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The Hoeflinger Podcast
Welcome to the The Hoeflinger Podcast, where Dr. Brian Hoeflinger and Kevin Hoeflinger delve into riveting discussions about life as a neurosurgeon, the world of medicine, healthy living, fitness, and anything else that piques their curiosity. Dr. Brian Hoeflinger, MD, brings his extensive 24 years of experience as a full-time neurosurgeon to educate and inform. Get ready for engaging conversations that will broaden your understanding of the medical realm and beyond!
The Hoeflinger Podcast
#17: Bill Gstalder - Taking a Risk in Life
Bill Gstalder is Dr. Hoeflinger's best friend and a long time family friend of the Hoeflinger's. 22 years ago, Bill took a major risk and started his own business, Pride Gage Associates, after being let go from his job at 39 years old. Through hard work, determination, and a great team the business has been successful and the risk paid off. Nowadays, Bill runs the business with his wife and loves what he does.
Contact Bill: sales@pridegage.com
Pride Gage Associates Website:
https://pridegage.com/
Tune in every week for new episodes of The Hoeflinger Podcast with Dr. Brian Hoeflinger and Kevin Hoeflinger.
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So we got a really special episode. Today we have our first guest. His name is Bill Distalber and he's owner of Pride Gauge, which is his company I'll tell you a little bit about. But Bill's probably my best friend in the world. We've known each other since we've been young and we've been through a lot together.
Speaker 1:And this is a man who changed his life by taking a chance and not everybody will do that and I think you're going to really want to hear how he did that and what kind of chance he took in life to make him where he is today.
Speaker 3:So, kevin, yeah, I've known Bill since I was just a little kid, so I've grown up and he's always been in my life. I'm a godfather, yeah so. And we got certified to scuba dive together. So the very close family friend as well. So first guest outside of our family had a podcast, the big one. But how are you doing today, bill? I'm doing great today. So we're actually new year, new year. We're actually filming at Bill's office right now. We're in the conference room. You grew up around in Toledo, right?
Speaker 2:I grew up in Toledo near the Slovenia area, went to school with Brian's brother, eric. He and I were in the same grades and hung out together all the time. My parents got divorced. I'm the youngest of five kids so everybody moved away and I was stuck at home by myself when I was kind of lonely. So I hooked on to Brian's family and they became my surrogate family so I could go around all the chaos.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And when. This was back in the 70s, because when I first met you, bill Eric was probably in high school, but I was just getting into junior high or late grade school. And that's when I first met Bill, because he was always over at our house doing something and you were like part of the family. I mean he was like, oh no, your family, come on trips with us, like a little trips around the, up to the lake and stuff like that.
Speaker 3:What? You're two years older than him, or three years older, three, three.
Speaker 2:OK.
Speaker 3:So, but so you guys, you start hanging out. You guys weren't like best friends at first. Well, I was best friends with Eric.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, with Eric and we would hang out. And actually my parents had split and my dad had moved to Chicago and my mom had moved out of the area and I wanted to go to school in Slovenia, where all my friends were, and his mom, who's very generous, and she took me on as one of her kids and so basically my address became their address and I was able to go to school there, that's how you went to Southview. That's where all your friends went to. Southview right yeah, so it was nice.
Speaker 1:Exactly, yeah, so a lot of good memories from back then. And then everybody gets into their life, like I got into my life. I don't remember as much, because then I got into, eventually, medical school and moved away.
Speaker 2:Well, you guys moved out of town after high school. For us it wasn't for you, you were still in high school, yeah.
Speaker 3:So what did you do after high school, or what did you get into? So you went to Southview and then you got into a good life. I had a little bit of a lost soul.
Speaker 2:I really didn't know what I wanted to do in life. Wasn't the best student, not like Brian here or you? But I always had small businesses or I was doing some type of sales job. For many years I used to seal driveways, so I had a company called Pride Asphalt and you helped me, I worked for him, I made him a sweat suit.
Speaker 3:So someone who might not know what sealing a driveway is finally described that.
Speaker 2:Well, if you know what asphalt is a black parking lot or a driveway they put like a black tar on it to protect it and make it last longer. It was very physical, but you got a great camp.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I think from the get go I was very much like you. I would have a paper out, I had a wash and wax car, started business that way, shoveled driveways in the winter, and you always had a business. You always had something.
Speaker 2:Had something little going on, nothing big, but again I really didn't know what I wanted. I would go into college off and on. Nothing steady, really didn't have a goal at all.
