Mike Taylor | Life-Threatening Accidents, Million-Dollar Risks & a Legacy of Grit

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What does it truly mean to be a "walking miracle"? Mike Taylor's life story answers that question in the most extraordinary way possible. Having survived three catastrophic motorcycle crashes (including hitting a cow at 75 mph), battling polycystic kidney disease that led to a transplant, and literally dying twice on the dialysis table, Mike's physical resilience alone would be remarkable. But that's just the beginning.

From working alongside his father in 1983 at a tiny machine shop started with just $5,000, Mike helped transform Taylor Manufacturing from humble beginnings—no phone for years, working in an uninsulated building where he'd wear hunting clothes to stay warm—into a manufacturing powerhouse. Today, the company operates from a sprawling 100,000 square foot facility with over 125 employees running 20 hours daily.

Mike's approach to business mirrors his approach to life: never backing down from challenges and always willing to take calculated risks. At age 50, when most consider winding down careers, he borrowed millions to expand operations, guided by the belief that missed opportunities rarely return. Through economic downturns, including the aftermath of 9/11 when business dropped 35%, he maintained his workforce and persevered.

Perhaps most beautiful is how Mike shares this journey with his wife of nearly 40 years, who joined him on the shop floor as a machinist and became his perfect business partner. Together they weathered every storm, celebrated every victory, and ultimately passed the company to the next generation, allowing them to enjoy retirement pursuing their passions for wildlife farming and travel.

Mike's story isn't just about survival or entrepreneurship—it's about living with unwavering integrity while embracing life's adventures, never forgetting that without health, even $100 million is worthless. His journey reminds us that the American dream isn't just about financial success but building something meaningful through resilience, vision, and heart.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, welcome to episode six of Ash and Iron.
I'm sitting in front of Mr MikeTaylor.
Mike, it's a pleasure to meetyou, 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 boomarm here.
First off, yeah, I would loveto hear, like how do you know

(00:24):
Richard?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Well, we started in business in South Pittsburgh in
1983.
My father started the businessand my background was mechanical
engineering.
So he started a machine andfabrication shop and we just got
to know Richard throughbusiness and just being in town

(00:47):
all these years, you know, andjust really grown a huge respect
for Richard as I've gotten toknow him more and more.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah, so you guys have known each other for at
least two years now, then, ohyeah at least, yeah, probably
Gosh, let's see We've been inbusiness.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
At least, yeah, probably gosh, let's see We've
been in business.
I'd have to do the math, butaround 41, 42 years.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Yeah, that's incredible.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
And most of that was in South Pittsburgh here.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
Do you mind to pull your mic just a little bit down
towards your mouth here?
Sure, yeah, that's perfect.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
All right, so I'm going to ask you the same
question.
I always start with everybodywho is Mike Taylor.
Well, I presumed that was goingto be the first question and I
actually put a lot of thoughtinto that.
I guess I'd say I'm just awalking miracle that's been
blessed to have a really goodlife and enjoy a piece of the
American dream.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Man, that's good.
I cannot wait for this episodealready.
Okay, all right, so where do wewant to start Like, do you want
to just share a little bitabout, like what you've got
going on currently, or do youwant to go back into your
childhood, like, what are youthinking?

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Well, my thought was to go back to kind of explain
why I feel like I'm the walkingmiracle.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Yeah, let's do that.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
So in my early years I guess probably 12, 13-year-old
I've always been an adrenalinejunkie, a little bit, I guess.
Fast cars, fast bikes, fastboats, whatever, being a pilot.
I actually became a privatepilot several years ago, but

(02:36):
anyway, when I was like probably12, 13-ish I guess, I was
riding my dirt bike one day camearound a 90-degree curve and
hit a pickup truck head-on.
He was uh, I think he was on myside and I might have been not
exactly on mine either, but Idon't know.
I I did end up hitting thistruck head-on.
Thank god we were bothtraveling very slowly because

(02:58):
the curve was so sharp.
But, uh, actually the lick washard enough to take the paint
off of the bumper onto my pantsleg and just launched me across
the highway into the ditch.
And you know, back in thosedays I guess you're bulletproof,
because I ended up, uh, gettingup out of the ditch and walked

(03:21):
up and we I knew the guy realwell, we grew up around each
other and we talked a minute andI jumped on my dirt bike and
went on a ride.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Excuse me, so that's, I guess, miracle number one.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
You don't see that every day.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
No, not too many probably live through a head-on
collision with a pickup on amotorcycle.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
That's crazy.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Then I guess, probably a couple years later or
so, uh, it was 1978, I was 15at the time.
Uh, I tried that motorcyclecrash again, uh, on a street
bike.
This time I was, I was, like Isaid, I 15, and a gentleman was
parked on the side of the roadat his farm, on the road I grew
up on, and he, instead of justpulling out and going up the

(04:13):
road, he actually turned andcrossed the road and blocked the
whole road and I thought it waspretty cool to jump across that
hill.
There were two really highhumped hills across that hill.
These were, these were therewere 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 thetop of that hill and that bike

(04:34):
would, we would wheelie all theway down the back.
Well, this time the truck got inthe way.
So I pretty much hit the guy at75 miles an hour in the side,
went up in the air, came downright in front of the truck
wheel when he stopped, his truckwheel was about to roll up on
me, split my helmet from frontto back and all the way down one

(04:58):
side.
It took me about two weeks toknow anyone.
So major, major lick to thehead.
Oh my gosh.
A few broken bones, of course.
Bounce back from that, let'ssee.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
Hold on, I don't want to move on from that.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
That's crazy, all right.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
So you're 15.
You didn't learn from the firsttime.
No, I'm teasing, I'm teasing.
You didn't learn from the firsttime.
No, I'm teasing, I'm teasing.
But you hit a truck going 75miles per hour and caused
serious concussion.
Oh very serious concussion,some bad broken bones, and what

(05:37):
was that?
How long were you in thehospital after that?

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Oh, I wasn't in the hospital very long at all, not
over a day or two at the most.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
really, they sent me home and just recovered at home
they just said he'll be allright, just his memories will
hopefully come back he's youngand tough, I guess.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
I don't know.
Oh my gosh all right, that'scrazy so, uh, next major event
in my life we we were over intoour working years.
I was about 28 and just at workwent to the restroom and when I

(06:17):
excuse this, but started tourinate, I was passing pure
blood.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
Oh no.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
So moved a little forward from that, had lots of
tests done and it was determinedthat I had a disease called
polycystic kidney disease which,after finding more about it,
it's a hereditary disease, butno one in our family that we're
aware of ever had it before me.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Okay, so uh, and uh and what.
What causes that?
Do you know like?
Can you share a little bit moreabout?

Speaker 2 (06:53):
just something in the genes.
Uh, the bad thing of it is, ifyou are a polycystic carrier, if
you have children, you have a.
Each child has a 50-50 chanceof getting that, and I actually
have some friends here in SouthPittsburgh that are in the same
shape I'm in.

(07:14):
Excuse me, I've had bad sinuseslately.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
You see, you thought you were the lucky one, but
really it was like everybodybefore you was super lucky
because they were getting thegood end of the 50-50 up until
you.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
Apparently, of course .
Back in the day people diedfrom things and a lot of times
they were really never evendiagnosed.
So we could have had that inour history, family history, but
we didn't know of it.
Yeah, wow, yeah.
So from 28 to the nexttraumatic event speaking of not

(07:49):
learning from that motorcyclewreck, here comes the third one.
I was 38 years old, travelingdown a local highway here, just
cruising along about 50 miles anhour, and looked over to my
left and there was a personstanding on the side of the road
.
Never thought anything about itother than there's nothing

(08:13):
there, and I thought well, whatare they doing?
And all of a sudden, when Ilooked back at the highway,
there was a whole herd of cattlecoming out of the ditch right
in front of me.
A whole herd of cattle comingout of the ditch right in front
of me.
So, uh, me and uh, uh, harleyroad King took on about a 900
pound cow about that time.
So, third time rolling down thehighway, uh, a few more broke

(08:43):
bones and uh, you know, as youstart getting a little older 40
is sure, so you don't recoverhardly as good, but I survived
that one again, hold on Allright.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
So what was going through your mind when you hit a
cow?
Because it's one thing to belike hey, listen, had an
accident, hit a truck, hit a car, like what was the reaction
whenever you are telling peoplelike I hit a cow?

