How Special This Journey - Notes on Life So Far From Rick Domeier

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Joe Boyle, Host 0:04

Welcome to Stories in Life. You're on the radio with Mark and Joe. We share stories that affirm your belief in the goodwill, courage, determination, commitment, and vision of everyday people.

Mark Wolak. Host 0:19

Our goal is that through another person's story, you may find connection no matter your place in life. Stories we select will be inspiring and maybe help you laugh, cry, think, or change your mind about something important in your life. Join us for this episode of Stories in Life.

Rick Domeier 1:21

So I am I am a pathological optimist. A pathological optimist means that they have a tendency to be more successful, not because they're smarter, because they try again and they get up and they try again and try to try it. This time it's gonna work. And so here's another lesson in the stories of life. Um talk to good people, talk to smart people, talk to trusted people. So one of the people I I was a counselor and a coach to me was uh my coach Joe Boyle. I called him and he counseled me to kind of let over to the habit tool to say, look, if you if you don't take it, will you regret not giving it a shot, not taking it? Uh and that that was important, and I really appreciate it being there at home. That was still a street forking too.

Welcome Rick Domeier to Stories in Life

Joe Boyle, Host 3:30

As a program host for the TV shopping channel QVC. He and I grew up in the same town of New Home, Minnesota, and have been friends since high school. Today we welcome Rick Dolmeyer to our podcast. Hi, Rick.

Mark Wolak. Host 3:46

Hey, Rick, welcome.

Rick Domeier 3:48

Gentlemen, it's truly an honor. I um I'm a fan, I've been listening. Um, I last night went back and listened to your original episode, the kick things off to kind of get a refresher on the mission. I love the vibe. I love the unplugged feel. I will just uh share with you that I apologize ahead of time if I my spinal tap amp goes up to 11, you know, and I get to be a little loud. I warned them. I warned them. I have a tendency to get mic'd up and ramped up, so just feel free to unplug me at any time. But uh uh it's an honor to be here.

Joe Boyle, Host 4:24

Well, glad you're here. Before we get too far into the second half of your life, I'd like to talk about the first half of your life. Tell us about growing up in South Central Newall, Minnesota.

Rick Domeier 4:38

Wow, that's a that's a big one. That's a big one. You know, I I come back to your to your premise in stories in life, and I was thinking about it last night. There's there's a phrase. If you want to be successful in life, it's really easy. Just pick good parents. It's really simple, right? But in my case, it's so true. And I think about my parents, and I was thinking about them last night in the in the in the back of this office right now. I was thinking about all the stories of a career in Hollywood and QVC. And I saw, you know, these um have these purple hearts on the wall, which are my dad's brothers, and this article from the newspaper that's on my wall of my mom and dad. And and they grew up in the Great Depression, you know, they grew up in that era, in that era of, you know, you're not gardening because you want to grow arugula, you know. Right. They're growing carrots and potatoes for sustenance. And they they brought that sense of humility to me early on. And uh, I mean, I can jump right into a story. If you want a story in life, Mark, I can share a story of that kind of encapsulates part of my dad's journey. Because I know you're a history buff. Yeah, go for it. Would you like to hear it? Go for it. My dad's it's my dad's baseball

Pearl Harbor Baseball Story

Rick Domeier 6:07

story. And he, oh yeah, Rick, I'll tell you about my baseball story here. And my dad was stationed on the USS Boise. This was during peacetime. And at that time, on Sundays, on their days off, they had baseball teams where one ship would play a game against another ship, right? And my dad was a pitcher in that game, and they lost the game. He was a losing pitcher, and afterwards they had some beers and oh, we'll get you next time. Oh, yeah, that kind of talk. And a couple days later, my dad's ship was ordered to um escort a merchant marine ship, so they were out of port. And that kind of encapsulates that little a little story of what his life was like. But what I didn't tell you is when that baseball game happened and where that baseball game happened. The baseball game happened in 1941 at a place called Pearl Harbor. And the team he played against was the USS Arizona. When the boys who was at sea, they got word all hands on deck, all hands on deck. Pearl Harbor had been attacked, and every person, every guy on that team that my dad played against was lost. Because as we all know, over 1,100 men were lost on the Arizona. And my dad found out in the middle of the ocean that he was now part of what was to become World War II. And that, like trying to wrap my head around that as a small town kid, hearing those kinds of stories, hearing stories of when he was in a battle where 107 men were lost in 27 minutes, things like that happened. And I just grew up with a sense of um of humility and the past and what that was all about, you know, what what what they went through. And I think we carry those stories with us. That was kind of the first part, please.