Speaker 1:And then what happened? What led you to start in your own business?
Speaker 2:Tell us what you did for us out there. Well, starting my own business again, life is all about?
Speaker 1:Maybe you started your own business? You were working for somebody, weren't you?
Speaker 2:I always started a sealing driveway. I worked for a gentleman who was a school teacher and in the summers he would do this work. Well, I worked for him for one summer and then I found out, oh, eric was working at a trucking company and they make a lot of money loading trucks. My brother Eric, 21 years old there was less, maybe 20. And I'm like, OK, I'll do that. Well, I found out they wouldn't hire me because I had a bad back, which called the guy to say, hey, can I seal a?
Speaker 2:driveway. He says no, I already had my crew, you can't. So the situation was what am I going to do? I started my own, so I bought some equipment and got some flyers, walked around the neighborhood writing down the prices and people started calling me and that's how I started that business.
Speaker 3:Again, hard work Wasn't making millions, but I was making money, you were making money to get by. What's different today versus then might be so someone nowadays might just YouTube, go on the internet and Google. How do I seal driveways? How did you learn if you started?
Speaker 2:Well, I worked for the gentleman for one year. He taught me the techniques and what to do and it becomes a skill, we'll say, of swinging the squeegee.
Speaker 1:So was that your first real business.
Speaker 2:That was my first real business, and you weren't married at that point.
Speaker 1:No, I was not, so that's how you were making money at that point. And then, when did you get married?
Speaker 2:I met my wife. I believe I was 23, maybe just at 22. And went with a friend down to Ohio State to have some fun. And lo and behold, I met my wife there. So two years later we were married. I was 25, still sealing driveways. I would pick up odd jobs. In the winter I was working at a rack up all club selling memberships, doing whatever I could.
Speaker 2:And then after I got married I got a job as a sales guy selling industrial shipping boxes, and so I did that for several years. Then another small business I knew I had kind of hit the wall there and I got hired with a small family business, kind of like our business, and started selling air equipment for factories they call it pneumatics, so you would. You know air cylinders that move things and all kinds of stuff like that.
Speaker 3:And I did that for four years.
Speaker 3:Okay, well, to touch on one other thing too. So when you're in your 20s I think a lot of people do that like nowadays it's more prevalent like people take gap years before college or people will just kind of do things like to get by, like trying to figure out, because a lot of people I think they don't know what they want to do long term. So that can be scary. Like I don't want to jump into a job that you know it's easier when it's just a job where you can just pick up ships or you can do stuff as you want. Other times you get locked into a career. I think some people are scared of that. Do you remember when you were in your mid 20s, like what thoughts you were having or thinking about trying to figure out what you wanted to do?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I still didn't know what I wanted to do. To be honest with you, I was just trying to find something that would make me enough money to pay my rent. And you know I have a good time with my friends. I really did not know. It's funny how things just come upon you, I know. Remember Brian said he wanted to be a I believe a biologist, didn't you?
Speaker 1:A re-biologist at one time. But life changes that for you and does for everybody?
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and for me. I finally, I believe I ended up leaving the company, the family business, because I had a son. We had a very, very small house. I needed more money, so I actually went to a headhunter and started looking for a different career path or what else I could do.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool, yeah. So what led you Because I think a lot of people want to know is you know you've gone from that kind of not wandering but having nothing steady, no steady career, and then you've created this business for yourself and a lot of people would love to see how they could.
Speaker 3:Maybe you know what led you to creating your own business.
Speaker 1:What was the impetus?
Speaker 3:A cool thing about it, too, is like you, run this business with your wife.
Speaker 2:And so it's a cool like it's, that's a big boss.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, so I think that's like a really cool thing to you as a very successful together, which is I'm very fortunate.
Speaker 2:So many people I meet say they could never work with their wife. My wife and I are opposite. I'm an ADD all over the place guy. She's a detailed person. She's a. She was a dental hygienist. Okay, All about precision and things being done a certain way. So she really created our whole office and all our paperwork. We knew nothing about running a business.
Speaker 1:So what? So I think people want to know so that you took a risk in life. I remember that Cause I remember having a conversation with you and you were really at odds with your job. I remember I mean, I just remember you talking about how you weren't happy at work and I just got to be something better and I can't do this anymore. And at some point you decided that I'm going to quit my job. I think you did and you how did it work?
