The following transcript is provided by YouTube. Mistakes are present. To hear the podcast episode, click HERE.
[Music]
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[Music]
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 scaling up h2o and nation
you are the members of the scaling up
nation a couple weeks ago i was at the
awt the association water technologies
convention
and so many people came up to me
telling me that they enjoy this podcast
giving me ideas and they all had ribbon
saying that they
were scaling up nation that was so
incredible thank you for everybody out
there that listens to this podcast and i
was thinking today what did i want to
talk about on the show what were we
going to talk about before i introduce
our guest and i started thinking about
all the things that went into the
podcast when i first started and how the
podcast has grown today what it’s meant
to so many people and it all started
with an idea it started with a whole
list of things that had to be learned
that had to be executed and had to be
consistently done
in order for that content to be
consistent enough for people to actually
want to listen to it and then when they
wanted to listen to it to be often
enough that they wanted to get into the
habit of listening to the podcast and
that of course was an investment it was
an investment in time
it was an investment in technology it
was an investment and learning all these
new things and that got me thinking
about investing and when we think about
investing our mind automatically goes
into
money what are we going to invest our
money in
so that money will grow
and it will be able to sustain us
at a later point at a point that maybe
we don’t have money coming in
so we can now live off of that money
that we’ve grown i think everybody
understands that now i don’t think
anybody agrees on the best way to invest
money but there’s so
much out there
that if you did want to learn that
there’s plenty ways that you can do that
for those starting out dave ramsey’s
financial academy that’s a great way to
start learning about money to start
learning how to respect money how to
look at money as a tool and i want to
underscore that for a second because
there’s so many people out there that a
goal they have in life is to acquire
wealth and i’ve been taught and i’ve
seen it throughout my life and people
that i admire how they
handle themselves throughout their life
they’ve never looked at money as a
destination they’ve always looked at
money
as a tool it’s a tool that allows you to
do something in the example that i just
gave you it’s a tool that allows us to
do something different than work we can
retire and now we can live off that
growth of our investment so when you
look at money as a tool not a
destination
your complete
mind changes over that and you’re able
to look at it more objectively
if you treat money as that is where you
are heading that is my motivation
i’ve seen this time and time again
they write movies about it there’s never
enough so you never reach that
destination and if you don’t know where
to steer how are you ever going to know
when you’ve arrived and how are you
going to know when you’re off course
so in myself thinking about that i
started thinking about all the different
ways that you invest so we’ve checked
the box on money and by the way if you
are not saving for a future i urge you
to learn more about that because your
money should be working as hard as you
do enough about that another way that
you should be investing is in yourself
how are you
making sure that you are getting better
each and every day the seven habits of
highly effective people teaches us in
habit seven
that there’s four dimensions to
investing in ourself and the seventh
habit is called sharpen the saw the
story goes two guys one is sawing a tree
the other one is out on a walk and comes
up to the guy that’s sawing the tree
that guy asked the guy sawing the tree
what he’s doing the guy says well look
i’m sawing this tree he goes well how
long have you been doing that the guy
said oh i’m so tired i’ve been doing
this for hours
the other guy says
well have you thought about sharpening
the saw
and the guy sawing the tree down says
you idiot i’m too busy sawing this tree
so of course you can see
in that story if he would have taken the
time to sharpen his tool it would not
have taken all that time that he was
spending on chopping that tree down so i
don’t know if that story is helpful but
i think it puts into perspective that we
have to sharpen our bodies we have to
sharpen all the things that make us us
or we’re not able to do the things that
we need to do and we’re not able to do
them for the people that we care about
so here are the four dimensions that the
seventh habit tells us that we need to
work on the first one is spiritual so
however you define that
how are you spending time to make sure
your spiritual saw stays sharp the next
one is social and emotional
this is your relationships
how are you making sure that you are
being the best that you can be within
your relationships and life’s not meant
to do it alone so how are you making
sure that you are with other people
other people
that can help you sharpen your saw
physical obviously if our body runs out
there is nothing we can do the mind can
be as sharp as it can be
but if the body can’t do the things that
we need to do
that’s not good so how are we taking
care of our bodies are we exercising are
we eating right are we staying hydrated
all the things we know
that we’re supposed to do
are we doing that and then finally
intellectual are we
staying on top of the current
information this craft that we have
today maybe it’s water treatment maybe
