Ep. 1: Entrepreneurial Roots and Family Legacies with Trip

Entrepreneurial Roots and Family Legacies with Trip 

In this debut episode of The Words We've Heard, host Marbree Sullivan sits down with self-described “lucky guy” Trip Pearse. Trip shares memories of a childhood in Rochester, NY, working alongside his father and grandfather in the family business, and how that early exposure shaped his entrepreneurial mindset. This episode offers reflections on family, resilience, and what matters most at the end of the day.

🎧 Key Moments in the Episode:

• [00:00:00] – Introduction and Trip’s Family Legacy in Rochester, NY
• [00:01:36] – Early Memories: Growing Up in a Supportive Household
• [00:05:07] – Lessons from Working in the Family Beer Business
• [00:16:30] – Facing Career Transitions and Finding New Paths
• [00:45:00] – The Importance of Family Support During Life’s Challenges
• [00:48:00] – Reflections on Success, Setbacks, and Legacy
• [00:54:37]– Closing Reflections: What Family Means to Trip

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Welcome to The Words We've Heard. This is Marbree Sullivan, and each week I sit down with a baby boomer to capture their stories, ask for a bit of advice, and hold on to the memories of the post World War II generation. Join me as we journey through everyday lives and extraordinary stories. The grandson of a serial entrepreneur who started helping the family beer distribution [00:00:30] business long before he could sample the wares.

[00:00:33] Now ending his career as the little known partner in a business run by his son, Trip Pierce has had family at the heart of his life's journey. From upstate New York to the mountains of Colorado, he followed in his grandfather's professional footsteps, moving from one business to the next when the time was right, often with great success.

[00:00:56] With his wife of nearly 50 years, he raised three kids, [00:01:00] all of whom he's pretty proud of. His days of actively running a multi million dollar business are behind him, although he's there for his son as his dad was for him. My parents have been friends with Tripp since before I was born, so I've known of him my entire life, but given that we didn't live anywhere near him throughout my childhood, I haven't really known him.

[00:01:25] So, I sat down with him to get a sense of what life has been like [00:01:30] for this self proclaimed very lucky guy.

[00:01:36] I will tell you right off the bat that I've been a very lucky guy. From the time of my parents and my two sisters, I led a very idyllic lifestyle and I was given all the very positive reinforcements, never one of those, can't you do better than this? I will tell you that I was reasonably successful at most everything I did, but they were very [00:02:00] positive in their approach.

[00:02:00] And even my sisters were always, and they were both younger, were very positive towards me too. So very idyllic lifestyle initially. 

[00:02:08] And where was that? 

[00:02:10] in Rochester, New York. 

[00:02:11] Why Rochester? Did you have extended family there? Or had your family chosen to move there at some point? 

[00:02:15] No, no. They were, they were there.

[00:02:17] They had been. My dad lived in the city, actually where their distributorship was initially. And my mother lived in Gates, which was on the west side of the city. It was my grandfather, Warren Sr., as [00:02:30] probably didn't tell you, I am actually born the third and that's where Tripp comes from. Yes, and it was very small.

[00:02:36] They had the western side of Monroe County, which was, at that time, probably was not unusual to have something that small, but it was very small. There was very little out there. Most everything was in the city of Rochester, but he had the opportunity to take it and he was the original entrepreneur in the Pierce family and He did many things that didn't work out quite so well as that.

[00:02:58] As my father used to [00:03:00] say, keep your toothbrush in your pocket because it might be moving along. So, but uh, that's where they were in the city and they distributed to the west side, but they drove through the city over to Gates and Greece. 

[00:03:09] Does that mean that you had extended family around when you were growing up?

[00:03:13] Yes, as opposed to, uh, now where you're lucky if someone you know is around. In those times, most everybody stayed around, you know, it was very unusual that someone moved somewhere else. So my dad's sister lived in Rochester, actually, and eventually moved to Rundequoit, [00:03:30] and my mother had six brothers and sisters.

[00:03:33] And really for the first 10 or 15 years, they were all there, including Flossie and Herbert, who were, uh, my Gladys's, my mother's parents. And they have a very interesting story. They got married in England and they were going to take a boat over to, and in those times, Canada was a place that people, in most cases, they came to when they knew people there.

[00:03:53] And my grandfather, Herbert, missed the boat and it wasn't like he could catch up right away. So my grandmother, who at the time was [00:04:00] 19 years old and on the passport, was marked as Spinster. 

[00:04:05] At 

[00:04:05] 19. At 19. Uh, she was in Canada for almost a month before Herbert finally made his appearance. And it was interesting because they were in Canada, but they had an opportunity to go, and I can't tell you if it was like Alberta or Saskatchewan or someplace, but it was like they were giving away free land.

[00:04:21] Once they got out there, they recognized why they were getting free land. So they had an opportunity. This was on my grandmother Flossie's side. Some people were living in [00:04:30] Rochester and were Kodak, and they were able to vouch for them. And so they were able to come to Rochester. So that's how they ended up in Rochester.

[00:04:36] Long story, but that's how that goes. 

[00:04:38] So if for the most part, then the family stayed put. Where did the expression about keeping a toothbrush in your pocket come from? 

[00:04:44] Uh, it was from business to business. As I said, not all businesses were as successful as the beer business was, but they had a grocery store and they did different things.

[00:04:55] Warren Sr. moved quickly, so sometimes it was the midnight run out, [00:05:00] but he was very happy. to just be moving on. And that's, my dad recognized that that's how it was going to be. So you just moved along. So I was in 

[00:05:07] the business context as opposed to the personal. 

[00:05:09] Yes. 

[00:05:09] Did you start working in that business at some point?

[00:05:11] Uh, yes, I was initially, I think it was just to get me out of the house, but when the summers came and I was at one time, quit the camper, I didn't realize that. They were happy to see me go for a month, but I was gone for camping for a month in the summer. But I would, uh, go on Fridays usually, because that was a day that my dad [00:05:30] would be out on the truck with somebody else, and they thought it would be a good experience for me to be crawling around on the cases.

[00:05:36] So, yes, that's where I first got started. 

[00:05:38] Was that going to summer camp, or was that going out camping by yourself? What was that? 

[00:05:42] No, that was, that was summer camp. It was a YMCA camp, Camp Cory. That actually my father had gone to but when he got what's going there, it was just getting started But it was uh something that I went to the first couple years First year, uh, I was about eight, I think, and [00:06:00] it was okay, but it was the first time away.

[00:06:02] It wasn't as good an experience as I would have thought it was going to be. The next year was the turning point, and that was the year that, um, I, it was my second year in junior camp, and I went for two weeks, and evidently my cards back to my parents were such that when they came to pick me up, they said, would you like to stay two more weeks?

[00:06:20] And I said, sure would. And the Interesting part of this is that my camp counselor was Rennie Davis. Now, I don't know if that [00:06:30] name rings a bell to you. He was one of the Chicago 7th during, yes, great guy. I really enjoyed my time with him and I just saw where he had just passed away and he lived The last number of years in Lyons, Colorado.

[00:06:46] And I didn't know that until just before he passed away. So 

[00:06:49] did you ever have any interaction with him after that? 

[00:06:52] I did not, unfortunately, but whenever the Chicago seven came up, I go, yeah, Randy Davis was my camp counselor. He was a great guy. [00:07:00] He really, really was. But do you 

[00:07:01] remember what he was like as a camp counselor?

