Sam Panitch: Elevation Nation. We have a badass guest for you today, mainly because he's just got that elevator mindset. He's hungry. He's entrepreneurial. And the things that he is doing is elevating himself, his family's legacy, and making the world a better place. We have Ryan Scherr on Elevation Nation. Brother, I'm excited to get to know you even more than I already do because you just fit in with our crew, man. Welcome to the nation. We're so glad to have you calling in. from Austin, Texas, welcome.

Ryan Shaer: Hey, thanks so much for having me. Really excited to be here, excited to share my story and hopefully be able to provide some insight for anyone listening. I've listened to the pod, it's great. I've gotten a lot of good content, a lot of good ⁓ stuff. So I'm really excited to be here and share my story.

Parker Yablon: Hell yeah, Ryan, we're pumped. mean, like obviously I'm looking you up on social, LinkedIn, and just seeing, Sam's like, yeah, run's like a limousine company. I'm like, that's cool. We haven't interviewed anyone who's ever run their own limousine company. I can't tell you the last time I've been at limousine, but maybe Ryan, we gotta change that. I imagine you have a lot more than just limousines. ⁓ But we start off Elevation Nation every single. time the exact same way. It is elevationation. So we ask people, what is your elevator pitch? Tell us more about who you are as a person, what you're building.

Ryan Shaer: Absolutely. Well, my name is Ryan Cher. I've been in the limousine business now for over 10 plus years and my father's been in the industry for over 40 years. A little bit of background about me. I went to University of Delaware, great school. I grew up in Wilmington, Delaware. I actually went to Delaware Tech before that. I played soccer there, so was always into sports. I think it really came to me when I was 21. You know, in my high school I was definitely a very slow like student, wasn't you know, the best academic. academically or just behavior wise I was always getting in the trouble and I think I just hit this bottom where I was just like You know what? Like I just want to be the best person and I really started getting into the gym I got on the soccer team at Delaware Tech and it was just a complete switch for me I think I really needed that to happen and yeah then from there when I was in college my dad You know, he was working for another limousine company and and he when I was in college was a cam starting this business and I had the opportunity to just go, know to work at a Marriot hotel or to be in business somewhere. There were some opportunities I got to work in DC. And just looking at the salary and just moving and then having the opportunity to just go work with my dad, said, hey, I wanna go be an entrepreneur. I wanna go help my dad grow this business. So I ended up joining the family business. I started out as a car detailer. I was washing all the cars, doing all the things I didn't wanna do. I had a college degree, but I had the grit. I had to figure it out and I really wanted to answer the phones. That was one thing that I really wanted. to do when I got there. after a couple weeks, months, I started answering the phones and I really just started researching. I said, what are the biggest and best companies doing in my field? And I just started to copy exactly what they were doing. Like I wasn't making anything new. I would just be like, ⁓ you know, they're doing SEO. They're doing this on their website. They're going to these events. They're part of these memberships. And slowly and slowly, you know, we started to grow. And that's when I kind of realized ⁓ there was scale available in this company and that really it took a long time to do. The first five years of business, we had a lot of lessons that we had to learn. There was a lot of things that we needed to ⁓ experience and it was all well worth it. It was just us trying to figure things out and really get through it. And I made a lot of mistakes. You know, I was the person that had to talk to every client when there was an issue. I was also the person trying to resolve it. I was doing all the accounting. But year by year, we were able to grow the company and I was able to delegate one thing at a time. I think this is now my part of the career where I've delegated a lot and I really am grateful for that. But it took a long time to get there. And as we were really starting to get the ball rolling, you COVID happen. That was a really, really big issue for us. Obviously, there was no business. It was just me, my dad and my brother that were running the company at that time. We had to lay off all our employees. Most of the chauffeurs in this industry, retired, the retired police or retired firefighters, a lot of them didn't want to be in the cars driving when we wanted to come back. It was one of the hardest things ever. And I realized that that time when we did hire everyone back and when that did happen, I never wanted to be in that situation again where I didn't have employees. Like I was ⁓ upset that we let everyone go and we were trying to hire everyone back and I was like, you know, I really wish, you know, we were just keeping them on unemployment or like keeping them just around the shop doing stuff because it was really, really difficult and it was ⁓ a good lesson for me because I just started over hiring from then. was like, want more salespeople, more everything and that really helped the scale of the company. But from COVID as well, it brought a lot of prosperity. A lot of companies went out of business. They no longer wanted to be in this. You know, my father really inspires me. He's a really, really hard worker. Like he will outwork anyone to just everything he's built in his business was because of hard work. And it was just him continuing to go. And he really started this company when he was 50 years old. So it wasn't that he was always successful or just like had it. He worked a nine to five and then, and then worked as a limo driver at night. And like that really is what got him to this. And I think, you he just saved enough money and like had that cushion to really just start this on his own. So it was really great. And that it just he just continues to inspire me and he's still going like every day, you know, he's at the shop. He loves being in operations. He is the. Yeah, he is the manager. All the drivers look up to him and, you know, if there's ever an emergency ride, he'll still hop in a car and do it. You know, he loves working with his hands and.

