The following transcript is provided by YouTube. Mistakes are present. To hear the podcast episode, click HERE.
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welcome to scaling up the podcast where
we’re scaling up on knowledge so we
don’t scale up our systems scaled up
nation my name is tres Blackmore your
host for scaling up h2o and this is
gonna be a very different show today
this is a show again that is straight
from the audience and they’re all
questions about the master mind you hear
just about every podcast that I do at
the end I am advertising that we have a
group for us
water treater folk and actually other
folks quite frankly but we have a group
called the rising tide mastermind I
started the rising tide mastermind in
January of this year and since that time
it has just been wildly successful and I
don’t just mean that we filled up groups
we have some incredible people within
those groups people that have supported
each other people that have grown with
each other and and that’s what I mean
when I say successful now you might be
asking yourself the question all right I
hear whatever you into the show where he
talks about a mastermind he’s talking
about a mastermind what the heck is a
mastermind and when I talk with people
about a mastermind and we’re going to
talk a little bit later that in order to
be a member of the mastermind that
there’s an interview process there’s an
application process and then an
interview where I actually call the
person and make sure they know exactly
what they’re getting into making sure
that they’re a good fit for the group
and more times than not they don’t
really understand what a mastermind is
and they think it’s a master class like
they’re going to learn the top water
treatment skills from me and 10 easy
lessons and and folks that’s not what
this is it couldn’t be any different
from that what it is is well I think the
best way to explain it is where it came
from Napoleon Hill wrote a book back in
the 1920s called Think and Grow Rich and
in that book he coined the term
mastermind what he did in the book is he
tried to figure out what six
people did and then he wrote a book
about it and he found that successful
people get together with other
successful people to talk about what
their issues are and then those other
successful people can give advice based
on their experiences and now the person
with the issue has all of this new
knowledge from others experiences that
they can then put in to practice so the
short of it is is you don’t have to mess
up in order to get the experience and
let’s face it that’s where we get most
experience is we mess something up I
heard somebody say once is experience is
what you get when you don’t get what you
want
so I guess that’s as good as any but
just think about it when the last
mistake you made you learn something
from that you can now share that with
somebody to prevent them from making the
mistake and then they can learn from
your experiences now I personally been a
member of a mastermind for over eight
years and I met my business coach Tim
Fulton who’s been on this show a couple
of times as a result of this mastermind
that I’ve been a member of I started
this podcast as a result of the
mastermind
I’ve hired a virtual assistant as a
result of the mastermind and the issue I
didn’t even bring up to the group the
people in the group knew me so well they
saw that I was stressed out and they saw
that I was just doing way too much and
it was draining me and they wanted to
know how they could help and how they
helped was they started asking me what
was going on and then they became
concerned when they found out all the
things that I was doing they were
literally concerned for my health and
well-being and then an individual in the
group suggested that I hire somebody to
help me with that and I really didn’t
see how I could hire somebody full-time
with that and then he worked with me on
how I could hire a virtual assistant
and folks other than doing this podcast
that has been one of the best decisions
that I have ever made I am not only
happier I’m more productive people have
noticed that I’ve gotten my patients
back I have more time to listen to
people and give myself to people that
was all because somebody within my
mastermind group took the time to talk
with me
they said they noticed something was not
right as they were watching me what was
it they found out what it was and they
gave me some advice I can’t tell you how
many decisions that group has helped me
make it’s just been incredible and
that’s why I last January I decided that
I was going to bring the first
mastermind group to the water treatment
community and it has just been great and
because of that because I’ve been
talking about on the show a little bit
I’ve received a lot of questions from
the scaling-up Nation about the
mastermind group so the mastermind group
is called the rising tide mastermind and
since we started we have filled up to
full groups there’s about 10 people in
each group and I have a waiting list for
two new groups I thought rather than
answering those questions about the
rising tide mastermind that I would get
some of the members of the rising tide
mastermind to answer them with their own
first-hand experiences so let’s see if
we can answer some of your questions
about the rising tide mastermind
well scaling up nation this is a first
I don’t have one lab partner or two lab
partners or 3 lab partners I actually
have four lab partners today so today
we’re going to be talking about the
rising tide mastermind and I’ve got four
members of the rising tide mastermind to
help share some of their experiences
about what they’ve had with the rising
tide so I want to try to introduce you
guys each one I think you’ve all been on
Podcast so the scaling-up nation knows
you I don’t know if this is a good idea
or not but mark Lewis why don’t we start
with you so introduce yourself to the
scaling up nation as if you have to but
go ahead and do it anyway
sure trace on mark Lewis I am the most
requested guest own the skin depth
podcast and I’m just here to lend some
information knowledge support to the
scale of the nation well we appreciate
that and next up we’ve got Conor parish
hey guys it’s counter parish here in
Colorado excited be back Ron scaling up
and hopefully I can help share my
experiences with the mastermind group
it’s been great
well I appreciate that I know the nation
does as well and then we’ve got Eric
Russo hey guys
Eric Russo here coming from the Boston
area happy to be on as well excited to
get with a great group of people and
share the value that the mastermind
group is added to to my day all right
and then last but certainly not least
brine Fisk hey guys Brian Fisk out here
in Atlanta and actually pretty nearby
tres excited beyond today and happy to
see everybody again well guys thanks
again for coming on today I’ve never
done an interview with four people at
the same time so we’re all going to be
learning this together but I want to ask
you all this question when I talk with
people about the mastermind a lot of
time they don’t even know the term
mastermind but I’m curious why did you
guys join the rising tide mastermind who
wants to go first up in his mark I just
want to say that I’ve been friends with
trace for about 13 14 years now
and sometimes I get jealous about the
things that he gets done and here’s the
same 24 hours I’d have and so when we’ve
