We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ryder Nicholas a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ryder, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the story behind how you got your first job in field that you currently practice in.

I’ve been fortunate to work with leaders who trust me to take on tasks I might not embrace on my own accord. 3 years ago, I left my interim teaching job with no plan of action or job lined up. Within 1 week, I heard through a family member that a sustainable conference production company, Green Fern Events, was hiring an Events Manager. I’d never worked in large scale events before, but I applied, stating my expertise of planning events for 60 high school students. I figured that experience would totally transfer to a 1,500 person conference! And, well, it did, but it did not come without a slew of anxiety and imposter syndrome. I’ve now produced 3 record-breaking conferences for the compost industry.

Although, that is only the beginning of the story, and an even more exciting industry was in my path. Through conference production, I learned that volunteering is a key factor in making or breaking an event. I observed volunteers of all ages, from all walks of life, coming together to be of service in exchange for community and free access to the conference. I realized after witnessing the impact of volunteers that I too could attend conferences that seemed to be out of my financial reach, just by being of service. And so, 2 years ago I embarked on my first volunteer adventure: the Psychedelic Science Conference in Denver, CO.

I arrived in Denver feeling nervous about fulfilling my role, but knowing I came to be of service. It was that simple, and yet I still felt like an imposter. I had just 2 months earlier severed my relationship with alcohol, so I was moving through internal insights and reflecting on my past and future. I arrived at the Colorado Convention Center and saw the huge “PSYCHEDELIC SCIENCE” sign, and it hit me – I wound up here to find my niche where I can be of service long term. Yes, I came to volunteer for a 4-day conference. What I didn’t know is that those 4 days would turn into an entire career…

I divinely stumbled upon Thank You Life’s booth in the Psychedelic Science exhibit hall. I struck up a conversation with their staff and learned that they provide financial assistance for psychedelic therapy. As a person who has personally benefited from financial assistance programs most of my life, as well as benefited from psychedelics, I was pretty sold on their mission from the start. Then, I learned that they are headquartered in my hometown of Austin, TX. I somehow (again, divinely) ended up talking with leaders and innovators in the psychedelic industry who were shifting the paradigm of mental health care, right in my own backyard. I still to this day think it was a God thing.

I came home from the most fulfilling week of my life, and I told my partner “I’m gonna work for them. They don’t have any job openings, but I’m going to work for them.”

I had my first meeting with Thank You Life Co-Founder and Executive Director 3 months later at a coffee shop here in Austin. There still was not a job opening, but I expressed my dedication to the mission, and my willingness to be workable in my role, and we got going. I initially started as a freelancer doing various types of outreach, and soon shifted into a more community engagement focused role. I’d say since then I’ve had my hands somewhat in every aspect of our organization except for major donor fundraising. As I grew my role in Thank You Life, I grew my self, too. I started speaking up more and sharing ideas that were actually pivotal and well received. I took on more responsibility and leadership. I developed a felt trust for myself – a knowing that I can handle what comes at me in the moment; I don’t always have to be 100% prepared, and in fact, sometimes that is not possible.

It’s been 1.5 years since I started working with Thank You Life, and I am incredibly proud to say that I am now an employee of the first non-profit founded to expand access to psychedelic therapies. I serve Thank You Life as the Director of Partnerships, and I hold our mission and vision dearly to my heart. I did not have a plan in place for achieving this, and I feel that I can’t really claim the accomplishment much, either. I give gratitude to the leaders who have seen my potential and continue to place me in areas of growth and alignment.

This long, winding journey showed me that taking risks, saying yes, leading with service, and trusting my intuition can open doors beyond what I could ever imagine.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a systems-thinker with the ability to get granular. I enjoy working on service and impact driven projects with people who also value being of service. I believe volunteering and sliding scale community programs help make the world go round, and I am here to help bolster those programs, big and small. I am deeply passionate about human-centered healing through integrity and self-knowledge. If I could solve one problem, it would be: helping one person see themselves in another. Our world is so divisive, especially in these times, and I believe love truly is the answer. But, we cannot get to know love until we shed every part of ourselves that convinces us we are not loveable. How do we do this? By being of service to others; by getting outside of ourselves and allowing just one ounce of space for another human.

