BeTempered
BeTempered
BeTempered Episode 27 - Eric VanVleet's Journey of Strength, Mentorship, and Purpose
Eric VanVleet's story is one of resilience, transformation, and the pursuit of purpose. Picture a young boy moving from the bustling streets of New York to a quieter life in Richmond, facing the peculiar challenge of paying ransom for his gym clothes—a seemingly trivial event that sparked a lifelong passion for weightlifting. At 74, Eric still carries the humor and drive from those formative years, viewing life as a finite gift and urging us to seize every moment. This episode reveals Eric's introspective nature and how his high school football experience laid the groundwork for his strength and resilience.
The 1970s posed uncertainty for Eric as he navigated the Vietnam War draft and an ill-fitting stint in a do-it-yourself car repair shop. Guided by mentors like Dave Blackman and Bob Broscheid and supported by the Richmond YMCA community, Eric found his calling in the insurance industry, eventually founding Van Vliet Insurance at 31. His journey underscores the invaluable lessons of mentorship and learning from failure, illustrating how resilience can lead to true fulfillment and success.
Eric's story also celebrates the power of relationships in business and life. From managing a business to fostering family ties, he reflects on the growth that comes from stepping out of comfort zones. With inspiration from figures like Elon Musk, Eric navigates his personal and professional legacy, sharing heartfelt memories of his father's transformation and their evolving relationship. This episode is a touching tribute to friendship, mentorship, and the bonds that extend beyond business into enduring family relationships. Join us as we celebrate Eric's inspiring journey and the life lessons he's gathered along the way.
Hi, my name is Allie Schmidt. This is my dad, Dan. He owns Catron's Glass.
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Speaker 3:Welcome to the Be Tempered Podcast, where we explore the art of finding balance in a chaotic world.
Speaker 2:Join us as we delve into insightful conversations, practical tips and inspiring stories to help you navigate life's ups and downs with grace and resilience.
Speaker 3:We're your hosts, Dan Schmidt and Ben Spahr. Let's embark on a journey to live our best lives. This is Be Tempered. What's up everybody. Welcome to the Be Tempered podcast, episode number 27. 27. We keep rocking and rolling on down through here and today we have a man who is a great family friend. Eric Van Vliet, is here to join us on the Be Tempered podcast.
Speaker 4:Hello gentlemen, good to see you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's great to have you, eric Son. Brad and I were four-year college roommates at the University of Dayton and we've done a lot of family stuff together out at the lake and been on a lot of different trips, as Brad and I, you know, played football across the country, so we have a little bit of a history.
Speaker 4:Sure, do yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and had a lot of fun times and you've had a lot of fun with my parents.
Speaker 4:I got to know your parents and really enjoyed both of them. They've been good friends.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yes, but we want to dive into a couple things and what. I want to start off, eric, because I don't know a lot of your story as a young kid, but can you kind of talk about growing up?
Speaker 4:Sure, yeah, I'd be happy to. I actually was born in New York State, in Elmira, new York, the lower end of New York State. My dad was a Cornell grad and engineer. Natco, a national automatic tool company, brought us to Richmond when I was 12 years old. So I remember walking into Tess Middle School I believe it was the seventh grade and it was a unique experience because back then it was a rather mixed, eclectic group of kids. I wasn't used to that. I quickly found that I had to pay ransom to get my gym clothes and my gym shoes back. That was a unique experience.
Speaker 4:A couple of us were in that position. We weren't physically big, they didn't bother the really big kids, but a a few of us. They did. And I it really bothered me and a gentleman well, a father heard what our problem was. He said boys, you got to face this, you got to handle this yourself so I could solve it for you, but you're going to handle it yourself. Jim Carter, a good friend of mine, his dad was a banker here in town and he got us hooked up with a gentleman by the name of Bill Bagley and he started us lifting weights in the seventh grade and I sit before you at 74 years old and I'm still lifting weights. I still think somebody's going to come take my gym shoes and I know we're laughing. But I wonder sometimes. I'm at the planet six o'clock in the morning. What the heck am I doing?
Speaker 1:here. I'm 74 years old. I don't even know why I'm there.
