241 Transcript - Scaling UP! H2O

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[Music]

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[Music]

welcome to the scaling up h2o podcast a

podcast where we scale up on knowledge

so we don’t scale up our systems my name

is trace blackmore i am the host of the

scaling up h2o podcast and nation just

so many things going on so many things

that we as industrial water treaters are

expected to know

and my question to you

is how do you get to know all of those

new things how do you know what you know

but more importantly how do you know

that you don’t know

something and that’s the big question

how do you know what you don’t know now

i’ve had a business coach for some time

and his name is tim fulton in fact you

can search back in the archives of this

podcast and you can hear me interview

tim more than once tim and i meet on a

regular basis and he just asks me

tremendous questions and one of the

questions that he’s always asked me

is how do you know when you don’t know

something or what’s the next thing that

you don’t know that you need to know

what an amazing question and i i want to

say when he first asked me that i wanted

to throw a chair at him because how do

you even answer something like that but

just thinking about a question like that

allows you to open yourself up to all

the things out there that you have to

learn and also force yourself to learn

those things so what are some of the

things that you can do

in order to figure out what’s the next

thing you need to know that you don’t

know you need to know it wow that’s hard

to say

but it’s not as hard as it seems to do

i think the number one thing that you

can do is you can do what you’re doing

right now listening to this podcast is

going to get you to start thinking about

things a little bit differently you

probably have some other podcasts that

you listen to as you’re driving from

account to account of course that’s fine

as long as you listen to this one first

you’re going to get ideas from other

people and that’s going to spark the

next thing what do i need to do with

this how do i follow through with this

what is it going to do for me who can i

this information with i hope that you’re

reading books now i’m going to be honest

with you i used to read all the time

with all the travel that i do with all

the different speaking engagements and

consulting that i do i don’t have a lot

of time

to read but i do use audible and audible

as a service that has pretty darn near

any book that you would want to read and

you listen to it and somebody’s reading

it to you and yes it is very weird if

you have never done that before it does

take a little getting used to and i

didn’t think i was ever going to get

used to it but now it is one of my

favorite ways to devour

books

and once you get used to it you can even

increase the speed

so you can listen quicker than the

author is reading it to you you got to

play with this though because the whole

point is not to finish the book the

whole point is to actually get

understanding from the book so you don’t

want to go any faster than you can do

that

you just gotta play with that and some

people might say i can’t do that and

absorb everything that i need

and that’s fine the whole point is is

now you’re using something else to

figure out what the next thing is you

need to know but you don’t know that you

need to know it

and another thing you can do and i hope

you’re a member of an association one of

the associations that i’ve been a member

of heck i’ve been the president of this

association and it’s just been so good

to our industry it’s called the

association of water technologies

and awt.org is their website if you

practice the same type of water

treatment that i do you probably want to

check out the association of water

technologies you can go to our show

notes page we’ll have some information

on that

some other items that you might want to

consider some other conferences the

international institute of ammonia

refrigeration

is having their conference in savannah

georgia that’s an awesome place to visit

march 6th through 9th so you might want

to check that information out all on our

show notes in addition the american

water resource association is having

their geological water technology

conference march 21st through 23rd

that’s going to be in austin texas and

then the water environmental federation

is having their public health and water

conference in cincinnati ohio that’s

going to be march 21st through 24th and

there are dozens of more conferences out

there the ones that relate highly to our

industry i’m going to make sure i bring

those to you but i don’t want you to

just rely on this podcast for that i’m

hoping that you figure out what are the

associations that you need to become a

member of or at the very least just pay

attention to

and that leads me to my last thing and

you’ve heard this several times but i am

just such a strong believer and i know

that you need this in your life you need

to join a group of people that help you

identify the things you need to know

that you didn’t need you needed to know

and of course i’m referring to

some sort of mastermind group now we

have the rising tide mastermind and

maybe that’s the right group for you but

regardless you need to be a member of a

group that you are pouring into other

people and those people are pouring in

to you so if the rising tide mastermind

and all the things that you’ve heard me

say on this podcast about the rising

tide mastermind seem like a good idea

for you i urge you to go to scaling up

h2o.com forward slash mastermind to find

out more about that but if it’s not the

right group for you don’t stop there

there is a group that is right for you

you need other people to help you see

