Introduction to Mike Taylor

Speaker 1 0:20

All right, welcome to episode six of Ash and Iron. I'm sitting in front of Mr Mike Taylor. Mike, it's a pleasure to meet you, brother. Thank you, nice to meet you. I'm gonna move my chair over, all right, so that way I'm not looking at you through the boom arm here. First off, yeah, I would love to hear, like how do you know Richard?

Speaker 2 0:46

Well, we started in business in South Pittsburgh in 1983. My father started the business and my background was mechanical engineering. So he started a machine and fabrication shop and we just got to know Richard through business and just being in town all these years, you know, and just really grown a huge respect for Richard as I've gotten to know him more and more.

Speaker 1 1:15

Yeah, so you guys have known each other for at least two years now, then, oh yeah at least, yeah, probably Gosh, let's see We've been in business.

Speaker 2 1:21

At least, yeah, probably gosh, let's see We've been in business. I'd have to do the math, but around 41, 42 years.

Speaker 1 1:29

Yeah, that's incredible.

Speaker 2 1:30

And most of that was in South Pittsburgh here.

Speaker 1 1:32

Do you mind to pull your mic just a little bit down towards your mouth here? Sure, yeah, that's perfect.

Speaker 2 1:42

All right, so I'm going to ask you the same question. I always start with everybody who is Mike Taylor. Well, I presumed that was going to be the first question and I actually put a lot of thought into that. I guess I'd say I'm just a walking miracle that's been blessed to have a really good life and enjoy a piece of the American dream.

Speaker 1 2:03

Man, that's good. I cannot wait for this episode already. Okay, all right, so where do we want to start Like, do you want to just share a little bit about, like what you've got going on currently, or do you want to go back into your childhood, like, what are you thinking?

Speaker 2 2:19

Well, my thought was to go back to kind of explain why I feel like I'm the walking miracle.

Speaker 1 2:25

Yeah, let's do that.

Speaker 2 2:27

So in my early years I guess probably 12, 13-year-old I've always been an adrenaline junkie, a little bit, I guess. Fast cars, fast bikes, fast boats, whatever, being a pilot. I actually became a private pilot several years ago, but anyway, when I was like probably 12, 13-ish I guess, I was riding my dirt bike one day came around a 90-degree curve and hit a pickup truck head-on. He was uh, I think he was on my side and I might have been not exactly on mine either, but I don't know. I I did end up hitting this truck head-on. Thank god we were both traveling very slowly because the curve was so sharp.

Speaker 2 3:20

But, uh, actually the lick was hard enough to take the paint off of the bumper onto my pants leg and just launched me across the highway into the ditch. And you know, back in those days I guess you're bulletproof, because I ended up, uh, getting up out of the ditch and walked up and we I knew the guy real well, we grew up around each other and we talked a minute and I jumped on my dirt bike and went on a ride.

Speaker 1 3:49

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 3:51

Excuse me, so that's, I guess, miracle number one.

Speaker 1 3:57

You don't see that every day.

Speaker 2 3:59

No, not too many probably live through a head-on collision with a pickup on a motorcycle.

Speaker 1 4:03

That's crazy.

Three Near-Death Motorcycle Crashes

Speaker 2 4:07

Then I guess, probably a couple years later or so, uh, it was 1978, I was 15 at the time. Uh, I tried that motorcycle crash again, uh, on a street bike. This time I was, I was, like I said, I 15, and a gentleman was parked on the side of the road at his farm, on the road I grew up on, and he, instead of just pulling out and going up the road, he actually turned and crossed the road and blocked the whole road and I thought it was pretty cool to jump across that hill. There were two really high humped hills across that hill. These were, these were there were two really high humped hills. Yeah and uh, in my uh youthful, no fear I I figured out, at 75 miles an hour I could cross the top of that hill and that bike would, we would wheelie all the way down the back.

Speaker 2 4:58

Well, this time the truck got in the way. So I pretty much hit the guy at 75 miles an hour in the side, went up in the air, came down right in front of the truck wheel when he stopped, his truck wheel was about to roll up on me, split my helmet from front to back and all the way down one side. It took me about two weeks to know anyone. So major, major lick to the head. Oh my gosh. A few broken bones, of course. Bounce back from that, let's see.

Speaker 1 5:33

Hold on, I don't want to move on from that.

Speaker 2 5:35

That's crazy, all right.

Speaker 1 5:37

So you're 15. You didn't learn from the first time. No, I'm teasing, I'm teasing. You didn't learn from the first time. No, I'm teasing, I'm teasing. But you hit a truck going 75 miles per hour and caused serious concussion. Oh very serious concussion, some bad broken bones, and what was that? How long were you in the hospital after that?

Speaker 2 6:05

Oh, I wasn't in the hospital very long at all, not over a day or two at the most.

Speaker 1 6:08

really, they sent me home and just recovered at home they just said he'll be all right, just his memories will hopefully come back he's young and tough, I guess.

Speaker 2 6:15

I don't know. Oh my gosh all right, that's crazy so, uh, next major event in my life we we were over into our working years. I was about 28 and just at work went to the restroom and when I excuse this, but started to urinate, I was passing pure blood.

Speaker 1 6:43

Oh no.

Speaker 2 6:44

So moved a little forward from that, had lots of tests done and it was determined that I had a disease called polycystic kidney disease which, after finding more about it, it's a hereditary disease, but no one in our family that we're aware of ever had it before me.

Speaker 1 7:06

Okay, so uh, and uh and what. What causes that? Do you know like? Can you share a little bit more about?

Speaker 2 7:14

just something in the genes. Uh, the bad thing of it is, if you are a polycystic carrier, if you have children, you have a. Each child has a 50-50 chance of getting that, and I actually have some friends here in South Pittsburgh that are in the same shape I'm in. Excuse me, I've had bad sinuses lately.

Speaker 1 7:40

You see, you thought you were the lucky one, but really it was like everybody before you was super lucky because they were getting the good end of the 50-50 up until you.

Speaker 2 7:47

Apparently, of course. Back in the day people died from things and a lot of times they were really never even diagnosed. So we could have had that in our history, family history, but we didn't know of it. Yeah, wow, yeah. So from 28 to the next traumatic event speaking of not learning from that motorcycle wreck, here comes the third one.

Speaker 2 8:15

I was 38 years old, traveling down a local highway here, just cruising along about 50 miles an hour, and looked over to my left and there was a person standing on the side of the road. Never thought anything about it other than there's nothing there, and I thought well, what are they doing? And all of a sudden, when I looked back at the highway, there was a whole herd of cattle coming out of the ditch right in front of me. A whole herd of cattle coming out of the ditch right in front of me. So, uh, me and uh, uh, harley road King took on about a 900 pound cow about that time. So, third time rolling down the highway, uh, a few more broke bones and uh, you know, as you start getting a little older 40 is sure, so you don't recover hardly as good, but I survived that one again, hold on All right.

Speaker 1 10:11

So what was going through your mind when you hit a cow? Because it's one thing to be like hey, listen, had an accident, hit a truck, hit a car, like what was the reaction whenever you are telling people like I hit a cow?

Speaker 2 10:26

Well, I mean everybody's like oh my God, you hit a cow. You know how did you live through that? I don't know. Apparently, I'm here for something. Absolutely I hope I've been fulfilling some of that as the years have gone by, but maybe there's something more.

Speaker 1 10:41

I don't know, and out of the cow did it live. Does everybody ask?

Speaker 2 10:46

that the cow did not live. It probably knocked it at least 50, 60 feet down the highway, Of course that's a big bike. Oh my gosh you said it was a road king. Right yeah, the bike. When I hit the cow, the rear end of the bike came straight up in the air, flipped over and landed across my lower back. So how do you not get a broken back, I don't know. And the next thing I realized, I'm like wow, that hurts. I'm sliding down the highway and you're getting asphalt rash.

