The following transcript is provided by YouTube, mistakes are present. To hear the podcast episode click HERE.
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welcome to the scaling up H2O podcast of podcast where we scale upon knowledge so
we don’t scale up our systems my name is Trace Blackmore a nation I am so looking
forward to bringing this episode to you this is an episode where I’m going to
give you an inside look of the rising tide Mastermind and folks I have to say
the rising tide Mastermind is something that is just so amazing and if you
haven’t heard about it it is a group of people within this industry where we get
together and we make each other’s lives better by helping each other that’s the
simple definition I know that sounds weird if you’re not a member and if
you’ve never been a member of a mastermind but the simple premise of a
mastermind is how can we help each other through each other’s experiences
how can we give each other a forum so we can get further faster while having more
fun while we’re doing it that’s what the Mastermind is now how we do it is
probably different in each Mastermind and the rising tide Mastermind we definitely have a specific format that
we follow and we will process issues together and we will get further with
those issues than we could have on our own now I know you have probably heard a
guest that is a rising tide Mastermind member talk about this process but how
we do it is you bring an issue and now you give the issue to the group the
group is not allowed to give you any advice and that is very different than
what we experience in our day today normally you say hey I’m having this issue and somebody immediately says well
this is how you should solve it well I’m sure what you have found is what we have
found is a lot of times that person is off base or they don’t understand all
the things that you know about that issue and you’ve experienced about that issue or you’ve already done that thing
so you thank them for their advice but you really don’t get any further than
before they gave it well on the rising tide Mastermind once you give that issue
to the group we are only allowed to ask clarifying questions and what that means
is we have to ask questions not to lead you to what we want you to do but to ask
questions so we can see your issue through your lens how have you experienced it what have you done why is
it an issue for you what happens if you don’t solve this and now we’re starting
to understand you around your issue once
we have a good grasp of how you are seeing the issue we then shift over to
advice and that is when we ask the member that has the issue not to worry
about responding but simply to just relax and absorb all of the advice that
they are getting ready to give because let’s face it in our day-to-day we normally don’t get good concise feedback
and Forum that we trust each other so with this we just invite the member to
take notes and listen to what all the other members have to say and sometimes
it’s the best advice ever other times maybe it is something that you’ve
already done or you don’t see that working whatever it is you’re going to
take notes on it and then later you can ask the members some questions about things but then the group is going to
ask you what is the next step you’re going to do to solve this issue and then the group holds you accountable to get
that done now I know as I’m speaking and telling you all about this there are
some listeners out there that thinks that sounds horrible and why would anybody ever join a group where they are
going to have to do that and I get it that means this group is not for you
but folks we’ve been doing this for over four years and it has been amazing to
see what people have accomplished within the rising tide Mastermind because of
this format and how people have helped each other and how where somebody gives
an issue and they have no idea how to start and by the time the call is done
they’re on step eight and people are helping them get there
it is a fantastic process and it’s one of the things that we do within the
rising tide Mastermind another thing that we do is we read books and I will
tell you I have been a member of groups before where we read a book a month and
yay I could check the box that I read 12 books within a year but we did nothing
with them and it’s that was one of my pet peeves it’s great to read a book but if I’m not going to do something with
that book I’ve got other things that I need to do so when we started the rising tide Mastermind we said it was not about
the quantity of books it was about the quality of the books so some of the
Mastermind members know this others may not but I normally read five to six books before I decide on what our next
book is so that’s a easy way that I make sure that I’m keeping up with my reading
list and that’s one of the things that I really try to hold myself accountable with is that I’m reading a lot because
that’s how I get new information to bring to the groups but also make my
life better so about every five or six books that I read is a good book for the rising tide Mastermind and we read about
a book a quarter and then we meet within the group to discuss the book to make
sure we’re getting the most out of those books but then we hold each other accountable to do at least one thing
that we learned from that book and sometimes we will read a book that sets
us up to do something for a particular assignment now you might have heard us
talk about the live event with some of the guests that are Mastermind members
well the last book that we had read before the most recent live event was
called Ted Talks by Chris Anderson who’s the CEO of Ted now most people in our
audience have probably seen a TED talk before if you had not go to any browser
and type in Ted and you will be amazed at all of the content that you can find
on just about any topic and there’s a very specific format that you have to do
in order to do a TED talk so the book that we read by Chris Anderson called
Ted Talks taught us that format now it did it by bringing up to light certain
TED Talks that he would talk about and why they were successful or what was the
background story with that and then we used that to form our own TED Talks that
was the assignment we read the book and then we were all going to give a TED
talk at the live event now the live event everybody comes here to Atlanta
and then we just have an amazing time we
have all sorts of things that we have planned like this activity with the Ted Talk we also have an event together we
went to Topgolf for those of you that don’t know that’s kind of a game where you’re at a driving range and we just
had a tremendous time with that but this is all about Fellowship getting to know
your fellow members better and making your whole experience better so
everybody gets to Atlanta and they know the second day of the live event that’s
what we’re doing we’re are doing TED talks and I started out with my TED Talk
and if you can Envision where we were we were in a fairly large conference room and everybody was seated around their
groups now we have about 70 members within the rising tide Mastermind about 10 members in each group so each group
had their own table that they were sitting around and then right in the middle of the room I got a red carpet
dot just like they have at Ted and in the very beginning of our second day
meeting I said good morning to the group and I gave my TED talk so if you will
imagine me standing on the Red Dot giving this TED Talk
[Music] anxiousness apprehensiveness
uneasiness butterflies in your stomach or maybe just plain nervous whatever you
call it we all know the feeling the feeling you get when you are about to do
something new the feeling that lets you know you are about to do something that
