While in Scottsdale Arizona, Eric visits the Pool Chasers, Tyler and Greg, in their studio. These are the guys who inspired us to create the Rule Your Pool Podcast, and we want to give them credit for their help, especially the effort Greg personally put into helping us create this show.
00:00 - Intro
01:21 - We met the Pool Chasers in their studio before COVID
02:20 - Podcasts are catching on, but Pool Chasers were one of the first
08:38 - Podcasting wasn't as accepted and understood 5 or 6 years ago. Now it's mainstream.
11:51 - There should be more podcasts, because it's a great medium for sharing information
16:10 - We don't talk about our products and that annoys Greg.
24:03 - If you want to be treated differently, act differently
27:20 - Podcasting is different from classes and trade show activities because it's not based on a finite window of time, and every week it can be new.
29:48 - Tyler thinks its cool that Orenda listened to them and took them seriously about podcasting. Because most people don't.
32:13 - We love hearing from our listeners on podcast@orendatech.com and ask.orendatech.com
32:51 - Summary. Thanks for listening!
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Connect with Orenda Technologies
Website: https://www.orendatech.com
Help Center: https://ask.orendatech.com
Blog: https://blog.orendatech.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/OrendaTechnologies
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/orendatechnologies/
Swim Across America | Team Orenda: https://www.swimacrossamerica.org/goto/orenda
88. Podcasting with the Pool Chasers
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[00:00:00] Eric Knight: Welcome back everybody to the Rule Your Pool podcast. I'm your host, Eric Knight. This is episode 88, and this is actually a really cool one. If I sound different, it's because for the first time in recording this podcast, I'm on a, what I would consider a professional microphone because I'm not in my closet studio. I'm actually in a real studio. I'm in the Pool Chasers podcast studio with the pool chasers themselves. Greg Villafaña and Tyler Rasmussen. Thanks for being with me guys. This is awesome.
[00:00:27] Greg Villafaña: Excited to be here. We're excited to be one of the 70 listeners.
[00:00:31] Eric Knight: Yeah, well you have officially pushed us to at least 72 listeners. This is awesome.
[00:00:37] Greg Villafaña: You got it.
[00:00:37] Eric Knight: And it's funny, I think, thanks for being here is kind of funny because I'm actually in your studio. Thanks for having me is what I should have said.
[00:00:44] Tyler Rasmussen: Yeah, we're super excited.
[00:00:45] Eric Knight: Yeah, thanks. Well, the reason I wanted to do this, A) I was in Phoenix. You guys are in Phoenix. I haven't seen you guys since pre Covid, I believe.
[00:00:53] Tyler Rasmussen: Probably.
[00:00:54] Eric Knight: Yeah, maybe at a show?
[00:00:55] Tyler Rasmussen: Maybe at a trade show, but yeah.
[00:00:56] Eric Knight: I wanted to introduce you to our audience because we do have a lot of people in the trade, but we also have a lot of homeowners that may have never heard of your podcast. In this episode, I just want to introduce what the pool chasers is, and give a background of you helped us start our podcast. And we're very grateful for that. So, without further ado, this is episode 88 of The Rule Your Pool podcast. Let's go.
[00:01:21] Was that a theme song? Nice. So let's go back to just before Covid started. We were in here. I didn't actually get to record an episode with you in the studio because Harold was. It was a long episode. Yeah. But we did an episode on the Six Bad Habits. I think we broke it into two episodes, if I'm not mistaken. I could be wrong.
[00:02:07] Uh, but we did it. Uh, six Bad Habits, episode over seven,
[00:02:10] Greg Villafaña: Eight Bad Habits.
[00:02:11] Eric Knight: And then we made it eight. That's right. I forgot about that. You added those.
[00:02:13] Greg Villafaña: There was more bad habits.
[00:02:15] Eric Knight: There are a lot more bad habits. If we were to do it today, there's probably 20, maybe 24 bad habits.
[00:02:19] Tyler Rasmussen: Probably
[00:02:20] Eric Knight: The, the bad habits are growing almost as fast as swimming pool podcasts are being originated. But you guys were probably, I mean, if you weren't the first, I think the pool guy podcast show was the original. You guys were what? Number two? Number three in the industry? Is that a safe assumption? I don't even know.
[00:02:38] Greg Villafaña: To be honest, I'm not a hundred percent positive on that. I thought that we had started ours first. And we always give respect to David because he was doing those YouTube videos since the beginning, we all owe a lot to him.