blind spots and to learn the things you

don’t know you need to know

well something that i know is our next

guest and i met him several years ago i

have been so impressed with this guy i’m

happy to call him a friend i’m happy to

call him a fellow mastermind member i

know you are going to enjoy this

interview here it is

my lab partner today is mike byerly of

global mike so happy to have you on the

show welcome to scaling up h2o thank you

trace happy to be here

mike many people in the association

water technologies knows you as one of

the youngest water treatment company

owners and is just exploding so i want

to get into that but i want to i want to

take a step back

because you just had a huge event happen

in your life

you just got married

yeah probably the biggest event uh i’ve

ever had in my entire life uh and uh if

allie listens to this she’ll be happy

that i said that and that it wasn’t

anything about global

well mike let’s talk about water

treatment you and i are both water

treaters we both have very interesting

stories with how we got involved in

water treatment can you share with the

scaling up nation yours

yeah definitely so i got into water

treatment uh because i never wasn’t in

water treatment i was essentially born

into it my mother started the company

that i work for

didn’t really understand what the

company was or what water treatment was

but

somehow stumbled into it in the summer

of 2009 i decided to take an internship

with the company and by saying that it

makes it sound more formal or like we

had an internship program it wasn’t like

that i think my mom came back from from

work and i was back from college and i

didn’t have any internship college was

hard i put a lot of work in so i wanted

to kind of take it easy and i didn’t do

any of the recruitment cycle for any

type of formal internships

so um you know my mother kind of

approached me and said hey you know how

about you go ride along with eddie and

he’s going to be at the chicago symphony

orchestra tomorrow and i’m like well

that sounds kind of cool you know sounds

like something i would be interested in

not thinking about the water treatment

aspect but going to the chicago symphony

orchestra and kind of seeing the the

guts of the of the facility

and you know that just kind of took off

from there and you know i interned for

another year and then graduated weighed

my options i had some offers coming out

of college and um you know i i for some

reason took the lowest total value offer

presented to me by my mother instead of

what else was on the table you know i

gave her that good family discount and

it started my foray into the water

treatment world

i want to ask about your mom for a

second because they’re not as many women

in water treatment as there is men and

your mom decided she wanted to start a

water treatment company what’s the story

behind that

definitely that’s a that’s a very good

question there are not enough women in

water treatment it’s not a very diverse

industry we are looking to hopefully

change that especially with our founder

being my mother

it’s hard to tell that story without

really including both my parents and

also the background their backgrounds

my mother is an immigrant from mexico

she immigrated to chicago uh when she

was five my grandfather was a mechanic

with the illinois central railway and

they were short mechanics at the time so

they recruited him to and sponsored him

and his family coming up to chicago from

monterey mexico

my dad was a farm boy from kentucky and

ended up just not liking the farm boy

life and what it could provide for him

and he decided um after a you know a bad

experience uh i think leaving some goats

out or something like that as the story

goes he sold his pickup truck and uh he

had 52 and either hitchhiked or bust up

to chicago and got a job as a janitor or

something after being told he couldn’t

join the navy both my parents are

entrepreneurs and i think that lends

itself to their background and

upbringing you know they they fought

tooth and nail to to get every dime

and

everything that they have and somewhere

along the line you know that that just

doesn’t go away so eventually they don’t

stop craving they don’t stop the drive

never stops and um both of them you know

at different times decided they wanted

do things for themselves so my dad

specifically started an hbac service

firm in chicago

so he was started as an operating

engineer figured if he could do it in

one room a mechanical room he could do

it in all of them he bought one truck

then two trucks three trucks and along

the way i met my mother my mother never

graduated from college but she took some

courses i think the local community

college business related courses and had

a job at the bank so my dad’s tradesmen

skills and my mother’s business skills

really complemented one another and i

like to call them a power couple because

of that

they work together to really take off

this mechanical hvac firm and along the

way you know my dad being hands-on and

an owner operator although he had

employees and it was growing would

interact with the clients and be in the

mechanical rooms and open up boilers

cooling towers absorbers everything you

could imagine and see all the ills of

bad water treatment

you know after you know so many times of

bringing this up to my mother you know

in conversation they said hey we know a

couple of good water treaters that have

kind of bounced around what if we

founded or we looked at doing something

like that around the same time the

company was approached by a large firm

in chicago called hell mechanical hill

was interested in in bringing my data

board and his business aboard to kind of

launch the operation side

where they would place operating

engineers and facilities throughout the

city of chicago as well as supplement

