The following transcript is provided by YouTube. Mistakes are present. To hear the podcast episode, click HERE.
scaling-up nation when was the last time
you thought about your insurance
coverage for me it is not very often but
I know for a fact that you sleep soundly
at night knowing that you have it that
means it’s important and that means you
need to understand what it is that you
have it means you need to understand
where your liability is and you need
someone that you can trust to have that
conversation with several years ago I
met Mike Higham at an AWT convention of
McGowan Insurance Group and at the time
I had our insurance through a local
broker who is an extremely nice guy and
we had had our auto policies with him
for years and when I started my company
I naturally called him and he got us
coverage the thing is he did not
understand the water treatment industry
so he was giving us the best coverage he
knew to get us without understanding the
industry I had a conversation with Mike
at that convention and he asked some
very good questions questions that I
didn’t have the answers to and I’m sure
glad he asked those questions because
folks I did not know to ask them but as
soon as he asked them I knew that I did
not have all the coverages that I need
think of all the coverages out there
property general liability professional
liability workers compensation employee
Practices Liability folks there’s even
insurance for cyber liability and I have
to tell you I did not know to ask about
that one but Mike did because this is
what he does he serves the water
treatment industry and he knows that
there is a potential liability because
of the remote access that we do with our
controllers not only did he get me the
right coverage with the right company he
was able to give me advice on making
sure that we
proper policies in effect to make sure
that we were protecting ourselves and
our customers a lot of insurers can only
write through one insurance carrier
McGowan Insurance Group represents
dozens of carriers like Donegal
insurance and when we go to renew I
can’t tell you how awesome it is that
they are able to look at multiple
suppliers to make sure that we’re
getting the best coverage but we’re also
getting the best value I know without a
doubt because McGowan Insurance Group
understands the water treatment industry
that we are getting that each and every
time we renew with them they do
liability benefits bonds they are a full
service agency give the fine folks at
McGowan Insurance Group a call today and
tell them that trace ascent you or visit
them on the web at mcg OWA in I NS GRP
com
welcome to scaling up the podcast where
we’re scaling up on knowledge so we
don’t scale up our systems hello
everybody
grace Blackmore here the host for
scaling up h2o summer is coming Wow I
mean what a strange 2020 I bet if you
were going to a fortune-teller nobody
could have told you how second-quarter
2020 would have gone it’s just been
amazing and you know a lot of times we
think about all the bad things but
there’s so many good things that have
come out of all the stay-at-home orders
of doing work in a very different way I
know I am impressed so much by how much
work my team could get done at home I
always knew that they were hard workers
but there are a lot of people out there
that really thought that team members
had to be in the office in order to get
work done and that’s been a theme on the
mastermind calls the rising tide
mastermind where we have just been so
impressed with how much stuff people are
getting done and they didn’t have to
come in to the office to do it in fact a
good friend of mine he was getting ready
to buy a new building before Cova 19
started and now he doesn’t think he’s
going to do that he thinks he’s going to
do a remodel on his existing building
and he’s gonna allow people to work from
home more often they seem to like it he
definitely didn’t have any slump in
activity and production so there you go
there’s a good thing that came out of it
people are a lot happier he’s not having
to move and folks I can’t think of a
more horrible thing in life than to go
through moving especially when you move
your business that’s just that’s just
scary especially as an owner I remember
when we moved to our present building
and I disconnected the server and I
disconnected the phones and I was like
okay our business is officially dead
and then of course the first thing I did
when we got into the new building is I
hooked up at the new server I got the
phones going and then I felt a little
bit better and we of course had the
phone sitting on boxes because nothing
was unpacked but we could answer the
phones of course now phones are a lot
more technologically advanced you can
roll those over we have soft phones
where you can simply have somebody
answer the phone at home and it’s just
like the office technology is just
incredible and we all seem to be using
it very well well the person that is
going to join me on this episode of
scaling up h2o is a really good friend
of mine Who am I kidding he is a great
friend of mine of course I’m talking
about Mark Lewis mark Lewis has been on
the show several times mostly by his own
request but the scaling up nation seems
to like him as much as I do and mark
does a lot of work like I do with the
association of Water Technologies and
Mark was asked a while ago to do a
webinar on neglected accounts and we’re
gonna talk about what neglected accounts
are so if you would please welcome my
friend mark Lewis as we explore what we
should be doing if we find ourselves the
owner of a neglected account my lab
partner today is returning guest mark
Lewis CWT how are you mark trace I am
doing very well today well you are no
stranger to scaling up h2o I think you
were the most requested guest I think we
revealed in either episode 31 and 34
that you were responsible for most of
those requests but nevertheless you are
the most requested guest on scaling up
h2o you and I of course have been
friends for I don’t know how many years
what do you think it is 14 years has it
really been 14 years thousand five Palm
Springs well we have been friends for a
while you have been extremely supportive
on this podcast I want to thank you for
that I know you are always telling water
treaters if they don’t
about scaling up h2o that they need to
listen to scaling up h2o you help me
contribute content you’ve just been a
great friend of the show and just
recently you did a webinar for the
association of Water Technologies they
have a group within the AWT called the
young professionals group and Michelle
farmerie originally started that and
somebody asked you to go ahead and if
you would contribute with some of the
content that they had and you created a
webinar tell us about that
yeah Alison reached out to me and she
said asked me if I would do a webinar on
neglected accounts and I asked for a
little definition and and she said well
whatever you feel is a neglected account
and so we did we sat down and as I
thought about things
what are neglected accounts who’s
responsible because a lot of times the
water treaters get the blame and I don’t
care if it’s from the chiller mechanic
the boiler mechanic they always want to
point their finger at the water treaty
but as no matter who’s responsible it
goes back to what are we doing in what
do we do
once we have an issue that’s brought up
so I thought that that would be a great
opportunity to to highlight some of
these neglected systems or neglected
accounts and how we go from the
beginning and work through the problem
right on down to a solution and go that
route with it and you of course be
generous with all your material you
thought it would be a great topic to
talk about here on scaling up h2o I did
so thank you for that how about we start
out with defining what you originally
asked for and of course never got so you
defined it yourself what is a neglected
account well if you go back to what we
are responsible for you know we’re
responsible for controlling corrosion in
the system preventing mineral deposition
controlling microbiological activity and
controlling the dirt and debris the four
legs of the stool which you love to
illustrate and it’s part of your mission
neglect is when we don’t take care of
one of those things and whether it is
our fault something where we are not
doing or whether it is something that
the customers not doing that’s the part
that that we have to point out and I
think J farmer says if it’s not written
down it didn’t happen and so when we
find out that an account is being
neglected in any way that it is it’s our
it’s our job to kind of get that back on
track and so if we were to talk about
neglect because we’re talking about
neglected account Webster defines that
very easily as both a verb and a noun
