The following transcript is provided by YouTube. Mistakes are present. To hear the podcast episode, click HERE.
Welcome to Scaling UP! H2O, the podcast where we’re Scale UP! on knowledge so we don’t Scale UP! our systems. Hello Scaling UP! Nation, Trace Blackmore here. So excited to be with you today as you know I had a great time at the Association of water technologies annual convention and Expo I met so many people there so many people came up to me and said how much they enjoy the Scaling UP! H2O podcast I gotta tell you I love that a lot of people gave me some new information on some new people they want me to seek out and interview and folks I got to tell you there were so many great presentations there I plan on having many of those people that gave those presentations on in the upcoming year so you can hear from them on Scaling UP! H2O. so it was just a great convention it’s my hope if you miss this one you make it the last one that you miss and you go to the next one the next one is in Palm Springs Palm Springs is a great place if you have never been there before but most importantly you get to meet me I love to meet members of the Scaling UP! Nation and I got to tell you that’s exactly what happened at this past convention in Orlando I met and a vigil named Chandler Mancuso and Chandler you actually heard a brief interview that I did with him a last week when I interviewed all the C. deputies that stuck around when they received their plaque that said that they had attained the C.W.T. a designation it was my pleasure to shake every one of their hands as they came off stage even gave them a Scaling UP! T.-shirt folks that I tell you a is one of the.
Just moments I have because that to me lets me know that that water trader has decided that they want to be the best that they can in this industry and nobody makes you on the customer side become a certified water technologist that is something that you and your company decide that you want to spend the time and the resources doing in order to achieve and those people did that they’re doing that because they want to make the industry the best that they can be well Chandler came up to me told me how much he enjoyed the show and we had a great conversation after the interview I actually snuck up on him a couple of times in the convention hall and just a really impressive guy now I’m going to tell you he holds a title that I used to hold Now I’m not bitter about it but I want to tell you that when I was 26 years old I received a certified water technologist designation and for years and years and years and years and years I was the youngest C.W.T. that we ever had now somebody else had that title and I don’t remember who that was and I apologize in there probably that was traded around back and forth but now Chandler holds that title for the youngest C.W.T. folks you know how much in high esteem I hold the certified water technologist designation so I want to make sure that the scale and out nation gets a chance to meet Chandler Mancuso the youngest C.W.T. So I hope you enjoyed my interview with Chandler Mancuso my lab partner today is Chandler Mancuso a Plymouth technologies how are you Chandler I’m doing great today trace area I am doing awesome especially since the fact that you are on Scaling UP! and Chandler you and I did not know each other very well until this last A.W.T. convention where we got to sit down and talking get to know each other and I. I understand that you are an avid listener of Scaling UP! H2O and did so let me ask what is your favorite episode of Scaling UP! H2O.. You know the one of the white Ross was very very good like that one a lot of think so from Chris Navalny from right a really good Tom what that one I learned a lot and then as well I learned a lot from him as well in his in his conversation with you on Scaling UP! so I think those 2 are probably my 2 favorite ones today it’s all right nobody’s keeping score just curious I have to tell you Chandler I was so impressed with you I mean you you in your own right or an awesome water trader and I’m going to tell a Scaling UP! Nation your age if you don’t mind yeah no go for it you are 22 years old and you have a certified water technologist designation.
Dude that is amazing that is incredible We’re going to talk today about how you did it why you did it some tips you can give the Scaling UP! Nation but before we do that tell the Scaling UP! Nation a little bit about Chandler Mancuso Yeah absolutely so you know I actually grew up on the west side of Michigan about 30 miles outside of Grand Rapids in a small town and when I was 17 I graduated high school twin sister and I moved over to the metro Detroit area about 30 miles outside of Detroit and that was so that I could go to Oakland University studying ultimately got my degree in environmental science and with modern biology while I was at O.U. was when I started with and then after I had graduated from O.U. which was last May Then I had to go co-ordinator for Plymouth and then I took a year off of school after I had graduated now undergraduate degree and it was during that time period that I got my C.W.T. and my LEEDs which I think are in cycle of it all later as well and then just about a month and a half ago returns to Oakland’s. So that I could go for my master’s degree in chemistry and here we are today are for Man that’s incredible I have noticed that chemical engineers and environmental science majors do very well in the water treatment industry and I want to ask environmental science degree holder Why do you think that is you know it’s funny because really the degree did help me more than I had thought that it was going to and I was nervous about having this degree going into this field because you really don’t learn a whole lot directly about water treatment however the more that I learned about the specifics of water treatment the more that I realize that a degree such as environmental science really does give you the sort of substrate concepts that you need in order to learn the specifics about water treatment and I think that it does that better than a lot of other degrees and you can get while you’re in school so I think for that reason really I think that it’s also in my advantage that this point I was able to get the degree in environmental science were there any things that translated from the classroom to the actual field you know it’s funny to say like I said you really don’t know where no whole lot about water treatment directly but you can sort of synthesize concepts and therefore you realize that you knew more about water treatment than you did for example you know you learn about ocean acidification and things like that now environmental science you learn about the solubility of carbon dioxide in a watershed or a couple of gas it and therefore it lowers the PH of the oceans and if you kind of think about the exact same thing that happens in condensate is or isn’t all we have to apply neutralizing it means and so more and more I have realizing how these areas an environmental science that seemed on specific to water treatment actually did sort of help me understand concepts moving forward in this industry I’m curious how did you go from the classroom to getting a job with Plymouth what transpired to make that happen yes so you know just like everybody else I really did not.