Parker Yablon: Unreal.

Ryan Shaer: He really sees my vision as well. think he really backs me and I think that's a good thing that I compliment. I'm more of the person that's reading all the financial statements, know, doing all that digital marketing side, doing all the hiring, the sales manager so they can be out on the road, helping me when I was always doing that. And he sees the vision that I see and he really does let me kind of, he's like, I trust you. Obviously we talk about every big decision together, but he really gave me that opportunity and that was really good. And I had to earn it, you know, when I was younger in my 20s, I definitely wasn't as devoted. I still wanted to experience more, but then there was definitely a time where I was 28 and I was really like, I'm all in on this company. I'm all in on this business. I want to do whatever it takes to make it grow. And that was a big transition for me where I just went full CEO and I wanted to really kind of do that.

Sam Panitch: Yeah.

Ryan Shaer: But another part of the story that I left out is, know, when the company closed, had an opportunity to work in a startup. It was a company called Slice Space and what they were doing was they were

Sam Panitch: Yeah.

Ryan Shaer: They were trying to get real estate on an app and they were trying to use crypto on a backend to kind of make it all come together. It was very hard to do, SEC regulated. But when I got that opportunity, I learned so much about startups. You know, I read 30 books. I was listening to Audible every day. was like, I got so obsessed with it and it was just a great. experience for me to really do that. And part of my role was, you know, I would go to networking events. I, you know, spent a month in San Jose, like trying to get the San Fran ⁓ experience. And I was trying to raise money. I was trying to do the property acquisition. We were all intact as a team, you know, between the developers trying to launch an MVP. So it was a really good experience for me. But then when COVID was over and business started going, I was like, you know, I need to go back and, you know, make this thing go. It's, it's, it's either fight or flight. There's no other person.

Parker Yablon: Yeah.

Sam Panitch: Yeah.

Ryan Shaer: to be there when there's no one else to work if you're not there no one's gonna do it and that's what I felt right then and there it's just like I got to get back in there and make sure this company is alive so yes

Parker Yablon: Hell yeah.

Sam Panitch: Wow. Insane, man. I mean, so many different questions that we're going to dive into. Hell of an elevator pitch. We got a lot of your story covered. So that was good because we were going to get into all those different topics that built you and made you you. ⁓ out to Mr. Share. Shout out to Pops grinding and building it. One quick thing, Ryan, before we go into the next question, if you could tilt your camera up a little bit, you have awesome flow and it's getting cut off. And I want to make sure that everybody can see your dope ass hair. Perfect. Okay. Thank you. So I want to dive a little bit, Ryan, into something that you glossed over, but I think it's really important.

Ryan Shaer: Perfect.

Sam Panitch: for your story and I think for a lot of young people out there that listen to this podcast, I know you're big on mentorship. You talked a little bit about your struggles in high school, right? Maybe not necessarily getting the best grades, not turning it on and reaching your full potential. Let's talk a little bit about how you were back in high school. when you snapped and kind of had that ⁓ shit moment, like this is my life, I'm ready to win it and conquer it, and what advice would you have for other young people that maybe are struggling with academics and not reaching their full potential yet?

