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[Music] foreign [Music]
automation there are so many things to worry about in today’s economy we are
not thinking about insurance and you know what that’s okay I know it’s okay
because when I thought about insurance I chose the best and that was McGowan
insurance and I know they are thinking about my insurance when I’m concerned about how much our raw materials are
costing or even if we can find those raw materials and get them shipped to our facilities and worrying about all the
things that we have to do in this current economy I can rest easy because
they are thinking about me and making sure that I have the best insurance for
my company I get phone calls from McGowan Insurance letting me know that I
need to do something different does this sound like the relationship that you have with your insurance carrier if it
doesn’t trust me you are too busy to worry about insurance find somebody you
can trust like McGowan insurance to find out more about McGowan Insurance
go to scalinguph2o.com forward slash McGowan that’s McGowan
[Music] welcome to scaling up the podcast where
we scale upon knowledge so we don’t scale up our systems I’m Trace Blackmore the host of the scaling up H2O podcast
and merry Christmas everybody it’s hard to believe but Christmas is here and I’m
curious what are you wishing for towards the end of the year have you set up your
previous part of the year to make all your goals come true and if not well
maybe you can still catch up on some of those items but if not I want you to be
thankful for all the things that you have I want you to look at all the blessings that you have around you take
those into account and make sure that you’re trying to bring happiness to
somebody else as I mentioned on a previous episode our goal is to build each other up according to their needs
so when was the last time you looked at someone else’s needs and tried to build
them up I think it’s a great thing to practice during this season and also
during this season just take a look and see how this year went and what you want
to do next year now this year is a great Proving Ground to what you’re able to do
and maybe some of the challenges that you face this year you can figure out
how to make those advantages as you start planning next year now I really
like to encourage people to plan I encourage people to put their goals on
their calendar and then commit to doing what’s on their calendar and one of the
things that you can do is see what other Industries are out there that will help
you gain more knowledge so I’m going to list a couple out to you and the first
one is going to be the hang this is where the scaling up H2O podcast gets
together with all of our friends on Zoom for exactly one hour we have a little
bit of fun together but we also Network and I have heard so many stories where
people have met each other on the hang and a lot of times these relationships
will turn into problem solving Solutions where somebody had an issue with
something they remembered somebody on the Hang worked with that something they gave them a call and they got a solution
the Hang is always something fun to do and I try to make it fun as I am the
host so January 12th 6 PM Eastern you
log into Zoom you can go to scalingup h2o.com forward slash hang to register
for that event and I promise you will not regret spending that hour with us on
the hang in fact if you know other water Traders I challenge you to invite them
as well January 12th the Hang it’s a great way to start off the new year
something else you may want to put on your calendars is January 13th through 16th the American boiler manufacturers
Association is having their annual meeting in Carlsbad California so if you
want more information on this you can go to our events page and we will have all of that linked and ready for you also
February 7th through 9th in Washington DC the world water rally that’s hard to
say the world water rally brings utility system representatives to Capitol Hill
to support funding programs training and technical assistance to find out more
about this we’ll have a link on our show events page and then one of my favorite
things to attend every year are the Technical Training seminars that aw WT
does we normally do one in the west and one in the East and this year is not going to be any different so in
2023 we’re going to be in San Diego California February 21st through 24th
and then in Cleveland Ohio March 30th through April 2nd folks there is so much
going on at these training seminars I get the pleasure of teaching in several
areas and you have to make the choice which one of the seminars which one of
the concurrent classes are you going to take and we’ve got something for
everybody so we’ve got a sales class we’ve got an ultra filtration class we
have a fundamentals and applications class now a lot of you might be thinking oh well I’ve been in the industry for a
long time I shouldn’t take that but I tell you it really builds a solid foundation on the knowledge of what we
do day to day and prepares you for the water treatment training class which is
to prepare people to be the best water treaters that they can be now a lot of
people think that that is a certified water technologist training class and it is not the certified water technologist
exam tests you for your knowledge in the water treatment industry and it’s the
knowledge that you should have being five years into the industry so we teach
at the water treatment class for people that have been in the industry five plus
years now that of course helps you with some of the information that you would need to know on the cwt but it is by no
means teaching you the cwt that’s always something I hear when I go to these
events also we do waste water and there is a-s-se 12080 training so there’s so
much going on if you go to our events page we will link you straight to that website so you can see all the things
going on and choose the right course for you I look forward to seeing you there
it’s one of my favorite times of the year and then finally March 2nd through 3rd in Melbourne Australia they are
having their Smart Water Utilities conference and this is where Global Water utilities and Network Services
will meet with water leakage experts and Smart Water technology providers to
explore efficient and cost-effective solutions for the water utility industry
if that’s something that sounds interesting to you you can check that out on our events page well folks I am
really excited about our interview but before we get there here is a new thinking on water with James
[Music] welcome to thinking on water with James
the segment where we don’t give you the answers we give you the topics and questions for you to think about drop by
drop now let’s get to it in this week’s episode we’re thinking
about something a little different we’re thinking about Santa Claus and all the gifts he brings
assuming you have been a good industrial water treatment professional if Santa Claus could leave you a new piece of
