Allison Ryan - Connecting People With Place

Allison Ryan is a West Texas native and co-founder of Explore Ranches, a company that connects its customers with spectacular private ranches throughout Texas and Colorado—some have described it as “AirBnB for ranches." For those seeking a truly unique outdoor experience, Explore Ranches offers access to private land that has rarely, if ever, been visited by the public. And for the ranch owner, Explore Ranches creates an additional revenue stream to support the costs of land ownership, encourage conservation, and reduce the likelihood of subdividing large ranches due to financial strain. Given the lack of public land in Texas and the financial realities of owning large ranches, Explore Ranches offers a welcome solution for both landowners and adventure-loving non-landowners. • Allison grew up in El Paso, Texas, in a conservation-minded family that valued time in the outdoors and understood the importance of land stewardship. Between her childhood experiences at summer camp in West Texas, time spent on her family’s ranch, and a love of fitness and wellness, Allison has a deep understanding of the many benefits of recreating in open spaces. But Allison is also familiar with the financial commitments of land ownership, and she understands first hand the need to identify new revenue streams in order to make ranch ownership financially viable. In fact, her family’s ranch, known as the Withers, is available on Explore Ranches-- it serves as an excellent case study that demonstrates the need that Explore Ranches fulfills for landowners. • If you listened to my recent interview with Allison’s co-founder Jay Kleberg, you may remember that we briefly discussed Explore Ranches. But in this conversation with Allison, we dig into the nitty-gritty details of the business—how the idea came about, descriptions of some of the available properties, and the challenges and opportunities arising from the small amount of private land in Texas. We discuss how Explore Ranches can be a useful tool for landowners, and why her family’s ranch was a prime candidate to partner with Explore Ranches. We talk about her childhood in West Texas, conservation lessons learned from her parents and grandparents, and some of her formative experiences in the outdoors. Allison also dives into her other career in the fitness world, and I veer the conversation completely off track by asking way too many questions about diet, exercise, and fasting—if you like any of my interviews with professional athletes, you’ll probably enjoy that part. And as usual, we discuss favorite books, films, and her most powerful outdoor experience. • Take a moment to visit Explore Ranches—there are links in the episode notes. And please enjoy this fun conversation with Allison Ryan. ••• Episode Notes: http://mountainandprairie.com/allison-ryan/ https://www.exploreranches.com/ http://mountainandprairie.com/reading ••• TOPICS DISCUSSED: 4:30- How Allison describes her work 5:50 - Overview of Explore Ranches 7:25 - Origin of the Explore Ranches idea 11:30 - Public vs private land in Texas 14:50 - Allison’s family ranch 19:30 - History of land stewardship in Allison’s family 20:45 - Childhood experiences in the outdoors 21:45 - Other ranches in the Explore Ranches portfolio 24:30 - Working with landowners 27:15 - Explore Ranches as a landowner tool 28:30 - Competitors? 30:00 - Criteria for ranches 31:30 - Biggest surprises in starting the business 33:50 - Future plans for Explore Ranches 36:00 - Growing up in El Paso 37:45 - School and early career 40:00 - Personal training 41:00 - Diet versus exercise 46:30 - Best single exercise 47:30 - Fasting 50:15 - Thoughts on social media 54:30 - Favorite books 57:15 - Favorite films 58:30 - Most powerful outdoor experience 1:00:30 - Favorite location in the West 1:01:00 - Request of the listeners 1:02:45 - Connect with Allison