their existing you know mechanical

service operations so he sold and at

that point i believe my mom was out of a

job because hill had all that

infrastructure you know a cfo the

administration ar ap all that kind of

stuff so that’s when the idea really

took off my dad got really entrenched

and busy with the mechanical side and

although he was very supportive of my

mother and they still operated very much

you know aligned in everything that they

did she went off with the water

treatment venture and opportunity on her

own and really created a niche for

herself um in the chicago market a great

reputation for a service driven firm and

she was known for attending all the

events actually walking mechanical rooms

doing all the bid walk throughs she

learned as much about water treatment as

she could without actually

applying it and doing it and you know

still to this day i find the notes from

her that are beyond where i am 10 years

in 12 years if you count my two two year

apprenticeship and it just amazes me you

know she didn’t carry a test kit she

didn’t do that kind of stuff yet she was

running the calculations you know to to

calculate the bids and she was you can

even see her correcting notes from some

of our field technicians and things like

that um and it just kind of is a tribute

to her ability to adapt overcome in her

drive and you know it kind of laid a

legacy and a foundation that i was i was

lucky to kind of jump into at first

mike hearing you talk about the notes i

can’t help thinking about when my dad

passed away and i was the one that

cleaned up his office and just finding

all those he had a computer but i think

it was just a paperweight to him he

would make all these handwritten notes

and there was just so much knowledge

within

all of those notes so don’t throw those

away

no no i’ve got them in the memory box

and uh they’re locked up scanned and

i’ve got duplicates outstanding so you

had an internship your mom offered you a

job you gave her a great deal lowest

offer that you had on the table it

seemed to have worked out pretty well so

far though

my question is

how did you start to learn what you

needed to learn to become an effective

water trader

very good question and honestly i have

to attribute that to uh the people at

the company that took me under their

wing

you know there could have been you know

two outcomes here i stepped foot into

the organization and everybody says oh

the owner’s son you know what’s going on

you know what are you here for and then

there’s the alternative and that’s

actually what happened where everybody

said thank god you’re here we are glad

to see that the byerly’s are investing

that maria is investing in the company

by introducing her son into the company

so i started out in the field i started

out shadowing individuals and uh really

you know learned on my own you know what

i didn’t know and supplemented

what they taught me uh through these

shadowing experiences

and just through communication through

tools such as you know i hate to say it

but then the nalco handbook which was a

fixture in our library in the basement

of the office you can say that it’s okay

uh there was there were you know great

published literature from ge and you

know obviously awt and at the time we

had printed out all of the uh powerpoint

presentations of all the awt seminars

that my mom and um you know different

members of the team would go to over the

years so just being able to go through

that reference all that and kind of

self-teach and then honestly we had

great partners and vendors that

really also took me under their wing so

you know i can call out uh you know gary

garcia from masters john steele from

aqua phoenix you know the guys at

lakewood the guys that advantage i mean

all of these people you know we’re

almost hungry to help and you know

that’s something that’s hard to forget

you know so it’s great to be you know

where we are today to know that these

individuals kind of helped us get there

and they’re still with us today you know

providing these services and as we grow

they grow and you know it’s a great full

circle story we didn’t have a formal you

know onboarding structure we didn’t have

a training program we didn’t have any of

that as you can imagine when i walked in

i think we had about five or six people

so everything was more trial by fire but

the gaps were filled you know people

stepped up you know to get me where i

needed to be and honestly i owe all of

my water treatment acumen to everybody

else you know that came before me in the

company as well as all these individuals

you know from the outside and also i

have to say our clients were very

forgiving the path that was paved for me

with you know the relationships my

parents had just in the industry as well

as the technicians the service the

accounts the account managers before me

they kind of set me up in a situation

where i had some room to

to play some room to find my way and

figure out my approach to water

treatment so

i could try and get a little bit more

automated but then these engineers would

say hey listen

what’s worked has worked and i want to

do it this way so i appreciate that

you’re a young gun trying to take the

next step here bring in automation or

web-based controls or anything like that

but i don’t want it and it’s funny

because that kind of shapes interactions

like that shaped my approach you know

they didn’t go too far and kick me out

because i brought up those and they very

well could as we all know sometimes you

bring up a topic that people don’t like

sometimes they never forget they don’t

forgive and i didn’t really have a lot

of those experiences instead it was a it

was a constant refrain of people kind of

keeping me on track you know as i was

learning my way

you’re very humble mike but i know from