makes you uncomfortable if we turn to the dictionary to define the word uncomfortable we read causing or feeling
slight pain or physical discomfort this definition is perfect if we are talking
about exercise we want to get in better shape we start a new exercise program we
are sore the next day but we push through the pain and soon we are able to
lift more weight run faster swim longer our dictionary definition works fine to
describe an athlete straining a muscle but how well does it apply to someone standing in front of an audience giving
a TED Talk of all of the terms that I used earlier I like butterflies in your
stomach the best it’s a very descriptive term but in case you were wondering we
don’t actually have butterflies in our stomachs the medical term is called
hyper stimulation this feeling was a key Instinct for our ancestors when they
were hunting Gathering and learning how to make fire back then if you heard a
stick breaking the night it very well could have been an animal coming to eat you for dinner
butterflies and our ancestors stomachs help them stay alive so what really
happens in the body when we get butterflies in our stomach our blood
vessels constrict sending more blood to the brain to increase our alertness our
bodies produce more adrenaline giving us increasing strength allowing us to
accomplish near impossible tasks our heart rate increases enhancing our
performance by bringing more oxygen to our muscles giving us quicker reaction times all of this is designed to Keep Us
Alive now I don’t know about you but I have no anticipation of a bear coming up on
stage and eating me while I give this TED Talk we as a society have tamed the natural
world to make it safe for the most part but why do we still have this feeling of
butterflies in our stomach to talk about why I’d like to refer to one of my
favorite books The Seven Habits of Highly affected people if you haven’t read the book it’s about seven habits
that highly effective people do sometimes the author Just Nails the title and habit one be proactive the
author Stephen Covey describes what being proactive looks like he draws a
circle inside of a second Circle he names the inside Circle the circle of
influence he then names the outside Circle the circle of concern as we can
Envision the outside circle of concern is far bigger than the inside circle of
influence this represents that there are a lot more things that concern us than
we have actual influence over he explains the more we work on the inside
Circle the bigger it becomes thereby pushing the edges of the circle of
influence into the space where the circle of concern used to occupy giving
us influence over more things I call the edge of the circle of
influence the butterfly line and no you will not find that in the book The
Butterfly line is the internal indicator you feel when you are about to grow
I am experiencing butterflies in my stomach right now when we get this
feeling we have three choices fight flight or freeze if I chose flight there
would be no one standing on this red carpet as I quickly run out that door if
I chose freeze all of us would feel very uncomfortable as we silently stare at
each other but I don’t choose those I choose to push through I choose to fight because I
know that internal indicator that I feel is the butterfly line and after I push
through the pain I will grow I will gain experience I will gain skill I will have
more control over the things I didn’t before I am working right on the
butterfly line as we get older and collect more experiences it gets harder and harder
for butterflies to inhabit our stomachs it is my hope that you seek out that
feeling it is my hope that you get excited when you feel it it is my hope
that you challenge yourself to find activities that force you to grow
because on the other side of that feeling you will have more influence over things that concern you
so the next time you get butterflies in your stomach embrace it celebrate it the
work you are about to do is worth the pain the work is focused right on the
butterfly line that is unless you are in Alaska during bear Mating Season thank
you Nation I am going to give you some
behind the scenes information about that Ted talk so a lot of members of the rise
and Tide Mastermind don’t even know this but weeks before the live event I had a
TED Talk that was written and practiced that I was going to present and then a
week before the live event a member that you are going to hear from James
Courtney he challenged me with making my
TED talk more inspiring to all of the people that we’re about to give their
TED talks and at first I didn’t want to take the effort to rewrite it but I knew
he was right and I decide I I didn’t decide I knew that there were a lot of
people that were apprehensive about giving their TED Talks this might have been the first time they have ever
publicly spoken or the first time in a long time and folks the the simple truth
is we do things in the rising tide Mastermind that other people just don’t do and we do that so we can push
ourselves to be better each and every time that we engage with each other so I
knew that this was a lofty assignment and there were people there that were so
excited and they loved it and then there were other people that were very apprehensive so James encouraged me to
talk with them as I did on a previous Mastermind call in fact he said what you
just said on this Mastermind call I think you need to turn into a TED Talk well I took that not only as great
advice but also a personal challenge could I do a TED talk and do it with a
within the boundaries that we learned within the book Ted by Chris Anderson or
Ted Talks by Chris Anderson and could I get that practiced and memorized and
have gestures and all the things that we needed to do within this Ted Talk
within a couple of days so you heard what I gave and I hoped that that
inspired people to engage in what they were getting ready to do now I will tell
you I had numerous members that came up and said thank you so much for giving
that talk that’s what I needed to hear I had one member come up to me with tears
in her eyes and said that that was exactly what she needed to hear and some
of the imagery that I used really connected with her her so I am sure glad
that I took that advice because I think that was the talk that I needed to
deliver at that specific time now with that after I said goodbye off the stage
everybody dismissed in their individual groups now within the rising tide
Mastermind we have seven groups roughly about 10 members in each group and each
member gave their individual TED talks to their groups and we had information
on how we suggested they give feedback so that way there was a format for
feedback so everybody got the most out of it something you should also know is
we have several members within the rising tide Mastermind that are aspiring to get on the real Ted stage themselves
we’re going to have an opportunity for you to fill out a form after you listen
to all of these TED Talk talk so you can help these members actually get on the
Ted platform you can go to our show notes page and we’re going to have all of that information almost all filled
out so you can send that to Ted but anyway we’re now back in the individual
rooms where they’re giving their individual TED Talks they’re giving their critiques to the members that just
finished their TED talks and then once everybody went they then chose one
member from each group to represent their group and that’s what you are
getting ready to hear right now folks I am so proud of these people and I know
you are going to enjoy this so first up is the person that challenged me to
rewrite my TED talk here is James Courtney
so we all know the old saying you give a man a fish feed him for a day