and and in the verb form
it’s the fail to care for properly so if
we’re not caring for that piece of
equipment if we’re not caring for that
water or caring for that energy that is
neglect and then a denounce side of
things and that is the state or a fact
of being uncared-for and what we want to
do is we want to remove that word
neglect from all conversation and and
say that we’ve done everything we can or
we’ve documented everything we can in
order to properly care for these systems
mark you mentioned equipment and
reporting but I really think there’s
another side to this and that is the
customer because the customer doesn’t
know what you do and if they don’t
understand the value that you bring
you’re neglecting them too absolutely
and and so when we talk about customers
okay we do have yes what is a customer
and let’s just say that a customer is a
business or people who have chosen to
put their water treatment needs in our
hands and then we also have prospects
and prospects can be neglected as well
and those are businesses or people who
we want them to put their water
treatment needs in our hands and so when
we look at the the customer what are our
responsibilities to the customer you
know it is to prevent the deposition
onto the wetted surfaces of the
evaporative cooling system it is to
control the corrosion of the wetted
portions of the evaporative cooling
system
anyway I’m always laughs at people when
we have a piece of metal that’s outside
of the water that has some rust or some
corrosion
Oh your water treatment programs not
working it’s not wetted the chemicals
are in the water yeah a great example I
can think of that is the louvers on a
cooling tower that occasionally gets
splashed with high concentrated water
and then evaporate and then somebody
comes out and says you’re scaling up my
cooling tower because look at all this
evaporative salts that are on there and
of course it’s not scale it’s about
better salts what’s the difference
between those two marks the difference
between scale and corrosion scale is
when the minerals actually precipitate
out of solution the evaporative salts a
or is when the water that can host those
minerals has evaporated away and left
those solids behind so anytime a
customer wants to know the difference
between scale and the evaporative salts
look at it it’s water flowing here if
water is flowing and you have deposits
adhere to either the the PVC fill
material or onto the chiller barrel
things like that that is scale because
those solids have been drawn out of
solution it’s always wet if you have
water that’s splashed somewhere that’s
just a result of the minerals in the
water being left behind and the water
doing what it does which is evaporating
so as we as we look at this to trace the
you know when we understand the
difference between the scaling and
evaporative salts so corrosion is
nothing more than the metal trying to
revert back to its more stable state and
we have biological microbiological
growth so microbiological you know
control microbiological we cannot
eliminate all of the biological matter
that’s in the system but what we can do
is reduce the house that this bit this
bacteria lives in which is known as
biofilm and biofilm is four times more
insulative than scale forming deposits
and so it’s very important that we
maintain a clean system from a
biological standpoint and then we got
the general dirt and debris and if we
could sit there and have a stool with
four legs and corrosion and scale
prevention and biological control and
dirt and debris all along labels all put
on that stool and then you stand on top
of the stool because this is your
program and if you don’t take care of
one of those legs just like someone
coming and kicking that leg out
that program is not very stable and
you’re gonna fall off and get hurt and
we don’t want you to get hurt so we want
you to address all four areas of the
stool so a lot of us think about
neglected accounts of just simply I
forgot to service this or I haven’t seen
this customer for the last ten service
visits but you’re really saying if we’re
not doing every part of what you
described in that four legged stool if
we’re not treating for corrosion if
we’re not treating for scale if we’re
not treating for a biological prevention
if we’re not treating for to get the
dirt and debris out of the system
essentially we’re neglecting those
accounts absolutely because if we think
about this two ways we can we can
neglect the customer and this is the
people side of things or you can neglect
the equipment and that’s the system that
we are being paid for to come in and
treat and so anyway if we don’t do
either one of those two then we’re
failing at our job and we’re talking
about the customer here and so as we
talked about that the customer okay we
always want to come in and put on our
customers hat we want to take the stance
of being in their position okay we look
at things from where they look at from
we want to educate them okay and we want
to point out any possible issues that we
see we run a series of tests and then we
look at the data from the chiller and we
go up and observe the cooling tower
Basin and feel and once we have all that
data then we can come back and we can
can say that this is the condition of
your equipment now our job is to go back
and explain to the customer the
condition that their equipment is in and
so we’ve got to educate them when we see
things that are not as efficient as they
should be
not as in control as they should be
things that are going to cause us issues
or problems all those things we have to
turn take that knowledge and get back to
the customer because I can’t change the
way he operates his system I can’t
change a lot of the things that they do
on a day to day basis and I’m only there
once a month so this term neglect okay
is it neglect for me
or is it neglect from the customer and I
know who’s gonna get the blame if
something fails it’s gonna be me yeah
when in doubt blame the water tree I’ve
been there one day they’ve been there 30
but yet it’s all my fault so that’s why
documentation so important you go ahead
and you write that stuff down and then
you go back and you explain it to the
customer what needs to be done to their
system Marc to add to that I work with a
lot of people that are our clients or
they have retained us to come in to see
if their water treatment company is
doing a good job and almost always the
client is confused because they do think
water treatment is that magic bullet
they can neglect proper operations for
29 days and then the one day that you
are there Mark Lewis running all your
tests and making sure all the products
are working properly that’s supposed to
make up for those other 29 days and
that’s just not the case so what is
something that we can do so the client
understands how important it is
so they operate properly those other 29
days because somehow we’re missing that
conversation with our clients I think
one of the things that we we have to be
prepared to do is to be able to get
enough data points that tell us that I’m
looking at numbers from today but I can
go back and see what the average has
been for the rest of the month
okay so well mark how do you do that
okay and it’s it is by having enough
tools have I have enough data points in
order to do that if I have a water meter
on the cooling system okay and I can say
that it looks like they’ve averaged X
number of gallons per day I can sit back
and say okay if they’ve averaged X
number of gallons per day then they
should have had X number of gallons of
bleed and I can then go back and say how
much water treatment products I should
have used and said okay I should have
used 14 gallons last month between that
day and this day and I’ve used 13 and a
half I can assume my system has been
pretty much in control the entire month
same thing with biocide additions if
you’re feeding a quart three times
we do the math that’s three quarts a
wheat okay and n times four it’s three
gallons you should have used three
gallons over the course of the month and
if your inventory says you’ve only used
a gallon and a half you’ve got a problem
okay
we can run specialized studies we’re
going on the ATP test week around if
sites are we in control now
do we think we’re feeding one thing and
we’re actually feeding another so it is
the it is the paying attention to the
entire system about what’s going on to
tell us what that machine is doing by
looking at approaches temperatures those
kind of things it tells us how the
machine is operating and yeah there’s
gonna be a little variation but we
should have enough data to know that
this chiller normally operates around
this approach range or this chiller
normally operates around this delta T
and if I’ve got this delta T on the