Ryan Shaer: Yeah, absolutely. mean, high school, I was just with the wrong kids. I love skateboarding. I don't think that was the issue. But at the time, just the kids in my neighborhood, they were all smoking weed or doing XYZ. And I just wanted to be, I guess, with the cool kids. But I think that made me more of a bad adolescent, didn't listen to my parents. They were like, oh, they let their friends sleep over their friend's house. I wasn't allowed to do that. And I did it anyway. It all fell into a circle. And then from there, like I was going to community college, but I just wasn't doing well. I just didn't really take school seriously. And I think there was just a time of it really just started of just like me. Just getting off of everything completely like just stop smoking weed Just like wasn't still hanging out with the same friends and like getting that clarity for like 90 days And it's just like going to the gym and really doing that It was just a snap for me like I wanted my health and I knew how important health was and just getting into the gym and not really knowing what I was doing and it was just It was a learning method and just I know like I felt like I was hopeless and when that happened to me It just really helped me just like skyrocket and when people see me that next year they were like you're completely different person. You weren't the person that you were in high school in it and it felt good and I was still young then. I still got to enjoy my college life. You know I went to Dell Tech and got the best grade so I could move on to University of Delaware, got my degree from there and I continued to enjoy life and it was a great opportunity but I was still working. You I was working as a server when I went to University of Delaware. I was still paying for the things that I needed to pay for. I was always a hard worker. I always had it in me. I just needed to get a little bit more motivated.

Sam Panitch: Mm-hmm.

Ryan Shaer: about it. So that was the big switch for me.

Sam Panitch: Totally. Yeah, I know I appreciate you getting vulnerable and opening up for us and I think two ⁓ similarities that I just want to highlight here again for the young people out there that maybe feel like they're locked in a certain persona, right? I think we grow up our parents tell us to be one way and maybe we rebel and we're a different way or we conform and we're a certain way and I think Obviously Ryan you are a testament that you can create the person you want to be with small habits that build you into that human and I also think it's similarities in the story with your dad, right? Starting a business at 50 Realizing hey, I'm gonna take a risk I'm gonna take a chance and I'm gonna redefine what my next couple decades are gonna look like for me You're never too young or you're never too old to change the direction that your life is headed. And I think that's something that I really want to emphasize for elevation nation out there. have a lot of young people listening that are going through challenging times, right? They're either feeling locked in a certain type of person, locked in a job, locked in a city or a situation that they don't love. And so Ryan, think you and your dad, we're going to give him a lot of love on this podcast. Our testament to it, you're never too young or never too early to change. that direction.

Ryan Shaer: Yeah, he gave me a lot of opportunity, you know, to graduate college and be able to go into business and really figure things out on my own. think is the best thing that's ever happened to me, right? Being able to build a company from the ground up and have the opportunity for it to already be there was it really meant everything. And we had a really good partnership between him, my brother, my uncle joining later on and my cousins. And it was great. They were more working on the operations directly with the drivers. And I was just sales, sales, sales, hiring. And it was a really, good partnership but it was able for me to learn a lot and be able to have the opportunity that I have now. You know I really put a heroic 10 years in the company and from there I you know this industry and I want to like rephrase this again for like really any service business because I hear a lot about you know HVAC and just really a lot of cleaning businesses there's just so many things that really look unsexy that you can really get started in right away and I didn't think the limo business was a sexy business but But I just seen the potential and I seen also the other potentials of other companies. Like there's companies in this industry that are doing 250 million in revenue per year and it's serious. you can like that is incredible to me. This isn't a software company. It's not some crazy startup and you can really scale and that's like the potential really in any business. I think you know Tommy Mello A1 garage doors built a really big garage door business and you know he's someone that I follow online and I think he really reaches that you could really make a fantastic business out of really like any industry. And ⁓ the limo business is really tough. It's a 24 seven industry. So that was really hard. We used to take the phones home at night. People would call at 3 a.m. on a ride and we would be answering the phone and it takes a really long time to kind of get over that hump. But I learned I'm like I have international teams now that work for us directly. You know, they live in Serbia. They live in the Philippines. And as I grew as an entrepreneur, I was able to create these systems and be like, okay, we no longer have to answer the phones anymore. We no longer have to deal with the customer complaints. We no longer have to deal with the things that I personally didn't like doing. And now I can just focus on the sales and when there's a really large account and you know, I want to go out and be on that call. Like that's me. It's just like, if there's something that's going to be an impact for the company, I want to be doing that. If there's any speaking engagements that I could do, there's networking events in the industry. You know, I want to be there, right?