Speaker 2 (09:08):
Well, I mean everybody's like oh my God, you
hit a cow.
You know how did you livethrough that?
I don't know.
Apparently, I'm here forsomething.
Absolutely I hope I've beenfulfilling some of that as the
years have gone by, but maybethere's something more.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
I don't know, and out of the cow did it live.
Does everybody ask?

Speaker 2 (09:28):
that the cow did not live.
It probably knocked it at least50, 60 feet down the highway,
Of course that's a big bike.
Oh my gosh you said it was aroad king.
Right yeah, the bike.
When I hit the cow, the rearend of the bike came straight up
in the air, flipped over andlanded across my lower back.

(09:49):
So how do you not get a brokenback, I don't know.
And the next thing I realized,I'm like wow, that hurts.
I'm sliding down the highwayand you're getting asphalt rash.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
And I had on a tank top, so like the normal Harley
rider, you know not muchprotection yeah yeah.
And I get up and I'm lookingaround and I see the windshield
off my bike and my phone's in it.
So I walk down and get thephone, call my wife and I said,
hey, babe, you know I've had anaccident but I'm okay.

(10:23):
I've had an accident but I'mokay.
And so we had a friend thatlived really close.
So she called her friend andshe came down to get me because
it was a lot quicker thancalling an ambulance.
So in that crash, let's see, Igot a cut into my cheek all the
way to the bone, I don't knowbroken fingers, but just bruised

(10:47):
up, and and those two thingsit's incredible.
But but the first thing, Iguess 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 sohappened, she was, uh, had her
nephews at her pool that day, soso she wasn't with us.

(11:07):
Wow, yeah, yeah, it's uh, uh,that I.
You know, I think that's that'sone of the reasons that I kind
of agreed to do this, becauseyou just not too many people
live through all the things I'velived through and then get to
enjoy a full life.
Still, I could have beencrippled for life.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
Sure absolutely.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
You don't know when you go through a motorcycle
crash.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
Yeah, and it's incredible too to hear it too,
because, first of all, we'reonly 10 minutes into the episode
.
You've already told us aboutthree pretty incredible and
tragic events, really, and itamazes me that you're smiling
while you're telling it, whichis a good sign, or you're crazy

(11:55):
one of the two and it's.
I can't wait, I can't wait.
I've got a lot of questionscoming.
All right, I can't wait, Ican't wait.
I've got a lot of questionscoming, all right.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
So next traumatic event from that motorcycle crash
.
You know I had this polycystickidney disease.
So when the bike lands acrossmy 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 tothe kidney disease.

(12:26):
Sure what?
What kidney disease is?
Normally, whatever your bodysize is your, your fist is
approximately the size of yournormal kidneys.
So polycystic is exactly whatit sounds like it's cysts
growing on your kidneys.
So I'll go back to in 2008,.

(12:51):
And I had a kidney transplant.
I had a live donor.
A friend that I graduated highschool with, his wife,
volunteered to be tested.
All of my family had beentested, no one was a match.
So she was tested and two otherladies that we had, a several

(13:14):
of us that camped a lot.
We all had like fearful campersor whatever.
So we camped a lot and twoladies in our camping group
actually said I'll be tested anduh.
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

(13:36):
absolutely a perfect match.
You have to match and I may saythis, but I believe it's so
many chromosomes to receive anorgan from another person and
she only lacked one chromosomebeing a 100% perfect match.

(13:57):
Yeah, so another miracle.

Speaker 1 (14:01):
That is crazy.
Yeah, and you're not related,it's just like some lady.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
Not related at all.
Not related.
That is wild.
Yes, it is All right, that iscrazy.
Yeah, and you're not related.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
It's just like some lady.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
Not related at all.
Not related.
That is wild.

Speaker 1 (14:08):
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 andthat happened pretty early on,
right?

Speaker 2 (14:18):
Yeah, about like 28 years old yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
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 (14:34):
Well, from 28 to 45, so 17 years.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
Yeah, okay, so 17 years you're kind of dealing
with this.
What was that like when youfirst found out?
Was it something that it waslike, oh my gosh, like how, like
why this happened to me, andthen you're like thinking about
it all the time.
Or is it just like some daysyou just like forget that you
have it, or like what?
What is that like?

Speaker 2 (14:54):
well, uh, to be honest, once I was diagnosed I
really didn't have effects fromit.
So it rocked on many, manyyears I'm going to say 13, 14
years before really it becameany effect on my living or my
body, and it was just out ofsight, out of mind.

(15:19):
I just had to go for a few moredoctor visits than most people
at that age, but other than thatI had no problem with it.

Speaker 1 (15:28):
And was it like regular for you to urinate blood
, or was that just like ithappened the one time and then
it didn't happen for a while?
That's right it?

Speaker 2 (15:36):
happened the one time and then I don't know, maybe
one other time in my life is allI did other time in my life is
all I did it, and what thedoctors said was that I had a
cyst.
One of those cysts to rupturewas the reason I was passing the
blood.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
Oh okay, yeah, wow, oh yeah, polycystic, I mean,
there's probably multiple cysts.
Yeah, I'll give you the rest ofthat in just a second, all
right.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
All right.
So about three, probably threeyears, about 2005, probably
three years about 2005, Istarted 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 inyour body, everything you take

(16:20):
in.
So as they start failing,you're getting poisons in your
system, uh, just naturally.
So about three years before thetransplant, I started getting
sicker.
Um, we'd go along and andeverything would be good.
And then, just one day, I, youknow, I, just the smell of food

(16:41):
would just make me nauseousinstantly.
And then then, uh, each year itprogressed and got worse.
And, uh, the last two yearsbefore the transplant I was, I
was really, uh, going downpretty good.
Uh, 2007 was a full year ofunable to do anything.

(17:05):
I mean, I literally by thistime sometime in 2007, I went on
dialysis and, luckily, since Ihad a live donor and everything
was in place, I only had to stayon dialysis four months and
people would come into theclinic and you know they'd get

(17:28):
up.
Hey, I'm going fishing, I'mgoing to work or whatever.
But for some reason dialysisdid not agree with me.
Uh, I literally died twice onthe dialysis table.
Um, lost all blood pressure,heartbeat, everything and in
that situation there is norevival for you.

(17:49):
You either come back on yourown or you don't.
And just here's another miracleAll of a sudden I just wake up.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
Just rebooting on the table.

Speaker 2 (18:03):
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

(18:23):
total.
I had about 28 inches ofincisions in that year.
So you can imagine fivesurgeries, dialysis.
You're unable to do anything.
And during that year I realized100% if you do not have your
health, I don't care what youhave.

(18:44):
You could have $100 million.
It is absolutely worthless,absolutely.
So you know, if you takeanything from this, this part of
this story, that's the onething I'd tell you.
We're not promised anything andonce your health starts

(19:05):
declining to that point, there'sno life whatsoever.