[00:07:03] Um, as opposed to just doing something that he was doing to kill time and make a little bit of money. He actually was interested in the people and this and that. He would, you know, he would take each person aside, not just myself, but somebody else, ask him about this or that or his family life or how he does this or was he good at that or, you know, and I, camp was a good experience for me and I was reasonably successful at pretty much everything I did.

[00:07:27] So he was, he was really into that, uh, my [00:07:30] successes and this and that and those. You know, very positive as far as that goes, so. 

[00:07:34] So did you stop going to camp once you started helping in the business? 

[00:07:37] Um, I went to camp, let's see, one, two. Then I went a third year, and that was into senior camp. And then I went on what they call the, uh, travel camps.

[00:07:48] And you would go up into the Adirondacks from, the camp was in Keuka Lake, and you would be in the back of a flatbed trailer. With a cover over it, and then we'd drive up to the Adirondacks and it would be a week or [00:08:00] five days of canoeing, paddling, and then it would be five days of hiking, and I loved that.

[00:08:04] That was really something I enjoyed. As a matter of fact, that was for two weeks, and that was another one of those things that I said, if I can get myself. Into that, I'd like to do it again the same summer. So I actually did it twice in the summer. But that was, so that was about a month. But the beer business I was able to use, I was in during that period of time.

[00:08:22] Yeah, I was, I was definitely crawling around the cases during that time. I was into sports. I played little league and stuff like that. But, uh, no, that was definitely a [00:08:30] part of my summer. How old were you? I'm guessing I was about 10 or 11. When you say crawling around on the cases, what does that mean? Well, in those days things weren't palletized, so you couldn't move things around.

[00:08:40] So sometimes you would get a trailer load from the brewery and it would come back and some of the stuff was up in the front. So I was one of those guys that could wiggle up to the front and they'd put a conveyor on the other cases and I would push it back to them. So got pretty dirty doing that. But uh, in those days that was fine.

[00:08:55] Yeah, that's actually my first experience in doing that and to be very honest, I [00:09:00] just didn't know anybody like that. I thought that's what everybody did, you know. 

[00:09:03] Right. Were there any points then when your father changed businesses during your childhood? 

[00:09:08] No, um, the only difference what they made the big change and I think it was about 19, it was in the early 60s, they actually We built a distributor, uh, warehouse in Gates, which was a huge deal for them.

[00:09:23] We took totally everything out of Webster Avenue, which is where the original, where the house was and the back part [00:09:30] where it was big enough that they were able to do that. But it was a huge undertaking. I remember them being very stressed out about that, but I remember them also going out at night and painting stuff like that, right.

[00:09:41] To make the warehouse presentable. Gladys was very good at that. She enjoyed doing that. By that time, then. We had actually developed two distributorship. We had one in Canandaigua, which is south of Rochester, more in the Finger Lakes area than there was the one in Rochester, and not by anything other than My grandfather [00:10:00] really worked the Canandaigua distributorship, and my father worked the Rochester district.

[00:10:04] That allowed my grandfather to keep looking for many other things to do in this and that. Sort of out of the context, but he, uh, put a bid in, in Canandaigua on a large girls Catholic camp, and his was the only bid, and all of a sudden we have this huge girls Catholic camp. It was, uh, Warren Sr. will probably say that that was his biggest financial coup, because he got it very cheaply, and.

[00:10:29] He sold it off, [00:10:30] parts of it, for very good prices, which now is laughable how cheap that is, you know. But he was able to recoup his money, plus some. But that was what he liked to be working on, different things and doing that. My father at that time was working the Rochester area because that was a lot more profitable than the Canada group.

[00:10:47] So was your grandfather then, while you were growing up, running various enterprises? 

[00:10:51] He had similar things. They weren't huge things. It was more, they were just sort of kept his eyes open to see what was going on. But eventually they [00:11:00] sold the, my grandfather got older and couldn't do all the same things.

[00:11:03] They decided to sell that one and just concentrate on Rochester and the gates, Western Monroe County. Generational. Warren Sr. was a tough guy. to his wife, to his kids, but not to me. We had a wonderful relationship, but he was a tough guy and not the nicest guy there ever was. And in those generations, in those days, things happened, you know, but that's how it was.

[00:11:26] And it was amazing that Both my grandmother, Ruby, [00:11:30] and my aunt, Deed, and my father turned out interestingly like they did. Very easygoing, as opposed to it was like, where did this gene pool go? You know, it was very strange, but all turned out to be very nice individuals. 

[00:11:44] But you had a good relationship with your grandfather.

[00:11:46] Excellent. 

[00:11:47] What can you remember about him that sticks with you? 

[00:11:49] He would take me and we would drive around and he would talk and we would talk about this or that, anything that came to mind, you know, that he was talking about and he allowed me to be able to ask [00:12:00] questions and this and that, as I said, some of the stuff was, uh, not for prime time, but I will tell you, he always drove a Cadillac and the last one I remember was a pink one and he also smoked cigars and he would never take the cigar out of his mouth while he was talking.

[00:12:14] So occasionally he would take it out and spit out the side of the pink Cadillac. If you were in the back seat, you always kept your window up. Down that side was a long, brown stain. But, that was Warren Sr. I mean, he thought nothing of it. 

[00:12:27] Did he ever give you any advice or did he have any sayings other [00:12:30] than the toothbrush one?

[00:12:31] No, that was my father. That was your father? 

[00:12:33] Yes. 

[00:12:33] Sorry. 

[00:12:34] No, no, that's fine. But it was my father that learned that we could be moving at any time. Um, not really. Uh, just, it was just more of a positive relationship that I had that, uh, very few people had with him. 

[00:12:45] Your sisters? How was that relationship? Good, but 

[00:12:46] not the same as mine.

[00:12:48] I was the, uh, first Pierce boy, which in those days probably made a difference. And my parents had a little trouble conceiving. So I really became, well, look at this guy showing up, you know, so. [00:13:00] 

[00:13:00] You were a welcome addition to the family. 

[00:13:02] I was. 

[00:13:02] Were you expected to take over the family business? 

[00:13:05] Um, I don't think there was ever a question as things moved along that I was going to and it wasn't one of those burdens.

[00:13:13] It was one of those things that, I don't know, it was expectations or this or that, but that's what I thought I was going to do. And from the time I was in high school and when I went to school at Syracuse and people were floundering around deciding hopefully what they were going to do and it was the middle of the revolution and everything else, I knew [00:13:30] what I was going to do, which is another part of the story.

[00:13:32] Okay, well we can go down that road right now. 

[00:13:34] As time went along and from the, uh, 40s and 50s to the 60s and the 70s. all of a sudden the city of Rochester wasn't the big population center, but the suburbs, both east and west of the city. So all of a sudden we became a, that huge distributor, but because of the proximity to where we were, and it was Genesee, which was right there, we [00:14:00] were very successful.

[00:14:00] So We were able to move forward and, but at the same time, I recognized, even though we were successful, that we were in a third of a county and we were really a one brand operation. And that's how Genesee wanted it, of course. I knew that proximity wise that that probably wasn't going to work for me in the long term.

[00:14:18] So I started to continue to have a great relationship with them. And they would always have told you that, uh, until mid eighties. When I started, I picked up a couple of small brands and they were okay with that. But at the same time, [00:14:30] there was another distributor on the other side. It was looking to get out and they incorporated back into their own, as opposed to saying, yeah, why don't you try to work something out?

[00:14:38] And then there was a real small one in Rundquist and they didn't allow me to take that one either. So I. I was hoping that they would allow me to continue on as we were, but at the same time in 85 86, I entered into an agreement. We were about a four, five million dollar company at the time, which was pretty good because we really didn't have a lot of accounts, and we had no [00:15:00] debt, so everything was going very well cash flow wise.