talked about things he talked about
procedures and policies and things Eddie
the way he lives his life and and I said
well I can do half of the things that he
does in a given day I think I’ll be
pretty productive and so when the
mastermind group was introduced I said
let me get in on this thing I want to be
a part of this I’m
learn how to be more productive and make
my day so where I can enjoy my family
time and separated for my work time and
so I’d like what trace does and so I
said I want to be I want to do things a
lot like trace so let me let me figure
out what he’s doing so that’s why I
joined group yeah for me I one of the
things that really helped me when I got
into the industry was being a part of
the a WT being going to all the AWD
trainings and as a result of that I was
able to kind of build a network of
people within the industry that made me
feel like I was less on an island and so
when I heard about the mastermind group
it was just another kind of extension of
that a more formal way to network and be
a part of a group of other people in the
industry and so I just wanted to jump on
it right away and so far it’s been it’s
been fantastic and this is Brian so
really one of the big things is talking
with trace you know being new in the
industry being new and really working in
a remote capability you know it’s it’s
very easy to get distracted to stay in a
in a path that’s going to be slow for
you or not as effective as you possibly
can be so I’m always searching out ideas
and ways to become more productive and
so I want to give it a try
hey guys eric here for me like like Mark
had mentioned a huge supporter of AWT
and huge supporter of Trace Blackmore
just about anything he does whether it’s
podcast with the training he does
starting a WT but I was excited because
like most people in the water treatment
industry there’s always a struggle with
work in life and I had a daughter on the
way and I was probably a little more
mindful of how much I was working and
how I can adjust my schedule or make it
in such a way that was sustainable for
my family and this conversations a
little more difficult when you don’t
have people in the water treatment
industry because they don’t understand
the travel aspect the service aspect the
technical knowledge needed to be
successful it’s a little more difficult
to balance that so to have a group
like mine individuals to work through
with the goal of self-development
it’s really helpful that kind of hashed
into those problems for me well thanks
for that guys and I don’t want people to
think that the mastermind group is just
about me I really appreciate the things
that you said but I pretty much all I do
is facilitate the group so people
understand what it is that we do on a
weekly basis does one of you want to
share what a typical mastermind session
looks like yet this is Connor so every
week we are able to meet and I think
it’s great that we do it weekly because
it keeps us accountable but every week
we meet for an hour and it’s very
structured that hour we come in and we
check in to see is there anything that
we need to follow up on a report to the
group from an accountability standpoint
that we said we would get done by a
certain date and the nice thing is we we
record that and then follow up each week
to make sure everyone is achieving what
they were supposed to do if we had
reading one of the things that’s nice
about this is we have assigned reading
for books that it’s not too cumbersome
if you don’t like to read but I think
there’s a lot of value and the pace is
great so we will discuss any key points
from the reading there at the beginning
and kind of work on some general you
know housekeeping and then from there we
really start to dive in to what we call
being in the middle which is where one
of the members of the group each week
comes with a problem that they want to
present so this starts by that member
describing the problem to the group and
then indicating you know what is the
goal that they want to accomplish from
you know the discussion that’s about to
ensue
so from there everyone will then spend
maybe 20 minutes or so asking clarifying
questions in which everyone is doing
exactly that asking questions and the
person in the middle then responds
there’s no back-and-forth dialogue at
this point it’s just clarifications and
then from there once we feel as a group
that the problem is understood and all
the questions are answered we move
forward to providing recommendations
each member of the group then you know
give some insight and some feedback
based on what they heard to the person
in the middle who finally then kind of
compiled
all of that advice and says okay this is
this is what I’m taking away from the
advice of the group and here’s what you
can expect from me as far as tackling
the problem and hopefully resolving it
within the next couple weeks depending
on the scale the problem so Connor I
want to unpack a couple of things that
you said there because I know we’ve got
members out there in the scaling up
nation that are thinking oh my gosh you
guys meet once a week how do they
possibly have time to meet once a week
who wants to take that one I’ll just say
the trace this is mark at first I
thought weekly meetings an hour in the
middle of the day was gonna be tough but
you know the thing about it is is we do
these these calls in our car in the
office wherever we are we’ve had members
in mechanical rooms it’s you kind of
stop what you’re doing you log in to the
Xoom call we see each other’s faces and
and that’s the way we do our call and if
I had to say that I’m going to give up
an hour every week in the middle of the
most important time that I worked the
time that I should be with my customers
in their plants etcetera I’d say you
were foolish but you know we’ve we’ve
had these this mastermind group has been
around for a little over a quarter now
and I’ve only missed one and it’s
because someone else scheduled a call
during the time in which the mastermind
met and I was able to join every time
I’ve had control of my schedule its
penciled in it’s written in and it
happens and I’m glad that it did and I’m
glad that I did
so the concept of I can’t afford to give
up an hour every week I don’t think that
you can afford not to give up that hour
because you’re gonna get more out of it
because the other 39 hours are gonna be
so much more productive I think you
bring up a good point March just the
activity of carving out that hour of
time knowing that this is something I’m
gonna be present for listening and
participating in just doing that time
blocking exercise is a great start to
something that I’ve really kind of
expanded over the rest of my schedule
during the week and month and something
we dig into
deeper at least this past border with
the most recent book were reading and
it’s kind of funny during that hour that
is the thing that happens that’s the
thing that we’re focused on and if you
sit back and say oh I’m gonna give my
office an hour to get these things done
I allow other distractions to take place
and I and I don’t use my time
productively during this call and this
hour call I’m totally able to carve that
time out and and and get the call in get
information participate fully and what
it does it builds confidence in me that
I could carve out other hours during the
week being very productive and so
something that should take 30 minutes
doesn’t end up and taking an hour