[00:02:52] Tyler Rasmussen: That Brett, Brett Gereau one, you know, he was probably the original and we had heard him. When we were just cleaning pools, at brothers, and he only did about 12 episodes maybe. But we still have a friendship with him. But he was probably the original podcast.
[00:03:06] Eric Knight: Really?
[00:03:07] Tyler Rasmussen: Yeah.
[00:03:07] Greg Villafaña: And that was a huge inspiration because at that time, myself and Tyler were extremely busy with being in the field, cleaning pools at this time. And having the ability to listen on how to make your business better and learning new things within the industry that we probably didn't know while we're actually, uh, doing tasks that don't need a lot of thought. You might be brushing, skimming, driving, different things like that. And listening to Brett's show back then is, uh, phenomenal.
[00:03:38] I'm sure there's an insane amount of people, at least 70, 72 doing the same thing to yours.
[00:03:43] Eric Knight: Well, I don't know how many we're going to get to at the end of this episode, but we are really hoping to get to triple digits before the end of the year. That's our goal.
[00:03:52] Greg Villafaña: And I'm just going to say that's a big joke. Cause I know that there's probably a million people that listen to this show.
[00:03:57] Eric Knight: I don't know if it's a million, but if you told Jarred's wife, she would argue that it's a waste of time. Uh, others would say it's a complete waste of time. But you guys have a great show.
[00:04:07] I mean, go back 10 years. Podcasts were just in their infancy, really. And now it seems like everybody's got a podcast. It's a great medium. It's a great way to talk. I didn't see the value in it and you guys helped me realize this, pool guys are working all day. So what got you into creating the Pool Chasers podcast?
[00:04:26] Well, you're pointing at each other. Make a decision. Who's going to talk first? Tyler, I'm picking you.
[00:04:30] Tyler Rasmussen: Uh, all right. I take a lot of pride in actually what you're saying and like Greg and I sat outside probably for 30 plus hours if you add them all up on just like strategically planning around the concept of a podcast. We really early listened to podcasts 8, 9, 10 years ago. Um, he did, I was, I was probably six or seven years ago. So, you know, we figured that it was an avenue to get to listeners. Um, but it wasn't even really about that part either.
[00:05:01] At that time we really needed advice for ourselves and our own business, and that's what we loved about Brett's show. I think the concept of it was talking about things outside of pool cleaning or chemistry. It was actually kind of running your business. And for me, especially, I never had heard how to actually run a pool business.
[00:05:19] I could go clean the pools, but that piece I liked a lot and he didn't take it super deep. But that's what really sparked it for me, was that we could learn ourselves and share that with the world as well at the same time and try to better the industry and reach people. And then once we had the concept, like I said, after it was 30 hours, then it became more of like, how do we make it a business? What does it look like?
[00:05:41] I think we sparked a lot of the other part podcast, to be honest. Which I think you said earlier...
[00:05:46] Eric Knight: yeah, I mean you helped create ours. It wasn't even our idea. You're the ones who told us to do it. So,
[00:05:50] Tyler Rasmussen: I think we forecasted a lot, Greg, especially, of just. What this could be and what podcasts could be in in 5, 6, 7 years from the time we started it. Ours is like now a little over five years old. So that, that projection was pretty cool.
[00:06:06] Greg Villafaña: Yeah, and I think we always wanted to inspire ourselves because there's a lot of people we wouldn't normally have access to and it would inspire us to keep growing our business and there's a lot of things that weren't written on blogs or videos on how to actually run this and make it a profitable business. You don't know what you don't know.
[00:06:28] I hear you say that all the time. But we were getting access to, you know, builders, designers, manufacturers, getting invited to places and documenting it. And these were things that people wouldn't normally be able to see. And I think that inspired people to stay in the trade or take their business more serious, or get into something that they truly do want to do.
[00:06:56] And I think that's really important for this business because it is very difficult whether you're in pool service, you're doing interior, you know, heard you say on another episode that I had no idea how difficult it was for this plaster crew to do what they're doing day in, day out.
[00:07:13] And I can say that for probably every phase of the process, even to cleaning the pool. It's very difficult. So if you can plug in for a second and listen to your people discuss what's helped them. I mean, even listening to some of the failures that some people have had and how they corrected it, you could avoid a total loss on your business.
[00:07:40] Eric Knight: For sure. And there's a lot to unpack in what you just said. I agree with all of it. Um, one thing is collective intelligence. If you can learn from somebody that you hear on a podcast that has already made that mistake that you're experiencing, or they've already conquered that problem, number one, now you know who to ask. Because you just heard them on a podcast.