water testing equipment in your stocking what would it be would it be a replacement of something
you already have would it be something you’ve always wanted instead if either of these why haven’t you
already replaced it or why haven’t you already gotten it could you make it a goal to get it in
the new year what if Santa Claus could bring you a piece of water testing equipment that doesn’t even exist yet what would it be
take this week to think about what you carry around for water testing every day and how you might just be your own Santa
Claus this year be sure to follow hashtag tow 22 and hashtag scalingup H2O
to share your thoughts on each week’s thinking on water I’m James McDonald and I look forward to learning more from you
James in this season of reflecting back of all the gifts that people have given
us I want to thank you on behalf of the scaling up Nation because each and every week you have gone out of your way to
help encourage people to be just a little bit more to think just a little bit more to do something just a little
extra and you’ve done that for years now on this podcast and you are definitely
helping to raise the bar in the water treatment industry and I want to say thank you on behalf of everyone
when nation you have heard from my previous guest before and I am really
excited to bring him back to you again nation here’s our interview
my lab partner today is Reed Hutchison of HOH and now I’m so proud to announce
the rising tide of Mastermind how are you Reed I’m doing great Trace good to
be with you so Reed’s actually been on before you might remember he was episode 122 and he did such a great job we
hadn’t come back for 1 23 and we’ve had read on numerous times for uh the global
6K talking about things with awt talking about things with the Mastermind so Reid
welcome back again uh we’ve got a lot of things to talk about today yeah it was a
it was a full week in Vancouver and I’m excited to revisit that we had a blast and for those that couldn’t make it
hopefully we can give you a little taste of you know what we experienced while we were out there well let’s start there and of course we just aired our
convention highlights episode episode 284. so we won’t repeat anything that we
had on that episode but let’s just talk about the experiences that we had at the
awt it wasn’t one of the highest attended conventions but it was definitely packed full with so many
great people and so many great speakers you yourself included in that list
yeah I was honored to share a few times throughout the week including at the business owners meeting and in some of
the business track sessions as well as the charity sessions as well and uh I
was nervous going into it it was a lot of speaking that I I wasn’t necessarily used to doing but I had a great
experience got great feedback and it was an honor to be able to contribute some of my perspective Reed you know that I
am a student of trying to improve the way that I speak and you and I have spoken quite a bit on that I have to
tell you I am so impressed at the caliber of speaker that you have become
you’ve been working on your own I can tell I don’t know if I’ve recognized that I’ve been working on it Trace but I
but I I’m with you I I am always looking to learn and improve and especially with
the pressure of being on stage and you know wanting to deliver something that’s valuable I definitely I definitely
worked at my delivery and how to organize the material so that it was effective and ultimately like you know
I’ve got a strong passion for seeing more people engaged in Global Water Crisis work charity work and so with
that focus in mind I yeah I looked back at what what’s going to be most effective at engaging more people and
you know part of that was sharpening you know how I organize and communicate during the presentation
well it’s definitely something you never check the box on you’re always looking at how you can do more how you can you
do better but I am just so impressed with that so I just wanted to let you know the entire scale up Nation know
that all the work that you are doing to become a better speaker we we all appreciate we’re all getting the benefit
of no thanks for your encouragement I really appreciate that and you started out with the business owners meeting you
had several tracks that you were speaking on during the business owners meeting so I want to talk about that but
there are a lot of listeners that might not know what we’re talking about with the business owners meeting of course that does hurt my heart a little bit
because we’ve been promoting the business owners meeting quite some time before we had the awt convention but
still some people might not know about it so for the awt members out there who
goes to the business owners meeting probably obvious but I know there’s some other people that attend who goes to the business owners meeting and then what do
they get there yeah I mean it’s primarily for business owners I believe I uh it’s for primarily
like member companies that that are in the water treatment space uh but also vendors to the Water Treatment Community
as well uh so for anyone that is an owner in the company this is an agenda
for one day that’s specifically speaking to the relevant issues uh for them and
uh this year I think we had over 60 folks uh in the room for the business owners meeting I’ve attended it the last
few years the whole convention is a great experience for me but I’ve generally valued that business owners
meeting as much as anything in the rest of the convention for those that have heard about the Mastermind I feel like
they’re they’re very complimentary and I I know a lot of folks at the business owners meetings were a part of the
Mastermind uh but yeah it’s an opportunity to get a little bit more
specific to topics that business owners share in common and this year the theme was thriving and uncertainty so we
covered a range of topics that I think equipped everyone in the room with confidence as they go back into the
final quarter of the year and uh yeah it’s it’s definitely one of my favorite days out of the convention
Reed what would you say one of your biggest Lessons Learned in being the business owners meeting was
each year we have generally had Scott hackworth from the industry insights
group come out he leads the firm that does the industry benchmarking for
financial metrics and some other key topics that serve the member Community with knowing how their performance maybe
Compares with other similar companies in either Geographic categories or size categories and so he has a really
valuable perspective for for all the businesses business owners in the room and I’ve valued him a ton this year in
particular he spoke to the challenge of measuring your success in the inflation
climate that we’ve been in and created some very helpful formulas and tools for
even the less Financial oriented business owners to make sense of what
changes to their profit and loss statement have occurred with inflation and what practical next actions they may
need to take to not only maintain but increase their profitability and