because I’ve had these interruptions or
things like that I can take my phone and
put it on mute and don’t answer it and
the world doesn’t stop spinning and it
tells me that during my time did I allow
to get projects done and my set time
aside I can do those in the world won’t
stop spinning I don’t have to stop and
do something else you bring up a good
point there mark in terms of I think the
whole the way it’s structured with an
hour every week the accountability piece
of the rest of the members in terms of
being present and being there for
everyone else is huge in it it’s a
really I guess easy way to practice that
intentional you know being present in
the moment
and that’s one thing that I’m really
grateful for is you know everyone else
kind of holding me to that just to show
up and be there and be an active member
of the group well let’s talk a little
bit about that the word accountability
because not only are we expecting each
other to be there so we can help each
other through our issues but we’re also
holding each other accountable that that
person does what they say they’re going
to do and I know a lot of people are
listening out there thinking that
doesn’t sound very good but you guys are
here because you like that speak a
little around that yeah I’ll take that
one trace this is Brian again I think
accountability and a lot of people it
kind of brings up a negative connotation
which really isn’t accurate
accountability is
yourself it’s saying that I’m going to
make this commitment I’m going to make
this promise I’m going to follow through
with it and I’m gonna give it my best
effort and really what we have here with
the mastermind is really unique
especially the way that we’re doing it
within a very select kind of industry is
that we have a lot of people who have
the same problems they’ve gone through
had different experiences and different
solutions and what it does is it just
eliminates those obstacles that you see
to really achieving the goals that are
important to you Connor also described
the problem-solving track that we use
and nation if you noticed we didn’t give
advice until the very end we made sure
that we understood what the issue was so
we go around like he said for about 20
minutes asking clarifying questions and
I know when we first started this this
was difficult for all of you the
question that I have is how has holding
off giving advice learning more about
the issue helps you not only in this
group but with your families with your
customers your other relationships I can
take this one because I was probably the
first offender this is Eric Russo here
and this is by far my favorite part of
the meeting because this is something
I’m actively working on getting better
at everyday for my family and for my
career is listening when someone
presents a problem most people I lose
myself are quick to jump to a solution
but we don’t realize we make a lot of
assumptions along the way or we don’t
have a lot of the information we need in
that twenty minutes is great everyone to
dig deeper clarify exactly what’s going
on and I thought I got it after the
first call and come the second call I
realized I just refreeze my
recommendations and skewed them a little
bit during the clarifying I was asking
questions where I was really trying to
give advice so it helped me dig deeper
to listen and it’s my favorite part and
that’s helped with my family as well
where I don’t just jump to things I’ll
tarik that’s one of the hardest things
for me when people are asking questions
and I’ve got
stop you because it’s not a question
it’s more of a leading question I guess
is what I’m trying to say and not really
a clarifying question so I feel that on
my end as well I also say that guys that
one of the things it does is is as water
treaters we each see these systems
through our eyes and so when when people
start asking questions it actually opens
up our eyes to the many other issues
that can be causing a certain issue and
so you’re a little bit slower to think
because you’re not allowed to give
advice right away it’s the whole group
is asking questions and so you’re able
to see things that you normally wouldn’t
think about because someone is asking a
question about something that’s over
there and you’re thinking about
everything over here and so it does cut
out yeah she’s gonna I feel like we’re
really fortunate in this group to have
kind of a diversity of thought across it
I think we’ve got you know people from
really all different regions of the
country we’ve got people in all
different types of roles you know even a
couple people that aren’t you know true
out in the field water treatment service
guys so I think that kind of diversity
of thought really helps get to kind of
the essence of the problem and kind of
to Eric’s point I have a tendency to
kind of jump to conclusions of what my
theory on on the issue and as we sit
there for those 20 minutes I might Ungh
and I’m really impressed with the
questions that I hear because some I go
wow I didn’t even think about that and
it’s a great lesson for me to learn that
you know slow down and you know try and
come at it from multiple perspectives to
really address the issue yeah and one of
the things that I’ve observed going
through that is that in that clarifying
question process so many times we
discover that the problem that we think
we have isn’t the actual problem that
we’re missing something that is hugely
important to the picture that you know
if you didn’t talk it out if you didn’t
work through this process you would
never caught it in the hard part is
after you’ve heard everyone else’s
recommendation it starts something in
your head that says oh man
I should have said this or should have I
should have mentioned that that this is
also a possibility of the cause or
should be part of the recommendation and
so you learned so much just because of
what the other people have have stated
in their response yeah I think our most
recent call it was about 15 minutes into
the clarifying questions and I’m sitting
here looking at my notes that I’m
writing down I go hold on a second he
said the problem was this but I think
it’s something totally in a different
direction we need to clarify this and it
was with a different person on a totally
different topic so it just opens opened
your eyes to the problem that’s we see
on the surface after quite a few
different people get their hands on it
and give their insight you realized
something probably never would have
thought of something I’ve heard other
individuals and even some of you guys
say as well is even though I didn’t
bring this issue up I got so much out of
the clarifying questions and then the
advice that I now did something on
something similar even though I didn’t
bring it up in the group yeah I’d said
that self-reflection after a meeting is
really important you know especially as
they’re going through and doing
goal-setting and understanding ourselves
to figure out you know what are the
things that I need to make sure I’m
holding myself accountable for to really
you know reach my potential I think
someone’s done strace after the call is
is over you have a thought and so it’s
very nice to be able to pick up the
phone and call the person who you were
speaking to and reaffirm an idea or a
topic or to give some additional advice
about what’s going on what potentially
could be going on and how they may want
to address that so just because the
