What happens when hundreds of people who all share the same first name gather in one place? You get one of the most unique events Mall of America has ever hosted.
This week, we're joined by Ryan Fisher, Chief Communications Officer for Ryan Meetup, the nationwide community that brings together people named Ryan through fun events and local chapters across the country. Alongside Mall of America's Meri, we take you behind the scenes of the partnership that brought the unforgettable "Ryde the Ryan Coaster" event to life.
By the time this episode airs, hundreds of Ryans will have packed Nickelodeon Universe in an attempt to set a world record for the most people with the same name to consecutively ride a roller coaster, before heading to Target Field for the Ryan Baseball Classic. We talk about how this wonderfully quirky idea became reality, the planning that went into hosting it, what guests experienced throughout the day, and why a community built around a single name has captured the imagination of people across the country.
Along the way, you'll hear the story behind Ryan Meetup, why their famous motto is "No Bryans Allowed," some of the funniest moments from past gatherings, and why this may be one of the most memorable events ever held at Mall of America.
1:45 How the Ryan Meetup began with a simple flyer and a QR code
7:00 The “No Brians Allowed” rule for Ryan Meetups
8:30 The annual Ryan holidays for all Ryans to celebrate
9:15 How Ryan Meetup landed at Mall of America to set a new record
12:45 Setting a roller coaster record at MOA, meet in the ‘Rytunda’ and leave as friends
18:30 Ryans traveled from as far as Hawaii for the Ryan Meetup
21:15 What’s next for Ryan Meetup….
Visit: www.mallofamerica.com/events
Visit: https://www.ryanmeetup.com/
Guests: Ryan Cousins, Co-Founder and Creative Director and Ryan Fisher, Chief Communications Officer for Ryan Meetup
Hosts: Jill Renslow, Meri Ryan
Presented by Bloomington Minnesota Travel and Tourism the official destination marketing organization for the city of Bloomington, Minn.
00:00 --> 00:05 Mall of America. It's home to world-class shopping, great dining, and amazing
00:05 --> 00:09 attractions and events. And these are our stories presented by Bloomington,
00:09 --> 00:12 Minnesota Travel and Tourism. Hey everybody, welcome to
00:13 --> 00:15 So Much More. This is the podcast where we give you a little behind the
00:15 --> 00:19 scenes of Mall of America and introduce you to people creating unforgettable experiences
00:19 --> 00:24 here. I'm your host, Jill Renslow, and I'm joined by my co-host Mary Ryan,
00:24 --> 00:27 which we'll get into in just a little bit, our senior manager of experiential
00:28 --> 00:31 here at Mall of America. And today's episode is unlike anything that we've done before.
00:32 --> 00:35 By the time you're listening to this podcast, hundreds of
00:35 --> 00:39 people named Ryan will have gathered in Mall of America
00:39 --> 00:43 for one of the most entertaining and admittedly one of the most random events
00:44 --> 00:46 we've ever hosted. It's gonna be an attempt to set the world record for the
00:47 --> 00:50 most people with the same first name consecutively riding a roller
00:51 --> 00:54 coaster before heading to Target Field for the Ryan Baseball Classic.
00:55 --> 00:58 So the mall's rotunda even is getting renamed to
00:58 --> 01:02 the Ry-tunda for this evening. So Behind all the fun is
01:03 --> 01:07 a fascinating story about community, friendship, and how a simple idea became a nationwide
01:08 --> 01:11 movement. We are so excited because joining us today are 2
01:11 --> 01:15 of the people behind the Ryan Meetup, Ryan Fisher and Ryan Cousins.
01:15 --> 01:18 Welcome guys to So Much More. Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us.
01:18 --> 01:23 This is great. Mary Ryan, are you excited? I'm so excited for this.
01:23 --> 01:26 I love a theme and this is a theme and I love the community,
01:26 --> 01:28 so I'm super excited about this. This is great. I feel a little left out
01:29 --> 01:32 because I don't have any Ryan in my name, but Hopefully will be accepted
01:33 --> 01:36 and be honorary here today. So let's start right out of the gate. I want
01:37 --> 01:40 to hear the story. So hearing about the Ryan Meetup, it sounds almost
01:41 --> 01:44 like it's made up. This is really fun. Everybody's been, you know, turning their heads
01:44 --> 01:47 going, what is this all about? So where did it all begin?