Financial Health so his perspective every year when he shares is helpful
this year in particular because we’re in relatively Uncharted Territory for for
many of us as business owners it was very practical he also went into a bit
more of the employee engagement and retention side as well of the business because that’s also one of the biggest
you know issues that we’re wrestling with in this industry as well and so that sparked a lot of really helpful
conversation for for folks in the room including myself Reed you brought it up and I had several potential members for
the rising tide Mastermind talk to me or ask me this question they would say What’s the difference between the
business owners meeting and The Mastermind it’s a wider net at the business owners meeting because not everyone wants to
get into the the weekly hour-long call and dig into their personal professional
goals and accountability so if if you aren’t ready to make that Weekly commitment to the community and to The
Mastermind format the business owners is kind of a good flavor of of that once a
year in my humble opinion I I don’t think it’s sufficient to do just once a year but I would definitely recommend
the business owners meeting if you’re not engaged at all you know in a mastermind format I think it gives not
only good connection with business owners who you might miss on the convention floor because there’s a lot
of other people there but also the topics do get laser focused and practical for for business owners
um so yeah there were a number of folks though this year that I know have joined the Mastermind because of what they’ve
experienced at the business owners meeting in previous years and so yeah I view them very much as you know kind of
complimentary events and programs yeah as always the business owners meeting always gets better and better
every year I know they decided to have it right before Grand Rapids next year by the way if you didn’t know that’s
where the next convention is going to be for awt so um it’s always iffy is the
business owner going to make for the previous year and this year was an overwhelming success so that was really
really nice to hear of course Jill cavano heads up that committee and she does a fantastic job so speaking of awt
I know there’s a lot of things that have to happen those happen because of
volunteers so if you have an interest of getting involved by all means check out
the awt.org website and see if there is a volunteer position that you can help
out with they’re always looking for committee members Reed I’m curious have you taken advantage of letting people
know that they can serve on awt committees and then if they come back and tell you what actually what they got
thinking that they were giving but they really got more back yeah I I’ve we’ve
had other folks on our team join in on committees I’ve specifically tried out a
few uh that was something that for me as I got engaged with awt for the first time after hearing you trace on this
podcast I learned from you that you you essentially show up usually it’s I think maybe Friday morning to the committee
breakfast and you can just jump right in it’s it’s an open imitation and uh that was really helpful because it can be
intimidating if you don’t know if there’s a registration or if you need to be there for those that don’t know it really is a show up and ask and you’ll
be added to the list and and you can start to to join I’ve worked in the young professionals committee before and
most recently I’ve been involved in the charity task force uh with my brother-in-law Andy and then Tammy Faber
on our team has been involved in a few committees including the convention committee where she got to help support
the president of awt or the upcoming President Steve hallier on shaping the
agenda for the convention so yeah I I would love to see more people volunteer it’s always a positive experience
sometimes it can take you know one committee or two to figure out where you can make the best you know contribution
uh but it’s a great way to meet people to feel a part of the community and it is what makes the whole thing go and so
you know if you want to see the awt Thrive one of the best ways to do that is to just volunteer raise your hand and
jump into a committee that you think maybe is relevant to you I think everybody has the mindset I don’t have
enough to offer or I don’t have the experience or I’m not the smartest person in the room who cares you know
you’re you’re going to meet people you’re you’re gonna feel better about answering all of those questions in the
future because you’re learning you’re giving and you’re also getting it’s amazing the friendships that you and I
have both created within the awt that we wouldn’t have had an opportunity to meet otherwise yeah and I think a lot of
people can relate to this experience you you develop relationships a lot of times with just people you work alongside you
know so if you don’t you know you show up and you maybe don’t have something in common with somebody well if you get
into a committee and you start volunteering and you take on a project or two together that’s oftentimes the
best ways to to build a relationship and so it takes courage to jump into a new
situation and uh I understand that you might question what you have to contribute but there is a lot of space
for or more people to join and so yeah if you’re on the fence feel free to reach out and would be happy to also
help guide anybody with you know a committee that they’re curious about shift gears just slightly we already
brought it up but let’s talk a little bit about the rising tide Mastermind as I introduced you at the beginning of
this episode you are now a facilitator of two groups of the rising tide
Mastermind why are you doing that tell us about it well I think I’m doing it because you
you asked me well there was that yes yeah I mean you have a vision for seeing
the Mastermind grow in number of groups and and folks that are a part of it to
expand the impact and so I am passionate about seeing that Vision become a
reality and and also I’m aware that there there are constraints you know around the systems if we’re going to
grow the number of groups and so I was very honored for you to create an opening for me and inviting me to try
out leading a group or facilitating a group and I was a bit nervous at first because I’m used to running meetings
within my business but this this isn’t really a meeting this Mastermind group call is you know a collection of peers
within the industry and so holding that space and facilitating it’s a little bit different than what I’ve done before but
a year in with one group it’s been one of the most rewarding things I have invested my time into it’s one of my
favorite hours out of the week and especially when we had an opportunity to be together at the live event earlier
this year the connection that we’ve been able to form even just over a zoom call
just blows me away and it it all has to do I think with just the values that we
share and the format of the hour-long call and uh there there really is a