you’re in another field and you listen
to this podcast whatever that is is the
information that you are running on
today
based on information you learned 5 10 20
years ago as i promise you it has
changed and if you’re not keeping up
with that
you are not sharpening that saw
so with all of those things i want you
to think about how you are investing not
only your money
but what you are doing
in your day-to-day and if you’re not
keeping that saw sharp eventually it’s
going to catch up with you at the very
least it’s going to take you longer to
do the things that you need to do
well nation i am super excited to
introduce my guest to you we’re going to
be talking to a water treater that found
water treatment
and didn’t have the opportunity like i
did where a family member worked in the
industry and then introduced it to me
this person found water treatment and is
now
becoming just a fantastic water treater
and i can’t wait for this interview
my lab partner today is jed kosh jed you
and i have become social media friends
we’ve talked on the phone a couple of
times and i’m excited to get to know you
a little bit better and also to
introduce you to the scaling up nation
so welcome to the podcast hey trace
thank you oh you know life’s a gift and
i’m absolutely honored to be here at the
lab table how are you sir
i am doing great so i
love your story i’d love to share some
of that with the scaling up nation so
let’s just start off with that how did
you get involved in water treatment yeah
well that’s a great question um i’d push
it back you know starting out in high
school i guess i’d like to think i was
always a person that would chase that
next ridgeline per se um or just be an
outlier so i actually ended up
graduating early from high school i just
you know had all my credits i had all
the
colleges college crediting classes um
under my belt and i realized you know
it’s
time to take that next step so
very interesting going into college
knowing all my buddies were still in um
high school but uh i think it shaped me
to be the person i wanted to be and um
looking back as one of the best
decisions i made originally i wanted to
be a pharmacist of all things my stepmom
is a pharmacist as well
and i’d like to think her and i share
similar analytical mindsets and i
thought you know this might be a good
career path for myself
after about a year in college i realized
you know
this really isn’t for me i didn’t not
only did i not want to be in uh school
for another five years but you know
after doing some job shadows it’s just
not to be mean but it was sort of um
boring for myself and you know i like to
think of myself as a squirrel in life so
you can’t really contain a squirrel in
one room for too long so change past no
originally i was biochemistry undergrad
and then you know i would go to a
different school for graduates but
anyways i found a program in at the
school i was attending uh they had a
degree in hydrology which was very
fascinating i’ve always loved water and
you know with that analytical mindset
chemistry and math came very easy to me
i thought that was the path and um i
absolutely loved fishing so you know
working with hydrology and streams and
lakes and rivers was is really
fascinating to me i got put together
with their place into the wheel lab at
college which was water environmental
analysis lab which they had an inorganic
and organic lab which was was awesome
just to experience from there i realized
i didn’t want to be in a lab just going
back to that scroll reference i enjoyed
the experience it just wasn’t for me so
going along with the fact with chasing
that next
ridge line i got a job as a
environmental scientist for an
engineering firm close to colleges is
one of those things where for the last
semester i skipped all my friday classes
just to pursue that you know i was just
so motivated motivated to pursue this
career and i realized at that point you
know gpa doesn’t matter that much i’m so
focused on the next next task so as an
environmental scientist i absolutely
love the job it was more so
a hybrid between construction and
engineering working outside working on
groundwater remediation projects phase
one phase two site investigations
of course every story changes when you
meet someone in your life i met my
future wife which is my wife now and it
was one of those things where it’s
either i moved back to the greater green
bay area where my home and hers was or
she moved closer to me and it was almost
a no-brainer that
you know i had to take take everything
and move back home so
at that time i was pretty desperate for
a job i found one working for a landfill
of all places doing more so auditing
waste streams doing regulatory
work and
to be honest it just wasn’t my thing uh
more so working behind a computer and
did that for about eight to ten months
now that the landfill was going under an
acquisition phase and it was kind of my
way out um without saying you know i’m
just i’m just picking up and leaving so
did find a job in my area working for
garrett calan
and the rest is history of course
so i’m curious how did you go from the
landfill to garrett callahan yeah you
know i just started searching for jobs
um i obviously working as an
environmental scientist with the
hydrology background and all my lab
experience i did not know that it would
be a good fit because i did not know
what i was getting myself into to be
honest with you but i was very very
intrigued with water treatment um you
know first thing comes to mind is
obviously wastewater because i had some
some classes in that in college but just
incredibly interested in the sales
aspect of it and of course water
