Transforming the Tire Industry With Ryan Ragan of Automotive Service & Tire Alliance

Ryan Ragan is the Executive Director of the Automotive Service & Tire Alliance, where he focuses on enhancing value to members through innovative programs and training in the tech and tire sectors. Under his leadership, ASTA aims to expand its reach with events and educational initiatives, fostering greater involvement from the tire industry in addition to its strong mechanical service foundation. Ryan’s background is rich with experience in international trade associations and nonprofits, and he brings a unique blend of business acumen and passion to his role at ASTA.

In this episode…

The automotive industry is undergoing significant transformations, with emerging trends and challenges shaping its future. How can industry leaders adapt to these changes to ensure continued growth and success?

According to Ryan Ragan, Executive Director of Automotive Service & Tire Alliance, adapting to changes in the automotive industry requires a focus on innovation and collaboration. He emphasizes the importance of creating opportunities for networking and deal-making, mainly through events that bring together decision-makers and vendors. The industry can foster partnerships that drive growth and address common challenges by facilitating interactions between key players.

On this episode of Gain Traction, Mike Edge welcomes Ryan to discuss the future of the automotive service industry. They explore topics such as the expansion of industry events, strategies for increasing vendor engagement, and efforts to integrate tire services more comprehensively. Ryan shares his vision for enhancing member benefits through educational programs and networking opportunities to strengthen community ties and support business growth within the sector.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

• [01:55] The Wild West origins of Ryan Ragan’s hometown
• [02:45] How wrestling shaped Ryan’s discipline and resilience
• [04:36] The future of Automotive Service & Tire Alliance’s big events
• [05:49] Why networking with decision-makers is game-changing
• [06:07] How ASTA enhances business deal opportunities
• [11:55] The innovative educational tools ASTA provides for members
• [22:32] How ASTA raised $100,000 for hurricane relief efforts

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Ryan Ragan on LinkedIn 
• Automotive Service & Tire Alliance 
• Dustin Dobbs
• Dobbs Tire & Auto Centers
• Mike Edge on LinkedIn
• Tread Partners

Quotable Moments:

• “Your ego is the most expensive thing you own. If you want to go broke, just keep following that ego.”
• “I want you to be able to come there and do business. I want you to be able to close deals.”
• “It’s always the older generation, the next generation, how they view things and how they see things.”
• “We’re not going to lose our southern charm. It’s still going to be very accessible, very down home.”
• “I’ve seen a lot of good, I’ve seen a lot of bad.”

Action Steps:

1. Engage in industry networking events: Attend industry-specific trade shows and networking events to meet decision-makers and potential partners.
2. Utilize educational resources: Leverage member-exclusive educational programs and webinars to stay updated on industry best practices and innovations.
3. Implement digital visual inspections: Adopt DVI technology to increase transparency with customers, fostering trust and enhancing customer satisfaction.
4. Participate in community support initiatives: Get involved in industry charity events or local support efforts to strengthen community ties and improve public perception. 
5. Seek feedback and adapt to market needs: Regularly conduct surveys and hold town hall-style meetings with industry peers to understand the challenges and needs within the market.

• Automotive Service & Tire Alliance
• Gain Traction Podcast
• Mike Edge
• Ryan Ragan
• Tread Partners

Transcript

Announcer:

Welcome to the Gain Traction Podcast, where we feature top automotive entrepreneurs and experts and share their inspiring stories. Now let’s get started with the show.

Mike:

Hello, folks. Welcome to the Gain Traction Podcast, the exclusive podcast for Tire Business. I am Mike Edge, your host. Today’s guest is Ryan Reagan, executive director of ASTA, the Automotive Service and Tire Alliance. Ryan has some big things happening, and I’m eager to discuss, but before we begin, let me tell you about our sponsor. Tread Partners. Tread Partners is the leading digital marketing agency for the tire and auto repair industry, with operations that have five to hundreds of locations. Multi-location shops face enormous challenges. Tread Partners gets it. Don’t waste time and money with marketing agencies that do not specialize in this space. Get with Tread Partners today and make your marketing predictable and profitable. If you have 5, 10, 20, 50, even 100 shops, contact Tread Partners. To learn more, visit Treadpartners.com. So guys, I like to give a shout-out to past guests. My past guest shout out today is for Dustin Dobbs, president of Dobbs Tire and Automotive in St. Louis, Missouri. Great story with some great laughs. Check it out on Gaintractionpodcast.com. All right, so let’s get this podcast started. Ryan Reagan, welcome to the Gain Traction podcast.