[00:15:03] I entered into an agreement. With a, another local distributor that had Miller, which at the time was very hot, Miller, Miller Light, but also I had Heineken, Labatt's and a number of other brands and Coors was going to be coming under the market probably in the next two or three years. So I was long term looking to say, okay, well, they don't want me to, then I would like to, you know, so enter into a sales contract.

[00:15:24] Obviously there were some things that needed to be done. I was going to need some financing first time, but I still had pretty good [00:15:30] cash flow and, uh, they terminated. W. E. Pearce after 50 years with 30 days notice. 

[00:15:35] Wow. 

[00:15:36] Right. So. 

[00:15:37] So is it just you running it at this point or? 

[00:15:40] No, my dad, my dad was still the majority stockholder backing up.

[00:15:45] The Whaley's were the owners of the Genesee Brewing and Louis Whaley, uh, was my grandfather's age. And Jack was my dad's age. They had two sons. Chip and I forget the other one's name, they brought him in and they said, look, this is never going to work if you want to get rid [00:16:00] of your son and we'll let you keep the distributorship and he can go ahead and do whatever he wants to do.

[00:16:05] And my father looked at him and said, you got to be kidding because at that time, I was really running the operation, they were, they would take the winners, but he would be up in the summer. And he would do whatever he could do, you know, to make it go. But I was really running the operation. Didn't matter to them.

[00:16:19] They were happy to get rid of me. So we tried to put the deal together a couple of different times, but it never did. So my thoughts of being a beer distributor all my life drastically changed or immediately changed at that time. It didn't [00:16:30] change my position on. Being an owner, being of some sorts, but it did change it to the point of, didn't have to be big.

[00:16:37] It could be an individual thing that I was sort of looking and I say flounder, I don't know if it was floundering, but I was looking for an operation or something that I could do that would be sales oriented, because that's really where my strengths were. But looking for something that was very difficult to find in upstate New York at that time, because at that time, uh, New York state had become a very difficult place to do business governmental wise.

[00:16:58] And it was so new [00:17:00] opportunities were not great. Did eventually, uh, decide to get into the retail golf and tennis business. It was a franchise. We started at zero and after five years, we were doing about a million in retail sales, but we really weren't making enough money for what we were doing. And I always remember when I first started doing it, uh, I had a friend of mine and he goes, I know you work hard, but retail sales are something entirely different.

[00:17:24] He was absolutely right. So from then on, no matter what I was looking for, I'd always say, I'm [00:17:30] happy to look at anything except something in retail. Retail was probably not going to, it was very difficult. So I worked at that for about five years from early nineties to mid nineties. Also after that, then, um, worked at, sold automotive aftermarket products to car dealers.

[00:17:47] Now that was the individual thing. It was basically, when I say statewide, I went a little bit farther than Albany, but, uh, so I would work the entire area that way and. I was on my own and I was okay with it, but at the same time I recognized that and [00:18:00] I was now nearing but not quite to 50 that if I was going to move on and do something that I thought would be better, that maybe we should be looking at other areas and, um, Diane had my wife had a family in Colorado and we had a number of friends out here that were constantly saying, okay, You got to come to Colorado.

[00:18:17] So we did go, made a road trip, took a look. It was amazing to find out the sun actually shines a lot up here as opposed to upstate New York and decided that yes, we could very easily move out here. So we moved out here in the fall of [00:18:30] 99 and in early 2000. January, February, I entered into an agreement to buy a ice distributor, manufacturing and distributing.

[00:18:37] So it had some of what I had done before distributing, but manufacturing was a whole different thing. And I learned that early on that you could be a really good salesman, but you better have plenty of product. But it was a real mom and pop operation and they were not doing much. Basically, they were just anybody that needed ice.

[00:18:54] They would call in if they needed it, but there was another pretty aggressive distributor in the Colorado Springs area. [00:19:00] So that's where it was. We did manage to change that dramatically, um, and knocked on a few doors. And same time they were in absentee, the guy that owned it was in South Carolina. It was making decisions from South Carolina off a balance sheet, as opposed to talking to the customers and made some pretty bad marketing decisions that allowed us to really dominate Colorado Springs, which was their major source.

[00:19:22] So. In 2005, we entered into a, uh, an agreement to merge, and we then became really the only distributor in Southern [00:19:30] Colorado. And we, uh, did that for about five years, and then ReadyIce, who is national, recognized that this would be a great opportunity for them because they could move right adjacent and they could take that area in, so we, uh, sold to ReadyIce in 2010.

[00:19:45] By that time, Nathan, who had come with us to Colorado, was looking for something for himself, too. And, uh, had three sons, and of the three, he was the one that appeared to have that same, as we like to say, genetic defect of, yeah, I could [00:20:00] probably do this myself, you know, kind of a thing. And he had really taken hold and was really doing a very good job for the merged company.

[00:20:07] And then when Reddy bought it, actually was running the state of Colorado for two or three years. And then they moved him out in the area of Seattle, Oregon, Washington, Northern California. And at the same time then I was running basically what the other position was, but once he got there. There was no way.

[00:20:23] And he was actually my boss when he was in Colorado, uh, that I was very happy to step [00:20:30] aside. And, uh, I left and started looking for the next great opportunity that became the Colorado party rentals. And as many of my friends said, well, what do you possibly know about the rental business? And I said, I think you asked me the same question about the ice business.

[00:20:46] And it was the same kind of a thing. There was a lot of similarities in marketing and sales, although it was a product line also that you had to find. Everything was the same. There was always some different things. So by that time, Nathan [00:21:00] had come back from the West and he was part of the negotiations and we've moved forward.

[00:21:05] And it wasn't long before we said, well, we, you know, we'll. Take 90 days and sort of learn the business. After about 30 days, Nathan goes, I can't stand this anymore. We've got to get out there and start. So that was the case. We made some business decisions on how we wanted Colorado party runners to be looked at and viewed as opposed to just being, you know, we have tables, chairs and not great, but we have it if you need it.

[00:21:27] Do more of an upscale kind of a thing, because [00:21:30] we wanted to be doing business. We were in Colorado and a lot of people were going to the mountains, Vail, Aspen, uh, Steamboat, and they were looking for upscale. And there, we have one competitor that was very good at that, but he was the only guy doing it. And when you're the only guy doing something, you sometimes rest on your laurels and that allowed us to move in and do some things and get some things.

[00:21:50] So. So that's where we are. That's the long and the short of that. There's a lot in between, but that is where we are and what we've done. My wife, Diana, occasionally would say, don't [00:22:00] you just want to get a job? And I'd go, well, I have a job. It just happens to be a business. That's all. Have 

[00:22:05] you ever worked for someone other than yourself or family?

[00:22:07] Only part time. Only, I remember I worked for UPS when I was at Syracuse and we were off, had a break for a couple of weeks and one of our fraternity brothers was working out there, so we went out there and worked and, uh, it was one of those loading trailers and this and that until I told them that I know how to work a forklift and that became a very good job then because as opposed to loading trailers and working real hard, I was the [00:22:30] guy wheeling the packages up and going, here you go guys, go get them.

[00:22:32] But then other than that, very few places. 

[00:22:35] I want to ask about the in between times. Okay. So, when you were sort of leaving the beer distributorship, when that was winding down, you'd have had small children at that point. Yeah. And was Diane working? 

