Some journeys begin with opportunity; others begin with the decision to create possibility where very little seems to exist. For Rico Sharp, the path to leadership emerged from experiences that could easily have defined his future differently. From homelessness, addiction, incarceration, and leaving school as a teenager to building a career dedicated to leadership and human development, his story reflects the power of transformation, continuous growth, and purpose.
Over more than three decades, Rico has carried those lessons into pastoral leadership, entrepreneurship, advocacy, professional speaking, organizational development, writing, and mentoring. Today, as an international keynote speaker, leadership expert, author, executive coach, entrepreneur, and pastor, he works with people and organizations across diverse sectors while advancing a philosophy centered on developing the person behind the position.
That philosophy has grown into the Bringing Out the Best in You™ ecosystem, alongside initiatives including Student Lives Matter, Teachers Lives Matter, The Best You Leadership Academy, and The Best In You Speakers Academy. Across each of these platforms, a consistent idea remains at the heart of Rico’s work: meaningful leadership begins within and becomes more powerful when it enables others to grow.
From rebuilding his own life to helping others recognize what may be possible in theirs, Rico’s journey offers a perspective on leadership shaped not only by professional experience, but also by lived experience. In this feature, discover how his past shaped his purpose, the principles behind his approach to leadership, and why the next chapter of his journey is focused on moving from individual impact to lasting multiplication.
From Adversity to a Life of Leadership
Rico Sharp’s professional journey is rooted in a story of transformation.
His early life did not follow a traditional pathway to leadership or professional success. As a teenager, he experienced homelessness, drug addiction, repeated involvement with the criminal justice system, incarceration, and dropped out of school in the ninth grade. There was a time when almost everything surrounding his life suggested that his future had already been determined.
But Rico discovered a truth that has shaped more than three decades of his work:
“Your past can be a chapter in your story without becoming the conclusion of your story.”
His life began to change when he made the decision to change himself. He became committed to developing his thinking, character, discipline, faith, leadership capacity, communication skills, and understanding of people.
While his educational journey did not follow the conventional route, Rico became a lifelong student of leadership, human behavior, personal development, organizational culture, communication, relationships, and human potential. Some of his greatest education also came through lived experience, learning how to overcome adversity, rebuild a life, lead people, develop organizations, mentor others, and turn painful experiences into principles that could help someone else.
That journey eventually led him into pastoral leadership, entrepreneurship, leadership development, advocacy, writing, consulting, and professional speaking.
For more than 30 years, Rico has had the privilege of developing and inspiring people across corporations, schools, colleges, government agencies, nonprofits, healthcare organizations, faith-based communities, and professional associations.
The young man who was once struggling to find direction ultimately discovered that his experiences could become a bridge to help other people discover theirs.
That is the foundation of the message he carries today:
“Bringing Out the Best in You™, so you can bring out the best in others.”
Building an Ecosystem Around Human Potential
Today, Rico serves in several interconnected leadership roles that collectively represent his life’s work.
He is an international keynote speaker, leadership expert, author, executive coach, organizational development consultant, entrepreneur, and pastor, having served in pastoral leadership for nearly 30 years.
Rico is the Founder and CEO of Student Lives Matter and Teachers Lives Matter, organizations committed to protecting and strengthening the lives of students and educators through school-safety advocacy, violence prevention, student success, educator support, leadership development, and stronger school communities. His work in this area also includes the Breaking the Silence: Stopping Gun Violence school curriculum as a tangible component of his commitment to violence prevention and safer school communities.
He is also the Founder of the Bringing Out the Best in You™ ecosystem, a comprehensive leadership and human-development platform built around one central philosophy:
“Bring out the best in yourself so you can bring out the best in others.”
The ecosystem includes his Bringing Out the Best in You leadership book and companion workbook, The Best You Leadership Academy, The Best In You Speakers Academy, The Best Speaking Agency, and other leadership-development platforms designed to help individuals and organizations maximize their potential.
Through Rico Sharp Motivations and Leadership Development, he also provides keynote speaking, leadership training, executive development, organizational consulting, coaching, and professional development.
His work has allowed him to train and develop executives, managers, educators, professionals, emerging leaders, students, entrepreneurs, and community leaders across corporate America, education, government, healthcare, nonprofit organizations, and faith-based environments. This includes leadership training for the federal government through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as speaking to major professional audiences, including the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).
What sets Rico’s work apart in today’s market is that he does not simply teach people how to lead. He helps develop who the leader is.
One of his foundational principles is:
“Leadership is not simply what you do. Leadership is who you are.”