working with water treaters that there’s

some people

that they don’t know something because

they weren’t taught it and then there

are people out there like yourself that

just go out there and they find the next

thing i’m going to devour information i

don’t know this i’m going to take the

responsibility to go learn it myself

what can you say to the audience to help

promote that mindset

yeah so honestly i think people

they’re not afraid if you don’t know

they’re afraid if you don’t communicate

and what i mean by that is

i guess the best way to put this is a

story my dad told me or or just an

approach my dad told me him being an

engineer he said you know listen you

don’t have all the gray hair so there’s

not an expectation of you having all

this knowledge even if you did if you

simply say let me get back to you or i

don’t know or i want to refine my answer

you know they they can’t poke a hole in

that and then they can only you know

accept that honesty

and

it’s one thing to say i don’t know and

not provide a solution but i always made

sure that if i was asked a question or

there was something i didn’t know and i

couldn’t perform my service or i

couldn’t get a pump primed i couldn’t

get a controller working i always

brought it back full circle so no matter

what if the door was open i closed the

door and then i made sure that the

individual knew and even interacting

with employees and you know if you know

it’s the same same type of thing

somebody asks you a question about let’s

say a comp or a policy or something like

that you know you can’t be expected to

know everything in real time but saying

hey i don’t know let me get back to you

and actually following through and

getting back to them with a reasonable

amount of time and even if it takes some

time touching base and letting them know

the progress is being made that’s

something that no one can ever fault you

mike you’ve got several years under your

belt now very accomplished water treater

but we all start with day one and that

first year as an industrial water

treater we’re all drinking from a fire

hose we’re trying to get a couple of

sips of that knowledge

what happens with a lot of people is

they learn what they need to know to do

their day-to-day within that first year

and they don’t continue learning

what’s something that you do to ensure

you’re always learning something new

honestly i think that every day in the

water treatment industry is supposed to

be a learning experience and in order to

learn you have to kind of take the

clutter of your own voice and thought

out of it

and i live my life by listening so if

someone’s talking to me i’m not thinking

about what i’m going to say next or how

to respond to it i actually even if it

takes a second for me to respond i want

to actually listen to what they’re

saying and then from there react and

digest that and that i think allows me

to retain a lot of information and to

be a perpetual learner because in the

process you kind of become a little

introspective you’re like wow i heard

what this person said or this aspect of

what this person said i might have known

this part but i didn’t know that part

and let me dive deeper into that at

another point so honestly listening is

the key especially in formative years as

you’re getting into the industry or

you’ve taken off in the industry and

honestly i would say as i continue to

mature and to grow in the industry the

biggest thing that i need to remind

myself is that my voice shouldn’t always

be the loudest one in the room that

there should be you know less talking

and more listening you know one of my uh

tells on whether a sales appointment

let’s say or an interview

went well

is who did the most amount of talking if

i did the most amount of talking

then i actually think that i performed

you know the worst or not as well so my

goal is to get other people to talk to

get my client to talk and tell me what’s

important to them versus me being the

one to talk at them or tell them i’m

never going to be learning i’m just

trying to espouse everything i know in a

situation like that

well i’ve been the recipient of that i

think we met maybe five years ago at an

awt conference and i was instantly

just amazed at how put together you are

and how hungry you are for knowledge how

intelligent your questions were and your

ability to to learn and listen and it

was that reason that when i started the

rising tide mastermind you were one of

the first people that i reached out to

so the question i have for you is why

did you say yes

at first when i thought about it you

know you’re you’re around competitors

you’re around people that are kind of in

your same position you know i think i

was hesitant at first when you reached

out because i was like is somebody going

to be able to take a competitive

advantage is somebody going to be able

to take something that we have you know

and go use it or do it better and then

all of a sudden the the script kind of

changed where i realized that it was

more about accountability and having a

group like that or a resource like that

could possibly hold me more accountable

than anything i have internal to my

organization or even in my life so me

being the president and owner of the

company it’s difficult for people to

talk to me in a certain way or to

challenge me as far as other people

external the company can

so when i actually sat back and thought

about it i thought this was a great

opportunity rising time masterminds was

a great opportunity to hold myself

accountable so that i would actually

participate and be involved so there’s a

financial aspect to it too just like

going to the gym right you paid a fee to

go to the gym you know you’re you’re

more often to go to the gym so

self-accountability accountability by

people external to the organization and