Speaker 3:You know, that's great, you, you got right into it Cause I may have talked to a family member last evening and uh, I said, give me some some tidbits on your dad that I don't know, and, Brad, I'll rat him out. He said my dad lives life like someone's going to steal his lunch money. At 74 years of age, he's still grinding in the gym, at the office and volunteering at nonprofits. He does everything 100%. So my question to you is where does that drive come from?
Speaker 4:So my question to you is where does that drive come from? Well, you know I'm an introspective person, so I think about that a lot. My wife says I'm too introspective, and I probably am. You know, I look at life as a gift and you're here for so many years and it blows my mind that I'm 74 years into it, because I really thought I had a waiver, I thought I was immortal. But life is finite. You have a particular shelf life and I wanted to use it in the best way that I possibly could. I don't know why I got this sense that the sand is coming out of the oh, the Like hourglass, the hourglass so much. But I do. I think about that a lot and, uh, it tends to drive me. I and I find it more curious the older I get, at 74 years of age. Uh, what's wrong with me?
Speaker 3:Oh, that's all good. So you've been a part of a successful business that you started. But before you started Van Vliet Insurance, you did some other things. So you went to Richmond High School and then from Richmond well, let's start at Richmond you played athletics, you were on a football team, so kind of talk about that and then going into college.
Speaker 4:Yeah, the football experience at Richmond was a seminal moment in my life. We won a state championship. Um, I, uh and I attribute that to the weightlifting, to that situation back in the locker room in the seventh grade when people took my gym clothes, lunch money and I had to pay money to get them back Um, so I was in the weight room, ended up getting some strength and size as a result, was surrounded by a great group of guys, um, and we uh had an undefeated, mythical state championship football team, which was super cool. One of my buddies, steve Helmick, was just back this week and we were talking about it and enjoying the history and what happened there. Never saw it coming. We thought we were maybe a 500 football team. Just kept winning and winning and winning. Had some spectacular athletes on that team. I wasn't one of them, but I was glad to be on the bus, so it was a lot of fun be on the bus. So it was. It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 4:Uh, and I would say that was a defining moment in my life. Uh, maybe cause and effect because of the weightlifting, I ended up having this success in football and, uh, and I thought, okay, hard work pays off it. There's a connection there. Uh, I went down to Miami university. In my mind I was 6'5" 230 pounds. I wasn't 5'10" 185 pounds. I got recruited probably because we were on a state champion football team and Bo Schembechler was the coach the famous Bo Schembechler I'll never forget. I walked into his office, he looked at me and he said you're just a little blank, you can't play football.
Speaker 1:It solded me right off the bat.
Speaker 4:I'll never forget that. It was like it was yesterday and of course that made me mad. So I was going to prove to him I could play there. So I was a walk-on and went there and played with guys that were pros. Bob Babbage played for the Cleveland Browns, cleveland Dickerson played for New York Jets, several guys that were pros. Bob Babbage played for the Cleveland Browns, cleveland Dickerson played for New York Jets, several guys that were pros. I was banging with those guys at 18 years old on the freshman team because if you played college ball you're the meat squad.
Speaker 3:I see you nodding because you remember those days.
Speaker 4:And I definitely was the meat squad. But, bless my little heart, I did do pretty well. I started on the freshman team. Uh, I earned a little scholarship money and, uh, very little, but my parents appreciated it. But about a week before the season ended I got a crack back block ripped out my knee. Back then you could do crack back blocks so they'd hit you when you weren't even looking. Man, did that hurt I? I was, uh, I was done. That was a serious injury back then because you tore out all three connecting tissues. Oh wow, so that was the end of the football career and all of a sudden, a guy who defined himself as a football player, a weightlifter, uh, a beast, all of a sudden. I was a college student there in the early 70s. So the time of the marijuana world and that whole thing. I didn't participate, but I witnessed it and I had been separated by my athleticism and football guy. Now I had to find myself again. Where did I fit in the world? Because it was like being reborn.
Speaker 3:It was very difficult to find myself. Where did I fit in the world?