condenser I normally have this delta T
on the evaporator side of things and and
so by having all that data we can go
back and we can push back on the
customer about what’s going on if you’ve
got a make up meter that’s great if
you’ve got a make up and a blowdown
meter that’s even better because you can
see what’s going on and you know the
plant has fewer and fewer people today
than they did 25 years ago
oh gosh you spent thirty thirty two
years ago when I started in the business
we used to walk into a business and a
building and they may have six or seven
guys in the engineering department what
today we’ve got one guy four seven
buildings so they do very little which
means we do more well let me let me
qualify that they do very little with
water treatment they’re doing probably
seven times the amount of work that they
used to do because of all those
buildings while this coffee gets
consumed today they just say that that
is true so so as we we have to be able
to gather the data to know what’s going
on and and I’ll say that one of the best
things that I do is is you’ve got to
adjust the times when you go into a
building if you always service an
account first thing in the morning
you’re gonna know what that buildings
like first thing in the morning
you need to rotate your schedule so that
I’m here one afternoon I’m here one day
around noon I’m here on a Friday I’m on
a Monday I’m on a Tuesday because the
fit system shuts down over the weekend
and overflows then what’s gonna happen
is on Monday morning everything’s gonna
be low but by Tuesday afternoon
everything is back in line by Thursday
my main hitter level maybe a little on
high side because I’ve adjusted my pumps
based upon where it is in the cycle so
by adjusting the the service days and
the service time to when I come in then
I can get a better picture about what’s
going on in that system I remember when
I was surveying a prospective account
and I always asked the question what do
you like most about your current water
treatment provider and they told me his
predictability he was always here at the
same time of day and month each and
every month and they were having issues
so I decided to show up on third shift
and I found the issue but because he was
so regular he never solved that issue
and that’s going to put you into a
position to to provide another service
to the customer which is you always
should provide a wish list and in my
definition of wish list is something
that you want that you don’t currently
have okay so and I tell my customers
look these are these are necessities
we’ve got to have these things these are
the things that’s going to make our job
better easier more efficient etc so if
you have time if you have money let’s do
these things upgrading a controller
upgrading a pump moving a feed pointer
or whatever these things never going to
improve the system and so by doing that
it gives you a chance to educate the
customer because you may want to include
updating some controllers or updating
some equipment adding some water meters
and you say well how does that gonna
help and let’s say we talked to a
customer about adding online controllers
remote monitoring where we can see
what’s going on we can get our alarms we
had a customer who we had just updated
their controllers to a
online unit that sent out alerts and and
sure enough it was a unit where we fee
we’ve had PTO product controlled on PTSA
and what happened was at four o’clock we
got a low conductivity alarm and then
right after that we got a chemical alarm
limit timer alarm and then we got a low
low conductivity well what happened is
is the the make up meter stuck open okay
so the cooling tower started overflowing
and and it started overflowing at some
rate like 150 gallons a minute
big two-inch breakup meter and it’s
gonna overflow all weekend because their
people leave it for we got our first
alarm at 4:00 and we were able to reach
back out and call them and they were
able to come in and correct that now if
you do the math 200 gallons a minute
times two and a half days I think it
works out with like four or five dollars
per thousand – somewhere over six or
seven thousand dollars just in water and
sewage for that one we pretty much pay
for that control rod it’s paid for that
controller so so those kind of things
you got to have a story and basically
what you’re selling there is insurance
so by updating this control where I’m
able to do this now if you do it once it
may pay you back if it happens a couple
of times and guys we’re dealing with
mechanical issues and I don’t care if
it’s a solenoid valve that sticks open a
make up meter that make up float that
doesn’t shut off how many people have
walked in and the make up valves just
dumping water because the balls come
unscrewed so you know there’s several
things there that you can have and and
it’s all neglect and everything we’ve
pointed out hasn’t really been our issue
but we’ve been part of the solution
because we were able to bring in ideas
that can teach the customer how to be
prepared to take care of their problems
or at least be notified of their
problems Marc you brought up earlier
that engineers are doing a lot more with
a lot less people and the sad truth
about that is the floats on the cooling
tower make up valves they’re floating
off and nobody’s there to catch it
there’s a lot more
blech that I see today than I did years
ago because there just isn’t a team
there to catch that and they rely more
and more on us to be able to tell them
that but again we’re just there one day
a week is there a solution to bridge the
gap I don’t think I mean I think that
the biggest solution there is is to go
ahead and be able to inform your
customers out there you know I think
it’s communication to where if we’re not
going to be able to do this physically
we’ve got to do it electronically and so
never would I say totally reduce or
eliminate a visit just because you can
see what’s going on on a controller you
know I still think that minimum monthly
you got to go by and visit every cooling
tower that’s out there I’m not a fan of
well it’s a small Tower let’s just go
and let’s do it once a quarter instead
of you know once a month we can save
money that way guys will you charge
service fees on that because at that
point you are neglecting the customer
because you chose to be their vendor and
you’re not given the system the
attention that it deserves so let’s talk
about that for a second so the customer
doesn’t fully understand water treatment
think that’s what that boils down to and
now we’re in a conversation with them
maybe it is a small cooling tower system
and we’re saying mr. customer here is
our proposal to come out each and every
month to take care of all of these
issues that we’ve covered on this show
so far and they say it sounds great but
I just don’t have this money in the
budget instead of every month can you
just come out every quarter what should
the water treatment professional say to
that customer you got to say that
because there’s so many things that can
go wrong inside of 30 days I can’t
extend it out past past that you know
monthly is the minimum that you should
ever go by and visit a cooling system in
and I tell my customers you may not have
time to check a B and Sandy but when you
walk by the cooling tower
look at the overflow make sure it’s not
overflowing look at the bleed valve if
water is coming out of the belief valve
look at the controller is there a light
on
if there’s a light on fine if there’s no
light on no if there’s if there’s the
other light on you ought to have one or
two chemical pumps that are that are the
you can hear them actually a thumb take
a second and stop and listen to the pump
energized and if it’s a clicks not a
clunk then it’s probably not prime I
mean there’s there’s things that you can
do to not really make a special trip but
when I’m walking through the mechanical
room I slow down just a little bit and I
observe and so by getting your customers
and educating them enough to where look
I don’t want you to stop spend twenty
five minutes running a bunch of these
tests but I want you to be observant and
even if you have them do nothing but
write down the number that’s on the
controller at least you know that
they’re stopping by there and they’re
looking at it and that is so beneficial
to the program because when do when do
issues happen the day after you’re there
and so you know for 29 days they’re in
this this condition that’s not right and
so if you can have a customer call you
at least you can you can have an
arrangement to where you stop back
buying you adjust you can fix etc and
get that system back in and parameters
because remember if we’re not feeding
the amount of inhibitor we’re doing two
things we’re accelerating corrosion and