culture that’s formed a smash my group that I that I love and now that I’ve had this experience both being in a group
facilitating one it’s it’s something I want more of and so excited to see it grow well you wish for that and you
definitely got that we went into the awt convention we had a waiting list for
your new group and it wasn’t quite filled up and this was the coolest thing
ever that happened during the awt convention for me it’s about four years ago I was talking with people like
yourself about a mastermind and some people were familiar with the term most were not and I spent most of my time
explaining to people what a mastermind group was and why they needed to think about joining they weren’t difficult
conversations but nobody knew about it nobody knew what I was talking about fast forward to this Vancouver
Convention I didn’t explain to a single person what a mastermind was I didn’t
initiate that conversation I’ll say I had people come up to me from other
Mastermind members that were so excited about expressing their experiences that
they’ve had in the Mastermind they said you need to learn more about this you need to consider being in this group and
I know you experienced this too we had sometimes two and three people waiting to talk to us about the Mastermind and I
didn’t initiate any one of those conversations it was just fantastic and you mentioned the word community and
that’s what it is it is a heightened community of anything that I have ever experienced in the water treatment
industry and it just allows you to not
go through life alone not go through business alone I’m curious I’m talking a lot what was your experience with that
I’m wholeheartedly with you on it I was blown away this year relative to the
last year I think sometimes you don’t see the progress or the gains you know that you know something like The
Mastermind has gotten until you look back and kind of compare experiences but
yeah definitively this year it felt like a breakthrough in terms of not only
awareness and education uh amongst the industry around what a mastermind is but
also just the demand for more Community around like-minded individuals who are
hoping to grow personally and professionally and uh that was it was it
was exciting that’s a vision that I feel like you began casting when you started the podcast you know and The Mastermind
wasn’t a thing yet and so to look back even five or six years with what’s been happening with the scaling up H2O
podcast leading into the Mastermind yeah it’s it’s truly a community and it’s a growing community and it’s an honor to
get to be a part of it I’m very fortunate to yeah have been invited by you trace to First join a group to help
facilitate a group and yeah I’ve got 12 more people now in this new group that
I’m deepening a relationship with and holding space each week and getting a front row seat at uh people growing
personally and professionally and I’ll get to see them at the live event at the
next convention and hopefully for many more years to come it’s it’s a it’s a beautiful thing yeah not only did we fill up that group
we have a waiting list for the next group it was just fantastic yeah and it helped me to see that for for many
people timing is is really important and so a lot of people I think want to be a
part of this community it’s just a matter of it being the right time for them for their family in their career
and so I’m so excited to have a waiting list that is going to eventually form a
new group and it’s given me a lot of Peace just about seeing the vision of 10 groups become a reality because they
will form in their own time and there’s an increasing number of people that are are thinking about this exploring it
maybe people listening this podcast right now and I think I would just encourage you if you’re having a thought
if you’re even just interested reach out to trace and just let them know this is something that might be for me down the
road and start a dialogue with it because it helps us to kind of know you know where people are interested and
yeah the next group will form in it in its own time yeah it’s interesting when people don’t know what to expect and and
hopefully they’re learning more by listening to this podcast but there’s a little bit of Suspicion you know is this really something that I want to join can
I freely give information and not have to worry about certain things and we’ve got definite rules around what we share
and and all of those things just to make sure that everybody is protected but I love watching a member that says I know
I need to do this I’m a little bit on the fence whether you know all the things on it because I’ve never
experienced it before but I’m gonna do it and now like you say you fast forward a year you do a WhirlyBall tournament
with that person and it’s just amazing the strength the bonds that you have with the people in your group yeah and I
think meeting up at awt events is a great way to get connected I heard from a few folks that it was connecting over
dinner or connecting at a Technical Training event that helped them experience the community and then a few
months later they were ready to jump in same with the convention and so if you’re are curious I think showing up to
the awt Technical Training or convention and looking out for for those that you see are in The Mastermind is a great way
to get a flavor because if you are hesitant about hey is this is this community real it just takes meeting a
few people to recognize that that it definitely is uh and if you’re interested I also think reaching out to
trace and saying hey can I talk with a few folks that are in the industry even over the phone and and I am confident
you’ll get a quick sense of the kind of people that are in this group and and you’ll know pretty quickly whether it’s
a community you want to be a part of and that’s where our members are coming from now it’s it’s coming from people
that are in the rising tide Mastermind community and they’re they’re talking with people and and they’re saying you
you should investigate this so it’s a great Point Reed I have to say that one
of my absolute favorite things at not only the Vancouver Convention but I saw it for the first time because it was our
first convention that we had with the Mastermind in Rhode Island was we process issues together and people
realize oh we talked about this a couple months ago and as they were walking through the exhibit hall they would find
a product and they would go get the member that had a particular issue and
they would bring them to that vendor and start the dialogue I saw that numerous
times again at Vancouver and it just brings a whole other level to
experiencing the awt convention yeah and especially for for those that
are suppliers or vendors to the water treatment industry you know one of the byproducts of this Mastermind within the
industry is that relationships are deepened and so communication happens more effectively and uh it’s given me a
great appreciation just for the quality of people within the industry and sometimes you know having a bit more of