Speaker 1 11:20

Yeah.

Speaker 2 11:20

And I had on a tank top, so like the normal Harley rider, you know not much protection yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 11:27

And I get up and I'm looking around and I see the windshield off my bike and my phone's in it. So I walk down and get the phone, call my wife and I said, hey, babe, you know I've had an accident but I'm okay. I've had an accident but I'm okay. And so we had a friend that lived really close. So she called her friend and she came down to get me because it was a lot quicker than calling an ambulance.

Speaker 2 11:58

So in that crash, let's see, I got a cut into my cheek all the way to the bone, I don't know broken fingers, but just bruised up, and and those two things it's incredible. But but the first thing, I guess that once I really came to my senses I thought, oh gosh, I'm glad my wife wasn't with me because she always rides with me. Oh, yeah, and uh, just so happened, she was, uh, had her nephews at her pool that day, so so she wasn't with us. Wow, yeah, yeah, it's uh, uh, that I. You know, I think that's that's one of the reasons that I kind of agreed to do this, because you just not too many people live through all the things I've lived through and then get to enjoy a full life. Still, I could have been crippled for life.

Speaker 1 12:48

Sure absolutely.

Speaker 2 12:51

You don't know when you go through a motorcycle crash.

Speaker 1 12:53

Yeah, and it's incredible too to hear it too, because, first of all, we're only 10 minutes into the episode. You've already told us about three pretty incredible and tragic events, really, and it amazes me that you're smiling while you're telling it, which is a good sign, or you're crazy one of the two and it's. I can't wait, I can't wait. I've got a lot of questions coming. All right, I can't wait, I can't wait. I've got a lot of questions coming, all right.

Battle with Polycystic Kidney Disease

Speaker 2 13:22

So next traumatic event from that motorcycle crash. You know I had this polycystic kidney disease. So when the bike lands across my lower back, that's basically a kidney lick and so I lost 14% of my remaining kidney function. We'll back up a little bit to the kidney disease. Sure what? What kidney disease is? Normally, whatever your body size is your, your fist is approximately the size of your normal kidneys. So polycystic is exactly what it sounds like it's cysts growing on your kidneys. So I'll go back to in 2008,. And I had a kidney transplant. I had a live donor.

Speaker 2 14:17

A friend that I graduated high school with, his wife, volunteered to be tested. All of my family had been tested, no one was a match. So she was tested and two other ladies that we had, a several of us that camped a lot. We all had like fearful campers or whatever. So we camped a lot and two ladies in our camping group actually said I'll be tested and uh. But when the first lady, uh, sent her information in to uab, who was doing the testing for us, it came back that she was absolutely a perfect match. You have to match and I may say this, but I believe it's so many chromosomes to receive an organ from another person and she only lacked one chromosome being a 100% perfect match. Yeah, so another miracle.

Speaker 1 15:19

That is crazy. Yeah, and you're not related, it's just like some lady.

Speaker 2 15:23

Not related at all. Not related. That is wild. Yes, it is All right, that is crazy. Yeah, and you're not related.

Speaker 1 15:25

It's just like some lady.

Speaker 2 15:25

Not related at all. Not related. That is wild.

Speaker 1 15:26

Yes, it is All right, so hold on. I got to back up on this one, so you are dealing with the polycystic kidney disease and that happened pretty early on, right?

Speaker 2 15:36

Yeah, about like 28 years old yeah.

Speaker 1 15:37

You're like in your mid-20s and you start urinating blood and you're realizing okay, something ain't right here. Yes, you're dealing with this. For what? 15 years, probably right. Is that accurate?

Speaker 2 15:52

Well, from 28 to 45, so 17 years.

Speaker 1 15:57

Yeah, okay, so 17 years you're kind of dealing with this. What was that like when you first found out? Was it something that it was like, oh my gosh, like how, like why this happened to me, and then you're like thinking about it all the time. Or is it just like some days you just like forget that you have it, or like what? What is that like?

Speaker 2 16:12

well, uh, to be honest, once I was diagnosed I really didn't have effects from it. So it rocked on many, many years I'm going to say 13, 14 years before really it became any effect on my living or my body, and it was just out of sight, out of mind. I just had to go for a few more doctor visits than most people at that age, but other than that I had no problem with it.

Speaker 1 16:46

And was it like regular for you to urinate blood, or was that just like it happened the one time and then it didn't happen for a while? That's right it?

Speaker 2 16:54

happened the one time and then I don't know, maybe one other time in my life is all I did other time in my life is all I did it, and what the doctors said was that I had a cyst. One of those cysts to rupture was the reason I was passing the blood.

Speaker 1 17:09

Oh okay, yeah, wow, oh yeah, polycystic, I mean, there's probably multiple cysts. Yeah, I'll give you the rest of that in just a second, all right.

Speaker 2 17:16

All right. So about three, probably three years, about 2005, probably three years about 2005, I started seeing the effects after that wreck. It took what four years or so, and I was just steadily kidney function decreasing. So kidneys filter everything in your body, everything you take in. So as they start failing, you're getting poisons in your system, uh, just naturally. So about three years before the transplant, I started getting sicker. Um, we'd go along and and everything would be good. And then, just one day, I, you know, I, just the smell of food would just make me nauseous instantly. And then then, uh, each year it progressed and got worse. And, uh, the last two years before the transplant I was, I was really, uh, going down pretty good.

Speaker 2 18:16

Uh, 2007 was a full year of unable to do anything. I mean, I literally by this time sometime in 2007, I went on dialysis and, luckily, since I had a live donor and everything was in place, I only had to stay on dialysis four months and people would come into the clinic and you know they'd get up. Hey, I'm going fishing, I'm going to work or whatever. But for some reason dialysis did not agree with me. Uh, I literally died twice on the dialysis table. Um, lost all blood pressure, heartbeat, everything and in that situation there is no revival for you. You either come back on your own or you don't. And just here's another miracle All of a sudden I just wake up.

Speaker 1 19:20

Just rebooting on the table.

Speaker 2 19:21

Just rebooting, I guess. Yes, sir, yes, sir, yes, sir, that's right. So 07, you know, like I said, was just basically nothing but home in bed or in the recliner, doctor visits, five surgeries In total. I had about 28 inches of incisions in that year. So you can imagine five surgeries, dialysis. You're unable to do anything. And during that year I realized 100% if you do not have your health, I don't care what you have. You could have $100 million. It is absolutely worthless, absolutely. So you know, if you take anything from this, this part of this story, that's the one thing I'd tell you. We're not promised anything and once your health starts declining to that point, there's no life whatsoever.

Speaker 1 20:29

Yeah, you know, when you were talking about the toxins and stuff that are in your kidneys, because it filters everything in your body, the first thing I thought of was, like in mixed martial arts, like when people take a shot to the kidneys, or in boxing.

Speaker 1 20:45

It's like you can't I don't care how big you are Like you get hit in the kidney the right way and it dumps all of that toxin into your body and it shuts you down, like and so to think from that perspective, that's just someone getting hit in the kidney. What happens when your kidneys aren't cooperating and it's just spilling toxicity into your body like that? It's like that is so deadly like, and I just want to like paint that picture a little more vividly, because that's serious. Like when your kidneys aren't cooperating and they're just you're just going through all of that, like that is so bad, and then on top of that, you know having to go through all, all the stuff you're going through, your sounds like the. The picture I'm imagining is just so much scar tissue, just from all these surgeries and just you know and uh, just crazy.