B we are increasing the potential for
scale deposition okay if it’s a biocide
we’re allowing microbiological growth to
get above the limits that are acceptable
you know microbiological growth you know
one of the things I will say especially
with what’s going on the last three to
four years with Legionella you know our
agreement for the most part and most of
our accounts is we are going to control
the general microbiological growth below
below a certain level we don’t it’s not
so much that we are controlling specific
bacteria and I think that is an issue
that where a lot of folks are confused
you know if you’re gonna get to where
you’ve got to do control every
microbiological growth and when I throw
the Legionella term out there you know
you got to have a program to do that and
adjust that but you’re gonna need some
help in order
to do that they’ve got to upgrade their
equipment they’ve got up they’ve got to
upgrade what they’re doing in order to
to accomplish all that and you can’t get
that aggressive on biological matter
with the same program that you would
have just with a normal water trim
program if you’re running a higher
halogen level you better have something
in there to prevent against corrosion
that’s a great point we’re talking about
a lot of stuff here just all over just
general account service but you’re right
there are so many water treaters that I
talked to that when they do a Legionella
test or if a customer does one say quote
unquote behind their back and they’re
praying that it comes back negative
because when it comes back positive the
knee-jerk reaction is the water
treatment program is failing and that is
not the case you said it beautifully the
reason that we are there is to protect
the equipment so the longevity is there
that we don’t go through the chiller
faster than then we replace it as faster
than we need to and then the same time
to making it more efficient those are
the two things that our water treatment
program does it’s not to eliminate a
specific biological species Legionella
now if you’re right if we were to do
that we would have the halogen level the
chlorine level the bromine level
whatever it is so high that it would be
so incredibly corrosive to the material
that we were trying to protect from
corroding to begin with so I think
another way that we neglect accounts is
we do not have the tough conversation
with our clients about Legionella one
for some reason a lot of water treaters
just shy away from understanding
Legionella and there is this false sense
of security that if they don’t know
about it they’re not going to be held
responsible for it
or if the customer doesn’t know about it
they can’t be held liable for it and you
and I have been involved with this a
whole lot and for a very long time
because
were both on the board with the
Association Water Technologies when
ashtray was writing the 188 document and
that is not the case that is considered
negligence and and when we’re talking
about neglected accounts if you are not
having a conversation about Legionella
about what a water treatment program
does and folks everybody should be doing
something with their client if they will
let you to prevent people getting
Legionnaires disease another thing I
want to say about that is even if we
were doing that it’s not that we’re
gonna eliminate Legionella bacteria
that’s impossible people think oh my
gosh I found one colony forming unit in
my cooling tower my water treatment
program is failing no it’s not now you
activate your water management plan and
now you do the control measures to make
sure you get that back in line and
probably one colony forming unit is
within line you might just make a little
adjustment or you might run another test
well we have to have that conversation
even if you look at the state of New
York which has some of the most strict
guidelines around they talk about total
Legionella and we’ll talk about the
difference in total and then the
different cero groups totally Janelle I
think the same New York is less than 10
I think the state is less than 20 or
vice I don’t live in New York so don’t
don’t write in don’t write it in you
trace doesn’t want to hear it but but
you know it’s it’s if if you’re totally
Janelle account is below this level then
you don’t really need to do anything
need to continue on with your plan if
it’s above this then you’re gonna take a
step and then retest and as long as it
comes back down to less than 10 or 20
you’re fine and if you go back and you
look at where the highest number of
Legionella cases have been found there
is there’s there some guidelines put up
by the Legionella experts that’s in
their difference sera group 1 and all
other Legionella so basically anything
less than 10 I think it’s colony forming
units of serogroup one is determined to
be a low a very low level of risk from
10 to 99 it’s a low level
risk from 100 to 999 it’s a moderate
risk and anything above a thousand
colony forming units for serogroup one
is determined to be a high risk for
Legionella and then but when you look at
the other ones
everything gets stepped up a step so if
we look at anything less than a hundred
colony forming units of of all those
other Legionella bacteria sterile groups
2 through 14 blue white those less than
a hundred is a low very low level and in
one hundred to a thousand is a low level
and above it and then it’s always it
goes that route so what do we do when we
get a positive and and you know you’re
either gonna get a non detect or you’re
gonna get a number and so people who
only want to see the non detects they
have to understand okay when you get a
positive and you’re gonna get a positive
and and most people are gonna put that
positive and a bright bolded red and it
scares your customers to death so if a
customer wants to do Legionella testing
the first statement you should have is
what are you gonna do when you get a
positive not if when I love that what
are you gonna do when that’s because you
told me that that’s why I swear you
loved it but it makes sense if you’re
going to test for something eventually
you’re gonna find it and the systems
that we’re talking about their primary
breeding grounds for this stuff so and
it’s coming in the makeup water so
eventually we are going to find that so
what we are gonna get eventually we are
gonna get a positive okay so where are
they comfortable and then what are we
gonna do at different levels in order to
feel good about what we have and so
that’s the first step if you don’t have
that conversation with your customer
before you start running the Legionella
test I think that’s neglect because
you’re doing something without educating
the customer and we don’t want to lead
people down the wrong path we want them
to be informed so that they can take and
and take this knowledge up the chain the
other side because because we have an
engineer that we work for
but that engineer has a property manager
and that property manager has an owner
and so if everyone knows what steps were
going to do then everyone’s in line with
it because ultimately the building owner
is the one that’s held accountable but
everyone has to be on the same page as
far as going up because that the neglect
thing we won’t take neglect off a table
and anytime we have an issue and so
that’s how we have to do it we have to
have a plan before we move forward with
with the testing mark when we now
discover that an account is neglected in
one way or another let’s talk about what
we do so let’s let’s pose the different
scenarios that we will have so let’s
start out with equipment so we’re doing
everything we can but the customer is
neglecting their duties with what they
need to do maybe it’s cleaning the
cooling tower
maybe it’s scheduling a chiller
maintenance what do we do there well
there again everything everything’s on
fall back to education so if a customer
is not cleaning a cooling tower what we
we have to do is come back and point out
what are gonna be some of the causes for
that you’re gonna remember we’re putting
a lot of particulates in the basin of
the cooling tower and they’re eventually
going to get heavy enough or thick
enough to where they’re pulled over and
into the suction of the cooling tower
and these small particulars are going to
go right through the screen but now
we’ve got this these abrasive materials
running through our system and it’s
gonna cause erosion okay or it’s gonna
plug up some of the smaller offices and
cooling systems you know people love to
go with plate and frame heat exchangers
because they’re they’re small in space
they don’t require a lot of space but
yet they transfer heat very well I have
very small orifices and you start
plugging these things up and the only
way to clean them is though is to take