calls over doesn’t mean the issues over
and as you’re thinking about things you
know down the road you’ve opened up a
new thought process I feel almost
obligated that I got a call this person
and and share with them the other
thoughts that I had and you’ve got to
call these people just so that they are
are they informed about every possible
thing that could be going on mark it’s
funny you bring that up because this is
Eric here I think after
my first time being in the middle the
following morning I see that mark Lewis
is calling me and I’m driving for
another two hours
so Kelly take a quick call me and Mark
were on the phone for another hour and a
half and he was building on the issue I
presented to the group and talking me
through it and actually had some side
accountability discussions where Market
held me accountable and mark mentioned
it opens up a different thought process
but it really opens up a whole nother
relationship to another person then I
feel confident reaching out to are
comfortable reaching out to Marcus and
Mark can have your view on this or or
any of the other members in the group so
it’s about those relationships to the
build I’m sure their listeners out there
and they’re thinking okay well they just
talked about water treatment related
issues but that’s not the case I mean
we’ve talked about personal issues we’ve
talked about things with each other’s
family we talked about definitely issues
with how to talk to customers it’s been
all over the map so my question for you
guys when you originally signed up were
you expecting that did you think the
group was going to cover all this whole
array of topics you know when I when I
signed up this is Connor I wasn’t
entirely sure what to expect obviously
Trace we had had some conversations and
I think you had an idea of you know how
it was going to look but really I
understood that as the facilitator you
could kind of point it in a certain
direction but really it was going to be
up to the rest of the members of the
group to kind of take it in a direction
that they wanted and it’s been great to
kind of see the diversity of problems
that we’ve seen and I think because it’s
not just technical water treatment
related issues it’s really had that much
more value because again it’s getting us
thinking and all different types of ways
about our job and it’s sometimes easy to
get stuck into the weeds of a technical
issue but I do think it’s good to
address you know all the other things
that are going on that we face every day
yeah I think that most of the questions
that we’ve had I actually don’t even
really remember any serious technical
questions that we had everything has
been more of a discussion of you know if
it’s management personnel might be
interacting with a difficult client
situation who’s going through some
changes that
you’re trying to help them navigate so
most of it is has really been you know
people which is something that everybody
can bring to the table and I think a lot
of it has been the the shortcomings that
we notice in ourselves and things that
we can do to improve those the first
book we read the 12-week year outlined a
lot of things that told me that that
mark you’re not very productive because
you’re not doing things the way you
should be doing them and you are you
look at the picture that you’re looking
at is way too big and and you’re not
focused you’re not able to focus on what
you need to focus on and start something
do it and say it’s finished so with that
being said you know we think that we do
things pretty well and and what we
realize is we do things okay we do
things the way we do them and they get
done and we’re satisfied but I think on
a previous podcast I shared is saying
that your good be good until it can be
better and you better be better until it
can be the best and I think that’s what
the mastermind group is doing for us is
it’s it’s showing us that our good is
pretty good but we can do better and
then we can even be better on top of
that and then we can be the best that we
can be well mark just brought up the
book in the first book that we read was
the 12-week year so I’m curious to help
the scale up nation to understand you
know why we read books the type of books
that we read what we do with those books
anybody want to share that experience
yeah I can I can chime in a bit I think
the book really complements the reason a
lot of people joined or any book we’re
going to be reading that’s on
self-development or a goal-setting and
holding being accountable for where we
like to go and being clear on our vision
for the future and setting goals that
that comply with that so I think the
book serves as a common learning
experience we’re all gathering new data
right learning together as a team and
one thing is we go through it slowly and
that’s a good thing because especially
with nonfiction books that I may put on
audible and I fly through them in a week
because I’m driving a lot you overlooked
so many important points in this
mastermind group has been the
opportunity to dig deeper into each one
of those points give us all the
opportunity to maybe set an
accountability goal or figure out how we
can apply that individual truth to our
life and then follow through on and have
someone check in and see if we actually
did a good job I think that’s that’s
really important that’s really helpful
the pace at which we go through it in
the fact that we’re doing it with the
mastermind as a group and all learning
together we’re almost talking the same
language as we learn about different
aspects on how to organize and how to
better ourselves and in the vision we
have for the future yeah I really
enjoyed the 12-week year I think one of
the most interesting pieces of it is it
really provides a framework for how to
think and how to structure not only your
day your week up to that 12-week year
and it sets it up and I guess bite-sized
this is that you can really start to see
what the you can start to see results
and effects over a shorter timeframe as
opposed to setting annual goals so I
thought it was really important for me
to start looking at it as hey let’s set
goals that still push me goals that you
know I need to work and make changes to
hit but let’s make them a little bit
more bite-sized so I can build the
momentum of success throughout the year
by you know doing it every 12 weeks and
that’s been awesome as someone who
doesn’t like to read a book I kind of
fringed a little bit when Trey said oh
we’re gonna read these books but I had
the option of getting the book on
audible and listening to it when I was
driving and I almost did that but then I
decided that I would get the book in
Kindle format and read it electronically
and I’m glad I did because there were
certain things that were highlighted or
bolded and it drew my attention to it I
could go back and reread something that
I enjoyed and I’m not a book reader I
would rather watch a TV program or stuff
like that but sitting down finding time
to sit down and read was hard for me but
I see that that by doing that I do it
causes me to set aside time to do things
and if I take that
principle that I need to sit down and do
something and stay focused on it that
simple thing will help me do something
else better so after we read the book
and actually when we were reading the
book we would talk about different
questions we would make sure that we all
understood what we were reading but when