Ryan:

Oh, my pleasure. I’m glad to be here. Thanks for having me.

Mike:

I’ve been looking forward to having you. So, tell us a little bit about, Ryan, where you came from and how you grew up, where you grew up, et cetera, before we get to the whole business stuff.

Ryan:

Oh. Well, I was born in a town nobody probably heard of, unless you’re an old west buff, but I was born in Coffeyville, Kansas. It was famous for the Dalton gang trying to rob two banks at the same time at 1892. It didn’t go well.

Mike:

Did they get busted?

Ryan:

All of them got killed except one, which was odd, because he was shot about 27 times, but he survived.

Mike:

Wow.

Ryan:

And lived to grow old, and actually toured with Frank James, and did the Wild West tour and stuff later in life. So yeah, it’s a very interesting place. It’s a very small town. I took my son there a couple summers ago, my youngest, and he looked at me and he said, “It’s a good thing somebody tried to rob two banks. There’d be no other reason to come here.”

Mike:

Well, that’s cool though. So you grew up in Kansas?

Ryan:

Well, not really. I mean, then we left. I grew up in Oklahoma and then Arkansas, graduated high school in Arkansas, but I was a big wrestler back in Oklahoma and wrestled my whole life. I’ve wrestled about 45, 50 years probably.

Mike:

Oh, wow. All right.

Ryan:

So, wrestled for a long time. Then, went to the Marines, got out of the Marines, was in law enforcement briefly a couple of years. That’s what everybody in the military does.

“What are you going to do when you need a job?”

“Well, they’ll hire me as a police officer,” so did that, and then got into business and started working my way up, different industries. Primarily, back then, it was biomedical, pharmaceutical type things, but always been a nonprofit. It’s always a lot of nonprofits.

Mike:

Well, that’s what I heard, even from some people on your board, that you had a lot of experience with associations. That’s your big thing.

Ryan:

Yeah, a lot of it. International trade associations, a lot in the healthcare space. I did a lot of international healthcare, domestic healthcare stuff, so yeah, I’ve been around the block when it comes to that. I’ve seen a lot of good, I’ve seen a lot of bad, I guess.

Mike:

Well, but you’ve got that experience to know that, I mean, there’s a lot of personalities in associations, and somebody’s got to be able to hold them all together. You’ve got a lot of strong-willed people I’m sure you’re dealing with at different times and stubbornness here and there, but then you’re trying to accomplish an objective too, a goal.

Ryan:

And there’s always the older generation, the next generation, how they view things and how they see things. It’s different. I think all of them have good points that they make, and you just kind of be that mediator at times to filter through.

Mike:

I’m curious, because ASTA has got a great name out there, but you guys have some really good things going on. I know some of your board members, so I’m excited to hear about this, but tell us about where ASTA is going, because I know your show next year is going to be way bigger than anything you guys have done in Raleigh, North Carolina in the recent past.

Ryan:

We had a very successful show. I, actually, attended the show this year. I wasn’t even actually employed yet. I hadn’t even actually started, but I needed to see it.

Mike:

Well, and let’s back up there. Tell the audience too. You just got hired this year as the new executive director for ASTA?

Ryan:

Yeah. Basically, September. That was kind of the decision days, but then I had a little time to start, so I didn’t actually start officially until after the show, but I was fortunate enough to attend it and see what we did well, some areas of opportunities, things we could improve upon, and it was a fantastic show. I’m not going to lie. Around 1000 people attended it. Some really good training, some good sessions. I’ve kind of seen how they did the trade show floor with the boost, and saw some things that I wanted to change, because this year, as you said, we’re going to the Raleigh Convention Center, so we’ve outgrown the spaces that we’ve had. This is a much bigger venue, much bigger opportunity for us. I’m going to make some changes in how we do some things. Instead of having the trade show expo floor open for four or five hours, it’s going to be open for two days, so it’s going to be two days of the floor time. We’re going to have a special time carved out, a couple of hours where it’s just owners, just decision makers out there, talking.