[00:22:47] No. She had a business, but it was just a little antique co op kind of a thing.

[00:22:52] It wasn't a moneymaker per se, although she liked to say, I may buy a fair share. It was more of she was interested in doing that. But it actually allowed [00:23:00] a different view of the kids growing up, as opposed to being non stop Working and I do this and I was working six or seven days a week. All of a sudden I had time to be able to see them grow up a little bit.

[00:23:10] So there was some very large advantages to that too. 

[00:23:14] Was it stressful though? Was it tough to be in that position of transitioning? And I'm guessing it took a little bit of time to decide on the tennis and golf business. And 

[00:23:23] it was a constant, let's look around and see if we can find. And I had a number of business brokers working in this and that.

[00:23:28] Upstate New York was not a [00:23:30] hotbed for finding things that were really great. I would say there was no internet at the time. You really needed to work with a business broker of sorts, and they would just find things when people would come in to them and say, look, I'm tired of doing this. 

[00:23:41] How on earth did you know about things like business brokers?

[00:23:44] Well, you basically, in the newspaper, you would go to the newspaper and there would be quote, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Business opportunities and they would be listed in Rochester. There wasn't a great deal But usually they'd be listed by a broker someplace along the line Actually, that is where I first I remember moving [00:24:00] back a little bit in the beverage business That's where I first saw and this was a 17 million dollar company that was a little blurb in the business opportunities and it just said beverage wholesaler available.

[00:24:12] And that's how I first, and I, I had known, uh, the owner of it many years before that, but I didn't know it was for sale until we met. It was interesting to know, I remember talking to my dad, he goes, who do you suppose it's going to be? And we had no idea until I got there. And once I got there, we both laughed.[00:24:30] 

[00:24:30] him wondering who was going to show up at my end, me wondering who the wholesaler was going to be, but that's, that's how things got done in those days. It wasn't the yellow pages, it was some little blurb in the newspapers. So yes, there was stress involved, but um, it allowed me to take a deep breath and at the same time say, okay, you're all right, you know, you don't have to be in the beer business just like you thought you were going to be.

[00:24:50] Let's move forward and find something else. 

[00:24:52] How was that for the kids do you think? 

[00:24:53] Um, they would occasionally joke to say this was the youngest somebody was. saying my dad does this, [00:25:00] my dad does that. You would say, my dad doesn't have a job. He's unemployed. It allowed us to travel some. We would, for example, in the wintertime, which was not a great spot in upstate New York, we'd go to Florida.

[00:25:11] When we got rid of the beer business, I mean, because we were financially pretty well off, we were able to, we had a building and we had, you know, we didn't have any debt. So we, we had some money. To get started and move forward. I'd like to say that it allowed my father to probably live an extra 20 or 30 years in his [00:25:30] life.

[00:25:30] Cause he, he was about late sixties, I think when the business closed, but it allowed him and my mother to spend much more time in Florida. And then they would come back and just spend the summers up here and join his kids and grandchildren. I think it became a much better thing for him as well because it was devastating, I think, for him because he had sort of built this thing and he had wanted it to be, you know, we were going to pass it on.

[00:25:53] But at the same time, he recognized that we had done the right thing. And as it turned out, we did the right thing because it [00:26:00] wasn't probably a decade later that Genesee eventually, they had had a couple of buyers, but they all, everything fell through. And they eventually, I think, filed for bankruptcy of sorts.

[00:26:09] I was by that time I was in Colorado and eventually it was sold to somebody else and they're doing very well but the Whaley family did not profit. I'm sure in the short term they did just fine by getting rid of me but in the long term a regional brewer is never going to be successful. 

[00:26:23] Did your father give you any advice about starting your own when you went on from there or at that point were you feeling pretty confident?

[00:26:29] I was [00:26:30] feeling confident. He was feeling plenty nervous and it was not so much that I was going to fail or not be successful. But what I was doing was something that whether it was the, uh, golf and tennis business, or certainly when it came to Colorado and he couldn't keep his eye on it as well. The, uh, ice business and they came out and traveled out a couple of times and he looked at it and he goes, really, this is what this is.

[00:26:50] And I go, yeah, this is what it is. But always very positive. And as Gladys used to say, she goes, if he's in it, he'll be successful. You know, so 

[00:26:58] how old were you when your grandfather passed? [00:27:00] 

[00:27:00] I'm going to say I was probably late teens, early twenties. Yeah. I don't know. 

[00:27:05] Even potentially before college, certainly before he saw you go through any of your own entrepreneurial journey.

[00:27:11] Correct. Yeah, that was, it was definitely my father's business and I was, I was just working there, you know, so yeah, yeah, he, I don't think if he knew it, he never voiced it and that was never one of his strengths anyway, unless he was giving somebody a hard time, whether he always thought that that was going to be the case, he never really voiced it.

[00:27:29] I was still pretty [00:27:30] young. 

[00:27:30] And now that you've got a business that your own son is running, he is, how do you feel about that legacy of passing from one generation to the next? 

[00:27:38] It's not as much a generational as I'm just proud of what he has done. He had some missteps earlier in his life that he moved past it very well and became very successful.

[00:27:50] It really started with the ice business, but I was very confident moving into the rental business. That's something that he could do. And it wasn't that he was my son. It was somebody [00:28:00] that I recognized could do the job and be successful at it. And I've stepped away to some extent to allow him to flourish.

[00:28:07] It was difficult for me to some extent when I was making some of the changes that went out with the Genesee distributor for my dad, because we were doing major changes in how we did things and this and that. I think he understood, but he was having trouble adjusting to them and he still wanted to be.

[00:28:24] Part of it. And I think that's, I remember that being difficult, he was a wonderful [00:28:30] person and he was only doing it for all the right reasons, but it was sort of difficult for me to be running it with people that he had maybe brought in. And there were some new people that I brought in as well, but there always were.

[00:28:42] It's my dad, the boss, I, the boss. There's no question now. I have to introduce myself when I go up to the rental company now to a number of the people. This is his to do as, I mean, do we talk? Sure. Does he have, do you have questions? He does, but he's moving forward. I will say that nothing is ever smooth as you [00:29:00] do things.

[00:29:00] Things are disappointing. Things don't work out quite like you'd hope, but that doesn't stop you from. moving forward. And we had, again, when we bought it, it was just Denver, but we now have four locations. Colorado Springs, which is really just subsidiary, but the other two, Santa Fe and just recently Salt Lake, are add ins.

[00:29:18] They are definitely what we're looking to do in those areas as well. They are places where we think we can, with our product line, can do very well, but it takes a while. You can't walk in and just say, I'm Colorado Party Rental. In those areas, [00:29:30] now it's summit, but it takes a while. And you sometimes forget, because you're spirally successful where you are, that you have to start again.

[00:29:36] That's part of the learning curve. 

[00:29:37] I asked Tripp about whether he had any mentors or coaches as he progressed through his career. 

[00:29:43] I had my dad. I don't think that Sr. would ever be considered a mentor to anybody. Um, but certainly as we developed our company and moved forward and I was making changes in the beer business, he was always there.

[00:29:57] He was. my mentor. There were other [00:30:00] people, as a matter of fact, there were people at Genesee that actually came to us and used us as a training facility because of the way we ran our operation. Um, when we came to Colorado in the ice business, again, bought it from a guy that was spent his time playing solitaire on the computer.

