He almost didn't live to see it finished.

This week on TwoDads, AJ Mast pulls up a chair. The guy behind The Boathouse at Grand Lake — the spot you've driven past a hundred times on 127 — tells us how a kid from Mercer County built a business from the mud up and beat cancer with a one-year-old son waiting for him at home.

We laughed our way through it, cracked every boat pun we could think of, and somewhere in the middle he told us about the Kardashian joke he made when twelve nurses thought he was dying.

This one's funny. This one's real. This one's Mercer County.

Hit play.

The Boardwalk in Celina. The Shipyard. Market Hall. Harvest Crossing. The cottages on the lake. Roofs over your neighbors' heads.

One family quietly built most of it...and they've been doing it for 75 years.

This week we sit down with Randy Bruns — the second-generation owner of Bruns Construction. We talk about what it's like to take over your dad's business, build your own chapter on top of it, and right now stand in the middle of handing it off to your own kids.

Whether you're inheriting something, building something, or trying to figure out how to lead the people next to you — this one's for you.

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One Phone. Every Game. One Story You've Never Heard.

You've seen his videos. You've shared his videos. You couldn't pick him out at the local Walmart.

This week, the man behind ReelLife sits down with us.

He's the guy in the bleachers with a phone — Coldwater on a Tuesday, Marion Local on a Friday, some Saturday tournament three hours away that nobody else is covering. If your kid is playing, he's probably already there.

We get into who he is, why he started, what it's cost him, and the story behind why he keeps showing up — one he's never told publicly before.

Most people have a dream job. Conner Prince actually has his.He's the newly named Chief Meteorologist at WLIO in Lima, Ohio, a title he ground for, doubted himself over, and finally earned.

He's also built one of the most genuine social followings in the region.In this one we get into the climb nobody talks about — what it actually took to get the title, the moment he thought it wasn't going to happen, and where he was when the call finally came.

We also get into his obsession with food, what life looks like now that people recognize him at the grocery store, and the work he's doing in schools across this area.

If you've ever had a dream you were scared to say out loud — this one's for you.

Brooke and Braelen Bader own Made Apparel together — custom tees, every school logo in the county, and a second location coming inside a historic Versailles firehouse with a drive-thru coffee window. Braelen also runs Nite Owl Studio next door. Fifty feet of downtown Celina. One marriage holding all of it together.

On this episode Mitch and Bill sit down with both of them to get the real story — how a t-shirt shop with no storefront grew into one of the most recognizable names in Mercer County, what it actually looks like to build something with your spouse, and what keeps you going when the fear is real.

Plus Would Mercer County Wear It, the Junk Drawer, and Couples Therapy on the whiteboards.

This one's for anyone who's ever had an idea and wasn't sure if their town was big enough for it.

He's seventeen. He's already a legend in Delphos. Forty-year scoring record — broken. Fifty-three points in a single game. Mr. Basketball finalist twice. But nobody actually knows Cam Elwer.

So we sat him down and went there.

The dad who coaches him. The mom holding it all together while her kid becomes public property. The little brothers growing up in his shadow. What dating looks like when the whole town knows your name.

And Cam? He's trying to figure out what dating looks like when the whole town knows your name, what he gave up chasing all of this, and what it means to walk away from the only place that's ever known him. You've seen the highlights. You've heard the name. You don't know the kid. Now you will.

How do you find the next great MLB pitcher?

Brian Garman knows.

As the Minor League Pitching Coordinator for the Cincinnati Reds he oversees 110 pitchers and decides who moves up and who goes home.

But before he was the one making those calls he was the kid who never made it.

Drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in 2010, Brian blew out his shoulder, emptied his savings account trying to get back, and walked away when the game said no.

Today he is back inside the game he loves — this time building the system that develops the next generation of Reds pitchers.

We get into what it really takes to make the big leagues, how you evaluate talent, what separates the guys who make it from the ones who don't, and how you sit across from a kid and end his dream when you once sat in that same chair.

Plus we pitched fake menu items to a Cincinnati Reds employee, tested objects against Randy Johnson's fastball, and played Gate or Plate. Brian is from Wapak. We are from Celina. This one felt like home.

Most people drive past The Bay and never think twice about who owns it. Kyle Bruce bought it at 25 years old — and he's been working toward it since he was twelve.

In this episode we sit down with the owner of one of Celina's most iconic restaurants. We talk about growing up inside those walls, leaving town to find himself, and making the kind of decision most people his age wouldn't even consider.

If you've ever had a thing you kept putting off until the timing was right — this one's for you.

TwoDads is a podcast from Mercer County, Ohio. New episodes every week.

Emily Westerfield looks like your standard Mercer County mom. Three kids, packed schedules, the whole thing. But she just delivered her twelfth baby — and only three of them are hers.

In this episode, Emily sits down with the Two Dads to talk about the emotional and physical toll of surrogacy, the stories that never made the other interviews, and how she built Carrying Dreams — an agency helping families who can't have children on their own.

If you ever thought two kids was too much, this one's for you.

Five brothers running one company shouldn’t work.

Too many opinions. Too many personalities. Too many ways for things to go sideways.

But somehow… it does.

Ben Moeller is one of the five owners of ⁠Moeller Door & Window⁠, a family business started by his parents in 1987 that’s grown into a recognizable name across Mercer County.

In this episode, we get into what it really looks like behind the scenes — the decisions, the disagreements, and the reality of trying to run a business with your siblings.

We also talk about how the company has evolved, and how they’ve leaned into modern marketing and social media in ways they never expected.

It’s a conversation about family, business, and figuring it out as you go.