In terms of the services I provide, it varies widely, but I would say: thought-leadership, strategy + scaling of impactful organizations, community engagement, copywriting, academic and industry research, global promotion and stewardship

I am passionate about working alongside and supporting organizations that serve the following: houseless populations, houseless person mortality, harm reduction + drug education, drug policy advocacy, health equity and accessibility, and sustainable practices in business and the environment.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

My goodness. Yes, so many. I’ll speak on the heaviest and hardest topic that I am still working through 9 years later: the passing of my mother when I was just 20 years old.

I enrolled in college in the Fall of 2014. I spent my first year doing the whole college thing – knocking out my basics, doing hoodlum stuff with my dorm-mates, all the stereotypical youth stuff. The next Fall, not one month into my sophomore year in college, I got the news that my 63 year old mother had stage 4 single cell lung cancer. The prognosis was worse than bad – the news of her terminal illness was deafening. Here I am, 19 years old, in my first apartment, the first time fully living on my own, and I’ve gotta figure out how to keep moving forward.

I won’t get into all of the details, but here’s the short of it: I withdrew from college in February 2016, and I moved back to Austin to be with my sister, and to somehow get back on track. I told myself when I was withdrawing from the university that it would not be permanent. In fact, I said “I’m not dropping out. I’m just taking a break.” As long as I returned to college the following Fall semester, I would not lose my financial aid, which was the only reason I was able to attend in the first place. I took this withdrawing as an opportunity to apply to the school I had initially set my sights on – the only university at the time that offered an undergraduate degree in Behavioral Neuroscience. I figured if I have to return the following semester, it may as well be at a university in town where my family lives. I applied while I was in the midst of withdrawing from the first university, and I got accepted with a massive scholarship. I wish I could remember how exciting the news was, but its all a blur now.

My mom passed away exactly one month before the Fall semester started. My mom passed away, and I started a new degree, at a new university, living a completely new existance than the one before she was gone. Again, I don’t remember much from this time, but I know I had a super high GPA that first semester. Somehow, I killed it. This might be when I started dissociating from the hard reality I was living in.

I pulled through the first year at this new university seamlessly, while working a part time job as well. Sometimes I cried underneath my sunglasses while walking from class to class, but I managed to achieve what I set out for academically, at least for the first year. Then, my ability started waning. Early morning classes were hard to get to, and when I was there, I wasn’t truly present. My brain started turning off, and I kept ignoring this, unable to register that I was not fully online.

I was going to keep pushing, until one of my professors looked me straight in the eyes and said “You have to rest. You have to take a break.” I tear up just thinking about this moment. For the first time, I heard an invitation to slow down. I pushed back of course, and said I cannot, for many reasons (financial aid, lack of resources, fear of grief). Over time what she said became more true, and I started feeling the need to rest, I started feeling my inability to function.

So, I withdrew from college again. I withdrew from college two times in 1.5 years. I withdrew from 2 different universities. I had so many reasons to feel like a failure and I had thousands of dollars of loan debt and financial aid eligibility hanging over me. But again, I told myself I was not dropping out. I was taking a break. Language was as important to me back then as it is now.

During this break, I started therapy, and I painted for the first time since childhood. I tried a dance class. I attended grief support groups. It felt impossible, but I was trying in the smallest ways I knew how. I returned back to my university the following semester so as to not lose financial aid, and I eventually graduated at the end of 2019. I had to repeat some courses, and it took me 5 times longer to complete assignments due to my grieving brain, but I did it – I got a bachelors degree in neuroscience at the age of 23.

My biggest takeaway from this experience was that I did not shame myself when I couldn’t match up with my peers. I gave myself grace and patience, and I just allowed myself to take longer on the journey. Our story and our process will never directly match another – and that’s okay.

RIP to my mother, who never got to see my accomplishments, but always knew I had the heart to achieve anything I set my mind to.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

Take care of your people! In managing large teams of volunteers, my experience has shown me that if you take care of your fellow humans, they will take care of you, too.

Over-communicate to a fault – everyone understands and interprets information differently, so it’s helpful to communicate in various ways, and to overly state the information you are trying to convey, especially in a group-message setting. I’ve found that if I can over-communicate, then it frees me up to focus on other tasks in the moment, and it empowers others to jump in with information if they see a question they have the answer to.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://thankyoulife.org/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryder-nicholas-a0b848150/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ThankYouLifeFund