Parker Yablon: Hell yeah.

Ryan Shaer: And I want to share a couple of things that really I think helped me as I was like growing in the business because Some of the biggest things that were hard for me and I wish I knew earlier was really like finding essentially the right mentor. But the first time I was in this industry and I went to one of these conventions that was just for the limo business that first year I took everything I learned there, know, text follow ups, SEO, digital marketing, like how you should do your email campaigns. There was just so much I learned there and I went and implemented it that year and it was a huge impact on my company when they started introducing just a text follow up for your client. It was a game changer. I felt that my revenue increased like 30 % just adding that if you're not texting your clients It's a huge thing. You definitely got to be doing it. It doesn't matter really what you're in I just think it's so easy because they just easily want to text you like yes I want to book that like I don't check my emails or whatever the situation may be. I know I need that ride so Little things like that were big just try to figure out the conventions in your industry Try to figure out like who's already done it in your industry like don't try to get advice from someone that hasn't done it before because I've kind of been through that. You definitely want to go with someone that has the experience and anything's really interchangeable. Like if someone ran a trucking company, delivery service, anything, it could really be anything similar. But this is the type of things that really helped me and I'm glad I was able to get in those early.

Parker Yablon: I love that you are hidden on, you didn't recreate the wheel by any means. Maybe you recreated what it looks like on the outside, but the wheel still is the wheel. You're basically looking at ways that how people did it and did it well. And it sounds like you're someone who is very observant and re and able to take in those concepts and then apply your own thinking, your own perspective on what that is. Sam and I are also very interested in the boring business where I picked this guy up, like a quarter way through it, going very slow because I want to be able to take it in. don't know if you know the book or not, buy then build for all of those who are tuning in on Spotify and Apple podcasts. Can't see it on the YouTube, but the idea that, you know, I felt like in college you hear like, what's that big idea that we're going to come up with? That big software that's going to change the world or that big tech company.

Ryan Shaer: Mm-hmm.

Parker Yablon: When in reality there's so many to your point boring businesses, quote unquote, whether you put limousine in the boring business or not, or like my stepbrother runs a dog walking and grooming business, right? There's so many opportunities for good, smart business people to make an impact in the world. My question for you, Ryan, is you employ I think over 100 people. How do you motivate? 100 plus people to have the same passion in this business in this industry that you have because how do you help them see the the impact that you can have on your clients and the opportunities that Being in the limousine business can have for for all your employees

Ryan Shaer: Yeah, that's a really great question. So I think for us, it just happened as we started growing. We started building that culture and with the owners working in the business, they just see the hard work. You know, they see the grit. They see my dad waking up and doing 3 AM runs. They see us when we do these large events. Like I am there. I'm here. I'm going to be a coordinator. I'm going to be working with this client one-on-one. And I think for me, I work really a lot with the sales team and ensuring that we're saying the right things on the phone. But every day I'm hey, this is what's going on. We're getting this brand new vehicle. expanding. We're growing. And they love to be a part of that growth when we were just a small company and then they stayed with us. A lot of our reservationists, they came in maybe right out of college and they were like, yeah, this is going to be a job where I'm going to come in and then I'm going to move on to the next thing. And they ended up staying three years because they seen the growth of the company and they started growing with the company. They became an event specialist expert. It just kept going and going. And I think just ways to inspire, obviously, Obviously, everyone has their own way to get inspired. It's compensation. It's the way they get appreciated. We do a Christmas party every year where everybody comes. get to invite a guest. There's just many, many different things. And I feel those were a lot of the things for us was the type of culture and the family business environment. And when even the show first come and work for us, they're like, hey, I worked at these other companies and I didn't get the same experience. It's amazing working here. You guys are so nice. It's really amazing hearing that and that's really what worked for us. And it's always a learning thing. I try to listen to my employees, they're like, we want this or that. And I'm like, okay, I'm gonna work and try to get that for us. Let's get it, let's get this 401k, let's get these benefits, whatever the thing is that they need. And that really was able to keep really good talent, right?