we were done reading the book we then
broke up into accountability groups so
Brian I’m curious how did the
accountability group enhance what you
read in the book yeah so like for
example what I do is once I put together
my goal planning and the strategies that
I want to use what I do is that every
day I measure you know the 10 12 little
things that I identified that are going
to help me achieve these goals record
them measure them and then when we get
together as a group for 10 15 minutes we
just discuss hey this is you know I hit
every single one every day or you know I
didn’t quite get there this is where I
struggled this is where I need a little
bit of help of you know how do I get
these habits formed properly so that it
makes those goals easy to achieve I
don’t one of the first things when we
broke up into our accountability group
was we all read shared this common goal
of a family time and it was kind of
funny when we kind of all agreed that we
were going to take from 6:30 to 9
o’clock every evening and say there’s
zero work to be done in there we’re all
going to spend time with family and with
that being said there’s a heart stopping
point we don’t push things off because
all of us know that if we if we allow oh
we’re all going to take 15 more minutes
that 15 minutes turns into 20 and before
you know it turns into the 30th then
before you know it turns into an hour
and we’ve wasted that time with our
family we can never get that back
so if something has to be done we stop
the spin time with their family and then
we’ll pick it back up and and we finish
once the kids have gone to bed
etc and we’re not gonna sacrifice our
family time and I think that’s helped us
all out quite a bit this is Eric here in
just to build on Mark’s point and I
think I’ve been
myself something similar as did my heart
stop line for years probably but because
I didn’t have anyone holding me
accountable we didn’t say it out loud
the simple act of doing that has really
helped me focus on that opposed to yep
one more hour in terms of two hours in
the next thing you know time just time
disappears so by knowing that weekly
we’re having our quick ten fifteen
minute call they help me do this past
week that’s made a change a huge change
for me the next thing I want to talk
with you guys about is probably the one
item that I was most anxious about when
we started the rising tide mastermind
and it was the one two ones so time that
we spend together with me and and one of
you guys and normally goes about half an
hour to an hour and that’s time that we
do each and every quarter to talk about
anything that you guys want to talk
about a lot of times its goals it could
be a specific issue so I’d like for you
guys to share not really what we talked
about but what that experience is like
and how that has helped you guys with
the scaling up nation Tracy I’ll say
that when we had our first one one to
one it was I didn’t really know what to
expect but what you allowed me to do is
to look deeper into what my goals were
and what I was doing and how’s reviewing
them and it was nothing more than what
you said at the end of the year podcast
last year is you’ve got a track you’ve
got a measure of what you’re doing and
then keep keep our goals small enough to
where we can achieve them because if we
never achieve our goal or always don’t
think we’re a failure but if we’re able
to make enough progress from one point
to another then that’s going to become a
habit and once we form better habits
then we’re able to to do more things and
be more productive and so when you took
some of my goals and said you know these
two you’ve got them separate but they’re
really one you needed more to find this
one better so that it’s more
understandable or measurable for you to
do it really helped me out and and that
is something that I’ve never done I’ve
never said
specific goals and then measure them
I’ve always said all I want to do this
or I want to do that and I can convince
myself that yes I’ve done this or I’ve
achieved that but never have sat down
and broken them down to the degree that
you have to make them to where I could
be successful or even if I don’t meet
one of my quarterly goals I know that I
can catch back up the next quarter and
and give them feel good and some people
call that emotional deposits you want to
deposit good things into your emotional
bank account we’re gonna have enough
withdrawals because we’re dealing with
other people and some people are just
rude to us but when the things that we
do we should have more deposits in our
good deposits than in bad ones and so
that’s what this does it allows us to to
achieve certain things and see some
rewards from and feel good about it
I can chime in a little bit about my
experience and I will say trace and I
had had my one-on-one about two weeks
ago and it couldn’t have came at a
better time my wife and I just had our
first child so that’s at least what
insurance categorize it as is a
life-changing event and I can sure tell
you that’s exactly what that’s been for
me and it kind of causes you to take a
step back and say okay time is now of
the essence whether it’s for work or for
family time or if you’re spending time
to achieve goals outside of work right
so what my one-on-one with trace was was
really helpful for me to clarify my
vision which which has definitely
changed since before I had children and
just really where I’m at where I’m going
and how I’m going to get there something
again that I’ve been mulling around in
my head for a while but having tres
facilitating that and asking questions
to dig deeper and then most importantly
at the end or towards the end of our
one-on-one
Treece just said I noticed a change in
tone of your voice for when you were
describing some situation verse another
to me it sounds like you’re either more
excited about this Avenue or maybe a
little more anxious about another Avenue
and I took a step back and kind of pause
for a minute I said wow I guess that
that’s that’s absolutely correct that
makes a lot of sense
no one’s given that feedback before I’ve
just helped clarify things that were
important to me and how I was gonna
structure my goals to work towards
achieving those and I guess a third
party account of that would be from my
wife when I was explaining how tres and
i’s one-on-one went that night at dinner
and she goes wow you’re really uh you’re
getting your bang for your buck I didn’t
know you were getting therapy on this
too but that was that was funny yeah for
me personally this is Connor I have a
tendency to kind of think in these kind
of big picture ideas and it’s all great
when you’re doing that it’s it’s fun you
can plan you can think about what you
want to do but then to get into the
details of okay now how are you gonna
get there that’s a whole different beast
and so sitting down with tres you know I
was able to kind of articulate hey
here’s this vision I have and here’s
some you know steps along the way that I
think I need to accomplish to get there
but he really you know was able to kind
of dissect it with me and say let’s
define this better how can we measure it
let’s look at that and really it was
extremely helpful in helping me you know
get to a point where I felt like hey I’m
actually on a track to this vision
instead of just talking about it which
is of course you know the goal of all of
this so with mine it was a little bit
unique I just finished about four weeks