Speaker 4:Because it was like being reborn. It was very difficult to find myself.
Speaker 3:So you're done playing football. Your knee's blown out, you're rehabbing, you're in school. What pushed you to get through there and what direction did you go from there?
Speaker 4:Well, I really had an intellectual curiosity. I was a political science major. I really got into my classes. I loved writing, I enjoyed speaking. Much like you, Dan, I discovered something that really turned me on that. I enjoyed you with this show. We were just discussing that and kind of found a side of me I didn't know existed. I want to say an intellectual side, because family members and people that know me would laugh if I said it was intellectual. Let's just say I found a side that was different from the weightlifting. So yeah, it was an interesting journey. And then my wife had a lot to do with it. She was terrific. She came over from Southern Illinois University, I should add. She and I dated in the fifth, sixth and seventh grade.
Speaker 4:Okay, Then at that point I was in Illinois and then I moved here to Richmond okay um and we reconnected my senior year in high school and we've been together ever since and she was a big um advocate, supporter, extremely helpful in my life when I was in college and kind of lost, and of course we got along great. She was a huge part of my life, a cornerstone. And then we got married during my senior year, which was very unusual. Back then People didn't do that, but my wife was really the motivator behind that. She said, well, how much fun would it be? You didn't have to support yourself, you didn't have to go out and work and earn anything Damn. She was right. It was a lot of fun Be college students and it was a good idea. Thank you, honey.
Speaker 3:Good job, linda. Hey, so then you graduate from college and then you got to make a decision right what are you going to do with your life and where are you going to go? So how did that come about?
Speaker 4:Well, that was another interesting. Uh gosh, you're taking me down. This is a nightmare, dan. All the things that happened to me. Um, I got a college in 72, the Vietnam war was raging and, uh, a lot of people were getting drafted and it wasn't a hack happy circumstance to be sent over there. Now I had a serious knee injury, thinking I probably wouldn't be able to.
Speaker 4:Uh, I wouldn't have been drafted right uh, my, eventually my number never did get called, but I had to. I had to figure out what I was going to do with my life, uh, and get some direction it pretty quickly. So I ended up going to the Richmond YMCA. A good friend of mine, dave Blackman, older gentleman who ran the Y, hired me as a program director and that was my first job. Now I must say before that I started a business right before that. My dad gave me enough rope to hang myself. I started a do-it-yourself car repair shop. It was brilliant. It was brilliant on paper. I did that for 14 months, didn't know a darn thing about cars.
Speaker 3:I was just going to intervene and say you got two left hands. I can't imagine you working on cars. It was a disaster.
Speaker 4:I was what not to do in business school.
Speaker 4:They should have invited me in because, I was what not to be, what we're not to go. I think my dad was looking at me going. I wanted to go to law school. I couldn't get into law school because everybody was staying out of the draft. So they went to law school. I got wait-listed at the Solomon P Chase night school in Cincinnati. That's as close as I could get to law school. So I think my dad thought, well, I'm going to help this young man out. So we put a little bit of money in it and I had an eight bay do-it-yourself car repair shop. I got the idea out of the wall street journal, a front page article about how popular these were in the Chicago area. I went up and visited one, took notes at 22 years old and came back here and by golly we started. One even had a paint booth, hired a gentleman that was a mechanic, a backyard mechanic and he helped me because, to your point, I couldn't do anything. I was worthless.
Speaker 3:I didn't mean it like that thing. I was worthless.
Speaker 4:I didn't mean it like that Well, let's be honest, but yeah, so that that was a unique experience. Um, learned a lot about myself and uh, what, what you need to get into?
Speaker 3:just not business, but something that you have some aptitude for. So eight bays did you have? Did you have a couple of mechanics or just this one guy and you?
Speaker 4:Well, you would rent it for $4 an hour to come in. That was the rental so you could take off. Back in those days People did their own brake jobs, their own mufflers, their own tune-ups.
Speaker 3:Okay. So if I wanted to do an oil change on my own, but I didn't have a garage, I just had a house, I could come and pay you X amount of dollars to rent Pay you X amount of dollars to rent.