Mark Wolak. Host 8:23

Yeah, no, that's uh that's very grounding. And I think that we were blessed by being the children of these people who had to really live hard scrabble lives, yeah, and they had a sense of gratitude about small things, you know, and and um it's so different today. It's hard for people, I think, to maybe understand what that was like. But that's one of the reasons Joe wanted to ask you that question, because it's very grounding for a human being to start like that with parents who are so uh hard scrabble, right?

Rick Domeier 8:58

Also want to add to that, absolutely I agree, is that by the time I was born, I was born in 61. Like, hey, life was pretty doggone good. I grew up in in a small town, small school. You could make the team, you know, they're doing the play Tom Sawyer. Well, maybe I should be Tom Sawyer. Okay. Maybe I should be president of the school. It was you'll find yourself winning, you know, you find yourself with no prejudice. There was virtually no crime. You didn't lock the door. This is like late 60s, and it was there was no real sense of maybe Joe can expound on this, of rich and poor, of class systems. We were all kind of on this level. So looking back on that, it was pretty nice. I was extremely fortunate to be in that era.

Joe Boyle, Host 9:56

The closest thing to class was if you lived up on the hill, then you were considered a little bit little upper crust.

Rick Domeier 10:07

Exactly right. So we were given these, uh I was given the the values of my parents, had per perspective on back in the day, it was always there. But then from for our lives, at least for me, um, it was wonderful. So that one side of the coin was the small town, kind of like Tom Sawyer kind of life. You can Mayberry, yeah. You got it. The other side of the coin was by the time uh we got to be 14, 15, 60, now we're in the 1970s. The small town becomes, ah, what's this small town? Like you start to like really look at the shiny objects, at least I did. You know, there's more out there, yeah. There's more out there, and you're seeing, and

Small Town Freedom Meets Big Dreams

Rick Domeier 10:56

I remember seeing Dr. J slam dunk and leave from the free throw line, and Pete Merovich and Joe Namath and and and sports, and then there was the explosion of rock music, you know, there was that what is happening? So I'm in this little itty bitty town, and Led Zeppelin flies into a city on a private jet and then meets all the girls and does the concert, and then they fly. Well, that's another planet, right? And and then my and then there was for me, there was TV. And my mom on her days off, she worked at a at a local supermarket for many, many years, and she liked to watch like all my children and and Susan Lucci and The Price is Right. And I would ask questions. I would watch American Bandstand with Dick Clark and the Carol Burnett show. And I would ask, like, how where is that done? How where where do they do that? Do they do that in Lafayette? Is that in Vencato? Where do they know? That's in California. I'm like here to there. How do I get from where? What is that like? And why is it only sunny there? Because it's too below right now, and I have to go shovel from that dichotomy of loving the small town, and then being like fascinated by that world out there, probably looking back now, gave me um an exaggerated, I will say this, an exaggerated sense of self. Like, hey, sure, hell, I was Tom Sawyer, Hollywood. Here I come. Yeah, you gotta start somewhere. Exactly right. So that kind of sums that chapter up.

Mark Wolak. Host 12:43

Oh, that's great. I I don't want to hone in on uh Joe's next question too much, but if this leads there, uh take us there. So uh what was your first move in that direction? Was it school? Was it just going out to the west coast to try something?

Bus To California And First Roles

Mark Wolak. Host 13:01

Yeah, so there was a bus involved, not a car.

Rick Domeier 13:06

There was a bus ride, there was a risk, um, and there was uh the chance to uh to take that, okay, hey, hello world, here I am, and kind of put that to work. Find a job, find an acting school, the San Francisco Theater Academy, um, then Southern California and South Coast Repertory, doing theater, small theater, meeting people. Oh, you're you want to form a theater group? Okay, taking classes, acting classes. An agent came to one of those named Dick Lovell. That was his name. He was such a small agent that when you called the agency, Dick Lovell answered the phone. It's not like three assistants. So let me see if Dick's available. Not Lovell here, Lovell like that is small. But he was he was uh critical for me because um I'm there, I'm now in Long Beach, California, and I call home and I tell Lester and Phyllis, yeah, I got four lines on days of our lives. And they was like, what does that mean? On the TV, yeah, on the TV. It's just like three channels, like this channel, a small little part in lottery and in a little little um um St. Elsewhere, and then I had and then I got my SAG card actually because I had one line, um, put it over there, we'll get to it later, in a movie called Teen Wolf with Michael J. Fox. So that's how I that's how I went from being like a little part in a soap to like the screen actor skill.

