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[Music]
welcome to scaling up the podcast for water treatise by water treaters where we’re scaling up on water treatment
knowledge so we don’t scale up our systems hi everybody I am trace Blackmore again I want to thank you for
all the tremendous notes that you’re sending me I’m getting phone calls I’m
getting emails and you’re saying you like this show that means a lot to me I really appreciate it it means we’re
talking about the right things and the reason I know we’re talking about the right things is because you are telling
Show Update
me what you want to talk about by giving me questions so we’re going to make sure
that we continue to answer those so please keep those coming also I’ve received some great input on
how you feel about advertising I have not made a decision on that yet so
please keep that information coming I’m trying to decide if this show should
make itself available for our vendors that we use on a regular basis to
advertise on this show I’ve got pros and cons but I’m using your information that you’re giving me
on how you feel to see if we’re going to do that or not so please keep that information coming and then the last
thing I’m going to mention and if you haven’t registered by now what the heck are you thinking but we’ve got the
annual convention for the association of Water Technologies coming up and you definitely want to be there it’s in
Grand Rapids Michigan it’s September 13th through 16th there is still time to register I am going to
be recording there I want to talk with some of the listeners I want to get some
ideas on the air as well as just hear from some of you see what you’re thinking about scaling up and I just
want to say I really appreciate the popularity of the show I had no idea
that it was going to be as successful as it has been in such a short time too so
thanks again for helping me get that information out and making me do this and and make the show what it is because
you guys are helping me out with that so all right enough with that today
we’re gonna do an interview with Michelle farmerie and for those of you that do not know Michelle farmerie you
are missing out she is delightful she is the daughter of Jay farmer and Jay
farmer II as I think you know through a previous episode of mine I consider as
one of my mentors and Michelle has picked up the young professionals group
with the AWT and just run with it and the whole goal behind that is how do we
get new faces new people into the AWT and get them to start doing something so
they feel that they’re contributing as well I will tell you as being part of the AWT leadership in the past and then
also with the Education Committee currently there is enough work for everybody so don’t be shy if somebody
has not come out and directly asked you to do something don’t wait for that to happen you go and ask somebody if you
can do something to help I promise you’re going to get more out of it then you’re going to give and on another show
I think I’ll tell you all the wonderful things that I have gotten out of volunteering with AWT but that’s not on
today’s show today we’re gonna talk to Michelle farmerie she’s going to tell us a little bit about that and then we’re
gonna answer some of your questions so before we do that as you know I think
we’re all superheroes because of the things that we have to deal with on a regular basis and everything in the
world is working against us so with that in mind I want you to think of yourself
as a heat transfer efficiency manager and that’s where we’re going next if you
ever wondered what your job is you are a heat transfer efficiency manager
everything you do is a sub product from making sure the equipment that you are
treating is effectively discharging that heat as efficiently as it possibly can
if you do your job correctly you are making sure that it is the most
cost-effective way of transferring that heat on the equipment that’s your treaty
if you are not doing your job correctly that he has to transfer through some
sort of insulator meaning that we have to flow more water through the system
meaning that we might have to use more energy in that system and it’s not being
effective your job above all else is heat transfer efficiency management now
if we’re heating something we’re putting heat in and we’re taking it to a place where we need it still making sure we’re
managing all the transfer of that heat where we’re putting it in to where we
need it if we’re cooling we’re removing heat we’re taking the heat out of a
place where we don’t want it we’re flowing it through our equipment and we’re discharging it to a place where we
don’t care about it normally that’s the atmosphere we want all the heat transfer
surfaces to be as clean as they possibly can that way we can efficiently take the
heat through that heat transfer surface through the Train of the heat transfer
equipment and put it where we don’t want it our job should pay for itself if we
do our job properly so when we’re talking to our customers they don’t
understand what it is that we do quite frankly a lot of us don’t understand
what it is that we do so all of the listeners understand that everything
that we do is for one reason to transfer the heat out of that system as quickly and efficiently as we possibly can and
if we do that our services are miniscule to the amount of money that they would
have to spend if somebody like us wasn’t looking after that heat transfer efficiency make sure your customers know
the superheroes that you are that we do something in