Mike:

Yeah. I wanted you to point that out, because I think that’s important to what you’re trying to create. You want the people to know, “Look, you’re going to be able to meet with the owners and decision-makers. We’re setting it up that way.” It’s not just going to be like, “Hey, good luck. Hope they walk by your booth and stop,” but you’re trying to set it up to where it’s really interactive.

Ryan:

I want you to be able to come there and do business. I want you to be able to close deals. I want you to be able to move product. That’s what I want. I’ve got kind a vision in my mind of that day, of having an owner decision-maker luncheon, where all of our vendor partners that offer our members discounts and different types of services could kind of get up and speak to that during the lunch, as they’re eating, kind of walk them through to just remind them, “Hey, if you’re a member, you have access to what we do.” Then, after that launch and bang, they’re out on the expo floor.

Spend some time out there, two, three hours cutting deals, working around, meeting people, networking with them, meeting vendors maybe they’ve never met that’s never been here before. Maybe we’re going to get some, attract some new ones for the first time, and after that, “Hey, we’ll go across the street and we’ll have a nice dinner and kind close out that kind of day,” but it’s kind of something that I’ve been searching for my staff and wish in total agreement that we needed to expand that and we think we’re going to be able to attract a few more vendors and folks that, like I say, maybe have never been there. Hoping it attract [inaudible 00:07:09] the tire.

Mike:

I mean, as a guy that, I’ve never gone to a billion shows or anything, but I’ve done quite a few, and I know the feeling, and sometimes you just feel a little bit underappreciated. You feel like, “Man, I don’t know if they just want them [inaudible 00:07:22] money, because we’re not getting anything, and I think just hearing you talk makes me feel like if I was the vendor to show up, you’re the guy I want running the show because, by golly, you’re making it worth my while, because you’re trying to set it up that I can make deals here while I’m here, and that’s why I’m paying my fee to be here.

Ryan:

Yeah, and for the vendors, I came from a world, especially in kind of international trade associations when you would be at shows, we had very specific members that would tell me, “Hey, I’d really like to meet this person,” because I’m part of a supply chain. I have a product that I think would meet their needs. I’d like five minutes of their time,” and I would help coordinate that.

“Let me reach out to them. I’ll see if I can get something set up,” and kind of make that introduction, and that’s something I’m hoping to do here.

If there’s people that are like, “I’d really like to meet this person. I really think we could help them out,” we can probably do some things to facilitate a meeting, a brief interaction, but hopefully it’ll build on it and continue to grow. I’m looking, I’m trying, my goal, like I said, we had a 1000 people at this last one. I’d like to get closer to 1500 at this one. I’m hoping to get more folks from the tire side to attend.

Mike:

Yeah. Let’s talk about that, because one of the things, I mean, it’s in your name, I get that, but you guys have really always catered to the mechanical service side.

Ryan:

Me, coming in and having to go and look back at the history, and I have to talk to different board members, different members, my staff, and it has kind of swirled that way since we were kind of formed out of the two associations, and one was tire, one was mechanical, and so as it kind of formed and grew together, we kind of splintered off and leaned more towards the mechanical, and I’m trying to reinvent, bring back that tire side of the business, and put out services for them, things that we can provide for them. I’m still looking at different certifications, other things that I have working in my mind. I’ve got some pretty good help with some of the board members and staff looking into that, but really, just like what can I offer them? I’m going to do some surveys of some of my current tire members. What can I do? What are your biggest pain points? How can I help you?

Announcer:

We’ve got some town hall kind of meetings coming up next year to where a couple of our shop owners, some of them will be board members, some won’t. We’re going to get together. We might go to a Texas Roadhouse, about 10 of us and kind of meet some of the local shop owners in Charlotte, some in Statesville, some in Wilmington, some in Fayetteville, and just kind of sit down and talk to them. “How’s it going?” Seeing what pain points they’ve got, because we have a lot of members that have went through those pain points, and figured a way out to get better to share that knowledge and just hang out, meet them in their hometowns, take a look at their shops, see what we can do to help.

Mike:

But ASTA is much bigger than just North Carolina. I mean, you guys cover the whole, I mean the reputation out there that I sensed when I was there a year ago, I didn’t make it this year, is it’s very east coast. There’s a lot of East coast, but then a lot of West Coast people are starting to show up. I mean, it’s getting more national in presence, correct?