Speaker 2:No, I'm quite there. When you're a sales guy and I was a sales guy you were always wondering where your next sales going to come from. And when you work for a bigger company, they're always looking at your numbers, constantly on you to sell more. So it's scary. You always had this little pit in your stomach. And my dad had worked for a big company, his whole life in sale, and he always told me he had that pit in his stomach of they're going to let him go.
Speaker 1:You know, am I doing well enough? Am I selling enough?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, I ended up working for a really good company for 10 years and I basically, after 10 years kind of, had reached as far as I was going to go. So how old were you? So 10 years old were you. I started when I was 30 and I was well, actually I was probably about 30. Okay, I mean 29.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and when I was about 39,.
Speaker 2:I ended up leaving because one of my customers had another company, that obviously the grass is always greener on the other side. Well, it was other than the fact that the company was being sold and it got sold several times and I was only there two years and it was a great company, I learned a lot and but they let me go, and it wasn't me personally. The whole company is now out of business. There were 260 employees. I was lucky because when I got let go I was treated very well later on. You know, here's your cardboard box, put your stuff in it and get out.
Speaker 2:So they, you know they were very good to me as far as that goes. But when I got let go felt like I got hit in the stomach. And now what am I going to do? And remember driving home calling a couple of people said hey, you can sell our stuff. Hey, you can sell our stuff. And the honest with you. I had help from family, my mother. She gave me the seed money to get this business started. She gave me a little bit and she said you want to do it?
Speaker 3:And I said you know what I do want to do it.
Speaker 2:And so.
Speaker 1:I started calling people.
Speaker 2:I know it's another really important thing in life. As everybody knows here, never burn a bridge so important. You know I try to get along with everybody, I really do. And I called somebody from my old job that I'd been at 10 years. They were going through a change. They had just been bought out and they were getting rid of all the direct sales guy, or not getting rid of, but they were changing and setting up distributors.
Speaker 2:So there was a gentleman there that without him I might not even be sitting here with my own business. But he set me up as a distributor and from there I just ran, scared I'd get up in the morning and hit the road and knock on doors, pass out flyers and little by little.
Speaker 1:Well, I guess what I remember is because you, I remember you had the option to talk to me that you, you know, I could get hired by somebody else and take the easy way and have somebody else pay my salary again. But then I had to answer to somebody and I remember you saying should I just do it on my own? And I remember you took that risk, that you decided I'm going to do it on my own, I'm not going to answer anybody but myself, and that's I think that that is a huge point of life.
Speaker 2:It's so risky. It was the best thing I've ever done in my life. I don't, but he can walk in the door and fire me for nobody.
Speaker 3:Well, it's going to be a. I mean, especially when you work there for 10 years, you said it's got to be. You can't feel good when then obviously the entire company went, or eventually, but to get fired when you worked hard for 10 years.
Speaker 2:And I don't look at it as being fired. I was let go.
Speaker 3:Or like even if.
Speaker 2:I was fired. I have no people that say you're fired, maybe nothing they did yeah, just search situation.
Speaker 1:And was there an issue with customers? Like when you, when you, started your own business, there were probably customers that still wanted to use you. Yeah, but they can't, maybe because they have a relationship with that other business. So how did you get around that?
Speaker 2:Like well, luckily again the company was getting rid of the direct sales and they were using distributed, so they wanted me to sell to my old customer and I had a lot of really good customers. I mean, I Basically people buy from me and they know that I'm gonna look after them and I you know that that's really the pleasure I get out of the business is making other people look good. It's very satisfying. Yeah, help somebody else out and make them look good and feel good. So we did a good job for them.
Speaker 1:So maybe like um, so his business. He talked about his business, so maybe explain his business a little tear here. Yeah, there's the name of it cry gauge, but right gauges, so they can explain in simple terms Even.
Speaker 2:I can tell understanding. Sometimes and I'm a neurosurgeon- everything in the world it's manufactured, usually has to be measured, and that's what we do. We measure things. So our business is called. It's like a. They call it dimensional Metrology because usually it's metal, if you were measuring, but not not not today's world.
Speaker 1:It could be anything.
Speaker 3:So get tangible, give us a tangible Well a lot of times you're measuring to because Is something I don't understand like you would measure, or what would you measure?
Speaker 1:a cup, all right, okay.