a relationship does allow you to go in confidence to bring up an issue work through an issue it just opens up the
channels of communication I think more effectively and uh yeah it’s a great byproduct because we want everyone
within the industry to flourish including those that are selling products or purchasing and at the end of
the day you know there’s business happening but we’re all just people and I think the Mastermind gets at that and
opens up the conversation a bit more and and yeah are in the middle format on the on the weekly calls definitely helps
people get comfortable with their being problem problems and issues and and we solve them quicker it’s it’s almost a
skill that that you you hone and develop each week in and out and it’s refreshing when you get to meet with somebody who
who knows how to do that you don’t recognize it until you interact with somebody who hasn’t really honed that
problem solving skill or some of those communication skills but when you’re around people that do like within the
Mastermind Community it’s it’s refreshing absolutely agree well something that The
Mastermind embraced because of you and we’ve talked about it here on the scaling up H2O podcast is the the global
6K so I want to talk a little bit about that but more specifically you shared
with the awt the global 6K was that your fifth presentation you did at awt yeah
and for those for those that you know weren’t there you know I wasn’t I wasn’t solo on each of these presentations for
one like I got to share alongside PJ ketrick which was a real honor for a few
others it was a panel shared presentation with Matt corn with my dad and brother-in-law Andy uh but yeah on
Saturday morning I had a presentation that was 100 me delivering it was
probably the the presentation I was most nervous about simply because the amount
of time I had and responsibility for delivering uh effectively but yeah it
was it was probably the most important one to me just because of that you did a great job and a lot of people that were
in the room I think had heard it for the first time as as you were delivering it and I will say that for the Mastermind
it created another sense of community because now we’re all doing something together for other people and we all
felt great about it and then to add another level to that we were doing it with the Mastermind but separately also
as our companies and that allowed us to work with our teams in a way that we
normally don’t do and let them know that we touch water and not everybody gets
the privilege of having an unlimited supply of water like we have all grown
up with and and just knowing that our job if we do it right can save more
water than than any other profession out there and now we can also do something
for people that don’t have access to clean water it just brings our teams to
a whole different level and it also gets us out of the day-to-day grind so we can do something different with our teams
and celebrate that we’re in the the water industry doing something for something else so all of that is just to
say thank you for allowing us to be aware of the cause and giving us options
to get involved yeah you’re welcome I’m humbled by uh the number of people that have said yeah
I’d like to give you know I’ll give some money or or most of what we’ve asked is hey will you give your time and will you
give some of your reputation by sharing with others to raise awareness of this issue in the world and it’s been a
beautiful expression I think of the community that we’ve seen having more and more companies and teams and
individuals connect what they do in water treatment to helping people receive clean water every day
will you opened up your talk on Saturday morning at the awt in Vancouver with the
question where will you be tell us about that the question was an important one uh
because it’s it’s the one that has kept me captured by the work of bringing
clean water there are about 771 million people in the world today that live
without basic access to clean water so water to drink water to bathe and that
issue compounds a lot of other challenges that folks in developing countries like Rwanda or Zambia
experience and that number although it seems big is a number that could be Zero
by the year 2030 based on goals that the government has set in the UN for helping
reduce or eliminate poverty and also goals that large organizations that
provide clean water like World Vision they believe that it is achievable by
the year 2030 to turn that number from 771 million to zero which feels like in
a amazing task an amazing Milestone but the reality that that is not a
aspirational goal but could be a concrete goal causes me to think eight years from now in the year 2030 where
will I be is is that something that when it happens I will be able to confidently
raise my hand and say I had a part in that and that question for me keeps me
motivated to continue to participate in the work and contribute what I do have but that inspiration for me is something
that I hoped to share with the folks at the awt convention and open up the story
of where will you be when in 2030. my hope is that there will be many more people with me raising their hands
saying I am honored to have played a part in that but it is a choice to make and so the question I think is you know
a helpful way of of thinking about where where do you want to be and and what are you investing your time in and how cool
would it be you know if this is something we could actually play a concrete role in read when you gave your presentation you
let the entire audience know that you were a third generation business and how
you came into HOH and what that initial experience was like and then ultimately
what the global 6K meant to you with that experience can you share that to
our listeners yeah so about eight years ago I joined my my father’s business in Chicago and
we’re a regional independent water treatment company and I was excited to be working with my dad he was my hero
and I was also very interested in working in the water treatment industry water is a significant resource I knew
that and so being a young professional a millennial generation was excited to
kind of make a difference with my career and uh I had a good experience but to be
honest you know a year in I was confronted with you know the reality that there are many days doing
this job that don’t feel significant and are difficult to connect to you know a
cause that that maybe changes the world and you know I know I’m not alone on this but I I personally kind of felt a
little disillusioned and you know felt like hey you know this job that I wanted
it to be personally fulfilling you know maybe is just about you know paying the bills you know and
making money and so there was there was a bit of a disconnect from what I had hoped or expected my career in water
treatment would be and what I experienced together and so what I ended up sharing on Saturday was that for a
while I I went outside of the company to find inspiration and personal fulfillment and somebody from my church