Speaker 1 (19:11):
Yeah, you know, when you were talking about the
toxins and stuff that are inyour kidneys, because it filters
everything in your body, thefirst thing I thought of was,
like in mixed martial arts, likewhen people take a shot to the
kidneys, or in boxing.
It's like you can't I don't carehow big you are Like you get
hit in the kidney the right wayand it dumps all of that toxin

(19:35):
into your body and it shuts youdown, like and so to think from
that perspective, that's justsomeone getting hit in the
kidney.
What happens when your kidneysaren't cooperating and it's just
spilling toxicity into yourbody like that?
It's like that is so deadlylike, and I just want to like
paint that picture a little morevividly, because that's serious

(19:57):
.
Like when your kidneys aren'tcooperating and they're just
you're just going through all ofthat, like that is so bad, and
then on top of that, you knowhaving to go through all, all
the stuff you're going through,your sounds like the.
The picture I'm imagining isjust so much scar tissue, just
from all these surgeries andjust you know and uh, just crazy

(20:17):
.
All right, wow, all right.
What's next?
So let's see, by the way, justso everybody knows, because you
can't see us, he's got, he's gota sheet over here.
He wrote down, I think he wrotedown a bunch of stuff that he's
gone through and that's why Isaid all right, what's next?

Speaker 2 (20:33):
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, wholenew outlook.
Basically was a new lease onlife, whole new outlook.
Uh, it just gives you anunderstanding that I guess,
until you ever go through thatyou, you don't realize what, how

(20:54):
fragile life is.
Yeah, so, uh, one more thing onthe kidneys.
Um, during 07, one of thosesurgeries during 07, one of
those surgeries, actually two ofthose surgeries were to remove
my native kidneys.
They were so large, um, youknow, I I had this big stomach

(21:15):
then and and didn't reallyrealize, but my left kidney
weighed a little over 11 pounds.
Wow, my right kidney weighed alittle over 11 pounds.
Wow, my right kidney weighed alittle over 13 pounds, and
that's all cysts growing on them.
They're huge, you knowfootball-sized kidneys, and at
that particular time they werethe largest kidneys ever removed

(21:37):
at Erlanger Hospital.
And the reason they removedthose was, they said, I didn't
have room for the transplantkidney to go in until they did.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
Wow, that's not a record you want to hold, though.
No, no, no, but you held it atone point nonetheless.
Right, that's right.
Got that much space that shouldbe there to have your
intestines and your liver andall the other organs that are in

(22:09):
and around it are now beingsqueezed.

Speaker 2 (22:12):
Well, since you mentioned that, that's exactly
right.
One of my organs gosh I'mtrying to think of what we took
out, but anyway it had beenmashed to the point that it had
grown around an intestine.
So a previous surgery to thatwas to remove that organ because

(22:34):
of it.

Speaker 1 (22:35):
So probably your pancreas or something like that
gallbladder, not gallbladder.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
Appendix, appendix, appendix.
That's dangerous too.
Yeah, it was my appendix.
Oh my gosh.
All right, so we'll get off thegloom and doom and all of that
good stuff, I guess Sure sure.
And go to kind of the businessside of things.

Speaker 1 (23:01):
What year is this now ?

Speaker 2 (23:03):
We're back to 1983.
Okay 1983, okay 83 year beforeI was born.
Oh yeah, I got you by about 20there.
Yeah, there we go, we're good.
So, uh, my father, uh, hadworked here in south pittsburgh
for many years at the richardcity uh, excuse me, pendixie
cement, which was in richardcity.
It was just the south end ofsouth pittsburgh and they closed

(23:27):
that plant up.
And year or two went by andhe'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 gonnastart a machine shop, fab shop
here.
Uh, would you like to go towork with me?
And uh, that, you know, thatwas gosh.
That was just the start of whatI had no idea of where we were

(23:52):
going to, could never even havedreamed of where life has taken
us in, in what my wildestimagination.
I couldn't do it.
So uh went to work with my dad,1983, march 1983.
Uh, he started the company forfive thousand dollars.
That was a total investment.
I, uh, my huge wage was fourdollars an hour.

(24:16):
Nice, I don't even think we hada phone in our office for
either two or three years.
It's just, you know, veryhumble beginnings.
One of the first machines weever bought was a milling
machine.
It was probably gosh built inthe 50s, I bet, and, to be

(24:41):
honest, we still have it to thisday, wow.
And my son is actually notparticularly restoring it but
giving it a facelift.
It still runs and worksperfectly, wow.
So we're going to display it inour facility now when he gets

(25:01):
through refurbishing it.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
Oh, that's very cool.
They don't make things likethat anymore.
Like they can last that kind oftime.

Speaker 2 (25:09):
No, and we've got a few of those old machines.
But the unique thing about thatmachine is when we bought it it
was literally in boxes.
The whole machine wasdisassembled.
Gosh, you know I was what?
Early 20s, I guess at thispoint, maybe 1920, something

(25:30):
like that.
Yeah and uh, we bought a book,sat down, I sat on a stool for
literally probably two, twoweeks and rebuilt everything in
that machine, put all newbearings and you know it shoot.
I've never done anything likethat.
I had no clue.
I I mean, I was mechanicallyinclined, I'd fool with cars and
worked on cars, hot rods, butso literally sat there and built

(25:52):
this machine back from theground up, got to the end of the
build and the gearbox in it hasto be timed.

Speaker 1 (26:03):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (26:04):
It has a handle that you crank, that changes the
speeds.
Well, my dad and I stood thereand looked at it the last day
and we're like gosh, we don'tknow how to time it.
And I got this from Richardbecause it really rung a bell
with me.
But, richard Rogers, you seewho I'm speaking of yeah yeah,
One of the previous podcasts.
But Richard said you know I'vealways kept a notepad beside my

(26:28):
bed at night and it just struckme I have too.
I've always kept a notepad anda pencil or a pen whatever
laying there, because I did morefiguring out of projects when
I'd lay down and your mind, Iguess, I guess would relax, you
would get on that and getfocused yeah but anyway, I'm

(26:50):
laying there that night and I'mlike gosh I know how to time
that.
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 tothis day that machine still runs
perfectly wow, that's so cool.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
Let that be a lesson.
Everybody that's listening likekeep a notepad and a pencil or
pen beside your bed, because younever know like ideas hit you
at the strangest times.
You know what I wish?
I wish I had like a waterproofnotepad that I could put in my
shower, because I figure out somuch stuff while I'm taking a
shower, bro, like I'll justliterally hop in and all of a
sudden ideas, things that I'vebeen struggling with.

(27:26):
I'm like oh, oh, my gosh, Iknow what I should do now.
It's like sometimes all youneed is just clean your body.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
Well, I'm going to tell you where to get that my
son actually bought me.
It's called a Space Pen and ithas a matching pad.
I hate to boost for Amazon, butno get it from amazon and, uh,
it will actually write upsidedown underwater what, yes, sir,
okay, done so cool.

(27:54):
Let's see, uh, my wife wasworking in the, actually the
building where our facility islocated now in stevenson,
alabama.
It started out it was taylormachine and welding inc okay uh,
and then, uh, somewhere alongthe line, we we renamed it to

(28:19):
just taylor machine and then nowit's called taylor
manufacturing.
Okay, um, but anyway, my wifeworked in the building in
stevenson that we've purchased,now remodeled it, moved
everything into, and that wasback in, uh, 1987.
She, um said, hey, I want totake the summer off and just lay

(28:42):
out in the sun, whatever,that's sure, okay.
So she gets bored in just a fewmonths and, uh, she comes to,
starts coming to work with me onSaturdays.
So, uh, my dad just says, uh.
She said, hey, what can I do?
And he said, hey, you can helpus clean the shop up on Saturday

(29:02):
.
So she started out doing thatand 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 actuallyteaches her to be a machinist.
So she's on the floor with usmaking parts.

(29:22):
She came on board full-time in1991 and has been with us ever
since.
We both retired within about ayear of each other.

Speaker 1 (29:37):
So were you guys married when she did that?

Speaker 2 (29:40):
Yes, we were married.
Okay, that, yes, we weremarried.
Okay, that's cool, we weremarried.
We married gosh 1985.
And this is, I guess, how lifestarted for us.
But we never took a honeymoon,we never took a vacation,
anything.

(30:00):
For seven years we weresteadily working all the hours
we could stand and uh, uh, weworked, uh, the first 12 years
we worked around the company uh,six days a week.
So not a lot of time, not a lotof time off, but anyway, you
know, I'm not complaining.