01:48 --> 01:52 So I was walking out of my apartment one morning and
01:52 --> 01:55 I was greeted by this flyer on a telephone pole,
01:56 --> 01:59 5 feet from my door. And it said, is your name Ryan? Want to meet
02:00 --> 02:03 other Ryans? At first it looked like it was like a friend pranking me or
02:03 --> 02:07 something, but then, you know, I scanned the QR code on it and
02:08 --> 02:11 realized that it was legit. And immediately I was like, I have to get in
02:11 --> 02:15 on the ground floor of this. You know, this is— I do creative advertising
02:15 --> 02:18 for my job. So I was kind of jealous of this Ryan that came up
02:18 --> 02:22 with this idea. And so I wanted to meet this Ryan and I was the
02:22 --> 02:25 first person to RSVP. And then a week went by,
02:25 --> 02:29 nobody else had RSVP'd. So Ryan the
02:29 --> 02:33 other Ryan who put out the flyer in the first place, was, we were chatting,
02:33 --> 02:36 we were like, do we even still do this? And then a third Ryan RSVP'd
02:36 --> 02:39 and we're like, we have to do this. So the 3 of us met at
02:39 --> 02:43 this bar, only 3 Ryans. We checked each other's IDs, of course,
02:43 --> 02:46 and we wore name tags in the corner of some dive bar.
02:47 --> 02:50 And we started talking about the master plan, how we're gonna grow this
02:51 --> 02:55 into something that, you know, we didn't think we'd be in a situation like this,
02:55 --> 02:58 but, you know, we talked about our ultimate goal, which was to break
02:58 --> 03:03 the world record for largest same first name gathering. Any young kid's
03:03 --> 03:05 dream, you know? And so,
03:06 --> 03:09 you know, we went from there and just started to snowball and more and more
03:10 --> 03:13 Ryans got involved. And, you know, that's how we met Ryan Fisher, 'cause he's a
03:13 --> 03:17 skilled Ryan in the art of communications. And yeah,
03:18 --> 03:21 we find Ryans of all skills and that's how it's growing so fast. When you're
03:21 --> 03:24 in a group of Ryans, how do you identify each other? Do you go by
03:24 --> 03:28 your initials or by your last name, or do you just randomly answer
03:28 --> 03:31 to Ryan? I'm curious how you differentiate yourselves.
03:32 --> 03:36 We, we call each other Ryan, you know. Okay, whoever, whoever turns that head first.
03:36 --> 03:40 We call each other by last names in texts especially, but it's so much fun
03:40 --> 03:44 saying, waking up, you know, we're staying in the same hotel, like, good morning Ryan,
03:44 --> 03:47 good night Ryan, like just dumb shit, dumb stuff like that. Sorry.
03:47 --> 03:50 Um, I love it. So Ryan Fisher, how'd you get looped
03:51 --> 03:53 in? What was your first interaction with the rest of the Ryans? Yeah, so I
03:53 --> 03:57 had a non-Ryan friend, uh, send me a video that happened,
03:57 --> 04:01 uh, in 2024. Uh, did you hear about this Ryan meetup?
04:01 --> 04:04 And I kind of So that's not for me. And then I
04:05 --> 04:09 live in South Florida, and I was scrolling social
04:09 --> 04:12 media one day and saw that there was a story about Ryan Meetup coming to
04:12 --> 04:16 Miami for Riami Vice, and I RSVP'd.
04:16 --> 04:19 And that was on a Tuesday, as I recall. And then a couple days went
04:19 --> 04:23 by, and Saturday morning came, and I woke up, and I'm like, I'm not gonna
04:23 --> 04:26 go to that. And then one of the other Ryans, Ryan Lee,
04:27 --> 04:30 responded to my RSVP and said there's gonna be another Ryan Fisher here. I'm like,
04:30 --> 04:34 okay, I have to go now. I will meet another Ryan Fisher and
04:35 --> 04:37 get a picture, and that will be a great story. And I drove down to
04:37 --> 04:41 Miami and had the best night, and it was this blob of Ryans. I don't
04:42 --> 04:45 remember much, but we were praying through the streets of Miami at 2, 3 o'clock
04:46 --> 04:49 in the morning, and the rest is history now.