Ryan:

Oh, yeah. It was odd to me, because I was thinking that same thing. When I first went, I didn’t know what to expect, and so at one point I’m having conversations with folks from Canada. I’ve got folks from New York. I’ve got folks from Utah, folks from Texas. Every state in the East Coast was here, but yeah, I was kind of shocked. I had some Canadian people. I was like, “Hey, who knew?” But no, it’s good, and I’m glad and it’s going to continue to grow. I think we’ve got a whole lot of service offerings we’re working to do, a lot in the educational side of the aspect. We got to create a portal. I’m working on that, some conversations about this last week, creating a member login portal.

That’s something they haven’t had, to where if you’re a member, you go in, you log into your account, bang, you’ll have access to different types of educational programs, different types of webinars, things like that, that are member-only contact. You’ll have access to where, if you’re a new member, you could go in and fill out a form, and then bang, you’re going to get a free coaching session. We have a couple different companies out there that do some business coaching sessions. They’re going to do it for you for free, kind of help you, say, “This is what we would recommend, what we’d suggest.” We’ve got job placement things we’re working on too. We’ve got working with the institute, NASCAR Institute, over here, and all of their schools across the country, they have a job placement system within each school, and so we’re working where our members could post all their jobs with them. They’d be posted all throughout the country.

Mike:

That’s awesome, man. You guys really-

Ryan:

That’s a lot of stuff going on, and I’ve got another couple other things I can’t really mention yet, but a couple of things. I’m just trying to really reinforce the value that we bring. Look, we’re not just discounts. The networking and the community is by far the biggest thing.

Mike:

Well, listen, I love your spirit because, I mean, one of the things that we talked about was getting tire manufacturers involved, and just to be present and to show that, “Hey, we do want to cater to the tire side, and we’re trying to provide that,” so I think it’s important for the tire people that are listening. Some of the manufacturers that I’m friends with, that I know are long time listeners and have been guests on this, I hope they tune in and know that they can be a part of ASTA. Let me ask you this while it’s hot on my mind. If someone did want to reach out to you, Ryan, how would they reach you right now? What’s the easiest way?

Ryan:

Shoot me an email. I mean, email’s easy. You can go to the website. My contact is there. That’s ASTAUSA.org. My contact information is on there, but you can shoot me an email. I mean, you can text me. I don’t care. I’m a pretty simple guy. Any way that you want to get a hold of me, again, it’s Ryan.Reagan. It’s [email protected]. That’s my email.

Mike:

Awesome.~

Ryan:

You can reach me there, and I’ll respond to you, because like I said, I’m really hoping to really re-embrace the tire side of the industry, and that’s from the manufacturers down to the guys working in the shops. That’s what we’re here for. We’re here to help these individual shop owners and their people get better, help them out, provide them some services, provide them opportunities to network with people that have been down there and experienced the same thing, and so we’re working on it. I think it’s definitely probably one of my top priorities, is just re-embracing the tire side of the business.

Mike:

Well, and you guys do a good job at the show with the training too. I mean you had mentioned that, but I love the idea of you putting it online and having the member access and then continuing that and being able to sign up for somebody’s giveaway or whatever. But yeah, actually, I attended Darren McClay’s training on how to sell tires. He was there last year. They just brought him in, and he was probably one of the best that I’ve ever heard, because he made it so simple about how to sell tires. He talked about it being like it is the glue to your relationship, because they don’t have a reason to go anywhere else. If you already had them for service, why not sell them the tire, so they don’t get somewhere else and then have service issues while they’re there? Then, next thing you know they’re splitting away from you or having to decide, and then you get them coming back for the free rotations and all that other stuff, but no, I’m very excited to hear that you guys are moving to the convention center there in Raleigh. That’s huge.

Ryan:

It is. I was just over there. Me and my staff were just over there a few weeks back, touring it, and kind of looking at how we’re going to set it up, and what it’s going to do, and it’s going to be an amazing event. I tell you, the key to us though, again, it is a bigger space. There’s going to be more people. We’re not going to lose kind of our southern charm. We’re still going to be very accessible. It’s still going to be very down home, very [inaudible 00:15:15]. That’s part of what makes our expo us. We get that feedback a lot, is everybody’s friendly. It’s kind of like family running it, and we’re going to make sure that that stays that way. It’s just going to be a shinier building that’s going to be in, and it’s a good problem to have. As I said, we’ve outgrown the other facilities we’ve been at, so it’s a great problem to have.