honestly uh just a forum for me to

listen and learn so just because we’re

taking off and doing things you know

well in our opinion doesn’t necessarily

mean it’s the right right thing and um

sharing data sharing you know ideas and

thoughts is really really healthy for

the evolution of business and the second

that we you know we might be

collaborative internal to our

organization but that you know sometimes

you know that becomes uh too similar the

ideas are too similar so having this

external outreach in this external forum

to bring in new ideas you know at the

highest level to our organization is

also very very valuable

what is something that you can add that

i just can’t say that help people

understand what it is that we do in the

rising tide mastermind and why they

maybe should consider it

i don’t want to belittle what this is

but it’s almost like a self-help group

it’s uh you know um we’re not alone and

our industry is very unique and our

daily activities and who we interact

with and how we interact everything is

very different and all these experiences

can be overwhelming

and there are groups out there like

vistage there are other groups that

you know you can share experiences

they’re very you know business oriented

or they might be oriented towards you

know a position there might be groups

oriented towards a co and you know you

kind of commiserate over the challenges

of being in that position but to have

people in the same relative position

and sphere of operation

in the same industry is truly unique

this is something that i think there

there is nothing else like like that out

there for the awt community member

companies you know members of those

companies and it’s something that i

think anybody even at a very you know

beginning stage of their career to the

most senior could benefit from and

honestly my you know relationship with

my wife has increased because i’m no

longer just going to her for some of my

i wouldn’t say venting but

coaching or mentorship i’m actually you

know i kind of have that group of of

peers that can help me there too

yeah i don’t know if you can see over my

shoulder here but that’s actually my

10-year vistage award i’m a huge vistage

fan i’m no longer a member there’s just

a bandwidth time commitment thing with

all the other things that i’m doing but

something that you mentioned and why i

created the rising tide was i would

bring a lot of the issues to my vistage

group

and i spent so much time trying to give

them context around the issue by the

time we actually got to discussing the

issue we were out of time and instantly

when we bring issues to the rising tide

mastermind we don’t have to do that

everybody gets it we can just dive into

the issue

exactly it doesn’t matter if it’s

talking about being a road warrior it

doesn’t matter if it’s talking about you

know a technical issue

all of that stuff’s a given so you can

jump right into the meat and potatoes

right away and i have noticed that our

calls are grouped you know the outcomes

are quicker the conversations are you

know more in depth and again like you

said it’s nothing against these other

groups that are out there there’s just a

hurdle that needs to be overcome before

you can get there

mike let’s shift gears a little bit and

if anybody has been around awt

they’ve heard about global

and it’s probably that global has

acquired another company and then they

acquired another company which is just

amazing so my question to you is

you were an intern you took this job

offer you learned how to be a water

treater then you started taking over the

company and apparently now it’s world

domination so if you could share with

the scaling up nation you know what what

is the culture like at global and what

are you trying to build

yeah great question and uh you know

you’re too kind you know those words are

very flattering uh to to me and to the

team but uh quite frankly

we’re hungry we’re hungry for growth

we’re hungry for success and we’re uh

you know hungry for any pathway uh that

can help us keep moving the ball forward

so it’s not necessarily one you know

strategy of just dominated by

acquisitions believe it or not

we’re a lot better at getting business

organically

compared to acquisitions if you take a

look at the split on growth numbers year

over year so being able to have you know

be good fundamentally a water treatment

and complement that with acquisitions is

certainly um important to our growth

strategy now and in the future but how

do we get here honestly it was more of a

sustainability thing uh when i started

the company was in a bleak position my

dad unfortunately had some health issues

before i actually went to college and

they got a little bit worse while i was

in college and my mother

kind of stepped away from the business

the day to day and it just kind of sat

there stagnant so by the time i got into

it there was a lot of work that needed

to be done just to be healthy so my

original plan was to see if we could

make the business you know stable

stabilize and and then grow it from

there

now my mother you know encouraged me to

go and sell

eventually you know once i did that look

at the profit law statement isn’t

exactly where we want it to be i asked

you know can i get more involved in in

that side of things the cost of get sold

vendor management all that within the

first six months that kind of gets

tossed into my into my realm

and we start making decisions to

stabilize the company manage costs and

then try and you know grow so there were

there was about i would say five years

where we focused on ourselves before

even thinking about an acquisition

and

that by the time our first acquisition

came around in 2015 and by no means was

it a giant acquisition but it was an

acquisition nonetheless

my mentality was actually completely