[00:07:58] It's not hard in an industry as small as ours to track somebody down. There's no six degrees of separation in this industry. A lot of people may think it's a really big industry. It is not. You guys know that better than anyone. It is not hard to get anybody on this podcast if you want them to.
[00:08:12] Greg Villafaña: And I would say most people are happy to help. So if you think you're nobody and you want to reach out to a guest that's been on the show, more than likely if you reach out to them, and you have help and you're polite about it. Not just because we've seen people just go in for the, For the kill, for the,
[00:08:31] Eric Knight: Yeah. They demand I demand your time. Yeah. Yeah. That doesn't work well,
[00:08:35] Greg Villafaña: I want those emails. I want that list. Like, Damn dude.
[00:08:38] Tyler Rasmussen: But I'll argue your point a little bit though, because I think we made that a little easier to find guests and do that. Because in the very beginning, it was not that easy to get people on the show. Because to explain what a podcast is? Like, we literally had to start every conversation with what is a podcast? The other show is now, don't really have to do that anymore.
[00:08:54] Yeah. They just say, I started this podcast. Do you want to be the guest? Saying, Oh yeah, I'll be on the podcast. That's awesome. Whereas our conversations at the beginning very much started. What, what is a podcast? I never heard of that before. And then you start with the basic, you know, radio show, blah, blah, blah. Get into the whole,
[00:09:08] Eric Knight: I appreciate you paving that way for us. That was nice of you.
[00:09:11] Tyler Rasmussen: But, but my point,
[00:09:12] Greg Villafaña: your show doesn't have a lot of guests, right?
[00:09:14] Eric Knight: We don't have any guests pretty much. I mean, we're doing one now, as I say, we don't have any guests. I'm sitting in front of two of them. Okay.
[00:09:20] Tyler Rasmussen: The reason I say that is it was a really fun challenge and just I think paved the way on a lot of that. But it was difficult a little bit in the beginning for sure. Of. You know, getting to those, open those doors a little bit.
[00:09:30] Eric Knight: You know, there are some people in this industry that were truly ahead of their time. And you look at some of the people that you've had on your show that were truly ahead of their time, They changed the industry. And at the beginning, nobody took them seriously. And I would argue you guys were ahead of your time. Because when it first came out, I started listening to your podcast. I'm like, Damn, I'm learning a lot about this industry. I've heard of that company, I didn't know any person behind that company, but I see that product on the shelf. It's very cool to hear the personalities behind the products.
[00:10:00] So kudos to you guys for bringing the humanity behind the industry and introducing them to the world, and that's a really cool thing. We are not doing that at all on the Rule Your Pool podcast. As you can tell. If you've listened to it. That's your thing. That's not our thing.
[00:10:14] What we try to do is we just try to add value in our way, which is just specific technical information. You know, we don't really pitch products, we don't talk about it. We did in a few episodes and I reluctantly, uh, mainly because we just kept getting questions about it. But we get a lot of audience feedback, but we want to talk about actual issues.
[00:10:31] And where I think this stems from is when I was first coming into this industry, I was a sponge. I was reading all the books. I see you've got Bob Lowry's basic and intermediate training manuals. I read them cover to cover. Just to get the job. That was a requirement to work at Orenda. I had to know those books front and back. And I learned so much. And I would go to trade shows and I would take all the classes that I could because I didn't know anything.
[00:10:56] And a lot of what was taught, A) was not true. Come to find out, because I still have the notes. And B) was product driven.
[00:11:03] It's like, oh, well you want to know about, uh, scale? Okay, what you need to have is my sequestering agent. Well, they never explained the LSI. It was never even brought up. Well, okay, well what caused the problem? You're telling me how to fix it, but is that really going to fix it?
[00:11:18] It really bugged me that I'm here trying to learn what the problem is. I never actually did. So what we want to do is we want to fill that vacuum.
[00:11:24] And I wanted to introduce you to our audience because I think if they want to dig deeper and learn more about this little industry of ours, that as small as it is, there's millions of pools out there.
[00:11:35] These are the people that drive the pools. I'm suggesting to you listeners, all few dozen of you, you should try listening to the Pool Chasers podcast. Find out the personalities behind the products that you use. You might learn something.
[00:11:51] Greg Villafaña: And I want to add the, let's see, Hold on. How do I want to say this?
[00:11:56] Eric Knight: In English, preferably.