Speaker 1 21:35

All right, wow, all right. What's next? So let's see, by the way, just so everybody knows, because you can't see us, he's got, he's got a sheet over here. He wrote down, I think he wrote down a bunch of stuff that he's gone through and that's why I said all right, what's next?

Speaker 2 21:51

It wasn't me being like, hey, I'm being rude, but just yeah, yeah, well, you know, the kidney transplant basically was a new lease on life, whole new outlook. Basically was a new lease on life, whole new outlook. Uh, it just gives you an understanding that I guess, until you ever go through that you, you don't realize what, how fragile life is. Yeah, so, uh, one more thing on the kidneys. Um, during 07, one of those surgeries during 07, one of those surgeries, actually two of those surgeries were to remove my native kidneys. They were so large, um, you know, I I had this big stomach then and and didn't really realize, but my left kidney weighed a little over 11 pounds. Wow, my right kidney weighed a little over 11 pounds. Wow, my right kidney weighed a little over 13 pounds, and that's all cysts growing on them. They're huge, you know football-sized kidneys, and at that particular time they were the largest kidneys ever removed at Erlanger Hospital. And the reason they removed those was, they said, I didn't have room for the transplant kidney to go in until they did.

Speaker 1 23:04

Wow, that's not a record you want to hold, though. No, no, no, but you held it at one point nonetheless. Right, that's right. Got that much space that should be there to have your intestines and your liver and all the other organs that are in and around it are now being squeezed.

Speaker 2 23:30

Well, since you mentioned that, that's exactly right. One of my organs gosh I'm trying to think of what we took out, but anyway it had been mashed to the point that it had grown around an intestine. So a previous surgery to that was to remove that organ because of it.

Speaker 1 23:53

So probably your pancreas or something like that gallbladder, not gallbladder.

Starting Taylor Manufacturing in 1983

Speaker 2 24:01

Appendix, appendix, appendix. That's dangerous too. Yeah, it was my appendix. Oh my gosh. All right, so we'll get off the gloom and doom and all of that good stuff, I guess Sure sure. And go to kind of the business side of things.

Speaker 1 24:19

What year is this now?

Speaker 2 24:21

We're back to 1983. Okay 1983, okay 83 year before I was born.

Speaker 2 24:25

Oh yeah, I got you by about 20 there. Yeah, there we go, we're good. So, uh, my father, uh, had worked here in south pittsburgh for many years at the richard city uh, excuse me, pendixie cement, which was in richard city. It was just the south end of south pittsburgh and they closed that plant up. And year or two went by and he's, like, always wanted to start his shop, machine shop, and I didn't even know that, you know, not before this time, sure. So he's like, hey, I'm gonna start a machine shop, fab shop here. Uh, would you like to go to work with me? And uh, that, you know, that was gosh. That was just the start of what I had no idea of where we were going to, could never even have dreamed of where life has taken us in, in what my wildest imagination. I couldn't do it.

Speaker 2 25:19

So uh went to work with my dad, 1983, march 1983. Uh, he started the company for five thousand dollars. That was a total investment. I, uh, my huge wage was four dollars an hour. Nice, I don't even think we had a phone in our office for either two or three years. It's just, you know, very humble beginnings. One of the first machines we ever bought was a milling machine. It was probably gosh built in the 50s, I bet, and, to be honest, we still have it to this day, wow. And my son is actually not particularly restoring it but giving it a facelift. It still runs and works perfectly, wow. So we're going to display it in our facility now when he gets through refurbishing it.

Speaker 1 26:21

Oh, that's very cool. They don't make things like that anymore. Like they can last that kind of time.

Speaker 2 26:27

No, and we've got a few of those old machines. But the unique thing about that machine is when we bought it it was literally in boxes. The whole machine was disassembled. Gosh, you know I was what? Early 20s, I guess at this point, maybe 1920, something like that. Yeah and uh, we bought a book, sat down, I sat on a stool for literally probably two, two weeks and rebuilt everything in that machine, put all new bearings and you know it shoot. I've never done anything like that. I had no clue. I I mean, I was mechanically inclined, I'd fool with cars and worked on cars, hot rods, but so literally sat there and built this machine back from the ground up, got to the end of the build and the gearbox in it has to be timed.

Speaker 1 27:21

Okay.

Speaker 2 27:22

It has a handle that you crank, that changes the speeds. Well, my dad and I stood there and looked at it the last day and we're like gosh, we don't know how to time it. And I got this from Richard because it really rung a bell with me. But, richard Rogers, you see who I'm speaking of yeah yeah, One of the previous podcasts.

Speaker 2 27:42

But Richard said you know I've always kept a notepad beside my bed at night and it just struck me I have too. I've always kept a notepad and a pencil or a pen whatever laying there, because I did more figuring out of projects when I'd lay down and your mind, I guess, I guess would relax, you would get on that and get focused yeah but anyway, I'm laying there that night and I'm like gosh I know how to time that.

Speaker 2 28:11

So came in the next morning, told my dad what I thought and he said I believe that'll work. So we did it, put it in and to this day that machine still runs perfectly wow, that's so cool.

Speaker 1 28:23

Let that be a lesson. Everybody that's listening like keep a notepad and a pencil or pen beside your bed, because you never know like ideas hit you at the strangest times. You know what I wish? I wish I had like a waterproof notepad that I could put in my shower, because I figure out so much stuff while I'm taking a shower, bro, like I'll just literally hop in and all of a sudden ideas, things that I've been struggling with. I'm like oh, oh, my gosh, I know what I should do now. It's like sometimes all you need is just clean your body.

Speaker 2 28:52

Well, I'm going to tell you where to get that my son actually bought me. It's called a Space Pen and it has a matching pad. I hate to boost for Amazon, but no get it from amazon and, uh, it will actually write upside down underwater what, yes, sir, okay, done so cool. Let's see, uh, my wife was working in the, actually the building where our facility is located now in stevenson, alabama.

Speaker 2 29:27

It started out it was taylor machine and welding inc okay uh, and then, uh, somewhere along the line, we we renamed it to just taylor machine and then now it's called taylor manufacturing. Okay, um, but anyway, my wife worked in the building in stevenson that we've purchased, now remodeled it, moved everything into, and that was back in, uh, 1987. She, um said, hey, I want to take the summer off and just lay out in the sun, whatever, that's sure, okay. So she gets bored in just a few months and, uh, she comes to, starts coming to work with me on Saturdays. So, uh, my dad just says, uh.

Speaker 2 30:16

She said, hey, what can I do? And he said, hey, you can help us clean the shop up on Saturday. So she started out doing that and uh, uh, we'll, we'll step off on her for a minute, but uh, from from 88 to 91, somewhere along that, my dad actually teaches her to be a machinist. So she's on the floor with us making parts. She came on board full-time in 1991 and has been with us ever since. We both retired within about a year of each other.

Speaker 1 30:55

So were you guys married when she did that?

Speaker 2 30:58

Yes, we were married. Okay, that, yes, we were married. Okay, that's cool, we were married. We married gosh 1985. And this is, I guess, how life started for us. But we never took a honeymoon, we never took a vacation, anything. For seven years we were steadily working all the hours we could stand and uh, uh, we worked, uh, the first 12 years we worked around the company uh, six days a week. So not a lot of time, not a lot of time off, but anyway, you know, I'm not complaining. Uh, I guess it teaches you what's required to uh, to make it maybe yeah, lots of teamwork, lots of teamwork, yeah, and she's, you know she's.

Speaker 2 31:51

She was with us, like I said, the whole way through that's cool.

Speaker 1 31:55

Yeah, my wife and I, we we run our business together and people don't realize that that clock never stops when you own a business and you care about it. From the time you open your eyes to the time you shut them at night, you're thinking how can we serve people better, how can we make things more improved? And, yeah, it's a lot. That's cool.