against acquisitions i was 26 years old

and i was really good at that point at

having conversations and selling global

to get new business so our organic

growth rate from 2012 to 2015 was above

30 without any acquisitions year over

year

so there was really no reason because my

mentality was why would i buy why would

we buy a company if we can just go and

take the business

however a vendor very you know near and

dear to to global water recommended that

i i sit down actually with our vp of

sales and marketing pat morgan with a

gentleman by the name of ed modestis who

was the owner with his wife regina of

midwest products and consultants it was

a company that they had started 30 years

before and honestly sitting down with

them i almost felt like i was sitting in

front of my parents

and i got to hear their story and at

some points their son was involved at

some points other people in their family

were involved i i learned about you know

everything and all the trials and

tribulations and i was like wow i know

exactly what you’ve gone through i’ve

lived it you know through my life seeing

my parents

and i kind of let my guard down to that

whole you know angst against having any

type of acquisitions or having to buy a

company and a lot of that was the

encouragement of patrick morgan just

saying hey let’s go through the process

and see what happens and uh through the

you know that time patrick and ed were

kind of balancing me out moving me along

and it turned out to be a great

acquisition there were a ton of

synergies they were heavy in wastewater

heavy in uh the industrial side we

weren’t you know we were more commercial

institutional they had products that we

could possibly sell into some light

industrial accounts that could quadruple

the sales of those accounts some

intangible benefits of an acquisition so

it was a match made in heaven and it

kind of gave us that momentum to have

the next conversation in the next

conversation

and that was company one and right now

you’re on company

so we uh we’ve acquired officially nine

companies today

how do you know that it’s a good fit for

global

it’s kind of one of those things you

know right away you know and i’m

one of those individuals that kind of

follows my heart my gut my dad always

told me you know your gut never lies you

know the first thought the first feeling

you know it can be shaped and molded but

usually it’s right

so uh when you sit down with these

individuals they sit down with me you

kind of know or different members of our

leadership team we know if we’re going

to work well together and we’re going to

be able to embark down this journey you

know together because global has you

know certain goals and we don’t want to

buy companies just for the sake of

buying companies we don’t want to grow

just for the sake of growing we want to

make this all about the clients and our

people and

acquisitions help us do that better so

when we are able to acquire companies

that have solid cultures or cultures

that are you know fundamentally aligned

with our own uh that are people focused

that are you know growth focused doing

the right thing by the by the client

focus

you know it creates this sustainability

you know within the first couple of

minutes if it’s if it’s meant to be uh

if it’s just you know i’ll just say if

it’s more of a transactional thing hey

you know i’m gone within you know a

month and here are all my accounts i

mean that that’s one thing and that’s

not necessarily we’re open to any of

those conversations and we’ll have them

but in an ideal world we’re bringing you

know

an extension of our team you know to our

team we’re bringing a very similar type

of organization to our organization and

then infusing them with everything that

global didn’t have when i started and

you know full-time in 2011. so we’ve

become essentially a platform to bring

in these companies and fuse them with

capital technical resources technology

we’ve taken companies that had you know

still we’re still operating with

bicarbon copy reports and just the sheer

fact of having electronic reports

you know was was the best thing since

sliced bread for for their team their

field team being able to have those

conversations and you know sit down with

them in front of the computer and talk

about it and seeing how excited they are

it’s no different than how excited i was

when i sat down with you know our

partner at the time to start you know to

bring that to global water so

you know to answer your question you

know a lot of times the if it’s meant to

be it’ll be and it kind of plays itself

out very very early on in the process

mike after acquiring nine companies and

acquiring’s probably not the right word

you’ve partnered with nine companies

what’s the biggest lesson you learned

yeah um i think that sometimes you

can make assumptions that you are done

assimilating and bringing things

together and in reality it’s no

different than a relationship you know

cultures coming from different areas do

need to be fostered and continued to be

fostered so i would say that just you

know just making sure that we’re still

conscious of the legacy companies and

that’s actually a word that i was

introduced to by our chief operating

officer mike landers and he brought that

to us and it’s about embracing the

legacy cultures and the legacies of the

companies that we’ve brought together

and as we started to move more quickly

in the acquisitions it was more hey

let’s get good at this and let’s you

know i had to say it like this let’s

roll them up quickly and move on to the

next one

but slowing down and paying attention to

that legacy and learning more about it

and figuring out what made them great

sustainable and even a company we would

want to acquire and how can we bring

that into our company i think that