(30:21):
Uh, I guess it teaches youwhat's required to uh, to make
it maybe yeah, lots of teamwork,lots of teamwork, yeah, and
she's, you know she's.
She was with us, like I said,the whole way through that's
cool.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
Yeah, my wife and I, we we run our business together
and people don't realize thatthat clock never stops when you
own a business and you careabout it.
From the time you open youreyes to the time you shut them
at night, you're thinking howcan we serve people better, how
can we make things more improved?
And, yeah, it's a lot.
That's cool.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
Yeah, so we were in business.
My dad was in business.
I was working with him for thefirst five years.
We were right here in thecenter of town in South
Pittsburgh in a little old tinroof, tin-sided building, no
insulation Literally I'd wearevery stitch of clothes.

(31:18):
I had that a deer hunted in towork because you'd freeze to
death.
But in 1988, we bought anotherbuilding down in Richard City
and just real humble beginnings,and it was a small building.
We added about 2,000 squarefeet onto it before we ever
moved in, moved into thatbuilding and just you know,

(31:43):
across the years continued togrow and add people and things
like that.
My dad never wanted a bigbusiness.
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 thebest thing I can stay at and do.

(32:09):
It took me that long to settleinto.
This is going to be what I dofor the rest of my life, sure,
and I was never the guy thatsaid a five-man shop is it I
want.
I'm shooting for the moon Iwant.
It didn't matter what it was,if someone came along and
offered us a project, I wantedit.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
Yeah, you can't hit two trucks and a cow and then
just like decide mediocre isyour life.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
I suppose Maybe it knocked something loose up there
.
You know, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (32:41):
Man, that's awesome Okay.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
So my dad, my wife, my dad and however many other
employees we added along theyears we stayed together for,
worked with him for 17 years andhe came to me one day and you
you talk about retiring.
My dad was a workaholicdaylight to after dark, every

(33:06):
day.
He run a full-time shop, had afarm, cattle, everything and and
you know, I grew up the sameway we.
We grew up on a farm in bryantalab and I moved on that farm
when I was five years old and Istayed on that farm until I was
55 years old.
That was my plan.

(33:30):
That was to be my whole lifeplace to be, and I'll travel
forward in time here a littlebit as we progress and I'll kind
of give you the things thathappened that changed that and I
apologize.

Speaker 1 (33:44):
I don't know that I asked you this or not, but
you've mentioned SouthPittsburgh a lot, but you've
also mentioned Alabama a lot.
Are you currently in Alabama?

Speaker 2 (33:53):
I am.
I currently live in Alabama.
Have lived in Jackson CountyAlabama all my life, oh, okay, I
have lived in Jackson CountyAlabama all my life, oh, okay,
and actually our TaylorManufacturing is now in Alabama.
It was in Tennessee most of itslife.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
Okay, yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
That's very cool.
So my dad comes in one day andhe says I'm thinking about
retiring and he's, I think maybe61 at the time.
And I thought, man, there's noway, you know, he's, he can't
quit, he's, he's just too muchof a worker.
So, uh, we're rocking alongthere and it's uh, it's uh 2000.

(34:38):
And uh, he comes in and he saidthis is going to be my last
week.
So he gave me a one-week noticebefore he retired.
He had already had the companyevaluated, had all the papers

(34:58):
drawn up, because we had talkedall throughout that you know,
our intention was to stay in thebusiness and that we'd like to
purchase it.
So, uh, that was his retirement.
He owner financed it for us.
Um, basically, the week, thelast week he worked, we signed

(35:18):
all the papers and the next weekwe were shut down for a week.
Most businesses in SouthPittsburgh at that time closed
the week of the 4th of July, soI guess the Monday after
shutdown, because my dad's he'salways doing something on his

(35:39):
farm, so he's bringing it to the, to the shop, to fix or work on
.
And uh, the next monday ortuesday, whatever day it was,
he's there and we're working andyou know, a customer comes in
that knows him and walks up andhe 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 gosee mike.

(36:00):
So I mean, it was how'd thatfeel?
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 didit.
He just flipped the switch ofmy whole life.
I thought how did he just turnthat off after 17 years of doing
it?
Yeah, and, but you know, in theend I pretty much did the same

(36:27):
thing that's cool.
I didn't think I could.
You know it was a, it's beenour whole life, so uh, but
that's, that's how it turned out.
Let's see.
I'm looking at my notes heretrying to figure out what one of

(36:48):
my notes is, but anyway, let'ssee when we're at.
We're 2,000.
From 2,000 until the day weretired, my wife and I were on
call.
We had a basically 24-hourservice.
If one of our customers called,we got out of bed.

(37:09):
I've actually came home fromvacation, just whatever, and I
always felt like during my life,if you would treat people right
, be honest, have integrity andtreat them fairly, you don't
have to give everything away.
You can make your living and wealways made a decent living but

(37:31):
I always felt like anyone thatwas willing to give 110% and do
those things could own andoperate and have a successful
business.

Speaker 1 (37:42):
Yeah, I agree with that 100%.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
Yeah, so pretty much that's what we've always tried
to do, and I don't have anythingin my life that I have any
regret for doing.
I've always been 100% honest.
I think it pays you off.

Speaker 1 (38:02):
Oh yeah, it does, and what a great way to retire
having that reassurance to knowyou did the right thing.

Speaker 2 (38:09):
Well, I may have some customers out there that didn't
feel that way, but we alwaysdid our absolute best.

Speaker 1 (38:14):
Absolutely, that's good.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
So let's see, we'll back up to 1990.
1990, okay, my dad still wasowning, operating the business.
Uh, I always just acted like Iwas an owner and did whatever it
took.
So we, uh, we are thinkingabout getting into cnc machines

(38:38):
is computer excuse me, computernumerical control, and they're
basically automated turning ormilling centers.
And my dad comes up with theidea.
He said, hey, I think we needto do this and check it out for
us, you know.
So he's like go do the research.
So I'm doing all this researchand looking at we started out

(39:02):
looking at a milling center andgoes for two months and I'm not
sleeping at night.
I'm worried because this thingis, at that time it's enough
money that I felt like we maynot survive buying it if it
don't take off.
Well, two months into it, likeI said, can't sleep, I'm worried
to death, stressed over it, andI don't know.

(39:24):
Light clicks on one day and I'mlike, hey, we're looking at the
wrong machine.
So come in the next day, talkto my dad and say, hey, we're, I
think we ought to do this, weought to buy a turning center
rather than a milling center.
So pretty much backed up andpunted, went right out the gate,
started looking at thosemachines.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
And what's the difference between those two
machines?

Speaker 2 (39:45):
Well, a turning center does round parts and a
milling center does mostlysquare rectangular.
They can be round, but actuallythe part is spinning in a
turning center and in a millingcenter the tool is turning.

Speaker 1 (40:03):
So it's basically just for everybody listening.
At least you can correct me ifI'm wrong.
It's kind of the differencebetween a lathe and like a laser
cutter.

Speaker 2 (40:12):
No, it's a lathe and a mill.

Speaker 1 (40:14):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
It's just called a turning center in the computer
world or CNC world andeverything so and I've seen I
think I've seen those before toolike, like, where it'll come
through.

Speaker 1 (40:26):
The little piece will come in and it'll shave off and
it'll come up and it'll youknow it'll, that's.

Speaker 2 (40:31):
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 partand then, uh, it's just
traveling up the material andshaving off the whatever you
need to make the right the rightshape of parts you want.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
Those are satisfying to watch too, cause I've seen
some of those videos on socialmedia and it's really
interesting to watch.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
Let's see, here we're , uh, um, I think, uh think, uh,
1990 we got we ended up buyinga first uh lathe, or turning
center, first computer we everhad in the building.
Uh, just for you folks to knowhow far back this was, it was a

(41:17):
286, 33 was the computer youknow.
Then it was a 486 33 and thenthis was old dos command
computers and you know just, uh,but uh, pretty interesting to
where evolutionists came.
Now we can do everything andmore on our cell phone than we
could do on that dang computeryeah, you know it's.