into the 12-week goal that I had I had
finished my biggest goal that I had so
when my one-on-one came we just just we
simply just discussed you know what are
the next steps you know we got a change
you know what do we want to focus on for
the next 12 weeks to be able to now you
know both support the achievement of
that goal and then also make sure that I
wasn’t going to be slipping or lacking
in anything else and potentially
becoming complacent so it was it was a
good session something that we were able
to just almost freestyle and and just
spit ball and just pass ideas back and
forth yet as I said before if you look
at my calendar you’ll see that they’re
just all these one two ones that are
lined up and I was really anxious about
how I was going to fulfill that and I
have an assistant that makes that really
easy and she schedules things so
things are at the right time but I tell
you guys it has become my favorite thing
to do to talk with one of you and just
you know figure out what’s going on and
and how we can help each other I’ve
thoroughly enjoyed that and that is a
surprise
with me starting the mastermind group I
didn’t know that that was going to be
the case it truly is one of my favorite
things with the group so I have two
different categories of groups I have a
business owners group and I have a key
professionals group all of you are in
the key professionals group so the
question I want to ask you now is you
are working for somebody else what have
they been saying or what have they seen
since you’ve been involved in this group
yeah I’ll jump in on that one tres I’ve
been really fortunate that the company
and the region that I work for right now
we have a very similar open
communication really trying to build off
of some of the same ideas so this is
just internet being perfect because it
just reinforces what we’re trying to
work towards and then it allows me to
come back to them and bring new ideas so
like ways that if somebody brings a
problem like we know in our month our
weekly meetings that we have you know
this is something that we actually just
changed to is is rather than just simply
discussing like a standing agenda you
know we talked about and said you know
what maybe we maybe we have people start
bringing some questions bringing some
problems and then see how we can as a
group as a region then basically do what
we’re doing in the mastermind and you
know provide clarity better understand
it and build from there
yeah similar we I’ve had a similar
experience Brian this is Connor our
company kind of around the same time
that we started this across all of our
the management across third group of
companies we started doing a lot of like
business coaching professional
development a lot of the same themes
that we cover on this so this was kind
of the perfect segue into something
where I can take you know what I’m
learning there what I’m learning here
and really have the lessons across that
you know reinforce each other but you
know providing this within the context
of other professionals within the water
treat
industry has been great too because the
management across those groups is kind
of a diversity of different businesses
so it’s very you know not related to
water treatment and I think you know
kind of taking the water treatment
perspective in that perspective and
bringing it together has helped me both
on the water treatment side but then
helped me as we go back into that say
hey you know here are some things that
we’ve been talking about my master mind
and we’ve started to implement some of
that to the training as well so it’s
it’s been you know great and the synergy
between the two has been well worth the
value from a communication standpoint a
lot of the pieces that we’ve rolled out
through the mastermind group I’ve been
able to apply them to my management
style and how we’re holding each other
accountable I mean ultimately the team
of people we have on our mastermind
group is a highly functioning team right
who are bringing up problems addressing
them holding themselves accountable
clarifying their goals and in developing
themselves through going together on
books and I think it’s a great format
for any team that wants to achieve their
goals and it’d be highly effective at
communicating so I mean I think just
those pieces any one of them are helpful
to pull across from the frequency of
meetings the structured agenda but also
bigger picture the new information we’re
learning and the different perspectives
we have on issues I think it’s just a
great strategy for how we solve problems
at least at the company I work at
amongst our team if someone comes to me
with a problem I’m not going to be quick
to jump to it but what I may do is bring
it up on our weekly call and say hey can
you throw your problem out there and
maybe we’ll dissect it a bit or clarify
and then we’ll all give recommendations
I think that structure is great and it’s
something I’ve just adopted into the way
we do business or our style the biggest
thing that’s come out to me is is just
that just because something works today
doesn’t mean that it works well and you
know I’ve been in water treatment for 33
years now and and I’ve been things a
certain way I think that do things
pretty well but I think one of the
things that it has shown me is is that I
don’t
do things as productive as I can and by
doing that I limit what I can get done
in a day so the better you plan the
better you follow through with your
plans the better that you have things
set aside I can handle this later I
don’t the stop what I’m doing right now
to take care of it it allows you to have
the time to a spin with your customer
deal with the issues follow up on the
paperwork and then it allows you to have
time for your family and the sad part is
most of the time we we let one push the
two to push the three and all those
pusher on our family time and that we
never get back because oh this is so
important it’s got to be done but by by
structuring your day and achieving your
your past list your calendar schedule it
creates time for your family by having
that hard stop at 6:30 I’m done working
until 9:00 I know that I get two and a
half hours every night with my family
whether they need it or not
and so it’s that time that I don’t have
to try to make up later so I think
that’s the biggest thing is is yeah I
get things done I get things done but by
working smarter not harder
it makes the whole life thing go a lot
smoother I’m curious what is something
unexpected that has come out of your
membership to the rising tide mastermind
I’d never thought from time blocking a
meeting for one hour once a week would
translate to me having designated family
time that I actually follow through once
so well I never saw that that the cause
and effect happening one-hour meeting
that I’m held accountable for and now my
family gets designated family time
better than I ever have in the past yeah
I think like everyone else I was maybe a
little bit apprehensive of having you
know a standing commitment at the same
time every week you know it’s easy as a
water-treatment professional to say hey
my schedule so erratic I get calls all
the time how could I possibly have a
standing meeting at the same time and
one thing that surprised me is yeah you
if you do it you can
that meeting every time you can make it
work the other thing that has I guess
been a little bit surprising to me is
now I have a second standing meeting