Speaker 2 32:15

Yeah, so we were in business. My dad was in business. I was working with him for the first five years. We were right here in the center of town in South Pittsburgh in a little old tin roof, tin-sided building, no insulation Literally I'd wear every stitch of clothes. I had that a deer hunted in to work because you'd freeze to death. But in 1988, we bought another building down in Richard City and just real humble beginnings, and it was a small building. We added about 2,000 square feet onto it before we ever moved in, moved into that building and just you know, across the years continued to grow and add people and things like that.

Speaker 2 33:07

My dad never wanted a big business. He wanted a three-, four-, five-man shop and it took me about five or six years, I guess, in this business to decide that. You know, this is probably the best thing I can stay at and do. It took me that long to settle into. This is going to be what I do for the rest of my life, sure, and I was never the guy that said a five-man shop is it I want. I'm shooting for the moon I want. It didn't matter what it was, if someone came along and offered us a project, I wanted it.

Speaker 1 33:49

Yeah, you can't hit two trucks and a cow and then just like decide mediocre is your life.

Speaker 2 33:54

I suppose Maybe it knocked something loose up there. You know, I don't know.

Speaker 1 33:59

Man, that's awesome Okay.

Business Growth and Technological Evolution

Speaker 2 34:02

So my dad, my wife, my dad and however many other employees we added along the years we stayed together for, worked with him for 17 years and he came to me one day and you you talk about retiring. My dad was a workaholic daylight to after dark, every day. He run a full-time shop, had a farm, cattle, everything and and you know, I grew up the same way we. We grew up on a farm in bryant alab and I moved on that farm when I was five years old and I stayed on that farm until I was 55 years old. That was my plan. That was to be my whole life place to be, and I'll travel forward in time here a little bit as we progress and I'll kind of give you the things that happened that changed that and I apologize.

Speaker 1 35:02

I don't know that I asked you this or not, but you've mentioned South Pittsburgh a lot, but you've also mentioned Alabama a lot. Are you currently in Alabama?

Speaker 2 35:11

I am. I currently live in Alabama. Have lived in Jackson County Alabama all my life, oh, okay, I have lived in Jackson County Alabama all my life, oh, okay, and actually our Taylor Manufacturing is now in Alabama. It was in Tennessee most of its life.

Speaker 1 35:26

Okay, yeah.

Speaker 2 35:28

That's very cool. So my dad comes in one day and he says I'm thinking about retiring and he's, I think maybe 61 at the time. And I thought, man, there's no way, you know, he's, he can't quit, he's, he's just too much of a worker. So, uh, we're rocking along there and it's uh, it's uh 2000. And uh, he comes in and he said this is going to be my last week. So he gave me a one-week notice before he retired. He had already had the company evaluated, had all the papers drawn up, because we had talked all throughout that you know, our intention was to stay in the business and that we'd like to purchase it. So, uh, that was his retirement. He owner financed it for us. Um, basically, the week, the last week he worked, we signed all the papers and the next week we were shut down for a week.

Speaker 2 36:43

Most businesses in South Pittsburgh at that time closed the week of the 4th of July, so I guess the Monday after shutdown, because my dad's he's always doing something on his farm, so he's bringing it to the, to the shop, to fix or work on. And uh, the next monday or tuesday, whatever day it was, he's there and we're working and you know, a customer comes in that knows him and walks up and he says, hey, uh, starts asking him about a job and he said, hey, I don't have anything to do with this anymore, you got to go see mike. So I mean, it was how'd that feel? It was like, wow, you know, it's a realization that it's all on me now. Or you know, me and my wife. He was serious. Oh he, I don't know how he did it. He just flipped the switch of my whole life. I thought how did he just turn that off after 17 years of doing it? Yeah, and, but you know, in the end I pretty much did the same thing that's cool.

Speaker 2 37:47

I didn't think I could. You know it was a, it's been our whole life, so uh, but that's, that's how it turned out. Let's see.

Speaker 2 38:03

I'm looking at my notes here trying to figure out what one of my notes is, but anyway, let's see when we're at. We're 2,000. From 2,000 until the day we retired, my wife and I were on call. We had a basically 24-hour service. If one of our customers called, we got out of bed. I've actually came home from vacation, just whatever, and I always felt like during my life, if you would treat people right, be honest, have integrity and treat them fairly, you don't have to give everything away. You can make your living and we always made a decent living but I always felt like anyone that was willing to give 110% and do those things could own and operate and have a successful business.

Speaker 1 39:00

Yeah, I agree with that 100%.

Speaker 2 39:01

Yeah, so pretty much that's what we've always tried to do, and I don't have anything in my life that I have any regret for doing. I've always been 100% honest. I think it pays you off.

Speaker 1 39:20

Oh yeah, it does, and what a great way to retire having that reassurance to know you did the right thing.

Speaker 2 39:27

Well, I may have some customers out there that didn't feel that way, but we always did our absolute best.

Speaker 1 39:32

Absolutely, that's good.

Speaker 2 39:35

So let's see, we'll back up to 1990. 1990, okay, my dad still was owning, operating the business. Uh, I always just acted like I was an owner and did whatever it took. So we, uh, we are thinking about getting into cnc machines is computer excuse me, computer numerical control, and they're basically automated turning or milling centers. And my dad comes up with the idea. He said, hey, I think we need to do this and check it out for us, you know. So he's like go do the research.

Speaker 2 40:15

So I'm doing all this research and looking at we started out looking at a milling center and goes for two months and I'm not sleeping at night. I'm worried because this thing is, at that time it's enough money that I felt like we may not survive buying it if it don't take off. Well, two months into it, like I said, can't sleep, I'm worried to death, stressed over it, and I don't know. Light clicks on one day and I'm like, hey, we're looking at the wrong machine. So come in the next day, talk to my dad and say, hey, we're, I think we ought to do this, we ought to buy a turning center rather than a milling center. So pretty much backed up and punted, went right out the gate, started looking at those machines.

Speaker 1 41:01

And what's the difference between those two machines?

Speaker 2 41:03

Well, a turning center does round parts and a milling center does mostly square rectangular. They can be round, but actually the part is spinning in a turning center and in a milling center the tool is turning.

Speaker 1 41:21

So it's basically just for everybody listening. At least you can correct me if I'm wrong. It's kind of the difference between a lathe and like a laser cutter.

Speaker 2 41:30

No, it's a lathe and a mill.

Speaker 1 41:32

Okay.

Speaker 2 41:33

It's just called a turning center in the computer world or CNC world and everything so and I've seen I think I've seen those before too like, like, where it'll come through.

Speaker 1 41:44

The little piece will come in and it'll shave off and it'll come up and it'll you know it'll, that's.

Speaker 2 41:49

That sounds like a milling yeah, yeah, okay and a turning center is the same thing, but it's spinning the part. The tool comes down to the part and then, uh, it's just traveling up the material and shaving off the whatever you need to make the right the right shape of parts you want.

Speaker 1 42:06

Those are satisfying to watch too, cause I've seen some of those videos on social media and it's really interesting to watch.

Speaker 2 42:11

Let's see, here we're, uh, um, I think, uh think, uh, 1990 we got we ended up buying a first uh lathe, or turning center, first computer we ever had in the building. Uh, just for you folks to know how far back this was, it was a 286, 33 was the computer you know. Then it was a 486 33 and then this was old dos command computers and you know just, uh, but uh, pretty interesting to where evolutionists came. Now we can do everything and more on our cell phone than we could do on that dang computer yeah, you know it's.