[00:30:15] So he knew nothing of the business, but it was okay because I had learned that how you learn the business is to get out there and get your hands dirty. This case your hands cold and that's how we were able to develop our relationship with our customers. I think that Nathan saw that, but [00:30:30] he had, you know, he had his ideas too, but he was always willing to share those and goes, this is how we're going to do it.

[00:30:36] I'm thinking of this and that. So we didn't have per se. Mentors, I guess it was more of a generational mentorship, but, uh, sort of wonderful. Yeah. Yeah. There's nothing that is better than that because you, you could say what you want and there's not any of the, it's difficult getting started on your own unless you have a wonderful talent and, uh, have it in someplace.

[00:30:57] But if you look at it and go, I'd [00:31:00] really love to be my own boss, those people, probably 75 percent of them are clueless as to how that works. You have to accept the fact that you're going to work a lot of hours. You're not going to have a positive reinforcement of, let's say, money or anything else. You could go easily a year or two or three before you make any money.

[00:31:19] Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to work all those hours? Most people would say, no, I need to make money right away. I need to, you know, I'm the boss. That doesn't always work. I mean, it takes [00:31:30] that, when I say special, it's just a different type of person to be able to do that. You've got to have a lot of confidence that you can pull it off.

[00:31:36] Confidence doesn't always work. As I said, I did the golf tennis business. We got to be very successful, but it just wasn't financially feasible to continue on. I. I didn't see that as being a long term move, and at the time we were sort of looking at the idea of maybe making a move out of Rochester too, so.

[00:31:53] I want to switch gears a little bit. You went to Syracuse? 

[00:31:55] Yes. 

[00:31:56] What did you study? 

[00:31:56] I was in the business school, as a number of my fraternity [00:32:00] brothers were initially, but as it turned out that there was only a couple of us by the end of four years that really ended up with a business degree, so it was a wonderful time of my life.

[00:32:09] I met people that I still call friends that I look to, you know, if something goes on, you know, and this and that had a loss when I, my wife passed away from pancreatic cancer and they were all very good about reaching out calling. It was good. It was good to have those people so that that was. a solid group of friends that I met and still enjoy.

[00:32:29] Backing up, [00:32:30] did your mother work? 

[00:32:30] She worked at the business, but only part time. She was basically a stay at home mom. She would go in on Fridays and Saturdays and worked on both those days. But she didn't come from a family of entrepreneurs, but Gladys certainly was. She passed away, she was just shy of 95, but until she got to be about 92, I always remember her driving by things and she'd go, Geez, I wonder if I could do something like that.

[00:32:57] Never. Until she got to, as I say, later in life, and [00:33:00] then she goes, you know, I'm just too old now. But she was in her 90s before she gave it up. She was very much an entrepreneur, even though she didn't come, so it's not one of those. Oh my God, this must just be genetics. It's not. She definitely always had something in mind.

[00:33:14] Did you go to regular public school? 

[00:33:16] I did. Yep. 

[00:33:17] When would you say you had your first relationship? Probably 

[00:33:19] high school. Probably freshman, sophomore year. And to be very honest, Diane wasn't far behind that. 

[00:33:25] I was wondering when you met her. 

[00:33:26] She went to high school, same place I did. It's [00:33:30] always an interesting story.

[00:33:31] I had tickets to go to the Beach Boys and did not have a date. And my next door neighbor goes, I think I've got somebody that would like to go. And Diane made it very clear that we're going to Beach Boys, but nothing going on after that. I go, Hey, she said, I know about you. Oh, 

[00:33:46] you had a reputation, did you?

[00:33:48] Evidently. Not that I knew of. But, uh, so that was actually our first date. So we started dating after that a bit and I could not drive. I was 15 when we first started dating. So, uh, and we dated [00:34:00] on and off through high school and into college. So I knew her, as I'd like to say, almost all my life. 

[00:34:06] Was she in the same class as you?

[00:34:07] No, she was a year, 

[00:34:08] year older than I was. Year older. Which was great because then she had a license. So she would drive and pick me up and then I would drive after that. Ha, ha, ha. 

[00:34:15] What did she do after high school? 

[00:34:16] Uh, she went on to a community college for a couple of years and she was a very proud president of her sorority and she went on to Brockport and was going to study teaching, but she, after a semester or so, uh, she decided that she [00:34:30] was not going to be a teacher.

[00:34:30] So eventually got into the travel business because that seemed as a fairly young girl, she could do it. travel. They allowed what they called fam trips or familiarization trips. So they would send her to Hawaii or the islands or someplace, and they would take her to all the nice places, and you could stay here and this and that.

[00:34:45] So she enjoyed that immensely. 

[00:34:47] And then when did you get married? Let's 

[00:34:49] see. 1972 you got married. She finally convinced me that was probably the right thing. So 

[00:34:56] you had just graduated because you were 71? 

[00:34:59] 71. [00:35:00] Yeah, I did travel a little bit, went to Europe with a college friend, and then went out west before, but uh, it was always moving into the very near future.

[00:35:07] I asked Tripp about his travels. And while we'll leave the details of his journey west for another episode, here's what he said about 

[00:35:14] Europe. My freshman year, uh, roommate and fraternity brother, Woody Comstock, he always said we got to go to Europe, so, uh, we traveled to Europe, um, in the fall of the same And, uh, I remember Diane was [00:35:30] a, uh, travel agent and she was trying to find places for it.

[00:35:33] I said, no, no worries. I remember getting on the airplane in New York with a map of Europe that was about the size of an index card and said, well, I guess we can make things work from here. The only issue we probably had was that we flew into Amsterdam, spent some time there at the Heineken Brewery and a couple other places, and then said, we need to go to Copenhagen to the Carlsberg Brewery and, uh, took off in the car.

[00:35:55] Green Racing VW and headed towards Denmark [00:36:00] and all of a sudden they said, it's, well, it's about two or three hours and then it's an hour on the ferry. And we looked at each other and said, what? Uh, obviously we didn't have quite the maps we needed, but, uh, it was a very memorable trip. It was a good time.

[00:36:12] Uh, drove through the Alps and Italy, but what I recognize is you could really get around Europe in a short period of time, but easily because of the proximity of everything. 

[00:36:21] Did you buy the car when you got there? Did you rent it? 

[00:36:25] How long did you go for? Uh, it was about two and a half, three weeks. Okay.

[00:36:29] One of the [00:36:30] funny things was when I was at Syracuse as part of pledge week, we had to be sitting in for classes for our upperclassmen and I remember sitting in for a fine arts class. And the, uh, fine arts class, it was just an attendance only kind of a thing. But I did learn enough that when I went to a number of the museums, I remember pointing my finger and going, I know that picture, or I know that sculpture.

[00:36:51] It was really funny. 

[00:36:52] Nothing like putting that education to good use. Yes, 

[00:36:54] absolutely. 

[00:36:55] All right, so then that was winter, or fall, when that trip would have finished. [00:37:00] Yes. 

[00:37:02] I was living in a condo. She was living in an apartment in the city. I was living in a condo in East Rochester, which is near Penfield.

[00:37:08] Condos were a very new thing at that time. So, but yeah, we got married. She moved in there with me. It wasn't too long after that we bought a house. And that was out in Fairport, lived there for a few years. First child was there, Travis, 1974, and Collin, second child, 1976. And we started looking for a quote, long [00:37:30] term house, something that we could live in.

[00:37:32] And we found a house, ironically, it certainly wouldn't have been my choice. But it turned out to be in Penfield and it was a good spot as all the boys would say it was great place to grow up. It was a great place to live. It was a lot of property and built a pool there and it was, it was a good spot. It was, it was obviously before cell phones, this, that, and I got a call.

