, another way. And that's in the car's not here. I'm gonna give you one of my cards. Yeah, please. The QR code. Okay, nice. It'll put you into the content in our website. Okay, great. Our website, there's a thing that called the Core Values Challenge. Boom. You plug that. Go to the menu. Go to Core Values Challenge. Checking up on yours, Mike, I'm gonna watch yours. It just takes you right through. The reasoning Yeah. That we talked about. Great. and you can keep going and then you have to put down your name and how you heard about us and and then you start writing. Everything's a choice. You can read a paragraph and quit. Yeah. That's, we don't care. Yeah. it's, and do you have a list of other people's core values that people could maybe refer to just to get, see Yeah. Famous people or who, whoever. all our board of directors, we have seven directors. Their core values are all up on the website. Okay. Board of directors, what are their core values? The board of directors, so that's our leadership. our core values wall has a name, but you plugged into that name and all of a sudden you're into their core values. So the core values, we got thousands of core values up there. Yeah. A lot of it's rep repetitive and. Can those change and be tweaked? Absolutely. Okay. Yeah. I would think so. Absolutely. Is. You start with a little sprint. Yep. Yeah. But it's a marathon. Yeah. It's a marathon that keeps on going Yep. Until you die. Yep. my latest core value, came when I was 78. And actually in the earlier life, my substitute for. Personal core values till Ryan came along and screwed up the works by Diane and had me write my own core values. before that I was a Rotarian and I was a boy scout, be prepared kind of thing. But as a Rotarian, a long time, Rotarian, we had the four way test of everything you say and can do. Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? And is it beneficial to all concerned? And I thought that was really important, and I used that as my guidepost in decision making as a broker at Dean Whitter. It was right on my desk. It was right there where I couldn't escape it. Every transaction had to go through that, those filters. And when I was president of the Burlington Rotary Club, we had 165 Rotarians, and maybe a third of them knew the four-way test. When I became president, but after I called on people for about 20 or 30 weeks and had them say, tell me about the four weight test. by the end of the year everybody in our club, and I wasn't impeached. Some people wanted to said, come on, this is, if you're pretty heavy handed here, it's pretty important stuff. throw me out if you want to, we're doing the four way test in my presidency. Don't. Nice. Done. That's cool. If anybody's listening or hears that you can give me some crap about it. just looking at the foundation from a larger lens, you talk about work in schools and programming and all that. Do you have events or maybe just give a broad overview of the structure of. Of the foundation. Yeah. basically I'm pretty much the go-to guy Nice, for the foundation, but I have an operations manager who's fantastic. She's just so reliable, so good, and so efficient and so everything I'm not, which is great. and I have an IT guy who's basically, he's a pro bono kind of guy. He's, and he. He basically, keeps me out of some deep trouble in that arena. and, yeah. and we've have run a number of events and my daughter is, active. In the, in the foundation. We give adventure scholarships. Awesome. And she heads up that program, but I implement it. And our adventure scholarship for us is, I think, pretty cool. It reflects Ryan. We want people to lead authentic lives that are driven by passion, and we want'em to tap into their passion as part of their reality. And, so that's what we're looking for. We're not looking for Olympic athletes. We're looking for, adventurers of any age at all. 12 up. We could cut it off someplace though, but yeah, so we're looking for adventures who don't have the means to execute. Something that they're really dreaming about. And if they share that with us, and they also tell us who it is, who's asking by giving us their core values. That's all it takes for us to make an award. That's really cool. And we've given over 200 awards in the last. 12 years or so. 12, 13 years. That is great. Cool. what's an example like this? an example is a guy, this is a pending award that we haven't made yet, but we expect to. Yeah. A guy in Montpelier who is about 40 and he loves the outdoors, just loves the outdoors and he. He found that he was learning more about the outdoors by learning about tracking Than just going out and appreciating, by hiking and just being outside. So he got very involved in tracking and the only place that had tracking curriculum was Sterling College, just north of Montpelier. Yeah. So he went to Sterling College and learned how to be a very good tracker. and then the guy who ran the tracking program died and they asked him to take over the program. So now he's running the tracking program and he wants to go to somewhere in Africa, where the greatest tracker in the world lives and spend two months with him next winter. Love it. And we're gonna help him get there. Yeah. Wow. and that's rad. he, if Casey's listening, his name's Jonathan. Okay. And, and he knows that he's got an award coming. We haven't made it yet, but he knows it's coming. What a cool story. Yeah. And, another one, our awards come go all over the place. Up in Alaska. There's a girl, age seven, she started helping out one of these mushing teams. She loved the dog, she loved the mushing, and, the guy who had the team, died. And she inherited the team. She was at that point, 19 or 20 And she was just all about mushing, but she didn't have the money to get into the qualifying races to qualify for the Iditarod. we made sure that she had the money for the qualifying races, and now she has her own team and she's respected and she's an Iditarod racer. And we've helped people do the Pacific Crest Trail. Yep. across the country. How many miles is that? That's huge. It's a big one. I dunno. 