Speaker 1 42:57

It's so too, because whenever I think back to early days of computing, like what you're saying, it's like operating through DOS. People don't remember that, or a lot of people don't remember that, just the older generations. But I was a part of the generation where the early computers were like. I had access to it, so we were playing the old floppy disks not the three and a half, but the floppy ones that were flexible Five and a quarter or something. And I remember just typing in CD backslash that's exactly right.

Speaker 2 43:31

I mean we had no button to click on Dot exe. Yeah.

Speaker 1 43:34

Execute files. It was crazy, and we somehow did it, and, like man do, we have it good today, though.

Speaker 2 43:43

Click on a button, everything pops up and it's ready to roll. That's fun, good memories. So let's see. We throughout machining and fabrication and running of the company we worked up to for many, many years. We were at around 20, some odd people, 20, 25 people and had about a 20 000 square foot building and wow uh, well, that that now.

Speaker 1 44:09

That's very small sure, but but I'm saying wow in comparison to what you said earlier, which was about five people. So you like, started with two yeah, so you essentially quadrupled it from the five to the 20, right, and? Uh, okay, yeah, keep going.

Speaker 2 44:22

Sorry oh no, that's good. So, uh, we're traveling along through life and and uh, uh, we do a lot of work for, like, the textile carpet industry, and uh, we've, we've run out of room and and I ended up there's another building here in South Pittsburgh that's actually right at 100,000 square feet. So we purchased it. Takes about a year to get that done and going to put our shop in it. Long story short, we never moved in it. I had a tenant, one of my customers, come in and I said, hey, we're thinking about leasing half of this building because we'll never use it. Well, they get interested. One thing leads to another. Within a matter of about three weeks they come back and say, hey, would you just lease us the whole building? I said, well, you know, if the money's right, sure, why not? So they're still in the building, still leasing.

Speaker 2 45:22

It's gosh been I don't know 17 years ago or something and, uh, we never move in, so we're still out of room. Uh, we, uh, let's see where we at. I'm. I'm about to jump way too far ahead.

Risk-Taking and Business Expansion

Speaker 2 45:39

No, you're good, You're good Um let's see, okay, uh, once we purchased the building or the company in 2000,. You know, of course that's the nine 11 terror attack year. Yeah, of course that's the 9-11 terror attack year. Up to that year, we had never not exceeded the previous year in business sales. Well, the year we buy it, all of a sudden we have this terror attack and business falls off.

Speaker 2 46:19

To the best of my recollection it was 35%, and so we always had my dad did and we did as well we always kept probably a substantial amount of money in our account for the size of our business, just for hard times times, because that's business, it's up and down. Well, that year, we used half of our reserves just maintaining the business and not losing any of our key employees. Had we had two years of it, I don't know that we would have survived it. Yeah, but let's see. So let's see. We're on my notes here. We're up to like 2011.

Speaker 2 47:11

Lots, you know, all those years is basically just doing the same type of work, trying to just continuously grow the business. In 2011, I felt like we were stagnant Business had just, it was going along but wasn't really growing, was going along but wasn't really growing. And so I call in all of my uh key guys, you know, into the office and I said guys, what do you, what do you guys think? How do we? How's the best way to grow this business? I just, you know, just bounce it off you guys.

Speaker 2 47:55

Uh, we had our little meeting and discovered an idea to uh get the try to get the business back on track, and, and you know, we weren't really having problems per se, it just just wasn't going where I felt like it should go at the time, sure, so, uh, we meet with this customer and all this business opportunity comes up and uh, so we, we rearrange a good portion of our shop, uh, to take some of this work in, and so we're going through about a year of it and the customer comes to me one day and says hey, you know, we're, we're, we've got more business than we can do. You're going to have to actually build a complete fab shop if you want to continue doing it. So at this time I'm about 49, 50 years old and, man, I crunched the numbers and I've never really been scared of a risk. I always bought every machine. We bought whatever options we needed on it.

Speaker 2 49:03

If they had others, I usually would add several options, uh, to speed up or to make our equipment unique, and uh, so I I'm a spreadsheet guy. I put everything on spread.

Speaker 1 49:17

Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 49:19

Everything. I mean, I even track my hunting trip costs on spreadsheets, you know. And uh, so anyway, we, we rock along there and they, they give us this ultimatum of either do this or, you know, we're to have to look somewhere else. So my wife and I have adjoining offices by this time and she's in hers and I'm sitting in there just crunching numbers and thinking, and I call her in my office and have her sit down and I said, hey, I'm thinking about risking our whole, everything we have, on a new venture, and I don't know how she does it. But she just looked at me and said, whatever you think, wow, so I also do the same thing with. I've got a right, right hand man that's been with us since he was probably 19, 20 years old. He's still with us to this day. And, uh, I posed the same thing to him and he said, man, there is no way I would do that, said, you know, you, we're successful, you're successful, you got a, you know a decent business and you make a good living. And uh, I just, I just said I I'm gonna roll the dice.

Speaker 2 50:41

So, uh, at this time, you know, I go out and borrow as much money as we have ever. At the size of our company. I borrow more money than we've ever done. Purchase another facility, buy all of this new equipment and shoot here. We go down that road and any new business, even though we thought plenty of new business coming in to maintain it. It was a struggle. So my wife is transferring money from one company to the other company just back and forth on a weekly basis, just trying to keep us afloat. And a year goes by and we're still doing it and this customer comes to us and says this customer comes to us and says, hey, we've bought a facility and we're going to take this work back in-house and do it ourself. So I mean, it's just like the deer in the headlight, look, you know, just pure sheer panic. But it turned out really that it was probably the best thing that could have happened to us. Probably the best thing that could have happened to us.

Speaker 2 52:05

When we bought this other facility and started this business, I hired a gentleman that I'd known for years and years to run it because I knew I couldn't be running back and forth every day. And so that year goes by and he's like man, I've had enough of this. It's just driving everybody nuts, stressing out, trying to keep it going. And by this time I've got a nephew. His name's Cody and my wife and I pretty much raised him, so we call him our son and he calls us mom and dad, and he's 21 years old and he's been working in our original company there, taylor Manufacturing. I brought him from basically the ground up through every process we do and in his whole life he always said all I want to do is be part of this. And so, at 21 years old, he gets thrown into the driver's seat of this new company.

Speaker 1 53:09

Wow.

Speaker 2 53:10

Yeah, and we've lost our business, lost our customer. Well, we didn't lose the customer per se, but we lost the mainstream of that business. And we go out and start looking for new stuff and we land an account. By this time, we're so drawn down on money, on funds, that basically, they offer us this work and we can't even afford to buy the tooling to put on our machine, to make their parts. And so I've never, ever had a customer help us buy tooling or make drawings or anything. We've always done all of that ourselves.

Speaker 2 54:01

And I'm thinking, well, we're going to lose this. So I'll go have a meeting with them and I just lay it on the line. I said, guys, we've got the capacity, we've got the machines, we can't afford to buy the tooling. And they said, well, how much is it? And I think it was like $20,000 was all at that time. Sure, and they said, well, no problem, just send us the information and we'll cut a purchase order for it. Wow, so I mean, it was just a lifesaver. And to this day, they're still our largest single account and we do huge amounts of business with them every year that's incredible.

Speaker 1 54:40

Yeah, I love that.

Speaker 2 54:41

Yeah, wow, that's rare oh it, to me it was unheard of yeah, I don't, I don't know.

Speaker 1 54:48

Yeah, that's crazy. Huh, all right, I'm, I'm, I'm still interested to keep hearing where this is going. So the first, I guess, thing that keeps coming to mind is, like in your lifetime, like you have had multiple situations where you're on the verge of losing something, whether it's your own life or whether it's your business or whatever you know, and I keep hearing that theme kind of coming back. And then there's this resurrection every time of it works out every time and it's like what does that feel like?

