The following transcript is provided by YouTube. Mistakes are present. To hear the podcast episode, click HERE.
[Music] foreign [Music]
up Nation most of us have on our to-do list to read more but the fact of the
matter is we can only read a book when we are in the right place to read a book
and we are in our cars and awful lot that’s why audible is such a powerful
tool to make sure that you are staying up to date on the latest information
newest trends and how to make your day-to-day better by having audible read
your books to you turn your car time into classroom time and get to reading
all those books that you have on your list go to our affiliate link scalingup h2o.com forward slash audible to get a
free book and a free month so you can see why I’ve been using Audible for
years [Music]
welcome to scaling up H2O the podcast where we scale up on knowledge so we don’t scale up our systems I’m Trace
Blackmore the host of the scaling up H2O podcast and Nation can you believe it this is our
294th show now I know if you’ve been a long time listener of the show you know
we are well into the 300s but for some reason I tried to label all of the shows
very weird in the beginning and I would did like a 12.1 a 12.2 and nobody cared
about that they just wanted a number I guess that just goes to show you whenever you try to do something new you
are going to learn along the way and when you try to do something new publicly like give a podcast to an
industry publicly you can see when I made not the best decisions so we just
decided instead of going back and renumbering all those old episodes we would just run with it so officially
294 episodes and I am just amazed at
that number I remember my very first time I sat in front of a microphone and
it wasn’t even a microphone it was my Bluetooth headset and I didn’t know what
to say I didn’t know how to say it and I surely did not think that anybody would
ever listen to it Nation I am sure glad I got over that initial fear because I
didn’t know this but doing this podcast would become the thing that I look
forward to most it was the thing that scared me the most and it was the thing
that put me in front of people that I didn’t know I didn’t know the most I
love it when people come up to me and they let me know that they enjoy this
podcast they tell me something they did because of this podcast and when I think
back of how scared I was when I had that Bluetooth headset on and how bad episode
number one was I’m sure glad that I
battled through that because I look forward to speaking to you each and
every week and I so much look forward to meeting all the people that I meet
because of this podcast we’ve got almost 20 000 listeners and over 90 countries
now it is amazing we’ve been rated in the top five percent of podcast which is
just baffling to me and it’s all because of all the work that you are doing the
fact that you listen to this podcast is amazing it was my hope that my wife
would listen to this podcast by the way she doesn’t I was just hoping that somebody would give me a like on social
media I think she’s listened to a couple and I I think she’s like some of our social media posts but I didn’t expect
too much more than that so the stats I just gave you are just amazing to me
thank you for all of you out there being part of what we call the scaling up
nation and it’s my hope that as we continue another 300 plus episodes that
you let me know what you want me to talk about you’ve heard me use this drill every single podcast I want to make sure
we’ve got plenty of information to share with you so feel free to share that information
with us by going to scalingup h2o.com go over to our show ideas section and you
can tell us all about it you can also leave a voicemail by clicking the leave
voicemail button and if it’s a question we might use your question to open up
that part of the show and then answer that question maybe I might answer it
maybe we’ll get another expert in the field to answer it but we’ll never
answer it if you don’t ask it so again that’s scaling up h2o.com go over to our
show ideas page and speaking of ideas as you know a great idea to have is how are
you going to increase your knowledge so we have lots of ways to do that on
the show and we’re going to talk about that but first off if you are in the
field of water treatment that I am in you want to go to the association of water Technologies Technical Training
seminars you’ve got two opportunities for that February 21st through 23rd in
San Diego California and then another one March 29th through April 1st in
Pittsburgh Pennsylvania folks I’ve been talking about this for the last couple of weeks it is my favorite thing to do
all year for so many reasons one I’m very active in the Technical Training
seminar but I also get to meet so many of you so I hope to meet you at one of
these Technical Training seminars and if you want to learn more about them you
can go to scalingup h2o.com and go over to our events page page I will tell you
that time is running out if you want to go to the San Diego California
installment and then you have a little bit more time for the Pittsburgh installment of that training I hope to
see you there and something that always gets asked to me is can I take my
certified water technologist exam at that venue now for those of you
that have been involved with the cwt or with the association of water
Technologies for a longer period of time you remember we always wrapped up the
Technical Training seminars with that exam well folks that was back when it
was a paper exam and we don’t have that anymore we have it so much easier on you
where you can sleep in your own bed the night before
you and your own Hometown can schedule when you take the exam and we’ve got all
of that information available for you on a free
cwt Prep course so what I’ve done I’ve created a cwt prep course that is going
to build your confidence around taking the certified water technologist
examination and I’ve created a free version of that course where I go
through everything you need to know about taking the exam about signing up
for the exam about studying for the exam about making sure that you’re scheduling