[00:37:51] I was at work at Diana's. Outlooking and she goes, I found the house. I said, great. She said, it's in Penfield. 

[00:37:56] I go, 

[00:37:57] not great. I said, where are you now? She said, I'm at the [00:38:00] house. Are they standing right there next to you? And she said, yeah. I said so much for negotiations, but it worked out fine. 

[00:38:06] It was, 

[00:38:09] and, uh, we have many stories, graduations, primes, and this and that, uh, everybody to Pierce's.

[00:38:15] It was something that we would, uh, you would probably cringe at now but it worked out perfectly in those days. It's a 

[00:38:21] different era. 

[00:38:22] Once again, generational. 

[00:38:23] Would I be correct in saying that you've never had your heart broken or broken someone else's? 

[00:38:28] I think that most people, [00:38:30] if I broke their heart, were happy in the long term.

[00:38:33] I was, um, as I said, Younger. I was, uh, very lucky to have the family. I had equally as lucky to have the family that I now possess, although not with Diane, which is unfortunate. But school came fairly easily with me. I was a quick study, if not a potentially great intellect, but a quick study and pretty good at athletics, which made a big difference in high school.

[00:38:54] You know, it was one of those, oh, I know those guys. What 

[00:38:56] did you play? 

[00:38:56] I played three sports. I played soccer, basketball, and [00:39:00] baseball. That was a. Eight letter man. So I was one of those guys, you know, 

[00:39:04] did you carry on playing recreationally? 

[00:39:06] Not really. 

[00:39:07] It 

[00:39:08] was really one of those when people all said, you know, cause I had some opportunity to go to smaller schools and maybe play basketball or something.

[00:39:13] And I go, you know, I don't think so. I think I'm all done. And I went to Syracuse. I was, I knew I was all done. You know, it was one of those not going to be competing with these people. So I said, and I was good, but I was never going to be one of those. 

[00:39:25] That's good. Were there other sports or things that you've [00:39:30] participated in over the course of your life?

[00:39:31] Oh, sure. Now you hike 

[00:39:32] a lot. Sure. I played golf, played a little tennis. You know, if it was a sport, I did. But yeah, sports and they, sports continue to be an important part of my life. All three of my kids all played sports in high school. A good thing, I think. all playing different sports. They all played football, which was an opportunity for me at the time.

[00:39:49] There was not, that wasn't available, but they all skied in the wintertime and they all played lacrosse in the spring. So it allowed me to see entirely, which was very entertaining, was one of those, Oh, 

[00:39:59] I [00:40:00] wonder how it would 

[00:40:00] have been 

[00:40:00] at that. Did you ever throw a lacrosse ball? 

[00:40:03] Oh yeah, 

[00:40:03] yeah. Lots. 

[00:40:04] Yes. But I, I was never anywhere near as good as they were.

[00:40:07] They learned very early, and I remember Travis is the oldest and really worked hard and we had a goal, and, but he banged at the tennis balls against the wall and this and that, and he was got to be very good at it. So as his brothers came along, each of them got equally as, because all of a sudden Travis was bouncing the ball and Colin was bouncing the ball.

[00:40:24] Then Nathan was bouncing the ball and it was all progressively earlier. Uh, I always remember the story. My Uncle [00:40:30] Rich, this would have been my mother's sister's husband, and Rich could tell a story like nobody else. He would tell the story that, and they had four kids, and he goes, you know, the first kid, when they rode a bike, they were seven or eight years old, and they could barely get down the road.

[00:40:44] By the time I got to the fourth kid, it was three years old, and that kid was doing wheelies. He could tell a story better than anybody. That's exactly how those things develop, you know, as. The kids all of a sudden he saw a year earlier, two years earlier, they all developed that way. They were all very successful.

[00:40:58] Do 

[00:40:59] you feel like [00:41:00] having played team sports? As a teenager and being just generally athletically active, do you feel like that shaped you in any ways, helped you? 

[00:41:08] I don't think it hurt me for confidence. I think that allowed me, as I moved forward in the business world to think that I could probably do it.

[00:41:15] Yeah. You know, as I've said about the ice business that I said about the, well, what do you know about that? It's not what you know about. It's what? Foresee the business and what maybe the business was when you bought it and where do you think you can take it to? But I think a lot of that [00:41:30] came from, again, probably from the beer business, which was very successful when I got, I made some major changes to it that we needed to move forward so that I could become a bigger beer distributor.

[00:41:39] It didn't quite work out. Like I was disappointed about it. As I said, I thought that's what I was going to be doing, but it didn't stop me from moving forward, but it did slow me down for a while. Just because you fall down doesn't mean you can't get up. Do you 

[00:41:51] have other hobbies or things that you've done throughout the course of your life?

[00:41:55] Not so, well, as I said, I play golf and we do this, that. And that was, [00:42:00] that got to be, before we moved to Colorado, I was a member of a club in Rochester. So I played a lot and I had some good stories, some good fun, but never took it too seriously. As the pro said, there he goes, everybody should be as serious about golf as you are, which isn't very, which is true.

[00:42:16] Just part of my makeup, I guess it was part of, you know, you don't think of it that way as well. You're developing this, you're doing that. It was just part of where I was and where I was going. Like moving to Colorado. He goes, Oh, sort of a big move. I go, we'll see. [00:42:30] 

[00:42:30] Are there other decisions in your life that at the time didn't necessarily feel right?

[00:42:34] Momentous, or as you say, that's just sort of, well, this is the right thing and we'll do that. And now when you look back, sort of, do you see like pretty big choices to have made? 

[00:42:44] I always look at it, but they were the correct choices. That momentous, they were the right thing to do. It worked out. There were things that didn't work out as well.

[00:42:52] Obviously, as we had talked about with families and people lived in that area, my two sisters, one sister has now passed [00:43:00] away, but my younger sister still lives in Rochester, New York. My parents lived there. Most of my family's the outside still live close by or near there. Gladys saying, she goes, well, so we had you for a good long time.

[00:43:13] She said, but probably not a bad thing. She was, I'm sure disappointed because she would have liked to have been closer for a longer period of time, but we would travel, we would see him in Florida and eventually they were the ones that moved. They had a house in Rochester for 40 years before they finally sold it, but bought this condo on a [00:43:30] lark back in late sixties and early seventies and kept it, and that's where they lived until they passed away.

[00:43:34] It was amazing. And it wasn't anything special. It wasn't like it was a big thing. They were happy there and they knew people and it worked out very well for them as well. 

[00:43:42] So during the years when you were shifting businesses, running businesses, all that kind of thing, and you had kids around, how did you sort of navigate the challenges of work and getting some quality time in with your children and maintaining a marriage that lasted for a very long time?[00:44:00] 

[00:44:00] Exactly two months short of 50 years. I will give my partner, Diane, a good deal of credit on that because there were times when it was difficult, whatever I was doing, but that was almost, as I said, that was almost the best part of being no longer in the beer business, which was time consuming. and all of a sudden having a window of time to watch them grow up, watch them go to high school, play some sports, uh, those kind of things.

[00:44:25] So I was able to share in that a little bit more than I would have if it had [00:44:30] gone differently. I might be an entirely different person, because at the time, I, as I said, I thought I was going to be in the Bureau of Business, and I was going to do this, and I was going to do that. That was where I was. I was, that was my main focus.

[00:44:40] The kids were young at that time. I mean, Travis, let's see, he's 86. So, Travis was. 74, so he was 12. 12, 10, and Nathan was 6. So it, sometimes those things that are the worst things are the best things. They work out the best way. Although, Diane wouldn't have always said that. She goes, take some time for you to find yourself something.