[00:11:59] Greg Villafaña: You know, I want to encourage people, especially manufacturers, start their own podcast. I mean, that's why we approached you with this. Because we knew that you did video and the brand was probably the best in the industry. It really is out of this world. And you've touched on everything. You have Orenda Academy, you've got videos on YouTube, you've now got the podcast.
[00:12:23] And we need more people that are the expert at what they do having things like a podcast to talk about it. Because it's not that easy to get information. You've done a phenomenal job at that. I mean, I've listened to probably 75% of the shows and they're all extremely good, well thought out.
[00:12:47] Eric Knight: Oh, well, let's not show things we can't take back now...
[00:12:49] Greg Villafaña: Good show notes.
[00:12:50] Eric Knight: Yeah, good show notes. Yeah. Half the people always read the show notes. That's funny.
[00:12:55] Greg Villafaña: But I mean, what have you gotten from it?
[00:13:00] Eric Knight: I have learned a ton about where people's problems really are because of the feedback. I am stunned and it, it warms my heart the emails that we get to podcast@orendatech.com and ask.orendatech.com, you could submit questions and it's just amazing.
[00:13:17] We've been getting questions from the Middle East, from Europe, from Asia, from Africa. And it's just amazing that our little podcast and it, it's even more amazing that that's only 70 people.
[00:13:29] But no, I don't know where that joke really started. The podcast is basically devolved into us just ribbing each other. At this point we're, we ran out of ideas to talk about, so we just make fun of each other.
[00:13:40] I kind of forgot where I was going with that, honestly, guys, I apologize. Got derailed.
[00:13:45] Greg Villafaña: That's awesome coming from you, Eric.
[00:13:46] Tyler Rasmussen: Yeah.
[00:13:47] Eric Knight: Normally I'm just alone sitting, you know, crisscross applesauce on the floor in my closet, talking into my microphone, looking at a computer, and there's no computer in front of me. I have no show notes. I'm, I'm completely out of my element. Honestly, it's more comfortable chair though. I'll give you that.
[00:14:02] So you asked what I learned from it. I learned that we take a lot for granted of what we know in this space. I get the same questions a lot, like generally speaking, it's the same set of 20 questions or so for the last five years. Now we do get some outliers and I like those outliers. But we get questions about flakes in a salt water pool, crystals in a pool that was winterized, Pool cover questions, algae, discoloration, stains, plaster problems.
[00:14:28] We get the same kind of questions. And you can kind of get dulled to the fact that this person's never encountered this before. They don't realize that I've encountered it six times today. And that's not an exaggeration. I get the same questions multiple times a day.
[00:14:45] What the podcast has taught me is cover the basics. Don't assume that people can fill in the gaps. Hell, I was just here for the Pentair training here in Arizona. That's why I'm here in town. And I asked the honest question like, Be honest with yourselves, pool professionals. How many of you have a firm grasp of the LSI? And you could tell me what it is?
[00:15:06] Tyler Rasmussen: Two hands went up?
[00:15:07] Eric Knight: Yeah. Like more than half the room was like, I don't know.
[00:15:10] Greg Villafaña: They know. Cause Eric will call him out.
[00:15:12] Tyler Rasmussen: I'm not sure I could stick my hand up,
[00:15:13] Eric Knight: I'm really glad they were vulnerable about it because then we got to start at the basics and I got to explain the sugar in the water and everything. And you could just see these people having an epiphany. Now hopefully it sticks. Now that part, I don't know. But if we just assume people understand the LSI because I talk about it every single day, like multiple times a day. I understand the LSI extremely well.
[00:15:34] But this person, this homeowner or this service tech who's new to the industry, they may have never come across that. And so what the podcast has taught me is it's worth spending some time just getting to the basics. Just talking about things that may be even annoying to me, because I talk about them so much, but I have to explain them at an elementary school level to just to get them out there.
[00:15:54] And then, and this is what you taught me, Greg, once you have it published, you can just send them the episode and you don't have to keep repeating yourself. That changed the game for us. That's what this podcast is unlocked for us. So I hope that answers your question.
[00:16:10] Greg Villafaña: Yeah, that's beautiful. One thing that is a little bit frustrating about your show is that you don't want to talk too much about the Orenda products. And I think the chemistry part of it is a no brainer. You're going to talk about it because you know it really well. But I hope other people don't use that as the playbook. Because me personally? I would love for you guys to talk about all of your products. That's what I want everybody to do. If you make pumps, filters, you make new automation. Talk about that product because if I type in Orenda, I'm really hoping that, you know, your products are going to pop up on how to, you know, what's the cause and effect of not dosing properly.