of all we make sure that they pay the least amount of money possible to run
that equipment today my lab partner is Michele farmerie Michele how are you
Introduction
doing today I am doing great today trace how are you I’m doing wonderfully thank
you for asking Michele I know a lot of people know you from a WT but just the case a few people
don’t know you would you mind telling our audience about yourself absolutely I would love to ashtray ‘said my name is
Michele and I work with GLA water consultants based out of Pittsburg
Pennsylvania for my company I am officially known as the marketing director however when you work for small
business like mine you kind of become a jack-of-all-trades so I do a little bit of everything I be on the marketing I do
our report writing I also process some samples and a bunch of different stuff diantha that’s a bit about me in the
industry and I guess beyond that I’m just a you know pick their sports girl
and you love to travel and see the world and a bit of a hockey fan – I am a bit
yes I mean that would be why I’m decked out in my Penguin’s gear because tonight is very big penguins capital of hockey
game in the playoffs so well Michele you are are live in people’s cars as they’re driving around going to account to
account I know you’re in the same shoes as them on many occasions and something I thought that was very interesting
because a lot of companies are sort of turning over to the second generation
and I know your dad is Jay farmerie he started the company and now you’re getting involved I wondered if you
wouldn’t mind speaking about that well no absolutely we have created a bit of a legacy kind of here with GLA in that my
dad did start it and now both my brother and myself work for the company it’s
something that if I’m honest I never saw myself doing never really thought I’d get into water treatment I always knew
what my dad did but I didn’t see myself being in this industry then once I truly
got to know what he did and started working for the company after graduating college I you know really took a passion
and interests for it and it’s just it’s really neat because when you have a source like your dad in you know as your
boss sometimes it’s crazy but it’s nice because you can go and you can ask him a
question anytime you want without that intimidation factor without that whole
fear of feeling like oh my gosh I can’t ask my boss this he’s going to think I’m an idiot you know instead it’s just your
dad and he’s already not here beautiful so it’s nice because you can ask him a
question anytime I want and it’s like an endless resource for knowledge so I
really enjoy it well you and I actually have something in common because when I don’t know the answer it’s your dad’s a farmer II
normally who I call and ask the only difference is he normally calls me an idiot oh that one doesn’t surprise me no I’m
just kidding but now he is he’s a great source of knowledge for in that regard
so I love that you’ve been able to use him as a mentor and you know turn around and now start mentoring your own I guess
I can’t really call it a mentor I just call him dad but it is definitely great to have that well Michelle another item
that you and I are very similar on is our dads were both in the water treatment industry so can you tell us
about growing up one with Jay farmerie and two in the water treatment industry
Growing up in the industry
well that is a very unique bond to share trace and that’s pretty cool I think
there’s actually a lot of people who might be listening to this podcast you could say that they’ve had you know their parents in the industry and so
maybe that’s another learning source but I know getting to growing up in the industry it was really kind of cool you
know I always knew that my dad worked in water but I didn’t understand what I just know that some of my earliest
memories of it I would think it was so cool I would get to go down you know when my dad owned his own business I
mean obviously still best but when you own your own business you don’t get to have a weekends off you’re working
constantly and so I would go down on the weekends with them and I would hang out in the lab it was so cool when he would
be sitting there running the tests and would turn the wire from paint to clear or like a pink or
to blue I was like dad change the water color again do it again I never knew
what it was we now iunderstand you know that’s the the phenolphthalein test and you know helping to determine the P
alkalinity and then you would also have the ml community from like the methyl Orange and whatnot with your acids and
bases and what that so it’s neat that now I understand it but it was really cool like to just sit there and you know
get to appreciate it and I’m sure he probably loved it too that I took a liking for it you know even though I
didn’t understand it you know it was just neat and especially because then it conveyed over to when I was in school
and I’d be in my science classes and I actually already knew what a lot of the elements were the different things like
that I knew all about the beakers and how to titrate and all that and I definitely still have found that from
growing up in this industry I’m like a pro at the periodic table I know all the
elements it’s kind of cool I know you are very familiar with the marketing
world and that’s your that sure was your major and that’s what you do on a daily basis what advice can you give some of
our listeners to what they can do to better market themselves that’s a very good question trace to better market