A very direct route going into the water she’s an industry I actually had a conversation with my informal science fact the adviser because I actually went into Oakland with an environmental science major in the chemistry minor and then after having a conversation with her she said you know a space of this conversation that we’re having I think you might actually be better off with a minor in biology and I figured well she’s spoken to a lot of his my perform probably knows better than I do what I want to do with my life so I switched over to yes so I switched over to a minor in biology and then I went back to a little bit later and I was like you know up before I write this whole you know quote environmental chemistry thing off I do want to try it 1st to do you have any opportunities that you can think of where I can sort of get my hands on the stuff and really just get a feel for whether or not I’m going to like it and she said you know there’s this water trading company down the street called from the technology see if you have any opportunities for you and so I did I reached out to Plymouth and sure enough they didn’t and so when I was in school I did start working for Plymouth and then you know I started spending summers there wanted enough classes to start to work a lot more hours and really started to get a better feel a deeper understanding of what the industry was like and so that’s what I really started to enjoy it more was when I had a lot of dedicated time and experience in the industry and then the summer before I graduated. Actually did my honors college thesis in conjunction with the if we did it on board removal from fracking flowback water and that was super successful and I thought that that was super interesting and so I just kind of found myself getting deeper and deeper into the industry and now I absolutely love it well that’s awesome we have a similar arrangement it sounds like that Oakland had with Plymouth our school was Georgia Gwinnett college and we’re just starting that relationship but I’m so proud that out of that endeavor somebody like yourself came from that so hopefully we’ll have some good luck with that as well Absolutely and you know the thing is the sort of difficult about pulling people from college to the water treatment history is that nobody goes into college saying I.
I want to be a water treaters So you either have to take somebody who doesn’t know what they want to do yet and convince them that they want to be a water trader or you have to take somebody who thinks they already know what they want to do and then convince them otherwise to be a watershed here and so I think that that deep relationship between a company and the college or the university to help a lot in terms of getting people into this industry so Tara give me some therapy here what are some specific things that I can do in my company to help facilitate that. You know that’s a good question a Obviously internships are a big thing and and you know internships and having people who are really dedicated to teaching the people who are just new to the industry because you know when you have an intern and you have somebody who doesn’t think that they know anything about water treatment it can be a highly disorienting experience because it really is a complex industry and you have to know law and order to begin to feel comfortable in the industry and so I think that having somebody there to answer the questions to get them up to speed to simplify things I think it makes the industry less intimidating and I think that allows them to get the information that they need to really start feeling like they’re comfortable and enjoying themselves in this industry where you start billing me now that’s great advice I think that you mentioned at the top of the show that you also have your LEED Green Associate
So if you’re OK I want to talk about that for a little bit Absolutely. So a lot of people in the water treatment industry they might know a little bit about LEED because a customer says hey our building is getting certified and now you’ve got to do something to help us get certified You obviously had that conversation at one point or another and decided you know I don’t want to just be involved in the process I want to be part of the process and get my LEED Green Associate So how did you come to that conclusion what were some of the things that transpired to lead you to that and then after that we’ll talk about what you did actually get your league Yeah. So you know it comes to making the decision I really had no idea that a certification in that area existed until your podcast Trace But then once I realized that there was a certification in that sort of part of the industry I decided that it might not be a bad idea for somebody to have that certification to be that involved in that part of the industry so that way when inevitably we end up in a situation where we need to provide a larger program to somebody who is operating a LEED building we have the level of comfortability and a level of knowledge that we need to be able to take that on and so I don’t want to deny ourselves from those sorts of businesses simply because of fear of the unknown and so there are green buildings going up everywhere and I think it’s only a matter of time before you know we start making our way into that industry and so I wanted to make sure that we were prepared for it that’s awesome I had no idea you learned about the LEED GA from the show how cool is that I did yeah i know i was awesome so did you go through the affiliate training course that we do through Charlie Company I did not know so what I did was once I signed up for the exam the website does a very good job of providing us with materials that you need I used the LEED core concepts God and the LEED Green Associate exam preparation God and you can buy them in a bundle and it’s fairly inexpensive and they were really really good resources of information I think the vast majority of the material that was on the examination came from from that material so the definitely would recommend using that material as well if somebody is looking to go for it was obviously anybody can order the material but you had a plan that was set up where you were going to study a little bit and you were going to quiz yourself and whatever you did work would you mind sharing with the Scaling UP! Nation what that plan was.