Speaker 1 (41:39):
It's so too, because whenever I think back to early
days of computing, like whatyou're saying, it's like
operating through DOS.
People don't remember that, ora lot of people don't remember
that, just the older generations.
But I was a part of thegeneration where the early
computers were like.
I had access to it, so we wereplaying the old floppy disks not

(42:00):
the three and a half, but thefloppy ones that were flexible
Five and a quarter or something.
And I remember just typing inCD backslash that's exactly
right.

Speaker 2 (42:13):
I mean we had no button to click on Dot exe.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (42:16):
Execute files.
It was crazy, and we somehowdid it, and, like man do, we
have it good today, though.

Speaker 2 (42:25):
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 andfabrication and running of the
company we worked up to for many, many years.
We were at around 20, some oddpeople, 20, 25 people and had

(42:46):
about a 20 000 square footbuilding and wow uh, well, that
that now.

Speaker 1 (42:51):
That's very small sure, but but I'm saying wow in
comparison to what you saidearlier, which was about five
people.
So you like, started with twoyeah, so you essentially
quadrupled it from the five tothe 20, right, and?
Uh, okay, yeah, keep going.

Speaker 2 (43:04):
Sorry oh no, that's good.
So, uh, we're traveling alongthrough life and and uh, uh, we
do a lot of work for, like, thetextile carpet industry, and uh,
we've, we've run out of roomand and I ended up there's
another building here in SouthPittsburgh that's actually right
at 100,000 square feet.

(43:25):
So we purchased it.
Takes about a year to get thatdone and going to put our shop
in it.
Long story short, we nevermoved in it.
I had a tenant, one of mycustomers, come in and I said,
hey, we're thinking aboutleasing half of this building

(43:45):
because we'll never use it.
Well, they get interested.
One thing leads to another.
Within a matter of about threeweeks they come back and say,
hey, would you just lease us thewhole building?
I said, well, you know, if themoney's right, sure, why not?
So they're still in thebuilding, still leasing.
It's gosh been I don't know 17years ago or something and, uh,

(44:09):
we never move in, so we're stillout of room.
Uh, we, uh, let's see where weat.
I'm.
I'm about to jump way too farahead.
No, you're good, You're good Umlet's see, okay, uh, once we

(44:32):
purchased the building or thecompany in 2000,.
You know, of course that's thenine 11 terror attack year.
Yeah, of course that's the 9-11terror attack year.
Up to that year, we had nevernot exceeded the previous year
in business sales.
Well, the year we buy it, allof a sudden we have this terror

(44:54):
attack and business falls off.
To the best of my recollectionit was 35%, and so we always had
my dad did and we did as wellwe always kept probably a
substantial amount of money inour account for the size of our

(45:15):
business, just for hard timestimes, because that's business,
it's up and down.
Well, that year, we used halfof our reserves just maintaining
the business and not losing anyof our key employees.

(45:35):
Had we had two years of it, Idon'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.
Lots, you know, all those yearsis basically just doing the same

(45:58):
type of work, trying to justcontinuously grow the business.
In 2011, I felt like we werestagnant Business had just, it
was going along but wasn'treally growing, was going along

(46:26):
but wasn't really growing.
And so I call in all of my uhkey guys, you know, into the
office and I said guys, what doyou, what do you guys think?
How do we?
How's the best way to grow thisbusiness?
I just, you know, just bounceit off you guys.
Uh, we had our little meetingand discovered an idea to uh get
the try to get the businessback on track, and, and you know

(46:46):
, we weren't really havingproblems per se, it just just
wasn't going where I felt likeit should go at the time, sure,
so, uh, we meet with thiscustomer and all this business
opportunity comes up and uh, sowe, we rearrange a good portion
of our shop, uh, to take some ofthis work in, and so we're

(47:10):
going through about a year of itand 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 toactually build a complete fab
shop if you want to continuedoing it.
So at this time I'm about 49,50 years old and, man, I

(47:34):
crunched the numbers and I'venever really been scared of a
risk.
I always bought every machine.
We bought whatever options weneeded on it.
If they had others, I usuallywould add several options, uh,
to speed up or to make ourequipment unique, and uh, so I

(47:57):
I'm a spreadsheet guy.
I put everything on spread.

Speaker 1 (47:59):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:01):
Everything.
I mean, I even track my huntingtrip costs on spreadsheets, you
know.
And uh, so anyway, we, we rockalong there and they, they give
us this ultimatum of either dothis or, you know, we're to have
to look somewhere else.
So my wife and I have adjoiningoffices by this time and she's

(48:27):
in hers and I'm sitting in therejust crunching numbers and
thinking, and I call her in myoffice and have her sit down and
I said, hey, I'm thinking aboutrisking our whole, everything
we have, on a new venture, and Idon't know how she does it.

(48:47):
But she just looked at me andsaid, whatever you think, wow,
so I also do the same thing with.
I've got a right, right handman 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 thingto him and he said, man, there

(49:09):
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 II'm gonna roll the dice.
So, uh, at this time, you know,I go out and borrow as much

(49:31):
money as we have ever.
At the size of our company.
I borrow more money than we'veever done.
Purchase another facility, buyall of this new equipment and
shoot here.
We go down that road and anynew business, even though we

(49:52):
thought plenty of new businesscoming in to maintain it.
It was a struggle.
So my wife is transferringmoney from one company to the
other company just back andforth on a weekly basis, just
trying to keep us afloat.
And a year goes by and we'restill doing it and this customer

(50:16):
comes to us and says thiscustomer comes to us and says,
hey, we've bought a facility andwe're going to take this work
back in-house and do it ourself.
So I mean, it's just like thedeer in the headlight, look, you
know, just pure sheer panic.
But it turned out really thatit was probably the best thing

(50:37):
that could have happened to us.
Probably the best thing thatcould have happened to us.
When we bought this otherfacility and started this
business, I hired a gentlemanthat I'd known for years and
years to run it because I knew Icouldn't be running back and
forth every day.
And so that year goes by andhe's like man, I've had enough

(51:00):
of this.
It's just driving everybodynuts, stressing out, trying to
keep it going.
And by this time I've got anephew.
His name's Cody and my wife andI pretty much raised him, so we
call him our son and he callsus mom and dad, and he's 21

(51:26):
years old and he's been workingin our original company there,
taylor Manufacturing.
I brought him from basicallythe ground up through every
process we do and in his wholelife he always said all I want
to do is be part of this.
And so, at 21 years old, hegets thrown into the driver's

(51:49):
seat of this new company.

Speaker 1 (51:51):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (51:52):
Yeah, and we've lost our business, lost our customer.
Well, we didn't lose thecustomer per se, but we lost the
mainstream of that business.
And we go out and start lookingfor new stuff and we land an
account.
By this time, we're so drawndown on money, on funds, that

(52:18):
basically, they offer us thiswork and we can't even afford to
buy the tooling to put on ourmachine, to make their parts.
And so I've never, ever had acustomer help us buy tooling or
make drawings or anything.

(52:39):
We've always done all of thatourselves.
And I'm thinking, well, we'regoing to lose this.
So I'll go have a meeting withthem and I just lay it on the
line.
I said, guys, we've got thecapacity, we've got the machines
, we can't afford to buy thetooling.
And they said, well, how muchis it?
And I think it was like $20,000was all at that time.

(53:00):
Sure, and they said, well, noproblem, just send us the
information and we'll cut apurchase order for it.
Wow, so I mean, it was just alifesaver.
And to this day, they're stillour largest single account and
we do huge amounts of businesswith them every year that's

(53:21):
incredible.

Speaker 1 (53:22):
Yeah, I love that.

