The following transcript is provided by YouTube. Mistakes are present. To hear the podcast episode, click HERE.
[Music]
nation have you heard
about the rocket book the rocket book
has completely changed
how i am able to find my notes last year
when i
cleaned my office i had accumulated 14
legal pads full of notes for the year
2020. well i cannot find
anything in those 14 legal pads the
rocket book allows you to take notes in
the same way you’re used to
hand to pen to paper and you can then
scan that using their app and you can
search your notes you can go look for
that
last time you interfaced with that
customer put a few keywords in there
and it will pop up this is a complete
game changer with
how you take notes and especially with
how you do
account surveys go to our affiliate link
scaling up h2o.com forward slash
rocketbook to get 15 off your first
order of 20
or more
welcome to scaling up the podcast where
we scale up on knowledge so we don’t
scale up our systems
i’m trace blackmore the host of the
scaling up
h2o podcast and nation always at the top
of the show i try to let you know about
all the events that are going on
so you will not miss them one thing i
want to talk about
is the water expo live in
miami that’s going to be august 24th
through 26th
if you are interested in going to that
we’ve got information
on our show notes page of course we have
the
ashy annual 2021
conference in nashville that also
includes a virtual component so if you
can’t make it to nashville
you can at least attend some of the
seminars
online and then we’ve got the
association of water technologies
convention that is coming up the
registration is open
it’s going to be september 22nd through
september 25th all these things coming
up
so if you are in the water treatment
industry
check out our show notes page so you can
keep track of
all the things that are going on in fact
one of the things that i want to remind
you of is
the hang i have met so many of you
through the hang i’ve even had some
people that i’ve met on the hang come
on this podcast so please
if you have not registered for the next
hang that’s going to be
august 12th go ahead and do that
right now by going to scalinguph2o.com
forward slash hang well nation
one of my favorite things on this
podcast besides
meeting new people is bringing people
that i know
and have not spoken with in a while
on this podcast so i can catch up with
them
and you all can be along for the listen
well that is exactly
what i have done today i’ve invited
my good friend marty stevens
on the scaling up h2o podcast and folks
i have to tell you
marty i cannot say enough good things
about him
and he has since sold his business which
you’re going to learn about
and i’ve been doing some other things
we’ve kind of drifted apart a little bit
well you’re gonna hear us come
right back together and catch up just
like
we just spoke with each other yesterday
so ladies and gentlemen
here’s marty stevens
[Music]
scout up nation one of my favorite
things to do is to meet new friends and
also
reconnect with old friends and that’s
exactly what i’m doing here today
i’m very excited to introduce my lab
partner today marty stevens
marty so pleased to have you on the
podcast how are you
i am doing well trace hey thank you so
much for the invitation
uh i’ve been looking forward to this
ever since we’ve talked about it so
i’m i’m excited well i think it’s going
to be a fun interview you and i go
way back if you look at it i tell you
what we
we do go way back i was thinking about
that leading up to today
it’s uh gosh when probably
2008 nine i was thinking six or seven
but maybe you’re right
okay well you know it’s usually longer
than you think yeah you probably are
right
uh we were able to meet uh through awt
and uh hey that was uh certainly one of
the
one of the highlights coming out of awt
was meeting you
in the relationship i would definitely
say that is
that is one of the best things about
getting involved with the association of
water technologies i mean you get
so much out of it for yourself but the
relationships that i have today
the the friendships that i have i mean
are just so well grounded within
all the work that i i did within the awt
and definitely you and i would not have
met if that wasn’t the case
hey that’s right and i’m going to tell
you that the awt is
really to me just like everything else
in that whether it’s your your church or
your scout
troop or your bowling league you’re
going to get
out of it what you put into it and
that was certainly the case as i look
back
that awt had on
we’re going to talk about all of that
and you know i’m just thinking
uh when we first met i think i was
on the marketing committee and it was
before i was on the board of directors
and i think you and i met
maybe in passing at a convention perhaps
maybe it was um
i want to say was it nashville where you
and i met that was one of the first
years
that i came to the convention so yeah
that would that would be about right and
that was my very first year as well
okay okay we were both newbies but
we really really got to know each other
uh was of course serving on the board
i tell you that was uh i i really
learned so much by
serving on the association board
and marty i you are one of those people
you were one of the directors
that you wouldn’t say a lot during the
the conversation but then when you did
say something it was always so
profound you have the ability to take
everything that we were talking about
and and wrap it up and put a southern
euphemism with it as well
and it just crystallized what we were
talking about