Yes so you know because I really didn’t know what to know what the material was necessarily about at 1st I had no idea really how I was going to approach it at 1st however. The exam preparation guy does a very good job of sort of God in you and giving you the initiatives and the direction that you need in order to successfully acquire all the information and in fact online that you can have you know you like 14 to 30 Day plans and things like that over the material that you want to go through and so basically what I was doing is you know something that I always do whenever I’m taking a stand as exam is understand that you will 1st and memorize it 2nd and so that was pretty much the game plan the entire time and I would get through a chapter out understand no to memorize it and then I would take you know a quiz or an exam or something like that on the material and then if I felt comfortable with the then I would move forward awesome Now let me ask now that you are ready to take the LEED Green Associate EXAM What was that process like and walk us through you actually going to the testing center yes I believe it’s actually fairly similar to the way that you have to do it for this you know exam in that I when I was writing the schedule there was a link on the USGBC website and then you were the directed to prominent.
I believe is the testing agency that provides the exam and then you just look up an exam location or a testing location near you and they have a map line that does it for you and then once you click on the testing location they give you data times that are available for you to go in there take it and then you just sign up for the date and time and then you show up at the Testing Center at the appropriate date and then you’re a to rock and you knew when you had finished if you passed or not you do yeah just like the still you see exam when you walk out the door you know whether or not you asked so how heavy is your finger when you hit the Yes button Are you finished Are you sure oh it’s horrible you know and those. In the league were the only 2 exams where that was a case where I knew how I was going to do right after I hit the send button and so you start thinking about all the potential mistakes that you could have potentially made. That whether or not you need to go back and revise those or not but you know eventually you just said Trust yourself and then you pull the trigger on it and thankfully both times I came out happy.
Have you had an opportunity since you received that designation to use it you know not directly yet however I should say the one thing that I did not expect to get out of that doesn’t nation that I alternately did acquire it which I think is an awesome sort of secondary benefit is that I really did learn a lot more about the perspectives of people who are owning and operating and managing these types of buildings and that you can apply to whether the building is a great building are not learning about the processes the challenges and things like that the people who are operating and working on these buildings have to deal with really actually is a little bit in the associate material so I was super That was part of it because I think that that can translate to any of our customers you know I found for myself it really gives me a common language to speak with the property managers and the owners that I don’t know if I would have had had I not gone for the LEED GA and now I’m a LEED AP O+M after that so have you noticed some of your conversations with some of your customers changing because you know what their think in the words they’re using and maybe what they’re even preparing for to get their building certified Yeah absolutely I do think that that is the case and in addition to that I think that you can do a better job of preparing your customers for a program that works for them for a large room program that works for them if you know their challenges if you know their demands and if you know what they want then you can do a better job of tailoring your program to their their needs and their demands so I think that that definitely is the case another thing you can do to learn more about LEED is you can listen to the podcast where I interview Charlie Kennedy of green building education services and that is Episode 4 https://scalinguph2o.com/4 and he tells us all about what it is to have a LEED program and also how to get your LEED designations whether those are the green associate or the A.P.
Let’s talk about the certified water technologist designation that you have and again I’m going to say you’re 22 and I’m going to set out to scale donation I’m sure there are some people out there saying 22 How can you be 22 and get a C.W.T. So let’s talk about that and actually before we do I want to let the Scaling UP! Nation know that I snuck up on Chandler and Chelsea Standish in the middle of a conversation and these were 2 PhD level people going after how they were going to attack this problem you guys were that was an impressive conversation you are an impressive dude so anybody that doubts that a 22 year old can have a C.W.T. you have not spoken with Chandler and after this episode I don’t think there’s going to be any doubt that he has put the effort in so I want to talk a little bit about that effort and I want to talk about how can you be 22 and get a C.W.T.. So 1st of all I think Chelsea Standish just made you sound really good in that conversation or than that you know when it comes to the point in getting the C.W.T. one the 1st thing is that you have to start in the industry young very young and order to have the experience that you needed in order to achieve that designation but you are 22 and so I started sheer when I was when I was 18 and so that was issues huge benefit actually I couldn’t do that without that and 2nd I did you know my boss and my mentor she did a very good job of pushing me to do these things like build my title knowledge like and encourage me to go take that C.W.T. again and help me along the way it was not about that but that being said she was.