[00:44:58] Was 

[00:44:59] it tough for you, [00:45:00] personally, in that time? You know, did it send you down into a dark place? 

[00:45:03] Um, no, I'm not that bright. Yes, it would have many people, but I seem to be oblivious to that problem. 

[00:45:09] As you look back now, over the course of your life, who would you say are the handful of people who have had the biggest impact on you, or been the most important in your life?

[00:45:19] Oh, 

[00:45:20] interesting question. And it isn't because they made decisions for me, but in a lot of cases, my family, my kids, my wife, my mom and dad, they were [00:45:30] people that allowed me to do the thing that I was going to do, but at the same time, sort of changed my focus on things. Mom and dad did this and probably do that, but the kids all of a sudden, it gave me a whole different outlook and Diana certainly did, you know, on that thing.

[00:45:45] So it wasn't one of those, once we got through the beer business and onto the other things, there was always opportunity. I think it's my family. I mean, do I have friends and this and that that yet, but none of them to the point of helping me or making decisions or helping me. [00:46:00] formulate a plan. It was always family, always.

[00:46:03] You're a very fortunate person. I am, 

[00:46:05] I am indeed. I've said that, but I've gone through that before, that I was extremely lucky as a very young person, as lucky when my kids were younger and in school, and there was always interaction, this and that. Diane was very good at that, and as I got older, they still hang in there, still the same.

[00:46:23] If you could ask a question now of one of those family members, Is there anyone you'd like to have a conversation with? 

[00:46:29] [00:46:30] Excellent question. Let me think on that. The people that jump out at me initially are my mom and dad and Diane. Um, Diane's would be more of a personal thing that I would hope that the things that I was chasing, the windows I was chasing that worked okay for her as well.

[00:46:48] That, uh, she's always volunteered and jumped in, but I'm sure there was times when she said, well, you must be out of your mind, but she always move forward. I would hope that our life together was good, um, [00:47:00] but I, I'm hoping that I didn't infringe on some things that maybe she would have liked to have done that unfortunately didn't get to happen.

[00:47:06] My mom and dad, um, I would like them to see how Nathan succeeded. Uh, Travis and Colin were always going to be okay. They were good in school. Everything worked very well for them. They were very confident that those two would always be. Good. Nathan, there was some hand wringing, I think, at times, especially from Gladys, but, and I had to keep reassuring them that he, he was [00:47:30] going to be just fine.

[00:47:30] I would like them to be able to see that he has joined the Pierce Boys and become very successful. Uh, I guess that would be best put. 

[00:47:38] When you reflect, what would you say are some of the most valuable lessons that you have learned? 

[00:47:43] I think the most important part, and again, we just talked about family.

[00:47:46] That's what everything revolved around. Um, whether it be things that were good or things that weren't good, it didn't make any difference. When Diane got sick, everybody jumped in, you know, it was, that's what you did. I'm expecting that sooner or later that, uh, probably won't be the [00:48:00] best of health. And I hopefully will go fairly quickly because I've already explained to those three that there are things that we aren't going to move forward on, we'll just let them go.

[00:48:08] But there would never be a time that I wouldn't ask a favor of any of them if I really needed it. Not that I probably would, but if I needed something, I would ask. And I would expect that they would, in a heartbeat, do whatever they could do. 

[00:48:21] So the lesson being, family is crucial. Yep. Any others? Nope. If you could go back and do anything differently, anything at all, would you?

[00:48:28] Nope. That's too bad to do. [00:48:30] I like it. 

[00:48:30] I mean, did I make mistakes? Yep. 

[00:48:32] What are some of the biggest either mistakes or challenges that you've faced? 

[00:48:37] Well, we have to go back to the beer business, because that was the thing that was, that's where I was going to be. And probably the first time that I really had a setback of anything, I mean, that I can ever remember, that all of a sudden it didn't go as I had planned, even though I go, this is how it's going to be.

[00:48:53] I've set it out, and I've done it, and this is, We're all set until it wasn't that was disappointing, but it slowed me [00:49:00] down, but it didn't stop. I didn't go. Well, it's me I just simply said you guys the whalies you made a mistake, but it is what it is You know, it's not something I would do over I might move a little bit differently on it just on the pure financials of it because we got taken to the claims I mean we did okay But we were fairly well capitalized and we had equipment and stuff like that that we didn't exactly make out on financially So those kind of things were, if I knew what the end game was gonna be, I probably would've played it a little bit differently.

[00:49:28] I probably wouldn't have pushed as [00:49:30] hard as quickly, but the opportunity presented itself. It's what it's, but I am now here as opposed to being there. And I have no issues with that. I have no issues with where I ended up and I, so I had a partner still. But that's not something you get to choose. No. 

[00:49:44] Back to that sort of question about hobbies and activities and that kind of thing.

[00:49:48] Is there anything that at some point in your life you wished you could have picked up or done more of? 

[00:49:53] No. Am I trading off? There'd be golf or something else. When I moved to Colorado, I literally said, I [00:50:00] don't play golf anymore. So I would play infrequently at best, and now it's even less. But it's not one of those, oh, I should have spent more time doing this.

[00:50:09] That's not how I am. You know, when I was in the ice business for the first year, I worked seven days a week. I averaged about 16 hours a day, which is difficult. But once again, Diane decided, well, I'm going to see him. I guess I'm going to get in the ice business. So she would come down. 

[00:50:22] What was her involvement with that business and, and with others?

[00:50:26] Well, she would, she actually, before that, going [00:50:30] back to the golf and tennis business in Rochester, when I decided to do that, she was a tennis player, recreational, but she was a tennis player. So, we also did a lot of upscale clothing and stuff like that. So, she got involved with a lot of the purchasing. Uh, it was her first Real endeavor in being a business owner.

[00:50:48] And there were some things that she did very, very well as Diane always did, but she would be very frustrated when some of the employees weren't working to their capabilities or what she thought their capabilities were. [00:51:00] Or when things didn't go financially as well as we would have liked. She goes, we're working really hard.

[00:51:05] How come we're not making more money than this? And I said, welcome to the business world. So, uh, she, she learned, um, in the golf and tennis business, we got to the ice business. Um, yeah, she, she was a very integral part. Um, she answered phones, did a lot of things. And again, because of her makeup, she would always move forward and look for other things to do that would be helpful.

[00:51:27] I think she would look for things that would take things off my [00:51:30] plate. So there wouldn't be quite the, uh, stress that I would have. By the time we were still living in Castle Rock. So I would get her out of there. in reasonably good time so she could make it back before I would finally get done at nine or ten o'clock at night and I would race home so I could get to bed so I could get there the next day.

[00:51:45] But that's how it was. If the Genesee thing had gone through, we always laugh about it, is that Travis the oldest probably would have been married and divorced half a dozen times. Nathan and or myself would either be in jail or in trouble. And [00:52:00] Colin maybe would run in the company and going, I don't want to do this.

[00:52:03] It gave everybody the opportunity. to branch out and do things. Travis went to Chicago with a friend in a rental truck with a stuff, worked for Airmark for a period of time, but eventually got into what he is doing now. Met his wife there and they have three wonderful kids. Colin went to Bucknell. I think he might even have started in the business school, why I'm not sure, but ended up in advertising, went to school for that, [00:52:30] lived in San Francisco in a closet for a period of time, that was supposedly a room, moved to Arizona, was in Arizona for a period of time, ended up in Colorado.

