Sigma Pi Alumni Spotlight: Ryan Griessmeyer
Written by: Garrison Ledbury - 1/12/21
Ryan Griessmeyer pledged Sigma Pi Delta-Iota Chapter in the spring of 1994 as a member of the Beta-Delta pledge class. His time in the fraternity led him to many eye-opening experiences that allowed him to gain the most out of his time in college. Before graduating in 1998, his degree in Building Construction Management landed him employment while still in school. Later, he would find a greater calling in pursuing his love of endurance sports that led him to create his own business, Race Day Events in Fitchburg, WI. Brother Griessmeyer has used his company to provide the means for charities to put on events while also helping raise money for meaningful causes. Ryan’s dedication and willingness to help others truly embodies the core values of Sigma Pi.
Brother Griessmeyer currently lives in Verona, WI with his wife Lauren and their son Jace (7) and daughter Luella (3).
As your time in Platteville and as an active Sigma Pi came to an end, what became your first job out of college?
My first job was with a swimming pool company called Badger Swimpools, Inc. out of Sauk Prairie, Wisconsin. I worked there during my second semester of my senior year as a way to get experience. I continued working there for twelve years after being hired while I was still in school in May of 1998. From there, I worked my way up to a project coordinator and estimator. Over time, I became one of the top three employees in the company.
What are you doing now?
I took up my passion for the endurance community: running, biking, swimming. While I was at Badger Swimpools, I took that passion and turned it into a hobby business. I started by helping organize races like the New Year's Day Dash in Middleton, Wisconsin and from there it grew. Five years later, I needed to decide whether it made sense to be working 55 hours a week in construction plus another 20 hours a week on my own hobby. I decided to leave my day job and had all this extra time on my hands. From there, I was working 75 hours on my own business, Race Day Events.
The chapter has been great in providing volunteers for events that we have helped put on in the past. The partnership between our business and Sigma Pi has always worked out very well. With help from volunteers, Race Day Events has turned into a full-service event production business. If you have an event you want to put on, we are there to make it better. We do specialize in endurance events, running races, triathlons, and other fitness competitions. We are responsible for many other events and equipment rentals such as the Taste of Madison.
In a regular year, we do about 400 events all across the country. We have grown Race Day Events into a three million dollar business. We have 15 full-time employees and 70 part-time employees. We own about 35 of our own events and we support another 350 other events held by other organizations like the Ironman and Color Run. In 2019, we did events in 22 different states. About 80% of the events we work directly aid charities. On our own events, we use a model where we give back. For example, if we host a triathlon, we work with a charity and groups like Sigma Pi. Our events can take over 250-300 volunteers plus 18-25 employees to run. The reason we operate this way is to maximize what can be made for charities that partner with us. The Sigma Pis have been incredibly helpful with us since we first started Race Day Events back in 2006. Even back then, I tried to get a portion of the funds from our events to go towards maintaining the chapter house.
In one of our best years, we were able to help organizations bring in over $80,000 to their own charities. Another huge cause that is close to my heart is when we helped the Verona Ice Rink. They were in financial trouble a couple of years ago and we agreed to have their members staff one of our races. I cut a check for the Verona Ice Rink for every person that signed up to run that race. We had 2,600 people sign up so the ice rink walked away with over $5,600 dollars. We were able to pull in an additional $75,000 from subsequent events which helped save the rink. My son, Jace just started playing hockey there as well so that's a good feeling.
What drew you to rush Sigma Pi?
I tell almost all of my employees that Sigma Pi changed my life. It was one of the first things that was responsible for making me who I am today. I played a lot of indoor volleyball going into college. I ran into these three guys: Michael Oleson, Aaron Krier, and Chris Foerstera. They played volleyball often with me and eventually asked me to pledge the fraternity. My first thought was, “I’m not pledging a fraternity. I don’t want to buy my friends.” I thought it was such a dumb idea. Even still, at every volleyball event I did with them, they would continue to ask me to pledge.
Eventually, they told me to just try it and if it did not work out we would all still be friends. I soon told my parents who said I couldn’t join and if I did then they wouldn’t pay for my college. Aaron Krier and Michael Oleson went and talked to my parents and showed them the pledge manual. Afterwards, my parents said I had to pledge this fraternity. I didn't know how to tie a tie and the chapter taught me that. We learned to be chivalrous to women when we took the KAEs to the student union for a dinner event; we learned how to set the table to a 13 plate placeset. We might think of it as silly now but back then as a second semester college student, that was life-changing.
What did the relationships with your brothers in college mean to you?
Those relationships are still alive today and I would take it one step further; not only are some of the guys that I work with also my college friends but I also have that instant bond because of the process we all went through as Sigma Pis from Delta-Iota. The guys in college with me like Ryan Hastings, Aaron Krier, and Sean Peters were brothers I was always close with. That brotherhood made it so that you always had someone to go to, whether that was in school or out, from things like getting help with homework to brothers helping each other get jobs down the road. They were and are good people all the way through.
What positions did you hold in the fraternity? What life skills did you learn from holding those positions?
I was secretary and rush chair. I also made sure the house stayed in good shape when I became house chair. The business meetings gave me many skills that I still use today. I learned Robert’s Rules of Order while in the chapter and that helps me to this day when running my own company’s meetings. I think there are CEOs out there that run bigger businesses than me who don’t know how to run a business meeting because they didn't learn it in college. In undergrad you learn a lot of things but in Sigma Pi you take it to an even greater level. You start to learn things like balancing a checkbook which I did as house chair, along with making repairs to the house. As secretary, learning how to keep good notes was something I also learned to do well. Not a lot of people get to have those experiences in college and our fraternity grooms you for having that edge when going into the business world.
What surprised you the most after joining the chapter?
What surprised me the most was the even balance of professionalism and sociability of the chapter. It was nice to be able to enjoy the social aspects of college while also giving back to the community in doing things like highway clean-up, raking yards, cookoffs, etc. It really sets your path going forward in wanting to give back to your community. You always get the stereotypes of fraternities where it's either all social events or all work. I think the Platteville chapter of Sigma Pi could not have done a better job of balancing the two. Our structure always struck me as something that could give the most to its members in different areas and ways. This is what makes the brotherhood so strong.
What lessons did the fraternity teach you that influences you to this day?
The first and foremost would be the networking and the contacts. It's built into what the fraternity is in the first place. You can go back to this lifelong group of my brotherhood family and business family which is built off of those connections. I built my business off of the fact that if we don’t have someone who can do something, we can always find someone who can which is what this fraternity provides. It's crazy to think that a four to five year commitment to a fraternity like Sigma Pi leads to so many impactful moments later in life. You don’t realize it when you’re in the chapter or even shortly after graduating, but when you’re tying in all you learned as you develop professionally you realize that you can attribute it all back to your time in our chapter.
Check out Race Day Events here: https://racedayevents.com/
Know a Sigma Pi Delta-Iota alumnus who you think deserves a spotlight? Send an email to the Communications Committee at spdicommunications@gmail.com detailing the alumnus and why they should get a spotlight.