Speaker 4:Exactly Okay, and it makes some sense when you're thinking of your metropolitan area, like Chicago or New York, Richmond, Indiana. You could drive that bad boy up on a curb, loosen up the drain plug and let her go.
Speaker 3:So how long?
Speaker 1:did that go.
Speaker 4:About 14 months. Okay, it was an absolute disaster. My wife was teaching, we lived on I don't know $19,000 a year. That's when Dave Blackman took pity on me, offered me a job as a program director at the Richmond YMCA and interesting story there because the YMCA had a health club and all the city, gentry, if you will, business owners, people downtown were members of the health club great people and I'll be forever grateful to those folks because they, um, they took an interest in me, cared about me. They were 15, 20, 25 years older than I, was just a kid but they cared about me and and several of them put me on a path to starting my own business. They talked to me about it. One name is Bob Broscheid, who's still living I believe he's out in California. Earl Sharp, paul Lingo was down there, mike Lyons did, ted was involved and I loved the story of what they would look out for young people and help them find their way in this life.
Speaker 4:You don't find that much anymore. Everybody's on their cell phone or on a screen. But back then they took an interest and Bob Broche said I'll get you into the insurance business. I think you'd be good at it. I left the Y after about a year, got a job at Harrington Hope great people and learned the business and actually had a blueprint in my mind that I would start my own business at 30 years old.
Speaker 4:So I went in with that thought I was probably 22 or 23 then. And um, and that's kind of what I did at uh 31. Uh, I think I was 31 when I started Van Vliet insurance.
Speaker 3:Okay, and so you took all those mistakes from your auto repair business, right?
Speaker 3:Right and then what you learned at the Y and from those mentors. And here you are starting from the ground floor again, an insurance company. So what gave you that strength? Besides those people, after what you had been through, a lot of people would say, hey, I gave it a go, this business thing's not for me, I'm going to work for someone else. What gave you that drive to continue to say you know what? No, I can do this on my own and I'm going to do it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's a good question. I've always wanted to control my own destiny and and I don't know if I know where that came from, but the the uh gasoline alley thing didn't bother me at all. I've just figured that's. That's part of it. Maybe it was the overcoming uh back there in the middle school learning how to solve my own problem in the weight room. It gave you a sense of control, your own destiny. Maybe that's what planted that seed. Because it's interesting at the age of 74, I still seem to be driven by things that happened to me 50 and 60 years ago. I probably should have matured since then and maybe you have other guests that can help me with that, counseling me in some way, shape or form.
Speaker 3:but yeah, no, I think it's a great thing. I mean, I think that that you, you think you, you fall back on that when you were a young kid and you put the work in in the weight room and you had success on the football field, and you go off to college and you go in as this little shit, right, I'm sure that's what.
Speaker 3:Schembechler said Pardon my French, but you know it basically says you're not going to make it and go out there and and you work hard and you make the freshman team and then boom, you blow your knee out and now you're lost in life.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But, you keep falling back on as that young kid. And now here I am. I failed at one business but I'm going to do it again. So you, you start Van Vliet insurance, which, if anybody knows it today, it's uber successful. Uh, you know, you've got family involved in it and we'll get to that point. But those early years talk about, talk about the struggle and the, you know, getting things going and getting clients and customers, and and and how that went.
Speaker 4:You know it's very difficult and uh, uh, ignorance is bliss. I had no idea how hard it would be to start it. Uh, insurance is a low margin business and if you think of running around the maypole to get renewals, uh, you've got to do that for about five or six years. So you're literally starving for five or six years. And I remember I would work three nights a week. Every weekend I'd go in and do desk work for years and years and I remember telling my wife there's no money in this business, where are we going with this?
Speaker 4:I get so discouraged and I was burning up my youth. Like I said, I'm an introspective person. So I examined myself, maybe too often, and I'm thinking I'm using up my 20s and 30s in here, weekends and nights, working all the time. Where am I going with this? And it was very challenging bringing on people. I was in a partnership for a while that failed that after a period of time we established the business, but very, very difficult thing to start a business. I will be um very impacted by that experience my whole life and you know, looking at you, dan, I helped open the door for you to. You did have the same experience, thank you yeah, are you surviving?