them apart and wash them out so if we
don’t do this maintenance it’s going to
require you to do some other maintenance
and everyone knows that when when a
chiller has a problem or a heating or
cooling system has a problem it rears
its ugly head in the summertime when you
need it the most so how do you take a
piece of equipment offline when you have
to have it and
so what happens is at that point in time
the customer says oh well what can we do
to get by until the fall when we can
take this thing off line we’re going to
run lower cycles we’re going to run
higher treatment levels we’re going to
accept the fact that we are operating
less efficient on our chillers and
things like that and then come fall
because the fall brings cooler weather
they forget about it and they don’t want
to do anything until next year and
that’s where we have to there again
educate the customer that guys we’ve
taken the controller and we’ve reduced
our cycles by 30% so that our water has
the tended the tendency to hold more
solids in solution and maybe even
dissolve some of those minerals that
have already precipitated out I’m
running my treatment level at a higher
rate I’m running the concentration ratio
lower to create a lower saturated water
you know where I used to be
supersaturated down just saturated and
I’m to create room for those minerals to
come back in the solution so not only am
i because of the issue I’m sacrificing
product you’re sacrificing water you’re
sacrificing power and what happens is we
don’t want that to become the new norm
okay well the new norm is I just paid
30% more for power let’s go ahead and
return this a piece of equipment back to
normal because that’s where we’re gonna
see our savings and you know we should
be to where we are saving the customer
enough money our water treatment invoice
or bill isn’t is not even noticeable so
if we have a conversation with our
customer and they see the true value in
the service that we provide
they understand whatever our monthly
annual whatever it is invoice that we
send it is saving them more water and
more energy than that thing probably x
to the tenth power
I think you’ve done a great illustration
where if you’re operating 500 tons of
cooling
it’s 24 hours a day seven days a week
365 days a year with a the children
operates at 0.6 kilowatt hours at 7
cents a kilowatt hour electrical cost
that chiller operating in 500 tons will
cost you a hundred and eighty four
thousand dollars a year okay and you
asked some of your friends around the
United States what would you charge to
treat a five hundred tons of operating
chiller and I think the number you use
is like six to twelve thousand dollars
you’re right Kim that’s your chemical
cost okay one millimeter of calcium
carbonate deposit will reduce the
efficiency of your chiller by ten
percent theoretically costing you
eighteen thousand dollars more in
electrical costs to operate that chiller
now what’s really hard is people don’t
understand that that that energy bill
people assume that energy bill is what
it is but they don’t understand what it
should be and so your worst case your
water treatment bill is twelve
they are very happily paying eighteen
thousand dollars more because they don’t
know any better so it is up to us to
understand is this chiller operating
effectively because if we see a trend to
where it’s not it’s a lot of money and
it’s money that they’re having to pay
that they don’t realize and so that’s
where when we look and see what the
approaches are of these children look at
the temperatures and the pressures and
we see that is this chiller operating
like it should we can actually see where
we’ve gone astray and bring them back in
line and and even if they have to take
the machine offline open the in bill and
brush the tubes and they’ll spend five
or six thousand dollars to do that they
would have spent eighteen thousand and
just the electricity and that’s a ton
better than me saying well we’re getting
into a scaling condition looks like your
children maybe start beginning to be
found let me cut back on the
connectivity and let me increase the
inhibitor and let me do something about
that thing those costs will far outweigh
that
mechanical thing what we can’t do is let
our minor adjustments become the new
norm everybody pays then the customer is
going to pay we’re gonna pay because
it’s the customer will then think my
system is unique it can’t run at maximum
cycles we had an issue back here that no
one addressed and it’s a great time to
use it as a teaching point when we let
our conductivity go above the set point
when we let our barrel go empty because
someone was supposed to change it and
they didn’t when we watch and we see
there are pumps aren’t prime when we let
that happen bad things happen and those
bad things will cause us to take
extraordinary steps to kind of get us
back to what the old normal was and we
may not ever get there you know
something that you say that comes to
mind is you can’t solve a mechanical or
an operational problem with chemical and
that’s exactly what we’re talking here
we have to have that conversation with
our customer and I love the fact that
you brought it back two dollars some
people just don’t understand what water
treatment is you can explain it to them
you can explain it to them and they’re
agreeing with you all the way along the
way but when you start bringing that
back to if you don’t fix this problem
this is how much money it’s gonna cost
you and you can either spin this money
now once and get it fixed or you can pay
for it every single month until you do
get it fixed normally things start to
happen now let me ask you this question
mark we talked about the customer side
when it was their equipment so now it’s
a piece of our control equipment and
maybe it is a pump that just won’t keep
its prime or maybe it’s a controller
that something’s going on and it’s not
holding its program or there’s some
problem with it and the customer owns it
but now we’re responsible for it we come
to them and we say you need a new
controller here’s a proposal for it and
a month goes by and we still have the
old controller another month goes by we
still have the old controller and our
program is suffering for it and
we just spoke about so is there money
outlay because they’re paying for all
these utilities what do we do then you
have several options you know one is
increase the service frequency which is
gonna cost you money the the other thing
is you have to look at the value of the
account is the value of this this
account worth telling the customer that
you are going to start maintaining the
equipment for a fee and you give them
the option would you like to replace
this or would you like me and if you
want me to do it I can do that but there
is a $50 a month fee for me to maintain
this and you’ll be some amazed at how
many people can can find money this way
they can’t find money over there
they can’t buy new they can repair yeah
there’s something with the budget
they’ve got an operating budget and a
capital expenditure budget so maybe you
can get from one to the other and so you
know the one thing we want to do is we
want to get people options and and
however those options are and I’ve got
customers who have purchased equipment
and it’s still sitting in the box in the
mechanical room and they won’t get it
installed doesn’t do too well it doesn’t
work in the box it looks pretty but it
doesn’t work and the only thing I can do
there is is there again start educating
that because we don’t have this
equipment on the system our boiler
system is not operating like it should
our cooling tower system is not
operating like it should and and
ultimately the one thing that we’ve got
to remember it’s their equipment their
power bill their water bill etc and I
think sometimes you have to remind them
of that if this controller that wouldn’t
hold calibration where we were operating
at seven cycles previously wouldn’t hold
calibration that came in we found it at
three cycles when you put dollars to
that and do the quick math it doesn’t
take long then they can see I had a
hospital that used to run once through
softened water they’re packing lands on
the feedwater pumps and if pump was on
the water came in soft water came in and
went out went down the drain and in the
end
did the math that water tossed him over
$30,000 a year because they were using
it as cooling water cooling they’re
they’re packing Glenn they change the
seals put in mechanical seals for $9,000
that’s easy math and all it was was was
using a bucket to catch water for a
minute and saying okay we’re flowing
this many gallons a minute times this
times this and we’re using you know
here’s our water cultures our sewage
cost and you know and it was a
no-brainer at that point it gave them