[00:16:54] And you guys do a really good job of talking about these things without being too salesy. But I do think talking about the product would be sweet.
[00:17:03] Eric Knight: Well, I appreciate you saying that, and it is a fine line that we have to walk. I'm not going to pretend this isn't a marketing tool. It's like the best marketing tool we've ever done. Thanks again for telling us to do this. It's a great idea, Greg. Um, , but we find it very inauthentic to talk about ourselves the entire time. The whole point of the podcast is to add value to the listener. That's how I see it. When I was taking classes and it was a product pitch, it annoyed me.
[00:17:27] It really annoyed me. I didn't come out of there thinking, I understand this problem now. I'm confident in talking about it. All I know is I need to buy these three products from this manufacturer, but I still don't know what caused the problem. So I don't want to be that show. But I do understand there's a time and place for that, because I did a few.
[00:17:44] Greg Villafaña: But isn't that every company's responsibility?
[00:17:46] Eric Knight: Uh, well on every platform though? Do I have to do it on the podcast? I mean, we have blogs about it. We have,
[00:17:52] Greg Villafaña: But I guess there's enough shows that'll come out that you can cover that as well, right?
[00:17:56] Eric Knight: Sure. I do have an episode on each product and how to use it. We may go further in depth to like different scenarios and stuff, but all in moderation. A total of, I think, six episodes on products out of 88? I'm okay with that. Like that's a decent ratio. So it just means I need to go another 88 before I can hit another six episodes. So you have some time to wait.
[00:18:17] Greg Villafaña: Yeah. because I think you did do something on PR 10,000, right?
[00:18:21] Eric Knight: Right. How to use it.
[00:18:23] Greg Villafaña: Because I thought that was extremely valuable. Because you were talking about how people thought it was so expensive. But it is expensive if you're not dosing correctly. And this brought flashbacks of, you know, when we had technicians and they were,
[00:18:39] Eric Knight: Why are you giggling Tyler?
[00:18:41] Tyler Rasmussen: Buying five gallon buckets and them being gone in a week. That kind of thing.
[00:18:45] Greg Villafaña: Tell him dude.
[00:18:48] Tyler Rasmussen: I don't know. I don't know what story you're talking about specifically. I just think,
[00:18:50] Greg Villafaña: Well just saying that we were wasting money.
[00:18:52] Tyler Rasmussen: We just bought so much product and it just,
[00:18:53] Eric Knight: We appreciate you.
[00:18:56] Greg Villafaña: If we were still running the business, we would have made our team listen to that episode.
[00:19:04] Tyler Rasmussen: Correct.
[00:19:04] Greg Villafaña: And they would've known how crucial it is. And I think that there might be some owners where it's like, Oh, they don't need to know about the money side or this and that. Who cares? You know what I mean? They need to know that if we're saving money, that's more money that the business has. We can't grow, we can't give you raises, and we can't give bonuses and we can't do all these different things that we want to do if we're, um, wasting product but also, like what else are you doing that with? Like that's irresponsible on a lot of different levels.
[00:19:37] Eric Knight: You make a very good point that I did not see, maybe we should do more of that because we do get a ton of questions. How long do I have to wait before swimming, after using PR 10,000? We get that question every day.
[00:19:48] Greg Villafaña: I used to know that answer. What's the answer?
[00:19:50] Eric Knight: Uh, until it's clear enough to see the main drain. There's no toxicity issues, it's just a clarity thing.
[00:19:55] Tyler Rasmussen: I think you made a good point earlier, just like, what he's kind of getting at I think is we have all these manufacturers, we have all these friends now in this industry, and all of our conversations always start around the same idea of like, I don't want to talk about the product, or they already know all about the product. No they don't.
[00:20:12] Like, when we used to tell people like, can you explain exactly how to backwash a filter? Everybody knows how to backwash filter. No, they don't.
[00:20:19] Eric Knight: They don't. Yeah. That's a good point.
[00:20:20] Tyler Rasmussen: Like that's, that's what they're really, I think, you know, he's getting at like, go deeper, dive into like how things are done, explain why you do it a certain way, why it's dosed this way. People just assume we know everything. Like when I go to those trainings and nothing against Pentair or Jandy or anybody, but to me it's always not deep enough. It's just here's our book. Let's go through it. They just assume we all know what we don't know.