Speaker 2:A cup looks like a cup. You know, like what are you gonna measure on that? Well, and Imagine the size. The outside of it has to be a certain dimension. So we sell a gauge that comes up and measures the outside. The inside might have to be a certain dimension. So we would sell gauge that goes inside and they call that a bore gauge. And you measure the inside. Okay, this cup. You want that to look the same on every cup you make. So you, we have equipment that can tell you what the radius is on here. We can tell you how tall it is from the top to the bottom. Maybe I care how smooth the outside of the cup is. We have equipment that'll measure what they call surface finish. Maybe we want to know the contour this from here up to here. We have gauges there with computers that have a little tip and it rides up here and I can put it up on the screen and I can see what that radius is. It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, to be honest with you. We play with a lot of big boy toys that are expensive and some of them are cheap. Sometimes it's just a round piece of metal that's a known diameter. You put it in the hole and if it fits, it's good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a yes or no, and don't you do? You got stuck with automotive industry down here.
Speaker 2:We do a lot of automotive, metal, coal, aero space Little bit of everything. I've been at this now for pride. Gauges has been in existence for 22 years. I I team up with a lot of, a lot of really smart people, smarter than me people.
Speaker 2:So designers and I have a lot of shops that will make custom gauges for us. We deal with computers with some big companies with really nice high-end equipment and I get a lot of support from the manufacturers that we represent. We represent, I mean I started with one company and Went into a customer and said I'm selling this. He said you know what I really need this? He said why don't you call this guy up and see if you can't sell it to me? And little by little I probably represent 50 companies. But again, my job is I work for my customer and I want them to be successful and have a good time doing it.
Speaker 3:Yeah so it do think I'm actually like I hear that a decent amount from business owners or older people when I talk to them. Is that hot, trying to hire people smarter than you? That always comes up Okay, and finding people. I can do the things that you can't do, like you're saying, with your wife. You guys each fill a role, that's absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2:my name around here is mayhem, so I Come in, I, I'm out there, I'm hustling, I'm trying the best I can and I make mistakes, but I really care and I try to do the best I can for people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and.
Speaker 2:I've got a lot of good people behind me. That's another thing. People will say well, bill sent me a quote, or Bill is gonna do this for me. Well, I don't do any of that. It's my office staff and the girls and Really good team to do.
Speaker 3:Yeah just like when you're in the operating room and said a whole team of people with a hundred. So yeah, but not me. But your expertise is obviously you're very, you're very good at talking to people. Obviously you learn the light. No, you're very knowledgeable stuff. So the sales and relationship management, that's the use as the name of the game.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you gotta get exposure. You got people know what you have. And that's probably my biggest battle is we do so much and so many people don't know all the things that we do. We get into computer software, we get into all all kinds of stuff and it's a lot of fun. I never my head starts spinning, it's like what do I do next?
Speaker 3:Oh, one thing I'd be. I'd be interested. Been in business for 22 years. How has it like with the evolution of technology? How has business Changed for you? Or has it not changed as drastically as you would think, or it hasn't changed as?
Speaker 2:drastically as you would think, but the fact that you still have to measure thing. There are certain basic things you have to do. The biggest change, I would say, is cameras. Okay, coming into the industry, being able to measure pixels on a screen is really changing the world Also. Electronics obviously is a big thing. The computers have gotten, you know, more and more Powerful, also simpler to use. A lot of them are. Everything used to be a dial indicator. It looked like a clock and it would go around.
Speaker 1:But you know now, all that's a digital, because they'll hire somebody who maybe last week was on a shipping dock.
Speaker 2:Yeah, now they wanted to do this measuring stuff and it's like you've got to make it easy for them. Yeah so they try to make it. You know, all the equipment is tried to make it so much easier for people to use.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what do you? Um, so a lot people want to know like what would be an average day for you, like what's a typical day for you? And I know it varies, because sometimes I know you're out of town. That's what I love about my job it's never the same.
Speaker 2:It's always different, but a typical job would be maybe somebody calls on or maybe I knocked on the door and they'll say a bill, I have this application, I need to be able to measure this. So we talk about what they need, what requirements they have, and then I come up with a solution, or we our team does comes up with a solution and we give them an idea how much it's gonna cost.
Speaker 2:They tell us yes, no, and then we start putting together the pricing to have it all done and made for and it's fun. But I may be answering a phone call. I may have the girl say hey, somebody's looking for a caliper or a mic. Well, there isn't just one caliper mic in the world, there are literally probably a hundred choices. So we really have to gather information. We're constantly gathering information so that we give somebody the right solution. Yeah, which is fun.