Little warning charging you to do all these things at the rate that I did them and I don’t know if I would have been able to do that without not only his efforts in helping me understand this material but also with his urgency to help me get those other nations so you’ve been doing water treatment since your 18th birthday tell us a little bit about the process like you did with the LEED GA But now for the C.W.T. what materials did you use how did you know what materials to use how did you come up with the study plan how did you know when it was the right time to schedule the examination Yes So this was definitely a pretty rigorous process just no doubt about especially because you know undoubtedly I had less experience than some of the people who were taking the exam I relied very very heavily on technical material the Telegraph’s training manual I probably spent 80 percent of my study time with that was absolutely my lifeline when it comes to studying for the exam now I did use a handful of resources well though of course my boss a mentor you know never did understand anything or needed further clarification that was the God that I would go to and his answers were always extremely helpful I would also use Google you know I mean preacher who in one of my favorite episodes diligence was telling us about it you know we have the luxury of having all of this really good information there right in front of the Internet search engines and so you know of course you have to use it wisely and when I didn’t understand something and just needed to explain a different way or something like that I was using Google fairly frequently and then finally you know my peers I mean there are a lot of them believe obliques more people in this industry who know way more than I probably ever will and so I really wanted to use those people and to help me gain some more knowledge and I really do appreciate some of the peers in industry who helps me do that when it comes to being ready to take the exam you know unfortunately probably doesn’t strike as a very good answer for the skilling of nation but because you know I’m young I have been going to school and taking a stand as exams. Pretty much as long as I can remember I have sort of developed this more or less gut feeling associated with knowing whether or not I was comfortable enough with the material to take the set so once I hit that point I scheduled the exam 3 weeks out from that point allowing me to just continue to brush up the bill on that knowledge that I was already pretty comfortable with and then I was ready to rock I think it probably took me over 4 mos probably spent I probably spent a 150 hour or so with reps in training manual so it definitely a lot of work on my end just trying to make up the lack of experience and trial knowledge if you will but you know with a lot of very material heavy studying you can definitely get the job done did you go to any of the technical training classes that they did BT offers So why did not and that was probably a mistake I really wish that I would have I think that that would have helped me a lot in terms of least building and gaining familiarity with the technical errors and training manual I think part of the reason why I had to spend so much time with it was just because there was an unbelievable amount of information and so really comprehending all of that can be very difficult to do and so I wish I would have gone to one of those trainings just to allow me to once they opened up that book I just have an idea what was going on. And do what you did work you pass. Me like a complaint at the end of a day that it or so you’ve mentioned a couple of times Oh and by the way you have every opportunity as a C.W.T. to go to technical training actually that’s a great way to pick up 15 continuing education units so keep that in your pocket absolutely will do so you had mentioned several times a mentor and when I talk with people either find me through my show or know me through the association of water technologies they say what is the most important thing I can do to be a better water treat or and the 1st thing I always tell them is you need a mentor now a lot of people don’t believe that they never had a mentor. You have a mentor you spoke a lot about your mentor can you tell the Scaling UP! Nation a little bit about that relationship and ultimately why you recommend that as well yeah absolutely So you know in my mentor he’s been the boss in turn to Plymouth and he’s been they had large knowledge source for me and is been a huge reason why the technical abilities that I do and you know I feel like one of the biggest reasons of why a mentor so important is that this industry is heavily relies on experienced base knowledge and that’s not something that you can get when you’re young in the south you can get out of a textbook but you can get it from somebody who has been in the industry for decades and so I think that that unique perspective of having that mentor having those conversations with a mentor versus a telegraphs in training or versus a Google versus even doing it yourself I think that it can be really really beneficial learning and understanding the information from that perspective and I think that that’s why it’s as important as it is to have a mentor any advice you have for somebody who doesn’t have a mentor and they’re seeking that position to be filled you know one of the advantages of being a young person in this industry is that there are a lot of experienced people in this industry who are perfectly willing to help you out and so I think that if you don’t have one it’s not that hard to get one I think that you tend to get out there and you can meet some of these people that can also merely help you develop and ultimately become your mentor because they’re out there and they’re willing to do it and I think that there are a lot of people who would be happy to do that for younger people in the industry yet if you go to the young professionals gatherings that we have it pretty much every association of water technologies event there are a bunch of old guys like me standing around that would love that opportunity in a storm sure you saw all of us hanging around trying to pretend that we were young while you guys were having fun. Yeah there are definitely some people who had a couple more years on me in those meetings but that’s still something wrong with that. It’s like I said that’s one of the best people learned from of the experienced people in the industry so definitely glad to have him around Joe let’s talk about when you actually went to the testing center to take the examination what was that like yeah so you know just to sort of describe the basic process and the pull up usually try to get their little bit early there are there’s a lot like the hood that there are going to be people in that testing center that are taking exams as well probably not the C.W.T. there may not be this you know beauty but they’re also in that line with you so it’s important to get there early and make sure that we’re going to get your spot and so basically what happens is you go in you register and then you wait until it’s the appropriate time and then you go in and then they usually want you sit down they did bring you to a computer and then once