teach Amanda fish you feed them for a lifetime teach every man to fish and that’s right you wipe
fish clean off the face of the Earth uh the problem obviously is that it’s
not sustainable to have every individual acting in their own interest around a
depletable common resource now I don’t think anybody here actually
has to fish for their dinner every night but unfortunately it turns out you don’t
need every man fishing to achieve the same results with the advances in commercial fishing
equipment a relative handful of commercial fishermen have been able to
create what have been called by scientists Oceanic deserts vast swaths
of ocean with no life to it if that sounds hyperbolic it’s not the UN
Commission on trade and development has estimated that 90 of all marine fish are
either over harvested or are at the absolute limit so we’re harvesting
exactly as much as can be sustained or we’re literally driving them closer to Extinction and I’m sure by now you’re
wondering like well what can I do I’m just an individual consumer what can we
do to provide a sustainable source for the future and if the commercial fishing
industry is so bad for the environment what if the future of seafood is on land
now I was thinking that one but if anybody else was thinking that that’s a great question the answer as it turns
out is maybe it depends so even if you’re one of those people
who hates Seafood you think I’m not contributing to the problem it’s important to understand how important
Seafood is to feeding the world we currently Harvest over 200 million tons
of fish annually to feed a population which has exploded in the last 50 years
it’s it’s more than doubled we’re up over 8 billion people and in that same time
the fish consumed per person has also doubled to work quadrupled the amount of
seafood that we’re harvesting on an annual basis interestingly in spite of all of that overfishing the amount of
fish we actually pull out of the ocean actually plateaued back in about 1988 at
90 million tons annually so for those of you doing the math
200 minus 90 leaves a hundred and ten so
where’s all this other fish coming from aquaculture fish farming
cool uh fish farms we can raise our own fish we can supply the market with a
product that we can grow as much of it as we need we can take the pressure off the wild environment and it’s totally
sustainable right not necessarily no turns out commercial
aquaculture has all the potential to be just as destructive to the environment as commercial fishing if done with the
same neglect and lack of care for the impact that it has on the environment
getting a product to the table what does it look like imagine a 100 foot wide
circular cage filled with thousands of fish now imagine a few dozen of those sitting
off the coastline and a few thousand fish occupying a space that normally hosts a hundred all
that fish poop that you’re exporting throws the ecosystem way out of whack it’s not sustainable
and if you don’t constantly feed those fish medications you’ve got a situation
that’s ripe for disease so now not only are you exporting your fish poop to the environment you’re potentially sending
disease it’s not sustainable now you could try to mitigate that by either reducing the number of fish in those cages or
spreading them farther apart but again not scalable not sustainable
and of course before you even get to fish poop there’s the question of what do you feed the fish I’ll give you one
guess what big fish eat smaller fish so we’re farming big fish
because we fish them out of the environment so now we’re catching smaller fish to feed the big fish
so now we’re running the environment out of big fish and small fish not sustainable
okay well you know that great question you guys had about bringing it on land what about that well that does solve
some of the problems but does also come with a few of its own so instead of the cages imagine you’ve
got a dozen football field sized ponds all right now you’re not automatically
sending that fish poop to the environment but that land that you just cleared to create those ponds what was
there before was it environmentally sensitive uh in the case of shrimp farms
in places like Vietnam and Thailand a lot of times that ends up being Mangrove forests which are crucial to stabilizing
the shoreline and their critical habitat for a lot of the fish that end up
getting fed to the shrimp so again not sustainable and yeah we’re not
necessarily immediately sending the poop to the streams in the rivers but unless
there’s regulations saying that you have to clean that up before you send it out the cheapest option is obvious and also
not sustainable so this is where I get to do my
infomercial impression there’s got to be a better way
introducing the recirculating aquaculture system using the foremost technology in wastewater treatment
design and water quality monitoring you can now grow sustainable healthy fish from the comfort of your own Warehouse
call now and we’ll increase the sustainability of your Warehouse by including Hydroponics to turn all that
nasty fish poop into marketable produce it’s aquaculture it’s Hydroponics it’s
aquaponics yeah so thank you
so you know before everyone whips out their wow that’s this is a a great system but unfortunately
the no matter how efficient your system is there’s no getting around the fact
that not all fish are created equal so anything that we are feeding other fish
has its complications and some of the most popular fish that we eat are
predators so think tuna salmon all top of the food chain all eating
other fish in order to grow to Market size there are scientists working on
ways to feed them a vegetarian diet to make them more sustainable
but there are fish already out there that are already vegetarian uh and
you’ve probably had it before who here hasn’t tried tilapia now I’m not saying I’ve seen Tilapia at
any sushi restaurants but I’ve also never been to a grocery store that hasn’t carried tilapia and because of
their vegetarian diet and because of their unique ways that they grow they are actually very well suited to
recirculating aquaculture systems and they’re very sustainable to grow and to feed a growing world population
so I’m not here asking you to stop eating salmon or tuna or anything else
that tastes good I love sushi too I just hope that after today you think a
little bit more the next time you sit down to dinner and you consider where
the food came from what it took to get there and the impact that it had along the way and if you do decide to make a change
don’t do it for some vague egalitarian notion like sustainability
do it because you care for the people in this room the people outside this room
and the people who haven’t yet come into this world thank you
[Music] nation that James Courtney and James
really does want to make it to the Ted stage so if you can go to scalingup h2o.com on our show notes page we’re
going to have information so you can fill out that form and help James get to
the Ted platform next up is somebody that I work with every single day her
name is Mindy petrosi and she has helped me so much with so many things within
our office here and also in life and she’s going to share some information
about what she has learned about raising her son
[Music] as parents we want the best for our children we want them to have good
grades part of clubs Sports Friends Community but there’s social media out
there today they have to have the most likes know the new slangs of what sus is
cringe cap look them up they’re stupid but that’s a lot of pressure for the
kids to live up to this ideal highlight reel of somebody else’s life now add in a mental learning disability the
invisible diagnosis our kids have to deal with ADHD autism dyslexia they are
asked to fit into a mold they cannot fit into just yet so I say this because my son at four