Speaker 1:Again, I really enjoy it and so what we're not giving. I want to give advice here, but, like, if you think back about your business, like people listening will want to know what's the one key thing that you think you did that changed your future for you where you are now. What would be that one key thing that?
Speaker 2:I'm sure there's people out there that are just like you.
Speaker 1:I think they have that in the pit of their stomach. Don't look forward to going to work. They're thinking God, how can I change my life? And here's somebody who did it like what was that one key thing? You think that you did.
Speaker 2:I took a risk, like you said and like you did, because you and I have talked about taking risks in life and you've taken them and you've taken them. Everybody out there is taking a risk and I always tell myself what's the worst can happen. You know what I mean is there's always a fallback plan. I say always, usually.
Speaker 1:I'm not talking like jumping off a cliff here.
Speaker 2:Right, I'm talking about-.
Speaker 1:Calculated risk? Yeah, a calculated risk exactly.
Speaker 2:If you don't take chances in life, nothing will happen, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, I mean, it's just like, even when you go, like you went to Ohio State, even when you no, I didn't go to Ohio State.
Speaker 2:No, no, I'm saying you went down to Ohio State.
Speaker 3:You didn't know. You were Like, even when you take a chance to go talk to someone, you see a coffee shop or a bar and you just say hi to them. That's taking a chance. It's all about. It's taking chances that have asymmetric risk. So there's so much upside the downsides. You just are right where you just were and then you can find something else. The upside is now.
Speaker 2:You have the life of a map now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure. Well, that means it's really cool when you it's easy to look back on and be like we live our lives forward, but you look back on them and everything makes sense when you look back on it. But at the time it's a lot. It's easier to say in the future like, oh, I took the risk and succeeded. It's way harder to like in the moment, because that's what takes the power.
Speaker 2:It's scary yeah it's really scary.
Speaker 1:Well, you got to be scared, yeah, just like everybody else said, it's so cliche, but you have to be uncomfortable if you're gonna grow. I mean, there has to be a feeling about being uncomfortable and some fear if you're gonna move forward.
Speaker 3:But you were 39,. You were married, you had two kids, right.
Speaker 1:Two little kids, a lot of responsibility, a lot of bills, Yep. So I'm saying that so it's like.
Speaker 3:It's not like it was just compared to taking a risk, like starting a business when you're talking to yourself. But again, I had a lot of people.
Speaker 2:Nobody does anything alone. If they think they do, there are fools. It took a lot of people and you know I was just straightforward and honest with people and it worked. And you know, not a multi-millionaire but I'm pretty comfortable.
Speaker 1:I'm happy and got a lot of good friends. Sure, I mean yeah, I got a shirt.
Speaker 3:I mean, there's a lot of truth in that. Just for living life in general. I was just being happy and trying to be along with people and just to live a sane life and be happy with stuff.
Speaker 3:But do you have anything more on there? I wanted to shift gears a little bit. No, we can shift. I have some stuff of just you know with. You've known him a long time and we talk about this with some people. But I think some people, when they know my dad like they're definitely a little more like sometimes intimidated by him or they don't ask about certain things because he's a neurosurgeon.
Speaker 1:You know I'm quiet, so sometimes people misinterpret me as being standoff is when I'm really not. I'm just quiet.
Speaker 3:Well, something I've always noticed, but you guys always interact way differently, so is there?
Speaker 2:anything, I would go to the house and he would always be there, and you know his family would always be there. And we talk about little things. I remember one time you were looking at a motorcycle. I liked little motorcycles so you even told me the big thing for you is I loaned you some money to buy a motorcycle. I've gotten. I had a grandmother that passed and I had a little bit of money and you wanted to buy this thing.
Speaker 1:And I'm not sure, I'm not, I don't remember. Remember when we went out and somebody had won this motorcycle Indian Motorcycle, it was an Indian 125, won it in a wrap on the guy who was old and didn't want it. So he's just selling it for pretty inexpensive it was brand new.
Speaker 2:Oh, we went up that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah yeah, we had so much fun with that motorcycle.
Speaker 3:I feel like a country motorcycle or like a motor bike, or is that just a normal motorcycle? It was just a dirt bike.
Speaker 2:It's a dirt bike, it's a little dirt bike. Hey guys, who was?
Speaker 3:that you and Ron, that would go on the.