you’ve done that there’s usually some toils and instructions on using the format that you have to use take the exam and then you can fire away and so you know one thing that going into the testing center that I knew you know a little bit on edge actually is the fact that when I go into Alderson or as exams there are you know a piece and things like that there are other people in the testing center taking that exact exam and so I don’t know there might even be like a little bit of sense of comfortability in that but when I went into particularly to take the C.W.T. it was myself and one other person and that person was not taking the exam so it felt like it was just me taking the exam and I was a little bit unnerving in that you know you’re sort of had that like lack of comfortability and that it’s just you and the exam and so you know you can get over it after a while but that is something that is different for those who are you know used to acclimated to taking exams in the presence of a lot of other people but other than that it’s taking exams on computers I really don’t find it to be that big of a deal and fact I think you’ve mentioned it before trace and one of the things you can do which is really nice is you have all of the questions a listed on the left side and then you can fly and you can toggle between them and things like that and so navigating the exam is a lot easier. Format but other than that you know at the end of the day though it is still a standardized exams so at the very in it asked you Are you finished and you hit yes and I’m pretty sure then pops up are you sure what was going through your head that. You know I almost wish they didn’t put that are you sure ball in there because it took so much out of me just to hit that one button the 1st time and you know it is though you haven’t the luxury to be able to go back to deathly do you think about it I don’t think that I did I think I ended up hitting both ends consecutively ending the exam particularly the C.W.T. was probably I was more nervous about anything else because I knew that if I didn’t pass it that printout was going to come out of the printer and I laid it was going to handed to me at the front I was going to say that I didn’t pass it and so I knew that in 60 seconds I knew with my say it was going to be and so because of that it really really is difficult to click that button but at the end the date isn’t working out so super thankful for that how revealing was the lady at the front counter Did you know you passed it based on her expression or was she not telling I actually thought that I had felt it after she gave it to me she turned it over and then she just said Have a Nice Day and David see me and didn’t say congratulations or anything like that and saw it was like oh I don’t think that I pass it and then I turn it over and I think it almost added to the experience because I think at that point I was so I was almost convincing myself that I had acid so when I flipped it over and saw that I did it was it was even more exciting any outburst in the you know I don’t think so they want to like or not in public you know. Fair enough you know who was the 1st person you called when you found out you passed I think my girlfriend and my sister were the 1st 2 people that I told them I passed you know those are the people who saw me studying for you know a 150 plus hours and they were the ones who had more of the direct oversight over how hard I was working for it so I knew they would appreciate it and then I went straight back to the office after I had taken the exam that morning and all my coworker. Knew where I was at so they were all in the staring out the window waiting for my car to pull and to see if I passed or not so yeah that was kind of the chronology there no pressure there yeah it is and then I thought about you know I try to fake it and they can seem like I didn’t ask for anything like that but I was just 6 out of. It Conor Parrish who is on episode 8 of Scaling UP! H2O when he passed the 1st person he called was his mom the 2nd person was me so I’m honored Well Hi Sara I understand that mom has to get the 1st phone call. Yeah yeah I can’t argue with that so how have you changed since you’ve received that designation you know really is huge for the conference because it’s a validation of how my abilities have developed and really confirmation for myself our customers are really my employer as well that you know I have what it takes so that I can perform at the level that I need to in this industry and I really that’s huge for younger people because like I was telling you for a while there really is a lack of comfortability associated with not feeling like you know enough to be good at what you’re doing in this industry and so once you get that designation you can tell yourself that you do know most of what you need to know and that you do have what it takes to be a good water trigger so I think it’s really really huge for young people to have this doesn’t nation highly encouraged and body who is on the fence about taking it especially those who are my age to do so because the feeling of having this behind you is a really really nice Well again I want to applaud you it is a huge accomplishment no matter how old you are you did it and you did it well and you shared with the Scaling UP! Nation how they can do it as well so I want to thank you for talking about that absolutely So let’s pick on your age again now that we got that out of the way. So here are 22 years old what’s it like being 22 in the water treatment industry you know it’s funny because the more that I think about it the more that I really do feel like it has its advantages and it has its disadvantages you know some of the advantages are kind of what I talked about earlier. In that when you’re young there are a lot of people in this industry who are very willing to help you out and you know I notice that they did conference just I feel like I have a lot of people who are excited to answer any questions and so that is really nice about being young is that there are a lot of experienced people who are super open to helping you out and it’s truthfully I also have had other customers sort of embrace the fact that I’m young and in the industry as well I think that they kind of appreciate working with somebody who has worked as hard. To get into this position and Stethem you know working super hard to provide them with what I need to provide them with in you know of course just like a lot of other young water traders I’m sure that we’ve all say it’s a little bit of apprehension associated with you know going into the field as young as we are however I don’t think that that should dissuade a young person from being in the water she ministry because I don’t think that I have met any level of apprehension that can’t be subsided by doing a good job I don’t think I’ve ever had somebody who has been so skeptical. Even over a long period of time have I not been able to fill in the warm up to me so I think even though there are some disadvantages they’re not unmanageable I’m going to tell you I totally agree with you I was brought into this industry by my father and I got a lot to early young childhood memories of him doing stuff around water treatment but I was actually helping him