Meet the Alabama man who coined the term ‘30A’ - AL.com

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Mike Ragsdale’s schedule is wide open.

I’ve been emailing back and forth with the entrepreneur and founder of the popular 30A lifestyle brand for the past month, coordinating an interview in his neck of the woods: Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. I give a six-week timeframe, hoping to squeeze into what I’m sure is a busy schedule for him. Mike responds almost immediately with two dates he isn’t available and an invitation to stay in his home when I visit.

Three weeks later, I’m headed to the Gulf Coast, a million questions swirling in my mind about the viral blue-and-yellow 30A sticker and the man behind it. I’m just past Andalusia when I receive a text from Mike—he’s wondering if I need any recommendations for lunch before our 2 p.m. meeting. Though I’m interviewing a local celebrity (like a police chief or unofficial mayor, everyone in the 30A community knows Mike), it seems I’m the one constantly on the receiving end of his unassuming hospitality.

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Highway 98 is the major connector between all of the Gulf Coast’s beaches, running east from Fort Walton through Destin and Santa Rosa, past 30A’s many beach towns, and eventually all the way to Panama City Beach. County Road 30A feeds off the major highway, running nearer to the shore and connecting idyllic beach towns like Seaside, Rosemary Beach, Alys Beach, WaterColor, and Grayton. It’s the alternate route, the slow road.

Mike doesn’t live on 30A, his home instead is located on the other side of Highway 98. It’s bayfront instead of beachfront, further removed from the hustle and bustle of popular tourist spots. Mike moved to the area from Birmingham in 2006—before he started blogging about his new life on the beach; before that blog became a nationally renowned lifestyle brand; before there even was a name for the collection of beach towns he dubbed 30A; and long before he realized how much he’d come to cherish the privacy and respite that his secluded location would bring.

I pull into his long driveway and find myself staring at a home that for all intents and purposes looks like a gray, tiled rectangle on stilts. It’s a chic, ultra-modern rectangle, but a rectangle, nonetheless. I can just make out the glisten of the Choctawhatchee Bay in the space between the home’s supports and bottom of the house.

I’m barely up the home’s steps before Mike swings open his front door, a tiny white Maltese in his arms, another barking—more like chirping—cheerfully from the ground. I’m welcomed into a stunning open-concept living space that’s stylishly but simply appointed. The real showstopper, though, is the striking view of the bay that runs uninterrupted across the entire length of the back wall and spans from floor to ceiling.

Mike introduces me to his wife Angela and his two pups, Ernie and Cosmo, before we sit down to talk. Barefooted in khaki shorts and a thin Beach Happy T-shirt from his own 30A apparel line, the 51-year-old is dressed exactly how you’d expect someone who built a multimillion-dollar company around beach living to dress.

A true surfer dude with shoulder-length dirty blonde and gray-speckled hair, day-old stubble, and a hint of sunburn peeking out from his collar, Mike has an easy smile and that palpable-but-hard-to-describe look common among those who live by the water. Weathered and worn by the waves, but better for it. Marked and mellowed by the sun, but lighter for it. He’s the embodiment of the 30A brand that promotes laid-back beach living. Even his car, Truman, a sand-colored British military Defender fits the vibe. Only his rapt, piercing blue eyes betray that he has anything other than paddle boarding and dolphin watching on his mind.

Angela and Mike Ragsdale with Mike’s beach cruiser named Truman. Photo by Sean Murphy.

Mike, like his schedule, is an open book. But that openness is no accident or matter of happenstance. It was hard-earned and intentionally chosen after years of experience and misguided dreams. Nearly 15 years ago, Mike and his family made the jump from a big, landlocked house in Birmingham’s Greystone community to a much smaller ’70s-style ranch on a bay in Florida. The move was a conscious decision to finally pursue the lifestyle he’d always envisioned for himself.

“I was that guy in the corporate office who thought of himself as a beach guy,” Mike says. “On casual Friday I would wear Tommy Bahama shirts. On weekends I would drink Corona and Red Stripe. It just never occurred to me I could move there.”

Now, instead of working a 9-to-5 from an office in a tall building overlooking a parking lot, he manages his business from the corner barstool in his kitchen, overlooking a sunrise on the bay. His schedule is flexible for meetings like ours, or for a nine-month trip around the world, like the one he took with his wife and four kids back in 2011.

“I’m spending every day out on our dock,” Mike says. “I’m outside every day—no shirt, no shoes. I’m loving life. I’m going fishing, I’m getting sun, I’m out on the beach, and I’m writing about it. This is my best life.”