Organizations can teach processes, policies, systems, technology, and procedures. But sustainable transformation requires developing the person behind the position.
His approach, therefore, addresses leadership from the inside out, identity, mindset, character, emotional intelligence, communication, accountability, resilience, relationships, organizational culture, and human potential.
Rico’s nearly three decades of pastoral leadership have also given him extensive experience developing people through some of life’s most difficult transitions. Combined with his experience in corporate leadership, education, government, entrepreneurship, advocacy, and organizational development, this allows him to connect with people across industries, generations, cultures, and professional levels.
Rico is not simply building a speaking business. He is building a global leadership ecosystem that develops people who develop people, leaders who develop leaders, and organizations capable of bringing out the best in the people they serve.
Redefining What Achievement Means
Of all the accomplishments throughout his career, the achievement Rico is most proud of is not a title, organization, book, stage, or award.
It is the transformation of his own life and the opportunity to use that transformation to help transform the lives of others.
When Rico considers where his journey began, homelessness, addiction, incarceration, dropping out of school, and circumstances that could have permanently limited his future, and then looks at where that journey has taken him, he remains deeply grateful.
He has gone from being a young man whom society could easily have written off to becoming an international speaker, leadership expert, author, pastor, entrepreneur, organizational consultant, mentor, advocate, and founder of organizations and leadership-development platforms designed to serve others.
Rico has had the privilege of speaking to and training leaders, educators, executives, professionals, government personnel, students, and communities. He has written books, built leadership academies, developed organizations, mentored people from many walks of life, and spent nearly three decades serving people through pastoral leadership.
But Rico measures achievement differently today.
He does not believe a person’s greatest accomplishment is what they achieve for themselves. It is what their life empowers someone else to believe is possible for them.
When someone tells Rico that his story, teaching, book, training, or leadership helped them become a better leader, educator, parent, professional, entrepreneur, or person, that means more to him than any title he could receive.
His life is evidence that where you start does not have to determine where you finish.
From Impact to Multiplication
The next phase of Rico’s journey is about scale, impact, and legacy.
His vision is to expand Bringing Out the Best in You™ into a globally recognized leadership and human-development ecosystem that reaches individuals and organizations around the world.
That means expanding the Bringing Out the Best in You leadership books, The Best You Leadership Academy, The Best In You Speakers Academy, organizational leadership programs, executive development, coaching, consulting, keynote speaking, and strategic partnerships.
Rico wants to work increasingly with corporations, government agencies, educational institutions, professional associations, nonprofits, healthcare organizations, and leadership teams that understand one fundamental principle:
“You cannot sustainably grow an organization without growing its people.”
He also wants to continue expanding Student Lives Matter and Teachers Lives Matter, creating greater national and global impact around student safety, student success, educator support, leadership, advocacy, and stronger school communities.
Ultimately, however, Rico’s vision goes beyond growing businesses or organizations.
He wants to build a legacy that can continue developing leaders long after he leaves the stage.
He wants the books to teach when he is not in the room. He wants the academies to develop leaders when he is not on the stage. He wants the organizations he has helped create to impact communities he may never personally visit.
The next phase is about moving from impact to multiplication.
Because when you bring out the best in one leader, that leader can bring out the best in hundreds or thousands of other people.
Remaining a Student of Leadership
Rico maintains a competitive edge by remaining a student.
After more than three decades in leadership, speaking, ministry, entrepreneurship, and human development, he still believes there is always something else to learn.
The workplace is changing. Leadership expectations are changing. Generations are changing. Technology is changing. Education is changing. The way people communicate, work, learn, and engage with organizations continues to evolve.
Rico believes that if you want to remain relevant, you cannot become comfortable simply because you have been successful.
He continues listening to executives, educators, employees, entrepreneurs, students, organizational leaders, and communities to understand the real challenges they are experiencing.
But Rico believes one of his greatest competitive advantages is something technology cannot manufacture:
“Lived experience combined with authentic human connection.”
He does not teach leadership exclusively from theory. His leadership philosophy has been developed through more than 30 years of leading people, building organizations, overcoming adversity, pastoring, mentoring, speaking, consulting, training leaders, working across different sectors, and navigating his own personal and professional challenges.
Information today is everywhere.
But information alone does not create transformation.
People need principles they can understand, strategies they can implement, and leaders they can trust.
Rico’s competitive advantage, therefore, is not trying to imitate the next speaker, consultant, author, or leadership expert.
It is continually bringing out the best in Rico Sharp, staying relevant, remaining teachable, protecting his authenticity, and continuing to produce measurable value for the people and organizations he serves.