things properly so how much is that going to cost you well that is completely free you can go
straight to scaling up h2o.com forward slash cwt prep and you can take that
free course now here’s the thing that is the first few sections of the paid
course and the paid course will give you a hundred questions to sort of get you
into the flavor of what to expect when you sit for your cwt and boost your
confidence so you can take the exam I firmly believe we have so many future
cwts out there but they do not have the
confidence to sit and take the exam I fully believe if they did they would
pass the examination so it’s my hope that you get a little bit more
confidence to do what what you need to do so you can sign up for that certified
water technologist examination and become one of the elite in the
industrial water treatment industry and get your certified water technologist designation once again that’s scaling up
h2o.com forward slash cwt prep
Nation you might remember a few weeks back I was talking to my friend Scott on
episode 292 and he challenged me with reading more books this year and of
course when I say reading I’m talking about listening and how am I listening to it I’m talking about Audible and
listening at a higher rate well I’m about a month and a half into that
experiment and let me tell you Scott was right I am now well over two times speed
depending on the author I’m either at 2.3 to 2.7 depending on how the author
is naturally speaking and I have good retention so hopefully you’ve joined me
in that challenge to see if you can read more books this year and it’s not how
fast you read them it’s the information that you’re retaining from them so don’t just put it on 11 000 speed to say that
you did it make sure you’re actually getting something out of it there are
several people that have joined me in this Challenge and that’s always so much fun for me to hear that people are
actually listening to what I’m trying and they’re trying that out for themselves and if you do not have a
subscription to audible you can get a free month and a free book by going to
our affiliate page and that’s scaling up h2o.com forward slash audible now let me
give you a little bit of warning if that is the first time you’re listening to audible do not increase it any more than
the default which is a one-time speed just get used to listening to books
audibly that takes a little bit of practice and then once you get used to
that you can take this challenge along with me and so many other other people in the scaling up nation and I wonder
what number I’m going to hit this year now it’s not about the number for me
it’s about what I’m able to learn what I’m able to determine I didn’t know I
didn’t know and you hear me say that all the time that’s something I’m always looking for what information do I not
know that I don’t know and reading is the best way that I have found to do
that other than making sure I’m in rooms with other people that are teaching me
things I didn’t know that I didn’t know so a great way to do that is to read and
a great way to read when you are a busy water treater is by Audible and again
you can get a free book and a free month by going to scalinguph2o.com forward slash Audible
Nation I feel this podcast is all about learning and challenging ourselves and
somebody that helps us do this each and every week is our friend James McDonald
and here is another installment of periodic water table with James hello
and welcome to the periodic water table with James where we think and learn about water chemistry drop by drop
please use your week to search online ask your colleagues or even pick up a
book to learn more about each week’s periodic water table topic if you do at
the end of the year you’ll be 52 water chemistry smarter so let’s raise the water table of knowledge together and
get started today’s topic is sodium hypochlorite or bleach
what is the concentration difference between retail and Industrial sodium hypochlorite
what is the shelf life of it what can make sodium hypochlorite degrade
what is its chemical formula what happens to sodium hypochlorite when it mixes with water
how does it impact microorganisms what are common usage concentrations for
sodium hypochlorite does Demand versus residual mean anything what about free
versus total residuals how high does its concentration have to be in water before you can start
smelling it what is the reservoir effect how do you test for sodium hypochlorite
in the field will high sodium hypochlorite levels impact the test how may the presence of ammonia impact
sodium hypochlorite applications remember knowledge is power and taking
the time to learn more about water chemistry each week will help make you a force to be reckoned with
be sure to post what you learn to social media and tag it with hashtag water table23 and hashtag scalingup H2O I look
forward to learning more from you James thank you for that Nation it’s
always amazing all the things that James McDonald helps out with and James
teaches us all the time what do we not know we do not know and James has got a
book out there we talk about it a little bit on this show but it’s called drop by drop will have a link you can go to
scalingup h2o.com forward slash drop by drop and that will be an affiliate link
straight to his book I’m sure James would appreciate it if you check that out there is so much information in
there about our field of water treatment a lot of people don’t know that it exists so there you go James McDonald
has written a book and it’s been out for a while and it doesn’t read like a story
but it’s all his technical bulletins that he has put together over the years it’s a great resource for me and I’ve
got to be honest and James knows that this when I couldn’t think of a topic I would just randomly open his book and
whatever I turned to that became a scaling up H2O podcast episode so James
thank you for giving me a magic eight ball for somehow deciding on what
content we were going to talk about in the early years James is such a help to
the scaling up H2O podcast One Nation here is our interview [Music]