treatment and it just drew me in
immediately so
was it an ad that you saw that intrigued
you
it was definitely i think it was on
indeed just searching from there just
you know just doing a search of the area
you know
jobs within the 50 mile radius and um
that one definitely caught my eye for
sure
so you now accept the job it’s your
first day as a water treater what’s
going through your mind
oh i going back i have i don’t think
anything was i think i was just so in
shock i do remember walking through a
boiler room and you know the district
manager was walking me through say you
know that’s a d a tank and i’m like d a
duh um
the dot tank i love that oh yeah oh okay
that’s the tank yeah sure
so um
you know just all the term terminology
and um
every aspect of the job it was just a
flood of information and um
i was actually really excited for the
opportunity i i do like throwing myself
into those uncomfortable positions and
so
for the first day i don’t even think i
was thinking anything it was more so
just trying to be a little sponge
at what point did you realize i found
where i want to be
that’s a great question um you know one
of my life wins
for a career that i want to positively
influence or impact as many people as i
can so that they look at life in a
better perspective that’s my goal not a
certain amount of money you know how
many you know if i can get a lake house
it’s just i want to impact as many
people as i can in a positive sense and
i realized that when
you know i’ve never been you know
introduced to so many people in the
maintenance community you know for all
the customers all the people that i meet
and work with and then prospecting too
being able to
share a different perspective on life
even if someone’s down or a prospect
doesn’t want to talk to me i’m still
grateful to do that so i couldn’t focus
it in on one thing uh more so chasing
what my life win is and that definitely
fits
i love that that’s very similar to to my
mission statement how did you come up
with that when did you decide okay this
is this is what gets me up in the
morning yeah that’s a that’s a really
good question so i know a lot of people
are set on goals and chasing goals i
would say i’m i’m not very
enthused about making goals it goes back
to the apostle paul he had a great story
in first corinthians but he he said you
know do you not know that the race in a
race all runners run but only one gets a
prize you know and i’m thinking what’s
even worse is those runners they spend
years months training for this race now
in this race they know exactly where
they are where the competitors are where
the finish line is and they know that
they’re done well in life it’s it’s not
even close to that scenario you know and
in life we can all win um on top of that
we’re all chasing different things and i
think i i fear that most goals
don’t necessarily push us towards our
life win so i i more so
put more weight on wins than goals i
think in the long term i don’t want to
be bouncing around as is too much so
more so more moral integrity for myself
to keep in a straight path so for me
just focusing more on life wins and i
understand you know as far as financial
goals i have them but so many things
change you know market fluctuates and i
don’t want to be
worried about that i want to be focused
on my ultimate win and so you know for
my race my life i want to be able to
retire one day and look back and say you
know what i influenced so many people
it’s not about the money that i made
it’s you know obviously it’ll come with
with my with my win but um i think
that’s how i kind of just settle down on
that i love it it’s awesome so what’s
your day-to-day like
yeah so my day-to-day is most similar to
other technical sales roles or you know
sales engineers where i would say
two-thirds of my time is spent
servicing my customers of course they
come first so i spent a lot of time with
them now that one-third of my time is
spent in so many different directions i
can be pulled putting together a bid
i can be doing training on sites you
know i can be at a seminar so you know
all the hats that we wear um but i would
say it falls pretty much in line with
everybody else in the treatment industry
it’s hard for me to think back to my
very first day but i i do remember it
was a fire hose and although my dad kind
of trickled it to me through my
childhood when you’re actually doing it
and that’s what you’re supposed to be
doing
totally different
so you’re taking in all this information
and then eventually you’re doing the job
by yourself
how do you
utilize the the team that you have other
water treaters because i know you do a
very good job of making sure you’re not
an island and one of the issues that
most water treaters have is there an
island what do you do to help with that
of course you know scaling up podcasts
is just fantastic on fridays i mean
can i go without it i do have a very
solid list of podcasts that i like to
cycle through because you know
like the rest of us we all have a lot of
windshield time and i like to feel that
as many podcasts as i can as far as
island goals you know i’ve been so
fortunate to
fill the peep the spaces around me with
great people in my life so if there’s
ever a need for me to reach out um i
know people reach out just to see how
i’m doing so
and sometimes i do like feeling like an
island you know i do like being alone on
that next ridgeline per se and chasing
my own dreams and ambitions so there’s a
fine balance um i i don’t feel like i’m
absolutely my own person on the island
though
well and great answer that the first
choice was the scaling up hbo podcast i
appreciate that how did you find the
podcast just curious