Joe Boyle, Host 14:50

So that was again, um stop you right there. I was in Korea in the service, and and they're they were showing movies, and I saw Teen Wolf. And I'm sitting there with a few of my buddies, and I go, Hey, that's my friend Rick Domeyer. And they were like, sure. I said, watch when the credits roll, it's gonna say Rick or Richard Domeyer, and sure enough, it went by and they went, damn.

Rick Domeier 15:18

It was yeah, that's great, that's great, and that's how it felt. And and then it, you know, and and and then I got this this this horror. I was in Die Hard 2, uh, had a couple lines with Bruce Willis, and and then I got this horror movie, Evil Dead 2, which is now I had a part. Like this is a movie, and it was a it was a it was a bigger role that lives to this day. Like I still go to Comic Cons. Um cult classic, yeah. Cult classic. Um, and so that kind of encapsulates, you know, where I thought I was going. Like, here we go. It's gonna be only a couple of days, and rock star status. What I didn't realize was that you can I saw other actors in acting class who were like 42 years old and still doing cop number four in an episode of TJ Hooker. Oh, oh, that was that's interesting. So I do I I I have a story on what life it was like in the 80s. I've never told it before. Would you like to hear that story? Sure, sure.

Almost Famous: Auditions And 48 Hours

Rick Domeier 16:26

That's why we're here, man. Okay, it's a two-episode story. I'll tell you episode one. You tell me if you want episode two. Okay, okay. I've never told this before. So I got the call from my agent. I'm 27 or 28 years old. And my agent says, You have an audition for the lead on the young and the restless, the Jack Abbott role. Cue the music, Joe. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Right. About 30 minutes later, another call comes in. And look, there's more. There's a uh primetime news program called CBS 48 Hours, and a very famous reporter, Bernie Goldberg. They're doing an hour primetime special on national television on soap operas. And one of the segments is going to be on producer in writing, one of the segments is going to be casting about. They're going to follow an actor auditioning for a role. You're the guy. And we need more footage on this. So a couple of days later, we want to give you a small role on the sister show, the bold and the beautiful, to come into Television City and do a bit part so we can get some interview footage. So all of a sudden, like double the stress, double the high of okay, mind blow, right? Here's my chance. Yep. Here's my chance. Yep. This is kind of big. So I get that what's called the sides, a little script. All of a sudden, uh, a couple days later, here comes the crew to my house from Redado Beach with Bernie Goldberg. And they got, you know, you're I'm I'm suddenly on this kind of reality show before there was a reality show. And I'm there with my roommate Chris, and we're running lines and I'm yucking it up a little bit. And I hop into my beat up Honda Civic and I make my way to Television City in Hollywood, a very famous place where again the Carol Burnett show, Bolden the Beautiful, a lot of these shows were filmed, these classic shows. I sign in, go up into the waiting room, other actors are there. They're like, who's this clown with the with the freaking cameras on him? You know what I mean? And I'm kind of yucking it up. I do the audition with Bill Bell, the executive producer, and it went well. I come out of the audition, cameras are still there. How'd it go? How'd it go? I'm like, it went well. But I had like a styrofoam coffee cup that was shaking, like yucking it out. I'm fine, I'm fine. No, really. It's gonna be great. It's gonna be great. I get home, and now it's time for me to come back a couple days later to do the bold and the beautiful. Well, once I drive my Honda Civic back up, check in. Well, now I'm back at Television City, and there's a change. I felt like really comfortable. And I'm walking around Television City, and I'm like, the guy, the people are looking, and I'm I'm feeling like, hey, how you doing? How are you doing there, Mr. Barker? Right. I I went up the elevator to the second floor where um wardrobe was. Alan Alda was on the elevator. Absolutely true, like Mr. Alda from MASH Fame on this side. I get down and now I go into the little. Here's where it gets interesting. I get into the studio to do my little part of the bold and the beautiful, right? My two lines, restaurant scene. I'm a waiter, got my waiter. And there were some extras who were there in the scene. And one of them was this lovely young lady. Jennifer, I think. She was naive, like she just came from Iowa. You know what I mean? Like she's just coming to Hollywood and you know, blonde and like um Vera Fawcett, Sheryl Ladd, Jennifer Fawcett Ladd. Let's just call her Jennifer Fawcett Ladd, right? Okay. Well, guess what? She's not looking at the other actors, she's looking at the new guy with the cameras on. And you know, during a break, you know, it's like, hi. I'm like, yeah, all of a day's work for a working actor, you know. During an interview with 48 hours, doing my best Barney fight, you know, yeah. Well, what are you gonna do? And you're and I do my little thing. Day's over. Um, I walk out towards the parking lot, about to go to my car, and who's at the entrance? Jennifer Fawcett Ladd. Walking out to the car. So where am I right now? I'm like young and the restless, 48 hours, bold and the beautiful, Jennifer Fawcett Ladd. And I'm sharing this exuberance, and as I'm sharing it, I'm looking, and I can see her wheels are starting to turn. And she's like, wait a minute. You're not the new guy on the show. You're like me. She didn't say that, but we get to my and then we get to my You saw the light bulb go on as soon as I saw the Honda Civic, and there she saw it, and I asked for the number. And not like cell phones, like you write it down on a piece of paper, and I call the number the next day. Dude, you got the wrong number. She gave me the wrong number. She saw the civic, gave me the wrong number two days later. I find out I don't get the part. And