Speaker 4:okay, it depends, what yeah yeah it, it's unique, but I know we both laugh. But it's really a neat experience to control your own environment. And then, ultimately, I get to work with my son and daughter-in-law, who are terrific people, and I enjoy the heck out of that. So at 74, I can look back and go. That was really smart. If I knew what the ending was, I had no idea how this story was going to end.
Speaker 3:Yeah, when you, when you're in the middle of the fire, you know, I think back on, you know we talked about it on a mentoring episode there a couple episodes ago. We're sitting on your back patio, uh, with you and Linda and Brad was there, I think Kelly was there and my wife Kim, and we were talking about, you know, Catron's glass and buying the business, and I just remember you know you saying you're going to live it, it's going to be your life. You have to understand that. It's not going to be something that you clock out at five o'clock and you go back in the next day and, um, you, I think you're right, Ignorance is bliss and I think that's important for anyone who is it, decides they're going to go out on their own.
Speaker 3:Is it's probably better not knowing some of the stuff? Um, and then that way, you, you figure it out along the way, because whether it's in sports or it's in business, or you're working for someone or whatever it is, you really find out who you are when your back's against the wall. Right, that's where you learn the most, that's where you blow your knee out and your back's against the wall and you're like you know what's my purpose in life, when am I going and I think it's important. So you know, I thank you for that mentorship early on.
Speaker 3:I cuss you for some of the people that you some of the people that you recommended me hire to work for me, because I think there was some pain involved. You know, maybe, like your, your dad gets you to start the gasoline alley thing. I'm thinking, you know, did Eric send this person to me as torture?
Speaker 4:I was testing you, Dan. I was making sure you had the right stuff. Why didn't he hire this person? He told me to hire this person.
Speaker 3:So lessons along the way and I'm grateful for your mentorship and because, you know, now I can look back and kind of reflect on things and say, okay, yeah, that sucked, but you know I, you know I'm grateful for where I'm at today because of it and it's a unique thing and owning a business and managing people and going through all those, those difficulties and those challenges, for sure, but controlling your own destiny in a sense.
Speaker 4:And I don't know how. As I was driving here, I always listened to business news. I love business, the economy fascinates me, but I don't know if you think about this, but I listen to these guys. And Elon Musk is worth $270 billion. They were talking about Google and their earnings came in and uh, and I think so here you and I are, the three of us slogging away in these old businesses, one foot in front of the other, making our little lives, and these guys are making tens of billions of dollars. I can't even imagine it, the transformational journey that they're on. Yeah, I mean, we're like working a rock pile with a sledgehammer you know here in little backwater, richmond, indiana, which is not exactly a prosperous area, correct?
Speaker 4:So, I think about that a lot, as we, you know. It goes back to that gift of life. How are you going to spend it? You get 75 years, 80 years if you're lucky. A lot of people don't right um, how do you want to spend it and where do you want to spend it? Yeah, and you have to. You have to think through that a lot about the uh, intrinsic value of the experience the journey. So do you have to be in the swiss alps to have the journey or can you have the journey on the cornfields of the mid? I submit you can have it anywhere. It's our own personal journey.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's what you make of it. I want to talk about your dad. Oh great, your dad was someone who I always admired. I was thinking back last night. I remember my bachelor party. I remember some of it, but I remember we went skiing down in um in Cincinnati or Northern Kentucky, and your dad was there. I don't know if you remember this or not, and so this would have been in, uh, 2002, 2003 is when I got married, so it was probably the winter of 2003. And your dad is snow skiing down the mountains with us.
Speaker 3:And he would have been in his, probably in his mid seventies, mid eighties somewhere in that range.
Speaker 3:I was just in awe of it because I'd never seen someone of that age snow skiing down a mountain with a bunch of 20 year old drunk kids and and he was, he was always in my mind, always had a smile on his face. He was all. Didn't matter who you were, he was always happy to see her. At least he made you feel like that he was. He was such a unique man. Um, and kind of talk about your dad a little bit, yeah he was kind of an old school from that generation.