that’s one of the biggest lessons where

i’m glad we learned quickly so that you

know in future opportunities

in future situations we’re going into it

knowing that we want to preserve a lot

of that and we want to learn about a lot

of that and then maximize that and and

even you know duplicate that across you

know our entire platform

i’m assuming you have a process for all

this how difficult was it to come up

with that process

it is still evolving so every single

opportunity is different so just like we

like to say every client is unique every

acquisition is unique every company is

unique and we don’t want to be robotic

about it it’s almost one of those things

where we don’t want to get good we don’t

want to have too much of a formulaic

approach we really want to take each

step by step together with the members

of the team

that are coming aboard and with the

former owners and plot that course

together make decisions together and not

necessarily handy heavy-handedly come in

and say this is the global way

yes there are things that we think we do

well but there’s also things that work

in different regions for different

companies for different client you know

type industry type

that we shouldn’t necessarily force

alternative approaches in

mike when you’re 85 what do you want the

world to say about you

who that’s a that’s a good one number

one i’m just happy i made it to b85 uh

but i would say that

ultimately we lived up to our

commitments that i lived up to our

commitments

as we go about this and we grow our

company we have a commitment to our

people we have a commitment to involve

the careers of the people at our company

we have a commitment to our clients

we have a commitment to the families of

the people at our company so the list

goes on and on so it’s very important to

me that i and our senior leaders are

seen as as people that have followed

through with that and i don’t plan on

going anywhere so i fully intend to be

retiring out of global water maybe at 85

and i hope that when that retirement

party happens people are saying that guy

actually he followed through he did it

he did everything he said he was going

to do

i bet they’re going to have to force you

to take that retirement

mike what would you say your most

rewarding day has been in water

treatment

honestly i would say i’m going to get

corny here and i’m going to say it was

my wedding day and that’s a that’s it’s

going to be a long answer so bear with

me here but

you know being a family

oriented business and a small business

and independently owned business

global water

kind of infringes on the personal side

of things so i am very very fortunate

that my wife is super understanding of

that and my biggest fan and my biggest

cheerleader and she asked for one thing

and she was she said i hope and i and i

pray that you will be present throughout

the wedding and the wedding process and

the wedding week and i will tell you

that my entire team the entire company

my chief operating officer my vp of

sales and marketing pat morgan

everyone went out of their way to ensure

that i could i could actually fulfill

that promise um and that request to my

wife and it was just so awesome because

you know i pour my heart and soul into

this and and so many of our team does

i’m not the only one but to be able to

for the first time turn my phone off for

days on end

and

and know that everybody had my back it

just showed the evolution of the

business and where we are there was a

point in time where ali and i were

traveling in paris in uh 2016. we were

over there for a wedding of one of my

great friends from college and we were

in front of the eiffel tower and i’ve

had put international calling on my plan

just in case a client or something

happened and yes i i did take a call

from a irate client in front of the

eiffel tower as i was handing my wife a

rose

and she will never let me live that down

but hopefully i made some progress uh

with that uh with with the wedding

dedication so well mike i think we need

a self-help group for each other because

i have a similar story but i was in rome

what is a little-known fun fact

about mike byerly

yeah so uh

obviously i’m from chicago and i don’t

try and hide it um everybody knows that

maybe i sound like it but truthfully i’m

a country boy living a city boy life

my dad’s from kentucky and growing up

some of my most fond memories are back

on the farm in in hickory kentucky and

honestly that’s my happy place so when i

think of home you know i grew up in the

suburbs of chicago but when i think of

home i think of kentucky i’m very

fortunate that we still own the property

my dad was born on the property that was

in my grandmother and grandfather’s you

know

estate

and we can go down there my sister you

know my mother and and really kind of

just let go and be there you know it’s

like no other experience and um you know

with that that means i’m an outdoorsman

i love hunting i love i love shooting i

love um fishing and uh we do have some

ponds and uh going out back behind the

house and uh just sitting there for two

three hours right before sundown and

catching bluegill in the pond is

probably the best therapy i could ever

ask for

you’ve taken some mastermind calls from

that backyard it’s gorgeous

i have yes

we’re all envious

mike what advice do you have for

somebody that’s just gotten into water

treatment recently

yeah so i’m gonna you know go back to it

i’ve been saying it for a long time i

say it’s members of my team i say it’s

people that we interview if you decide

to go into water treatment lean in it is

an industry like no other there is

something for everybody in this industry

from the business side to the sales side

to the creative marketing design side to

the technical side it is endless and

there’s very few industries that are