well i i take that as a compliment well
you should
we had a lot of fun and that was really
a great
work group gosh uh jay
jay farmery yeah martin lewis gosh
mike standish uh but just a super group
of people and and we truly enjoyed each
other’s company
we really did marty i’m thinking back on
one of my favorite
euphemisms that you gave to the board
and it’s no secret at one time
there was an issue with the security of
the cwt exam
and we were discussing that at the board
level
lots of emotions going on because we
were all cwts we really cared about it
we poured so much into it
and we were going around the table and
everybody was sharing their thoughts and
we finally got to you and you just
i think you crossed your arms and you
sat back and you said
well fellas this makes me about as
nervous as a long tail cat in a room
full of rocking chairs
and i just thought that was the most
brilliant thing i have
ever heard well hey
well let’s start there how how did you
start getting involved with the
association of water technologies did
somebody ask you
did you say i really like what they’ve
got going on there
i want to get involved what was that
story you know
trace i was about a year into being an
in the water guy and
like most people and at that point your
career you’re scared to death
because you know you’ve got enough sense
to realize you do not have all the
answers
uh you don’t know everything and you’re
starting to figure out
uh there there are really some blind
spots here
either from a technical standpoint uh
from a financial standpoint hey i was a
biology chemistry major
i knew nothing about finance insurance
i mean all of these things that you’re
having to learn on the fly
he any one of which could
sink your proverbial ship man when i
heard about awt
and and some of the resources uh that
that were available i thought hey sign
me up
uh this is this this sounds like exactly
what i need
uh and it was uh it uh
it met my expectation and and then now
most people hear of all the resources
that an association like awt will offer
and they’re thinking okay well i can
take this i can take that
i can take this but you
thought a little bit past that you said
if i can take it sure
but if i help build it i’m going to be
able to get more
how did you come to that conclusion you
know trace
i i guess that’s i would have to go back
to my mom and dad
to answer that question i guess i was
taught from an
early age we all have a responsibility
uh to give back and that’s really what i
was referencing in the statement earlier
uh
you you get out of something what you
put in it
and i felt led in the awt experience
to give back about year three or four i
suppose it was
and and that’s when i started
volunteering and raising my hand
when when people would ask for something
and and
it was a great experience well let’s
back up even further
because you’re not only a water treater
you’re a very well accomplished water
treater how did all that begin
you know i trace i wound up in this
industry
really quite by accident and i’m
watching a son
at this stage uh now you know you’re
graduating from college
and you’re you’re really starting to try
to nail down
what you’re going to be when you grow up
and
i went to college with full intention
of being a doctor you know in high
school i looked around knowing hey i
love biology
i love chemistry and math is kind of
cool
and you look around the town and you go
hey the doctors
they seem like they’ve got a pretty good
egg going so i thought that’s what i’ll
do i’ll be a physician
and it didn’t work out that way what
changed
my course was my my parents
were really and i knew that they were
having to do without
to send me to college i knew that uh
so to take a little of the pressure i
started working while i was in college
at ups and unfortunately i cut
the 11 o’clock p.m to 2 a.m
shift in their unloading truck and uh
your gpa does not hold up real well
uh when you’re working for for three
hours in the middle of the night
and i did that through college and
uh when i graduated my gpa was not
competitive
nobody wants a position with a sub 3.0
gpa
not gonna happen so i was not
competitive to get into
into medical school and and so i i
bounced and i did a few weighted tables
and
uh i answered an ad in the paper
and i’ll never forget it it said looking
for somebody for water treatment sales
with a strong science background and i
thought
i’m a man i’m all over that so
i met the guy for the interview and and
it
obviously went well and he offered me
the job before i left the interview
so that’s how i got plugged into this
crazy industry
and and he was a super guy uh he was
great too
matter of fact uh uh the guy’s name is
bruce dempsey
and a lot of your listeners probably
know groups he spent most of his career
uh the second half of his career with
garrett callahan
and bruce retired a few years ago and i
still stay in touch with him
and he’s the one that actually drugged
me into this
crazy business and it was perfect it was
the perfect fit
i felt guilty for 35 years for actually
taking a check
for doing something that i probably
would have done for free
yeah don’t tell too many people about
that yeah i know i know
keep that under your head
it is the best job in the world i say
that all the time customers give us
behind the stage tours of how products
are made
they give us free products they’re so
happy that we’re there
we get to work with some of the best
people i mean the vendors that supply
our industry are awesome i just cannot
think
of a better industry you’re right why do
they pay us for this
that’s right you know you you hit on