[00:52:37] Nathan, who had to his issues initially. Everybody has been in a different spot, but they have all done well. That's probably the thing that Diane and I both would say we feel the best about, is that they all are doing things that they want to do and are happy with where they are. Is it perfect? Nope, but nothing is.

[00:52:53] But if we had ended up in Rochester, things would have been so different. It's gave everybody the opportunity to branch out, do things, see [00:53:00] things, be in different places. But it allows everybody to do things that they want to do. 

[00:53:05] Are there any pieces of advice or words of wisdom or aphorisms? And I mean, phrases, even going back to, you know, keep your toothbrush in your pocket that you came across at some point in your life that stuck in your head.

[00:53:18] This came from my dad and it was when we'd be really busy and I'd say, we can probably do that tomorrow morning and he'd go, always get everything done you get done today, [00:53:30] because tomorrow will be a whole new set of problems. And I have used that all the way through the ice business. and all the way through the rental business.

[00:53:39] The rental business is really Nathan's, but uh, when we're making decisions on stuff, we go, don't put it off, get it done. You know, even if it's 10 o'clock at night, we can get it done. Do 

[00:53:48] you feel like that's carried beyond business? Um, 

[00:53:51] yeah, probably. A bit anal on that, I suppose. 

[00:53:54] Well, from what you've said about the fact that there aren't things you would change and you don't feel like you've not [00:54:00] gone into a hobby that you wanted to, or any of those sorts of things, that to me sounds like somebody very much with an attitude of, Don't put it off for tomorrow.

[00:54:07] If you can do it now, do it while you can. Yep. 

[00:54:09] The only thing that I, unfortunately, um, Diane, like to travel. And, uh, she traveled to Europe with a friend of hers as well. Uh, but she wanted to go back to Paris in the worst way. And COVID got in the way and then her illness got in the way. So we never had got that chance to do that.

[00:54:26] I feel badly about that because that was something she wanted to do and we could [00:54:30] be doing that. But that's one of those things to get it, to do it when you can, you know, so. But as far as myself, you know, I'm, I'm okay with where I am right now. 

[00:54:37] Every time I see you, you're in a good mood, but that might be because I usually see you when there's hiking involved.

[00:54:41] Being outdoors with your dog, in nature, in a beautiful place, over your body in the Colorado sunshine. 

[00:54:46] There are worse places you could be. 

[00:54:48] You often use the term genetic defect when referring to this entrepreneurial mindset. Can you talk a little more about that? 

[00:54:57] Yeah, I, well, and I think we've [00:55:00] discussed it a little bit before.

[00:55:01] You have to look at the long term even though you're working it in the short term. There is no such thing as long term except you're dead. But the long term of where the business is going, what you need to make it go further and at the short term continue to do the things that are making the business at least a little bit successful now.

[00:55:20] But it's that long term goal. It's that long term, I can make this work. I can be successful at this. And sometimes. There are days when that doesn't seem quite so right, but you [00:55:30] have to always look positively at it. You can never, it can never be one of those, you can't put your head down and go, Oh, woe is me.

[00:55:36] No matter how bad a day might be, the next day is another day. And you just have to keep moving forward with your goal and your plan. Now, sometimes the plan's a little sketchy, but it's still there. You know, you still know what you're going to be doing or what you're trying to do. But as I said, for a lot of people, they would look at that and go, What, are you crazy?

[00:55:53] I have a number of fraternity brothers that say that to me on a regular basis. But that's just the mindset, and again, I [00:56:00] don't know if that just is the way it's always been with me, or if someplace along the line, it clicked and said, yeah, this, this is what I do. Maybe after, when I got somewhat drummed out of the beverage business, the question was, do you go to work for somebody, or do you find something?

[00:56:15] To do another business. And there was really, you know, I was offered a couple of different things and it just never made sense to me. It just, it was never one of those things. Well, this is just a job and I don't look at what I do as just a job. I look at it [00:56:30] as what I do. 

[00:56:31] Yeah. That sense of ownership that drives.

[00:56:34] Where were you during Woodstock? 

[00:56:35] Great story. Right. So Ablervie, paternity brother, and myself had decided we were going to go down and see Carol Azuti, who was, I was dating at the time. And she had a sister. So we met at the fraternity house in Syracuse. Bob was there as he liked to be there for every summer for summer school.

[00:56:53] And we met up with Montgomery and goes, no, you can't go down to Jersey Shore. Got to go to this concert. It's going to [00:57:00] be great. I know. And so Lurvie and I are driving down the. And it's really busy and we stopped at Howard Johnson's and we walk in and Bob and I, reasonably long hair it was, and Bob looked at me and I looked at him and we said, we're the straightest people in this place.

[00:57:15] Continued on. I went to New Jersey, went to the Cape, went to New York City, spent all night there, came back the next day and reading the newspaper and everybody goes, it's like this was a pretty big deal. Drove right by it. 

[00:57:26] Any regrets for missing it? 

[00:57:28] Um, no, the [00:57:30] story's much better. It's much better that I, uh, that we went to the Howard Jabs as straight as people in here and went on to the Cape.

[00:57:36] Had a great time. Blew off Woodstock. 

[00:57:38] All right, we're going to go through, uh, sort of a series of questions that are going to be similar, but thinking about different points in life. Okay. If you were speaking to somebody today who's sort of on the cusp of adulthood, they're either going into college, they've graduated college, they're kind of around that age.

[00:57:52] Any advice you'd give them? 

[00:57:53] Keep your mind open. Don't go to college and say, I'm going to do this, or I'm going to do that. You might, but chances are not. Always [00:58:00] look. Sometimes people go into things for the wrong reason. They go, oh, I can make money, or I can do this, or this seems like a great lifestyle. As opposed to saying, you're going to do this all your life.

[00:58:08] Find something you'd like to do. Easy enough said. 

[00:58:10] And if you're speaking to somebody who's in the thick of their adult life when they're juggling career, family, friendships. personal interests, all those that possibly aging parents are in the thick of juggling, all those things. Any advice you'd give somebody in that stage 

[00:58:26] of life?

[00:58:26] Good luck. Should happens. [00:58:30] Just gotta hang in there. 

[00:58:32] Fair enough. All right. If you had all the world's attention for up to one minute, what would you say that you would want everyone to take to heart? 

[00:58:43] I will go back to something that I think of my father, be a better person. He, if there was anybody that I've known or knew, some that might come close, but he was a good man.

[00:58:55] And I will never quite measure up to that, but it gives me something to shoot for. As I [00:59:00] said, I've lived a very good life. A to maybe not quite C, but wherever it is. Some disappointments along the way, but all in all, very lucky guy. 

[00:59:12] Thank you, Trip, for sharing your story, your words, and your time with us.

[00:59:17] For those running, or thinking of running, our own businesses, your insight and experience are invaluable. Your kids are as lucky as you are. To those of you listening, thank you for [00:59:30] joining us. If you enjoyed this, please leave a review in Spotify or Apple Podcasts and hit that follow button. These things help others find the podcast and they mean the world to me.

[00:59:41] Share this with anyone you think would love it or learn something from it, and keep coming back for more of the words we've heard. This podcast would not be possible without the editing and production brilliance of Corey Orack, the inspiration of my parents, and a 2001 conversation with my grandmother.

[00:59:59] My [01:00:00] thanks to you all. So what are the words we've heard? Keep your mind open. Be a better person. And the classic, shit happens. So as Tripp says, just gotta hang in there.