1500 or so. Yeah, I thought a couple thousand. Yeah. Wow, Peter. That is, that's awesome. That's what it's all about, man. And we have a guy that's so cool in Afghanistan wants to put together a mountain biking program to display the beauty Of Afghanistan. Yeah, he's a, Middlebury College graduate who could have gone to Goldman Sachs. Yeah. But he wanted to go back to Afghanistan and make a difference. Oh, because he knew what his core values were, right? Yeah. He knew who he was. Oh, he, oh yeah. Oh yeah. He knew who he was, what he wanted. we have another guy who would, somewhere in, in the Middle East, works with disabled adventurers and helps them get outdoors, much like Kelly Brush does here. Yeah. Wow. And we could, it's amazing. They all find you applications. They find you, they know well, pretty easy if you say adventure on Google. Yeah. foundation. and and you say scholarship. Wow. We're there. Fine. what an impact we're there. So that's real impact. we've never very cool. Turned down an application. Yeah. Rolling application all the time. Rolling. Okay. Yeah. And that's awesome. If somebody gives us a weak application. We go back and we try to build a bridge and strengthen the application. Yeah. And we will keep that process going. Yeah. Teach'em as long as necessary. And usually it's only one or two steps. It goes one way or the other. Drops off. Yep. Or comes together. He gives the opportunity kid Trucky, who is working in a ski shop. He couldn't string two words together. It was pretty tough for him Yeah. At doing this thing. But he really wanted to, get on the free ride road tour. He a good skier. Wow. And. He gave us an application that was, it was pretty weak. And so we steered him and his fourth shot. Nice. He nailed it. And he got the award. Yeah. And That was one of the most satisfying Yeah. Awards that we've given.'cause his kid would not give him, oh, he got the award and then all the skills he taught him and he got the award Yeah. That he can take with him as well. Oh yeah. it was a journey for him. It was a journey for us. But we built a bridge that had some meaning, that had some value to it. I love it. Love it. I'm just curious, do you have any other stories from people doing the core value challenge? Anyone that stands out that you helped come up with their core values and transform them or helped them in a unique way? nothing specific. Okay. Other than the fact I've probably had. Hundreds of folks tell me they come to you. They, the core values have just changed their lives. Yeah. And just really just that, that, that life is just a whole different kettle of fish. Yeah. Because of the privilege of, of getting connected and establishing identification that, that, made a difference in how they navigate through the day. Yeah. and basically we're trying to put the hopelessness at the back of the bus Yeah. And replace it with freedom like you were talking about. That's, and freedom means just being authentic. Being real. Yeah. and being able to shovel off all the shit that's out there. how do you feel you've grown as a person since, Ryan's passing and the starting of this foundation and just what has that process been like for you? for me, I think it has, given me the privilege. of really having the opportunity to have a meaningful impact Yep. On the lives of, at this point, thousands of people. Yeah. Thousands of people. Yeah. And we don't always get, like I said, we don't have to hit home brunt. But, we connect in, in varying degrees. Yeah. With, and our footprint is continuing to grow, and that's a privilege. That I am absolutely grateful for. Yeah. I'm just grateful is a, is an ongoing commodity in my daily life. there's active gratitude and passive gratitude. Gratitude's a nice thing to say and nice thing to, talk about, but Yeah. But when you're really grateful It's an active process to say, thank God I've got the privileges that you do have. Yeah. Very cool. That's great. So maybe let's just talk a little bit about you. I read, I looked you up and I saw when you were 58 you were introduced to mountain biking. You never mountain biked before you were 58? No. There was no such thing. That's insane. You took it up at 58 and you competed National Masters Championships. tell us a little bit about that. Ryan was a very good mountain biker. Yeah. And he was the kind of natural athlete. Who would put down his lacrosse stick at the end of Spring High school, and then we'd go to a national, competition. Nova had a series of six or seven national events, big ones where the kids from all over the country, the junior experts, and he was a junior expert, would come and compete. And these are kids from California and Florida who just, all they did was ride bikes. Ryan. Was riding bike, maybe fourth or fifth time out since last winter or last fall, and he could compete with these guys. He was just so gifted, comfortable with speed. Yep. and, and when it comes to speed events, you've gotta have confidence and commitment. The confidence has to be real. It can't be artificial. And once you've got the confidence and you know what your skill sets are. Then, and you trust your equipment, then you're equipped to go fast. because you commit. And