something that that i think is important
you know i think the trap in our
industry
and then let’s face it you you can make
a better than
average living doing what we do it’s
better than
average and a lot of people i think are
drawn to the industry for that
but i think you’re missing the joy
in it well let me let me state it
another way
i learned early and and i guess it goes
back to my mom and dad
again but our focus should be on the
customer
and and i think anytime people uh anyone
starts losing that focus all of a sudden
you’re going to make the wrong decisions
it’ll it’ll be
a chore and i think that’s when it
becomes a job
my career was served well by
allowing the customer to always be your
north star
and sometimes you have to define okay
who
is my customer and that’s a smart little
exercise to go through
but when you lose sight of who your
customer is
or if you’re you’re more interested in
what’s in it for me
versus how can i serve my customer i
think that’s a recipe for disaster
i think that’s an excellent point well
since you brought it up
there are a lot of people out there that
are either starting their careers or
starting their water treatment companies
what should they be considering when
they say this is the type of customer
that i want to serve and it’s funny that
that this comes up because my son and i
were actually having a discussion
last week it wasn’t about business
but i tied it back to business we were
actually talking about
mary and i know you’re sitting there
thinking where
in the world where’s the southern
euphemism fixing to come from here
during the course of the conversation i
made the comment
sometimes you you have marriages that
are competitive
okay one is trying to out game the other
and it’s always competition
and then you have those marriages that
are that are cooperative
okay i’m going to give up what i want to
to get something
over here and and you cooperate you’re
somewhat going in the same direction and
you’re not letting
it then you have collaborative
oh collaborative is fantastic
you’re looking out for the other guy’s
needs
no you have a common goal and you’re
both
putting all of your energies toward that
common goal
well really this and that’s a fine
marriage let me just tell you from
experience that’s a good marriage
in business i i see it being very very
similar
those are the three types of
relationships that you typically will
have with your customer
it’s either going to be hopefully
collaborative
uh to where you finally you both trust
each other to the point
that it’s not hey how’s that guy out
trying to get me is he trying to boost
his sales
at my expense it goes way past that
phrase
and then you have two people that are
working towards oh
and that takes communication in marriage
and in business
it takes communication unfortunately
it so it to answer your question i think
the type business that that i was always
drawn to
that i thoroughly enjoyed were those
that i saw that could develop into a
collaborative relationship
sometimes it was wrong uh some sometimes
i misread it
price was always always the driving
factor
but if i could give a piece of advice it
would be
to seek out those customers that could
be
your collaborators going forward i think
that’s great advice
you brought up price and a lot of
customers are
motivated by price and then a lot of
times you think you’re having that
collaboration
and things are going great and then all
of a sudden it gets reduced back down to
price
you’ve had a very successful water
treatment career i know that’s come up
multiple times in your career how do you
suggest we deal with that
how do we take price and really
emphasize
value of what’s going on and what we’re
bringing to the table
at the same time making our customer
feel
good about what they’re paying well
that’s that’s the million dollar
question isn’t it
that’s why i asked it yeah well and i i
think the first step
to answer that question trace is to help
the customers see
the difference between price and value
price is how much you pay for something
the value is how much something you get
for what you pay
it sounds like a play on words but it
really is not
i think a lot of times we as as
sales people we miss educating
our customers on the value that we are
truly bringing
and i i think that’s a mistake i’ve lost
business on price before and and usually
if you went back and did a post-mortem
i did a really poor job of of selling
the value that i was providing yeah i
would say in the post-mortem of accounts
where we’ve had
the same issue when things are going
well
we tend to gloss over what value we’re
bringing
that’s right and then when things aren’t
going well or the perception is
something’s not going right and then you
bring that up
it’s almost too late right i would agree
with you
so maybe what we all need to do is
whenever we’re in front of the customer
is what is the one thing i’m going to
show that i’m bringing the value for
during today’s meeting and we never give
up that opportunity
well i i think that is key one thing
that i used to always try to help my
guys understand trace
is the fact that that you are always
selling you’re always selling even on a
service call
you’re selling uh you’re selling your
company you’re selling yourself
you’re selling your products you’re
selling your abilities
even on the service call when you have
on the grubby clothes and you’re
sweaty and you’ve got hard hat hair
you’re selling
and i think a lot of times it’s it’s so
easy to
overlook that yeah and i think we get
locked into
how many tasks can we get done this day