[00:20:44] If you go down that avenue with your products and you, and I'm not saying you guys, I'm just kind of jumping off
[00:20:49] Eric Knight: Oh, no, no, no, no. You, you're, you're in it now. We're, we're, we're going to ride, we're on military time, now we're, we're going, we're going deeper. So I,
[00:20:56] Tyler Rasmussen: You'd just be surprised at how many conversations we had on that was just like, they already know how to do that. And every time Greg and I would look at him like, you just really don't understand how uneducated this industry is sometimes.
[00:21:06] And there are people like Joe Mischik who is very, very knowledgeable and takes the time to study. But majority, I would think are the other way around.
[00:21:13] Eric Knight: I came in here thinking I was just going to be interviewing you guys and thanking you for setting up on a podcast. I did not realize that you were going to change my mind about something and
[00:21:21] Greg Villafaña: Ambushed.
[00:21:23] Tyler Rasmussen: Well that's what you get for no script,
[00:21:25] Eric Knight: No show notes! I didn't, I didn't have, I didn't have Jarred here to keep me in line. Don't worry, Jarred won't be listening to this one because he is not on it. So we could, we could talk about him behind his back. It's, it's totally fine.
[00:21:36] I feel like I have a homework assignment because if I go through the common questions about products that we get, that's a lot of episodes. We get a lot of questions about it.
[00:21:45] Now we have them in the help center. But maybe it is worth doing short, like brief blitz kind of episodes. We have an idea for an episode of just our top 40 most frequently asked questions, just quick answers. Jarred just rattles them off and I just answer them quick, quick, quick, quick, quick.
[00:22:01] We kind of did that in a recent episode. I don't remember the number. It was called Here's to the Naysayers. Where we went through the most common criticisms of our company. That was a very, very well received episode. I was stunned at the feedback we got. People loved it. I got so many text messages within two hours of releasing that episode from people all over the country. It was a really cool thing.
[00:22:22] Tyler Rasmussen: That's vulnerability, right? That's what the podcast is all about. Good podcasts, everybody's vulnerable, the conversation gets deep, and that's what we love about podcasting.
[00:22:31] Greg Villafaña: And I think this is just a chance for us to talk about what we'd also like to hear, but knowing how you speak on the show, there's a lot more that circles around than just talking about this product. You know, it's how do I, you know, read the label? What do I need to know? How should I store it? If I'm a pool service guy or a homeowner, you know? Don't leave it outside in the summer. Don't leave it outside in the winter. Don't do this, don't do that.
[00:22:59] What should I use as a measuring cup? All those little bitty things, I think that's the magic, where you're in the backyard and you see some green on the walls and it's like, if you see that, what is that indicating? How am I going to assess this? Should I backwash? Should I do this? Should I contact my service manager to see if a filter clean was just done? So it's not just like this is our product. You know, you got to measure the pool, find this out. It's taking all of those things and put them all together.
[00:23:30] Tyler Rasmussen: Yeah. Get into the weeds.
[00:23:31] Greg Villafaña: Because I swear to God, our technicians if they feel like they're connected, like, Oh man, like is this guy in the backyard with me?
[00:23:38] Tyler Rasmussen: I think your audience is homeowners. Right? They're even less knowledgeable than probably our audience.
[00:23:42] Eric Knight: Oh, you don't know our homeowners. They've been listening to the Rule Your Pool Podcast, Tyler, and
[00:23:46] Tyler Rasmussen: Well, maybe the original 72 are knowledgeable, but
[00:23:49] Eric Knight: extremely
[00:23:49] Tyler Rasmussen: As you've grown,
[00:23:50] Eric Knight: Extremely
[00:23:51] Greg Villafaña: And I hope you're taking this the right way. I'm only saying that because something might have happened to where you feel like you can't talk more about the product. Because I wish everybody would do that.
[00:24:03] Eric Knight: If you want to be treated differently, you have to act differently. How many classes have you been in that were sales pitches?
[00:24:10] Greg Villafaña: All of them.
[00:24:11] Tyler Rasmussen: A lot.
[00:24:11] Eric Knight: A lot. Did you walk out of there thinking, Wow, I took something out of this class that's going to change how I do business? That's what I want everybody walking out of an Orenda class feeling every time. And if I talk about products that's lost because it's a sales pitch. Now I understand the value of doing it on a podcast by having those episodes so that we have that content. As I told the audience when we were doing the product ones, just please bear with me. We don't want to do it, but we got to get it out so that we have this. But you've renewed my, Actually, I never had it to begin with.