Marketing in the industry
yourself in this industry I mean as a whole I think it’s very difficult to
market whether it’s your company or yourself in our industry because you
find that a lot of the people that we’re working with they aren’t the decision-makers and it makes it very
tough when it comes down to selling your business because the maintenance directors and facility managers that we
work with they don’t always get the end call of you know hey I want to go with them they can put in their opinion but
it usually comes down to the bean counters as we like to call them who make the final decision but I think what
what’s best to do is just to sit there and show what you bring to the table and
you know show off that you’re not just going to show up and you know just do a
couple little things here and there and not explain yourself but I think when you provide yourself as a resource to them so you explain
things to the customer and you also just come in a you know if you’re in a good
mood you socialize with them but you you look for part and you look the role I think when you create a relationship
with them that kind of helps to sell you a little bit better and in turn provides
good vibes for your company as a whole and it makes the customers want to be around
I had Connor Parrish on a show a couple episodes ago and he mentioned that one
of the things that he has to overcome is the fact when he walks in he’s talking to somebody that’s at least twice his
age how would you give some advice to somebody to deal with that that’s a very
Dealing with arrogance
difficult situation to encounter it’s actually something that Jay and I said talked about a couple the arrogance
those two weeks ago we were just having the same conversation because it is very difficult when you’re a young person
going in the older people they look at you and it’s not that they think you’re
stupid or an idiot or anything like that but they just they think you’re inexperienced because they look and they
see somebody that’s in their 20s and like how could you have really experienced everything and I think one
of the things that maybe you go in and you acknowledge that when you’re young you’re going to go up and you’re going
to meet facility managers and maintenance guys who are gonna look at you like hey you’re pretty young you
don’t know anything but you you’re in knowledge at and you take a hold of it you say look I know I haven’t been
around all that much but I have been around enough I’ve seen some things and
what I haven’t seen what I have an experience I have resources whether through you’re your own boss or through
all the training the awt provides or anything like that you can say if I
don’t know the answer I definitely know somebody who does know the answer so we can make sure that between myself and
the resources that I have we can give you the best treatment well I know you and your company really go out when it
comes to customer service what advice can you give our listeners to how they
can provide the best customer service possible that is very true we are very
Customer service
big on customer service I think that’s one thing I pride myself in in being the more the marketing side
of things one little tidbit that I’ve always come across from the marketing side and I don’t know if this so much
goes under customer service but it just goes with the image that you portray and
that’s just to make sure that everything across the line is the same and this may
come across more as like something to say to your boss or if bosses are listening to this you know something
that you need to be aware of but just you know make sure your business cards match your collateral that you’re
handing out when you’re cold calling or when you’re with a customer and that that matches your website that
everything looks the same because if you’re going and sending you a customer that you’re cold calling at to your
website you know after you handed them a business card and they have two completely different logos or two
completely different looks there can be like oh okay is this the same company am I in the right spot and plus it just
doesn’t look very professional but when you have everything synced together you
know it really helps but kind of getting back more towards the customer service though the thing that I found that
really helps to establish a business and keep it and that’s the biggest thing I
mean I’ve looked at some of our customers and we’ve had them from the days that my dad started the business
back in the early 90s we’ve had customers still today that he has so that’s over what 25 years but the way
that you do that is you make them feel important and you create a relationship with them you kind of you know find a
way to show interest in the customer beyond just they’re at their facility
you know take some time when you first get there and I’m not saying to you know just kick your feet up on the desk and
don’t do anything but when you get on site with them take like 5 minutes 10 minutes with beginning of your service
visit and talk with them and be like you know hey Joe you know how’s the life or how’s your kids or something like that
so that they feel that you actually genuinely care about them and that you
respect them and you you know created this relationship with them but the
biggest thing is as I said just a couple moments ago you don’t just want to you know sit down kick up
your feet and not do anything because then it comes across as you don’t respect their time because you don’t