instead of focusing on what’s the reason
we’re doing the tasks
you’re right and and hopefully some
people are listening out there
in the scale-up nation that uh
that that strikes a chord i certainly
hope so
well marty tell us about your first day
in the water treatment
business and then i want to involve all
the way to the point where you said
i want to do this for myself okay uh
gosh how long does the podcast run chris
oh we can we can break it up into 23
segments
i know i was i was teasing that that
could be a very long story
one thing that i remember about my first
day on the job
with bruce the guy that i was telling
you about earlier was bruce
uh we we went to an industrial laundry
and he was talking to me about grabbing
samples and
how you grab a representative sample and
and i was so focused on listening to him
and doing what he said
and i noticed that he had a pair of fuse
pullers
and he would hold he used erlenmeyer
flask
to grab his samples and uh he grabbed it
grab it with a fuse puller and he would
go over there that hot sample you know
and he would
he would flush it and clean the
connection
and he gave me the erlenmeyer to grab my
first sample
it’s a big moment trace and it was a
boiler sample it was an
uncooled boiler sample i didn’t even
think about
the fuse puller okay i mean i was a
pretty mechanical kid i had good sense
but for some reason i was so focused on
my technique that i didn’t think about
burning the poo out of my fingers so
that that glass erlenmeyer man i held it
up there
and the erlenmeyer fort’s wound up in a
thousand pizzas
i was so embarrassed i was thinking oh
they’re fixing to fire me just right out
of the box here you know
and and bruce said he said i saw you
going i saw what you were doing
and i let it happen he said because i
knew that you would never
make that mistake again so that’s the
one thing
that i remember uh learning on my first
day
that’s the one thing that i do remember
about my first day
that uh that has stuck with me all these
years marty i have to tell you
i think there’s so much from that story
because
when people are trained today i think
the trainers are focused
on making sure that they don’t make any
mistakes and the story you just
shared was i got to make the mistake
he saw the mistake was going to happen
he knew exactly what was going to happen
he let me make it
and now i learned why never to do that
again
i really think on us trying to protect
people
whether we’re trying to protect them or
get them to save time so they don’t
repeat the mistakes that we do
i think that’s one of the key things
that that we leave out
on on how we train today is we don’t
allow people to make mistakes
and would you agree trace that that you
have
probably learned more in your
well i started to say career but i’ll
say in your life
by the mistakes that you have made
absolutely i think that’s the best
teacher
absolutely i mean marty you could tell
me exactly
what that was going to feel like it was
going to get hot it was going to shatter
into a million pieces
but i didn’t experience it and until you
experience it you really don’t have the
gravity
of the why behind it and the second part
of your question was
how did i wind up starting a business i
think that was the gist of
your of your question i actually spent
two years
with guardian industrial products in
birmingham that’s
uh where i got my support i ended up
going to work
after a couple years with the intec
division of bets
and uh hey i spent 10 years with uh
with bets a good experience great
training and made some good friends i
mean it was
it was really good but but you mentioned
earlier about
a culture change in a company uh that
that that you were aware of well
the same thing happened and i in my
opinion
in my opinion the customer service kind
of
fell to the side and profitability
became uh more important than customer
service
unfortunately you see that in a lot of
businesses and a lot
and a lot of businesses you see where
profitability becomes more important my
opinion that is
that is a fatal mistake in business
do i understand that your business has
to be profitable
wait do i yes but it can
never be at the expense of customer
service
customer satisfaction and and that was
the box that i found
myself in no real offense to bets
but at the time internally they were
really trying to figure out
what market segment are we going to
commit to
what is going to be our market well that
that middle market was
which is where i cut my teeth was was
really
being left behind and i felt like i was
betraying customers by leaving them
behind
so one thing led to another i wound up
signing i quit my job
and uh i wasn’t sure what i was going to
do trace
and uh my wife carolyn
we were were talking one night and she
said you know why don’t you
start your own business your own water
treatment business
and i said sweetheart that that’s the
stupidest idea
that i’ve ever heard in my life there’s
there’s no way that
i could do that and uh
you know she persisted and uh
actually it was carolyn that that pushed
me
uh in that direction uh i had some
friends
that that i’d made over the years the
years that that were quite helpful in
helping me
get started and you know hey that’s how
i wound up
in the water treatment business and
grace it’s funny i remember that first
year thinking
if there’s any way i could sell a
hundred thousand dollars worth of
business
i think i can feed my family and keep
them from starving to death
and you know hey we beat that goal
though i
beat that goal the first year and it’s
just been a great ride ever since