like that and that truthfully

can impact

industry the environment the economy uh

so this really has all of that i didn’t

know that when i was going into the

industry and i’m just so fortunate that

i had the entry point that i did that i

am where i am and got into something

like water treatment where honestly i’m

still here because the the opportunities

are endless so oftentimes as a you know

in today’s world we all have social

media we all have our phones and you

know i’m guilty of it too i’m bouncing

between apps i’m bouncing between

stories and uh it’s easy to get the

shiny object and not stay on track you

know uh nowadays water treatment is one

of those things where you cannot get

distracted if you’re in this field get

in this field stay in this field and

lean in

it will be worth it career-wise it’ll be

worth it as far as you know

sustainability for yourself your family

work life balance you can find all of

that here and oftentimes people do get

distracted by that shiny object and they

bounce around and bounce out and one of

the most disappointing things that i

come across are people we interview

candidates that we interview that are

between you know let’s say they’re at

another company in water treatment but

they’re also interviewing outside the

industry and i hate when they decide to

go outside the industry for whatever

reason because oftentimes

there’s probably a cap there’s probably

some somewhere where they might have to

jump again you can literally do

everything

imaginable in this industry

i love that answer well let’s shift

gears just a little bit and now it’s

time for the lightning round are you

ready for those questions

sure am

all right

you now have the ability to go back in

time and talk to your former self on

your very first day

as a water treater what advice would you

give yourself

i think i would probably predicate it

with uh hold on it’s going to be a wild

ride

but i would honestly say um you know i

tell myself trust your gut make hard

decisions faster you know problems and

tough situations kind of magnify over

time so sometimes you know if it’s an

issue with a client and something

elongates or it’s an employee issue you

know i kind of had a soft-handed

approach i’m not saying take a

hard-handed approach but be a little bit

more definitive and you know

be okay with being a leader even though

you are young and um you know i i really

think that had somebody been in my

corner earlier on i would have been a

little bit more comfortable and there

could have been some hurdles that i

could have avoided that even today i

might have you know repercussions from

or those were the hurdles that you

needed to make the decisions that you’re

making right now you know what i’m gonna

go with that one

what are some of your favorite books

yeah so

i guess

i’ll go with some of the books that i’ve

uh recently

listened to

so i do a lot of traveling and driving

and whatnot so audible is the water

treaters friend pretty robust audible

account so recently i listened to green

lights by uh matt mcconaughey uh so that

one was pretty interesting hearing his

life story life experiences and i wasn’t

expecting it to be a self-help or

motivating type book but it ended up

being you know very much so that talking

about how there are yellow lights red

lights you know so diversions or stops

and and uh you know caution periods but

there’s a way to live your life there’s

approaches that you can take to ensure

that you encounter more green lights so

it’s a apt analogy to life itself and in

in learning about his approach was

pretty interesting

i believe he you know grew up in texas

and definitely has that texas mentality

and mantra

which might be a little bit different

from the midwest especially the upper

midwest but just his uh his theory and

approach was definitely interesting and

uh i happened to listen to that one uh

you know good portion of it with my wife

and uh she

definitely called me out for aligning

too much with some of those approaches

other than that um

i love trevor noah

um i i read or i listened to born a

crime uh which is his memoir and you

know he’s a comedian and you never

really think about comedians being

serious or the traumas in their life or

what they might have gone through but

you know even the title itself born a

crime he was born in africa and his

father was european so having that

intermixing was actually so frowned upon

it was virtually a crime it might have

actually been a crime hearing all of

that and how somebody could go through

so much and then end up uh being so

successful and bringing so much light

and humor to

topics like politics or you know the

pandemic you know trying to get through

it you know it really just is a tribute

to the strength of of people and also

kind of shows you that you know we have

a good and trials and tribulations we go

through aren’t necessarily as robust or

or harmful or crazy as what other people

go through so it puts it in perspective

if a movie got made about your life who

do you want playing mike

i have no idea but i will default

to a meme that somebody made of me back

in college uh so a younger fraternity

brother i dressed up as i forgot what it

what it was it was like an 80s party or

whatnot and they’ve got a picture of me

and i look like tom hiddleston in in the

picture uh you know loki from from the

avengers and uh for whatever reason it

stuck people talked about it and you

know they say that i that i look very

similar or have some similar mannerisms

approaches and things like that not to

loki but to tom

make that distinction yes

my last question if you had the ability

to speak to anybody throughout history

who would you choose and why

so i’m gonna have to say two and one is

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