Speaker 2 (53:23):
Yeah, wow, that's rare oh it, to me it was unheard
of yeah, I don't, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (53:30):
Yeah, that's crazy.
Huh, all right, I'm, I'm, I'mstill interested to keep hearing
where this is going.
So the first, I guess, thingthat keeps coming to mind is,
like in your lifetime, like youhave had multiple situations
where you're on the verge oflosing something, whether it's

(53:52):
your own life or whether it'syour business or whatever you
know, and I keep hearing thattheme kind of coming back.
And then there's thisresurrection every time of it
works out every time and it'slike what does that feel like?

Speaker 2 (54:13):
It's unbelievable that you can just almost hit the
bottom and it seems likesomething just clicks and life
gets back on track.
I don't know how it manages todo that, but throughout our
lives we've been through a lotof those situations.

(54:34):
I hadn't went into a whole lotof them, but in any business I
call it a yo-yo.
It's never in that middle sweetspot, it's always at the bottom
or at the top.

Speaker 1 (54:50):
Yeah, I definitely agree with that.

Speaker 2 (54:54):
Let's see.
So we buy this building, putall this equipment in business,
goes away, find the newcustomers and we're talking with
this customer and more and morewith them.
And so they send a group ofpeople in from their corporate

(55:30):
offices and they're a really,really large group of companies.
It's not just a company, it's aholding company that owns like
10 different big entities.
So they send the group in fromtheir main offices and they're
evaluating us at our fab shop,which is in a different location

(55:55):
from our machine shop.
And then they come down toSouth 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'scome around.
And basically, I just asked theguy, I said so.
So what do you see?
He said well, he said your,your fab shop is, uh, it's

(56:19):
adequate, it, you can do what wewant to do there, but your
machine shop, you're just,basically, you're completely out
of room, you don't haveanywhere to go.
And uh, during this time this isabout four years have gone by
and we're in, uh, we're at uh,august of 2015, when we we make

(56:44):
this next purchase, we uh,there's the building where we're
located.
Now in Stevenson it's another100,000-square-foot facility and
I've been working on buying itfor months because I knew we had
to do something with ourexpansion room, and so I closed

(57:09):
the deal on it about, I'm goingto say, a week before these guys
come in and I said, well, letme, let me show you something,
uh, if you got time.
So we get in the vehicles andwe drive to Stevenson, which is
only about 10 minutes down theroad, and we pull up in front of
this big building and I said,uh, I just bought this building

(57:33):
and we're we're getting ready toremodel and move into it.
And I mean the guy, just likeman, you just answered
everything, uh, so we haveconversations of uh.
His question to me was where doyou think this company can go

(57:54):
as far as size?
And I throw out a number and hesaid, oh, you're way
short-cutting yourself.
And so he throws out his numberit's double what I think, wow,
and I don't care to give you thenumbers.
Sure, number, it's double whatI think, wow, and I don't care
to give you the numbers he's.
He said, uh.

(58:14):
I said I think we could do fivemillion.
And he said, uh, you can do 10million with your, with your
current setup.
He said you won't have tochange 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 knowledgeableon it, so I'm hoping he's right

(58:34):
.
But everything so far, rightnow, we've exceeded any dream
I've ever had.
You know, I think back earlieryears and I was sitting at my
desk one day, years and I wassitting at my desk one day and

(58:54):
this was before we ever did evena million dollars in sales.
And I think, how do you everget to a million dollars in
sales?
the golden question yeah, andyou know, I truthfully I don't
come up with an answer, but Ijust think, well, all you can do
is just keep banging at ituntil you hopefully get there.

(59:14):
And then, I think, you know,sometime later I'm sitting there
and I'm thinking, okay, we'vegot 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 youever achieve anything like that.

(59:35):
And so, anyway, I'm trying tofigure out how do you get to
this $2 million mark.
And so we make that and surpassthat, I think the largest we
ever were before.
We actually just got a completenew business plan, and, and that
business plan happened in about2012, when we started this fab

(59:59):
shop.
We completely changed ourcustomer base.
Um and uh, you, it's.
It's another one of thosemiracles.
Everything just fell in placeand 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 indebt millions of dollars at at

(01:00:24):
the age of 50 to 52 years old,53 years old.
But I could not turn down.
I still had the mentality thatI couldn't turn down an
opportunity.
Yeah, I thought you know, ifyou let this one go by, it may

(01:00:44):
never come again.
So we just kept diving into itand diving into it.
And we're now in this largerfacility, like I said, about
100,000 square feet, got125-plus employees run 20 hours
a day.
It's just an amazing thing toimagine.
So that's the part about beingblessed to experience the

(01:01:11):
American dream.
I mean, when you come fromliving in a double-wide trailer
at your start to realizing wherewe are now, and I mean, you
know, we're not per se rich byany means, we're not per se rich
by any means, but we can live areally nice lifestyle.

(01:01:31):
That I never thought we coulddo, absolutely yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
You know, and if this is across the line, feel free
to tell me You'd rather not talkabout it.
But is your dad?
Is he still around?

Speaker 2 (01:01:47):
He's not.
My dad developed dementia.
I'm not exactly sure what yearwe started noticing some things,
but I lost my dad in June of2014.

Speaker 1 (01:02:02):
Okay, and how far along did he get to see the
company go after you took itover?
That was the main question Iwas like did he ever get to see
it grow?

Speaker 2 (01:02:13):
I'm sorry, that was not right.
I lost my dad in 2020, june of2020.
I don't know where 2014 camefrom.

Speaker 1 (01:02:24):
Listen, I am not going to judge nobody because
I'll say something about lastweek and my wife was like that
was last year.
I'm like felt like last weekyeah, I am not going to judge
nobody, because I'll saysomething about last week and my
wife was like that was lastyear.
I'm like felt like last week.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
Yeah, I understand that this age thing is.
You're definitely not who youwere when you were 25 or 35.

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
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 (01:02:51):
I'm sure he was like me.
He was just in awe of where itactually ended up.
You come from a $5,000investment to a company the size
we have now.
Like I said, it's justunbelievable.
It is.

Speaker 1 (01:03:08):
That's cool, all right.
're, you're definitely blessedyour whole life, like absolutely
just uh, and it's neat to seeit, because most people and I'm
and not not to like compare youto anyone, I guess, but you know
, most, most people would justbe happy to take what they had

(01:03:29):
been given to them and just likehave a good life, you know, and
it would have been fine.

Speaker 2 (01:03:35):
There's nothing wrong with that.
We were happy with all of that.
But I don't know, I didn'treally have the vision to go
where we went, but I always hadthe vision to take the next step
.
Yeah, I always had the visionto take the next step.
I was never really afraid oftaking that step or making that

(01:03:58):
investment.
I just tried to do the math andsee if the numbers would work,
and that's where we went.

Speaker 1 (01:04:08):
How long have you and your wife been retired now?

Speaker 2 (01:04:12):
Well, that's another good part of the story.
I guess, back when we firstlet's see what year?
Well, we branched out in 2012,bought the facility and put the
fab shop in.
Then I did a complete remodelon that building and then, like

(01:04:37):
what?
2015, we bought this otherfacility and did the same thing
again.
And my son came in my office oneday and I guess this was about
let's see, I got a date hereabout 20, yeah, about 2019.
And I was just stressed to themax.

(01:05:01):
And you know, I think business,just for my nature, uh, was
natural for me to have thatstress level and uh, so, uh,
2019, my son comes in my officeone day and he sets it down and

(01:05:22):
he said you know, you're just sostressed out.
He said why don't you just stepback?
You're just so stressed out.
He said, why don't you juststep back?
And if you don't like whathappens with the business, come,
come back.
You know, of course, he wasn'tsaying quit working, sure, he
was just saying you know, youdon't have to be here every day.
We got it and, uh, well, it'skind of weird because I think

(01:05:46):
that was the day my switchflipped.
Like my dad's, I reallyliterally never worked another
full week and and in in in 2020,we bought a farm and, uh, that
was basically from things thatwere happening while my father

(01:06:11):
was going down and the dementiawas taking effect.
And then, once my dad passed, aswith a lot of families, or
probably any family that has anyholdings, there's, I guess,
dissension or jealousy, whatever, so kind of the family, the

(01:06:34):
glue of the family left us, Iguess, and things weren't like
they should have been, andthat's why I moved from the farm
that I had lived on for 50years and I had to get away and
do something completely on myown.
Never asked my parents for anymoney.