Rejection, Resilience, And A New Direction

Speaker 1 22:04

that night I go back to my bartending job. So I become almost famous too. Would you like this margarita with salt or without salt?

Joe Boyle, Host 22:17

Oh fickle Hollywood 101.

Mark Wolak. Host 22:20

That is episode one. So we've got listeners out there who are gonna want to know what did you do about that? How did you reshape uh the circumstances? Uh, you know, resilience is a word, but what did you do to to dig deeper and still make good things happen? That must be part two.

Rick Domeier 22:45

That is part two. It's a great question, Mark. I really appreciate it. So uh here's what happened. So pivot time. The 48 hours episode comes out and it airs. And it was kind of funny, and I was comfortable being myself, not acting in the role. A manager calls, contacts me, and said, Would you like to have lunch? I had lunch. He said, I see a host there. Have you ever thought of doing that, being a game show host? And I was like, What the heck are you talking about? I'm I'm you know, I'm I I'm studying Shakespeare. I'm and no, seriously, think about this commercials, spokespeople to him. That was step one. And two, once that aired, I went back to our hometown and went to a German polka festival called the Heritage Fest. And it was there that I met an even more beautiful young blonde named Amy, who gave me the right number. And we've been married for 28 years now, and uh we have two kids, and so it that that is kind of like things happen for a reason. Things happen for a reason. Maybe you have to pivot, maybe you have to not get your head against the wall, maybe you have to call the audible, and maybe you know, um, the greatest gifts are unanswered prayers kind of thing, you know what I mean? You don't get something, but what I got from that was actually something, strangely enough, far greater.

Joe Boyle, Host 24:27

Right. Yeah, yeah. And and don't underestimate I know where you came from because I came from the same place, and there was a work ethic that got instilled in us in that little town, whether you're working at Dunheim's dairy or I know you did, so did I. Um what else did you do?

Rick Domeier 24:51

Growing up, yeah. Yeah, your your jobs. Oh my gosh. Well, there was there was detasseling corn, then I painted fences, then I uh was a a very well-known garbage man in our town in high school. Mark, I don't know if you know that. I didn't know that. Brands dandy sanitation service. Uh everybody knew Rick. Yeah, I was sanitation engineer. Hung on the back. Yeah. And and then, and then uh Dunheim's dairy was glass bottles, milk in glass bottles. There was that. And then once I got to LA, I mean, you know, that restaurant scene, the bartending scene, that whole thing, you you could make a living. You had to work hard. But it was I was also a bartender at that time, right when like the movie Cocktail came out. Oh, yeah, sure. So I was like, like trying to, you know, spin the bottle before you pour the vodka in. It was that kind of downtown LA kind of vibe. So to your point though, Joe, it was work ethic. What maybe lesson learned from story, what what can I do? You know, when I when I made that transition to QVC, which what became then QVC?

Find Your Sport

Rick Domeier 26:02

I really look on it as, and maybe I can get your wisdom on this, your guys' wisdom, but playing a different sport, you know. I think I think to find your sport. What's your sport? You think about a great basketball player, you know, you think about this is some iconic basketball players. Try putting hockey skates on those guys, right? How are they doing? How are they doing? Right? Can all of them hit a curveball? A lot of them cannot hit a curveball, right? Um, a lot of golfers can't dunk. So finding that sport is uh call it a niche, call it a sport, I think is uh is something that I try to instill in my two boys, you know. You can have the dream. You can be one of the 40,000 people that try out for American Idol, you know. You're not, it's my dream. It's my calling. Well, not all of you are going to get it. Right.

Joe Boyle, Host 26:57

So what can you how can you pivot in order to um what's another niche I can I can fit into? And you fit into you talk about a pivot, uh Rick. Uh you pivoted from uh uh auditioning for uh for parts in commercials, in soap operas, in movies on the on the west coast where it's nice and sunny and warm. And and you pivoted to uh the other side of the country and uh uh home shopping network network that was just getting launched. Can you explain that?