my lab partner today is John Mullen director of Technical Services of I atmo
John welcome to the scaling up H2O podcast hey how you doing Trace doing great so
you and I met briefly at the association of water Technologies conference you did a round table conversation up in the the
middle of the big room and shared that you were a fourth generation plumber how
about that yes sir that was a good experience getting up there talking to the crowd water treaters it was great to
be in the room it was nice to be invited it was a great presentation and I love presentations by people like yourself
because it’s not just theoretical data it’s this is what I know this is what is
going on because I experienced it yeah that’s a lot of what I try to bring to the to the table you know I’m trying to
bring my past experiences here as a plumber and um you know involve all the other aspects of what it is we do it’s
in the built environment with a plumbing mechanical you know when it comes to the engineers everybody involved right down to the end you just you know trying to
get everybody on the same page talking to one another let’s talk about iatmo for a second because that’s an acronym that people
are probably aware of especially with the ass C 12080 but in case people don’t
know about that what is Imo so atmo is the International Association
of plumbing and mechanical officials iatmo does a lot of different things uh for the for the industry but we’re
really an industry partner we are the Secretariat of the uniform plumbing codes and uniform mechanical codes so um
those documents are produced by iatmo um through our committees and and whatnot through the NC process we also do a lot
of r t work we do education work um we’re really here to just support the trades you know and support support the
plumbing industry as a whole so and then you all partnered up with a
couple of different people and you created some training around the asse
12080. how did that come to be well the industry needed it I mean there’s been a lot of issues with
Legionella throughout the country I mean it’s been on the rise I mean people know about it now it’s it’s in the news all the time so there was there was
definitely a need for education so it started with the clinicians people in hospitals and things like that in the
aqua side of the business and then it’s their started trickling its way down through the facilities directors and down to the plumbers and there’s a need
to understand the the risks that are associated with our plumbing system so this program came out to kind of get
everybody in the same room talking about all the situations all the issues learning from one another and it’s a
it’s been a great tool I mean it’s really expanded throughout the industry and people are really widely accepting it as the premium training for Water
Management Systems how many people do you know and you maybe you don’t have this data that have
become certified I don’t have that data off the top of my head but um I know it’s growing every
single day I know it’s starting to make its way in certain legislations and things like that and it’s uh it’s
getting there yeah and we we appreciate you guys doing all that you do especially sharing that with the
association of water Technologies like you did just a couple of months ago let me ask about your job as the Director of
Technical Services what is your day-to-day like well I do a lot of different things so
it’s a pretty diverse role so time management is definitely required so um utilizing systems is kind of how I get
through my day so I kind of break it down to some buckets you know that I’m an organized guy that’s kind of what I
do I like to break things down into lean actionable ways of handling my day and the way I’ve grouped my things into uh
internal work external work and and deep and focused work so the internal work is really what I do primarily at iatmo my
bread and butter work which is uh running the Innovation task groups as staff liaison so I’m working with the hydrogen piping task group the medical
gas resiliency task group and the construction practice for potable water I’m also working with the order demand
calculator Group which is working on some really interesting stuff coming down the pike and then I work on the external stuff as well so I engage with
similar groups outside of my organization try to break down those walls and open source good information really just build relationships with
others in the industry and uh just make sure we’re all working together and then the other portion is my deep in Focus
work which is really my writing my public engagement my online engagement attending technical trainings keeping myself Sharp watching the trends and uh
just hanging out with the industry leaders just trying to understand what it is that we can do to help them
so for somebody listing out there that wants to find out more about iatmo maybe
become a member who should be a member of Imo well it starts with the plumbing
apprentices I mean a lot of times the The Apprentice programs um are now including the IMO membership with their
Apprentice apprenticeship because it’s it’s good training on the codes our codes are model codes in the throughout the country where we offer a lot of
different services with the membership service and then where can you direct people to go if they want to learn more sure if
you would like to learn more you can check out um uniformcodes.org that’s a great place to learn more about what we’re doing or um The Authority podcast
is another great place to check out the things that we’re working on currently at IMO excellent so we’re all curious
what are some of the projects that you guys are working on for 2023 2023 is going to be a big year so um we
got a lot coming up got some some major projects going on with ayatmo with the water demand calculator we’re trying to scale that project out towards the
commercial and Healthcare sector so we’re working with a lot of different partners in the industry on data
collection aggregation and trying to work on right sizing Plumbing Systems to make sure that they’re safe so we’re