and then there came to a point where you
hired your first employee
yes i’d you know i i did and that
that was exciting but at the same time
you realize at that point that you’re at
least partially responsible
for somebody else’s well-being in life
and then you ignite you you think and
they’ve got children
oh my goodness so instead of really one
person
whether i do wrong or right that that
now i’ve got four people
depending on including mine and now
now the numbers start to grow and and
you know and for me
that was the big pressure we looked up
in
in 2012 we’ve had
24 five or six uh employees
and and of course you know me i’ve done
the math on the families and
it was about 75 people and and the
pressure that i felt
was boy i can’t screw up you know uh
i’ve got they have kids in college
therefore i have kids in college
they have house notes that are coming
due and ultimately i’m responsible for
that
so yeah that’s that’s the pressure that
comes
but i think the the plus is far outweigh
the negative
at least for me they did but that was
the big concern
was looking at the people that you’ve
got depending on
when you look back owning your company
your
biggest success your biggest triumph was
i guess i guess one of the highlights
that i remember
and this was vivid it was the first year
that
we were going to break 2 million dollars
in sales
okay that was actually that was higher
than the gold that year
and everybody from from our office
manager
up or down depending on how you want to
look at that
everybody was focused on oh we can do
this we can do this
and right at the end of the year i mean
that week between christmas and new
year’s
okay when everybody nobody really wants
to see you and they
certainly don’t want to buy anything
we’re like 1.993
on on our annual sales and i remember
the day
that that we got the order that pushed
us over
and the people went nut who i remember
most is our office manager at the time a
sweet sweet lady named angie
uh angie threw a party for everybody and
it was uh
uh not the party like you would picture
we were out in the parking lot freezing
to death
throwing bottle rockets you know that
was
that was the celebration but it was so
cool
because everybody uh felt as though they
were a part and they had contributed
and we had and reached our goal
and there were several times in the in
in my career
where you had things like that that
would happen and
and everybody was engaged and everybody
was involved
and those times are special they’re
special
so tell us about a time if you could
take a mulligan in your career what
would
that be oh wow
you know let me answer it like this
phrase
i i’m if i had it all to do over again
okay and i’m i’m looking back 35 years
back
if if i had to do it all over again
honestly i can’t think of one thing
that i would do differently
now there are probably some little
tweaks that i would make here and there
but but as far as the main pivot points
the main events i i can’t think of a
biggie that i would change
the one thing that i regret i i guess
there are a few regrets
and everybody has everybody has
something as they look back
relationships along the way uh
that that were lost
uh due to business and
you know is there an excuse for that no
there really isn’t
because business should never trump a
friendship
but we we have those things in our
society and in our lives like
greed like jealousy you know
and and unfortunately people
people have those flaws and sometimes
they play themselves out
in in relationships you you regret it
you try to minimize it
uh and i’ve even gone back and tried to
fix them
and and sometimes you just have to
accept the fact that you
you can’t that’s unfortunate but if i
have
any regrets i can think of
just a just a smattering of
relationships
over the years that aren’t there today
directly or indirectly because of
business yeah i think there’s a lot of
insight that can be drawn from that
and when you get right down to it life’s
about relationships i know
we try to make it about other things but
it truly is
about how you build each other up in our
lives
that’s right marty after a successful
career
there came a point where you decided to
move
over to the next version of your life
and you were going to
sell your company can you tell the
nation a little bit about that
yeah i think i should say first though
trace that really wasn’t something that
i was seeking
you know it found me i didn’t find it
you you see a lot of people in our
industry
it’s like they’re always trying to sell
their business they’re honing it to sell
i was not now i i’ll turn around and say
this if i could give a piece of advice
there
i think everybody should be operating
their business
as if they were going to put it on the
mark
that’s what we do with our vehicles uh
you know
and and sometimes well if i decide if i
decided this afternoon
that i was going to sell my truck
tomorrow what’s the first thing that i’m
gonna go out there and do
this afternoon before it gets dark i’m
gonna wash it
i’m gonna clean it up i’m gonna take
care of all the little details the stuff
that that i know
uh looks bad with that truck and and i’m
gonna try to
buff it up and get it ready to sell we
should be
maintaining our businesses in the same
way fortunately
i was not so i could sell it but so that
i could
operate that business efficiently it
runs better
when it’s in tiptop out of the blue i i
got a call one day
from from uh al bligh and al as you know
owned us water for a number of years
pounded u.s water
and i knew of al but i really didn’t
know how that
that will and he he asked about
my business and my first response trace