know what they have on their agenda that day so you want to make the time to engage with them but you don’t just want
to sit around and BS the whole time you know not walk around and actually get on with your job but something I like to do
I actually I keep a notebook and now I’m not really I’m out in the field all that much but a lot of the customers they
call in and I keep a little notebook just two random things that I pick up in
conversation with them and one of our customers he’s telling me a story about him and his wife that they got married
on Halloween and their wedding was like a costume party kind of thing as I call
this little band of neat fact and so I wrote that down and then there was another customer who told me that they
were a red wings fan and it’s just little things like that and by Red Wings by the way I mean Detroit Red Wings
Osteen obviously I pay attention to hockey but but know you if you pay
attention to those little details and those are things that if you jot it down a little notebook about the customer you
can bring it back up like so that next year on Halloween I could be like oh hey ray happy anniversary or you know being
that my company is penguin season ticket holders if we happen to have the Detroit Red Wings coming to Pittsburgh I can
call it that customer and be right hey you know I have these tickets to the Penguins Red Wings game I was wondering
if I could take you to the game and it just really involves that relationship
when you can connect with a customer like that and really show that you’re attentive and that you care and the
biggest key to having that relationship is when you have it your customers more
likely to keep you around because if somebody comes cold calling at your account and they’re like oh hey you know
you want to we can come in for $200 well say to $1,000 less than you know what
you’re paying now they may be like but you know I don’t care if you save me money I actually know my person whereas if
they don’t know you if you don’t show up you’re hung just during your service visit and if they don’t see you on site and they’re going
to have no desire to keep you around but when you have that relationship develop they’re going to keep you around so the
biggest key to customer service and maintaining and also growing your business what’s the old saying
people don’t care what you know until they know what you care or know that yeah yeah uh-huh exactly and it is but
it’s one of the biggest thing and it’s one of the easiest things but I mean it
well I guess I should say it’s easy for me cuz I’m a people person and I know it is difficult with a lot of people in our
industry you know when you tend to be more mechanical or science related sometimes you do tend to be more
introverted and so it’s tough but you know if I can give any advice to anyone
who’s out in the field you know maybe try and work on that you’re not going to be a superstar at it at first but just
little baby steps towards it because it really goes a long way to maintaining that business relationship yeah we’ve
talked on this show before that most people consider their service working out of their test kit but it’s really
working with that customer mmm-hmm no it absolutely is great advice Michelle what
can you tell us that you absolutely love about the water treatment industry that’s a very good question tres and I
What Michelle loves about the water treatment industry
say that because there’s a lot of things that I love about this industry which is funny to me to say that because of the
fact that how I said a few moments ago I never even thought I would ever be in
this industry a couple of years ago but I think one of the top things that I love about this industry is how vital we
are and it’s funny that we are so vital when there are so many people out there
that don’t even know what we do you would sat there and you mentioned in one of your other podcasts you know you
could sit there and we describe to people what it is that we do and they just they don’t get it they’re like oh
so you’re the pool boy and and it’s just like yeah yeah that’s what we do well honestly and obviously it’s not but it
it’s just so cool to know that we play such a pivotal role and that our
industry is just continuing to grow I had seen online I think it was in a survey done on Forbes or something like
that that our industry and water treatment is going to be one of the top ten fastest-growing industries over the next
five years and so that means we are going to have one heck of a job security where our industry is not going anywhere
and it’s just really cool and so I think I love that the most but I do have to
say the other thing that I love about this industry is just the people in it you know whether it’s just the people
that I work with it my company and then the people that I work with at AWT I’ve
just made some really great friendships and it’s so fun beyond just the work
part of it because you really get to build bonds with these people and you know make memories with them so it’s
really cool so Michele let me ask you the opposite of that question what do you like least of the water treatment
industry man you really had to throw that one out there and I don’t like thinking negative about it but I’d
What Michelle dislikes about the water treatment industry
probably say my least favorite part is just the the money part of the industry
the people that you know don’t think about the actual relationship and the
the true treatment and they just look at the bottom line every understand finances are important when it comes to
