SXSW 6: Livestrong's Doug Ulman

Where would the Livestrong Foundation be without Doug Ulman?

I don’t want to think about it. While his friend and mentor Lance Armstrong plunges in popular opinion, Ulman keeps the cancer charity open, lively and, yes, strong.

At a South by Southwest speech attended by fewer than 100 people, Ulman said it was OK for reporters to be critical of Armstrong, but insisted they give Livestrong, which supports folks with cancer, a fair shake.

Still thin, smart and charismatic, Ulman has lost some of the bounciness I associated with his early career. He said that when Armstrong apologized to the Livestrong staff, the cyclist was visibly shaken.

“But we have very resilient team,” he says.

During the course of rebranding Livestrong, which started well before the most recent Armstrong crisis, his nonprofit found that people knew the brand and that it had to do with cancer, but not what it did for those going through the cancer ringer.

Something to work on.

During the past months, Ulman’s wife pointed out that he was suffering from 8 of the 9 classic symptoms of stress, as measured against a Mayo Clinic website.

“The best thing I did for my quality of life was to stop reading what the haters had to say,” Ulman says. “We found out that they were really talking to each other.”

With only six days warning before the climactic Oprah Winfrey interview with the shamed cyclist, Ulman’s staff met several times a week and emphasized three crisis management strategies: Complete transparency, over-sharing and a culture of survivorship.

From the subjects of the questions Ulman received after his prepared remarks, a fair percentage of the attendees were folks wondering what they would do in crisis management mode.

Along the way, the charity changed the Livestrong “mark” to include the word “Foundation.”

Ulman: “Also, we are not walking away from the color yellow.”

And, in fact, Livestrong intends to help more people this year than last. No cutting back. The foundation is on the receiving end of lots of expert advice and they are letting their clients tell the story of what they do.

One point Ulman returned to: The crises Livestrong has endured are nothing in comparison to being diagnosed with cancer.

Ulman: “The drama in the cycling world had nothing to do with — nothing to do with — what we accomplish at Livestrong.”