information to take up to get money
approved to do something different and
the same thing with a controller whether
you either a come up with an option or
you educate them I think that’s to what
you have to do with equipment yeah
that’s the common thread whether it’s
their equipment it’s your equipment well
you’ve got to educate them so they see
why it’s a problem I think people either
don’t understand that it’s a real
problem and maybe they don’t want to
sound like they’re foolish because they
don’t ask the question so somebody
explains it to them more but if you can
bring it back to the dollars like we’re
talking about they will understand that
and especially when you attach it to an
ROI like you’re gonna fix this and
you’re gonna start making money in a
four-month period that becomes a
no-brainer so if you can start talking
with your customers and ask them how you
can help them so they can help you they
might let you know that they don’t have
money in this particular budget but
maybe they do in another budget and now
you can start getting creative with how
you can solve that problem now let me
ask you this mark we’re talking about
neglect what happens when you’re
reviewing the account or maybe you’re
taking over the account from another
service rep in your company and you now
realize that we’ve neglected the account
in service what do you do with that the
only thing you can do there is is is
come in and talk about your approach if
something if you’ve neglected it from a
service aspect
you should always seriously count the
way you feel that it should be serviced
so what I would say there is is do what
you do what you know is right and if a
customer ask well you know the previous
you the other guy didn’t do this you
know your your approach should be yeah
and all of us have our has our way of
service and accounts and I just think
this gives me a better idea of what’s
going on and this is you know if you
want to explain why you do it that’s
fine you don’t want to go in and down
talk your company’s employees save that
for your will you take over from another
vendor you know if you go in explain
yeah we do this and this is why we do
this you know it’s always easy to go and
explain why you do things because it
helps me better understand your system I
want a better understand you know I’m
brand new I’m gonna look at things in a
different manner I don’t have the
history they had etc but you do have to
you know let the customer know why it’s
important to address the service issues
so it is a matter of a lot of explaining
a lot of education and and that’s just
do the right thing definitely agree with
that that’s always a good motto and it’s
always good to follow through with that
but let’s face it sometimes mistakes
happen sometimes we miss something
sometimes we thought the equipment did
this and maybe it did that when there
was an issue and then we find out that
issue and if you can now learn from that
experience and you can talk with the
customer and understand what’s going on
nine times out of ten they’re gonna
allow you to fix that if you’re
constantly trying to get better as a
water treaty and you’re not going in and
doing the same thing the same way every
time you do it and you’re looking for
those potential ways to be better you
probably are gonna find some things that
you can do better and that’s before the
mistake happened so that’s what I hope
people get from this conversation is
that don’t keep doing the same thing the
same way look at something as you put
from your customers mindset look at it
from if your competition came in and
they were trying to take the biz
this from you and then what would you do
differently if somebody were to bring
that to your attention and I would also
say that let’s say you take over an
account from another employee of your
business and you see something that you
don’t understand why they were doing
something or you see a system that well
they didn’t tell me we were treating
this system go back and have
communication with that employee and say
hey how was that was I was out of
customer X and they pointed out this
chilled water system over there that
that I don’t see it on in your in your
reports are we responsible for that
system because they that may be a system
that that comes in contact with
something and they just don’t treat it
or it may be a very old system that
every time they have treated it it’s
it’s caused issues and so they’ve just
chosen not to treat that so before you
you bring that up to the customer get
the knowledge from from your company
personnel and find out is there a reason
why we’re not doing this they may have
inherited it from someone else and they
didn’t know about it not have no idea
what the system you’re talking about so
by doing that anytime you’re a new
service representative on an account I’m
looking around looking for stuff making
sure there’s not a better way to do
things
making sure something hasn’t been
changed because the worst thing that can
happen is is you’ve got an account and
they do some work somewhere they tie
into something and you learn about it
six months later because now you’ve lost
treatment in this system why do we lose
treatment the easy thing is just to add
more treatment to get it back up but you
know what you’ve added is because
they’ve just installed this this new
line back here new air handler and
another part of the building all the
construction debris that was in that
line because it didn’t get flushed and
get cleaned and it didn’t get probably
true all that stuff is now back in your
system and you’ve got to deal with it
again
so anytime you have an expected level
drop you start seeing something that’s
out of the ordinary
then involve your customers hey what
what what would only in the last 60 days
because I’m getting some really funky
numbers that I’ve never seen before
communication again you know just
because you get a number
doesn’t mean that’s just a new number
running again I got a number that that’s
not normal well run it again trust and
verify yeah and then and then ask
questions we’re there once twice a month
maybe weekly if it’s a very service
intensive account we don’t know
everything that goes on mark when I work
with other water treaters and one of the
one of the games I like to play is let’s
see if trace can steal your business and
I look for the cracks that if I was
surveying the account what I would bring
to the customers attention and nine
times out of ten when I do that I
already saw those things on service
reports that I reviewed going to that
meeting the rep doesn’t ask why do I get
that number they don’t they write
something down and they move past it
they don’t try to get the explanation to
why something that’s happening just like
you explained so I think a whole bunch
can happen if we’re talking to the
customer if we’re talking to the other
people that are serviced in the account
were asking questions but we’re also
asking questions of ourselves and that
question is why am I getting that mark I
mentioned reports and I love reports
because as Jay farmerie said if you
don’t write it down it did not happen I
can’t tell you how many times in my
career I was so glad that either myself
or one of my team members wrote
something down because somebody that
didn’t understand water treatment was
trying to say that something either
wasn’t said or something wasn’t done and
we were able to prove that with that
let’s say we’re reviewing reports and we
find that something hasn’t been tested
like it should something hasn’t been
noted like it should and now we have
neglect in our reports what do we do
then so as soon as we realize that that
we have a system that hasn’t been
treated or hasn’t been tested in a while
the first thing we got when we’ve got to
reestablish the the normal okay
normal says we test these systems we
test these systems we test those systems
and we all of a said we notice that
we’ve left off a certain system or
closed water systems or one of those
things oh it’s a closed water system
it doesn’t change who cares well we
tested you know monthly and then we said
we know what we’re really gonna test
that once a quarter and and then next
thing you know we realized that we
haven’t tested that system in a while
okay well why is that did the system
shut down was it drained was it refilled
or has it been working on there may be
some reason why that system was taken
offline and it was taken out of our
normal routine and then it was put back
on and we just we forgot to add it back
to the to the start up so if that’s the
case then honesty is the key we’re going
to come back and say we we’ve noticed
that we have been not testing this
system we’re gonna go ahead and test it
make sure it’s back up in the range and
we’re going to go from there and