Speaker 2:Oh, when I get over there. I always liked riding motorcycles. I really don't want to compete with cars on the highway, but I like getting a boat that was street legal and I'd go up north where my mother lived and ride all over the place up there, yeah, but the fact is that I always knew you but I didn't know quite our friendship until later in life.
Speaker 2:Right, you were married. You were in med school and getting married and asked me to be in your wedding and that was a big deal to me. It just amped up our relationship and I believe by that time your brother had Eric, had been in a car accident and was very, very, very bad off and ever since then we just started getting closer and closer and became closer and closer friends.
Speaker 1:How did that? You know my brother, eric, you live. I've heard this, but he was in a car accident when he was 21 and he was a senior in college, and he had emergency brain surgery in the middle of the night and had a blood clot removed and was in a coma for six months and even when he woke up, it was very slow.
Speaker 1:And he, he could never walk or talk again and required constant care. But you were best friends with Eric. I mean, how did that affect you when you, when you heard the news initially and then you went and saw him in the hospital? I mean I obviously I know how it affected me, how it affected you, I know, oh it was a huge, huge loss.
Speaker 2:So I mean I would go up to see him all the time and it just. It's just somebody in their prime of their life, with all these good things happening and then having something you know just ended it. Just it was just a big loss. That's all I can say. It was just a huge, a huge loss. You can't, you can't just get another friend like that. It takes time to learn and spend. I mean, he and I spent a lot of time together growing up doing all kinds of things, talking about life, and then, boom, he's gone. And I've lost a couple of people like that in my life where I'm really super close to him and all of a sudden they're gone and it's, it's, it's hard.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and life's definitely like that you can't predict from day to day, but all this stuff has a huge impact on who you are and how you present yourself in the future and what your philosophies are, and makes you question a lot of things in life, absolutely.
Speaker 2:So you know what's important in friendship is the most important things to me in the world.
Speaker 3:Yeah, what did? Did you kind of so? Were you guys not talking as much, necessarily at the time when he was in med school and in residency I don't know what exactly on the table?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean by then, when, when Brian and Cindy got married, I already had one child and I believe my wife was a month away from delivering our youngest, our daughter, and he was out in Rochester, yeah.
Speaker 2:Now we would actually get together, and one time he brought Brian and we went. I had a small boat at the time and we put the boat in Niagara River and we went across to Toronto on the boat, oh yeah, and so we would see each other and he would come back to Toledo and visit. That's a great story, cause.
Speaker 1:Cindy was pregnant with. Cindy was pregnant with Brian. Oh, okay, Remember we're in that boat where his boat was like 20 foot boat or went over Toronto and no waves were slamming on the waves and I remember somebody asked was that okay for Cindy to be pregnant, and stuff. And then remember, on the way back we got lost. It was foggy and we were on empty and we couldn't see the shore. It's like, oh my God, here we are in the middle of Lake Ontario and we can't see the shore. He's almost out of gas. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It was a fun day, but we made it.
Speaker 3:We took him to.
Speaker 1:Rochester and we made it. Yeah, and a good story to tell. Remember, he's like hey, you can't replace him.
Speaker 2:No, oh no. No, that was. I'll never forget that. So we're heading out. So, and then, brian, he could have gone anywhere in the country and he chose to come back to be around friends and family, which I was super grateful for. Yeah, because I knew I might lose him. He might have moved to California or somewhere far, far away that I knew I wouldn't be able to see him, but he made a conscious decision to come back here, which I think obviously you told me it was friends and family I mean as well.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, because I mean, just think, if I wouldn't have moved back, I'd never seen my dad anymore. He would have been dad. So I'm glad that we moved back and he had a chance to see our grandchildren and move back with friends. And because you can't like Bill said, you can't ever replace friends. You know, you make friends when you're younger and they stay with you for your lifetime. It's different than making a friend like in late college, or it's just not the same bond.
Speaker 2:It's not. Yeah, it's something about it.
Speaker 3:The time and what you've gone through and things we've been through together is just yeah, I think you get older too, like the quality of relationships and friendships and everything is way better than the quantity, because you can just and so many people want to go around, they want to be friends with so many people in the scene and all this stuff, and then, after that stuff goes away, you really find out certain people who will have your back through anything, are very positive influences on your life, versus people that are not, because there's a lot of people that will be around but they don't necessarily want the best for you. They might be cool with you and stuff, but they don't truly want the best for you. So I mean, life's all about being around those friends and family that always have your best interests at heart and to hold you accountable and push you to be a better person.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's the one thing I really admire about Brian and I love about our relationship is he pushes me and to be a better person and it's all good stuff. And sometimes I get scared when he challenges me. I get a little nervous, I'm like, oh, I'm going to have to work hard.