you can't be half committed. No, definitely not. That doesn't work. and I, some of that I think probably rubbed off from me. Yeah. through the years.'cause I got Ryan's hand me down bike. So I started competing here in New England. Wow. In the 40 plus. And at the time I was pushing 60, so I had a few years on these guys. Which means I had a few less injuries than most of them. And so I started winning the events around here. Then I started doing the national series where they have a 60 plus category. And I won the national series. Is this, downhill mountain biking or This is downhill. Downhill. This is all downhill. Wow. This is all, idiots Delight. You gotta commit, like you said. Oh yeah. Full on. And, that qualified me out in Durango to go to the World Masters Championships. Wow. Which was anybody over 30, 35 to 40, 40 to 45. And so on. Up the line to 60. They break it off at 60. And, so I qualified to go to the World Championships. I'm not going to Australia to go to a mountain bike race, but race. But, they had the national, the world championships up at Bromont Canada. yeah. Just over the border. Yeah. Eastern Township. Pretty gnarly little, track up there. And so I went up there and it was a very adventuresome week and I wound up winning that thing. Wow. So I won the World Sick Championship. Wow. for 60 plus. That is, that's sick. Impressive. I thought so. Yeah. And I remember, standing on the podium, when they're playing the Star Spangled Banner, all that stuff, I'm thinking about the Civil War in Gettysburg. That's the first thing that comes to mind. And the absolute. Gratitude for being an American and having the privilege of living in America. that's, it just blew me away that's what I was thinking about. Yeah. And then they give you some champagne, by the way, the worst rock cut in the world, and I took it down to my friend Alec in the ski shop, or the bike shop or other. Alec was the guy who single handedly kept my bike in business and kept me in business for that first, first championship. Yeah. And then I came back as the number one seed the next year and they changed the track. The first year was tough, but the second year was a lower speed track that was more technical, and I had 17 basically practice runs, and I had splattered all over the hill 17 times. My thumb was up to here and it was hard to hang onto the handlebars. And race day, what am I gonna do? I said, this thing will never do. So good old duct tape. Duct tape to the hand. I hadn't been down the course, hadn't completed it once. Wow. and, but I said, as far as I go, as far as I go, let's go. off I went. And it was a miracle run. Never looked down, let the bike do what it's gonna do. And I got right near the bottom. And we're coming out of some real technical stuff. I'm in a steep little trench where the wheels trying to climb out the side and hit rocks and throw you around I said. What the hell am I doing? And finished it out. Yeah. Got my second world championship. Nice. Amazing miracle. Amazing duct tape. Then I knew I cut the duct tape off. Duct tape got I'd used my chips. You like a duct tape sponsorship. That was it. I'd used all my chips and I haven't been near, a speed event. Ah, you must just shred down our trails here. Katy Hill and Hall Palooza. I do still go down there pretty good. Yeah. He's got an e-bike. Yeah, he's got an e-bike. Ted still doing it at age. How old are you? 87. 87. That's awesome. Still mountain biking. It's awesome. It's amazing. But, it was fun. I've just played fall a lot compared to my friends. They never fall. I don't know why, but I fall. But in the last year or two, I've stopped falling. All right, nice. And I've just, knock on wood. Yeah. Knock on wood. Same thing on skis. I fall down a lot, but last year I had, two runs on the nose dive and, no, I had one run with two falls on the nose dive in December. And I'm just skiing a big wide, basically free ride wheel tour type of planks.'cause they give them to me, but it's the wrong ski. And so I talked to technical blizzard. They said, now we got a pair of skis for you. This is a thing called the anomaly. And so they sent me a pair of these things and I, so I putting feathers on my feet. Yeah. And I put those on. That's a good feeling in January. And I haven't been down since. I still ski in the same way. There you go. And I ski old fashioned. I ski with my feet. Right together. Right together. Yeah. Because it's pretty, yeah. Yeah. Did you have bamboo poles? But I could go out like this and Yeah. And basically pull on the edge and stem, Christie. Oh my god. Yeah. I can do that too. Yeah. Awesome. we're gonna get, just getting ready to wrap up and, Thank you so much, Peter. Yeah. This has really been, a pleasure. I know. Inspirational for me, I have seen the stickers for years. Yeah. Flying Rhine stickers. I didn't know a ton about it and I got some in the car one for your back windshield. Oh, I, it's like Waldo. Absolutely. When you see a sticker you say, oh, I know about, I will be putting on tonight. I know. Really powerful. Yeah. Super. episode for me. Thank you. where can listeners. Find the website. Is it flying ryan.com or what? where can they find fly ryan hawks.uh.org Flying ryan hawks.org. Awesome. Awesome. And we'll be sure to put, information in our Instagram post too. Yeah. Okay. Just so our listeners can super, can, can find the website and all the cool information. Super. Thanks Peter. That was great. That's, it's been grand. Awesome. Thank you so much. Hope you enjoyed that episode of the Octagon Podcast. Remember to like us on Instagram and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. See you next time.