Parker Yablon: Hmm. I imagine too that your clients have good relationships with your chauffeurs as well. And the reason why I say that from my perspective is my stepdad, he traveled internationally for work almost every week. He would wake up Monday morning, 4 a.m. and he would have a limousine service, guy named Ron pick him up.

Ryan Shaer: Mm-hmm. Mm.

Parker Yablon: for like 15 years, he would pick him up, take him to the airport, and then when he'd come back on Thursday, Ron was there at the airport. And they had a relationship for so many years. And because of that, my stepdad never went to Uber, never went to Lyft. It was always Ron. Ron's my guy, he's gonna ask me about the Ravens lost the previous day, we're gonna talk about the nonsense that our wives are dealing with. I imagine that that is another piece that you guys have figured out really well.

Ryan Shaer: and I'm Absolutely. The more that you can invest in your training, the better that your team's going to be. You know, we always try to get the chauffeurs together. We do a presentation with them. We get them food and it's good to get everyone together because on this 24 seven business, everyone has different shifts. It's hard. We don't all work together in the office, right? So what we try to deliver to them is they are the face of the company. You know, we have to go out of our way to be friendly. We got to go. We have to ensure that we're groomed. We have to make sure the vehicles groom. We're doing the proper The pre-trip inspection on the car, know, we can't go out there and have a damaged vehicle this is the type of brand that we want to deliver to our clients, right and It's it's it's difficult, you know Everyone's kind of setting their ways when they come in and you got to like change almost someone's personality like hey the nicer you are the better gratuity you're gonna get the more requests you're gonna get for these clients so it's absolutely important and it goes it starts from the person that answers the phone it's not even just the chauffeur with like a lot of people book with us because they're like when I called and talked to your team I really trusted them they were amazing on the phone you guys were a little bit more money but I want to go with you your reviews are great reputation is great and our sales manager she's you know the soul of the company I was always going out and doing these networking events and for years and years and years I was doing I was like I need like some time to work on strategy right and I hired a sales manager that would go out and do all the networking events her name is Lisa Bass shout out to her great, she does a great job and she has an amazing personality. She really connects on that level with our clients where hey like they know what they're doing for Easter. It's just like all these things like they know what they're doing there and they have a good friendship and that's really what it takes. It takes building relationships with people so it's incredible what we've been able to build so far.

Sam Panitch: You know, mentioned it earlier that, you know, people were always focused on these like software, big idea, sexy tech companies for so many years. That was the entrepreneurial ticket. That was the standard you're in Y Combinator or you're not being successful. You're on Shark Tank or you're not going to make it. Right. And I think to all of your guys points, there's this new beautiful era that I love. Parker and I. learn and talk a lot about AI. The good, the bad, the ugly. Parker and I are full-time consultants in Big Four Consulting. Our lives are changing. I don't know what they're going to look like in five years. And so we've had this return both with elevation nation, which is how do you breed a culture of authenticity on the podcast? How do you teach vulnerability when we go speak around the country to high schools, colleges, camps and corporations? How do we create an environment for young men to come together, learn, grow, push each other and be their true selves? Because we now live in this world where everything is so inauthentic. It's fake. It's all tech driven. And while that's great for entrepreneurship and ops and systems, I think there's this beautiful thing in the world where people are returning. to those interpersonal relationships that really make them feel human again. And at the end of the day, that's kind of what we pay for. We pay to feel human. so I love the fact, Ryan, that you guys have invested so much time in your employees feeling like they're part of your family and for your clients eventually to feel like they're part of the family as well. I think that is the direction we are headed as a society. And so I think getting that back into your businesses is so smart. ⁓ But speaking of family business, I did a a question for you. talked a lot about Pops on this podcast. I know he's out there listening, but we're going to ask you to be a little bit real. Working with a family member is difficult. Working with your best friend, me and Parker, it's difficult. It comes with pros and cons. What do you think is the biggest positive to working with your dad and what do you think is one of the hardest things that you guys have to deal with as father and son?