Rick Domeier 27:38

So well said, and uh along with that pivot from scripted to unscripted. So now there's this thing called extemporaneous speech, which I've come to find out a lot of people can't do. We have actors who come onto QVC as guests, and it's like where's the teleprompter? There is no teleprompter. You got three hours here are some cards, go. Secondly, um, it was a big pivot for me, massive pivot, into corporate America, into corporate America, which Joe, you know so well. Uh, you guys both know um corporate culture. For me, it was international manufacturing, Ebita, margin, product development. I mean, all these words were like coming at me, you know, things that I I was really ignorant of. And I thought at first, this is another the lies we tell ourselves, the lies we tell ourselves. There was a part of me that was thinking maybe I was taking a step down into home, you know, from from acting into home shopping. And all my friends were saying in LA were saying the same thing. You know, you're going into home shopping. Um, and now looking back, I'm like, dude, what elevated you know status did you have as an actor? You had four lines on TJ Hooker. Who are you? Listen, De Niro, you know, yeah, and what I really had to do was step up because these were educated people who went to Penn, who went to Villanova. Um, and this was an exploding business that when I got there in October of 24, and this is key, Mark. You know what else started in 1994? Amazon. So this thing called the internet was mind-blowing, actually, because we don't even can't comprehend a time before that, right? This is like, okay, what's happening? How is this evolving? So that pivot was was huge, and that required some some humility, to your point, and some work I had to learn.

Art From the Heart

Joe Boyle, Host 29:51

And now it's time for stories in life. Art from the heart, deep thoughts from the shallow end. Each episode we bring you a poem, a song, or a reading just for you.

Mark Wolak. Host 32:31

And so there's a common belief, I think, in our culture that it's really easy to be successful. The hero's journey, there's adversity, there's there's challenges that you have to work through. And one of them is you have to have humility to admit that you're wrong or that you aren't smart enough and you need to learn more. So I really like that part of your story because uh listeners, we've got listeners all over the country, all over the world. That is what gets people to a place in their life where they're happy and fulfilled. It isn't just wealth, it's the accumulation of experience, it's wisdom, it's uh looking back on your life and saying, yeah, that was really, really hard, and I'm so glad I did it. I love that.

Joe Boyle, Host 33:18

And you may have been questioning yourself for the rest of your life if you didn't take that pivot at the time.

Rick Domeier 33:24

And by the way, uh just so we know, just so we're sure, Mark, um, prior to this, right? I was very uh unsure of whether or not I should have taken this this opportunity that presented itself. And so here's another lesson in the stories in life. Um talk to good people, talk to smart people, talk to trusted people. So one of the people I I was a counselor and a coach to me was uh my coach Joe Boyle. I called him and he counseled me to kind of did a lot of listening, did a lot of listening. Yeah, but you also said, look, if you if you don't take it, will you regret not giving it a shot, not taking it? Um and that that was important, and I really appreciate you being there at that time. That was that was really important, Joe. And I I I mean that.

Joe Boyle, Host 34:20

Well, I appreciate that a lot, and I'm glad I could be of some help to you. Do I owe you for that?

Rick Domeier 34:25

Is there some sort of annuity because like you owe me you owe me big time? Mark, to your point about this, about this just doing it, the the and the work ethic, and people think it comes easy. If there is now I'm here, now I'm at this place, right? And I'm learning and it's growing and all of that. And then um I have to now continue to learn and grow, and they send me across the planet. I'm learning about albasan rugs, climbing the great wall of China. They fly me to Italy to learn how gold is made. I went to Germany to learn this is true, how cuckoo clocks were made, because we had 24 hours of our Oktoberfest celebration, right? Stein, all of these things. And along with that, I meet these people, these famous people. And I get to know Joan Rivers and I get to know what she's about, so much so that I was invited, a few of us were invited to her funeral, which was wild because you you needed a ticket to get in. That's how, like, it was a big event. But all the people that I met along the way, Susan Lucci, Suzanne Summers, the music people, Quincy Jones, Quincy Jones, one of the coolest people I've ever met in my entire life. Ray Davies from the Kinks, Merle Hagar, David Crosby, they have um a common denominator. They all work their butts off, man. They're all working. Joan would be on selling her jewelry, and I were on at nine o'clock p.m. She gets there at seven. Where how are you? Well, I just I just flew in. I just flew in from London. What do you mean you just flew in from London? She just been TVC UK. Or she just did a stand-up at a small club in Manhattan the night before. They do it, they keep on going and they keep on working, and that's why they're successful, you know, and and and um they love what they do and they keep it going. And that was always uh a conscious and unconscious uh learning for me through the years that kind of kept me going for the last now. It's been 31

Male Friendship, Counsel, And Connection

Rick Domeier 36:35

years.