Speaker 4:I remember visiting dad at his mother's house. His father was an alcoholic, so dad really just had his mother and they lived in a tiny little house. We used to stay there. I mean it could have been 800 or 1,000 square feet very poor background. And dad got a scholarship to Cornell. He was an engineer. You know, in the first years being a kid in the house we didn't interact that much with dad. He always seemed serious, somewhat unapproachable, I'd say for the first 30, 35 years of his life.
Speaker 4:It wasn't the dad that I experienced later in life really he must have made a transformation because that, to your point, he was a great guy, great to meet, always up, always ambulant, but he wasn't always that way. I, I don't know. I wish I could go back and kind of figure that out, because I remember I was kind of a little bit afraid, or he just didn't spend a lot of time. He was so busy establishing his career. That was very, very important to him. It was hard, because I remember, being an athlete, we didn't interact that much when I was on the state champion football team.
Speaker 4:I mean, dad enjoyed it but we weren't shoulder to shoulder like we were later in life.
Speaker 3:Really.
Speaker 4:So that was all um an interesting turn of the page.
Speaker 3:Do you think that that it turned when? When he retired? Maybe?
Speaker 4:it very well could have. Uh, my mom had a lot of problems, um, health problems, uh, and I became a lot closer to dad to help, and maybe that was it. Maybe that was the uh, the catalyst that brought us together, because we were very close and it was a neat relationship and, like you, I enjoyed the heck out of the guy. I mean, he went full steam right up to the end at 92. I think about that more and more as I get older. I think about dad, which I think we all do.
Speaker 3:Maybe that's some of your drive.
Speaker 4:Yeah, maybe it is, maybe it is.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he was. He was just a unique man. I just, you know, I always enjoyed talking to him and and, uh, just always had good conversation and, like I said, he just always made, always made me feel like, you know, I was the only one he was talking to yeah. Uh, he was very unique as far as that went. We're not going to talk about Brad. We're not going to talk about Shannon but you've got.
Speaker 3:You're in a pretty unique situation right now with grandkids. You've got. You've got grandkids actually the last two are getting ready to graduate high school, but you've got some in college. You you've got some athletes and and I would think right now you're kind of in the middle of you know, I know there was a heyday with with Brad and Shannon in high school, but now you got the grandkids. You get to go watch and playing college athletics and uh, so, so kind of talk about those grandkids.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I again introspection, thinking about life. I think how fortunate I am to get a second bite of the apple. A lot of people don't get the first bite. I got, uh, and with Brad and Shannon, both college athletes, it was a blast. And now I'm getting another bite of the apple watching their kids perform.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And that's so enjoyable, and you bring a different sense of life to the table. Because I'm older, I have a more life experience. I tend to send them more wisdoms, if you will, Something that I think is relevant, not just supportive. But talking to Drew, who's a quarterback at University of Dayton, he had a rough outing and I said you know, that's like life man. It's a journey, and it isn't all roses.
Speaker 4:And this is a great lesson. You've got to learn to bounce back. It's kind of fun having that life experience to be able to share with them in that particular dimension of their lives so you hope you can add more value the older that you get. So it's, it's a lot of fun, in fact. Brad and I are flying out to uh, south carolina tomorrow to watch drew play.
Speaker 4:Uh, he's. He's got a tough game. Uh, saturday against presbyterian will be in some little town in clinton, south carolina. Brad said we're staying in a trailer home.
Speaker 1:I don't know he couldn't find a place for us to stay.
Speaker 4:We may be sleeping in the car. I say you do know I snore, brad, but we'll muddle through that. It'll be a lot of fun.
Speaker 3:I'm looking forward to watching drew perform yeah, and then you've got a granddaughter, lauren, that's running in St Louis.