04:49 --> 04:53 So at what point did it kind of just shift into this big community
04:53 --> 04:58 movement? Was there something that triggered a bigger motion
04:58 --> 05:01 with this? Because you guys have chapters across the country now.
05:02 --> 05:05 There have been a few, I would say, of those moments that
05:06 --> 05:09 we felt it growing at a rapid pace. You know, there was,
05:10 --> 05:12 you know, we had the 3 of us at the first meetup, and the second
05:12 --> 05:16 meetup, we planned to all meet at Ryan McGuire's pub.
05:16 --> 05:19 And so, in order to grow our community,
05:19 --> 05:24 we put flyers everywhere, the 3 of us, and one of them went
05:24 --> 05:27 viral on Reddit. And I guess someone from the New York Times saw that.
05:27 --> 05:30 So the New York Times showed up to our second meetup with a Ryan photographer
05:31 --> 05:34 to get in, of course. And so the New York Times was one
05:34 --> 05:38 of those moments. We also had a moment when we went to LA for the
05:38 --> 05:42 first time, an influencer named Ryan made a video that got
05:42 --> 05:46 like 60 million views. And so that turned into, you know, a big
05:46 --> 05:49 deal. We went back for the Ryan rave where we had 600 Ryans,
05:49 --> 05:53 6 Ryan DJs. Then, you know, I mean, this is another
05:53 --> 05:57 one of those moments where we feel, it's getting bigger than we
05:58 --> 06:01 ever imagined. So it's just finding ways to just keep it interesting,
06:01 --> 06:05 I think, you know. Mm-hmm. I love it. So I had to laugh when
06:05 --> 06:08 I went onto your website. The first thing you get asked is, are you a
06:08 --> 06:11 Brian? Because Brians are not allowed. Talk to us a little bit about
06:11 --> 06:14 that joke or that fun element of this,
06:14 --> 06:18 because it's so close to Ryan, but it's just not quite there.
06:18 --> 06:22 So talk about how the Brian thing came into play. It's so far away from
06:22 --> 06:27 Ryan. I mean, the one thing all Ryans have in
06:27 --> 06:30 common is that we've all been called Brian. We, in school,
06:31 --> 06:35 at Starbucks, when our coffee cups say Ryan. I love to
06:35 --> 06:38 tell a story. I was going to a Ryan meetup, a mini Ryan meetup
06:39 --> 06:42 in California, and I was at a friend's house and her neighbor
06:43 --> 06:45 walked out. It's like, this is my friend Ryan. He goes, nice to meet you,
06:45 --> 06:48 Brian. I'm like, you know, really? And I'm
06:49 --> 06:51 not the kind of person to correct people, but I love meeting Ryans who are
06:51 --> 06:54 like, no, I, I am Ryan, not Brian. But yeah,
06:54 --> 06:58 that's something we have in common. And it's not like we hate the Brians.
06:58 --> 07:01 We know there's awesome, you know, good people named Brian out there. Yeah, I know,
07:02 --> 07:05 I dialed that back. So have there been any
07:05 --> 07:09 Brians that have snuck into these events? This is your moment.
07:09 --> 07:13 Okay. Yeah, that literally just happened. We had Copa del Ryan in New York City
07:13 --> 07:16 last month, an all-Ryan World Cup watch party,
07:17 --> 07:21 and a Ryan actually invited his friend Brian. And rule
07:21 --> 07:25 number one was broken because non-Ryans were supposed to come with
07:25 --> 07:28 their Ryan. That they did not do that. And then Brian came
07:28 --> 07:32 in and he was with someone else and she goes, oh, he's Brian. And immediately
07:32 --> 07:36 we were all wearing referee outfits and started blowing
07:36 --> 07:40 my whistle. And we red-carded the Ryan and escorted
07:40 --> 07:43 him out the door. He was— he did not get 10 feet into the bar.
07:43 --> 07:47 We have very tight security at the Ryan meetup. So this is, if anyone's
07:48 --> 07:51 watching, don't try it. You know, we've got, we've got red cards ready.