(01:06:57):
My whole life, never asked themfor anything once I was grown,
except to have a place to liveon that farm.
And so my parents gave us likean 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,

(01:07:22):
you know, basically lived there.
That was my grandmother's farm,by the way, and my parents had
ended up buying it from her.
But so after, you know, after mydad passed and everything kind
of went south, I guess, uh, um,I just I couldn't stay there
anymore and I told my wife, Isaid I can't live here due to

(01:07:44):
the way things turned out afterhis death.
And uh, so we bought our farmand and that's really, I guess,
uh, what has occupied my mindfor the last, say, five years um
, I've, I've got to step backfrom work and just, uh, we

(01:08:06):
basically farm for wildlife isall 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'sbasically what I do now.
I work on the farm every day,you know, just piddle work,

(01:08:27):
doing something, and I go onhunting trips, you know, trips
based on the business growth andthe things We've gotten to do,
a lot of things we've never evenimagined.
But this year, well, a matterof fact, july, my wife and I
will have been married 40 years.

Speaker 1 (01:08:44):
Wow, congratulations.
Well, thank you, that's amazing.

Speaker 2 (01:08:47):
We've been together 42.
We grew up about three or fourmiles from each other, but never
knew each other.
Wow, of course I'm about threeand a half, four and a half
years older than her, so whenyou're coming up through school
and all, she's just a kid.

Speaker 1 (01:09:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:09:04):
So, anyway, we've been taking some nice trips,
been to Africa a couple of timesand places on hunting trips and
just sightseeing and justthoroughly enjoying life.
So, to answer the question, Iguess kind of semi-retired there
around 2019.

(01:09:25):
And then our son's been runningit.
It's continuously, or continuedto grow almost at the pace, or
probably maybe even better thanthe pace, that of when we were
actually there, and so thebusiness has just grown and

(01:09:48):
grown and in last year 2024, weactually he's the third
generation in full control ofoperating the business.
We don't have any input into,you know, other than if he asks
a question, hey, what do youthink about this?
But you know I don't really goup and interject.

(01:10:09):
Hey, you need to do this orthat.
And so sometime along there,when we were getting ready to
retire, we branched out to backup.
We actually bought the facilityalso in Alabama where we had

(01:10:30):
our fab shop.
We sold it Probably two yearslater, three years later at the
most, we went back and bought itagain.

Speaker 1 (01:10:43):
Okay, what's the story behind that?

Speaker 2 (01:10:45):
Well, it's a finishing company or a coating
company.
So a lot of our customersrequire their, their parts to be
blasted or have a certainfinish on them, or powder coated
things like that.
So we now run that a newfacility there that is called
taylor, taylor coatings, and uh,that's what we do.

(01:11:07):
We transfer parts from ourmanufacturing plant to there and
they get the finishes put onthem whatever the customer
requires, and then we do a lotof shipping out of there.

Speaker 1 (01:11:17):
That's very cool.
So essentially, tailormanufacturing took on specific
works and then branched out intoother subsets of business that
were needed by your customers sothat you could just keep it all
in-house.
That's right, yeah that's verycool.

Speaker 2 (01:11:33):
That's exactly right and one of the things that
really, I think, set us apartfrom a lot of companies when we
started this fab shop.
Most, or a lot of fab shopsdon't have full machining
services.
They they have to outsource itand, uh, we were really unique,

(01:11:54):
I guess in a way, because we hadfull machining always, and then
we added the fab and almostevery fab part has some
machining on it, so it enabledour customers to cut one
purchase order.
We controlled deliveries and ifthey were in a rush, we just

(01:12:17):
worked the hours it took to getthe job done.
The same thing with this nextadventure.
They wanted us to also take onthe finishing, so that's where
we went.

Speaker 1 (01:12:28):
That's cool.
Just kept opening upopportunities, really, and just
not being afraid to jump onthose opportunities and keep
growing that's right, that's socool.
All right, and so you and yourwife are getting ready to
celebrate.
You said 40, 40, and when isthat?
july 26th oh, coming up reallysoon, real soon, yes, sir,
congratulations.

(01:12:48):
Well, thank you, sir.
I'll have to send you a littlesomething.
But, man, so what do you say tothe person listening right now
who's an entrepreneur, businessowner, married?
What's the advice you give them?
How do you get to 40 inbusiness?

Speaker 2 (01:13:07):
Because you know it comes with a certain level of
stress, especially when they'reinvolved with you, you know well
, you got to have the rightpartner, that's right,
absolutely no doubt about that,and it really helps if you're,
you know, if your partner isalso your best friend.
So, uh, and a really patientpartner.
In case, my wife's the patientone, and you know, during the

(01:13:32):
business years I don't handlestress very well, but stress
likes me, you know, I take itright on, I can't just let it
roll off, take it right on it, Ican't just let it roll off.
So she's always been the personto be the level head, you know,

(01:13:54):
to keep me calm and things likethat, and put up with a lot of
stuff from me, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:14:01):
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 andwe're a team like we.

Speaker 2 (01:14:13):
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 andwe still do it today, I mean
even after 40 years.
I mean like I don't even get upor go to the store without
saying, hey, I'm going to thestore, you know, or she's the

(01:14:34):
same way.
Yeah, I mean, if you're walkingout of the house, usually the
other one knows what you'regoing to do.
It's just nature, I think.
Yeah, our nature I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:14:43):
We we need to get our families together.
At some point I feel like we'dhave a good time together.

Speaker 2 (01:14:47):
Absolutely, and that that's what I'm about now is, uh
, just uh, trying to enjoy everyday.
You know, um, I, uh, I say aprayer every night and, uh,
that's a whole lot of it is, youknow, just thanks for the day,
thank you for everything thatyou know we've been blessed with
and watch over us, you know itall comes from the Lord man,

(01:15:09):
Every bit of it.
I 100% agree.

Speaker 1 (01:15:16):
What would you say is one or two things that you want
to leave the listeners with?
If there's just a couple thingsthat you just hope that they
hear or get out of all of this,what is that message?

Speaker 2 (01:15:26):
I guess you have to be.
I don't know if it's bold orbrave or what.
The actual term we should usecrazy, yeah, uh, but you got to
be able, you got to be willingto take a risk.
Um, the old saying is you gotto spend money to make money.
Uh, that's exactly true.

(01:15:48):
Um, if you have, if you have itin you to give 110%, work as
many hours, and it doesn'tmatter how many that is, you
know it's not eight, I can tellyou that, uh, my life, uh saying
, was shoot, I try not to workover half a day, but you know

(01:16:08):
that may not do it, and a half aday was 12 hours, you know.
So shoot, I try not to work overhalf 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 thejob.
All of my friends would be like, hey, we're going to do this.
I've seen him going to do thatthis weekend.

