There is gratitude that says thank you.
And then there is the kind that looks at what you’ve been given and asks what you’re going to do with it.
For Shawn Ryan, host of The Shawn Ryan Show, that question has become important as an audience that began within the veteran community has grown into the millions.
Ryan hasn’t forgotten who showed up first.
“Veterans and people interested in veterans, they’re the ones that gave me the platform,” he says.
So he gives back.
In Military City USA, Ryan’s focus on veterans hits close to home. His platform has highlighted nearby Warriors Heart in Bandera, which serves veterans, active-duty military and first responders.
Ryan uses his show to introduce audiences to veterans whose names may never have made headlines, highlighting their businesses, nonprofits, struggles and successes.
“Sometimes the difference between success and failure is simple exposure,” Ryan says.
He understands how much that opportunity can matter. Leaving military service, Ryan says, can mean losing far more than a career. For people who have spent years operating at an extraordinarily high level, civilian life can bring an unexpected loss of identity.
“It would be like taking a pro ball player’s career away from them,” he explains. “It takes a long time to reinvent yourself outside of the military and become the best at something else.”
Giving someone a place to begin that reinvention matters to him. So does what they do with the opportunity afterward.
“If you take it all and just use it for yourself, that’s, in my opinion, pretty selfish,” he says. “I’m always going to look for somebody that I think is going to pass what they got down the line.”
That sense of responsibility has also expanded beyond the veteran community.
After seeing the work of Ryan Montgomery, now a close friend, Ryan invited him onto the show to discuss the exploitation of children. The episode became one of the show’s biggest and showed Ryan that his platform could bring attention to subjects others were reluctant to touch.
“I figured if I do the interview and they take my platform away, well, at least I lost it for a good reason,” he says. “Kids are the future of our country and the future of the world.”
There is conviction in the way Ryan talks about service, but also empathy born from experience. He knows what it is to need another chance.
Ryan speaks openly about dark seasons in his own life and the faith that changed how he understands them. Rather than viewing painful experiences only as things that happened to him, he looks for what they can teach him and how those lessons might help someone else.
“Redemption is powerful because your worst moment doesn’t have to define the rest of your life,” he says. “Sometimes people just need a little hope, a little accountability, and somebody willing to give them a shot.”
Maybe that is where gratitude becomes something bigger than a feeling.
Ryan is still building, too. He recently teamed up with former NSA engineer Alex White to launch Glacier, a mobile app focused on privacy and security. Within its first week of promotion, Glacier surpassed 100,000 downloads and reached No. 6 on Apple’s App Store charts.
Most of us will never have millions of people listening when we speak. Ryan doesn’t believe we need them.
“You can make an impact by helping just one person,” he says. Because that person may help another, who helps another.
One person at a time.
For all the reach of The Shawn Ryan Show, Ryan’s hope for its legacy is simple:
“I hope we impact people by motivating them to be a better person and to always stand up for what’s right.”
Maybe the measure of what we’ve been given was never how much we could hold onto.
Maybe it’s how much of it we pass along.
Redemption is powerful because your worst moment doesn’t have to define the rest of your life.