Mark Wolak. Host 36:35

Yeah, that's crazy. So I don't want to go too quickly past that you reached out to people for counsel, that you had a group of trusted friends who you connected with, because the other thing that Joe and I have paid attention to while we've been podcasting is the isolation of men in our culture and how are men finding ways to rely on the counsel of other men to help them with the hard things in their lives. So, you know, we don't need to get off on that today, but it's been something we've been kind of exploring and listening for. So thank you for also it's a small mention, but a really big deal that you reached out to Joe and other friends for advice.

Rick Domeier 37:23

I'm happy to jump into it because I know this is gonna be a three-part episode because I just won't shut up. It's just gonna have to find out. Does this guy ever come to the end of a sentence? That's what Mark is writing down right now. He's texting Joe in real time. We're never gonna make it. There are there are people that I follow. People that I follow who are uh uh really immersed in this, a guy named Scott Galloway. In fact, he's got a best-selling book right now called Notes from a Dad, I believe it's called. Um I just heard him being a man. I just heard him on the best people uh podcast. He's good. I bought two copies of the book. Um, I am also a dad of two sons. So his um his immersion into this what's going on with young men in our society, um, and it's not pretty, um, is something I listen to very, very closely. And uh I love that you guys are involved in that. And I now as I'm making no major announcements here today, but I, you know, I'm I'm gonna be officially a senior citizen in January. I'll be 65. I'm looking at next chapters.

Joe Boyle, Host 38:30

There you go.

Rick Domeier 38:30

I've heard stories about that where where men are isolated, men don't ask for help, men don't want to be vulnerable, men get close or trusting, yeah. Or trusting. They wanna they get set in their ways, and that is something that I want to fight, fight, and to continue to learn. And there's there's a lot that there's ways to do it online, but but that touching base is critically important. I do have these round tables that I have with buddies of mine that I work with. Um, and that's one of the things we do. We talk about it. You know what I mean? Let's keep these, let's keep these going. You have to. Um Mark does that too.

Mark Wolak. Host 39:10

Do you really? Yeah, I've got a group of, in fact, our call is tonight. Every two weeks we do an hour. It's a group of five or six of us who make a connection. Um, everybody's really busy. Uh, I'm the only retired guy in the group. The rest are all in their 40s and 50s, having babies, important jobs. And it's a check-in, you know, just to see how you're doing.

Rick Domeier 39:34

Uh that whole that whole like in the weeds in your 40s, 30s, 40s, 60s, man. I know that so well. We all know that in the weeds. Like you're just you're just grinding. So what a what a wonderful gesture on your part.

Mark Wolak. Host 39:47

Yeah, it's good for me too. It's good for me too. I I think um, you know, with the spirit of our conversation today, the three of us could have a conversation about how we could help you in that transition. You know, we've got experience now podcasting, so we could, you know, probably give you some tips on technology and software.

Rick Domeier 40:08

And oh, so here we go. So when I start my own podcast, listen, this is it starts. I think this is that's what this this is actually a counseling service. Wait, this is a call to action now? Really, for three easy payments of $4,522. We'd be happy to give you guys to give you, Rick, all you need to know about the next year. All you need to know. All you need to do. The retirement coaching uh association of Mark and Joe. Um I but but but it's look, I'm I'm really interested in it. I'm interested in longevity. Like when people say, Are you interested in longevity? Like, no, I want to die tomorrow. Of course I'm interested in longevity, isn't that the whole point? But what that means in Peter Atia and all these guys who are realizing now that you know, when Social Security first came out, the average, the life expectancy was what, like 68. So, yeah, let's make it 65. Because it makes economic sense. Yeah, and now we're living, if you make it to 65, you got a good chance of getting to 85. And so it's uh the the go-go years, the slow go years, the no-go years, right? Uh, there's wealth span, there's health span. And so I'm all in with this in a big way. And um, and I feel like I mean, one one of my goals is to because I I love like I go to the gym every day, it's one of the things I do. I love to lift still, um, and to maybe help other guys, you know, in that space and say, look, what can and and it's not like I I bench 350, you know what I mean? It's more like, can you stand on one leg for 120 seconds? Yeah, those kinds of things, you know what I mean? Those kind of like, can you hang from a bar now for six? So those kind of longevity things I'm I'm I'm interested in.

Mark Wolak. Host 41:58

Yeah, and I and I actually am serious about um sharing all our information about how what we've learned, you know, if it's something that you want to do, we we can give you all the tips on equipment, software, all of that. No, I love it.