Speaker 2 55:31

It's unbelievable that you can just almost hit the bottom and it seems like something just clicks and life gets back on track. I don't know how it manages to do that, but throughout our lives we've been through a lot of those situations. I hadn't went into a whole lot of them, but in any business I call it a yo-yo. It's never in that middle sweet spot, it's always at the bottom or at the top.

Speaker 1 56:08

Yeah, I definitely agree with that.

Speaker 2 56:12

Let's see. So we buy this building, put all this equipment in business, goes away, find the new customers and we're talking with this customer and more and more with them. And so they send a group of people in from their corporate offices and they're a really, really large group of companies. It's not just a company, it's a holding company that owns like 10 different big entities. So they send the group in from their main offices and they're evaluating us at our fab shop, which is in a different location from our machine shop. And then they come down to South Pittsburgh and look at our machine shop and say you know, uh, when, when all of this is over the end of the day, he's come around. And basically, I just asked the guy, I said so. So what do you see? He said well, he said your, your fab shop is, uh, it's adequate, it, you can do what we want to do there, but your machine shop, you're just, basically, you're completely out of room, you don't have anywhere to go.

Speaker 2 57:48

And uh, during this time this is about four years have gone by and we're in, uh, we're at uh, august of 2015, when we we make this next purchase, we uh, there's the building where we're located. Now in Stevenson it's another 100,000-square-foot facility and I've been working on buying it for months because I knew we had to do something with our expansion room, and so I closed the deal on it about, I'm going to say, a week before these guys come in and I said, well, let me, let me show you something, uh, if you got time. So we get in the vehicles and we drive to Stevenson, which is only about 10 minutes down the road, and we pull up in front of this big building and I said, uh, I just bought this building and we're we're getting ready to remodel and move into it. And I mean the guy, just like man, you just answered everything, uh, so we have conversations of uh. His question to me was where do you think this company can go as far as size?

Building a Family Business Legacy

Speaker 2 59:13

And I throw out a number and he said, oh, you're way short-cutting yourself. And so he throws out his number it's double what I think, wow, and I don't care to give you the numbers. Sure, number, it's double what I think, wow, and I don't care to give you the numbers he's. He said, uh. I said I think we could do five million. And he said, uh, you can do 10 million with your, with your current setup. He said you won't have to change a thing about how you operate, you just need the room. So uh, I thought, well, you, that sounds really good. This guy's pretty knowledgeable on it, so I'm hoping he's right. But everything so far, right now, we've exceeded any dream I've ever had. You know, I think back earlier years and I was sitting at my desk one day, years and I was sitting at my desk one day and this was before we ever did even a million dollars in sales. And I think, how do you ever get to a million dollars in sales?

Speaker 2 1:00:17

the golden question yeah, and you know, I truthfully I don't come up with an answer, but I just think, well, all you can do is just keep banging at it until you hopefully get there. And then, I think, you know, sometime later I'm sitting there and I'm thinking, okay, we've got there, how do you get to $2 million? And in my mind I'm thinking, gosh, there's companies out there that are doing $10, $20, $50, $100 million a year. I just can't fathom how you ever achieve anything like that. And so, anyway, I'm trying to figure out how do you get to this $2 million mark. And so we make that and surpass that, I think the largest we ever were before.

Speaker 2 1:01:06

We actually just got a complete new business plan, and, and that business plan happened in about 2012, when we started this fab shop. We completely changed our customer base. Um and uh, you, it's. It's another one of those miracles. Everything just fell in place and I'd have these customers calling and they'd be like, hey, we'd like to send you this to look at and that to look at. And I mean, we actually went in debt millions of dollars at at the age of 50 to 52 years old, 53 years old.

Speaker 2 1:01:50

But I could not turn down. I still had the mentality that I couldn't turn down an opportunity. Yeah, I thought you know, if you let this one go by, it may never come again. So we just kept diving into it and diving into it. And we're now in this larger facility, like I said, about 100,000 square feet, got 125-plus employees run 20 hours a day. It's just an amazing thing to imagine. So that's the part about being blessed to experience the American dream. I mean, when you come from living in a double-wide trailer at your start to realizing where we are now, and I mean, you know, we're not per se rich by any means, we're not per se rich by any means, but we can live a really nice lifestyle. That I never thought we could do, absolutely yeah.

Speaker 1 1:02:55

You know, and if this is across the line, feel free to tell me You'd rather not talk about it. But is your dad? Is he still around?

Speaker 2 1:03:05

He's not. My dad developed dementia. I'm not exactly sure what year we started noticing some things, but I lost my dad in June of 2014.

Speaker 1 1:03:20

Okay, and how far along did he get to see the company go after you took it over? That was the main question I was like did he ever get to see it grow?

Speaker 2 1:03:31

I'm sorry, that was not right. I lost my dad in 2020, june of 2020. I don't know where 2014 came from.

Speaker 1 1:03:42

Listen, I am not going to judge nobody because I'll say something about last week and my wife was like that was last year. I'm like felt like last week yeah, I am not going to judge nobody, because I'll say something about last week and my wife was like that was last year. I'm like felt like last week.

Speaker 2 1:03:50

Yeah, I understand that this age thing is. You're definitely not who you were when you were 25 or 35.

Speaker 1 1:04:00

That's funny, but did he get to see you take it over and really grow it? I bet he was very proud.

Speaker 2 1:04:09

I'm sure he was like me. He was just in awe of where it actually ended up. You come from a $5,000 investment to a company the size we have now. Like I said, it's just unbelievable. It is.

Speaker 1 1:04:26

That's cool, all right. 're, you're definitely blessed your whole life, like absolutely just uh, and it's neat to see it, because most people and I'm and not not to like compare you to anyone, I guess, but you know, most, most people would just be happy to take what they had been given to them and just like have a good life, you know, and it would have been fine.

Speaker 2 1:04:53

There's nothing wrong with that. We were happy with all of that. But I don't know, I didn't really have the vision to go where we went, but I always had the vision to take the next step. Yeah, I always had the vision to take the next step. I was never really afraid of taking that step or making that investment. I just tried to do the math and see if the numbers would work, and that's where we went.

Speaker 1 1:05:26

How long have you and your wife been retired now?

Speaker 2 1:05:30

Well, that's another good part of the story. I guess, back when we first let's see what year? Well, we branched out in 2012, bought the facility and put the fab shop in. Then I did a complete remodel on that building and then, like what? 2015, we bought this other facility and did the same thing again.

Speaker 2 1:06:07

And my son came in my office one day and I guess this was about let's see, I got a date here about 20, yeah, about 2019. And I was just stressed to the max. And you know, I think business, just for my nature, uh, was natural for me to have that stress level and uh, so, uh, 2019, my son comes in my office one day and he sets it down and he said you know, you're just so stressed out. He said why don't you just step back? You're just so stressed out. He said, why don't you just step back? And if you don't like what happens with the business, come, come back. You know, of course, he wasn't saying quit working, sure, he was just saying you know, you don't have to be here every day. We got it and, uh, well, it's kind of weird because I think that was the day my switch flipped. Like my dad's, I really literally never worked another full week and and in in in 2020, we bought a farm and, uh, that was basically from things that were happening while my father was going down and the dementia was taking effect.

Speaker 2 1:07:34

And then, once my dad passed, as with a lot of families, or probably any family that has any holdings, there's, I guess, dissension or jealousy, whatever, so kind of the family, the glue of the family left us, I guess, and things weren't like they should have been, and that's why I moved from the farm that I had lived on for 50 years and I had to get away and do something completely on my own. Never asked my parents for any money. My whole life, never asked them for anything once I was grown, except to have a place to live on that farm. And so my parents gave us like an acre and a half of land, deeded it to us and, you know, after we had been in the double-wide for like nine years, we built us a house and, just, you know, basically lived there. That was my grandmother's farm, by the way, and my parents had ended up buying it from her.