running a business I mean damn small business trust me I know all about you know how you have to dot every I and
cross every T and watch every penny but it’s still like it’s very frustrating
because when you have the bean counters making the decisions without being informed and when they don’t truly
understand why it’s important to you know hey we want to use this green chemistry on your system because it’s
going to do this you know and it’s going to end up saving this and be more efficient they don’t get that and
they’re just like oh that’s like $2,000 more than this so no that’s not change Evan they don’t get it and so that’s
probably the thing I like least is be the people that focus more on the the money aspect instead of the actual
treatment and what we’re really doing and so I guess my my advice from that side would be use that to your advantage
how I was talking before about having that great customer service relationship because if you can
convey to your customer and in turn also conveyed to the bean counters because
obviously a lot of the maintenance people get it but if you can convey to them how important it is you know by you
spending this extra $2,000 it’s going to save you a heck of a lot more down the
road because you know your boilers not going to fail because we’re going to keep it from corroding and scaling up or
you know you’re going to be doing by having better water efficiency you’re going to be saving on energy costs and
electricity costs which in turn saves you money so it’s just one of those value-added services that I think you
use that negative and you turn it into a positive by showing them really what you can do and what you bring to the table
well the Back to the Future series are probably some of my favorite movies so I’m going to ask you a Back to the
Future question okay so if you could go back in time and advise yourself of what
you know now about your job in the industry and give yourself advice on the first day where you started out water
treatment what would you tell yourself yeah you had to go and make me feel old didn’t you I mean I’m just saying and
What Michelle would tell herself
realizing that it’s been eight years since I started officially in this industry which I know there’s some
people that that doesn’t make them feel old but yeah having just turned thirty to me that simply adds in the old factor
well yes okay no if I had to go back that’s not as I think I thought because there is so
much that I’ve learned but I think what I would say if I had to go back I would
say that I would tell myself to put more of a priority on truly understanding the
technical side of things and I get that this doesn’t really apply to you know
the service people that are listening for this podcast but hopefully you know
some bosses and whatnot have been sharing this with the internal office people because I really think this
podcast is a great series for educating all of your employees you know whether
it’s just your receptionist or your HR people or your finance people you know it teaches them about the industry
and when they understand what’s going on out in the field and all the technical stuff it gives them a better passion and
understanding for their job and you know by that when they’re working with the customers and talking to them it
improves the relationship as a whole throughout the entire company and so I think that that would be the thing that
I would change is that from day one I would have probably said get out in the
field more and understand the technical side of things sooner than I have because it just it allows you to talk to
the customers better I mean I’ve had it a million times or I’ve had customers call in ever since I’ve started actually
grasping more of the technical side of things and as a woman it’s been so cool
because I’ve been able to explain things to them when I mean my title is a marketing director but I wouldn’t know
half the stuff but I’ve been able to explain it to them and I had a customers
that I say to you like this is incredible he’s like I was expecting when a woman answered the phone to just
have to have you hand off the phone to you know one of the guys in the office or something but you’ve answered all my
questions it is so nice to sit there and hear a woman who actually knows what she’s talking about
and so I thought that was really neat because it just it made me feel really
proud of myself or what I’ve started to learn and you know I think it’s awesome
that’s why we actually with the AWT young professionals group that I head up one of the big things that we just
worked on was the Foundation’s training and we put that together with new hires
and you know young people in mind who are new to the industry but also for
like the people that are your office staff your office personnel and even your customers who don’t fully
understand the technical side of what we do and you know just between that
foundations training and the scaling up podcast here I think it’s great to use
as a tool to try and learn and understand the industry so that you know it makes you a better individual all
around on the job well you mentioned you’re involved with a WT and you head up a task force there can you tell us a
little bit about that once absolutely I kind of did name drop there with a WT dua for a purpose judge
The Young Professionals Group
okay oh he’s good because I don’t get in trouble for that Mehta no be the group that I head up is
called the young professionals group we are both a task force and also just a
group in general I’ll start with a group in general the group has kind of started