years old was told he was different I was told that he parallel played with kids I’m like what’s parallel playing
here’s my child playing here’s the group of kids he thinks he’s involved he’s not
he’s playing next to him by himself isolated he couldn’t communicate as well as other
children so for the next two years we had him diagnosed evaluated by schools and
doctors to find out what can we do to best help him he’s ADHD and autistic high functioning
autistic okay went to school with other kids his age and his teacher would use a color chart
so if you’re in blue and green you’re having a great day the kids around you knew you were having a great day but if
you were orange yellow or red you were behaving badly you are not on the good list and everybody knew it
my son’s teacher told the hymn he would never be in the upper colors because he
couldn’t sit still couldn’t keep attention was hyper focused he’s ADHD of course he can’t do that
you’re judging him and shaming him based off of a school culture that was
implemented not for him he’s uniquely different he’s fabulously uniquely different and
there’s so many things about him that kids don’t Embrace they don’t want to play with the kid who’s always getting
in trouble he’s not making friends as easily as he thinks he is he thinks he has his friends and he does
it I understand that he and I have been talking about ADHD since he was four he
knows about it but what if we can change the perspective and the lens that the schools teach
in school my son found a book called dog man by David Pilkey David Pilkey fabulously has ADHD he has
a character in his book 80 HD it’s a robot in there my son can relate
to him he’s read this series over and over and over and buys the first book every year it comes out
everyone knows Big Bang Theory Sheldon Cooper that’s my kid
my kid is just like him so when we see little girls little boys looking at the big screen saying that person looks just
like me these characters are just like my son and I know it and I can feel it
and I’m so glad the culture is showing people kids think differently because this is not a high school issue this is
not a grown-up issue this is something we cultivate at a young age and teach about mental health teach kids that it’s
okay to have feelings to be confident in the needs that you have to say I am
overwhelmed I can’t handle this situation in school my son will tell them I’m too sensitive to his friends
when they take the red crank that’s his favorite color when he’s overwhelmed and he’s ready to
break down he tells the teacher I can’t stop I don’t know why you have to help me they then come up with plans they give
them break cards he can get a five minute break three times a day to regulate his emotions because his
emotions are so disregulated he can no longer function in that classroom so his school and I have worked very closely to
get these things in place but what if we teach the kids as well the kids who aren’t like my family the
kids who are different because they’re normal and my son is atypical
why should parents care because one in five kids have a mental learning disability they’re dyslexic they’re ADHD
they’re high function autism and they’re expected to function in a school that is not built for them this is a mold that
is set to conformity kids can understand it at a young age they are sponges they absorb everything
so to teach them simple practices of hey not this one kid needs a five minute break every one twice a day is gonna get
a five minute break we’re just gonna sit in peace we’re going to meditate we’re going to use words of affirmation
and now everyone’s doing when they see their friend having trouble they’re going to say I hear you I see you need a
minute I see you’re struggling what’s up how can I help you because that’s the language in my house my normal is different I strive every
day to learn something new about ADHD and autism I strive to make it better
for my son so when he has needs he can speak to other people
so as parents we need to have mental health conversations with our young children with our grandchildren so if
they’re ever in a situation that they can’t control themselves they get it they understand what they’re
feeling they know what to do but better if they see somebody else having trouble they can help that person get through
emotional regulation to find their calm once more so just take a minute when you see a child throwing a fit in a store
it’s not because he didn’t get a candy bar it’s not because his parents is not disciplining them
it’s because that kid was at the doctors the post office the grocery store and they are overwhelmed and overstimulated
they need a break and it’s okay for us to all step back and take a break
thank you [Music]
scale up Nation after Mindy left the stage she came over to me and she said
that she couldn’t look at me because I was smiling so hard that she would just
laugh and I was just so so proud of all these people as they were going up on stage and delivering their TED talks but
she told me that she could not look at me she had to move her gaze someplace else to somebody else every time that
she was scanning the room so Mindy sorry about that I was just so gosh darned proud of what you put together because
Mindy shared with me she was not looking forward to giving this Ted talk but she
did such an amazing job and we will have the information on our show notes page
if you see fit to nominate Mindy to the Ted stage next up is Jill cavano and
Jill shares an experience here that I know you are going to enjoy
so my question for you today is do you have a bucket list and if you do have
you started on it when I was younger growing up we lived in a small town in New Jersey and I remember always taking
walks with my mom and I guess I’m dating myself so this was the 70s so there were
still 1960s cars around so we’re walking down the street going to the candy store because I must have done something good
and I was promised a pack of Butter Rum Lifesavers so we’re walking the candy store and my mom stops and she says Jill
look she’s like that right there is the coolest car that was ever made my she
has always wanted one it was a 1962 Thunderbird and every time I was growing
up every time we’d see one as it got you know more on in the Years you’d see one less and less but she’d always say
that’s my dream car I’ve always wanted to have one so when I was a teenager one
day I came home from school and I found a white with red interior 1962
Thunderbird parked in our driveway so my mom was so excited and I thought oh she’s never going to let me drive
that never ever ever so a couple weeks later she’s like do you want to take that to your part-time job yes she’s
like but don’t take all your friends out in it and definitely do not go on the highway so what’s the first thing we do
the following weekend I pick up all of my friends and we go on the highway and we saw how fast it could go and some of
the best memories I have of my mom surround that car it was an amazing thing it was a memory that I always have
so my mom started getting sick and she ended up passing away in 2012 so she
sold the car you know when she started getting sick and at the time I was in college and what college kid has room or
money in their budget for an extra car let alone a classic car that leaks oil
so I never paid attention to the VIN number I never paid attention to who she sold it to I always wish that I had but
it was always kind of my dream from that point on is that I want to get my mom’s car I want to find my mom’s car I want a
62 Thunderbird that was totally on my bucket list so about 10 years I had totally forgotten about that so when we
came here to the first live event in 2021 we had done the scavenger hunt