Ryan Shaer: Yeah, great question. mean, I dealt with something earlier and it's kind of the reoccurring thing. We may not agree on the same thing and it's, you know, he's essentially the CEO. And it's like at this point, like his decisions are usually final sometimes. And what I've tried to really create for us is a board. like, hey, our leading managers, our operation manager, we all need to have a board. And when we need to make a big decision, let's try to do that. Right. But sometimes it doesn't always work. And I think that's one of the biggest things that is going to be the most difficult. I think when you are in a different type of company, they do have those boards that are made and they do make the decisions and it actually happens. Whereas like the family, it's just like we're a little bit too loose and the things don't actually get done. ⁓ But the good thing is, is he's just always going to support me. I've made a lot of mistakes and like he's just always going to make sure like he believes in me. And I know that with that, I'm just able to grow as a person. And you mentioned, you know, something about entrepreneurs and you know, sometimes they really don't get started because they don't have that cushion. And I think that's why When my dad was 50 years old, he was able to have a little cushion to be like, can make this work now. I've either saved enough or whatever the situation may be. And I know that. You know, he was able to get a loan from my uncle and he kind of like helped me and I think it helped my dad and I think that was a big part of it too. But they weren't able to do that when they were younger, right? And I think for a young entrepreneur, being able to get that cushion is super important. And I know what a lot of people do is they stay at their full-time job and they grind out on this other side gig until that side gig is their main job. And I truly believe that that is the main thing that everyone should do. I mean, unless they, there's really a lot of talent out there. think is great. And you also mentioned, ⁓ you know, about being in person. And I think that was a big reason why I came to Austin, Texas. My company is based in Philadelphia. My family is also based there. And this year, you know, as I mentioned, after 10 years of like heroic work, I really wanted to be in proximity where other founders are building other big companies. And I felt that. I wanted to be around other people that were doing the things that I wanted to be doing and that's more related to health, fitness. There's just such a good community here and I highly recommend it. And for other people who may be moving to San Francisco or moving to New York, whatever the situation may be, I think there's a lot of, as long as it's for the right reasons, right? So I think that was a big thing for me and how I was able to have my little cushion to do the things that I wanted to do.

Sam Panitch: beautiful and I think having that relationship with your entire family and that support obviously throughout the company and big decisions and then moving to Austin is so important. I want to tee up another conversation here around your dad being supportive because Ryan you're starting and started a new business. So he's got to be supportive of that as well. Can you talk to us a little bit about what you're building there? I know this is a little bit of an elevation nation exclusive drop that we're doing here. So we're honored that you want to do it on the podcast. We want to give you the floor to talk about the new thing that you're building.