with accounts when I was 16 years old and I remember when I was in my twenty’s when I was 22 I would go out and 22 is when I officially you know that’s what I want to do I want to be a water trader that was the mark of that at 22 people would look at me and they would say well what do you know you’re 22. When you can tell them what they need to hear the fact that you care about the equipment I didn’t know everything I don’t know everything now but back then I would get the answer and I would prove to them it didn’t matter how old I was how old you are were the right. People for the job and they from our actions are able to accept that would you agree with that think they’re absolutely right trace and I think that you know you will perform just like any other water tree or once you sort of break that barrier and allow your customers understand that you can be just as good a water changers anybody else even if you are young so you know I’m a fan of the Back To The Future series do you even know what that is you know I do a. Fun memories here. You’re killing me well it was a movie about going back in time and also forward in time later when they did the 2nd one so they had this awesome Delorean and that’s my dream car to have a dual Orian and out do it like like the Back To The Future movies haven’t done it yet I’ve got a model in my office but I digress so we are now getting into the De Lorean we are moving forward in time to you at my age which is $43.00 what would 43 year old Chandler say to 22 year old Chandler. It would probably be to pump the brakes and slow down a little bit. Just kind of Reza right now ready to move on to the next thing the moment that’s and it’s the law you know and I went straight from undergrad to the seat of the T.V. set it’s. Back to grad school so I don’t think this is sustainable long term so I think that in 20 years from now I will have the energy to keep Well I commend you for all you do and it is impressive and you walk the walk and talk the talk so what advice since you’ve accomplished so much would you give to someone who is just starting out in the water treatment industry today the biggest thing is that there are tons of incredibly smart people in this industry that know everything that you need to know and are willing to share that information with you so make those connections ask questions and be curious because like I said this industry is complex and it’s difficult to get there on your own. And it’s difficult to get there quickly and so I think that if you just know work hard and make those connections with people and learn as much as you possibly can they’ll increase that level of comfortability and then I think you’ll find your home in this industry know what advice would you give a college student that’s considering water treatment try it yeah have to try in order to really understand what this industry is about in fact I would say that it probably took me 4 months before I decided that I was really enjoying myself in the worship industry is not something that you can look at a flyer a postcard or something like that and say this looks like something I want to do and so I think that just evolving yourself and giving it a crack I think that that is the biggest thing that you can do in terms in terms of getting yourself involved in the industry and enjoying yourself in the industry well let’s unpack that a little bit what happened in 4 months to allow you to know that you were enjoying water treatment. You know I think that’s when I finally came around and felt like I was developing the skills that I needed to have an order to do my job effectively you know and because you don’t learn directly about water treatment in school you do really do spend a pretty good chunk of time learning the specifics about the water treatment industry and I think that it takes. To get a level of information and a level of knowledge that I felt comfortable with being in this industry so I think that that’s kind of the biggest thing is the fact that. You sort of have this disconnect between what you learned in school and what you need to know in the industry but once you’ve crossed that bridge then you usually off the races which only we never got out of the De Lorean we’re still in the De Lorean and we’re heading to the light around section OK let’s do it all right so we are now setting the time circuits backwards we went forward before just so. Everybody’s keeping up now we’re going backwards and it is your 1st day as a water treater with the experience that you have now what advice would you give yourself on your 1st day you know I think this kind of comes full circle of all things up and saying before and that’s that you don’t feel like you need to know everything immediately you know I felt that this comfort associated with the feeling like I didn’t know enough but if in a few overwhelming being a new one or treaters for that reason but if you work hard at it your abilities will come and your knowledge will fall into place and it did for me and I think it would for everybody else but you know in addition to that a saying I don’t know is not a bad answer and something that I didn’t realize until I was in the industry for a little while is that I don’t think that there are very many people who are going to be upset with you if you say I don’t know this is what I think it is but I need to go back and do some more research or reach on to give you a definite answer I felt like I had to have all the answers but 20 years every single time that somebody asked me a question and I realized that that was unrealistic and you know I shouldn’t have to subject myself to that type of that type of knowledge base and so when I realized I had the luxury of being able to go back and just work hard and gain my knowledge that all that stuff would fall into place and that I would still be doing my job effectively and so I think that would be the biggest thing for me starting out I love that answer I think everybody has this little voice inside their head that tells them they’re supposed to know everything about everything and if I presume that the customer thinks that I don’t know everything about everything I’m going to lose that business or they’re going to think poorly of me and that’s just not the case no it absolutely isn’t the case and in fact I think that sometimes they almost appreciate if you say I don’t know but I’m going to go find out for you because that means that you’re extending that effort taking more of your time off and dedicating it to finding an answer specifically for them so. I think that I would almost go as far as saying sometimes the customers appreciate that answer over you know you know I will tell you for a fact that I have relationships with customers because I did not know the answer and we were still in the trust building part of our relationship and they asked me something I said look I want to be honest with you I’ve never seen this before but I’m going to go back and research it and I’ll find an answer I made a commitment to them that I was going to do something and then I came back for fill that commitment and we were able to fix the issue I think that weighs a lot more than if I were just able to spout out some sort of knowledge and then walk away I grew citrus I mean of