based on what we had talked about at the very beginning of this trace and came about because of the relationship that I
have with my dad in the industry there was somebody who had come up with the
whole concept they were like you know we need to have something in this industry
for the young people and so they approached me saying here in the shell you know you’re young and you’ve been in
the industry you’ve been around the people what do you think about taking this on and so I did about four and a
half years ago I know grab the bull by the horns and have just started by brainstorming out ideas of
how we can knowledge share and and pull more young people into the industry because our industry there for a bit was
aging we weren’t getting information out there to the youth to the college
students to the trade school students that this opportunity was available and so I took the whole concept of how I
have my dad in the industry that I can go to all the time and ask questions and put that into the young professionals
and the original core of it started around kind of creating a mentor type
program for the young professionals coming oh yeah I guess young
professionals coming into the industry and not feeling intimidated so they could go up and talk to these guys I
wanted to try and help them to form relationships where that barrier is removed because if you’re just a new
person in the industry and you see somebody who’s been around kind of the reverse of what Conor was talking about
honey mentioned you know his intimidation factor that you know when a customer comes and when he goes to a
customer and sees him and he’s like well you’re young you know it’s kind of the reverse of
that where when you come into the industry and you’re young and you don’t know anything you don’t want to go and
say to somebody who’s been around like asking a question you’re going to feel like an idiot so it’s just we kind of
formed it from that where we wanted to help to develop those relationships and those mentorship and it’s really
blossomed from that you know we have different events every year we have the nature of aw T’s training seminars and
we also have a big gathering at the aw T convention each year and then we have throughout the year some different
webinars and we feature different young professionals and the things that
they’re doing and getting involved with in our quarterly newsletters so it’s just that’s very cool and that
committees also helped develop several industry tools as well would you care to speak about those absolutely one of the
Seed Program
big things that we’ve sat there and worked on for the industry is the seed program which is the way that a WTS
tries to interact with your colleges and universities across the country this
program I think is going to be a great resource it’s so kind of young actually chase you can speak a little to it
because you were the founder of seed before it kind of got taken on by the
young professionals Task Force yes I was the marketing and communications committee chairperson until I was
decided that I was too old and you guys took it from me you are never too old to chase but it
Seed Plan
just fit better with the unprofessional because then we think about it young professionals are typically just out of
college or just out of their trade school and they should hopefully still have those connections with their
schools that you know allow for a better outreach to the students and a better
connection of relationship but that’s where our seed is so awesome and I think it has a lot of potential for sharing
the opportunity of this industry with students and that’s actually what our
plan is but we’ve done the past couple years is just reach out to schools around the area of where our convention
is so like when we were in Fort Worth Texas we reached out to about schools in the dallas-fort Worth area
when we were in Nashville we did the same and San Diego and we’re doing that now for Grand Rapids coming up this
September where we’re reaching out to schools in that area but in the long run
I want to reach out to schools all across the country I want to see seed
grow and where we have member companies scattered all across the country and I
want to be like hey ok you’re a member company in the state of Maine but
there’s some colleges up there that you know students would really do well in the water treatment industry so let’s
try and get them interning or doing some stem type projects or you know different
things like that and so I think there’s a great opportunity just to reach out and share this opportunity with all the students
and also AWT members so that’s what one of our biggest projects that we’re working on with seed right now is to
create an AWT member ticket that we could kind of use to guide members for
easier communications with these schools and that’s where if there’s any of you younger people listening who may happen
to have a connection still with your college or university or trade school you know if you want to reach out to me
I encourage you to please do so whether via email which is Michelle with two L’s
@gl a consultants comm or via Facebook or LinkedIn or anything you can find me
and if you have a connection I would love to kind of utilize that because we
want to find out the best way to communicate with these schools and you students like what’s going to grab their
attention beyond just the audience of you know giving them free stuff or you
know telling them how we’re going to save the environment because we kind of do I jokingly like to say that we were