Ryan Shaer: Yeah, of course. So. I have a girlfriend, name's Sarah Vera. She's been in dance for 22 years. She's been a dance instructor. She did dance academically as well. She has her master's in dance education. She worked at a middle school and high school for, ⁓ for dance, for teaching dance elective. And then at night she would teach at competitive studios. And when we started dating, I was like, Hey, I really want to build a company together. We kind of just started researching things and we would actually go do like a study session and like the evening and just kind of just brainstorm. Like what we want to do because I knew I seen how hard she worked and I seen how little that you know She was receiving in compensation and I just seen how dedicated she was. I'm like look We're gonna like we're gonna build something like this is it like you're gonna like you have so much talent and we need to get your talent out there so We were just researching like hey, what could we sell to dancers? I what could we sell to this community and I am super big and to organic clothes Organic cotton like what you put on your skin and what you put in your body is important. I really love everything about nutrition, wellness, ⁓ while I was kind of brainstorming stuff. I just kind of realized we were doing some research. I like, let's build, you know, a sustainable organic clothing brand just for dancers. It doesn't look like anyone's doing it. It seems like it could be a great possibility. And what we did is we really just kind of tested it out. Like we didn't like just, you know, just start building. We just kind of reached out to moms, people were like, Hey, would you buy this? Like, would you get, you know, God's organic certified that you know, it's skin safe. It doesn't have the formaldehydes. It doesn't have all the toxic things that are on your clothes and all the responses were yes. Every single person we brought this up to they were like actually like my daughter from wearing the uniforms and cheer and this and everything they were like you know they got eczema or they got this and Sarah even dealt with that a little bit so I just knew that this would definitely be a good ⁓ opportunity and that's what we did we started building the company we started recruiting I mean now that what I learned from my other business I right away just got a consultant like I had the money I was able to recruit the ex-CEO of Maggie's Organics, which was you know, the pioneer of organic clothing in this industry. She consulted for us She really paved the way for the first, you ⁓ Couple six months and then we got another consultant that was at discount dance for 19 years and she had all the experience with Sizes colors like what's the most popular and we just kind of ran with it from there So we have our PO place. We kind of have the website and everything done and we're still in beta, you know, we're still pre revenue. We really want like these first couple launches to really go to like, you know, people we know run that test. We spent a lot of time creating these products. Everyone thinks like clothing. ⁓ you could just go to Alibaba and just like type some stuff up and get some, but not dancewear like it months and months. Like you have to get the perfect fit. Like our technical designer. Also, she ⁓ works just in dancewear. She has some experience with working with it. like the New York Ballet. So a lot of really heavy hitters and I'm glad that we had the opportunity to do this and I knew how I want to build my team just from everything I've experienced, like all the experience I had. So I wanted to get the best of the best and that's pretty much where we've landed. I know we're gonna have a successful launch and it's gonna be epic.

Parker Yablon: Sounds awesome. Very different than the limousine business too, which is fascinating. But I can imagine one day where you have some dancers come out of a limousine in this wear and then boom, that's your first ad right there. Free consulting for you, Ryan. Right there. I just see it. I envision it. It's a two birds with one stone type moment. That's incredible. I love it. And I love that you're doing it with your girlfriend, but you're also leveraging the network that you sought after when you got to Austin. You're surrounded, I'm sure you're thinking and meeting people who are in many different worlds, but can give you unique perspective on how to build a website, how to do different types of SEO or different marketing tactics than you would have done with your limousine business. I love it. Ryan, we're gonna head into our next section, rapid fire, play a little game, give you some fast questions. First thing that comes to mind, you gotta let us know what you're thinking. All right, I'm gonna go first. What is one of the most ridiculous or crazy client requests that you've had with Ace that you guys ended up fulfilling?

Ryan Shaer: Excellent, yeah that's a good question. ⁓ The first thing that comes to the top of my head Think about this. Well the clients that are high level they always want to be able to smoke in the car and we don't allow anyone to smoke in the car. know one time we picked up a celebrity probably can't say is they will do it and we picked up Rick Ross and all they did was smoke in the vehicle right and it was just when we got it back and they're just like yep we'll just pay the smoking fee like no biggie is what it is. So There's always things that they want to do. People have gotten fights in the back of the vehicle. It's just kind of things like that. I think just when you're working with high-end clientele, we hear and see it all. All our chauffeurs sign NDAs. We're not really supposed to be talking about anything, but it's public information. It's just like, are you going to do? But that's a lot of the things that typically we don't want to be dealing with, but it kind of happens.

Parker Yablon: any cross-country trips that your drivers have had to make?

Ryan Shaer: ⁓ absolutely. We typically, a lot we go to Florida, know, people will church trips to Florida or, you know, sports teams going to all over, all over Canada, anywhere. So we do a long, long distance trips. I feel that a little bit. And that area too is, know, when we have a client that's based in Philadelphia, we do their nation and worldwide travel for them, right? Where there one solid point of contact for anything they need. They're like, Hey, we're taking our entire company to the Superbowl. Like we'll do the event transportation for that. We have a conference here in Chicago. We'll do the event transportation for that. So it's more than just, you know, transportation. It's, it's a one-stop shop for everything and event logistics. So it's, it's, it's, it's great.

