Harold returns from a world-wide cruise, and while he was gone, Orenda was acquired by HASA. This episode lets Harold explain why he sold and his outlook on our future with HASA.
00:00 - Introduction
00:59 - Harold's global voyage
04:34 - Why Harold decided it was time to sell Orenda
07:03 - New advisory role
08:16 - Why HASA?
10:30 - Why chlorine and acid prices were increased
12:50 - Quality Control
14:13 - Control the controllables
16:53 - Why the 4x1 returnable model makes sense
19:51 - Education will continue to expand
22:31 - New email address for complaints and feedback (coming soon)
25:35 - Want grace? Then give grace.
29:04 - Looking forward with gratitude
------------------------------------
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
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/orendatech/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/orendatechnologies/
Swim Across America | Team Orenda: https://www.swimacrossamerica.org/goto/orenda
111. The Return of the King (w/ Harold Evans)
===
[00:00:00] Eric Knight: Welcome back to the Rule Your Pool podcast, I'm your host Eric Knight. This is the 111th episode of this podcast. Thank you for still listening. In today's episode. Harold Evans, our dear leader, has returned from several months traveling the world with his lovely wife. And we suppose there's some wisdom, but we want to get caught up in general. So Harold, it is a pleasure to have you back on the show.
[00:00:23] Harold Evans: Hello. Pool World. Four months on a cruise ship is a long time. But I'm here.
[00:00:30] Eric Knight: We're going to get into this and we, What we want to talk about with you, Harold, is we want to talk about some perspective you learned from traveling the world a little bit. We'll touch on that. Anything valuable for our, our listeners to learn from. And we want talk about the big news, which of course, Orenda being sold.
[00:00:46] A lot of questions have been brought up, a lot of customers are concerned, and I want you to address those head on, so you ready to get into it?
[00:00:52] Harold Evans: I am ready to address things from my heart to theirs.
[00:00:57] Eric Knight: All right. Let's get into it.
Harold's global voyage
---
[00:00:59] Eric Knight: Okay, so you left in early January and you just got back on May 11th, I think?
[00:01:25] Harold Evans: That's correct.
[00:01:26] Eric Knight: So that's about about four months of travel. What are some takeaways.
[00:01:31] Harold Evans: Hard to sell a company when you're traveling.
[00:01:34] Eric Knight: Yeah. But somehow you did it.
[00:01:36] Harold Evans: Thank God for Jarred. I don't want to, I guess that's a permanent record now.
[00:01:40] Um, yeah. You know, so it's, uh, I'm 67, be 68 in a few months, and it's, uh, sort of turning a page in a long history of my being involved in the pool business since 1984. So kind of emotional, kind of topsy-turvy, kind of bittersweet as I've told others. But I'm here to talk about whatever you want to ask about why we're doing what we're doing, who we're doing it with, and what my thinking is long term for the brand and for the industry, and for what I think is a better solution moving forward.
[00:02:17] Eric Knight: Before we get into that, what are some of the things you saw around the world that you're grateful for? Or, you know, just general wisdom that anybody who doesn't have the opportunity, like most of us, to actually take that kind of time. What did you learn? What can we take away from it?
[00:02:31] Harold Evans: Well, it's uh, it's enormous. It's life changing. What I would tell all of you, if you have to borrow the money, while you still have the ability, you should see the world when you have all of your wits and all of your physical abilities as much as you can. I saw a lot of people that waited too long to do what they did, and some of the enjoyment was lost in their condition.
[00:02:54] How they think, how they move around and the likes. And Rose and I are blessed to have all of our health and all of our moving parts working pretty well. My grandfather bought a travel trailer when I was in high school and they were going to see the world. Never quite worked out. Never got the plastic off the furniture inside the RV, they just never got to do what they said they were going to do because life has a way of doing that to you.
[00:03:23] So it's very important that you mix working hard and occasionally getting away from your business and reminding yourself why you married the person you married. And distance sometimes helps you reflect better than being in the moment, day in and day out.
[00:03:40] So, It was kind of good, um, that I wasn't in the moment when I was traveling, when all this was going on. It allowed me to think for days I couldn't get a signal at sea. So I was isolated and left in my own devices. So there was all kinds of learning that went on. I learned a lot about cultures, I learned a lot about commonality in cultures.
[00:04:02] I always miss certain things about my life here, but I also feel like it strengthens my understanding of my contribution in my business. The way we live our lives, and the gratitude that I feel being the child of a single parent mom who only in America, in my opinion, can a person with my background and my shortcomings elevate themselves to the point that we were able to do what we did with Orenda. And successfully hand it off to people that I think are the next stage.
Why Harold decided it was time to sell Orenda
---
[00:04:34] Harold Evans: You know, all businesses have differing people that perform different functions at different times. And I am a disruptor. I like headwind. And have always kind of had that thought and that condition in my business life. And I don't know that in the long term if trailblazers and troublemakers like me are always the best people to run companies.