where we had walked around Avalon and Trace and Corrine had found stuff for us well I was in a group with Chuck and
Mike and we were a group running around doing our scavenger hunt and I remember one of the stops was in front of the
Tesla store and Mike was telling us that his dream was to own an electric car a
Tesla and Chuck was talking about the Chuck Wagon and then I was telling for the first time in about a decade I was
telling Chuck and Mike my biggest bucket list item about my mom’s 62 Thunderbird
how I wanted to find that car I wanted to find one just like it and I remember Chuck and Mike said to me well if that’s
the biggest item on your bucket list what is stopping you so I had always thought about a bucket
list as being this kind of like not tangible this kind of thing that was far off in the future I’d never thought
about like I could do it now like I could do it right now and I’d never thought about that and I always thought
well what is stopping me I thought about that a long time after we left Alpharetta that first year and I thought
well you know I’ve gotten married I’m living in like my like big girl house like I own a company I have like all of
these accomplishments but I haven’t started on anything that’s on my proverbial bucket list I feel like as
soon as I got married and as soon as I had Alex and as soon as I got the company it’s always like well no I can’t
do that no I can’t go there no I can’t take time off so I got back from Alpharetta and I looked online and there
were a couple false starts but about six months later I found the perfect car it was absolutely identical to the car that
my mom had except for it had blue interior which I like better um and so I went and I looked at it and
I showed my husband and he’s like well if you want to go look at it and you like it I’ll get it for your birthday
so I you know work and and live in Cleveland so one day the next day after work I drove I left Cleveland right
after work drove all the way up to Milwaukee looked at this car and it was like stepping into a house with a
realtor and you know that that’s the house that you can live in you feel like you’re home I sat down in it and tried
not to get really excited I was sitting at the steering wheel and uh the salesman walked away and I FaceTime Matt
and Alex and Matt’s like so do you like it as much as you thought you would and I said yes and I hear Alex in the
background well if you like it just buy it we’ll buy it for you Mom so we bought the car and it came home to Cleveland
and it got me really thinking you know what was holding me back I feel like there’s always something that holds us
back you know if not now when so that one bucket list item based off of what
happened to me during my first you know time here at the live event has led to another bucket list item I had always
wanted to be published for some something other than water treatment so I um wrote an article kind of about this
whole experience and I have my stepdad found a picture of my mom’s car and then I have a picture of my car and I’m
published in the Thunderbird collectors magazine and then my other bucket list item is I would like to actually do a
real Ted talk so then that kind of all transpired so now I’m like maybe crossing a third thing off the list
so I think that my biggest thing is I hope that my son will be able to make
memories with me with my car just like I did with my mom that I’m very excited
for and I guess my question to you is is that if you have not already started on your bucket list then what’s stopping
you because there’s no time like right now [Music]
[Applause] [Music] Nation the article that Jill mentioned
in her Ted Talk we have on our show notes page so if you would like to read that we have that information of course
we also have the information if you would like to nominate Jill to the Ted
stage we’ll have all of that as well next up is Tom Hardy and Tom Hardy was
selected from his group and I’m sure glad he was because you are going to enjoy this TED Talk
[Music] hello everybody how’s everyone doing today [Music]
at a show of hands I’m going to ask a question but I’m going to define the question I’m looking for people that
have volunteered but not money but your time so who in this room has volunteered their time
okay seems like a lot of people who would like to volunteer their time that may not have excellent
so some of you may have thought about volunteering some of you may not have some of you may not even know where to
start if you have in 2013 I was diagnosed with crohn’s disease it was a very hard thing I went
through I was married three years at that time my wife saw me through all of that I
lost a lot of weight I was down to 145 pounds I’m 190 today it doesn’t show but
you know it’s there um I was seeing lots of different doctors visiting in New Jersey at the
time where I live I got to a point where the doctors that were seeing me said we can’t help you anymore I was in a lot of
pain I was actually out of work for six months on the couch because I couldn’t move uh eventually I transferred to another
system and the ball started rolling things I might
at a point I actually got diverted I have an ostomy and the ostomy took away all the pain
because of everything below that area was causing my issues and I got healthy and I started to gain weight again
two things great came out of the time I got my cat meowser she’s my best buddy
to this day she follows me everywhere like a dog I also got my daughter Abigail and my wife
threw thick or thin we got through our marriage at that time
out of all of that the biggest thing I took away was I wanted to help people that have to go through the things that
I went through I got some help along the way my wife my cat some doctors some nurses but I
didn’t feel like I was getting the help whether it wasn’t available or I wasn’t seeking the right people that I wanted
to help other people that were going through what I went through be honest with you to this day I have not
done that however it did get me on the road to figure out how to help I started
a volunteer 2019 I got involved in a small group in my neighborhood Ariel
Hopkins passed away at the age of six this year she would have been 13. but
from that sad moment her father and her mother created this organization and they do events every single year one is
Ariel Hopkins day which actually just passed this past weekend it’s a fun day we raise a lot of money there’s events
music food this year we raised the smallest amount ten thousand dollars in
one day in a rainy wet horrible day but everyone came out supported it for the seventh
year in a row with in as I was 2019 in 2020
I then got involved in the sons of the American Legion in my town I was not military but my grandfather
was as a result I was able to join sons of the American Legion and help out with that so we raised funds we help out
military families current and active and past and give out to them as much as we could
possibly can and within a year of being there I joined the board as the adjutant
and I help out there so monthly we meet and we do fun and interesting activities we’re actually in the process of playing
a pig roast right now we come to 2020. things are starting to roll I’m starting
to volunteer more things I went to Association of water treater convention that year and I said I’m going to get
involved in something else so I joined the regs and legs committee or legs and regs committee and I was
there participating in that about a year in I was asked if I can kind of co-chair with a current chair
and I said well let me see I’m kind of busy and I got convinced to join
I’m glad I did um I’ve learned a lot in this time next year I’ll I’ll be planning to take over
the chair of that committee and I’ve been in the whole intent of that committee is to give back to the