Sam Panitch: So Ryan, you moved down from Philly area. So I'm gonna ask you this first and then I have a follow up for your Austin life. But Philly, where's your go to cheesesteak?

Ryan Shaer: gyms and that is not the normal. Usually people say genos or pats but I learned from my dad he's like if you want a cheesesteak I'm gonna take you here and that's that's where to go. You gotta go to gyms, gyms steaks.

Sam Panitch: There you go. I love it. All right. And with that, ⁓ cuisine expertise that you have in your family, you're now down in Austin, the land of barbecue and tacos. You got a go-to spot for either one of those things.

Ryan Shaer: Yeah, well I think Terry Black's is a huge one for barbecue. I went there. It's the way that... It's just a really great food, but also just how good the actual service is. Like you go in, you kind of wait, order. It's just like very quick and they're cutting the brisket in front of you. It's beautiful, right? So when you kind of get that experience, you got to keep going back. So whenever anyone visits, we'll take them there. Tacos, there's an abundant of food trucks. I think here is just like, you could just drive around anywhere and you can experience really good food from, you know, one owner trucks. So don't have an exact spot on the tacos right now. Yeah, I do have one actually it's called Tecara and I don't know the name I'm probably watching that name but they have two in Austin and it's really good so.

Sam Panitch: I it. I'm hungry. Damn.

Parker Yablon: Alright, yeah, it's for it's for it's for getting there. We're getting there didn't All right last rapid fire Ryan Let's see, man. Do you have a book recommendation or a podcast recommendation for Elevation Nation? My bookshelf broke, so all the books are now on the ground, but I'm always looking for a new recommendation. What do you got for me?

Ryan Shaer: Yeah, well, Traction by Gina Wickman was definitely one of my favorite books that resonated with me the most. And it was all really about building systems. And when I was in the thick of it and my systems weren't great, reading that book really, really helped me. And then for podcasts, My First Million is one of my favorites. I really enjoy it. think being a little bit in startup, more entrepreneurial, that one really hits everything. So I enjoy that one. So I recommend that.

Parker Yablon: was listening to that today.

Sam Panitch: Got to add traction to my book list. I'm definitely adding that one. I'm the ops guy, so I love that stuff. Ryan, I want to end on our final question. We ask every single person who comes on the Elevation Nation podcast this question, but also the thousands of people around the country that we speak to. It's called your mental motto, a phrase, a quote, a slogan that embodies who you are and how you live your life. So Ryan Cher, what is your mental motto?

Ryan Shaer: Yeah, this has actually been mine for a long time and it's, you know, make everyone around you happy and you will be happy. And I really believe in that. And that's not only in your personal life, but in your business, you know, really prioritize your team and you know, you will always be fulfilled. And that's a big part of me and my personality. And that's my mental motto.

Sam Panitch: Mm. That's a great one.

Parker Yablon: Great mental motto. It's perfect short to the point and the way you described it was awesome. Ryan, just like that conversation, we're coming to a close. mean, I'm just so grateful that we were able to get to meet you, learn about your story, what you're building with ACE, and of course the new clothing line business, that's so exciting. But I'm inspired because you seem like a guy who just wants to make a difference and is really committed. to your craft and the people that are in your world. And something that Sam and I, we appreciate so much is that, your life is as good as the people that are in it and it feels like you embody all of that. ⁓ So just thank you on behalf of Elevation Nation, myself, Sam, ⁓ for joining us. And like Sam always says, it's just the start. Any way the nation can be of help to you, we're always around.

Ryan Shaer: Thank you for having me, really means a lot. ⁓ Anyone ever want to reach out, I would love to mentor anyone that really wants any feedback. Feel free to reach out to me, LinkedIn, socials. My company is Aislinn-Mazine in Airport Service. My new business now is Aiden Dancewear. As You Dance Naturally is what that stands for. So find me, hit me up on my socials, and anyway I could help. I'd love to be here for you.

Sam Panitch: Love it. Until next week, elevation nation. Peace.