actually invited me to run the Chicago marathon with World Vision and it was through that experience that I learned
about the challenge that millions of people face without clean water and I experienced what it was like to play a
part in helping address that problem and that was a really transformative
experience for me and at the same time my dad you know wanted to see the team
that he had engaged in causes Beyond just the business and we ended up
putting our heads together and realized that the 6K for water that World Vision hosts was a way to bring some of that
personal fulfillment experience I had had outside doing the Chicago marathon into the company in a way that wasn’t
just the business giving money but was an opportunity for us to come together
as a community within HOH to make a difference and there was an integration
of what I was hoping to see when I first started both you know being successful
in the water treatment business but also knowing that it’s making an impact and
so today we have more people that can say that what we do as a business our
mission and purpose actually makes them feel their jobs important and I feel like my job’s more important the more
we’ve aligned and kind of connected as a community but that took us many years you know and it took us for me
personally kind of searching and discovering and trying to connect the problem and I think it’s a challenge
that we aren’t alone in facing either me or my dad or our business and so
hopefully that story serves to maybe connect with where other people are at
and you know causes them to think about what they can do to not only make a difference in the global Water Crisis
but also find more personal fulfillment in their work and engaging you know the different Generations you know that that
are part of their company so we this started out as a personal Journey for you you turned it into a
company Journey but then there was at some point you decided you wanted to make it even bigger you wanted to bring
it to all water treatment companies tell us about that yeah I think the reality is is that even
just one company we can’t give nearly enough you know to make a difference so
I think at one level for me I genuinely want to see the global Water Crisis end
and I know it’s a task that’s far bigger than one person one company and so I
think as I work backwards from that challenge the only way I see us actually realistically solving that is to involve
more people and there are a few people in this world that can give a lot right but there are a lot of us that can at
least give a little and so the thinking started to expand around not just trying
to give as a company uh as an individual but what if we could engage more uh
firms Like Us in the watery Ministry to to do something similar and perhaps it’s
not hundreds of people that are engaged in the global Water Crisis but also thousands and so the idea is that the
more of us that are aware aware of this challenge the more of us engaged the more realistically we can actually end
the global Water Crisis by 2030 and then secondly you know one of the big topics
in the awt industry and for like business owners is attracting talent to
want to be a part of what we do in water treatment and there’s definitely a gap between folks that have been in this
industry for 30 to 40 years and some of the younger folks that are just coming in and so I think it’s a challenge for
all of us collectively to continue to attract talented people that want to be a part of the water treatment industry
and so the secondary benefit of aligning with the global Water Crisis cause is
that I think there are more people that will want to be a part of what we’re doing in this industry because there’s a
connection between our day-to-day work and making a difference in the world and so I would love to be a part of not just
a company that makes a difference but to be a part of an industry that may makes a difference in the world such that
people would know and Associate groups like The awt with you know helping solve
the global Water Crisis that’s just something that I don’t know I believe would make me incredibly proud and probably many other people too I have no
doubt can you share what other companies have done to get involved and help their employees get involved yeah so as part
of the presentation I sought out about 20 different member companies just to ask them about their experience with
giving and as I talked with these different firms I heard a lot of different stories and noticed a few
different uh common Trends or patterns and one thing that I shared on
Saturday’s presentation back in September was that we have a very generous group of individuals within the
awt community but many of the business owners that I talk to give personally
more often do they give personally then through their company and so there were
handful though that have engaged their teams through causes like rural Visions
Global 6K for water or through organizations like pure water for the world and one I think the most promising
stories that I had heard was with Guardian CSC and uh B.J ketric where
they have not only engaged in the global 6K for water having organized their team for a picnic and doing the 6K distance
together but they’ve also invited their employees and their team members to give
to pure water for the world which operates in Haiti and Honduras and they actually help support the giving through
their payroll every two weeks and so they’ve creatively engaged their team
pure water for the world that has actually come out to their company to give an update and to share the impact of their dollars and I think that’s
really on The Cutting Edge of really engaging a company in this kind of work and so sharing BJ’s story I think
inspires other people to say hey we could do something like that and uh many
people expressed interest in trying to find ways to connect some of the patterns though that we saw is that you
know this journey looks different for different companies and there’s not a one-size-fits-all approach and so what
seems to have worked for companies like BJ’s group at Guardian is there has to be a genuine passion within the leader
or the owner for wanting to make a difference through a water related charity and then it also has to kind of
fit your own unique story or culture and if you don’t have those two pieces it can be really challenging to engage
folks because it doesn’t feel authentic and and folks are smart they pick up on that and then you also need some help
somebody else besides the owner or the leader to help facilitate communication and organize people and so one of the
actions that I that I shared on presentation in September was really to decide what can you give it doesn’t have
to be a lot and to share with your team your desire and that sparked a lot of conversations that I had with folks
after the presentation that got them thinking about their organization and and how this could play for them
Reed if there was somebody listening today that they’re not the owner of the company but they do want to get involved