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It’s hard to imagine Mike anywhere except by the water, but it took him until he was almost 40 years old to get there. Born and raised in Cullman, Alabama, Mike’s father worked for a power company, so family vacations were typically limited to cities within a 3-hour radius.

He didn’t even see the ocean until the seventh or eighth grade. In 11th grade, he attended a Jimmy Buffet concert at Oak Mountain Amphitheater, counting it as a formative experience in what would become a lifelong passion for the beach. “It really resonated with me,” he says. “I started fantasizing about the beach like so many people do. I started buying into the whole beach lifestyle.”

After graduating from The University of Alabama in the School of Communications, Mike assumed that what followed was a high- power job at a big ad agency. But after sending a slew of resumes to no avail, he instead took a summer job in Yellowstone National Park.

At the suggestion of a trusted college professor, he returned to Tuscaloosa to pursue a master’s degree in advertising and public relations. While earning his degree, Mike put his knowledge into practice by taking a plethora of freelance jobs in the communications realm, from writing and tabulating surveys to designing newsletters and business cards. Unknowingly, he had begun his own consulting business that offered flexible hours and the type of freedom he always longed for but never realized he could have in a career.

With a newfound passion for his work, Mike took out a $5,000 small business loan to invest in his company. Among his first purchases was a Mac computer. The free AOL disc that came with it ended up becoming arguably the biggest defining factor of Mike’s life.

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The year was 1994. The World Wide Web didn’t exist, but its beginnings were looming in the near future. While using the free 10 hours of dial-up internet on the AOL disc, Mike saw an ad from AOL calling for entrepreneurs to help define the future of the online world. The original ideas of these “infopreneurs” were to become the golden era of online. The job was perfect for Mike, ever the big-picture guy, with a mean creative streak.

He submitted an idea for a site called Hecklers Online. The pitch: Comedy has always been a one-way monologue. The internet is the perfect platform to turn it into a two-way street. The site would consist of comedy submitted and voted on by users—interactive top 10s, contests, and the like. The basic format then could be replicated for other topics. It was user-generated content before the term existed.

A few months later, he was called to AOL’s corporate offices to pitch his idea. He, along with two friends and his brother, drove to Arlington, Virginia where they convinced executives of their wild idea—and their ability to make it a hit. They left with $150,000 in exchange for 20 percent of their company.

When Hecklers came out in 1995, it became the most successful launch in AOL’s history. From there, Mike’s life kicked into overdrive.

“We became the Saturday Night Live of the internet. Most people were doing content every month; we did it hourly. We did things very colorfully, with lots of pictures, and it was a little edgy. We ended up being in the middle of this renaissance. What we didn’t realize was we were laying the foundation for interactive content, audience-generated content, and social media.”

Over the next eight years, Hecklers spawned Antagonist, a site for video game enthusiasts, and Zealot, for the sci-fi and fantasy community. The company went from a tiny start-up of three fresh-out-of-college kids to a leader in its industry with more than 70 employees. They moved their offices from downtown Tuscaloosa to an office park on Highway 280 in Birmingham. The had struck it big in the Internet Gold Rush and were reaping the rewards of helming a multimillion-dollar company.

When the stock market crashed in 2000, Hecklers initially wasn’t affected, but by 2002, advertisers were scarce, and the company folded. “We made enough money to feel good about where we ended up, but we were only in our late 20s at that point, and it was time to move onto something else.”

For Mike, that meant becoming the Chief Marketing Officer at Source Medical, a healthcare IT company. He spent a couple years there, during which the company grew from 20 employees to 450. Eventually he decided it was time to be his own boss again. Up next? Forays into the restaurant and fitness industries.

“I got into all kinds of things I didn’t have any business getting into, and I lost a lot of money,” he says. “You move to the biggest house in the fanciest neighborhood you can afford, get a fancy car, travel. It’s all great, until you have a few business failings and you’re laying people off and negotiating out of leases. Suddenly, I’m like I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore, and I don’t know how to get out.’”

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Mike and Angela are sitting at the dinner table with their four children in the mid-2000s, engaging in one of their favorite pastimes—fantasizing about moving abroad. They’re mid-dream when their second oldest daughter, Kelsey, has a revelation. With more wisdom than her 12 years, she tells her parents to get a grip. “We’re never going to move, so just embrace it.” It’s a splash of water in the face to Mike. Challenged by his daughter’s jab and free of any business roots in Birmingham, he and Angela begin to really think about where they want to live.