was
hey mr bly i am flattered
i really am a phone call like this man
thank you but i’m i’m sorry to tell you
that
the business really isn’t for sale so
we uh we we talked on a little longer
and and
uh we agreed to at least get together
for
for a cup of coffee or dinner or have a
beer and so we did and once we started
talking
it looked like a true example of being
synergy
of adding two and two and coming up with
five and so
you know we agreed that it would be in
us water’s best interest and in
kim technologies slash seoul and it
would be in our best entrance so that’s
what
we agreed and man it was good
just before we closed the deal carolyn
asked me
again my wife came to me and said well
are you going to go with the business
are you going to work
for for al and i thought i said you know
what
i never asked him i’m not sure
so i called i called
you know i just realized what a really
crummy negotiator i am
do i still have a job
and uh you know al chuckled and said
absolutely as a matter of fact i won’t
do the deal without you of course you
still got a job as long as you want a
job you’ve got a job
and so the decision was made at that
point i felt like it put
our customers in a better position i
felt like it put our employees
in a better position for growth and
stability
and i felt like it bird and in that
order
it was good for my family so that led to
our joining the u.s water family and it
was a good experience
marty let me ask you about people
because that’s what a company is
it’s about people and whenever a
transition goes on
it’s just human nature you think the
worst is going to happen
how do you make sure that the right
information gets out
that people feel good about the
decisions that they’re even part of
those decisions what did you do in that
instance
you know looking back i i probably
could have done some things differently
hey here’s my regret
we were talking about earlier okay i
guess
i expected people to see
for themselves the the advantages the
the pluses
and if something came up that was was
different people hate change people
absolutely hate change change freaks
people out and i should have accepted
that as fact earlier instead of
assuming that everybody’s big boys and
they you know put on you your big boy
pants and let’s get this done now
that’s not important you’re worried
about
whether they’re going to provide a ford
or a chevrolet
who cares who cares the fact of the
matter is
you you’re getting a vehicle to go do
your job
and and people sometimes get hung up in
the details
uh and and and certainly when when two
companies
come together there’s a lot of change
and you have to be a good broker of
for that to be a smooth transition and
in our case it was not always a smooth
transition
people would get to looking over here at
this as a
as a problem with that’s not the problem
this
our problems are the same that’s taking
care of our customers
regardless of what label is on the drum
you know guys your job hadn’t changed
but i should have i should have been a a
little more
sensitive to that i could have been
instead of just comb guys get real
that’s not important
i should have been more sensitive so now
looking back
best decision ever if i had it to do
over again
i would do the exact same thing now are
there some things
that could have streamlined it and made
it go better
sure absolutely but was it a move
that i would repeat i would do the exact
same thing
as far as the us water family yeah i’m
sure there are people out there listing
and they’re
probably going through something like
this right now or maybe
thinking about going through it and i
love your car analogy
you know make sure your business is in
order even if you’re not planning
on selling it you can run it better what
were
some of the top things you looked at in
your company what was one of the top
kpis that you knew
your company was running the way it
should when you walked in the door
and you saw that number there were
probably
10 or 12 factors that i would
evaluate or that i would ask our
customers to evaluate
one of the biggies for me was on time
delivery
how good a job are we doing on on
getting our
product to the right place within the
promised
time frame and on a customer survey and
i was big on customer surveys
i don’t know if you remember that about
me but i would go to our customers at
least
annually and ask for feedback you know
how do we do it in this area
and and one of the areas that i would
probe into was just that on delivery
how good a job we do it on getting the
product to the right place
and the feedback that i got was was
actually
good but in my opinion it wasn’t good
enough
another set of metrics that we use we
were an uh iso 9002
certified production facility and
that was the one that i weighed on was
delivery
and and i remember the last year i
remember the number
we were like 92.8
and and you we where our goal was to be
above 90 on everything so the guys were
like
yes we hit it and uh i said guys i’m not
satisfied
what are you talking about i said how
can we get that
number even higher is there any way that
we could
ship every order that we received by say
three or four o’clock in the afternoon
and we
commit to ship the product that day and
the looks that i
got were like you are an idiot
but i think you’ve always got to
approach your business like that
one there are metrics that you’ve got to
follow
number two i think you’ve always got to
be pushing yourself
what the guys wanted me to do was back
off
of the push and hey we could
drop that back down to about 90
compliance
no what can we do to get to 95.