normally everything will be fine there
because closed water systems are such
that once you treat them you really
don’t have to treat them again until we
have some kind of event well mark I’m
going to tell you when you teach what
should be on a service report when we
get together at AWT at the Technical
Training there are always people there
that are taking note saying I don’t do
that on my report I don’t do that on my
report and now they’re thinking even
though they did everything that they
should do on that report they’ve now
learned new information so how do they
integrate that information and not feel
like they were messing up the entire
time I think the big thing is realizing
who you are okay and what you do even
though we’re called water treaters we’re
actually treating the equipment so you
like to refer to us as heat transfer
efficiency managers we are maintaining
the heat transfer of this of this water
in this air in the processes in which
we’re treating so if you go back and if
we haven’t done a good job of doing
everything we should do tell the
customer that way you may have noticed
some additional numbers on my report and
it’s because we we want to make sure
that we are maintaining your chiller as
efficiently as we can or maintaining
your boiler as efficiently we can we
want to make sure that we know what the
current operation status of this
softener this boiler this chiller is
each and every time we’re here so we can
detect
small changes and we can point things
out or make adjustments before they
become detrimental to the equipment so
we’re all learning and if we talk about
these things and share while we’re gonna
start doing things I think there again
it eases the transition from what we
weren’t doing to what we are doing you
know I’m thinking as we’re speaking on
neglected accounts it almost sounds like
we’re talking about pretty much
potentially every account I know that as
I listen to scaling up a lot of times
I’ll sit back and say I’m not doing all
of that and and it kind of rejuvenate me
and and then I get complacent a little
bit and then then I realized hey I got
to pick this up or I get a customer who
I say month after month after we need to
do this we need to do this we do this
and in my head I get tired of repeating
it over and over and over again and I’ve
sent a letter I’ve done this I’ve done
that and they’re just not going to do it
and and there is a point to where you’ve
got to tell yourself that you know I’m
willing to put my name on so much and
there comes a point where maybe I need
to transition you away from being
customer oh so now you’re are start
about firing the customer well we want
to transition them to somebody else do
you remember the way that Dan Perry
adjectives I do and that’s what I’m
saying it the way that I’m saying in he
said when he had an employee that just
was not working out at his restaurant he
would promote them to customer and yeah
he’s just because there’s a cooling
tower or a bowler out there doesn’t mean
that you need to be treating it a lot of
times we look at oh wow that’s a small
cooling tower I’m not going to treat
that I’m not gonna I’m not gonna go call
on them because there’s not enough
revenue to compensate me for my time but
what you don’t understand is that small
cooling tower may have had enough issues
that money is not an issue and you can
get the money you need to compensate you
for your time in that small Tower or
that large coke cooling tower
you know they they’re not going to do it
right anyway and all that’s gonna do is
is it’s gonna cause you more aggravation
and stress
and I don’t know if you’ve ever been
fired from a customer I have and
sometimes it’s very frustrating because
it hurts you’ve been fired yeah you take
that personal absolute other times I’ve
been relieved I no longer have to deal
with so and so and and so you know you
can only do the best you can okay and we
have to look that we’re all a team the
water stripping vendor the employees the
service technician team from the
mechanical contractor that looks after
it the building owners or plant managers
we’re all a team and if we don’t all
share the same common goals there’s
always going to be friction and in our
work-life balance has to be I enjoy what
I do and if you don’t enjoy what you’re
doing find another job you’ve said that
and I’m good at it now if there’s
something that you need to improve on
get better at what you do but if there’s
nothing that you can do and all it’s
going to do is cause you stress that
stress that you pick up at this account
is gonna spill over to another account
and another account and now we’re gonna
have those customers who are good
customers are not going to be getting
your best because this other company is
sucking it out of you mark I’m gonna say
that is the bottom line of this entire
episode you summed it up beautifully so
folks if you want to skip past all that
other stuff we’ve been talking about and
this listen to the last two minutes I
think that is the bottom line message of
how we need to be looking not only at
our job every customer interaction and
then also every single account mark I
just looked and it was episode 44 that
was Daniel Perry’s episode where he came
on and talked to us about chick-fil-a
and I have just remembered that I have
not asked you any lightning round
questions since episode 34 so I think
you’re do okay so here is the first
brand-new a lightning round question
mark what is your superpower I would say
that my superpower is being able to
remain calm
and and not respond in an angry manner
when accused of something and I’ve seen
this I will I will bite my tongue I will
adjust my glasses and I’ll take
everything I can but then I think pop I
said I can’t stands it no more
I’ve seen that and and and when I’ve had
it I’ve had it but normally were able to
to part ways before that happen mark if
you could change anything in the world
what would it be
we know tres we talked a lot about
giving back um to what we do in the
water treatment through the AWT through
etc a lot of folks don’t know but but my
wife and I have a charity called hope
laugh play and we take LEGO sets in the
hospitals and allow kids that are
undergoing cancer or diabetes or MDA or
things like that through some rough
things and in and we take those LEGO
sets in let them play with them let them
keep them once we’re done with them and
it allows that kid to be a kid again and
if I could change anything in the world
not that I want to push I would I would
do away with some of these bad harmful
diseases that affect children I think
kids have got to have a fighting chance
and to put some of the kids through some
of these things we’ve got like kids be
kids I really wish that you know the bad
things would be because of our choices
that we make in our actions I hate it
when things happen to people and they
struggle and it’s nothing that they’ve
done on their own it just kills me
whether surgeries asthma’s I mean a lot
of we’ve seen a lot of kids in bad shape
and I want to bring joy to those kids so
I would I would want to be able to take
care of children better mark you
mentioned hope laugh play and I have had
the privilege of volunteering with you
in this organization you had me go with
you and for little over an hour
we helped children put together Legos
and you’re right
I believe there was a lady there a young
lady that was undergoing chemotherapy
somebody else had some sort of surgery
that they I mean they were they were not
being kids they were having to deal with
these really adult problems but for that
hour and a half that they were sitting
there with us they were kids again it is
truly amazing the Association the
organization that you and your wife
created so I want to let’s scale that
may she know about that it’s called hope
laugh play and it’s an organization so
these kids can have hope and they can
laugh and they can play maybe just for
an hour but they can be kids again and
you provide the Legos they just provide
the hospital just provides a library or
room where they can come if somebody
wants to learn more information about
your organization what should they do we
have a website we have a Facebook page
and first off my wife and I didn’t
create it it was created by a couple
people who got together and they were
the founders and we’ve just continued
that on so I can’t take credit for for
founding it but I’ve been a part of it
since 2014 but hope left play look this
up on the World Wide Web hope laughs
play org there’s a website you can see
some pictures you can see some things we
do you can donate there you can go to
our Amazon wish list and buy Legos and
have those shipped to us you know we
need three things we need money we need
people we need Legos and I don’t care