working on that internally and another big one that I’ve been involved with personally has been the hydrogen piping
task Group which is in a another interesting Trend to follow as uh our country goes through some energy transitions we’re starting to see this
become a trend so we want to make sure that we have the right language in our code book to make sure the installations
are safe let’s talk a little bit about that because I’m sure there are several listeners that are unclear what you’re
talking about with hydrogen piping what’s going on why do we need codes around that like any guess I mean you’re gonna
You’re Gonna Want Some code some language in terms of leak detection materials for joints and things of that nature there’s all types of corrosion
issues when it comes to hydrogen gas specifically that have to be taken into consideration have to be fully
understood before they just make their way into buildings so right now it seems to be the trend is talking about
blending they’re talking about blending natural gas with hydrogen right now it seems like 20 seems to be the max of
which they can do without there being major impacts on the existing piping systems so it seems like the the
industry’s playing around those ideas of Blends and we have to be ready for it they’ll be there’ll be apartment changes
like uh I imagine Valves and you know different types of connectors and leak detections and quick connects stuff like
that will will be a little different from the the natural gas or the steel products that we’re currently working with but you know we’re here to kind of
follow those Trends work with the manufacturers work with the engineers and uh just make sure when it does come
down the pike and it starts making its way into buildings the plumbers know what they’re doing the inspectors know what to look for and ultimately it’s
safe to occupy the buildings so you know that that’s the goal is just talking it through
your family’s been in the plumbing business for four generations I know you
guys get together it’s got to be a plumbing conversation every Thanksgiving so I’m curious uh when we look back at
your family what are some of the biggest changes that you’ve seen over the generations or that your family has seen
over the generations yeah I mean Plumbing only recently has hit this new stride I feel like you know
there’s been a lot of stagnant growth I would say in terms of like new age products throughout the last couple
decades I mean piping’s been what it is with new things coming out like Plastics and different Technologies around fire stopping you know there’s been a lot of
digitalization of things it’s really been kind of what I’ve been watching I I enjoy I enjoy the making making things
smarter and um automated I like the idea of automating products and automating Plumbing Systems collecting data
watching the systems virtually is uh is a pretty cool thing to see in terms of
the change that occurred but it almost seems like it happened overnight you know it seems like a lot of the things my father taught me when I was a kid I
used write up through my apprenticeship and I was pouring lead joints in my in my fifth year so you know it’s uh and
that wasn’t that long ago so it’s been an exponential growth I would say over the past 10 years 10 to 15 years and
it’s it’s been really cool to watch you know there’s been a lot of innovation did you know growing up that’s what you
were going to do no growing up I did not want to be a plumber no I wasn’t even sure I wanted
to be a plumber when I was an apprentice to be honest with you I I straight away from the path a few times and uh something always brought me back in you
know it’s just it’s been my life it’s been something I was born into and it is it is hard to get away from you know you
there’s a love there for it it’s a passion for for doing what we do and Building Things so it’s hard to get away
from it do you think there’ll be a generation five I hope so you know I I have a I have a
son and a daughter and uh both of them seem interested in engineering and um and buildings and all the things that I
talk about around the house and we build things together here at home and I keep them engaged in all sorts of different types of uh you know
learning and Engineering aspects of uh you know the world we we basically built you know the ones are family built so
it’s it’s cool to share that knowledge with them and hopefully they uh they want to continue it but ultimately it’s
up to them so at the awt you shared a wealth of
knowledge question I have for you is how do us industrial water treators work
better with folks like you to make sure that we are getting the best product to
the customer that things are designed correctly that things are operated correctly how can we do that job better
together I would just say um participation is is really key right now you know there’s a
lot of stuff going on with committees and task groups and all this it’s actually it’s really um it’s great to
see I mean there’s a there’s a lot going on there’s a lot of people working on a lot of different projects and nobody’s certain which one to go towards but the
participation is the most important part getting people to actually come to these tables and sit with these groups and
talk to people and hear the other sides of what they do you know the the other people it affects the Ripple effects and
and how one thing you do may affect the next group or not to set them up for Success somehow and it’s great to
actually get everybody in the right rooms talking to one another about the same topic so I would say participate
get involved in some of these local committees join a local group join an International Group I mean ayatmo has
Innovation task groups that run every couple months for about a year at a time and it’s volunteer you come in it’s all
virtual it’s on Zoom it’s actually a lot of fun we sit there we chat we come up with different things some people choose
to be writers some people choose to be reviewers but at the end of the day we all help we all help move this industry
forward and provide some real actionable guidance for the for the people out there in the field you obviously have a passion for