Joe Boyle, Host 42:12

Just friends. You answered you answered a few of my questions without me even asking them here. So let's uh speaking of pivoting a little bit, uh I want to ask you, are you optimistic about the future, you know, for your kids, for yourself, for your your your marriage? Uh where where do you see this going?

Rick Domeier 42:34

Oh Jesus, yeah. Uh it um so I am I am a pathological optimist. Yes, you are uh a pathological optimist means that they have a tendency to be more successful and not because they're smarter, because they try again and they get up and they try again and try again, hey, this time it's gonna work. Hey, so I'm gonna have to take that and and run with it. Um, I am trying, and within this journey, the one thing that I I'm not gonna let fall through the cracks here is that once I got to Q, you know, I became a dad. I became a family man. And so as soon as you hear the crying kid, you know, everything changes in your your paradigm shifts, as Stephen Covey says. Uh that that miraculous paradigm shift, and that's your focus and provider, man, must feed, child. And that's so critically important. That was that's that's the mission, that's the legacy, that's what I want to hand out to those guys, right? But to answer your question, does it element scare the hell out of me? Absolutely. I mean, I I've been playing with with AI, and I've been asking it, and I've been it's it's it's creating things and writing songs for me, and I created a song, uh and it just happened. All the music was all there. And I'm seeing what it's gonna how it's gonna impact. That's the positive. I'm seeing how it's gonna impact jobs. And I got these two guys, right? And so it's a changing environment. My hope is that America, humanity, the constitution, these things that have held the fabric together for oh so many years, you know. If you're watching um Ken Burns The American Revolution on PBS right now, wonderful. Um, you you you you hold that to be true, that we're gonna be okay. You gotta go there. And B, you gotta go there with some with some common sense. You know, and the common sense is you've got to continue to pivot, you have to continue to evolve, you have to continue to grow. Another pivot that we another element that we're sharing with with our guys is that, you know, again, we're blessed. We're blessed with, you know, my parents were married for 61 years. We're flying out to Arizona to see my in-laws in February there for their 60th anniversary. We just celebrated 28. So we're kind of saying, because my son just got engaged, you know, this is good. This is this family thing is good, it's strong. So, you know, David Viscott once said, I'm a big fan of this guy, David Viscott. Um, he's no longer with us, but he said that the the purpose of life is to realize the gifts you've been given. Just realize it. Yeah, the work of life is to develop those gifts. Yes, and the meaning of life comes in returning those gifts. Yes. So realize it, develop it and give it back. So that's kind of where I'm where my paradigm is at right now. I know I've blown it about an eight million times, um, and will continue to make mistakes again, but that's where I'm coming from as far as they're concerned. And then when you because that was a big question, Joe, that that is a circle of concern and a circle of influence. You know, your concern, ah, what's I mean, that is out there. I also try to tell them that if all you do with your life is sit on the internet and gripe about the circle of concern and do nothing about the circle of influence, that ain't the way to go. Right. Yeah. So you've got to worry about this first and allow that to grow. A little highfalutin there. I didn't know we were gonna go in this. No, no, no, no, that's okay.

Mark Wolak. Host 46:48

No, that's wonderful. I want to uh add this to your your thoughts too, that you know, we came from parents and from a society that had a great deal of character, and the character was expressed in community, in church, in schools, in commitments. People made mistakes, but they gave us, I think, a tremendous amount of character. So that when I went into the jobs I had to go into and I had to decide, am I gonna tell the truth or not, I'm gonna tell the truth. Even if it means I might lose my job or I might be criticized for telling the truth. So I think that one of the challenges in this in this shift we're making in this developing society is to get grounded in the truth, not AI, not politics. What is the truth of circumstances in life? And then what's the character for the human condition? What do we want to give people? What do we want to do for others as opposed to just think about ourselves? So there's I think there's a lot there that we we probably need to schedule another podcast with you.

Rick Domeier 48:02

I can just can I just like you guys, your next one. Can I just like be off on the side? I'll just be hanging out with you guys. I'll just third wheel on the no, I'm just hey, I I I couldn't agree more. And uh I love that you guys are are vulnerable enough to want to go there, um risking enough to want to go there because it's not where most alpha men are. You know what I mean? That's correct. Yep. Attack, attack. It's go at it. And so that the art of listening, the art of wanting to understand, seek what Stephen Covey called the seven habits of highly effective people, which I love. I could do an hour on it right now. Um, you know, seeking to understand and then to be understood, you know, yeah, and have it stick synergy. Is there a way that you and I can come together and come up with a third idea that's actually better? That's actually better. That kind of thing is really important. So yeah, yeah. So that's where I'm at.