i don’t know how you could miss it to be
honest with you especially being an
industry um you know i think it was a
recommendation of
another tech in my area in my
district i think he recommended it
because you know i’m always searching
for new and better ways to learn about
our crafts um sometimes with that island
you just you’re not sure if there’s any
good books to read articles that came
out and so i’m always just looking for
more information but i think it’s more
of a collaborative thing with the people
around us who recommended me scaling up
so when you have a problem and you’re
like i’ve never seen this before what’s
going on what’s your process
one thing i’ve learned is to ask as many
questions
and you know write down as many as much
detail as you can about the concern or
problem you know i have a great amount
of resources around me and i found too
often that
i drop everything call them and say hey
you know i have this issue and they
asked a lot of great questions and i
realized i didn’t do any due diligence
to even solve the issue myself first and
so
you know being more personable
in that regards is something i’ve been
trying to work on but you know
understanding that the resources are
endless around me what’s been one of the
more challenging things you’ve had to
deal with
i will say to be honest anything with
wastewater um is something that i do not
i’m not efficient in
very thankful that i do have people
around me that are efficient in
wastewater but i’ll say one thing that i
haven’t had as much ambition to learn is
wastewater i understand the processes
for the most part but just you know
sharing that information and teaching
wastewater is something that’s very
scary to me at the time so i would say
wastewater for sure
i mentioned this on the friday episode
of industrial water week just a few
weeks ago that one of my first
experiences with wastewater was with my
father and we were at a plant and my dad
did all this work and of course i was
helping him and then i remember telling
him you know they’re taking all this
work and ultimately they’re just
flushing it down the drain or they’re
throwing it away and and he said you’re
looking at it all wrong
these people wouldn’t have been able to
stay open had we not solved this problem
we actually saved everybody’s job and
ever since then i’ve just looked at
wastewater so different
that’s a great perspective
one of the hazards that somebody that
does industrial water treatment can get
into
is repetition doing the same thing over
and over and over again
that creates burnout
that creates mistakes that creates not
really showing the customer appreciation
for all the things they allow us to do
what’s something you do to make sure
that doesn’t happen
uh i’m very fortunate in the fact that i
do not have that issue you know um again
going back to my life when just meeting
people and and being able to influence
them you know every day is different and
even you know i’m typically on a monthly
cycle to see customers
but every month there is different you
know for instance if they got a new
maintenance tech you know being able to
teach them influence them work with them
um i would say no two days are the same
so i really do struggle with repetition
because i don’t think it
it affects me at all and then and then
sales there’s always
opportunities to prospect and there’s so
many different avenues to prospect
in so
being sort of self-motivated i do do not
find those issues thankfully
do you transition from service days to
sales days or do you just do it all at
once
a little both it depends where i am you
know with driving two or three hours a
day sometimes you have to group things
together however i do like to wear my
quote-unquote sales face sometimes being
able to have all my resources ready go
through hypothetical questions or
scenarios or questions they might have
so for the most part i do like to have
those days just for sales
sales is one of those things that you
never truly master you’re always
learning how can you do it better how
can you make sure you can solve the
needs of the client better and explore
that make them feel as comfortable as
possible what are some of the tools that
you’ve used to help yourself
sure well i am sort of a book nut in
that i love reading and i’m i like
reading things that merciful self-help
books as much fiction so i it’s one of
my favorite books on the subject of
sales is how to win friends and
influence people by dale carnegie i just
think it’s a fascinating topic on just
human relationships being able to
understand people rather than hear them
another one is the goal giver i
absolutely love that book and it’s
actually a small story on a salesman
and his journey for success and
you know finding self-worth so reading
is one for me that helps there’s nothing
like little experience
getting out there and just in front of
you in front of customers and just
hitting your face sometimes falling flat
so those are the best times to learn i
feel too
tell us about your very first sales call
oh my gosh tracy it was it was terrible
first of all they didn’t even have any
water treatment on their facility you
know no cooling towers no boilers
nothing so i walked in and the
receptionist i said hey um you know my
name is judd kosh i do water treatment
is there someone i can talk to you know
about that and she said i’ll grab
someone and i was so nervous i told her
like oh this is my first sale i don’t
you know this is my first stop i don’t
even know what i’m talking about and
uh
she off the phones like yeah we don’t
even have anything to treat there no
water treatment so you want to leave
your business card you got my car my
then man i did it i did my first