creating content can you tell us a little bit about throw a wrench in your plans
well thorough wrench on your plans is actually a it’s a book idea I came up with in 2019 so you know like I
mentioned earlier you know as an apprentice I wasn’t even sure I wanted to stay with plumbing I you know I’ve been doing it all my life I I veered off
I went down different paths and the whole idea of this book is to basically explain that there’s more options than
just being a plumber when you when you learn the trade there’s a lot that people don’t understand there’s estimation there’s drafting there’s
Health Care there’s engineering there’s data center management there’s all these different things that and I’ve met so
many people throughout the past decade or so who have started as a plumber or their father was a plumber and they used
to do side work with them and it taught them some things that they were able to take with them into the next career and
it’s really interesting to see the trade and and where you can go with it so I want to I want to tell those stories you
know my story is an interesting one so my story will be in there as well but uh the whole idea is to help publish other
people’s stories and get them out there for the benefit of the next generation of plumbers so people did want to just consume all
the content that you create where can they find that well I like to play on social media so you’ll see me a lot on
social media but that’s my private stuff I do a lot of that stuff that’s my voice speaking um not through iatmo but again
I do the best I can to represent the industry as a whole and be there to help everybody so I you can find me on social
media and uniformcodes.org but you’ll see a lot of my technical writing and hopefully some
other Publications throughout the next couple years a lot of people are trying to create content that is definitely how people
are getting known in their industry these days do you have any tips for our
listeners on how you create content I really just play to be honest with you
I enjoy I enjoyed the play with it I I tried to treat it as less of a job
and just have more fun with sharing interesting things that I find with so
much exposure to everything all at once it’s really hard to get good information or interesting stuff you know it’s all thrown at us in this new way of the
internet you know so it’s you know if you follow me you’ll you’ll hear the latest news in plumbing you’ll hear about different things that are going on
the trades and uh you know hopefully I could be a resource for people in that way and that’s kind of what I tried to
do and I I’m just sharing all the things I care about um you know it’s it’s the projects I’m working on it’s the love of
that the love of building it’s you know you’ll see my family on there you’ll see a little personal stuff I mean I uh I
try to just be authentically me and um I want people to realize that I’m an accessible guy in this industry I want people to know that they can actually
talk to me and call me and ask me a question about Plumbing even if you know
even if they don’t know me I want to be a resource for the industry in any way that I can and and I realize that there’s so many different levels of this
industry now even talking to your side of the business in the water treatment side you know you guys need people to talk to in the plumbing world too so
it’s great for us to be Crossing these paths and talking to one another and just constantly making sure that we know
that we’re accessible so I think that’s kind of the goal of me being out there on social media and trying to be a you
know a face for the industry in a sense so I love it that’s awesome as somebody that also tries to create content I’m
curious do you have goals that you want to do so many posts over a particular moment in time do you have uh so many
words that you want to get out in a in a technical paper do you have any goals that you work towards towards that
you know I used to work like that I used to I used to make a lot of plans and a lot of goals but um I’ve learned to just
let creation happen and not force it that’s kind of been like the the key to
me actually getting more traction out there and getting people to engage with me is not forcing it not trying to hit a
certain Mark not trying to post every single day not trying to overload people with information but just try to be real
you know I don’t I don’t want to look like a bot I don’t want to look like a bot out there just pumping out content
like I have some sort of uh you know machine behind me this is coming from me it’s me actually reading that article in
the morning and just sharing with y’all and then so long as I keep doing that I think I’ll hopefully continue to have success and hopefully be able to help
people and you know it’ll pay me pay back in dividends when people say hey John you know I read that article you sent that and it really helped me out
with this project or um you know that job you share that you know I got that you know like that those types of things
actually have started to happen in my life just from sharing on social media and it’s a it’s been really cool to
watch so I’ve been enjoying it I will say personally that’s one of the most rewarding things for me as well when
somebody says hey I actually used something that you put out there it feels real good it makes you feel like
you’re really doing what you’re supposed to be doing and you know in the second half of my career this is what it’s all about it’s about helping and giving back
to others creating good products and just again like being there for people you know helping it’s important
I try to encourage people to find the trade organization that represents their
industry and volunteer for that there’s just so much knowledge there’s a wealth
of experience that whether you’re a couple of days in the industry or years
in the industry there is a place and a need for you so with that being said how
did you go from a member to a leader in Imo from a member to a leader well I
started out on one of the task groups actually so I I hooked up with Kristoff online another social media Guru and uh