“We wanted something beachy and we knew we didn’t want to go any colder, so we drew a latitude line and said we are going to go south of this but not international,” he says.

They’re almost set on Savannah, Georgia, when a friend suggests a house for sale on the bay in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. The rest is history.

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For Mike, the move was a clean slate—a chance to decide what he really wanted to do, and to do it right. He started blogging about his new life at the beach as a way to get his creative juices flowing, in hopes of eventually writing a screenplay or book.

Though the area at the time wasn’t known as 30A, he bought the URL 30A.com as a unifier for the collection of quaint beach communities that all are located along the county road. With every new post about the best place for a sunset cocktail or the best coves for dolphin spotting, the site’s viewership grew a little more. Eventually, the owner of a local real estate company reached out to Mike about advertising on the site. Suddenly the $1,100 spent on a URL for a new hobby had turned into the first investment in a lucrative side hustle.

In 2008, Mike decided the next step was to come up with a logo. He had the idea for 30A to be spelled out with a sunshine as the “0”. He envisioned a bohemian-style sunshine, reminiscent of Widespread Panic or Red Bar to evoke the free-spirted, hippie vibe of older beach towns like Grayton Beach. He hired a professional to bring it to life.

30A offers four exclusive wines, including Chardonnay and Red Blend.

Mike admits that when he first saw the logo design, a turquoise circle with a white “3” and “A” separated by a bright yellow sunshine illustration, he was disappointed. “I thought, ‘It looks like an 8-year-old did it,’ and before that thought crossed my lips, I realized that was the brilliance. It’s simplistic, it’s family, it’s wholesome, it’s ocean. It’s all of these things without being anything. It was so simple and so iconic that I knew it would work.”

Mike’s instincts were proven right. He started distributing stacks of stickers to the area’s local businesses, and soon he began spotting the iconic blue-and-yellow logo everywhere—on the backs of minivans, stuck to the sides of water bottles, on surf boards and strollers. He’s even got a slideshow of all the far-fetched places the logo has been, including all seven continents, the tops of Mount Everest and Kilimanjaro, on the inside of a bride’s wedding dress as her something blue, and tattooed on someone’s back. Today, more than 2.5 million stickers have been distributed across the globe.

Next for 30A was a line of apparel that fit with the brand’s mission to evoke the feeling of being at the beach. For this, Mike brought on JoAnn Ribaudo, a professional with 35 years in the apparel business who is now 30A’s COO. The line includes shirts, tank tops, shorts, sweatpants, sweatshirts, hats, and more for men, women, and children. All pieces are made from recycled water bottles and they’re all made specifically for wear at the beach. “We wanted to create the ultimate beach shirt,” Mike says. “I don’t like things around my neck, so the collars aren’t tight. They’re light and airy, and the designs are cool, so even if you don’t know where 30A is, it’s like Patagonia or North Face, you still want the shirt.” Today, there are 350 30A products sold online, at three 30A branded retail stores, and carried at 380 more stores nationwide. The clothes have kept 3.4 million plastic bottles from entering the ocean.

In addition to a thriving apparel line, 30A also partners with YOLO Boards for an exclusive paddle board.

With so many avenues in which the brand could progress, Mike decided take on licensing as the brand’s major business model, similar to other aspirational lifestyle brands like Tommy Bahama, Life Is Good, or Salt Life.

“I knew from my failed businesses that I need to stay in my lane and stick to what I know. I know how to build online community. I don’t know anything about restaurants, retail, or brewing beer, so I knew I needed to build the online audience and share compelling content with that audience, and then figure out what they’d enjoy.”

He partnered with Grayton Brewing Company to create the 30A Beach Blonde Ale, which became the brewery’s number one seller and is now distributed in 6,000 locations across seven states. Next came a second and third beer, an electric bike, a signature coffee blend, sunscreen, skincare products, and more. Today, 30A also partners with real estate company Berkshire Hathaway, has a radio station, hosts five annual events including two races and two music-focused events, and has plenty more on the horizon.

“I love what I do, so I’m not in any rush to finish this chapter,” Mike says.