prospecting call absolutely went nowhere
never went there again obviously but um
i was just so excited to be able to fail
and
get those words out and
and experience it so my first sales call
did not end nowhere near where i wanted
it to be what was the second one like
you know what i don’t i don’t remember
the second one i do remember the first
one i think after that i was sort of off
up to the races as far as
self-confidence um understanding the you
know understanding maybe i have to take
a step back and understand the industry
more
so you know the first one i definitely
fell on my face but after that i think
his confidence grew i i don’t remember
too many of them
well and that’s the point uh there are a
lot of people that will do something
once
and not like the result and they’d never
do it again but it sounds like you had
an experience you said i can improve
upon this experience
and the history is in the success that
you’ve been having yeah i would agree
so jed this next question kind of a
two-part question
how do you know you need to learn
something new and then what do you do to
learn that
i think the greatest way to learn
something is first to be curious about
it and so you know i’m i’m a very
curious person where sometimes i’ll just
run hypothetical scenarios through my
head let’s say oh well what if i run
into a prospect and they need an rl or
maybe that would be a better return on
investment currently than what they’re
using and then i would sit down and
realize i have no idea how to decide an
arrow or whatever have it may be so that
motivates me to dig deeper my free time
to learn things that i don’t necessarily
understand i would say the best way that
i learn is to experience something
because you can read books and books but
if you aren’t physically in front of a
boiler or get to experience it it’s hard
to teach
so just coming across things in the
industry that i don’t feel comfortable
teaching yet gets me motivated to learn
more about it
do you have a goal that one day you’ll
be teaching these subjects
i think so and i tie that with my you
know ultimate win because it’s
the more that i can influence people in
a positive way and reach out to them um
the better and so you know one of my i
was i guess goals is to help run a
company i just think once i master the
subject i can be able to get in front of
people and influence them in a way that
people haven’t yet in a better manner so
absolutely i would love to teach that’s
certainly down the road though
do you have any mentors or role models
in your life
yeah i would say
my dad first and foremost you know
he has a passing story where he started
his own landscaping company and has
grown it over to over 600 customers
quite fascinating the work he’s done and
just you know his faith hasn’t moved
anywhere so i look up to him as constant
resource i would look at my
father-in-law to be another mentor you
know he has a company in the greater
green bay area that employs over 140
people and just to see his you know his
reach of the community is fantastic and
all the positive feedback that everyone
i meet that knows them is amazing so i
strive to be you know a hybrid of those
two guys
have you told them that i have never
mustered up that that conversation i
haven’t no
well they’re going to hear it from this
i’m sure they will absolutely be
listening to podcasts so
it’ll be brought up
that’s awesome and they’re going to
think that that’s awesome and hey why
didn’t he tell me this
yeah well the way you and i met was we
connected with each other on linkedin
and then that struck up a conversation
that led to a couple phone conversations
and now ultimately this interview
i reached out to you from social media
because you’ve have kind of a unique way
that you’re giving back to this
community can you tell us about that
yeah so what i have been doing this year
is uh called rule of thumb thursdays uh
where i take a topic and this actually
taken a step back this is actually
derived from you trace it was episode
128 on system tonnage times three and to
be honest if you would go back you would
say man he must have stole that idea
from me because you said
the phrase rule of thumb at least 10
times and just subliminally it stuck
with me and i i know you i remember you
saying something where your dad
mentioned you know whenever you had
questions you said you know well this is
this is just the way it is and that not
sticking with you you know and i felt
the same way the story with that was
whenever he told me that it was it was a
fancy way of saying i don’t know where
it came from
absolutely and that certainly resonated
with myself as well and so
you know i thought you know what better
better way
for me to give back than to kind of go
over the the rule of thumb that i’ve
come across so far in the industry that
i just thought well that’s the way we
always done it um take some personal
time to invest
in putting our article together that
kind of breaks it down and so i’ve
really found that to be a great hobby of
mine um you know of course on my free
time writing articles and putting some
some videos together on rule of thumbs
and i think
year to date i have a little over 20
articles so far so i don’t i don’t think
you would call them articles but you
know whatever
four page posts that i put together i
just thought i’ve been i felt the
community reach out as well you know
there’s so many people that have reached
out have given me
advice you know i had someone say well
can you do a boil-out procedure you know
what’s the real thing on that i’m like
oh well glad you asked that’s a great
that’s a great topic and
you know i think alan watts once said
that anything you can be interested in