him and I linked up right away and we knew together that him and I would work together on some interesting projects so
he brought me into the fold actually and uh this was while I was working at the hospital you know I was encouraged
working at the hospital to get involved in some of these projects and help the industry grow in terms of health and safety so that’s kind of how I got
involved it was more of a I guess voluntol through the hospital in in some regard to to get involved with some of
these some of these external organizations and then uh and then you find out that you’re in the right room and you you’re you know these are your
people and and you’re talking to the right group and once I once I made it to that group and you know I stayed I I was
I was hooked so I knew once once we started making making documents and I was like this is this is where I want to
be I want to make things that are going to last a long time that are going to be in this industry maybe Outlast me and
this is one way I can do it so when the opening came up to join the team and work with Kristoff and be on his team I
had to jump at it and we uh we’ve been doing we’ve been doing good work together ever since so it’s been about a year now and it’s been a lot of fun
any tips for people out there or companies out there that are simply just paying the dues and they’re not getting
anything out of their trade organizations it’s very hard to get volunteers to do
extra especially when things are busy right now you know but I think what I atmo does differently is we do provide them with the resources that they need
so I think when these groups have volunteers and the volunteers maybe aren’t paying their dues as you said or
participating in in writing the standards or reviewing the standards Maybe by providing them with additional
tools and additional help or access to those tools through membership will help them engage in in writing the next
version of the next iteration of it sometimes people don’t even realize that these documents exist so having the
library in front of them maybe give somebody an option to review something and say well you know I have
something to say about that and maybe that starts a whole new group or a whole new task group a whole new committee and
you know we go back to the drawing board and that’s kind of the beauty of codes and standards and and it’s it’s constantly changing you know it’s always
changing and we have to we have to look at it that way so if somebody were trying to check out
a Trade Organization let’s say specifically iatmos and they were looking at all the content in the
library what are some of the things that they’ll find one of the things you’ll find is the answer is an analysis portal so we have
a uniform plumbing code and uniform Mechanical Code and both of those code groups have the answers and Analysis
code committee so online you can go on to atmo.org and you can submit a code
question and the code question comes directly through me and it gets processed through the committee I’m
staff liaison on those groups and the committee will answer the question in a
thorough response and it’s been used in so many different ways throughout the industry to really help finish projects
or maybe integrate something new that maybe an inspector hasn’t seen before perhaps so it’s been it’s been a tool
that the industry has been using and it’s been that’s something that that I think the members get access to that non-members do not is
that answer analysis database so that’s a nice tool to have yeah definitely if you’re paying for a
membership you should go to the website and check out all the things that you
probably don’t know that you now have access to yep for sure and there’s a lot of content I mean uh IMO has a has a
great group of volunteers who’ve worked on a lot of awesome uh Publications over the years and and it’s stocked there in
our library I mean this this there’s a lot to use I was a member of the association of water Technologies board for several
years and I just got so frustrated that we would work on things the Committees would work on things and nobody would
know about it that was one of the reasons that I started this podcast just to create a voice that hey go look at
this stuff so I know that it is frustrating when things are out there and people don’t
know about it so I guess that’s the plea from both of us if you’re paying dues somewhere go figure out what you’re
paying those dues for and there’s probably so much more information out there than you realize that you now have
access to it’ll more than pay for whatever you’re paying for in dues
absolutely and plus you have access to the group who wrote it you know the you you can really uh you can hear the
intention you can you could sit down and speak with the committee who put the proposal together or or whatnot and uh
you know it does get you access to the inside it’s an organization made up of plumbers and manufacturers and engineers
and it’s it’s industry people I mean it’s a pretty cool group to be a part of now our listeners can’t see this but
you’ve got some pretty cool equipment in front of you you shared with me earlier before we started recording that you’ve
been playing guitar for pretty much your entire life tell us about that yeah I started playing guitar when I was
seven and uh funny enough you know I I played in a band for most of my life actually um almost through all my high school
years even into a little bit of college I played in a touring band played shows for a lot of years singer-songwriter put
it down for a lot of years and now I got a nine-year-old daughter who just picked it up so we’re playing and you know I
just moved my whole family down to North Carolina from New York and we’re building a little studio in the basement we’re gonna have some fun we’re gonna
make some some videos so you might see us uh you know on Tick Tock or something in the future doing some dad some daddy
daughter uh concert we look forward to that and if if that happens we will make sure to to send that post to our