(01:16:30):
They'd say, you guys want to go?
I'm like you know, when Fridayabout 2.30 rolls around, I can
probably tell you what we'regoing to maybe do this weekend.
But you know, we just livedthat life and it was fine.
It's what we became accustomedto.
You know, yeah, you know, andthank god my wife worked with me

(01:16:54):
so she wasn't thinking what inthe world is he doing?
you know, gone 14, 16 hourstoday, yeah, yeah you know she's
like hey, I want you to comehome.
Well, she was right there withme, so she knew where what was
going on, and she was usuallyjust as deep into it as I was.
Funny story early in business weactually only had one office

(01:17:19):
and one desk.
So after I came to the pointthat I came out of the plant
working on the floor all thetime, my wife worked at the
actual right position at thedesk and I had a chair at the
end of the desk and I would sitthere and do quotes and you know
, whatever I had to do that day,uh, I, uh, I did sales for the

(01:17:42):
company.
Uh, so during that year and allof our years I'd I'd stay on
the road maybe two or three daysa week and you know I was home
every night.
I just did like a whatever100-mile radius or whatever.
So I'd do sales, do theestimates, do the quoting and

(01:18:03):
try to also oversee part ofrunning the company.
But you know I mentionedearlier 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 familygrow up, miss kids from the time
they were very small and, uh,you know, kind of back and way

(01:18:25):
up.
But after the transplant time, II uh, they actually do mental
evaluations and there areseveral things on you before
they'll do a transplant and uh,you know I didn't really
understand any of that at thetime.
But after the fact there'ssomething about I don't know if
it's the medications or theorgan that you receive or what

(01:18:47):
but you'll go through periods inyour life where you're you just
withdraw.
I don't know.
I won't know that I would sayit was actual depression.
But I went through about twoperiods of that after that, and
to the point that you know I wasafter that and to the point

(01:19:12):
that you know I was truly Idon't know if I was physically
able to work or mentally able towork.
I I went through two periods ofthat in my life and you know,
if it wasn't for my wife andmclean, uh shoot, they'd just
pick it up and run with it andI'd finally get my head screwed
back on right and here we'd goagain, you know yeah, and what
do you?

Speaker 1 (01:19:32):
what do you think?
Out of all of this stuff thatyou've shared, what was the
hardest?

Speaker 2 (01:19:42):
well, uh, I don't know, business-wise, itwise,
it's always that struggle, butprobably the hardest thing I've
ever went through in my life wasthe loss of my father.

Speaker 1 (01:19:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:19:57):
Because we were just so close.
I mean when you are withsomeone every day of your life.
We spent, like I said, thecountless hours working together
and I'd say that took thehardest lick on me of anything
yeah, I can't.

Speaker 1 (01:20:14):
I can't imagine like I haven't had to go through that
in my life yet.

Speaker 2 (01:20:18):
Yeah, and you know most of my life, I, I would
think a lot of times you knowwhat, what am I gonna do?
Because we worked togetherevery day, we made all those
decisions together.
I'd think, well, what am Igoing to do when this is not
here anymore?
Yeah, and eventually, you know,you come to that point and

(01:20:40):
there's no doubt it made anotherpretty drastic change in my
thoughts and mind.

Speaker 1 (01:20:47):
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 gohunting and you travel a lot for
hunting.
What's your favorite placeyou've ever been hunting?

Speaker 2 (01:21:04):
Africa.

Speaker 1 (01:21:04):
Africa, and what were you hunting there?

Speaker 2 (01:21:08):
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 alsoCody.
After the hunt came home, mywife and I went on a

(01:21:30):
photographic safari.

Speaker 1 (01:21:31):
Oh, that's cool.

Speaker 2 (01:21:32):
And you know it's just.
It's a world you can neverimagine and you see it on TV all
day.
But you know, when you'reriding around in these parks and
areas and things where all thewildlife is, when you pull up
the vehicle and you're sittingin the vehicle and there's two

(01:21:53):
big male lions laying 10 feetfrom you, it's pretty surreal,
wow yeah.
But we saw everything you'veprobably ever seen on TV nearly
in Africa.

Speaker 1 (01:22:08):
That's so cool.
All the common ones, especiallyright elephants and giraffes
and giraffes cape buffalo uhwarthog what?
What are, what are some of theunique animals that, like you
don't, you didn't know were overthere, or maybe that, like you
don't normally see on tv, thatyou're like, wow, that's really
cool but One of the rarestthings probably I saw in life.

Speaker 2 (01:22:28):
Real life was an aardvark.

Speaker 1 (01:22:32):
Oh, wow.

Speaker 2 (01:22:33):
Yeah, and you know, the things have, like gosh, I
don't know three-inch claws.
Wow, I didn't know that youknow, because they dig these
termite mounds all the time, andthe termite mounds, something
about them.
I mean, they're almost as hardas concrete.
Wow, and you know, it's justlike you see on TV.
You'll see a termite moundthat's 20 feet tall.

Speaker 1 (01:22:56):
That's crazy.
You don't want to step in andaround all that, do you?

Speaker 2 (01:23:00):
You can walk all over it.
Like I said, it's as hard asconcrete.

Speaker 1 (01:23:03):
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 realProbably.
I feel like somebody just madethat up and we all just think
they're real.
They don't seem like they'rereal.
If they are, where are they?
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:23:21):
I don't know, that's one new one on me there.

Speaker 1 (01:23:24):
Like what region are those in?
Yeah, like what region arethose in?

Speaker 2 (01:23:26):
Yeah, Nobody knows.
It's like do they live inTennessee?
That's kind of like thatjackalope.

Speaker 1 (01:23:32):
Yeah, yeah, or what is that Snipe hunting?
You ever been snipe hunting?
There is truly snipe hunting.

Speaker 2 (01:23:38):
Is there really?
There is, oh man.

Speaker 1 (01:23:40):
Yes, I fell for my own trick.

Speaker 2 (01:23:41):
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 togetherno, that's, that's the joke,
right, that's the joke.
That and that usually you'regoing to get left out there on
your own.
You know kind of thing.
Hey, go over here and standwe'll, we're going to run the

(01:24:02):
snipe to you and and they driveoff and leave you that.

Speaker 1 (01:24:06):
That's great.
And what's your favorite animalto hunt?

Speaker 2 (01:24:10):
Gosh, one of the most fun hunts I guess I went on to
was moose hunting.
Oh wow, we went to Alaska andthat was another.
Any trip that I've ever madewith my son is just really
special and that was just he andI.
It was one of those hunts wherethey fly you in on the bush

(01:24:32):
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, youknow know?

Speaker 1 (01:24:48):
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-upguy.
He is, and he's done a greatjob.
I'm proud of him, and I don'teven know him, so he must be
doing good.

Speaker 2 (01:24:58):
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 (01:25:07):
That's awesome and shout out to your wife.

Speaker 2 (01:25:09):
Yes, thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:25:10):
Mashanda.
Mashanda, that's a pretty name,yes, and then I guess the last
thing is the way that we do thispodcast, is we just it's
obviously unscripted and youjust kind of come in and share
your story and then at the endI'll ask you if you have someone

(01:25:32):
that you'd like to nominate tobe the next guest.
You don't have to do it on thepodcast, but just be thinking
about that.
If you have the person and theydon't mind you sharing it, you
can.

Speaker 2 (01:25:42):
But yeah, I don't have that person.
As a matter of fact, richardtold me how that worked and I've
been studying on it, but Ihaven't come up with what I
thought was the exact rightperson yet.

Speaker 1 (01:25:56):
I feel like it's one of those things where the answer
comes when you're not thinkingabout it, like the person will
just pop in your mind and you'llbe like, oh yeah, dude, that's
exactly who he's supposed to be.
But I appreciate you taking thetime to be on here and to share
your story.
It's an incredible story andman, everybody is there like a

(01:26:23):
way for people to like contactyou or share their feedback, or
would you rather just kind oflay low, or how does that work,
you know?

Speaker 2 (01:26:29):
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 onthe podcast anywhere at all?

Speaker 1 (01:26:39):
Yeah, I'll tell you what.
Yeah, you guys, if you haveanything that you would like for
me to share with Mike, justleave it in the comments, and we
always love hearing from youguys and I'm happy to pass that
along for him so that way he canhear your feedback.
So I appreciate you guys.
Thank you for supporting Ashand Iron, our sponsor,

(01:26:59):
chattanooga Beard Company.
If you want to keep supportingthe channel, please just make a
purchase, buy some beardproducts chattanoogabeardco.
And.
Thank you guys again forlistening and I hope you have a
fantastic week.

Speaker 2 (01:27:12):
Well, thank you for having me.
Thanks brother, yes sir.