Green before it was cool because we really were so it’s just you know we think there’s a great untapped potential
there for getting the students into this industry so any help that anybody would
want to get involved with the seed would be more than welcome Wow make sure to put on the notes page of my
website your email address and some of the items that you mentioned thank you very much Tracy I appreciate
that well Michelle these next couple of questions are are just questions to get to know you a little bit better so I
call these our lightning round are you ready for these oh ok put me on the hot seat I’m ready
my first question there what are the last three books that you’ve read that was a no-brainer cuz I really don’t even
have to think the last three I could actually say the last four have all been the Harry Potter books but that’s been
done with a purpose upon book number five right now but that’s because I’m going to London later this month and
I’ll be visiting the Boerner brothers studios and my boyfriend had said like
just seeing all the movies is not enough he’s like you have to read the books you understand when we go to Harry Potter
that you get with all the things are so I’m now in the process of reading I
still have three more 700 page books to go oh yeah it’s been a treat well that’s
great well if someone were to make a movie about you and your life who would
play Michelle hmmm part of me wants to say Emma Watson but
Who would play Michelle
that’s because she was just Bell and Beauty and the Beast and that’s my favorite princess but I’d probably have
to say Sandra Bullock when she was younger because just simply she’s like a
no-nonsense laid-back sports fan but she can also be professional and classy when
needed and I think that defines me to a tee because typically when you see me
today is no exception I’m not going to lie I’m in you know pants and a Penguin’s t-shirt at work right now and
have my paint my penguins earrings on and everything I’m just I’m a big sports
girl but I enjoy getting dressed up when the situation calls for it and I know how to be professional but I like to be
laid-back and have fun and enjoy life so yeah I would say I think Sandra Bullock would be a kidney plus she’s a brunette
so there you go we had a AWT board meeting in Jackson Hole a couple years ago and
we went to the grocery store and Sandra Bullock was actually behind me in line we didn’t say anything but I knew it was
her so that’s my brush with Fame that is so cool and I definitely would not have
Who is Fonzie
been able to be like you would not say anything I would have been like holy crab yeah you actually you actually met
Fonzie at a McDonald’s once didn’t you I did meet Fonzie and McDonald’s I was on
my way out to a WT training and I’m sat there and I sang and he was in this bright purple ski jacket I’ll never
forget it he was sitting there it was it was pretty cool because everyone was like hey hey fun and everything hey I am
fairly certain that every millennial that’s listening to this is going who the heck is Fonzie that is probably a
hundred percent accurate and especially with the things probably don’t get it
ci I definitely don’t fall in that category cuz I fell right in between don’t know this stuff so my last
question so if you could talk to anyone throughout history who would it be and
why ya know I see why you call this the lightning round this was probably the toughest of the three tres I’d probably
Who would you talk to throughout history
I think I’d probably say the the person I would sit down and talk with would actually be Jesus and you know I know
probably a lot of people would say you know they they’d normally go with the historians the president scientists
different things like that but I would say Jesus just because of the fact that the good that he did for others in his
life and the life lessons that he taught to others but he did it all while working and he was a carpenter in his
life and I just think it’s a good role model you know I sit there and I think about the fact that you know I sit here
and I’m working but I try to also go out and be a good person and get involved and it’s just he had a passion for life
and helping others you know obviously but yeah I think that would be somebody neat to sit there and talk to and hear
all the stuff that he went through and the things that he learned the life he experienced in 2,000 years ago so that
would be pretty cool to to understand what life was like back then guess the other perks of sitting down with him I
mean being that were in the water treatment in this maybe he’d be able to teach me a trick or two about turning all this water we
work with into wine how could his wine is a heat transfer medium I don’t know I’ve never tried all I do is drink it well Michelle thanks so
much for joining us today we really appreciate you joining the show absolutely thank you very much for having me Trey I just want to say that
Pinks and Blues
one of the reasons I think this show is so popular is because of all the wonderful guests that I’ve had on the
show so I want to thank all of the guests that have been on I’ve gotten a lot of feedback for people that you want
to hear back on the show so I’m keeping a running tab on that I also have a list
of other people that I’m asking to be on the show so I hope every time you tune in you really enjoy the people that were
interviewing so let’s get to pinks and blues and some of the questions that you have I picked two questions out today