We’re looking to stretch this one and continue to grow. I think it’s going to be an excellent event for us. We’ve got other things going on. We have a Fueling Connections event coming up in April, and that’s mainly for owners, and that’s over in the Charlotte area in Mooresville. We’re going to be doing some neat stuff there, some education for owners and things like that that we can do, so we’re always looking to help. We were talking about online education. A lot of these small shops, they don’t have onboarding materials and how you train people, so I’m looking to get that set up to where, “Hey, you’re a member. You can log in and we’ll onboard your folks. We’ll put them through OSHA.” How do you set a jack up, the proper ways of doing things? We’ll have some video content that you can use to onboard your staff.

Mike:

Man.

Ryan:

Take that pressure.

Mike:

That takes off a lot of pressure for these guys.

Ryan:

Yeah, small shops, it’s hard. You’re wearing so many hats and juggling so many things, and if we can be of benefit to you, that’s what we want to do.

Mike:

Well, and that’s what I’ve noticed in the industry and in general, and that’s what I love about this industry; everybody’s willing usually to help each other, and especially if you’re not in my market, I am going to help you out. I know this one group that they fly over the country just to learn from other people, and if they hear somebody has a great idea, they’re willing to take them out for a steak dinner and learn something, but that’s awesome stuff. Just to give everybody a little bit better idea who Ryan Reagan is, tell us a little bit about, I know I’ve asked you this, but you got a funny story for us? A professional, funny story, something that you can share with the audience about? I don’t know. Give us a laugh if you got one.

Ryan:

Yeah, sure. When I was a young manager, I was trying to get promoted up in an organization, and I wanted to be an assistant center manager and run the whole facility. That was my goal, and it all happened very fast. I’d applied, and it was like a day they’d call me and, “We got you a plane ticket. We need you to fly down to Waco, and you’re going to meet with this guy.” His first name was Matt. I’ll say that. “And he’s going to interview you and this and that.” Well, I had a lot of friends in the company, and as soon as I land, I go. I’m making sure I look good. I got the suit on. Back in those days, it was all suit and tie.

Mike:

Oh, yeah.

Ryan:

Got it on, and I’m walking up to the corporate building, and on the steps I see a guy I knew, a good friend of mine, Joel, and he’s talking to this other guy, and man, I go running up to him like, “Joel, you got to tell me everything about this Matt guy.” I mean, is he a jerk? Is he a funny guy? I mean, what do I got to do to convince him? What’s an end? Give me like an end. I mean, I just need to know what I got to do to convince this guy that I’m the right guy for the job, and he just looks at me and goes, “Well, I’d like to introduce you to Matt.”

Mike:

Oh, no.

Ryan:

Oh, man.

Mike:

Man, I tell you, when you tell me that I just got this, and I know it was a long time ago, but I got this embarrassment for you, like how did you respond? “Hey, good to meet you.”

Ryan:

Yeah. Well, he actually stuck his hand out, and he goes, “How you doing?” And he was smiling ear to ear as he is doing it.

I’m thinking, “Yeah. There went this job,” but no, it actually ended up working out. We went to his office and talked a while.

He’s like, “Hey, I get anybody trying to get an edge, man. I get it.”

Mike:

Actually, you know what? It does look good for you. Really, the reality is it’s just funny that he was standing right there.

Ryan:

Oh, yeah. He said, “Next time, just make sure that you introduce yourself to everybody before you start asking those questions.”

Mike:

Man, I love it. I appreciate you sharing that, so give us a little more about yourself. What’s a favorite quote or, I don’t know, phrase, motto, something you live by, something maybe a mentor gave you?

Ryan:

A couple things. I mean, for me, personally, Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ” I mean, that’s something that I definitely believe in. From a business side, it’s something that I tell every single, my staff, every week, and talk about it all the time to anybody to listen, and that’s, “Your ego is the most expensive thing you own.”

Mike:

Wow, I like that.

Ryan:

If you want to go broke, keep following it. So it is, I always tell people, “Your ego is the most expensive thing you own. If you want to go broke, just keep following that ego.”

Mike:

Wow, that is a great one. I’ve never heard that before. I like that one.