listeners we’re in North Carolina are you I’m down in Charlotte South Charlotte out in the woods we’re only a
couple hours from each other yeah I’m really I’m really enjoying it down here it’s been a real change of pace change
of culture but uh I love it it’s all about the kids there we go if somebody
just joined us right now and you could only get one point across to them what
would you want that point to be I would say preserve your energy this is a long game you got to enjoy this
process in the beginning I hate it hard and fast I wanted things to come real quickly this industry is a long game
there’s a lot of Ripple effects and there’s a lot of a lot of nuance that needs to be known and the only way to
know that is really by getting involved so again participation is key
understanding who who your stakeholders are who your partners are well we’re going to shift gears just
slightly and go to our lightning round question so these are questions that I ask of all of my guests and we kind of
compare and see how everybody answers so question number one if you can go back in time and talk to your former self on
your first day as a technical director what advice would you give yourself
don’t overextend yourself you can’t be there for everybody in every group but
if you have something to say say it because it comes from a place of experience and sometimes you bite your
tongue you don’t want to say say things you know just because you’re a new guy or you’re uh you know you’re starting somewhere fresh in a new type of
business but there’s a reason they brought you to that table you know and I’m a plumber sitting with some really
smart people all the time so I oftentimes feel like uh you know the Imposter syndrome settling in and uh it
is difficult to express yourself but when you when you do people actually appreciate it so that’s one thing I could say uh I’m
learning well same question but what if I asked you your first day as a plumber how
would you answer that just enjoy the process you know lean into the suck you know working in the
trades is hard it’s really hard you know there’s but there’s a lot of benefits to it it’s just a great opportunity it’s a
great way to build a life but don’t rush it there’s a lot of opportunities and that’s what I want to share with my book
and stuff too I want to show it this places you can go it’s not just this you know so lean into it lean into the
resistance there’s more ahead of it so I’m going to change my next question a little bit give us a little preview
about your book well I mean I’m going to run through most of my story which is uh you know starting out as a child a child plumber
and then uh you know how the wrench got thrown in my plans you know it’s uh I
don’t want to get into it too much but I had some some health issues come up in my life that really kind of changed the path that I was on so I you know I was
out in the field for a lot of years and unfortunately had some health issues that really threw a wrench in my plans
and kind of made me recalibrate and I’m thankful for it to be honest with you I mean it’s uh you know it’s some of some
of the things I went through I’m better for I had some great mentors along the way that took me out out of the field and
took me under their wing and taught me the other side of the business and um yeah it’s been it’s been really
uh it’s been a ride when Hollywood reads your book and of
course they want to make a movie and they write the script who do you want playing John
uh I don’t know if they’ll make a movie about this book but uh if I was going to be you know if if they made a movie
about me I’m sure it would be some sort of cheesy comedy maybe the guy who gets the second chance
you know who realized that uh you know you’ve been busy chasing some things you really didn’t need in life and uh yeah you get that second chance and do you
have a particular actor in mind to play that oh an actor um no no not particularly
you out you have to think about that and post that on social media when you when you get an answer
last question if you could talk with anybody throughout history who to be with and why oh well I’m a big comedy nerd so I’d
like to have a beer with George Carlin and just talk politics I think that would be an interesting
conversation for today’s age yeah most of the stuff that he did you probably could not do today yeah yeah
and a lot of what he said May in fact ring true as well so it’ll be really funny it’d be a real fun conversation to
have so absolutely so have you done some stand-up yourself no I’m just a big fan I’ve I’ve gone and
seen stand up my whole life I join entertainers I like people who have craft I like people who write I like
people who get up and let it all out there and you know aren’t afraid to uh Express
themselves one of my mentors uh suggests that everybody try stand up at least once at
an open mic night it develops your chops a little bit it really puts things in
perspective when you think you’re nervous when you go up and uh talk to an audience I did it and I can tell you
he’s right yeah I could imagine I mean I’m not I’m very new to the public speaking side of things I you know I told you before I
did have a little experience on stage as a musician but um even with this current role I’m doing a lot more public speaking than I’m used to and you know
getting out there and having the exposure and practicing is there’s nothing like getting out there and doing it and just you know leaning into it
leaning into the resistance feeling uncomfortable well you were fantastic at the association of water Technologies
convention and you were fantastic here on the scale on up H2O podcast so thank you so much for coming on and and
sharing information with us thank you Tracy it was a pleasure
Nation I met John Mullen in Vancouver when the association of water Technologies was having their convention
there the previous year and it’s so good to bring different Industries within the
water treatment industry together because there’s so much that we can
share everybody has their own particular set of knowledge and if we can freely
share that knowledge throughout the different Water Industries I truly