Speaker 2 1:08:48

But so after, you know, after my dad passed and everything kind of went south, I guess, uh, um, I just I couldn't stay there anymore and I told my wife, I said I can't live here due to the way things turned out after his death. And uh, so we bought our farm and and that's really, I guess, uh, what has occupied my mind for the last, say, five years um, I've, I've got to step back from work and just, uh, we basically farm for wildlife is all we do, and so we grow crops. We don't gather any of them, and I love to hunt, always have love to fish, and so that's basically what I do now. I work on the farm every day, you know, just piddle work, doing something, and I go on hunting trips, you know, trips based on the business growth and the things We've gotten to do, a lot of things we've never even imagined. But this year, well, a matter of fact, july, my wife and I will have been married 40 years.

Speaker 1 1:10:02

Wow, congratulations. Well, thank you, that's amazing.

Speaker 2 1:10:05

We've been together 42. We grew up about three or four miles from each other, but never knew each other. Wow, of course I'm about three and a half, four and a half years older than her, so when you're coming up through school and all, she's just a kid.

Speaker 1 1:10:20

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:10:22

So, anyway, we've been taking some nice trips, been to Africa a couple of times and places on hunting trips and just sightseeing and just thoroughly enjoying life. So, to answer the question, I guess kind of semi-retired there around 2019. And then our son's been running it. It's continuously, or continued to grow almost at the pace, or probably maybe even better than the pace, that of when we were actually there, and so the business has just grown and grown and in last year 2024, we actually he's the third generation in full control of operating the business. We don't have any input into, you know, other than if he asks a question, hey, what do you think about this? But you know I don't really go up and interject. Hey, you need to do this or that. And so sometime along there, when we were getting ready to retire, we branched out to back up. We actually bought the facility also in Alabama where we had our fab shop. We sold it Probably two years later, three years later at the most, we went back and bought it again.

Speaker 1 1:12:01

Okay, what's the story behind that?

Speaker 2 1:12:03

Well, it's a finishing company or a coating company. So a lot of our customers require their, their parts to be blasted or have a certain finish on them, or powder coated things like that. So we now run that a new facility there that is called taylor, taylor coatings, and uh, that's what we do. We transfer parts from our manufacturing plant to there and they get the finishes put on them whatever the customer requires, and then we do a lot of shipping out of there.

Speaker 1 1:12:35

That's very cool. So essentially, tailor manufacturing took on specific works and then branched out into other subsets of business that were needed by your customers so that you could just keep it all in-house. That's right, yeah that's very cool.

Retirement and Life After Business

Speaker 2 1:12:51

That's exactly right and one of the things that really, I think, set us apart from a lot of companies when we started this fab shop. Most, or a lot of fab shops don't have full machining services. They they have to outsource it and, uh, we were really unique, I guess in a way, because we had full machining always, and then we added the fab and almost every fab part has some machining on it, so it enabled our customers to cut one purchase order. We controlled deliveries and if they were in a rush, we just worked the hours it took to get the job done. The same thing with this next adventure. They wanted us to also take on the finishing, so that's where we went.

Speaker 1 1:13:46

That's cool. Just kept opening up opportunities, really, and just not being afraid to jump on those opportunities and keep growing that's right, that's so cool. All right, and so you and your wife are getting ready to celebrate. You said 40, 40, and when is that?

Speaker 1 1:14:01

july 26th oh, coming up really soon, real soon, yes, sir, congratulations. Well, thank you, sir. I'll have to send you a little something. But, man, so what do you say to the person listening right now who's an entrepreneur, business owner, married? What's the advice you give them? How do you get to 40 in business?

Speaker 2 1:14:25

Because you know it comes with a certain level of stress, especially when they're involved with you, you know well, you got to have the right partner, that's right, absolutely no doubt about that, and it really helps if you're, you know, if your partner is also your best friend. So, uh, and a really patient partner. In case, my wife's the patient one, and you know, during the business years I don't handle stress very well, but stress likes me, you know, I take it right on, I can't just let it roll off, take it right on it, I can't just let it roll off. So she's always been the person to be the level head, you know, to keep me calm and things like that, and put up with a lot of stuff from me, you know.

Speaker 1 1:15:19

Yeah, I feel like you're talking about my wife too. She's very much the same way. We're best friends we. We laugh a lot, we joke a lot, but whenever times get tough, we put our heads together and we're a team like we.

Speaker 2 1:15:31

we tackle everything head on well, that's us, we, we always have. Uh, you know we laugh about it, but when we were younger, you know, we were so close and and we still do it today, I mean even after 40 years. I mean like I don't even get up or go to the store without saying, hey, I'm going to the store, you know, or she's the same way. Yeah, I mean, if you're walking out of the house, usually the other one knows what you're going to do. It's just nature, I think. Yeah, our nature I love it.

Speaker 1 1:16:01

We we need to get our families together. At some point I feel like we'd have a good time together.

Speaker 2 1:16:05

Absolutely, and that that's what I'm about now is, uh, just uh, trying to enjoy every day. You know, um, I, uh, I say a prayer every night and, uh, that's a whole lot of it is, you know, just thanks for the day, thank you for everything that you know we've been blessed with and watch over us, you know it all comes from the Lord man, Every bit of it. I 100% agree.

Speaker 1 1:16:34

What would you say is one or two things that you want to leave the listeners with? If there's just a couple things that you just hope that they hear or get out of all of this, what is that message?

Speaker 2 1:16:44

I guess you have to be. I don't know if it's bold or brave or what.

Speaker 2 1:16:51

The actual term we should use crazy, yeah, uh, but you got to be able, you got to be willing to take a risk. Um, the old saying is you got to spend money to make money. Uh, that's exactly true. Um, if you have, if you have it in you to give 110%, work as many hours, and it doesn't matter how many that is, you know it's not eight, I can tell you that, uh, my life, uh saying, was shoot, I try not to work over half a day, but you know that may not do it, and a half a day was 12 hours, you know.

Speaker 2 1:17:28

So shoot, I try not to work over half a day, but that may not do it, and half a day was 12 hours, so many many 12, 14, 24 hours, just whatever it took to do the job. All of my friends would be like, hey, we're going to do this. I've seen him going to do that this weekend. They'd say, you guys want to go? I'm like you know, when Friday about 2.30 rolls around, I can probably tell you what we're going to maybe do this weekend. But you know, we just lived that life and it was fine. It's what we became accustomed to. You know, yeah, you know, and thank god my wife worked with me so she wasn't thinking what in the world is he doing?

Speaker 2 1:18:14

you know, gone 14, 16 hours today, yeah, yeah you know she's like hey, I want you to come home. Well, she was right there with me, so she knew where what was going on, and she was usually just as deep into it as I was.

Speaker 2 1:18:28

Funny story early in business we actually only had one office and one desk. So after I came to the point that I came out of the plant working on the floor all the time, my wife worked at the actual right position at the desk and I had a chair at the end of the desk and I would sit there and do quotes and you know, whatever I had to do that day, uh, I, uh, I did sales for the company. Uh, so during that year and all of our years I'd I'd stay on the road maybe two or three days a week and you know I was home every night. I just did like a whatever 100-mile radius or whatever. So I'd do sales, do the estimates, do the quoting and try to also oversee part of running the company. But you know I mentioned earlier I had this uh right-hand man, his name is McLean and uh, he's been with us basically throughout life. We've we've watched his family grow up, miss kids from the time they were very small and, uh, you know, kind of back and way up.