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A number of years ago, Mike’s wearing a 30A hat at a local festival when a man stops him to ask if he works for 30A. Mike says “yes,” and the man proceeds to tell his life story. He was born and raised in Huntsville and had been working the same engineering job for 24 years. He planned to retire after 30 years, but in his 24th year, his company told him his position was being cut, and he would have to move to Minneapolis to keep a job. He moved and spent the next six years absolutely miserable. He tells Mike that every day he’d come home from work and watch videos on 30A.com of life at the beach. He says it helped him to hold on. His wife, tears in her eyes, nods confirming the story. Finally, with a shy smile, he tells Mike that he’s finished his 30 years and now lives at the beach full time.

“It all crystalized to me in that moment that this is our audience,” Mike says. “That man was the personification of our target market. My job is to give that person who just needs a beach break—and that person was me—to give them a break even if they can’t physically be at the beach. Sometimes it’s through a beer, or a song on our radio station, or sometimes it’s the shirt they put on, or the dolphin video we post.”

“What 30A is to me,” Mike says. “isn’t concerned with the five or seven days a year that you might be here. We’re concerned with the 360 days you can’t be here. People want that emotional transportation to that place they want to be but can’t be. What we do is create the content, the products, the services that keep people in touch with that happy feeling they get when they’re at the beach.”

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We’re nearing the end of our interview when my eye is drawn to a point 100 yards into the bay where a flock of 20 to 30 birds are flying wildly over the water. Catching my line of sight, Mike swivels in his chair to see what I’m looking at and his eyes light up. “That’s a feeding frenzy!” he says, explaining that small fish are being pushed to the surface of the water by larger fish and then being picked off the top by birds. “The minute you throw something in [the water], you’ll be pulling in big fish. Man, that’s some real fishing!”

By this point, Mike’s jumped out of his seat for a better look. “This is the kind of stuff you see all day, everyday here,” he says.

We sit back down to wrap things up, but I can tell his attention has drifted. His mind is somewhere out there with the birds and the fish, and who could blame him? He uprooted his family for this, built a business around this, and lives life for exactly this.

Mike spends much of his free time in the crystal-clear Gulf waters he lives around. Photo by Sean Murphy.

Mike’s often heard from peers that everything he touches turns to gold. His failed businesses say otherwise. And so does Mike. “People can detect authenticity. When I started my first companies, the reason I think they were successful was that I was passionate about sarcastic humor, passionate about video games, passionate about sci-fi and fantasy. And I’m passionate about the laid-back beach lifestyle.”

Mike moved to the beach to simplify. And 30A was uniquely qualified for exactly that. Unlike other beach towns that are inundated with high-rise condos and cheesy tourist traps, the communities of 30A have a more tranquil appeal. “It’s Mayberry at the beach,” Mike says, referring to the idyllic fictional town on “The Andy Griffith Show.” “It’s a nostalgic return to life the way it should be lived, which is you don’t ride in your car, you play Frisbee, you walk everywhere, you play cornhole, you take your dog to the beach, you have a sunset cocktail, you paddle board. I think when people come here, they feel a sense of community they’ve been lacking in their own lives.”

30A gave Mike the fresh start, the community, and the lifestyle he was looking for; now he’s giving it all back to the world—one sticker, one shirt, one cup of coffee, one video at a time.

Get Your Fix

Here are some of the ways you can experience 30A from the comfort of your own home.

Products

• 30A Tervis
• 30A Beach Blonde Ale
• 30A Rosé Gose Beer
• 30A IPA
• 30A Coffee
• 30A YOLO Boards
• 30A Electric Bikes
• 30A Chardonnay
• 30A Red Blend
• 30A Malbec
• 30A Rosé Wine
• 30A Books

More

• 30A Radio
• 30A Recycled Apparel
• Official 30A Gear
• 30A Social Media
• 30A App
• 30A.com

30A Company Timeline

• 2006 - Mike, Angela, and their four children move to the beach
• 2007 - Mike purchases 30A.com for $1,100; creates a one-page beach blog
• 2008 - First 30A stickers printed
• 2009 - 30A shirts hit six local stores; 30A Facebook and mobile apps launch; 30A registered for Federal Trademark Protection
• 2011 - Mike meets JoAnn Ribaudo; they begin selling shirts from the 30A Gear truck
• 2014 - 30A Beach Blonde Ale launches; 30A trademark attains “Irrefutable” status
• 2015 - First employee hired; stores and warehouse open; 30A Radio launches
• 2016 - 30A launches recycled apparel line; “Beach Happy” brand is born
• 2020 - 30A video series, Beach Happy magazine, and 30A canned cocktails launch

Details Learn more at 30a.com.

This story appears in Birmingham magazine’s May 2020 issue. Subscribe today!

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