Joe Boyle, Host 49:10

Well, you you're at a good spot, I think. And uh you've learned a lot, you've applied yourself in many different ways to succeed, but hindsight is always 2020, right? So when you look back on the last 50 years, would you have done anything differently to accomplish your the goals that you found yourself accomplishing? Or not?

Rick Domeier 49:41

Um yeah. Like some of the risks I took were not positive risks and and not necessarily appropriate for this podcast. Um uh, you know, there was some there were some dumb things. Like, yeah, that was dumb. That was what the heck. Um, no doubt about it. So got lucky there. Um and learned from it. And learned from it. But some of the big choices, again. Covey talks about, you know, the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. You know, was I was a true north on on what on the direction. You know, I think I knew enough about myself when I was young to know I'm sitting in in math class and like Chuck Milbauer's, you know, go, uh, X equals three. And I'm like, how the freaking heck did you know that? How do you like three hours later? Oh yeah, X equals three. Like that's not where I'm gonna go. Yeah, not gonna go, I'm not gonna do research. There were like the but I was still in a smart kid reading group, and so when we did speech class, um some of those people got really nervous. And I was like, hey, what's going on? Hey, good morning. So I think overall I went the right route. I was blessed with and blessed with, as I mentioned, great, great parents, great friends. You know, Catholicism growing up and faith, I would question, I would be sent to the office for asking too many questions, and and and how is this problem of evil and all of these kinds of things? But something about the DNA of the essence of a lot of it um infused me and Joe and other people, friends, sure, with some positive values, oh yeah, kind of like some true North values. Um, and then I was and then the other thing is I was blessed with marrying an angel. I mean, if you can marry an angel, if you can if you can find someone who is like incredibly loving, incredibly kind, incredibly nice, and wants to build a family, like don't screw that one up. Yeah, yeah, you are made of fortune. Just say yes. So it's just so have I made mistakes? Yeah, do I regret? Yeah, but in the big things, um, I'm incredibly grateful. And um yeah, yeah. And when the QVC thing came around, I mean it changed my life. And I was I I I I for some reason I could play that sport, and I'm still playing the sport.

Joe Boyle, Host 52:39

So you embraced it, yeah.

Rick Domeier 52:41

Yeah, big things. Uh yeah.

Mark Wolak. Host 52:43

So um we've asked a lot of questions. Is there something that you really wanted us to ask you?

Rick Domeier 52:53

No, you guys are great. You really are. I didn't know what the which way this was gonna go. I didn't know if it was gonna be um anecdotal. I didn't know if this is gonna be just like uh like I had my stories have stories. Like, you know, like my story, like okay, yeah, like I get asking, what was this what was the goofiest thing that ever happened on QVC? You know what I mean? I could answer that, I could tell stories on that. Um, I didn't know which way you were gonna go. Um which is a good story, by the way. Um so makes us a four-parter, but but you guys went deeper than that and and more heartfelt than that. And uh I appreciate it.

Closing Comments

Joe Boyle, Host 53:34

Well, Mark, I told you Rick was gonna be a high-energy guest. Yeah, he certainly was. And he delivered. Um yeah, he's he's been a friend of mine for for so long. He's always been a an optimist, he's always been a goal getter, he he's kind of uh the ringleader in in some respects. Uh how things are gonna go. How how do we make it more fun? Uh he's always been that way, and uh that's what makes him cool.

Mark Wolak. Host 54:08

Yeah, it was a lot of fun to get to know him in this interview, and I'm sure we'll have some follow-up with him in the future. I was really struck by his authenticity, his honesty. Uh he's a hard worker like you, both you guys, man. I I mean the the the history of your early employment, you with your newspaper route and him with his stories of cleaning bottles and working for the sanitation department. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Joe Boyle, Host 54:34

What struck me was his uh gratitude, his gratefulness for how everything played out and and what it means to him and his family.

Mark Wolak. Host 54:44

Uh you know, that's important. Aaron Powell Yeah, he definitely is a learner. You know, he spoke about that, uh he was willing to learn, and I think for our listeners, this notion that you just need to keep on keeping on. Right. And find your sport, he said. That was great. So he found his. He certainly did. It'll be fun to have him come back someday and oh here I I I smell a part two. Oh, that's great. That's wonderful. Well, thank you, Joe. That was a great, a great uh guest for our show. Thank you.

Joe Boyle, Host 55:18

Music from today's

Music Credits

Joe Boyle, Host 55:19

show began with shopping by the bare naked ladies from their 2003 album, Everything to Everyone. Then for our Art from the Heart, we played Life Is What You Make It, a single by Graham Colden from 2016. And we're wrapping things up with the classic Good Riddance Time of Your Life by Green Day from their 1997 album Nimrod.