you will find others that are and i’ve
found that to be certainly the case with
the community so it started off as just
wanting to do a little more outreach and
give back to the community and it’s
grown tremendously i’m i’m shocked i
never
never had a goal or you know i wanted to
be on a podcast you know but this is
just amazing so very humbling
well the content is fantastic it has to
take you a while to put that stuff
together oh yes yeah so
um the videos no i the videos are just
for fun um i’ve gotten pretty good at
those but i would say that an article
probably takes me four to six hours
but you know i don’t look at it as work
i do it mostly on my weekends you know
saturday or sunday but i just feel so
rewarded um what i get to share that and
just to see the appreciation i do like
the constructive criticism though as
well just because i’m no expert i am
learning myself and you know what better
way to learn the topic than to just jump
into it for four to six hours and so
it’s been rewarding on all aspects
do you mind if i ask what some of the
criticism was it’s it’s all been very
good
and this is another thing where you know
anything you could be interested in
you’ll find others that are james
mcdonald reached out to me and i had a
couple of spelling errors and so he
certainly corrected me but then the same
same article he said i never knew that
or whatever point i made so
it’s all it’s all been great but you
know i’m open to it just to learn as
well
yeah and i asked that just for group
therapy between you and i because uh you
know everybody loves you know what i’m
doing but you know people like to put
their two cents in sometimes and you
know you you use the wrong pronoun there
or something like that just because i
was getting excited talking so there
there are some people that want to make
sure that your product is as best as it
can be and and i appreciate that you
know i look at it as
they’ve been impacted by my work i hope
it’s been positive and i’m doing
everything i can to improve so i do i do
appreciate it even though sometimes it’s
a little frustrating yeah and likewise
if somebody heard that well hey they’re
listening to it they’re listening pretty
intently with it and they took the time
to let me know so i can do better next
time yeah i agree with you it’s great
any feedback is good feedback
and i’m always looking for more topics
or rule of thumbs that people have come
across and just thought you know what
the heck how does this work does it even
hold true so for anyone out there that
has ideas feel free to reach out well
let’s see if we can flood your page with
all these new scaling up listeners how
would they find rule of thumb thursdays
so i’m i’m just on linkedin page you can
find me you probably can’t miss me
because so many people have been
resharing my stuff and it’s been it’s
been amazing but um linkedin is the
place to find me
by the way that is the way you know
you’ve got good valuable material when
people share your content absolutely and
that one is another selling point for me
starting this too is sometimes i think
on linkedin we just get too bogged down
with just not enough meaningful content
and if i’m going to steal someone’s time
i wanted to make it worthwhile and so
that was another motivating factor where
i want to put out valuable content for
people well you certainly have and i’m
assuming that there’s more to come
absolutely i mean the day that i can’t
find a rule of thumb would be quite
amazing as far as a topic goes but yeah
absolutely there’s no end in sight i
would say well from the water treatment
community i want to thank you for
creating content that is helping people
i’m honored and i’m going to continue to
do it as long as people enjoy it so
thank you trace
well i always love asking this question
water treatment’s one of those things
that unless you’re in it you really
don’t know what it is
so what do your friends and family think
you do
to be honest i think they’re a lost
cause
um you know i i actually went to a
really good friend’s bachelor party a
couple weeks ago showed up and a couple
guys were already there and one guy goes
hey look the bomb guy’s here and i go
the bomb guy really and he goes oh yeah
you’re the chemist right
and at that point i realized okay
this conversation is going nowhere so
i’ve heard i’ve heard it all but um
sometimes it’s just worth not even
letting them know what to do so it can
be frustrating but it’s fun at the same
time
so if somebody asks you what do you do
they really don’t have any contacts what
do you tell them
i would start with um technical sales in
the water treatment industry i would go
try to tailor that into industrial water
treatment more so manufacturers
facilities and then go on to you know
what a boiler cooling tower condenser is
and if i haven’t lost them that you know
then that would probably continue
further but at that point typically it’s
let’s read their facial contents and see
if they’re still with me i know exactly
what you’re talking about my wife’s a
pharmacist
and back when we had parties and we did
things like that we would go to
christmas parties and somebody say oh
you’re stacy’s husband what what do you
do and then you can kind of see them
looking in the distance okay who can i
pretend that needs to talk to me
yeah fun times
a segment i sometimes do on this podcast
for my own therapy is called the boiling
point and it’s things that i’ve seen
other water treaters do that just
aggravates me i’m like guys and girls
why are you doing that so it allows me
some therapy that i get to share with
everybody in the scaling up nation so
i’m going to give that to you