course a sales call when you have the answer you know right off and all at the same time like a 7 you extend that effort I really do think that our customers appreciate knowing they willing to put in that effort back in the office back to laughter wherever you need to do it to get that answer for your customer and we’re in a very complex industry that’s why I know you love water treatment the reason I love water treatment we’re never bored if we’re bored we’re doing something wrong and oh you’ve heard me say that on the show but I have never seen the same thing twice and because of how dynamic our industry is there’s no way we could know everything so I got to tell you I love that answer absolutely no and it’s just funny that the more they are in the industry the more they realize how much information you don’t know and so you know I feel like that’s what keeps it interesting is that you’re continuously aware of the fact that you have to learn more and more information that’s accused me of the game every day my dad told me and I’ve said it on the show but I’ll say it again since I have the opportunity the day that I felt I knew everything about these industry was the day I needed to find another industry. Hit the nail right on the. Right so moving on you’re pretty smart dude so we all want to know what you read and so what are the last 3 books that you’ve read. It so I read a club sides book called unstoppable by Bill Nye and then I read how successful people think I think this. JOHNSON That’s all book and I really do recommend this one because I don’t know if it’s on audible or not I don’t you probably will shortly but don’t use a Right now. It’s almost a pocket book it’s like a 100 pages of just jam packed information that’s very very very good information in terms of getting you to start thinking the way that you need to think in order to be successful I really like that book a lot and it’s a quick read so for that reason for people who are low on time I think that it’s a fantastic book to pick up and then the final one won’t come to a surprise from the people who know me because I’m super huge into into birds and bird watching but I’d read a book on advanced bird identification do I take my skills the next level on that one so you know as a last one that I read the Scaling UP! Nation had no idea and now they know now they don’t follow it just is that what you call a person yes an ornithologist So yeah so I guess if anybody in the Scaling UP! Nation is and you help a bird out of a cation then they know where to go now you know. So obviously you’ve accomplished so much already you’re going to continue accomplishing like the Hollywood’s going to know about it they’re going to write a movie about your life who plays Chandler men who so you know I have been told by multiple people I don’t see it but I have been told by multiple people that look like De Franco and so I can say right now that you know this is very little about what you know and now I’m sure here I think that a little longer. Now that shorter air more people made the comment but yes I guess if I were to take somebody out to take De Franco if I can’t pick anybody else or what he thinks I look like him I can see that now so funny all right last question so now you have the ability to talk to anybody throughout history who would it be with and why you know you’re like 50 something that is so deep now think tree so it’s hard to stay original but I think I can do it I don’t think else heard anybody say this one yet I want to go a Stephen Hawking. And that’s kind of a Resul actually and I feel like there is so I want to go the Stephen Hawking is a I read a handful of his books as well back in high school like really college and what I learned is that he was so incredibly smart because he could conceptualize things that were so big and so small compared to the human scale that. You don’t understand those in so much depth that he can understand them better than anybody else and I think that when it comes to chemistry and when it comes to Washington system sometimes you have to do that sometimes you have to imagine things that are bigger than what you can see and sometimes you have to imagine things on a molecular level or smaller that you can see and so if I could get any insights as to how he did that so well I think I could be a better watcher that is a great answer and it’s also an original answer that has never been said before on Scaling UP! glad to hear that yet so extra points for that one. All right you know hey this is been awesome Is there anything you want to leave the Scaling UP! Nation with so somebody just tuned in at this moment in time what’s the one thing you want to leave the nation with if Hala leaves a Scaling UP! Nation with anything I think that it would be that for those who are looking to take the C W t’s and is doable there are advantages to being young and I think that anybody testify to that exam and if they do what they need to do they can take it and they can pass it and in addition to that anybody can find their way into this industry if they find the right resources and they put the work in and they spent some time in the industry the Scaling UP! Nation appreciates that advice and I appreciate you coming on Scaling UP! H2O. thanks so much man this was fun thank you interest I appreciate you having me as well they should I’m sure you could tell that that was very exciting for me to interview Chandler meant Mancuso you did all the work yourself when you came up to me at the age of 80 convention you think me for the podcast and so that that was a nudge that helped you a little bit I love it when people. Say that but Buddy you did all the work and I absolutely love it when people come up to me and say that they are making this industry better by learning all they can by getting the certified water technologist designation and doing all the things that you need to do to be competent to be confident and to be the best that you can end the water treatment industry buddy you are an example of that I want to thank you for that we talked a little bit about age and I got to tell you I didn’t get into it a lot when we were talking in the interview because I didn’t want to get Chandler complex but I started out in this industry extremely young I was helping my father with accounts when I was 16 years old now I didn’t officially start becoming where I say a full fledged water treat or where I had tax documents and all that stuff until I was 22 but in that time I remember people just did not respect number time at 60 now I’m talking about 22 the same age that Chandler is now people would discredit me because of my age they never gave me the benefit of the doubt because I had always been in the water treatment industry my father would teach me things he would make it fun so I really didn’t know I was learning when I was growing up and it today has turned into the most awesome career that I can imagine I can’t imagine anything else I can imagine a loving anything else as much as I do what I do now so with that I want to speak to members of the Scaling UP! Nation that might be a little older like myself by the way I’m 43 years old so I’m not ancient but I have seen 1st hand how people treat younger people who are trying to make a career for themselves