obviously they can they can do these things on their own but if they wanted to talk with the owner of the company
what advice would you have for them yeah I would say first maybe explore
what you might want to get engaged in personally so for me that was an invitation to World Vision but the other
two that I shared at the presentation was pure water for the world check out their organization they are a partner of
the awt and they have some great opportunities to give charity water as well is another organization that makes
it very easy for individuals to get engaged and then approaching your your boss or you know the leader of the
company with your personal experience and your passion and the difference that it made for you I think is is the right
place to start a lot of folks would say Hey you know my boss is busy they’ve got a lot of things going on but you know at
the end of the day your boss does care about you and uh wants to serve you and
help you and so if you’re just clear about you know a passion or an interest they’re gonna listen but then the next
main challenge is you know that they’re probably going to ask is well what do you want me to do about this what should
I do and so having an idea in your head around what could work for your
organization to present and it could be something as simple as saying hey we would like to organize a picnic in May
and we can set up our team with World Vision for the 6K for water and we can
just invite people to participate with friends and family it could be something that simple but the main pattern that I
I tried to speak to business owners on is that a lot of us talk about the challenge of hiring and recruiting and
retaining qualified people and then engaging the folks that are maybe a bit younger in the millennial generation and
so if that’s a pain point which it probably is if you’ve seen turnover within that generation I think
connecting the cause to that General challenge is another convincing reason
why they should maybe take a chance on on trying out a a program like this
I think that’s great advice we spoke about World Vision they do the global 6K
one how did they come up with a 6K why isn’t it a 5k everything else is a 5K
yeah it’s a 6K because that is the average distance that folks walk for water on a daily basis in areas where
they don’t have closer access and so the 6K for water is an effective way of not
only communicating the challenge because just like you trace why is it 6K well hey this is what’s happening but
secondly it’s the 6K so that you can actually have a personal experience when you’re doing the Walker run to think
about you know what is this experience like for children and women that are that are walking every day and if you do
it once you know like we’re gonna do in May again it doesn’t seem that bad but when you consider doing it every day and
needing to carry water as well you begin to start to realize the impact that it
has and what it does is it prevents children from being in school and learning and growing it prevents women
from participating you know in Economic Development it also leaves uh folks
vulnerable on the paths walking for water to attack that are vulnerable and
so the opportunity cost of folks needing to walk for water is is huge in that
Community that’s that’s stuck in poverty and it is hoping to develop and so uh
the 6K for water is a great way to experience and get a personal you know connection to the cause and it’s a great
and easy way to invite more people to participate so we participate in the global 6K we we
walk six kilometers how does that bring water to the 800 million people that
need it yeah so ending the global Water Crisis is a team effort and so there are
many organizations like World Vision they’re the biggest uh there’s also smaller organizations like pure water
for the world that are hyper focused on specific areas and countries on average
though the work that these organizations are already doing it costs them about fifty dollars to deliver clean water to
one person and so this challenge is unique because it’s not us trying to
figure out how to go to Mars right and solving that kind of challenge it’s a it’s a solvable issue and so there’s
already infrastructure built with these organizations to meet the need delivering clean water is one of the
most kind of cost effective ways of helping people in poverty the challenge in the bottleneck really is strictly
funding and directing the kind of financing that organizations like World Vision and pure water for the world need
to do to do the work and so for us here in the United States or in a developed
country are our time and labor is not needed to go travel to places like Rwanda to do the work but simply to help
raise awareness and dollars that go to these causes so the 6K for water when
you do that distance and you sign up the registration fee is fifty dollars and so
you signing up for the race and giving 50 with your registration helps one person because those funds go to an
organization that’s doing the work in country what also happens though is that
when you participate and register and share with others what you’re doing and why people will have an opportunity to
give and more often than not folks are looking for good causes to give to and
so money ends up being raised through the event so last year what we experienced within the water stream
industry was almost a hundred thousand dollars that was raised through companies sponsoring their employees to
to register employees registering themselves and then other donations that came in through people donating and that
contributed to thousands of people getting clean water yeah it was amazing how many people in the scaling up Nation signed up last
year were of course give them the opportunity to do that as the scaling up Nation this year but then also how many
companies signed up I mentioned Mastermind companies but also all over awt companies were signing up so what do
we expect next year for the global 6K what are the dates what do we need to do
what are the calls to action yeah so the global 6K for water with rural vision is
going to be happening this year on May 20th and so for you that want to join in
as an individual we’re going to have a scaling up team that you can find on the
scaling up H2O website and so if you want to participate as an individual we’d love to have you as part of the
scaling up H2O team if you’re listening and you have the ability to maybe create a team for your community or your
business like we’ve done and a few other companies have done you can also go to the scaling up H2O site and we’ll have
some instructions there on how you can create your own team and so one way or the other we’d love for you to just try
out the 6K you can do it from anywhere uh ideally you would do it on May 20th
while the rest of the community is doing it across the world last year we had tens of thousands of people across the
world doing it and almost a thousand people in the Water Treatment Community we’re hoping for even more this year so