what do you see other water treaters do
that you just want them to stop doing
yeah i would say you know moral
integrity and just staying truthful to
yourself is something that i see not not
only water treatment cheaters do uh but
no but all sales i guess whenever you
have a goal in mind um you do have to
sacrifice a part of you and you know if
that’s your integrity i think that it
doesn’t go very far for yourself you
know if it’s your passion that’s great
but sometimes i think we try to sell
things that we don’t necessarily need to
or try to bend the truth i’ve seen that
with other water treaters and i
sometimes i like to put myself in a
perspective where i’m selling to my
brother and does he absolutely need this
upgrade does he need this additional
chemical and so i guess i would start
there
so you use this scenario with with your
brother so take us through that how
what’s the acid test to make sure that
we’re really
doing what is absolutely right for the
customer and not
something that’s more right for us
sure well
that’s a great question i would say it
just comes down to more so bending the
truth you know to be honest letting my
brother know hey he owns this company
and let’s say his cooling tower
controllers is quite old now would i say
you know what let’s upgrade to a
fluorescent tracer where it’s absolutely
necessary you’re gonna absolutely love
this technology when the last 10 years
the cooling tower has been just fine you
know and to be honest just self-reflect
and say approach it where you letting
your brother know hey this is where
we’re at to be honest this is where we
could be
and not emphasizing the need for it
because sometimes to be honest i don’t
think it is necessary and that’s just
one scenario but i think we come across
some of those scenarios where we try to
push it more so than it should be
in a scenario like that would it be
better to maybe give them a couple of
choices let them know what the benefit
of each choice is and then they just
make the decision
i do like to spend time and put together
you know roi calculations i like to see
hypothetical scenarios where you know if
this was in place we could do this much
better and so i do like to lay out as
transparent as i can about any topic
sometimes i think you know we’re just we
flash too much about hey this needs to
change or else and don’t really go into
why so more so selling his rule of thumb
and not necessarily explaining it
i like it that’s a great thing that we
should all be conscious of and you know
sometimes it never hurts to look into
our motives and make sure that they’re
they’re really what we want them to be
so jet we’ve been talking about water
treatment the content that you put out
to help the industry what do you do for
fun what are some of your hobbies when
i’m not working i’m putting together
articles my wife and i are big fitness
fanatics so we actually built a small
gym in our garage a full stall of the
three-star cell garage but you know
everything that’s challenging i like to
pursue you know i’ve done an ultra
marathon a couple years ago i did a
bodybuilding competition you know my
wife competed in some fitness
competitions as well so we kind of like
to push the envelope on what’s possible
or what i perceive as to be possible on
top of that i just love spending time
with our dog we have a gold retriever
and the thing is just absolutely
adorable so she obtains a lot of our
free time as well
that’s awesome if you could only get one
point across today what would you want
that point to be
i would say become obnoxiously
passionate about whatever craft it is
you are pursuing and it’s okay if it’s
not water treatment you know whatever it
is i just got done reading outliers by
malcolm gladwell and you know he
mentioned takes about 10 000 hours to
master something and so for me just a
sense of urgency in life i want to
master something as quickly as possible
so that i can
share i can learn and give that so i
would say whatever craft it is that
you’re pursuing make sure you’re
incredibly passionate about it well i
know you’re a listener to this podcast
you’ve heard me ask hundreds of people
lightning round question you are now in
the hot seat are you ready for your way
all right question number one you now
have the ability to go back in time and
talk to yourself on your very first day
as a water treater all the experience
you’ve had since then what advice would
you today give yourself back then
you know i don’t think i would tell
myself anything looking back i i am very
pleased with how everything has panned
out so far you know all the lessons i
had to learn the hard way you know i
think if i didn’t learn those lessons
hard way i don’t think i would be you
know who i am now so
i don’t think i would say anything i
would just let it transpire
joe there’s no doubt that you are a
reader you’re reading something all the
time tell us what you’re reading tell us
what you want us to read
man the last three books that i read um
just got done reading outliers by
malcolm gladwell i recommend it although
i don’t agree with some of the points he
made just because i think everyone can
be an outlier of some sort he goes more
into
stats on you know why people why people
are outlawers i think everyone can be an
outlier second book i read was levels of
the game by john mcphee it’s about a
professional tennis match
the churchill factor it’s on winston
churchill’s life
now if there was one that i would
absolutely recommend it’s called the
secret by rhonda byrne
now this book i was actually recommended
to from a customer and it’s absolutely
changed my life it’s on the law of
attraction but it’s a great read and i
need to get back to reading it soon