you know sometimes you you need to be
realistic in your goals
i think you always need to be realistic
in your in your
but at the same time i think you’ve
always got to push yourself and
ask yourself what can we do to get a
little bit
better marty let’s put your 35 years of
water treatment experience to good use
we’ve got a lot of people that listen to
this show that have just
started in the industry what advice
would you give them
what advice well we’ve we’ve kind of hit
added a little bit trace
with a mantra that will always serve you
well
always let your customer demand that
your customer be your north shore
and when you make a program
change when you when you’re servicing
the account
anything to do with that uh piece of
business
every decision you make should be made
in light of how is it going to impact
that customer how is it going to benefit
that customer
and then to bring a conversation back in
that you and i had a little bit
earlier be sure you tell the customer
what you were doing and how that
benefits them
because i think that’s a big mistake
that we all make sometimes
we assume that the customer understands
when we increase their cycles of
concentration that that’s a good thing
help them translate that to u.s dollars
on the water bill
don’t assume that they know and don’t
just say hey this is going to save you
some water
tell them it’s going to save you about 2
500 a year in water costs
they understand that they get that the
other thing
trace that i would say don’t take
yourself
too seriously loosen up and have a
little bit of fun
these are people that we’re dealing with
day in and day out
and if you can’t put a smile on your
face
while you’re putting a smile on your
face that’s okay it can be a mutual
smiley thing
but have fun and and don’t be quite so
uptight man life is so much better and
easier
when we have fun that’s great advice no
matter where you are in your career
water treatment business or not right
absolutely
marty this has been great i know you
listened to the show
so you’ve heard me ask the lightning
round questions before
so that’s where we’re going next hit me
okay if you’re ready for it marty you
now have the ability to go back
in time talk to yourself on your
very first day as a water treater where
you drop the erlenmeyer flask
what advice would you give yourself
never
sacrifice character i and and that has
served me well
but but i would remind myself
35 years ago never to sacrifice
who you are to fit some sort of business
mold
be true to yourself it would be an
injustice
to not be who you are you know just
thinking it back
about you and i being on the board you
and i didn’t always agree
but we always disagreed agreeably and
we would always hear the other party out
and we would normally
come up with something better than what
we originally thought we could do
on our own and i don’t think that could
happen
if we weren’t secure in who we were
and and we were worried about what
somebody else thought so we were going
to change based on that
i love that advice i think that’s
apparent in everything i’ve seen you do
well thank you for saying that can you
imagine trace
how much better our our world would be
our our communities our country if
everybody would would follow that
advice we’re so busy hollering at each
other
trying to get the other guy to see
my point of view and vice versa that
we don’t really hear each other and i
think that’s
one of the biggest social problems that
we have out there right
truer words have never been spoken marty
what are some of the books that you’re
reading right now
i’m actually doing a read right now one
of the first
christian books that i ever read was a
time to kill
and and i read that book initially back
in the late 80s i mean right about the
time that it came out
it was fantastic and i read christian
for years
i’m actually rereading a time to kill
i know what’s going to happen but in in
the 30 years
uh i’ve i’ve forgotten a lot so
uh it’s i’m actually enjoying that a
great deal
i read a lot of uh there’s an author
named greg
isles he’s from mississippi fine
uh southern gentleman i’ve i’ve read
everything greg out i really got
hooked on on aisles uh for
for a while i tell you a reread that i
did recently
uh it is it’s one of those good ones uh
jim collins good
great that’s a good one to pick up and
re-read ever so often that detracts
there’s so many great quotes in that
book there’s so many tools that
he refers to the imagery is great i i
can’t think of a business meeting that
i’ve been to that
somebody does not bring up something
from that book
that’s right when hollywood makes a
movie about marty who plays marty
stevens
you know i would like to say somebody
really cool
but you know as i think about it what i
would love
tom hanks is one of my favorite actors
in the whole world
and selfishly i would hope that it would
be somebody like tom hanks
but you know what i would like even
better if it were
the next tom hanks the guy that we don’t
even know yet
that that is going to get a shot and
and he does such a good job that and
that he
he becomes a success i want it to be
the next tom hanks that plays
me in the movie well you get extra
points i don’t think anybody’s ever
made up an actor or a future actor so
you get extra points for that
marty my final question you can now talk
with anybody
throughout history who to be with and
why
who would i want to talk to throughout
history
no limit on how far back i can go it
could be present day
as far back as you want to go all right
as a christian i would love
to go back and have a conversation
with jesus christ when he was on earth
wearing sandals with nasty feet that’s
who i would love
to spend an afternoon with to get
a lot of the theories and the thoughts
and the
the depth of the love and the compassion
i would love
to spend an afternoon in that that would
be my historical person
there you go see i’m thinking he’ll give
you a bunch of parables that would take
multiple lifetimes to figure out exactly
what he’s saying
that’s right it’s taking 58 to figure
out