Speaker 4:Yeah, she's running down in St Louis. She's really battled through some stuff, through some injuries, but she's doing well in finding her footing there. So we've been down to watch her and look forward to going down and seeing her. Brynn just is playing in the semi-state in volleyball. She's a scholarship athlete going to Cleveland State for volleyball.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And you know, I told Brynn I think it was last week or the week before she won the sectional went down on the floor, congratulated the team, which we do all the time and I'm starting to look for some reason. I looked at the net and I'm looking at this net, going holy cow, that thing's high. Well, brynn is not much taller than I am and she's like a third of her body's over that net when she's slamming the ball. And I looked at her and I said are those nets correct? I said that looks, I can't believe you get your body that far over that net to slam that ball. She looked at me like I had three heads. I'm like where in the hell have you?
Speaker 1:been all this year. It's the same net height.
Speaker 4:I've always dealt with. I said, Bryn, I'm a little slow, these things are just, I'm just now figuring it out. But I said I'm really impressed with your ability to spike that ball because, holy cow, so I couldn't even reach the top.
Speaker 3:I mean you're flying through the air to hit that. She's impressive. Yeah, she's powerful, and she is, and again it's a weight room thing yeah I passed it on to brad.
Speaker 4:Brad passed it on to she and drew shannon did the same thing with her kids. Jack, who's uh at depaul he's not playing football any longer, but the kid's huge, he could. Yeah, he looks great. I mean he's lifting to find himself and then you got Addie too. Yeah, Addie Grace is running.
Speaker 3:She's a big lifter. Yeah, she is, I love it.
Speaker 4:Who would have thought the weight room. You know, I knew some characters in the weight room the DeTargula brothers. Back then it was a different environment but panty wates weren't uh, permitted back then. It was a very male environment back uh in the weight room and I I grew up with some really rough characters, the traguila brothers. I don't know if any families left in richmond but uh, they used to. They had a motorcycles and used to get into fights, usually came out ahead, but that was an influence in my life at 13, 14 years old or people like that. So I had probably a very different upbringing from that perspective.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's unique. So, as we start to land this plane, I want to ask you a question. You've been through a lot in your life. You've done a lot in your life. You've done a lot in your life. Um you, you've been a mentor to many in your life. Um, you've you've had an amazing life. I think you would agree with that. Do you have any regrets?
Speaker 4:Oh heck. Yes, you can't go through this life without regrets. Uh, I mean, there could be so many. I wish you had told me that I'd made a list. You try to dwell on the things you did, right, you know, I know when somebody asks me, what do you enjoy in this life, what do you like, every time I drive by that office at night, I see the lights and the size, I just I get a great feeling because that's my little deal, that's what my life stood for, and I get a big kick out of that. But you know, along the way, sure there are regrets in terms of, like you talked about, with employees, yeah, business opportunities. Wish you'd done things better, sharper, faster. My right shoulder's killing me. I played handball and racquetball too long yeah I can't.
Speaker 4:I can barely wash my hair at night. I should have a shoulder replacement. That's a regret, yeah, but all in all, you know, with the gift of life that we talked about earlier, I've just spent it pretty well.
Speaker 3:I'm pretty pleased good, yeah, you should be talk about your wife linda.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I did earlier. It's funny. I've been married 52 years and I was just telling somebody the other day the longer you live at least for me, the more valuable, the more I treasure our relationship. It just brings a lot of joy. We've created a lot together. We've been partners in this whole thing, so it's just a real joy and I look forward to seeing her all the time. In fact, I worry a little bit because I'm still working and I want to make sure she's happy. So I asked her is it okay? I'm going to work? She's you get out of the house to your, to the your point. She knows how I'm hardwired and she knows I wouldn't do. Well, I'm not. I'm not a golfer, I I don't know how this ends for me. Uh, it'll be interesting.
Speaker 3:That was my next question is what do you see the next 10, 20, 30 years of your life?
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's. It's tough because I will confess that it's very challenging technologically to be in my business. Um, the the ravages of aging, the older I get, your mental acuity isn't what it used to be. I mean, I know I'm not the person I was 20 years ago. So again, I mentioned introspection. I think about it all the time. How's this end? Where am I going? I thought about this morning when I was working at my desk, thinking how much longer can I keep doing this? And I wasn't at meaning in a gee, I don't want to. I mean, I want to.