07:52 --> 07:55 Oh my goodness. Okay. So we're so excited to have you guys here in Minnesota
07:55 --> 07:58 and we're going to get to how it all came to be. But has there
07:58 --> 08:02 been another location or another event that's been your favorite before
08:02 --> 08:05 you came to Mall of America in Minnesota? They've all been
08:06 --> 08:09 great in their own ways. You know, I think we talk
08:10 --> 08:13 about this all the time when, you know, it's just the Ryans. What's your top
08:13 --> 08:17 3 events? You know, but I mean, we're very excited for
08:17 --> 08:20 this one. I think this will probably be top 3, no doubt.
08:20 --> 08:24 Probably maybe top 1. But some others, you know, we like to be the best.
08:24 --> 08:28 We like to be on top. Of course. And you have St.
08:28 --> 08:31 Ryan's Day, which is our holiday. We don't acknowledge St.
08:32 --> 08:35 Patrick's Day anymore as a holiday. We have Rhytoberfest. So wait, back up. So when
08:36 --> 08:40 is St. Ryan's Day? We need to know this. It is a
08:40 --> 08:44 Saturday in March to be announced each year. Oh, okay. It's one of those flexible
08:44 --> 08:48 ones like Thanksgiving where it's not like a certain number on the
08:49 --> 08:52 calendar. I have a feeling you have to be in the circle to know what
08:52 --> 08:54 date it is, but that's okay. We'll keep this a secret. Ryan's been, yeah,
08:55 --> 08:59 they know. Yeah. It's all good. It's all good. You're coming
08:59 --> 09:02 to Minnesota, you thought Mall of America. You sent a note, I believe, to our
09:02 --> 09:06 general like PR box and that somehow
09:06 --> 09:09 got to Mary. So Mary, take it from there. How did this all come to
09:09 --> 09:12 be? Absolutely. So I think when I read the email, I immediately was like,
09:13 --> 09:16 we need to do this. So our team,
09:16 --> 09:20 we have some Ryans on our staff here that we've always kind of joked
09:20 --> 09:24 about, joked in a good way about having
09:24 --> 09:27 a Ryan meetup and like going out to it. So I believe we saw one
09:27 --> 09:30 of the games happening in Colorado. Being like,
09:31 --> 09:34 this is something that we should do here. And so
09:34 --> 09:37 it actually was like a serendipitous moment. And then it was like,
09:38 --> 09:42 you, I saw it and I'm like, we have to do this. So it was
09:42 --> 09:45 a little bit of, we got a few key team members on a call just
09:46 --> 09:49 to make sure it was real. You know, you gotta start there when it
09:50 --> 09:54 comes to that general inbox, but just to talk it through. And then immediately the
09:54 --> 09:58 whole phone call was just, Just that moment of smiles
09:58 --> 10:02 and everyone was so excited about it. And we're like, we got to do
10:02 --> 10:05 this. Like, this is a no-brainer. Let's get it in.
10:05 --> 10:08 Let's do the Rotunda. Let's go on the rides. Like, we have to
10:08 --> 10:12 figure this out. So then I— it was a stereotypical moment.
10:12 --> 10:15 Knock on Jill's door with the happiness
10:15 --> 10:19 in my eyes. I'm like, oh no, Mary, what do you have up your sleeve?
10:19 --> 10:22 What's going to happen? But immediately everyone just
10:22 --> 10:25 kind of fell in love with the idea. Knowing that there was just so much
10:25 --> 10:28 positive energy behind it that we had to make it happen.
10:28 --> 10:32 So after that, it was, I think it was a pretty quick, like,
10:32 --> 10:35 let's get this announced. Like, let's figure out the details,
10:35 --> 10:39 let's get it out there. And then our local news then picked
10:39 --> 10:42 it up once it was announced. And I believe one of the videos
10:42 --> 10:45 went viral from Care 11, right?
10:46 --> 10:50 So from Care 11, and it's just been a joy ever
10:50 --> 10:54 since. Just even hopping on calls yesterday, on Thursday before the event,
10:54 --> 10:57 we had a call and it was just, ear smiles
10:57 --> 11:00 from ear to ear just with all of the Ryan puns. One of
11:01 --> 11:05 my favorite moments has been sitting in our conference room with my team members saying,
11:06 --> 11:09 okay, we have potentially 900 Ryans coming
11:09 --> 11:13 to an event. Our train cycles move 2 minutes
11:13 --> 11:16 and 30, it takes one train 2 minutes and 30 seconds to
11:16 --> 11:20 go around. How many Ryans can we get in the train at a
11:20 --> 11:23 time? So it was, it's just been a lot of like that kind of moments.