Ryan:

Yeah, it’s true. I mean, I’ve seen a lot of young folks, and I know what I was like when I was young, and you just try to teach them that, “Don’t worry about that stuff. Everything works itself out. You don’t have to be the highest title, the highest paid, or the most this or most that. Just do your job, stay humble, and move forward.”

Mike:

I like that, man. We have it in the motto of our company, just to stay humble, but this really puts it in perspective. I like the way you phrase that. “Your ego is the most expensive thing you own,” and man, it can get in the way, right?

Ryan:

It absolutely can. Like I said, I was a big wrestler when I was young, an athlete, and you get an ego in that, and you can get humbled pretty quick.

Mike:

I know. Well, that’s one thing that’s cool kind of about the fight world, is that people don’t realize this, that have never been around it. Mostly boxers, wrestlers, people that I’ve always met, they have great respect for their opponents. I know you see a lot of the jaw jacking. I know you kind of see that build up before fights, but most of them, when you go work out at a gym or something, especially I saw this with my son, man, everybody has respect for everybody, because everybody knows, “Hey, he’s been in the ring before. He’s paid his price. I mean, he’s willing to stick it all out there,” and it’s amazing how many older guys were willing to help my son. You know what I’m saying? It’s just-

Ryan:

Oh, sure. I mean, it is. It’s something that I’ve always seen. I used to coach wrestling at some MMA gyms, and it’s always funny. You hear these people, “Oh. You should have done that. He’s terrible, and this and that.” Have you ever been in a cage? I can assure you there’s nothing pleasant about it. There is no pleasant part of being in a cage or in a ring. It is not something that’s fun, and it is a lifestyle. I mean, you kind of have to dedicate yourself to it, and that takes respect from other people, but it is one of those things. It’s kind of like the auto service industry. Everybody will help everybody. I’ve never seen-

Mike:

Yes.

Ryan:

[inaudible 00:22:08] I’m shocked about is just how giving this industry is. On the night of our expo, we raised almost $100,000 for the hurricane.

Mike:

Oh, wow. Yeah.

Ryan:

We just distributed that money out here just a couple of weeks or a week ago to shops that were, some of them were wiped completely out. Some of them, they lost certain things, so we started sending that money out, and the community came together and, in one night, raised almost $100,000.

Mike:

Isn’t that awesome? I will say this, and my audience, I know, hears me say this multiple times to different people, but we get into the best part about this industry, is the people. I mean, it’s amazing, but people are very giving. I always thought it was funny. Mike Graber, he’s president of Toyo Tire. He’s been on here before, and he goes, “What I like about it is it’s not corporatey,” and he’s the president, but everybody’s just real. I mean, and don’t get me wrong, there’s always a sour apple here or there, but for the most part, it’s a very contagious industry because of all the good people you meet.

Ryan:

I agree, 100 percent. I mean, I’ve been in large, large organizations where it is very corporatey, and you’re a number, and it’s this and it’s that. A lot of red tape, bureaucracy, and the politicking of it. When you get around folks in this industry, it’s odd to me because people talk about the automotive service repair industry doesn’t have that good of reputation amongst consumers. They’re probably nicer than any people I’ve ever met, and really, they generally just want to do a good job and they want to make you happy. They want to fix your car. They want to do things for you.

Mike:

Well, if you ever notice this, that’s where I think DDI is really helping out a lot with these digital visual inspections and stuff, and people are, because what it does is it shows, “Hey, I am being transparent with you, and I’m not trying to make up some problems that you think I’m trying to,” and most of it, really, because the regular Joe consumer, he just wants to know, “I can push my button with my fob nearby, and my car is going to start, and I don’t have to worry about it.” Most people don’t care about how their car works, but the reality is their lack of education about their automobile creates that little bit, I think, of that problem with that distrust, and it’s for those guys that are out there operating shops where they’re trying to show as much transparency, I think that’s the best way to solve the trust factor is, “Hey, I’m trying to show you everything I’m doing.”

Ryan:

I think the DEI has helped leaps and bounds. I mean, I’m a person that, I have a few cars and I’ve had them sent to me, and it’s eye-opening. You’re kind of like, “Oh, wow.” I have some cars, and when you open the hood, you don’t see anything. It’s like a piece of plastic, laying over everything, so I don’t know what’s underneath there, but they can actually show me. I do think it goes a long ways. I mean, look, I get, like you said, there’s a bad apple sometimes in any industry. I mean-

Mike:

Oh, yeah.