very easy to do if you can’t do it on that date I know of a few teams that are actually going to be doing it earlier
because it works with their uh their calendar a bit better and so that’s an
option as well but check out the scaling up H2O page to get more information on the 6K for water sign up as yourself or
sign up as a team and be a part of the experience well Reid I want to thank you for once
again coming on the scaling up H2O podcast sharing more information about this this great cause and not that not
having water is fun but it really does bring an extra level of community and
fun to do something about it and I can’t stress enough how difficult it is as a
business owner to find new and fun ways to engage your team and you’ve brought
one that has really helped our company we all engage around it we all know that
we’re doing something that’s bigger than ourselves and it’s it’s just a way to
get out of the day-to-day and help do something for other people so thank you
for allowing us that opportunity yeah and thanks trace for helping us share the invitation with more people it’s a
lot of fun to do this with friends like you and yeah just happy to be a part of it
read once again thank you for coming on the scaling up H2O podcast and thank you
for everything that you do in my community of course Reed’s been on this
podcast several times he’s helped me with content several times and he is one of the facilitators in the rising tide
Mastermind and Reed is one of those individuals that we get together on a
regular basis and as facilitators we dream about what the Mastermind could be
and there’s always something out there that you may not know about but it is
just a perfect fit for you and when you do it time just speeds up you don’t even
think about it as working and you just love being there and one of the most
exciting things about creating the rising tide Mastermind is watching read
develop read is a facilitator of two Rising tide Mastermind groups and just
watching him work with the individuals that he facilitates and him as a
facilitator you can see that is his sweet spot he was made to do it and he
didn’t know about that until he started doing it within the rising tide Mastermind and I have to tell you that has been one of the most rewarding
things to watch in The Mastermind read thank you for stepping up with that and
thank you for trusting me along our journey now Reed and I met at an awt
Technical Training he actually listened to me when I would advise people to go to both trainings and one training they
would take the fundamentals and applications and on the second turning they would take the water treatment class well Reed did that and I met him
in the first fundamentals and applications class and Reed and I
started talking and then when I saw him again for the water treatment class we
actually went out for dinner and Reed and I had a great conversation we started uh to just relate to each other
very well but you know Reed was a little bit suspicious you know why am I doing all these things why do I have this
Mastermind why do I do this podcast and very quickly he came to realize it was because I do want to build the industry
up I do want to leave the industry better than I found it through works that I’m doing and trying to get people
to do a little bit more in their industry so they can leave it better
than they found it and it didn’t take long Reid told me that that was one of his missions as well and of course this
interview proves all the things that he’s trying to do to help us help others
and we just naturally clicked and we’ve been working together ever since and I’m
just so pleased for him to share all the things that he’s doing with you on the
podcast and of course one of the things he mentioned was the World Vision Global 6K
for water that’s going to be on May 20th this year so mark your calendars and
Nation let me tell you if you are an employer this is something so easy for
you to do that will help bring your team together that is so different from the
normal day-to-day that we experience your team will talk about it for a long
time now for you that are members of a team you can bring your team together
with the same thing and I think if you explain to your employer that whenever
you get people together outside of an activity that’s work related but still bonding with all your work community
that creates community and it’s such an easy way to do all of those things and
you will feel great in the process and you will learn about the world Water
Crisis in that whole Endeavor so you can go to the websites that we have on our
show notes page to find out more of course as Reed mentioned we are going to be doing another scaling up H2O team we
had lots of people that joined that and that way they weren’t running individually they were running with us
how did they do that well folks you do it wherever you are and you just post that you are doing it and then we kind
of motivate each other within that team we have special hashtags that we share and we can see each other doing that and
giving each other some accolades for it now you can also create your own team
we’ll have links for that as well that is also very easy and again that is such
an easy way to get out of the day-to-day and do something that’s going to impact
so many people again that’s going to be on our show notes page all of that will
be up there and I hope you plan to run this year and if you don’t want to run
you can walk it you can do whatever you need to do to cross the finish line the
fact is is that you completed it and you’re telling people about what it is
that you are doing well Reid again thank you for sharing all the things that you
did on today’s podcast as you’ve noticed the theme of today’s podcast is how can
we give back so what is something that you can do that helps build somebody
else up according to their needs a lot of us in the water treatment industry are just so blessed with all of the
great things that water treatment has brought us and the fact that we can just turn on the faucet any time that we want
and clean clear drinkable water comes out of the faucet we don’t even think
about it well not everybody has does that same privilege and whether that’s the cause you choose to help with or
just making this industry a little bit better one day at a time I hope you do both but whatever it is that you do I
hope you keep others in mind as you do it Nation I hope you had a great Friday
and I will talk with you next week with a brand new episode [Music]
Nation life is too short to do it alone and that’s why I have been in a
mastermind for over a decade it’s why I started the rising tide Mastermind and
it’s why the rising tide Mastermind is so successful you do not need to face
your problems alone you don’t need to face your issues alone you can learn from others experiences so you don’t
have to repeat their mistakes and you can get further faster because others
are giving you a hand to find out more go to scalingup h2o.com forward slash
Mastermind to see if this is the right group for you
[Music]