every week with actually my
accountability group which is mark and
Eric who are also on this you know so
not only did we was I apprehensive about
having the one but now we’ve implemented
a second where we jump on just the three
of us and talk for 10-15 minutes to make
sure we’re holding each other
accountable so I think the concept works
and it’s great and I’m pleasantly
surprised that by you know structuring
this I’ve gotten this much out of it
yeah I think the big one – that really
was surprising to me was just how much
we all are going through the same thing
and then the trust to be able to share
those problems and really be be
vulnerable in that communication and
when we do that that’s when we’ve had
some of the most successful meetings is
people really opening up and being
vulnerable and saying hey I think I
think that I might even have the problem
here and it you know I’m trying to work
through a problem and then realizing you
know what it’s things that I need to go
take care of Brian I’m so glad you
brought that up because in order to be
vulnerable we’ve got to trust each other
and we’ve shared some things on the
calls that we have to keep confidential
so we have a rule that whatever we talk
about in the group what do we say guys
in the group stays in the group and you
know I think that is paramount with any
group that you have to feel safe to
bring out whatever issue you need to
talk about and know that you’re not
going to hear about that someplace else
and the group has just been fantastic
with that so my next question is there
are people listening today it’s probably
the first time they’ve ever heard the
term mastermind so now they know a
little bit about what we do within the
mastermind if they are considering
joining what advice do you have for them
do it yeah I think it’s a leap but you
have to be prepared you know if you’re
going in know that if you do it halfway
you’re not gonna get out of it you might
get 50% of the benefit for 90% of the
work but if you go that extra 10% you
get so much more so just if you’re gonna
do it commit
one important point to kind of reiterate
is that it’s the content is not or
minimally actually about technical water
treatment but having an audience or team
members that are from the industry that
have a good understanding all with their
own different perspectives is really
important because we speak the same
language to some extent but it’s not
just water treatment it’s a it can be
about what you want it to be about but a
lot of on personal development and just
becoming a better person if it’s in
water treatment industry or if it’s for
your family yeah that’s a really great
point
Eric everyone in the group understands
the context within which all these
problems are occurring and I think that
that’s really where the value comes
because you don’t have to try and spend
time explaining the nature of water
treatment or what it is that we do
everyone kind of gets that so the advice
comes within that context which is which
is awesome and I think that’s key is
you’ve got to be willing to give to
receive you can only receive if you hold
your hands out but if you hold your
hands out you’re also allowing you to
give things away and so there’s gonna be
weeks when when you’re the giver and the
advice that you give to people it’s
going to help them do what they do and
become better but at the same time
there’ll be weeks that you are the
receiver and you receive so much advice
from these other guys in in GAO’s that
you’re on the phone call with that
you’re in the community with that’s
going to just make you say hmmm that’s
what’s going on or that’s why this is
happening and so understand there’ll be
weeks that you know you benefit greatly
there’ll be weeks that I didn’t get a
whole lot this week but that’s okay
because you’re weeks come so what didn’t
we talk about today what do you think
the scaling up nation needs to know
about the rising tide mastermind I think
that that one of the things we didn’t
talk about is that each each person that
that wants to join the mastermind group
goes through an interview process with
you trace and the reason for that is
because you’re going to be part of a
group and and you also you
need to give you need to be open to
share your experiences to share your
knowledge because if you’re not all
you’re doing is taking from the group
and in order for the group to be
successful we need 10 people in the
group that’s going to be committed to
making the call we need 10 people in the
group that’s going to be willing to give
advice we need 10 people in the group
that’s going to be holding us
accountable for what we’re trying to do
if if only 5 people are sharing that are
committed to this group or it’s not
complete we don’t get the variety of
information that we need
so a are you committed you you’ve got to
be committed to want to be better person
to do things better and you got to
commit to make the meetings because if
you’re not you’re you’re taking from the
group and that’s not a good thing you’re
not about valuable member and that’s we
want people who want to be a part of the
group who want to contribute who want to
receive and that’s I think that’s the
biggest thing is it’s not just a social
hour we don’t get together and just talk
about what’s going on to make each other
feel good and with me vulnerable we have
to be able to share our our deficiency
so that we can become better at what we
do
so got to be humble and everybody knows
that humble I am I do think it’s
important to reiterate the fact that
there is a very clear structure on every
call so you know we know what to expect
every week we follow it and it keeps us
on track so there’s not this risk of
something coming up at the beginning
that disrupts the whole hour and then
you get off thinking man I wish you know
that wouldn’t have happened and we would
have accomplished xed really the
structure that we follow and we stick to
everyone knows it and that structure
provides a lot of value yeah and I
really think that structure is really
one of the biggest strengths of it and
that’s something that I’ve tried to do
in meetings that I have now is make sure
that people have a clear understanding
of what the goal of the meeting is
understanding you know what what is the
process going to look like so that you
know if we have an hour-long meeting
that we walk out after an hour and said
and
single minute of that was productive and
helped me trying to think of a good way
to phrase it but I’ll just go with it
I mean there’s there’s not many self
development opportunities that you are
not getting paid hourly or on your
salary for it before this is a genuine
group of people getting together for a
common goal that’s not financial profit
itself betterment a lot of my experience
has been at companies giving training or
companies working together in a
cross-functional team this is something
outside of your day job to work on
yourself it’s been really helpful it’s
it’s a different category of where I
spend my time that wasn’t there before
and it’s helped all the other categories
or how I spend my time and how I
structure my day I think that the fact
that we do pay to be a part of it it’s a
huge difference I think that really
helps filter out and make sure that
everyone really is committed and it’s
kind of that sunk cost maybe that has a
negative connotation associated with it
but because we’ve invested in this we