11:24 --> 11:27 And just working with you guys has been so fun. Well, I think your response
11:28 --> 11:31 to this idea is what has been consistent with everybody we've
11:32 --> 11:35 talked to. At first, it's kind of like, what? Is this real? Like, but then
11:35 --> 11:38 it is. It puts a smile on your face because it's just a happy,
11:38 --> 11:41 fun thing to do. And so I'm curious,
11:41 --> 11:44 on our scale of uniqueness of what we've done here at the mall, you've done
11:44 --> 11:47 some unique things. Where does this sit on the scale? I mean, this is up
11:48 --> 11:51 there. I would also say one of the top 3 unique things too that we're
11:52 --> 11:54 doing. I'm excited for the event and I'm excited to see it all come through
11:55 --> 11:59 and just just be around the Ryan energy. And I know that our team
11:59 --> 12:02 has met, has done a little bit more,
12:02 --> 12:06 right, pre, pre, just, sorry, I can't
12:07 --> 12:10 think of it, just like pre-promoting for it. So just even the
12:11 --> 12:13 energy from that, I got some videos on my phone. I'm like, oh my gosh,
12:14 --> 12:17 it's happening. So the day's here.
12:18 --> 12:21 We're excited to go out together. Yeah, I love seeing the social comments.
12:21 --> 12:25 It's like, well, wait a second, my name's Tyler. Like, will you do an event
12:25 --> 12:29 for Tyler? So it's just been fun. Fun to hear the, the friendly banter.
12:29 --> 12:33 Exactly. Of course, the Bryans as well. So talk about like where the idea
12:33 --> 12:36 of the roller coaster came to play, because you guys have been doing this with
12:36 --> 12:40 baseball games and things like that, and there is a connection with the Minnesota Twins.
12:40 --> 12:43 You're here in town to do the Twins as well. Um, but where'd the roller
12:43 --> 12:46 coaster record come from? Was that just a collaboration?
12:46 --> 12:50 Yeah, ideas. I mean, really, it, it— the Twins event,
12:50 --> 12:54 uh, came first on the calendar where we decided we wanted to
12:54 --> 12:57 repeat the baseball experience and call it the Ryan Baseball Classic this year. So we're
12:58 --> 13:02 coming to Minnesota and Twin Cities now. What else defines Twin
13:02 --> 13:05 Cities more than Mall of America? That's where we had to start, was the
13:05 --> 13:09 only place to start. And when I sent that email, it was throwing a
13:09 --> 13:12 dart at the wall. It wasn't— I didn't know where to send it. I wasn't
13:12 --> 13:15 sure if there was gonna be a response, and my eyes lit up when one
13:15 --> 13:18 came through so quickly. But, um, yeah, there's no
13:18 --> 13:21 other iconic place more than this that is known around the
13:22 --> 13:25 world, so we had to start there. And here we are. Yeah. And the
13:25 --> 13:27 first time that we chatted too, it was all like, oh, we should do this,
13:28 --> 13:30 oh, we could do this, oh, we could do this. Like, it was just such
13:31 --> 13:34 a good moment of collaboration too, of like, how can we build up the energy
13:34 --> 13:37 on this as well? So walk us through the day.
13:38 --> 13:41 So as we've shared with our listeners and viewers that they're going
13:41 --> 13:44 to be hearing about this after it happens, but as you guys are preparing for
13:45 --> 13:47 the day, it's going to be happening in a few hours. What does this look
13:47 --> 13:51 like and how is it all coming together? Because it's not just about riding
13:51 --> 13:53 the roller coaster. You guys have a whole lineup of activities that are here.
13:53 --> 13:56 So maybe start and you guys can fill in the with the details. Yeah,
13:57 --> 14:00 absolutely. So, I mean, yes, please fill in too. I mean, it starts right
14:01 --> 14:04 away with check-in and we have every Ryan will get
14:05 --> 14:08 a ticket to go on the ride. And of course, it's a themed ticket.