so they should be doing every. A thing that another water treater is doing but because they are trying to be professional in at any age we’re doing this but if they’re trying to be professional they’re trying to find the answers they’re making sure that they’re working well with you they’re working well for you and I would ask that you give people the space so they can develop now Chandler we had a conversation after our interview and we were waiting for everything to upload and he really hasn’t had the same experiences that I had when I was younger when I was working with my father practice when I had 2 things that were working against me one I got the job because of my father and then 2 I was 22 years old now by the way I was the best service technician my father ever had because my father trained me and that’s why I got the job and there were many many many many other people before me that could not do the work that I could do at 22 but people just did not give me the benefit of the doubt and I had to overcompensate for that by making sure I was always on top of my game I was always making commitments and I was always for filling those commitments now if you take away the fact that I was 22 I think we should all be doing that so I say this because there’s nothing different depending on how old we are we’re all water traders we all start out at one point so those that are younger in the industry keep doing what you’re doing keep striving for excellence you know something I like to say is the industry is better because you are in it well folks you don’t have to be 22 to do that at 43 I try to do that every day and some of my mentors are in their sixty’s I know they try to do that every day so age. Let’s take that out of the equation let’s just work on making the industry better now of course one of the ways you can show that you’re committed to this industry and you can make the industry better is by getting your certified water technologist designation Now we talked a lot last year about the C W T challenge Well it’s December again and I’m going to bring the C.W. teach challenge again to the Scaling UP! Nation because folks I got to tell you I had 142 people contact me to say that they were dedicated to get their C.W.T. I when I had the privilege of speaking with the individuals who received their C W T At the age of 80 convention a couple of months ago I shook each one of their hands and I thank them for making the industry better they also got a really cool Scaling UP! T-shirt now you heard that last week when we interviewed the CWT so of course Chandler was one of those and you see why Chandler is such an impressive guy Now we also talked about audible and I would be doing a disservice to the Scaling UP! Nation if I did not mention audible again because folks I know we all want to read more but we can’t read more because we’re busy driving from account to account while this is away when you’re not listening to this podcast to learn more information so simply go to https://scalinguph2o.com/audible of all you get a free month you get a free book and you can try it out for yourself again this is how I read 35 books a year and folks I’m actually on target to reading 43 this year I get a lot of my information from reading it definitely makes me a better person it makes me better it every endeavor that I do because I’m now learning from other people’s experiences and of course it helps me on this podcast bring more guest and more information to you so if. As a challenge I would say get your C.W.T. and the 2nd challenge is to read more in 2019 by the way if you haven’t already you can go to https://scalinguph2o.com/cwt and you can get my 5 tips in taking the C W T These are some things where I have interviewed people that have passed the examination and asked What have you done that has really helped you and I condensed those into 5 tips and those are yours for free by simply going on the site and filling out the information there so I hope you will help me raise this industry even higher than it is now something else similar mentioned was the LEED GA folks if you’re like Chandler and you’re just out of school you are in that mindset to take standardized tests so for you people out there that are involved in academia currently or just recently use that to your ability and go ahead and start taking some of the examinations that we mentioned on the show.
For those of you that have been out of it for a while a great way to start getting back into that line of study and getting your mind focused on standardized testing is to take the LEED Green Associate examination that will put some credentials behind your name but more importantly as a water treat or that will help you speak that common language that I spoke of with building owners and managers and allow you to come up with the proper water treatment program for today and also into the future as they’re taking their building to get LEED a certified Now if you want more information about that you can go to https://scalinguph2o.com/leedga That will take you to an affiliate link we have with Charlie chickadees come. Any and it will tell you everything you need to know what to study for what to do to get that LEED and my advice is after you get that you then start taking the C.W.T. seriously because that was a warm up for the C W T folks the last thing I want to talk about is the fact that Chandler said his mentor was so important to him
I know you have heard me say on this show my mentors yes plural it takes a village to make a water trader like this and it is an endeavor that never in so thank you for all those people out there that helped me be a better water trader each and every day if you are doing this alone you’re doing it wrong there’s so much information out there and it’s changing every day don’t blaze that trail by yourself there are people out there that want to help you you may just not have met them yet so put yourselves in to a situation where you start meeting people that are going to help you with your career those are things like going to industry training’s going to conventions going to committee meetings on the local level things that touch the water treatment industry in some way or another and that’s how you’re going to meet people if you don’t have a mentor because you don’t know somebody to be your mentor you’re not working enough to find that mentor so you can fill that position.
Folks one last time I could not do what I do on a daily basis had it not been for the people who have helped me along the way my father being one of those and I’ll just mention him again Jay Farmery and Bruce Ketrick those individuals have been awesome in helping me become the water trader that I am so folks we’ve got a couple of more shows in December I hope that you enjoy. Everything I bring into the and I don’t way I know to bring you that is for you to let me know what it is that you want to hear and I need your questions by doing a weekly episode I’m definitely run out of questions a lot sooner so please calm me down let me know that we have a flow of questions coming in and I will forever have a podcast because you’re helping me bring it to the Scaling UP! Nation because you are the Scaling UP! Nation and nation I would forward to talking with you next week.