and they deal with the service aspect of our job the first one is a round testkit
speed and I’ve spoken in earlier episodes that many of us just simply
work in our test kits and then we leave and go to the next account and I’ve
asked you not to do that I’ve also heard people back saying they don’t have time
to do anything more than that and I’ve challenged you with that line of thinking saying that you don’t know your
tests well enough to be able to run them efficiently and that folks just doesn’t
mean speed it means understanding the test so as you’re getting these results
you’re understanding what the next test needs to be that follows that so I hope
I have inspired some of you I know I’ve inspired some of you because you’ve told me that that has helped you out but now
the question is about that how do you get more information about your test kit
on I think it was the first or second episode I mentioned the hawk water
analysis handbook it is a free tool it is online if you google those words it
will come up and that will tell you absolutely everything that you need to know about
every test that you’re running now the method might be a little different but
the chemistry is the same there really isn’t that much difference between one
manufacturers test to another there might be different labeling or they
might have split certain reagents to different strengths but honestly when you get right down to it they’re pretty
much the same so read that so you understand your tests and then I want
you to look at all the times that it takes to run various tests and I want
you to do the longest test first and then followed by your shorter tests but
the number one thing I want you to do on top of everything else is I want you to
determine what your test value is going to be before you run it and you’re
thinking well that’s crazy why would I run the test if I already knew what it was going to be but this is where the
magic of using your test kit properly comes in if you can use your powers of
observation and your knowledge of the history of the system to figure out what
you’re going to test before you actually test for it and what that results gonna
be it’s gonna make you a better water trader because as I said on another show
so I’m repeating things that I said on another show but I did get this question so I want to make sure I’m answering it
you should know what’s happening in your system before you test it and then what
you’re doing is forming a hypothesis and then you’re either proving or disproving that hypothesis so the biggest thing I
want you to do after today’s episode is I want you to look at your test kit and think of that as a tool it is not the
reason you’re going to service the account it is not the thing that you’re going to work out of the entire time that you’re there it
is just simply a tool that you can prove or disprove what you’re doing what
you’re thinking and what you’re going to eventually tell that customer go online download some of those procedures like I
said that Hawk water analysis handbook is on there just challenge yourself are you being as efficient as you can be and
are you running things in the right order my next question and my final question
for today’s show deals with service reports and several people have written in wanted to know which service reports
that I use and we’ve looked at several service reports when we decided to use
one particular company that being said we’re using an online service reporting
system and when we chose this back eight nine years ago it was really the only
viable one out there currently there are some others rather than telling you what
I’m using and why I am using that I want you to ask yourself what do I need to
know at each and every account and then how do I keep track of that and what is
going to make all of that easier rather than telling you what to go by I would
rather you come up with a list of items that you need and make sure that
whatever you choose now allows you to do that within that program now I say
program but a lot of water traders out there are using paper reports and I’m
going to tell you in our office paper is the enemy we’ve tried to get everything electronic because paper just takes up a
lot of space and only one person can have that piece of paper at a time so we’ve tried to do everything
electronically so anything that comes into our office we scan that and file it accordingly now I know what you’re
saying oh my gosh what happens if something happens to the server well that’s why there’s backup services and
things like that I didn’t really answer that question there’s a whole bunch that I can say about one company
another company but I really don’t think that’s that’s appropriate for this question I think it’s more appropriate
that you ask those questions to all of the various companies that are out there
and choose the right one for you on another show maybe we’ll talk to various
vendors of these products and see what one does over another but until then I
hope that gives you some food for thought on how you can do that evaluation yourself bottom line is if
you choose a tool whatever that tool may be whether it’s something to your test
kit whether it’s something on your computer whether it’s something in your tool bag it needs to make the job easier
safer and just simply make it more efficient so all those things that’s
what you need to evaluate with a tool so I hope you’re thinking about that I also hope you enjoy today’s show of
scaling up I sure enjoy bringing them to you and I hope you join in next time on
scaling up [Music]
you [Music]