Speaker 4:I want to be there 10 years from now, but I want to bring value. I just don't want to fill a chair. I've always believed you have your place and time and I've tried to get out of Brad's way. I've been very sensitive to it's his time. I had my time and now it's his time, he and Kelly to lead and get out of the way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's great. I think what you probably value more in business than anything, like I do, is the relationships. The relationships not only with your employees especially with having family in the business but with your clients. Right, talk about relationships and what that does for someone in business.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's of course. I sell thin air, I sell a promise. It's insurance. So relationship is everything. I call it putting flesh on the bones. And I have a client. I mentioned their name. They've been a great client for over three decades.
Speaker 4:A House Tool I was just there. I take a pride in seeing the tremendous gains they've made up. They're 107 employees. I've worked with rick kevin's dad. I mean they've come a long, long way in the sophistication, the cnc equipment, the engineers I just pinch myself I was like holy cow, you guys are really sophisticated operation. It's fun to be part of that in a small part. But to watch these business models. I really get a kick out of business models, how people have arranged their assets and make livings. It's always fascinated me and the challenge of it, what it does to a human being to go through business. You know that's one of the reasons I love America. Now we're waxing into America. But the capitalistic system I just a huge fan of because you can get out there and test your fate, start your own business, uh, create your. You're the artist and I. Where else can you do that? It's a fantastic experience.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure, for sure. So, as we close this, do you have any closing thoughts, any words of wisdom, any motivational quotes that you live by on a daily basis?
Speaker 4:You know, I was looking at a quote I found the other day we recarpeted our offices and so it was a mess and I found it and I remembered how important it's a simple thing, but I thought it made a lot of sense.
Speaker 4:A problem well stated is a problem half solved, and you think about that. Well, it sounds kind of simple, but what you're really saying is that when you look at life or you look at a problem, you understand it. You have to understand it to be able to regurgitate it or state it. You have to recognize how it fits in the context of the whole thing. If you really can make that recognition of problems in your life and you can state them well, then I like that thesis that you're halfway to solving it, because problems are meant to be solved. So it's the recognition. So many of us don't want to recognize a problem and I see the heads nodding around this table. We both have situations where people don't, and maybe that's one of my lessons in life is you better get after it early and see where they are, because they get really big and really problematical if they continue on.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, that's, that's, that's great advice. And, uh, Eric, I appreciate you coming in. I appreciate you. Yeah, I appreciate you telling your story. I appreciate you as a man and as a mentor. I appreciate your family. Your son Brad and I and his wife Kelly, were great, great friends. It's been awesome to look back on the 25 years, or whatever, since we've known each other and just seeing how the relationship has grown, not only in friendship but in business, and it's just been fun to be a part of and I appreciate you.
Speaker 4:Well, thank you, and we love the Schmidt family and watching your journey with Catron Glass. It's been a lot of fun and I love seeing what you've done here with Be Tempered. I was asking you earlier, before we got started, where you were going with this and what this does for you, and I've I never saw that coming.
Speaker 3:And so. So it's part of the journey, it's cool and I'm not going to tell you I ever saw it coming either, until you know Ben comes into the picture and and we start talking about it. I mean I, it's kind of out of my comfort zone. But you know, we talk about get comfortable, being uncomfortable. And um so it it's. It's been a journey, for sure, but it's been fun, very fulfilling.
Speaker 4:Well, you're very. Both of you are very good at it, and it was a real pleasure being on your show.
Speaker 3:Oh, we thank you. Well, everybody, thank you for your ears. We ask that you continue to to go out and to like and to share and subscribe and do all those fun things. And, um, you know, eric's got an awesome story, and not only in business but in family and relationships and uh, and we appreciate that. So go out and be tempered.
Speaker 1:Hi, my name is Ali Schmidt. This is my dad, Dan. He owns Catron's Glass.
Speaker 2:Thanks, Ali. Things like doors and windows go into, but when it's your home you expect more like the great service and selection you'll get from Catron's Glass Final replacement. Windows from Catron's come with a lifetime warranty, including accidental glass breakage replacement. Also ask for custom shower doors and many other products and services. Call 962-1636. Locally owned, with local employees for nearly 30 years.
Speaker 1:Catron's Glass the clear choice.