the the few that are there you know and
i’m still working on those
well marty thank you so much for coming
on scaling up h2o this has been a fun
interview
so good catching up with you and i i
just love that we’re now introducing you
to
this scaling up nation so thank you for
everything that you’ve shared with them
and trace again i thank you for the
opportunity and hey
hopefully i can see you in person in the
near future
nation when i think back of my time on
the association of water technologies
board
i have to tell you marty just taught me
so much so many people that were
on the board during the time where i was
on for the first three years as a
director
and then my next term of three years
where i was elected to president-elect
and then served as president and then
the immediate past president
serving that organization allowed me to
do something that i really enjoyed
but how it paid me back was i got to
meet these incredible people that
shaped me when i was very young i was
just starting out my company and as you
hear me say all the time i
didn’t know what i didn’t know and
through strengthening those friendships
and pouring into the awt as much as i
could
people wanted to help me because i was
helping other people
and people like marty just shared
information with me if i had a question
marty was right there to give me the
answer
and i can say that about every single
person that i
served on the board with now awt was the
right match for me
but maybe it’s one of these other
organizations that we talked about
at the very top of the episode my point
is
if you don’t put yourself out there
so you are doing good for the industry
that we are
in it’s going to be a lot harder for
people to pour
into you so find something that you can
pour into
let that be the goal that you’re giving
but i promise if you do that well
you will be on the receiving end of
so many riches speaking of riches
one of ours that we get every single
week is a new
james’s challenge here’s the next
installment
[Music]
hello scaling up nation the next james’s
challenge as we grow as an industrial
water treatment professional
drop by drop is
when using the edta titration method for
total hardness testing
add a couple of drops of titrant in
prior to the indicator to eliminate
other metal interference
but don’t forget to take into account
those drops in the total drop count or
usage
when a friend and colleague of mine
shared this little tip years ago
it helped make my total hardness
endpoints sharper and easier to read
assuming i wasn’t trying to test
low hardness waters that only would have
taken a couple of drops of titrant to
begin with
give it a try and see how it compares to
your current practice
be sure to share your experience on
linkedin by tagging it with hashtag jc21
and hashtag scalinguph2o this is james
mcdonald and i look forward to seeing
what you share
nation i remember when i learned this
from my father i could not
get a hardness test to work and
when he showed me that i could put edta
in before i started doing my testing
to chelate up those metals that were
causing the interference
i instantly was able to get a result now
i had to add those drops
back in which i kind of forgot to do in
the beginning and my numbers were off a
little bit
but here’s the cool thing so many people
run their tests and that’s how they run
them they really don’t understand how
they work they really don’t understand
what they are doing and nation if i have
not
taught you anything else from this
podcast i hope it
is the more you know about the things
you do in the day-to-day
the better you can do them because you
understand
how they are getting done when you
understand how your tests work
you understand the real data that your
tests are telling you
and if you’re not getting the right data
from your test
but you understand how the tests work
you are able to manipulate the
procedures to make your tests
work for that situation understand
what you are using and you will be
a fantastic industrial water trader
nation i want to thank you for listening
to this episode of scaling up h2o
i also want you to help me help you
bring you more episodes of scaling up
h2o
in order to do that you’ve got to go to
scalinguph2o.com
and let me know what your show ideas are
let me know what you want to hear on the
scaling up h2o podcast
i will get your voice on the air if you
leave a recording for me
if you just leave me a show idea i will
get that idea
answered for you you might have heard on
other episodes i said one of my favorite
shows of all time
was dirty jobs hosted by mike rowe i am
a huge micro fan
if you are not listening to his podcast
the way i heard it
please don’t take time away from the
scaling up
h2o podcasts to listen to the way i
heard it
but once you’re all caught up with the
scaling up h2o podcast
go listen to mike rowe’s podcast the way
i heard it
and you will hear so many stories
about him doing dirty jobs and one of
the things he talks about
was after the first three or four
episodes
his whole staff was out of ideas and
that whole show
was dependent on their viewers calling
in
and saying come work with me i have a
dirty job
and i believe that took them through
seven
seasons so learning from mike rowe
help me bring the scaling up h2o podcast
to you by going to scaling up h2o.com
and if you do that i’ll have plenty of
episodes to keep bringing you a new one
each and every week like next week and
until next week gets here i hope you
have a fantastic week
take care of yourself take care of each
other and i’ll see you next week folks
[Music]
scouting up nation if you keep doing the
same things you’re going to get
the same results and that’s why
joining a mastermind like the rising
tide mastermind
is a game changer in allowing
you to achieve different and better
results
you have an entire team that combines to
help you get to where you
want to go the rising tide mastermind
is the catalyst to your next
level of success to find out more about
the rising tide mastermind go to scaling
up h2o.com forward slash
mastermind