believe there is not a problem that we cannot solve when it comes to water so
if you are looking for an event to go to where you can co-mingle with different
Water Industries please go to scalinguph2o.com go over to our events page and we’ve got everything for the
year that we know of about amount water for you to decide what you want to go to
how you’re going to meet new people and what you are going to do this year so
all that on our events page scaling up h2o.com and I’m sure glad that I go to
these conventions because I get to meet people like John and as you’ve learned
on this interview John creates content and through that content he became very
active in his Association there’s so many people out there that
don’t think they have what it takes to help an association or to create content
and folks let me tell you if I can do this you can do that so with that I’m
going to urge you that if you are thinking about joining a particular
organization that you look into that and then you
send somebody an email within that organization letting them know you want
more information and you attend whatever meeting it is so you can do that it’s
one thing to belong it’s another thing to contribute it takes belonging to a
whole nother level and it allows you to learn so much more because of your
involvement and there’s so many organizations out there that are looking for content and I know that there is
content in you now there might also be some self-doubt in you and you think who is ever going to read something that I
write well folks that is garbage that’s in our own head and it’s very easy to
listen to that it’s also very hard to take the first step and that’s what I
talked about about in the very beginning of this episode and I’m sure glad I did
because of all the benefits that I spoke about so I’m urging you to do that take
the first step and write something or contact somebody and say that you want
to get involved or you at least want to learn how you can get involved what is available for you to get involved in
when you get yourself involved when you teach other people something that you
know something magic happens it accelerates your ability to learn about
that particular topic and then other people see you freely giving and they
want to help you it’s amazing it’s been my entire career and the best advice
somebody gave me when I went into business so many years ago was I needed
to volunteer for the association of water Technologies now maybe the awt is
the group that you need to join maybe it’s another Association but the point was I got some
good advice I’m trying to give that good advice back to pay it forward from that
person from me to you and I hope you find some place that you can give to
because when you give it’s amazing what you get back hey speaking of that coming
up very shortly we have the global 6K from Team World Vision and that Global
6K is taking place on Saturday May 20th and last year we had the scaling up
Nation have their own team so a lot of people they joined with their companies
other people they wanted to do it on their own but they didn’t want to do it alone so they joined team scaling up and
if you want more information about the global 6K for water you can go
to scalingup h2o.com forward slash 6K why is it a 6K and not a 5k well because
the average person that does not have readily available clean drinking water
is walking six kilometers to and from in
order to get that water we want to recognize that we want to solve that we
want to make that so everybody has access to clean drinking water just
imagine how your life would change if you did not have water coming out of the faucet that’s probably 10 feet away from
you right now what would you have to do in your day if you had to walk six
kilometers to get that water well folks when we can solve that issue there are
so many other issues that are solved and I truly believe that we can do it and
one of the ways that we can do it is by learning more about the global Water
Crisis and seeing what we can do and something that we can do to do both of
those things is by going to scalingup h2o.com forward slash 6K and we can do
something fun by walking running crawling whatever you want to do to go
six kilometers on May 20th to bring some attention to all the children in the
world that do not have clean drinking water one last time because I know you’re getting tired of me saying it
it’s scaling up h2o.com forward slash 6K we’re of course going to be talking more
about this as the year continues but here’s the cool thing about the global
6K so many of us are in the day-to-day every single day of our job job and we
need stuff to celebrate and there’s World water day there’s industrial water week but then there’s this activity that
allows us to not only celebrate what we do as industrial water treaters but
actually give back to the planet give back the water that we so graciously
treat and that is the global 6K that’s taking place on May 20th you can get
your entire company involved you can get your entire family involved maybe you
have another group that is looking for something fun to do so again I said it’s
the last time I was going to say but I’m going to say one more time scaling up h2o.com forward slash 6K all the
information’s there they will let you know what you need to do a 50 donation will get you into the race it’s amazing
what they can do with fifty dollars they will send you a kit with everything that
you need for the race and you can have so much fun with all the people that you
participate with I hope that you consider that and there’s so many other
organizations out there that are trying to help with the global Water Crisis it’s my hope that you realize that it
truly is a privilege that most of us have clean drinking water and if we did
not have that imagine how different our jobs would be imagine how different our
lives would be Nation lots of things to think about today I’m sure glad that you tuned in to
the scaling up H2O podcast and I will have a brand new episode for you next
week until then take care everybody [Music]
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