14:09 --> 14:12 From there, after check-in, it's really just camaraderie with the Ryans.
14:12 --> 14:17 So they're going to be hanging out in the rotunda. We'll have a Ryan playlist
14:17 --> 14:20 playing and then we'll have our— did we settle on
14:21 --> 14:24 Random Acts of Ryan-ness? Random Acts of Ryan-ness. Yes.
14:24 --> 14:28 That Ryans will be able to fill out a postcard note to put on Ryan
14:28 --> 14:31 letters to say how they're gonna spread on the Ryan joy
14:31 --> 14:34 with that. So we'll have that. And then as soon as the
14:34 --> 14:38 event begins, we'll have— we have a special
14:39 --> 14:42 Ryan slime activity that will be
14:43 --> 14:46 happening. So 4 lucky Ryans will get the greatest honor from Nickelodeon and
14:46 --> 14:50 to get slimed, as well as— I mean, I know
14:50 --> 14:53 you guys have a lot of things planned, so I'd love to also know
14:54 --> 14:58 I mean, if I do— yeah, the one major theme to
14:58 --> 15:01 add is that Ryans are going to be meeting other Ryans.
15:01 --> 15:04 Everyone's going to show up as a stranger for the most part. And we
15:04 --> 15:08 experienced this yesterday when we had the test ride with 17 Ryans
15:08 --> 15:12 who responded to a text blast on no notice. Please come and do
15:12 --> 15:16 this. When everyone showed up, they were kind of shy,
15:17 --> 15:20 and as I was at my first Ryan meetup, when we left an hour later,
15:21 --> 15:24 everyone was friends. And that will happen 1
15:25 --> 15:28 times over tonight. And that's what Ryan Meetup is all about. Just a simple connection
15:29 --> 15:32 as your first name. Exactly. Being able to be that first step to connect with
15:33 --> 15:35 others and create this network of friends that you could have for a lifetime.
15:35 --> 15:39 It's awesome. Yeah, we— I mean, some of my best friends are Ryans now
15:39 --> 15:42 because of this flyer I saw outside my door, you know.
15:43 --> 15:46 Ryan and I text every day about Ryan, usually.
15:47 --> 15:51 But yeah, that's what it's all about. I mean, it starts as like a
15:52 --> 15:56 fun creative idea that feels incredibly niche. Oh, that's a
15:56 --> 16:00 funny joke. Maybe that'll go viral once, but now it's become an
16:00 --> 16:02 actual community of close friends.
16:03 --> 16:08 And it's helped a lot of people overcome social anxiety who wouldn't
16:08 --> 16:11 necessarily seek out a hangout like this.
16:11 --> 16:14 And we pride ourselves in being as welcoming
16:15 --> 16:18 as can be, you know. And we— that's one of like the responsibilities of
16:18 --> 16:21 Ryans who are at their 2nd, 3rd, 4th,
16:22 --> 16:26 14th meetup, is to help all
16:26 --> 16:29 these new Ryans feel at home. So that's important to us.
16:30 --> 16:33 It's amazing what the name tag really does though, and you kind of wish there
16:34 --> 16:36 was more instances of that. Like if you go to like a work conference or
16:36 --> 16:39 something and people are wearing name tags, like that can kind of break the ice,
16:39 --> 16:42 but But something is so special about this.
16:43 --> 16:47 Yes, and my name tag says I'm a non-Ryan, but at least
16:47 --> 16:50 I feel somewhat included. It's all good. But I mean, in the world that we
16:51 --> 16:54 live in, there's a lot of heaviness, whether it's the economy,
16:54 --> 16:57 it's, you know, challenges with political components, whatever it is.
16:58 --> 17:01 It's nice to have something that's just light and fun
17:01 --> 17:04 and makes people smile. So I applaud you guys for bringing this forward and bringing
17:04 --> 17:08 it to Mall of America. We're super excited for this. What happens if you're not
17:08 --> 17:12 a Ryan? What does the event look like for you? Uh, it doesn't look like
17:12 --> 17:17 anything. It's, it's, you can watch. We are welcoming to everyone.
17:17 --> 17:21 Yeah. Yeah. We're extremely welcoming to this 1%
17:21 --> 17:25 of the population or whatever. Yeah. But yeah, we're excited to have so many.