membership of the of the awt and help them with understanding the regulations and legislation in our environments
so at this point it was 43 years before I invested in my
first volunteer work took me 43 years and a life-changing event to make me
realize I can help I’ve gained a lot from all the help I’ve given and I can do more in the four years only
four years I’ve done stuff I implore you to not wait for some life-changing event
to involve yourself to help others it’s not hard you don’t have to do something big I still haven’t done the
thing that I intended to do but I’m working my way towards it it’s getting easier and easier as I go
so just open your hearts find something in your local community whether it’s an hour a couple hours a week just get out
there and volunteer some of your time it’ll come back to you tenfold and the
faces and the changes that you’ll make will be amazing thank you
[Music] Tom was one of the people that told me
that he probably would not have ever have done a TED talk if he were not
assigned it and he was not particularly overwhelmed or happy about when I gave
this assignment but he was sure glad he did it when it was all done so Tom thank
you for sharing that with me that’s the whole point of the rising tide Mastermind we do things that other
people probably do not and we do that to move ourselves closer to being better at
whatever it is and this particular time it was public speaking and that was the
whole point of this assignment so thank you for sharing that with me Tom next up
is Rhett Glenna
my talk is about colors give me a little leeway to explain as we go down this story together
close your eyes and imagine the following seven-year-old boy sitting at the kitchen table eating his dinner
next to him is his three-year-old daughter in a high top chair doing the same in front of them is their parents in an
argument they don’t know what they were talking about adult conversations were kind of
beyond their their scope of understanding only that this fight was a little bit worse than many in the past
at one point the mother threw a plate of food up in the air hitting the ceiling
and as one suspect food stuck to the ceiling is the plate returned back down to earth when it did it hit the father in the
head breaking the plate and spilling the food all over him immediately the fight became louder and
more aggressive and only calmed down when the kids became louder than the parents this was 1972.
it was a year of Goldenrod shag Carpeting and avocado green appliances
for those you old enough to remember that like those two colors these colors are
also represented the parents the mother was Goldenrod and the father was avocado green
in fact the mother had grown up in a primarily inner Goldenrod family and the
father was strictly an avocado green the two children were much too young to understand the nuances of different
colors and their parents were much different in this regard typically growing up in a Goldenrod house you were
taught Golden Rod was the better color typically speaking if you grew up in avocado green you were taught the
nuances of that color strictly that color it wasn’t very often that you had the true colors mixing but in this case
there was typically they would teach that the other color was ugly and didn’t fit their world both sides arguing that
their color was better a year later the parents divorced both children were split
the daughter went with the mother and the son went with the father the sun was now primarily in an avocado
green household where he learned that that color was really the best color he didn’t question his father he took it
at face value that this is the way the world had to work he hung out with avocado green kids had
avocado friends and life was fine is this young boy became a young adult he had a good
friend one night ask him what color are you and the boys claimed I’m avocado green it’s the correct color
this friend of his asked a series of questions and in these questions the good friend
looked at him and said you’re not avocado green you’re chartreuse the boy was stunned this violated
everything he had been taught growing up this kind of disrupted his world now he didn’t seem to fit in
he felt like he was coming out of the closet chartreuse a little strange
he didn’t feel Superior being chartreuse he understood it was a byproduct of his parents
that he was taught from both Goldenrod and avocado green as with most kids out
there they were growing up in avocado green or chartreuse to believe their color was best
it’s pretty rare when you see a family mixing the two colors together typically avocado green and Goldenrod
don’t want to live together in fact in America you have pockets we have green and avocado they don’t want to live next
to each other because they don’t like each other’s color our nation is built on a separation of
colors the media proves this print radio video
they talk about their individual colors and the separation of them the young man finds that he’s having
difficulty fitting in whereas a group dedicated to chartreuse as he gets older he realizes there’s
power in money in the Divide between these two colors
they make it so horrific that choosing the other color causes shame and
potentially the loss of friends and family this individual now this young man realizes there is many shades of avocado
green and Goldenrod as there are colors on the rest of the palette yet each color is stands together in
their group and points to the other color and says our colors better as the young man gets older he finds
himself the ability to travel overseas he comes in and sees all these wonderful colors not one avocado green or
Goldenrod a myriad of different colors yet they suffer from the same flaw as
the avocado green and the Golden Rod they feel their color is better and they don’t understand why we in our
nation have strictly these true colors they don’t understand it but again they suffer from the same polarization
as we do it’s just different over there the funny thing about this is you don’t have much of a choice
where we land up under color has more to do with our background our family our
friends we truly don’t know what it’s like to understand the other side of the color it’s not based on a well-researched position you’re just
grown up with these colors as you can likely tell now I’m not really talking about colors I’m talking about the
political landscape of our country the reason I chose to use color as a metaphor was two reasons one was to make
you look at this for a different Vision when you take the word politics out of it the second reason was to disarm
people is because when they hear politics they automatically starting camping they start shutting down their ears so that was the reason we use
colors as you can tell the little boy in the story is me and the experiences I had
although my poor parents divorce had nothing to do with their various colors it did show the true divide between the
two colors seeing each position is better we are not going to find the answer through the
media the media has way too much to risk to start creating independent thought we
have to do it by talking to each other and not talking for the purpose of the
debate debate is only to convince the other side that your color is better we need to have these conversations to
understand their position for our benefit not even theirs
we need to do this to become a better Society we can do better we must do better
[Applause]
now Brett was also somebody that shared with me they would have never have done
something like this if it were not assigned within the Mastermind and aren’t we all glad that he wrote
this what imagery he used that was just amazing I encouraged Bratz not to end