i love book recommendations thank you
for all of those
when hollywood hears this podcast
they’re gonna start writing a script
about your life who do you want to play
you
without a doubt i would pick uh chris
pratt i absolutely love him as a
comedian for all the work that he’s done
and for all the work that he’s done off
the stage so i would i would hope chris
pratt would take the challenge
so i actually had a run-in with chris
pratt did you really we’re here in
atlanta there’s some movie studios in
the atlanta area and he was on set and
his trailer was right by the cooling
tower so we had a very deep conversation
he gave me a head nod i gave him a head
back history was written but not of
approval great
[Laughter]
my last question
you now can talk with anybody throughout
history who would it be with and why
yeah i would go back and talk with uh
jesus you know the amount of influence
he’s had on people and the way that he
communicates with people it’s just so
fascinating to me i would have
hundreds of questions and i hope he
would answer them all but i’m sure he
would in a lot shorter conversation than
i would probably expect so i’ll go back
and talk to jesus awesome well hey thank
you so much for coming on scaling up h2o
trace has been a pleasure and humbling
to be able to join you in the
prestigious guests you’ve had on i think
it speaks volumes that you were kind
enough to invite me on and to invest in
an upcoming generation so thanks again i
hope our path will cross the near future
nation i don’t mind telling you that
after this interview
jed and i stayed on the call for
probably another hour if you have not
met jed if you are not connected with
him
on his linkedin post i urge you to do
that he is just an incredible individual
and he is one of the people that i have
my eye on i know he is going to do
tremendous things so jed thanks again
for coming on the show you know speaking
of tremendous things when we look at
leadership i think we put such a big tag
on what leadership is that if we can’t
execute this huge task
we’re not truly leading
people and i want you to think back in
your mind about who has had some of the
biggest impacts in your life and i’m
willing to bet that it’s not big things
you remember it’s little small things
it’s the little small things that
changed everything i will urge you to
consider that is leadership leadership
is giving somebody a small piece
that can possibly get them to the next
level you might not even know that but
just the fact that you reached out to
them just the fact that you supported
them maybe it’s just a kind word
training others the way that we
ourselves want to be treated that in and
of itself is leadership so i just want
you to consider that some of the biggest
changes in my life happen because
somebody did something small and doesn’t
cost anything to do things like that
well nation something else that’s not
going to cost you a dime is for you to
participate in this week’s james’s
challenge
[Music]
hello scaling up nation the next james
is challenged as we grow as an
industrial water treatment professional
drop by drop is
learned how steam traps operate
there is a tremendous amount of genius
in the design of steam traps
various models take advantage of
differences in density and differences
in thermodynamic properties of differing
metals
steam traps are often tucked away in
some corner and easy to ignore as well
but properly functioning steam traps can
be as important as a good water
treatment program in regards to
maximizing boiler efficiencies
take this week to learn more about steam
traps
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
i remember when i first got into water
treatment and i saw my first steam trap
and of course it made sense how it
worked but there’s different designs and
that didn’t make a lot of sense now i
didn’t have all the access like we do
today on the internet where if you
google steam valves you’re gonna find
all sorts of videos where people take
them apart they’ve got diagrams of them
they’ve got cross sections of them and
they will show you exactly how they work
now back in the day
i actually had an engineer that took
apart a steam valve and showed me
exactly what was going on there and once
i understood what was going on within a
steam valve and the different types of
steam valves
that made sense to why we had to test
them what were the reasons that they
could fail
and why was it so important for us to
make sure that certain tests that we
were running were within ranges so when
you take something that you maybe don’t
completely understand
and you drive home the fact that you’re
trying to learn that i promise that’s
one of those little things that will
change everything well nation i hope
that you enjoyed this episode and it’s
also my hope that if you have an idea
for a new episode you will let us know
by going to scalinguph2o.com
and let us know on our show ideas page
or you can send a voicemail of your own
voice asking me those questions next
week is thanksgiving i’m going to thank
you in advance for listening to this
show for all the things that you do
within the scaling up nation
have a great week folks
[Music]
so many people ask me what a mastermind
is does that mean in six weeks i am
going to be the best water treater that
i can be through a training class folks
that’s not a mastermind that is a master
class what a mastermind is is when
like-minded people get together we
process issues we form common bonds of
friendship around each other and we
celebrate and push each other towards
success it is the key to so many people
unlocking their potential to find out
more go to scaling up h2o.com forward
slash mastermind
you