Build the Person Before the Business
Rico’s first piece of advice to aspiring professionals and entrepreneurs is:
“Stop waiting until you believe you have everything it takes.”
One of the principles he teaches around the world is:
“You don’t have to have WHAT it takes when you are WHO it takes.”
Skills can be developed. Knowledge can be acquired. Technology can be learned. Communication can be improved. Relationships can be built. Mentors can be found. Capital can be raised. And people can rebuild after failure.
But before building the business, Rico believes people have to build the person who will lead it.
He encourages aspiring professionals and entrepreneurs to invest in themselves.
Develop character as intentionally as a career. Protect integrity. Become emotionally intelligent. Learn how to communicate. Learn how to lead people instead of merely managing them. Stay teachable. Surround yourself with people who challenge you to grow.
And do not allow failure to convince you that you are a failure.
Rico knows personally what it means to make mistakes, experience setbacks, start again, and rebuild. He believes a person’s worst season does not have to become their permanent identity.
He also advises aspiring professionals and entrepreneurs not to spend their lives trying to become someone who is already successful.
Learn from people. Study successful people. Find mentors. But do not lose yourself trying to duplicate somebody else’s journey.
“Your greatest competitive advantage is becoming the best version of you.”
Find your purpose. Develop your gifts. Strengthen your weaknesses. Serve people well. Remain humble enough to learn and courageous enough to lead.
And, as Rico’s philosophy emphasizes:
Bringing Out the Best in You™ is not just about becoming better for yourself. It’s about becoming better so that your life, leadership, business, influence, and success can bring out the best in somebody else.
Becoming a Grave Thief
When Rico Sharp was once asked in an interview, “What do you want your life’s legacy to be?” his answer was unexpected:
“I want to be a grave thief.”
For Rico, the phrase represents one of the deepest convictions of his life.
The Bible teaches that “a good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good.” Rico believes every human being enters this world carrying treasure within them, gifts, talents, abilities, ideas, creativity, wisdom, potential, dreams, and something uniquely theirs that can be brought forth for the good of humanity and imparted into the next generation.
The tragedy, he believes, is that too much of that treasure never makes it out.
Throughout human history, countless people have died carrying within them books that were never written, movies that were never produced, poems that were never published, songs that were never sung, ideas that were never developed, businesses that were never launched, curricula that were never created, academies and schools that were never built, nonprofits that were never founded, inventions that were never introduced, and dreams that never became reality.
Those gifts could have educated someone, encouraged someone, employed someone, healed a relationship, strengthened a family, transformed an organization, changed a community, empowered a generation, or made the world more loving, caring, compassionate, and humane. Instead, the treasure remained buried within the person who carried it.
That is why Rico describes the grave as one of the wealthiest places on earth. It contains, in his view, an immeasurable amount of human potential that was never brought forth.
Rico refuses to allow that to become the story of his life.
“I want to be a grave thief because I intend to rob the grave of everything it thought it was going to get from me.”
His mission is to Discover, Develop, Define, Discipline, and Deploy everything that has been deposited within him. He wants to turn his experiences into lessons, his pain into purpose, his ideas into solutions, his knowledge into teaching, his gifts into service, and his potential into something that can be imparted into humanity and passed to the next generation.
For Rico, that is what legacy means.
It is not simply accumulating wealth, receiving awards, building organizations, writing books, standing on stages, or having his name remembered. Legacy is taking what has been deposited within you and depositing it into others before you leave.
And when his life’s work is finally complete, Rico wants there to be nothing valuable left inside of him that could have been given to humanity.
“When I finally go to the grave, I want to go empty, fulfilled, poured out, complete, and fully retired. I want to know that I gave life, humanity, and my purpose everything I had to give. I want to leave the grave with nothing to take from me, because I already gave my treasure away.”
That is Rico Sharp’s definition of becoming a grave thief.
Conclusion
For Rico Sharp, legacy is not ultimately measured by how many stages he stands on, books he writes, organizations he builds, awards he receives, or titles he earns. It is measured by people, by the lives he touches, the leaders he develops, and what he deposits into humanity and the next generation.
His journey from adversity to leadership is evidence of the principle he now carries around the world: where you begin does not have to determine where you finish.
And ultimately, Bringing Out the Best in You™ is about more than personal achievement. It is about discovering, developing, and deploying what has been placed within you so that it can make someone else’s life better.
For Rico, the goal is simple: bring out everything that has been deposited within him, give it to humanity, impart it into the next generation, and one day go to the grave empty, fulfilled, poured out, complete, and fully retired.
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