his talk there to make sure that he does something else with it maybe it becomes
a short story I was just fascinated by how he used imagery so if you would like
to nominate Brett you can nominate all these people by all means we’re going to have that information on our show notes
page and our last Ted Talk is Connor Hanrahan and Nation Conor is just so
much fun he uh you’re going to hear about another company that he owns and I’ll tell you a little bit about that
after the Ted talk so here’s Connor
thank you guys it’s an honor to be here it’s been a really fun day thank you trace
my name is Connor I’m a water engineer and I’m a co-founder of mullet party
which we all got a little taste of last night uh you guys were awesome you guys
were amazing I had no doubt that this group would get it because you guys are so fun and read as usual you killed it
you’re my favorite four years ago I started mullet party with my younger
brother and since then we get asked the same questions especially by our parents
what are you thinking what’s the point you have a real job now can you please
stop we we get asked this question why all
the why mullets why are you doing this and our answer is typically something along the fashion of uh we like throwing
good parties and you just got to experience it right like it’s goofy but in the room it’s a blast
uh but when we if I really dig into it the real reason I think relies on some
basic truths that we very deeply believe in and there’s three of these right the first one is that the Universe
the world we’re in is so strange so enormously wondrous that I think it’s
our responsibility to be playful the second one is that a rigid sense of self
or ego I think is the biggest impediment against having a good time throwing a
great party and living a good life so our goal is to have fun
and the last one is that we think that human potential is so Limitless and amazing but that we have to believe that
right and we have to be committed to working together so I want to take you on a short Journey
here since we’re all in the water field it’s a journey of some fish related
Parables puns and analogies please bear with me yeah there we go
so the first one I cut it to David Foster Wallace from whom I first heard it the parable goes there are two young
fish swimming along and older fish swims up from the opposite direction the older
fish says good morning boys how’s the water young fish continue swimming in silence
look at each other quizzically and say dude what the hell is water
the point of the metaphor the parable and David Wallace’s words is that the
things that are the most ubiquitous that we’re most closely surrounded by can be the most difficult to see and the
hardest to discuss we are so close to them but what it further begs is the question
what is our water what are we swimming in here in this
room right and the longer you sit with that question the weirder that it becomes
right but for starters we’re standing on a rock about 8 000 miles wide right and filled
with liquid magma where we stand right now we’re moving about a thousand miles
per hour around the Rock and we’re revolving around the Sun even faster than that along with seven other planets
rest in peace Pluto sorry buddy didn’t make it these eight
planets and our solar system are sitting in kind of the off side of the Milky Way galaxy in the Milky Way galaxy nowhere
near the center of the universe right which is expanding out in every direction into apparent nothingness
we do with that right how do we sit with that that’s so strange to put it shortly
and maybe you’ve heard this we’re like ghosts driving these meat covered skeletons
made of Stardust and we’re writing a rock that is floating through space
and when I think about that I feel so paradoxically charged so empowered by
that right that we’re the Pioneers that we’re looking out into space as true
explorers and that we are sailing in a sea of uncertainty and there is so much opportunity for
adventure and for play if we’re committed to those and I think that the more that we understand what a weird
Waters we’re waiting in it gives us the opportunity to swim in different
directions and that to me is what the mullets have been and can be is a very
odd Rudder or dorsal fin on top of our heads that guides Us in maybe an
unpredictable pattern something new so we go back to our fish our two fish
swimming along they’re joined by a group of other small fish one looks to the other and says oh no
we’re in school the school of fish the school the fish
are now in a school of fish right and what do they do they learn about all of the important things water
treatment where water comes from LSI calculations steam tables all the important things to
learn in school but what they also do is they develop their tribal identities as young fish and they develop in their
little fish clicks right they have the jock fish and the theater fish and the nerd fish and The Goth fish
and this is so important because it gives them a sense of purpose and it gives them a sense of place and it gives them confidence and it gives them
courage right but what we don’t do with these young fish and what I don’t think we do enough with young people is to
tell them that yes that is important but what’s more important is to grow out of that and to develop a wider Embrace of
what it means to be human and to share this world and more than that that this US versus
them mentality and clickiness is reserved only for adolescent fish and summer camp games but that the real
world is not binary and that when we get stuck in this US versus them in fact if
we go to a party where people are on opposite sides of the room because they have their imagined differences
separating them instead of standing in the middle and dancing together it stinks and that’s what
the goal the hope of the mullet is is that it’s this weirdness that unites us and shows us that we’re not really that
different we’re these meat covered skeletons and that this space in between we can be drawn together
that that’s where the magic really happens so finally our two fish swimming along they’re on
their way to work now they share the same commute on the water Airstream
swimming along and Wham they run into a wall oh damn says a fish
they’ve run into a newly constructed Dam last last fish joke I promise they’ve
run into a dam and they stare up at this Behemoth of cement standing before them this obstacle in their path but they’re
reminded of the words of Ryan holiday that the obstacle in the path becomes
our path that our obstacles are opportunities for growth
and I think of this when I look at all of the obstacles that we have looming before us water scarcity in the
southwest amongst them these tremendous huge challenges that we face as humans
and I think the great misery or the amazing opportunity depending how we
choose to look at it is that the better we get the more advanced we get the more
challenging and luminous our obstacles become right but there’s an opportunity
there when I think that we develop demand space flight and within 66 years landed
men on the moon I think of our opportunity when we work together when we put aside divisiveness
and jockeying for position I think about the opportunity of what we could become we can be sustainable we could in my
greatest dreams move towards a type one civilization on the Kardashian scale
where we are fully utilizing all of the energy and resources available on our planet to become a sustainable and
habitable place right and then from there moving out into the cosmos and exploring right but I think that we do
not have the daily reminders that the things that unite us are more important
than the ones that divide us and it is so easy to get swept along with the
normal current of how things are going and so our hope our real hope of why we started