Ryan:

And that’s just the way it is, but as a whole, just the blue collar, the hard work, the mentality of just trying to get out and do an honest day’s work and a very good job, that’s all I’ve met so far.

Mike:

No, I agree with you.

Ryan:

It’s great [inaudible 00:25:19].

Mike:

Well, and I love your scripts from quote 4:13. I mean, that one’s a great one to remember always. There’s just a lot of good people in the industry. So one more personal question, because I love it, allowing you to kind of tell people who you are, whatever. What’s your favorite movie of all time?

Ryan:

I am a western guy, and Lonesome Dove is my favorite. Mainly, just listening to Call and Gus, the two main characters, talk back and forth, if people just stop and listen to their conversations, it’s the best part of everything.

Mike:

It’s so well written about two friends and how they understood each other. If you don’t get teary-eyed at the end, I know there may be people that go, “Well, I’ve always wanted watch that.” Well, I’ll tell you, if you want to watch a great epic, it is a great epic, because it’s six hours long, but you can knock it out in three days. I mean, you can do two hours a night or whatever, or you could be crazy and watch it all in one time.

Ryan:

I’ve probably seen it 100 times. So it’s just one of those, I mean, just listening to their banter back and forth is just insanely funny. We didn’t come here to have fun. We came here to make money. You like money, even unless you like fun, so it’s just the way that we talk. You’re like, “It’s worth the price of admission.”

Mike:

What about when Gus is sitting with that dude on the horse and they’re up there, already gone really far north and they see, and I can’t remember who the guy was, the dingy guy, and he sits there. He goes, “What you say we go chase some buffalo?”

Ryan:

Oh, yeah. That was PI?

Mike:

Yes. And he goes, “What? To eat one?”

He goes, “No, just to chase him.”

Ryan:

Chase him.

Mike:

But they go through that little dialogue that is absolutely hilarious.

Ryan:

Yeah, they’re so well written. Well, the dialogue and the lines in it are just, he’d been at the saloon all night, but when he comes out, he is reading the Bible by the fire, I suppose. He is like, “I bet you’re going to tell him you’ve been up all night reading the good book.”

Mike:

Oh, man. It’s so real. They’re so honest in it, and it’s really from a guy that, and I’m like you, I like westerns, but it’s a realistic western, because it doesn’t always work out the way you, as a viewer, you’re hoping it’s going to work out. You’re rooting for certain things, but it’s a realistic movie.

Ryan:

It’s the reality of it. I mean, let’s be honest. At my parents’ house, they have a mural of all these relatives. It goes back. We don’t even know who some of them are, and the ones in the old West, I mean, they’re just sitting there, frowning. I was there one day, and I said, “Man, why do they all look so miserable?”

My dad said, “It was pretty miserable back then.”

Mike:

But I did learn this. I did learn this. I think this is good little trivia. My grandmother, she was born in 1902. Well, they still had cameras that were slow to process the flash, but you look back, and I learned this from her, people didn’t smile because the process for that thing to flash, when that dude got underneath the tarp and the camera, it took so long that they just thought it was stupid to stand there with a smile on your face, so they all just stood there and looked like they’re pissed off. They’re just-

Ryan:

They all did. I like to think about it like, “Hey, I was a marine, a tough guy,” but when you’re sitting there thinking, “There’s no air conditioning. No ice.” Your life expectancy was like 36.

Mike:

I mean, no. They were tough, tough people. For sure. And yeah, no, it’s a good note to end on, but I think I really want to thank you for being part of Gain Traction. I want to thank you, telling our audience more about ASTA because I know the good things of it, but I think you gave us a good viewpoint.

Ryan:

I’ll tell you, it’s my pleasure, and thanks for allowing me to come on. Like I said, anybody in the tire industry, reach out to me. Let’s have a conversation, figure out ways that we can work together, help each other out. I’m more than open.

Mike:

So that’s ASTAUSA.org, folks, and you can find Ryan’s contact information there. To all our listeners out there, thank you for being part of the podcast. You make this possible. If you would like to recommend a guest to me, please email me at [email protected]. Until next time, have a fantastic day, and thank you.

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