17:25 --> 17:28 Can they observe what's going on? Obviously we have a lot of space for moms.
17:29 --> 17:32 The rotunda will be blocked off for Ryans only. So, uh, you will have to
17:32 --> 17:35 have a special name tag to be within that, the rotunda level 1
17:36 --> 17:39 space. Um, however, everyone else is encouraged just to, to be around the
17:40 --> 17:43 camaraderie, find other, non-Ryan adjacents up on levels 2,
17:43 --> 17:47 3, and 4 of the Rotunda. So the Ryans love to show
17:47 --> 17:50 off to the non-Ryans. So that's— it's good to have an audience. Yeah. And this
17:50 --> 17:54 might be the biggest Ryan meetup in terms of families because
17:55 --> 17:58 this is like the most family-friendly event we probably have done.
17:58 --> 18:01 So all the Ryan parents who are bringing their kid Ryans,
18:02 --> 18:06 they're going to be beaming with pride that they chose the right name and led
18:06 --> 18:09 to this. So you're anticipating
18:09 --> 18:13 people just locally here, or when you've seen the RSVPs,
18:13 --> 18:16 we mentioned nearly 1 people are planning to come tonight, and that's
18:17 --> 18:20 just people that have responded. Who knows who's going to show up?
18:21 --> 18:24 Where are they coming from? If I could share a story that we saw this
18:24 --> 18:28 morning when I woke up on our reservation, we have a Marine
18:29 --> 18:32 who's stationed in Hawaii right now who was traveling to
18:33 --> 18:35 Minnesota. Just to be with the Lions. I love that.
18:36 --> 18:39 I love that. I'm curious to see where they're all going to be coming from
18:39 --> 18:43 because during the summer here at Mall of America, we have people that visit from
18:43 --> 18:47 across the country and to give them a reason and a purpose to come specifically
18:47 --> 18:50 for this weekend, this is a lot of fun. So we appreciate what you guys
18:50 --> 18:52 are doing. And I think you guys have been telling a lot of stories and
18:53 --> 18:56 the media has really latched onto this. What does that
18:57 --> 18:59 feel like for you guys? You're getting national media attention for this initiative.
19:01 --> 19:04 I mean, it's surreal, especially when you consider the subject matter.
19:05 --> 19:09 I guess this is one of the things you'd wanna go viral for nowadays.
19:10 --> 19:13 But yeah, I mean, it's surreal. We step back
19:13 --> 19:17 from it every once in a while and kind of just shake our heads and
19:17 --> 19:21 like allow ourselves to embrace that feeling
19:21 --> 19:25 that we never expected we would have. Like we are important to a
19:26 --> 19:30 lot of people and a lot of Ryans. Changed some lives, including ours,
19:30 --> 19:34 you know? So that's surreal. And yeah,
19:34 --> 19:36 I mean, I don't know if you wanna add to that. I mean,
19:37 --> 19:40 for me as a Ryan personally, and my background is in news,
19:40 --> 19:44 I used to be a television producer for a long time and I changed careers
19:44 --> 19:47 5 years ago. But now to be doing this for Ryan Meetup and being on
19:48 --> 19:52 a podcast and doing interviews on behalf of the Ryans is so full circle
19:52 --> 19:55 and I love it. It truly has changed
19:56 --> 19:58 my life and changed so many other Ryans' lives too. I would also love to
19:59 --> 20:02 say you're changing more than just Ryan's life. You're changing so
20:03 --> 20:07 many other people too. Like, our team has had so much non-Ryan,
20:07 --> 20:11 like, non-Ryans. There's just so much joy that you bring to it. And so
20:11 --> 20:15 it's not, you just, it's not just Ryans that you're reaching. You're reaching so
20:15 --> 20:18 many other people. And I thank you for creating the space too for so many
20:18 --> 20:22 people to have that, 'cause it's awesome. I love how you speak Ryan. You said
20:22 --> 20:25 there's gonna be this many Ryans. We can fit this many Ryans on the coaster,
20:25 --> 20:29 not this many people. And speaking non-Ryan, like, you— She drank
20:29 --> 20:32 the Kool-Aid first. It's true. Mary has got it from day one.