mullet party and why we love it is that we wanted to be a reminder that the
world the universe is very strange but that it’s playful
that our ideas of who we are are important but not more important than
finding ways to work together and finally that we’re capable of so much we are capable of incredible things
if we’re willing to believe and work together and to have fun
so thank you and thanks a great Muller party labs
[Applause] Nation now you know you know about
mullet party and Connor brought I don’t know maybe 50 60 wigs to The Mastermind
live event and normally on the first night we have this social where we do some games some trivia and just enjoy
each other’s company within our own groups and to mingle outside of the groups and everybody was wearing a
mullet and I tell you when you are wearing a mullet it’s hard to take
yourself seriously and that is quite an icebreaker so it was a very fun meeting
we just had a lot of fun with the mullets and if you want to learn more about mullet party of course we’ll have
that link on our show notes page and it just gave us some insight that many of
us had no idea that Connor did so all of this information is going to be on our
show notes Page by all all means Connor and everybody if you see fit to fill out
a nomination form to get them to the Ted stage there’s a lot of information on
there we’re going to have information so you know how to fill that out and we’re
going to make it as easy as possible for you you can do that by going to the show notes page several of these people do
have the aspirations of making it to the real red circle carpet and if you want
to see pictures of them actually doing their TED Talks we’re going to have those on our show notes page so you can
see the Red Dot and what we were doing at the rising tide Mastermind and I
think you can see we are all better because we have learned from these
people and by the way we call that a full cup in the rising tide Mastermind and a full cup is the mentality that we
join each meeting with that it’s our job to give to other members and everybody
joins the membership that way everybody joins each call that way that our job is
to fill other people’s cups and if everybody comes like that it’s just a
tremendous meeting and with all of these fine people sharing their TED Talks they
were delivering full cups to all of us including the scaling up Nation with
information that they know that they now shared with you and now you can do
something with it this all started from an assignment from the book TED Talks by
Chris Anderson Nation I will say that this is by far the best public speaking
book I have ever read it has become what
I use to look up when I create presentations when I am trying to get a
message across and also when I’m doing keynote speaking and I have the
opportunity to be the Keynote speaker November 12th through 16th I’m going to
be at the International Water conference in San Antonio Texas they have selected
me as their keynote speaker and trust me I am using a lot of things that I have
learned from the TED Talks book to make sure that I deliver my message very
clearly and in the book he gives a definition of what a TED Talk is and I
think it is just fantastic and a TED Talk is just simply you have an idea you
have a vision of what that idea looks like in your head and you are now
sharing that and putting that image in everybody else’s head if you can just
Envision whatever’s in your head going in everybody else’s head and everybody’s brain waves are getting synced up that’s
just an incredible image for me and and that’s what I try to do every time I
come to this mic every time I speak and especially as I’m giving a keynote
address so it’s my hope that you’re going to be at the International Water conference November 12th through 16th so
I have some friendly faces out there in the audience and I will tell you that
this assignment helped me prepare for that this book helped me prepare for that and so many of The Mastermind
members have given me feedback on how I should go about delivering the message
for this keynote now one of my goals is to become a better speaker each and
every time that I speak and I’m pretty proud of myself if you ever listen to
episode one of this podcast and what the podcast sounds like now and really all
that proves is practice makes things better and and information while you’re
practicing like this book TED Talks by Chris Anderson allows me to use
techniques that other people have taught me to become better so I’m going to
challenge each one of you in the scaling up Nation to get out there and speak
what is a topic that you know more than most people about and what is a forum
that you can share that information with Now call it a TED talk if you like or
just call it sharing information with other people I think you have an
obligation we all have this obligation that as we figure stuff out we can make
things better for other people by sharing what we figured out so that’s my
challenge to all of you out there in this gallon-up nation is what do you know and how are you going to share it
now a couple of events that are coming up I just mentioned the International Water conference November 12th through
16th in San Antonio Texas we’re going to have information about that on our events page and the other item that I
will mention the other convention that I will mention is the association of water
Technologies annual Convention and Expo that’s taking place October 4th through
7th in Grand Rapids Michigan now I’ve got a paper that I’m delivering there so
I’m going to be using the information that I’ve learned from the book and also through this activity to make sure that
I deliver a clear and concise paper but this is one of the conventions that I go
to and meet so many of all of you so if
you are a member of the scaling up Nation I would love it if you came up to
me and let me know that and whatever you want to let me know about this podcast I
love to hear that I can’t tell you how many shows have been planned at the awt
conference because a member came up and told me about an idea that they had so
please make sure you come up and see me whether you’re at the awt or the IWC the
International Water conference I love meeting people I love re-meeting people and reconnecting with people so somebody
that also loves that very thing and he’s going to be at both of these shows is
James McDonald and of course James is making us better each and every week by
challenging us to learn a little bit more about the chemistries that we use each and every day so here’s a brand new
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
EDTA or ethylene diamine tetracetic acid some of these words are fun to say and
impress your family and friends but back to the subject at hand EDTA what is it
used for what’s its chemical formula what is EDTA typically react with
is called a key Lin but what does the word keylet mean what are the advantages of using EDTA in
a boiler water system what are some warnings and precautions with using EDTA in a boiler system
what are the dangers of overfeeding ETA what about underfeeding
does EDTA react stoichiometrically with cations what does this mean
is EDTA synergistic with any other water treatment chemistries such as polymers and phosphates
how do you test for EDTA what do the phrases freaky lint combine
key lint and total keelant mean are there other keylet alternatives to EDTA
do you use any treatment products that contain EDTA 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 watertable 23 and hashtag scalingup H2O I look
forward to learning more from you thank you James and thank you scaling up
Nation we will have a brand new episode for you next Friday until then take care
of each other and have a great week folks thank you
[Music]