take it seriously we participate and I
think that really is important versus
you know doing it for free because
everyone is invested and everyone wants
to make the most of it well let me ask
this the fact that you pay for do you
feel you’re getting the value out of it
well absolutely
I think the ROI on it is incredible it
doesn’t even feel like a cost to me you
know we get four hours of our structured
meetings per month one a week we get the
one-on-one but really the relationships
we’re building the tools were learning
pay huge dividends in terms of my
efficiency one of the things that you
always hear about in the water treatment
industry is you know you got an assign a
an hourly rate to your time well this
one hour I’m investing each week plus
you know the associated costs more than
pays for itself
in the increased efficiency I gain the
rest of the week in getting more done
during those thirty nine hours
well Marc Lewis Conor parish Erik Russo
and brine fist thank you so much for
coming on the show
letting the scale-up Nation get a little
peek inside the rising tide
her mind and I think some people
understand now what it is and and that’s
because of you guys so thanks so much
for coming on the show Thank You Tracy
thanks I again want to thank Mark Lewis
Erik Russo Connor Parrish and Bryan Fisk
I know you all have heard them on the
podcast before Eric Russo was episode
111 Conor Parrish was episode 8 he was
one of the first episodes that I
recorded in fact it was Connor that
really drove me to do the podcast when
he found out that I was thinking about
doing a podcast three years ago he would
call me on a regular basis asking me if
I hadn’t done it yet so Connor thank you
for that Bryan Fisk was on episode 109
and then there’s Mark Lewis well mark
Lewis was on episode 31 34 112 I’ve of
course interviewed him at various events
that we both attended together and he’s
got another episode coming out in a few
weeks where he’s going to share what he
does or how he counsels people to help
with neglected accounts so be sure to
tune into that but I’m sure glad that
those four guys came on the show and
shared their first-hand experience with
you as you can tell we all have a lot of
respect for each other and what has
resulted to that respect are some very
very deep conversations that we’ve had
within the mastermind and also within
the one ones that they described on the
interview as you know my goal is to
raise the bar across the entire water
treatment industry I’ve said before a
rising tide raises all ships and now of
course you know where I got the name for
the mastermind the rising tide
mastermind getting together once a week
for exactly one hour has given us all
grounding that allows us to execute
every other hour in the week better
there’s so much that happens within
our and there’s also so much that
happens in addition to that our some of
those items as I mentioned are the
weekly video call that meet for exactly
one hour you got a little peek inside to
what that hour contains but we start and
we stop exactly on one hour that way you
can keep a standing appointment and
schedule all the other things that you
need to do before and after it we get
together on video calls so you can see
everybody you have that face contact but
you don’t have to be at a particular
place in order to do the call there are
books that we read and folks it’s not
just the fact that we are reading books
we’re reading books one that are
relevant but we’re reading them in a way
that we are actually processing them as
we read them and then we’re making
changes based on those books changes
that will help us with all the other
things that we are doing in life there
are quarterly one two ones with me
that’s where we meet one two one one
member with me and we can talk about
whatever we need to talk about and I
tell you I mentioned this earlier I’m
going to mention it again it has become
one of my favorite activities to do I’d
liked all the individuals that are
within the rising tide mastermind group
but because of the quarterly one to ones
I’ve really gotten to not only know but
appreciate the individuals within the
group and I just look forward to those
each and every time that I do them it
also includes a live event we’ve had to
postpone our live event it was supposed
to happen this month actually right now
but because of the issues with the virus
we’ve rescheduled that and we’re going
to do that at a later date so we are
preparing for that as we speak now you
might be asking what is this live event
and this is where the group really comes
together because we physically come
together as a group now we have speakers
workshops different exercises we have
socials a lot of really good camaraderie
but it’s all designed to get a
supercharged so we can go back and face
our regular day-to-day better-equipped
the live event is just fantastic it’s
one of my favorite things that we do in
the group now maybe this sounds good to
you but let me be perfectly clear this
group is not for everyone you have to
commit to be present for the group as
was mentioned earlier there is an
interview process there actually is an
application once the application is
reviewed we schedule a time where you
and I can speak together and we really
look if this is the right group for you
I want to make sure you know exactly
what it is that you’re getting into
during the interview we will find out if
this group is right for you I’m looking
for potential members that will enhance
the group because as you heard from the
dialogue from the interview these guys
are really getting a lot out of each
other so we want to make sure that we’re
bringing people in that can enhance that
I don’t say that to intimidate anybody I
just say that because this is a very
high-performing group and we need to
make sure that the individuals are fully
going to commit that join the group and
I’m sure that leaves you with the
question is the rising tide mastermind
right for you now I don’t know the
answer but I will help you explore it
and I want to do it with this here are
some questions that I’m gonna leave you
with how are you getting better how do
you challenge yourself who do you get
advice from who holds you accountable do
you have a means to help you discover
what you don’t know
you don’t know and here’s my last
question do you have a group of people
that you trust to help you through the
issues that life comes with and wouldn’t
it be better if you did folks I would
love it if you would check out scaling
up h2o comm forward slash mastermind to
see if this is the right group for you
above all else I would love it if you
have a solid answer to each one of the
questions that I just asked you start
looking for ways that you can fulfill
those questions and the answer doesn’t
have to be the rising tide mastermind
but the answer does need to be one that
pushes you that encourages you that
makes you better at what you do and
makes the person better who is doing it
if you do that then I know I’ve
completed my mission to raise the bar in
the water treatment industry one person
at a time have a great week folks
[Music]
since we started the rising time
mastermind in early January this year we
have successfully filled up two groups
we’re looking at starting our third
group so if you want to be a member of
this exciting new group please go to
scaling up h2o com4 slash mastermind to
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