20:33 --> 20:37 Honorary Ryan. Honorary Ryan. Yes. I love that. So walking away,
20:37 --> 20:40 flying away from Minnesota, what does success look like for you guys when you look
20:41 --> 20:43 in the rearview mirror? I don't know. I mean,
20:44 --> 20:47 it's already a success, you know, the fact that But we, on our way up
20:47 --> 20:51 here, we met a handful of Ryans who were just like scouting the area,
20:51 --> 20:54 you know? So we can feel the energy of the Ryans,
20:55 --> 20:58 you know, boiling right now. And so just building
20:59 --> 21:02 up and we know it's gonna be great. What does success look like? I mean—
21:03 --> 21:07 Success is we want lots of Ryans asking
21:07 --> 21:10 when's the next Ryan meetup? So that's my next question.
21:10 --> 21:14 What is next? 'Cause obviously our viewers and listeners are hearing about this after
21:14 --> 21:18 the fact. Hopefully you guys will go on social media and all the follow-up recap
21:18 --> 21:22 content that we're gonna be posting out there, but if they wanna participate
21:22 --> 21:24 in future events, how do they find out about it?
21:25 --> 21:28 ryanmeetup.com, you know, if you're not a
21:28 --> 21:32 Brian, you'll get through the little pop-up security
21:32 --> 21:35 checkpoint. Find us on Instagram, Ryan Meetup.
21:36 --> 21:39 You know, I think we're gonna be doing more of these, so you'll have
21:40 --> 21:43 your chance to join. We have, we're always trying
21:44 --> 21:46 to plan, and we joke that we need a Ryan advance team because we've been
21:46 --> 21:50 planning this whole weekend, don't officially have anything on the calendar next. We've got
21:51 --> 21:54 lots of cities and Ryans reaching out that want— it's like the Super Bowl.
21:54 --> 21:57 Every city wants to bid now for a Ryan meetup, which is insane.
21:58 --> 22:02 We'll have announcements soon. There will be more Ryan meetups in
22:02 --> 22:05 the months ahead. And I believe somewhere down your path there might be
22:06 --> 22:09 a RyanCon that you guys want to host. Is that what I saw on the
22:09 --> 22:13 website? That is correct. I mean, that is the ultimate goal that we discussed at
22:14 --> 22:17 the first ever Ryan meetup, just the 3 of us. To break the world record
22:18 --> 22:21 for largest first, same first name gathering.
22:22 --> 22:25 I've said that so many times, I don't know how I stumbled through it.
22:25 --> 22:29 But yeah, we keep pushing it into the future because we're enjoying all of these
22:29 --> 22:32 little side quests in the meantime. So,
22:33 --> 22:37 it will happen one day, we'll promise that, but we might have
22:37 --> 22:41 a few more Ryan meetups in the meantime. Well, don't forget
22:42 --> 22:44 about us when you wanna do RyanCon, because I think it's gonna be a huge
22:45 --> 22:48 success tonight. And you know people here, give us a call. We would love to
22:49 --> 22:53 consider this because we're all about creating magical moments for our guests.
22:53 --> 22:56 And whether your name is Ryan or not, definitely follow this
22:57 --> 23:01 content. It's such a fun story. We just, we love these unexpected
23:01 --> 23:04 moments and this is going to be full of them tonight and beyond.
23:04 --> 23:07 Because at Mall of America, we're looking for those experiences that bring people together.
23:08 --> 23:11 Sometimes it's around music, sometimes it's around sports, and sometimes it's
23:11 --> 23:14 simply because you have the name Ryan. So thank you for
23:14 --> 23:18 joining us for this episode of So Much More. Ryan, Ryan, Mary Ryan,
23:18 --> 23:22 thanks you guys for joining us. Good luck tonight for the event.
23:22 --> 23:25 And to all of you who are fans of Mall of America and So Much
23:25 --> 23:29 More, thank you for tuning in and be sure to like, favorite, and share
23:30 --> 23:33 this episode with your friends and family. That's gonna do it for this episode of
23:33 --> 23:37 So Much More. Thanks for listening to So Much More, a Mall of America podcast.
23:38 --> 23:41 Subscribe wherever you find your favorite podcasts. This show is presented
23:42 --> 23:43 by Bloomington, Minnesota Travel and Tourism.