Speaker 2 1:19:43

But after the transplant time, I I uh, they actually do mental evaluations and there are several things on you before they'll do a transplant and uh, you know I didn't really understand any of that at the time. But after the fact there's something about I don't know if it's the medications or the organ that you receive or what but you'll go through periods in your life where you're you just withdraw. I don't know. I won't know that I would say it was actual depression. But I went through about two periods of that after that, and to the point that you know I was after that and to the point that you know I was truly I don't know if I was physically able to work or mentally able to work. I I went through two periods of that in my life and you know, if it wasn't for my wife and mclean, uh shoot, they'd just pick it up and run with it and I'd finally get my head screwed back on right and here we'd go again, you know yeah, and what do you?

Speaker 1 1:20:50

what do you think? Out of all of this stuff that you've shared, what was the hardest?

Speaker 2 1:21:00

well, uh, I don't know, business-wise, itwise, it's always that struggle, but probably the hardest thing I've ever went through in my life was the loss of my father.

Speaker 1 1:21:15

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:21:15

Because we were just so close. I mean when you are with someone every day of your life. We spent, like I said, the countless hours working together and I'd say that took the hardest lick on me of anything yeah, I can't.

Speaker 1 1:21:32

I can't imagine like I haven't had to go through that in my life yet.

Speaker 2 1:21:36

Yeah, and you know most of my life, I, I would think a lot of times you know what, what am I gonna do? Because we worked together every day, we made all those decisions together. I'd think, well, what am I going to do when this is not here anymore? Yeah, and eventually, you know, you come to that point and there's no doubt it made another pretty drastic change in my thoughts and mind.

Speaker 1 1:22:05

Yeah, and then you, I'm kind of jumping around here a little bit. Hope that's okay. Yeah, that's great. You said now you like to go hunting and you travel a lot for hunting. What's your favorite place you've ever been hunting?

Speaker 2 1:22:22

Africa.

Speaker 1 1:22:22

Africa, and what were you hunting there?

Speaker 2 1:22:26

Oh gosh, it's a long list of stuff, but so far we've been to Africa twice. First time was a hunting trip. It was me, my wife, and Cody, our son, and so we went on a hunting trip, and then we also Cody. After the hunt came home, my wife and I went on a photographic safari.

Speaker 1 1:22:50

Oh, that's cool.

Speaker 2 1:22:50

And you know it's just. It's a world you can never imagine and you see it on TV all day. But you know, when you're riding around in these parks and areas and things where all the wildlife is, when you pull up the vehicle and you're sitting in the vehicle and there's two big male lions laying 10 feet from you, it's pretty surreal, wow yeah. But we saw everything you've probably ever seen on TV nearly in Africa.

Speaker 1 1:23:26

That's so cool. All the common ones, especially right elephants and giraffes and giraffes cape buffalo uh warthog what? What are, what are some of the unique animals that, like you don't, you didn't know were over there, or maybe that, like you don't normally see on tv, that you're like, wow, that's really cool but One of the rarest things probably I saw in life.

Speaker 2 1:23:46

Real life was an aardvark.

Speaker 1 1:23:50

Oh, wow.

Speaker 2 1:23:51

Yeah, and you know, the things have, like gosh, I don't know three-inch claws. Wow, I didn't know that you know, because they dig these termite mounds all the time, and the termite mounds, something about them. I mean, they're almost as hard as concrete. Wow, and you know, it's just like you see on TV. You'll see a termite mound that's 20 feet tall.

Speaker 1 1:24:14

That's crazy. You don't want to step in and around all that, do you?

Speaker 2 1:24:18

You can walk all over it. Like I said, it's as hard as concrete.

Lessons Learned and Final Reflections

Speaker 1 1:24:21

Really, that's crazy. I would have never guessed that. What about a platypus? You ever seen a platypus? I have not. I feel like those aren't real Probably. I feel like somebody just made that up and we all just think they're real. They don't seem like they're real. If they are, where are they? Yeah?

Speaker 2 1:24:39

I don't know, that's one new one on me there.

Speaker 1 1:24:42

Like what region are those in? Yeah, like what region are those in?

Speaker 2 1:24:44

Yeah, Nobody knows. It's like do they live in Tennessee? That's kind of like that jackalope.

Speaker 1 1:24:50

Yeah, yeah, or what is that Snipe hunting? You ever been snipe hunting? There is truly snipe hunting.

Speaker 2 1:24:56

Is there really? There is, oh man.

Speaker 1 1:24:58

Yes, I fell for my own trick.

Speaker 2 1:24:59

Well, I mean, the snipe hunting is usually, really always a joke, yeah, but uh, you truly can snipe but not with banging pots and pans together no, that's, that's the joke, right, that's the joke. That and that usually you're going to get left out there on your own. You know kind of thing. Hey, go over here and stand we'll, we're going to run the snipe to you and and they drive off and leave you that.

Speaker 1 1:25:24

That's great. And what's your favorite animal to hunt?

Speaker 2 1:25:28

Gosh, one of the most fun hunts I guess I went on to was moose hunting.

Speaker 2 1:25:36

Oh wow, we went to Alaska and that was another. Any trip that I've ever made with my son is just really special and that was just he and I. It was one of those hunts where they fly you in on the bush plane and drop you off and uh, you know, in the, in the particular area we were in, uh, the guide said, you know, most of these moose die of old age. They never see a human being. Uh, so far out in the bush, you know know?

Speaker 1 1:26:06

Yeah, shout out to Cody. That's what I'm going to say. Let's give Cody a shout out. He seems like a really stand-up guy. He is, and he's done a great job. I'm proud of him, and I don't even know him, so he must be doing good.

Speaker 2 1:26:16

Well, he's enabled us to live this life that we're living now, because without him, we would absolutely be still hitting the work every day.

Speaker 1 1:26:25

That's awesome and shout out to your wife.

Speaker 2 1:26:27

Yes, thank you.

Speaker 1 1:26:28

Mashanda. Mashanda, that's a pretty name, yes, and then I guess the last thing is the way that we do this podcast, is we just it's obviously unscripted and you just kind of come in and share your story and then at the end I'll ask you if you have someone that you'd like to nominate to be the next guest. You don't have to do it on the podcast, but just be thinking about that. If you have the person and they don't mind you sharing it, you can.

Speaker 2 1:27:00

But yeah, I don't have that person. As a matter of fact, richard told me how that worked and I've been studying on it, but I haven't come up with what I thought was the exact right person yet.

Speaker 1 1:27:14

I feel like it's one of those things where the answer comes when you're not thinking about it, like the person will just pop in your mind and you'll be like, oh yeah, dude, that's exactly who he's supposed to be. But I appreciate you taking the time to be on here and to share your story. It's an incredible story and man, everybody is there like a way for people to like contact you or share their feedback, or would you rather just kind of lay low, or how does that work, you know?

Speaker 2 1:27:47

feedback, or would you rather just kind of lay low or how does that work I? Think I'd just lay low, probably All right, sounds good. Are there comment sections on the podcast anywhere at all?

Speaker 1 1:27:57

Yeah, I'll tell you what. Yeah, you guys, if you have anything that you would like for me to share with Mike, just leave it in the comments, and we always love hearing from you guys and I'm happy to pass that along for him so that way he can hear your feedback. So I appreciate you guys. Thank you for supporting Ash and Iron, our sponsor, chattanooga Beard Company. If you want to keep supporting the channel, please just make a purchase, buy some beard products chattanoogabeardco. And. Thank you guys again for listening and I hope you have a fantastic week.

Speaker 2 1:28:30

Well, thank you for having me. Thanks brother, yes sir.