[00:24:43] You've given me a reason to actually take a more serious look at that. Because you make a good point. No, they don't. They don't understand what we know. I look at PR-10,000 and SC-1000 and CV-600. I know exactly what these products are. I know exactly how they're going to react in a given situation because I deal with them all the time.
[00:25:01] Greg Villafaña: And how many backyards have you been in? It's not like it's your first
[00:25:05] Eric Knight: hundreds
[00:25:05] Greg Villafaña: ...rodeo. It's not like you sit behind a desk all day. Like you were just at a pool here in Scottsdale. And
[00:25:10] Eric Knight: I know that's why I'm still sweaty and smelly. I still have SC-1000 on my hands I'm fairly certain, we were just doing a startup. I love being in the field, man. I got to tell you. This summer I was so busy with the app that I didn't actually get to get out in the field very often, and I miss it. I love getting out in the field. Teaching classes is great, but actually getting your hands dirty and getting in the backyard, even netting somebody's pool while they're testing water and whatever else, it's just revitalizing for me. I need to walk those miles in the shoes.
[00:25:38] Which brings me up to like what we were talking about with plastering. We had been talking for years. How could we possibly think we know about plaster when we've never plastered a pool ourselves? How could you possibly know? We finally did it.
[00:25:52] Oh my gosh. Like that. Totally new respect for that trade. And I always respected them, but now I like really, really, really respect them.
[00:26:03] Greg Villafaña: But I love that you brought that to light. Cause I don't think enough people respect a lot of the subcontractors like everybody. But you were actually, And I like what you said, you know, it's like it was a lot of work and they kind of prepped everything and we just jumped in it.
[00:26:19] Eric Knight: Yeah.
[00:26:19] Greg Villafaña: You know what I mean?
[00:26:20] Eric Knight: They did the hard work. We got in and got to trowel and that was hard work. Yeah, like that was legitimately hard work and I can't imagine being a plaster crew waking up at three in the morning, getting out of the building before five, like they're loading the truck at four something. It's dark. Putting pallets on this truck and driving, you know, sometimes hours to the job site, depending on where they are.
[00:26:42] They get out there, they have to prep this pool, tape it off, put all this plastic on. I mean, it is a job and a half. And they do that twice a day, sometimes three times a day. That's crazy to me.
[00:26:52] And that we didn't even do a full pool. We did like a half pool because it was a test pool. Oh my gosh. So by walking a mile in their shoes, it really helps us appreciate it. And you're right, I hate to say this, but I think we probably do need to do that more because we do get a lot of the same questions.
[00:27:13] I don't know, it just gives me the heebie geebies, you know, it just, slimy. I don't want to be a pool gypsy. I don't want to be just,
[00:27:20] Greg Villafaña: Well, you know, comparing what I mean yourself to what's going on at a trade show. They've got a window of time to get information and they're placing a bet that there's going to be new people. Because somebody's already heard this.
[00:27:32] The difference is, this is your show that you get to make new every week. And a lot of the things you're talking about are kind of timeless. There's podcasts I listen to that haven't done a show in five years, but I always go back to their archive because the stuff they talk about is timeless. It'll always be relevant to my world. And I think the same for Orenda.
[00:27:58] We can't find trained people. We can't find people that know how to do this. We can't find people that know how to do that, but nobody's doing anything about the training problem.
[00:28:09] Don't tell me that technology isn't easy enough and convenient enough because it's pretty easy these days to make a video, make audio, and you don't even have to do it to this level. Keep stuff basic and easy. The most important thing is you're educating people on what you know. But I think that if we want the next generation and this current one to be better, like you got to be more aggressive with how we get information and not wait on the next guy to do it.
[00:28:40] Eric Knight: Well, I got to be honest with you guys, this episode has gone a direction I did not expect it to go and I'm glad, but that's kind of how a natural conversation's supposed to go. I do want to, uh, wrap this up. How can people find you? How can people find your podcast? Tyler, what's your website? What's the best way for people to get engaged? Uh, I hear it again, You can point fingers, you're pointing fingers at each other and it, it needs to stop. I asked Tyler, Tyler first.
[00:29:06] Tyler Rasmussen: How can they get ahold of us?
[00:29:08] Eric Knight: Not how to get ahold of you, but like how to find your content. Yeah.
[00:29:11] Tyler Rasmussen: poolchasers.com is the main way to find it. Um, but you probably should ask Greg that question.