how what order you do some people have
money they don’t have time so they’ll
they’ll donate through PayPal they’ll
write us a check et cetera some people
want to volunteer and experience it and
then some people don’t have time to
attend some of our events they don’t
want to really give you cash because
they want you don’t want you
misappropriating their cash that’s fine
I need Legos I don’t need cash if I have
Legos so you can use our Amazon wish
list and go in and select the lego sets
that you would like to provide and don’t
have those shipped right to us the
website is something that is more
stagnant doesn’t get updated as much but
if you really want to see what we’re
doing
visit our Facebook page that’s hope
laughs play Inc I
see and we do events in Charlotte and
Atlanta both we have a group of
volunteers in Atlanta we serve two
hospitals here Choa Eccleston and Choa
Scottish Rite and in Charlotte we do
Levine’s Children’s Hospital and and
then we do which is really fun some
summer camps we do camp sunshine which
is for kids who are currently undergoing
cancer treatment who are have had cancer
we got the same camp in Charlotte called
Camp care and care stands for cancer
ain’t really the end and we did that
last August
and I had a blast I’m an instigator so
my job is to come around and help kids
get out of the tough parts but then I
like to start picking on people and it’s
kind of hard because sometimes I
overstep my boundaries and we had one
one little boy who had had an eye
surgery and we put together this Lego
and it had a shooting mechanism where
you put this Lego in and push this
button it shot this thing yeah message
you got to be careful you shoot your
good eye out well my wife Kathy said I
couldn’t say it but he and his mom
thought it was hilarious but what we
also do camps going for kids with Md a
muscular district autism we do some
camps for camp sunshine where they do
nights out for the parents we recently
did an event in Charlotte for foster
kids some people know or may not know
that I am also a foster parent and we’ve
got a little guy that lives with us
right now and we have been given a date
of November 25th to adopt him he’s been
with us for three and a half years and
we’re just tickled that even though he’s
part of our heart
legally november 25th he will be part of
our family and we’re looking for what
God has in store for us with that so
www.lifebliss.org/events.asp riyer but
deep inside you’re just a softie mark
what would you say your proudest
accomplishment is that’s really a tough
one you know it what I think those
change you’ve recently interviewed the
youngest CWT now it was 22 years old
right Chandler Mancuso I was 29 but I
was 98 you or 182 yes and I think Bruce
tetrax senior is 155 not bragging but
just throwing facts out there for you
guys
but at that time I was I thought I think
I was the second youngest see double
yeah what I was never the youngest but
but back when I took my knee 97 it was a
test now Angela may be offering the exam
today
but this was a test and this was a 350
question test it was divided up in
sections each section was timed he had
40 minutes for this one 30 minutes for
that one you couldn’t go forward you
couldn’t go back and so when I received
that I passed I had to be one of my
proudest moments and then if you go back
to pass that probably three years ago
almost almost three years ago I became a
granddad and now I’m a granddad of three
girls but I’ll tell you I still feel
very young at heart I still think I have
realized I can’t do what I could do
talking like this you’re making me feel
old well you are old but anyway I’ve
being a granddad is is is fun and I
think any granddad will tell you that so
those being there serving others there’s
probably ranks right up there some of my
proudest moments
mark final question at the end of your
life what do you want people to know you
for just that I made a difference you
know so many of us live this life and we
live it about us and and there’s so many
things that I do is about me you know if
if my wife was here she would disagree
with everything I say but if I can make
life easier for somebody else and I’m
not I don’t want to give it to you I
don’t want to enable you to do something
or
to get to a certain point but I do want
to walk beside people and and help them
have a better life however that is so
why do I train with with the the a WT
that’s because Bruce asking her you ask
me somebody somebody ask me it’s no it’s
it’s because I want to I want to take
what I have and make life easier for
someone else but at the same time I want
to hold them accountable for what they
receive and so they can feel that I’ve
earned it I don’t want to say mark gave
it to me I earned this I worked for this
and I just want to be in the background
pushing them so that mark helped me get
where I where I got well mark you said
earlier that you and I talk on a regular
basis almost every morning we’re talking
about some water treatment issue that
we’re having so I can say without a
doubt you have done that for me you have
pushed me to become better than I would
have been if I didn’t know you so you’re
already on your way mark thanks so much
for coming on the show anytime trace it
as you can tell mark and I have a lot of
fun when we get together and a little
secret we recorded this back in November
mark worked with one of the guys that I
work with Chris Kersey and they set up a
whole sting where they wanted to
interrupt where I was recording
something for the podcast I had all my
all my equipment on ready to go and so
that way Marc could take over without me
knowing about it and I had everything
all set up for him
so they orchestrated where where Marc
came in he was gonna watch me and then
Chris had an emergency or he needed my
help with something I think was
something in the lab that apparently
couldn’t wait and when I came back Marc
was already doing the intro for the show
and if you haven’t heard that was
episode 112 where Marc interviews me and
then right after that we recorded what
you just heard and Marcus very gracious
he shared the PowerPoint that he did for
the AWT young professionals webinar so
we’ve got that on our show notes page so
be sure to check that out and by the way
after we were done with that recording
Marc and I got on a tour bus my dive
shop I think many of you know I’m a
scuba dive instructor it’s one of my
favorite things to do is to get
underwater and see a world that we’re
not supposed to be in and it’s just
incredible
anyway the dive shop that I work with
they own a Provost tour bus it has 12
sleeping berths in it it definitely is a
luxury coach and we leave Thursday
evening to wake up in the Florida Keys
where we dive all day Friday Saturday
Sunday and then come home ready to go to
work Monday morning I lead that trip
about two times a year
Marc’s normally one of the people that
go on that trip with me and it’s one of
my favorite things to do and great guy
to do that with so right after we
finished this episode we then went on
that trip and we we had a great dive
trip the
it was a little bit rough for those of
you that have been on boats the first
day were probably two and three foot
swells and the last day was six foot and
if you know anything about beyond boat
six foot is a little rough when you’re
on smaller boats especially when you’re
with people that aren’t on boats
regularly I tell you I normally do not
get seasick from movement but diesel
fumes they just give me a headache I
cannot stand diesel fumes there was a
dive shop that I worked with they’re not
around anymore they used to be in Key
West and they wanted to keep their fuel
on the water and the only way that they
could do that was they had to use
converted french fry oil into fuel so
that’s exactly what they did they
converted their boats to run that and by
the way I think that was just a simple
hose and some rings that they had to
replace it was a very easy conversion
and folks when you were on the back of
that boat it smelled like either nachos
or french fries I loved that of course
you’re always hungry when you were scuba
diving anyway I hope you enjoyed today’s
episode and I hope that you have some
ideas for some new episodes and if you
do you can go to scaling-up h2o comm let
me know what that idea is you can do
that two ways you can go to my show
ideas button click on that and type up
exactly what your idea is who you want
me to interview or on the right side of
the screen you will see an orange pop-up
that says record voice mail and you can
send me your very own voice asking me
your question I’ll get it on the air
I’ll play it and I will get your
question answered folks thank you for
listening to scaling-up and I can’t wait
to talk with you next week on another
great episode of scaling up h2o
you