Speaker 3:Well, you guys have a challenge right now for I don't know, just for 2024. You guys, my dad was talking about you guys. You know how to talk about your you guys.
Speaker 1:So I what a long time ago we bought a piano and we moved back to Toledo and Tar House and our whole family played the piano. I really loved the piano and then you didn't scratch to get busy and I stopped taking lessons and so it's been forever. And I know Bill plays the guitar. He always talks about playing the guitar, so I want to play the guitar.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I thought it'd be awesome so we committed that I'm going to take piano lessons and he's going to take guitar lessons, and when we get halfway decent, then we're going to start doing like a duo online and put some stuff out of us together. So that's our challenge for 24.
Speaker 2:Little scary yeah, well not only started and tried this maybe five times, so we'll try it again.
Speaker 3:No, that's not. It's that's just like an accountability part if you do it with someone else or you, yeah, but I was just saying that you put stuff out there kind of forces you to tell them.
Speaker 1:Well, I did exercise. Remember that one year, how much I did an exercise together three times a week. We're really getting fit. And then I, we both went on back-to-back occasions and fell apart. But I mean, we did that for a long time. So we were challenging ourselves there. Yeah, and we did it.
Speaker 2:Yep, yeah, I've got the membership, we're gonna start again.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's all you can.
Speaker 3:If you you could get down. You just get back up and keep on going because I think too just exercising.
Speaker 3:It doesn't even have to be hardcore, especially as you get older. It just increased your Longevity and say I'm out to not just your lifespan but your health span of like you don't want to, just know, wants to be really old and decrepit and not be able to do stuff like. So I think the people that even just go for I mean your mom's a great example Of someone who was able to do first walk, you know, yeah, which is I mean that's all you really want or just hang out with like family as you get older to be able to. If you can move like it opens up your world a lot, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and those like almost people. I mean I can honestly say this and he'll watch, but I mean honestly he's probably one of the most Upbeat person. I mean I've been out with him enough. He never gets really in a bad mood, he's always Happy, go lucky. He doesn't get mad at people, even though he should, in my opinion.
Speaker 2:Lots things about that.
Speaker 1:I mean let's get pass over his head and he's a huge family person. I mean, he really family and friends are foremost, and it's just what your mom you know, his mom's 86 now 93. Yeah, where did that come? Sorry, but time flies, huh. Yeah but he, he, he visits his mom. A buck to visit this morning visits mom almost every day and I can't say that every Girl man will see his mom and take care of her like he does at her age, and I respect that completely.
Speaker 2:Yeah again, without her I wouldn't be here, so literally I wouldn't be here. But that's what.
Speaker 3:I mean, I remember before she moved back to Toledo that when we used to always go up to, they lived in blue Michigan. That's where we used to always go during winter break. Yeah, brian just always get so angry. My brother, because his, his birthday was between Christmas and New Year's, so we were always on winter break and we would go up to digging paths. Yeah, which is his mom. And he would just be like why is this my vacation?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we have so much fun up there we still be yes.
Speaker 3:No will be yeah but Do you have any other closing thoughts or anything else that you'd want to share with people? If you can give any words with some, no, no, I.
Speaker 2:I guess I Guess the best thing is just be the best person you can be. You know, we all go through a lot of challenges in life, some people much worse than others. I do. I count my blessings every day. Yeah, do I have problems? Doesn't everybody have problems? But just get up and get going it. The hardest thing is just. You got to get yourself up when you're down and not feeling good or something's going wrong, and you got to get past it.
Speaker 2:Yeah keep on going. I deal with. I've dealt with a lot of older people my mother, her husband, my father and it never ends until you're done. Yeah, when you're done, you're done. Up until then, keep working at it.
Speaker 3:Yeah I.
Speaker 1:that's great advice I mean it's always great talking to you so and so you know, we never know who's gonna be watching these podcasts, but if anybody's out there that needs gauge work, how would they get in touch with your business that they want to like?
Speaker 2:I love they can email us at pride gauge calm or Just. That's probably the best way we have a website. It's a pride gauge calm.
Speaker 3:The show notes anyone, if anyone does, and we'll link all that stuff in there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very good. We're here to help and have a good time doing it and work with good people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, all right. Well, I hope everyone has a good day.