[00:29:18] Eric Knight: Is this an inside joke? I feel like this is an inside joke.
[00:29:20] Tyler Rasmussen: We just do different things. He, that's kind of his world a little bit more than mine. That's all.
[00:29:24] Eric Knight: Okay. So poolchasers.com. Go on anywhere podcasts are available? Just look up pool chasers.
[00:29:30] Greg Villafaña: Yeah, you can go on poolchasers.com and all the different icons are up top. We have Instagram @poolchasers, Twitter, @poolchasers, Pinterest even, crazy enough. Um, and a YouTube channel. So, yeah. And you can email poolchasers.info@gmail.com.
[00:29:47] Eric Knight: Right on. Well, thank you guys.
[00:29:48] Tyler Rasmussen: I just want to say one thing about you, Eric. I think it's pretty cool to sit here and, and talk to you and have this conversation because I remember the initial conversations of Greg's talking with you and Harold and kind of the idea that it wasn't as cool to you then, as it is to you now, obviously, Right?
[00:30:04] Of, Yeah. About, just about understanding the concept of it and what it's done for you and for, for your brand, right? That's pretty cool that you've taken that idea and along with Greg's help and just kind of that whole thing and, and embraced it because not everybody does. And you know, for you to do what you're doing and now even more diving in farther into it, it's pretty cool to see.
[00:30:25] Eric Knight: I will totally give you credit for it because when we were here pre Covid with Harold, I thought it was cool. I did, I thought it was cool. I didn't see it applying to my company. I just didn't. Like, I thought, ah, you know, we have all these videos, We have all the... it never clicked until our first episode goes out and one of my customers called me and said, I love your podcast.
[00:30:50] Wait, what? We didn't tell anybody about it. We didn't put it on Facebook. We didn't put it on our website. We didn't tell anybody. We just wanted to see who would find it, and it started taking off very early. And largely what he was saying is, Yeah, it doesn't even slow me down. I could just listen while I drive. That was the epiphany moment when I realized, oh my gosh. The podcast doesn't slow down our core audience from their actual job.
[00:31:14] They can learn while they're working. And they can listen with AirPods in their ear while they're netting a pool and driving to the next one. Wow. That was something that never even crossed my mind when, when I was in this studio last time.
[00:31:26] Greg Villafaña: You didn't have to do it. You know what I mean? There's so many people talk about they should do a podcast. And they don't do it because we know how much work really does go into it.
[00:31:35] Eric Knight: Oh yeah.
[00:31:36] Greg Villafaña: You can have a very minimal setup. But if you want it to be good and you want it to be well laid out and you really want to do your due diligence and getting that information across, it's a lot of work. And you've done a lot of episodes and I'm super proud that you guys have done it for this long because we need more people doing it.
[00:31:55] It puts a voice to the brand and the product. And for us, we've always been, there's a handful of companies that like, kind of keep us in this industry and make us proud to be in the same industry as companies like Orenda.
[00:32:09] And, uh, man, keep, keep doing the podcast because it's, it's great.
[00:32:13] Eric Knight: Thanks. Yeah. Well, ROI wise, I mean, it's a few hours of editing for sure. And processing and getting it published and transcribing and all that stuff. Like it's work. But the return is so worth it when you get that email from a new listener. Especially an international one. That's so cool. But a homeowner...
[00:32:28] Greg Villafaña: The fact that somebody takes time out of their day. Like, when's the last time you did that? I can't even think of the last time something did that to me. But somebody taking the time out of their day to write something? A phone call is good, but when you get a long email or a direct message or something like that?
[00:32:44] Respect, because that means that moved somebody big time. We're all fricking busy. Like everybody's busy.
[00:32:51] Eric Knight: Oh, it means a lot. It means the world to us. And I say that at the end of every episode, and now that this is the end of this episode as well, it does mean the world to us that you guys listen to this.
[00:32:59] I can't believe that you actually are, we're still just kind of kicking ourselves, like really? You're, you're listening about pool chemistry? But you're right. Like there are people who want to learn more about this and there is a void. It, it just, not a lot of information.
[00:33:12] So Tyler and Greg of the Pool chasers, thank you for having me in your studio and uh, hopefully I'll be on your podcast here soon too. So thanks for having me.
[00:33:22] Tyler Rasmussen: Thanks, Eric.
[00:33:23] Greg Villafaña: Thank you.
[00:33:23] Eric Knight: Thank you all for listening. Take care.