[00:04:58] We've done a lot of the, uh, heavy lifting trying to change thinking and perception and practice. And thank you all who have sent me private as well as public messages for the gratitude that you feel for how we've helped you in your business. How we've helped you look at things in a different way.
[00:05:16] So it was time in my view to look at the future of Orenda for people like you, Eric, and the young people that have been such an important part of this transition. To look at different leadership in different ways and different help, more resources, more channels to bring things to market because it's getting more complicated. We had options as a company to sell to whoever we felt was best for the brand, for the people, and for the future of changing the way the world thinks about water.
[00:05:48] I am certain, even post facto, that while some of you question what I'm doing and why, I'm unencumbered by your questioning. I've been thinking about this for a while. Jarred helped me think about it more. If my goal is to change more water and to make water better for swimmers, and for the environment, and for people, we needed help to do that. We needed more people.
[00:06:12] When I got back from my trip, we had a collective meeting with the HASA sales group. Inside I was crying because I never felt that I had that much help to do anything. I always had to do things myself from the start. And then you all came along and made it better. Now I'm the Maytag repairman. My phone rings less than it ever has because you're doing what I ask you to do. Which is to take over responsibility and leadership to carry the wand. Because you can't live forever and you can't do it forever.
[00:06:43] All those things are the process in my squirrely head that I went through to determine it was time for us to find another way to bring products to market. And that we needed a partner to assist us in that process, and we needed a necessary sanitizer in the mix in order to do that.
A new advisory role
---
[00:07:03] Eric Knight: When was the last time you had a boss?
[00:07:06] Harold Evans: I was thinking about that the other day. That's a long time. I mean, I always had customers for bosses. I feel like all the pool professionals that are looking to me are my boss. Uh, in a lot of ways. And we all have customers, so they're the boss. But
[00:07:19] Eric Knight: Well, we always answer up to them. Yes, I understand that. But I mean, employment decisions.
[00:07:23] Harold Evans: I mean, clearing for the fact that I was going to go to the meeting in Houston and meet everybody, I actually had to call and say, Hey, do you, is it okay if I go to the meeting? I thought, wow. That's kind of heavy. Yeah. So that's a little bit of an adjustment. I think that when you sell your company, you have to relegate yourself to resolving the fact that you don't have the decision making that you had before.
[00:07:47] And I think from my perspective, most of the better decisions that I've made along the way up until this moment have been less centered around preoccupation and more centered around what I think are good decisions. So I'm hoping that HASA, and I think they will, want to have my input. Now, I don't have an absolute outcome influence, but I can be a troublemaker and a disruptor.
[00:08:14] Eric Knight: Wait, what? You??
Why HASA?
---
[00:08:16] Harold Evans: I think Chris knows that. Chris Brink, the chairman of HASA. I think we've established that as one another. And by the way, super smart guy who I deeply trust, and I think there's been a lot of characterizations about HASA which I want to discuss on this podcast that are not completely fair. And some that are...
[00:08:33] Eric Knight: So why HASA then? That's the next question. Why HASA and what's your vision for everything moving forward?
[00:08:38] Harold Evans: Because every other suitor had a conflict that I couldn't live with. Emphasis around trichlor use, overlooking things that I can't overlook. Practices that I don't subscribe to. Doesn't mean they're not right for somebody else, but they're not for me. And people have always said to me along the way, well, Harold, you know, you never know where you're going to be.
[00:08:57] Well, I tell you where I'm going to be for certain, and that is I have to believe in what I'm doing, or I'm going to stay home. But I don't want to, I still want the next two years that I'm spending as a consultant to this collective group to be beneficial and continue to have the vision that we've always had with more solutions.
[00:09:15] You know, we can now make algae claims in conjunction with the use of our products. Which, as you well know, Eric, is probably the greatest relief of your language correction in the industry. So being able to talk about our solutions with a killer. Uh, is a wonderful thing.
[00:09:31] Eric Knight: My relationship with Jarred is bound to improve from this.
[00:09:34] Harold Evans: It's got, it's got to be that Jarred's going to live less stressfully knowing that we actually have something that can talk about that.
[00:09:39] Eric Knight: Back to the question of why HASA? You said it's because everyone else had a conflict. What did HASA have? Rather than what did they not have?
[00:09:48] Harold Evans: Well, they had a quality long-term product that came out of a family business for a lot of years. And, family businesses as you have come to learn Eric are rot with imperfections. You know, you got nepotism potentially, you've got all kinds of, well, I did this because of that. And, you know, a lot of reasons that sometimes we don't run our family business like a business.
[00:10:10] And, you know, I try not to be that person. I think it's better to be you than my son as far as the amount of grief you get from me. Um, because I'm tougher on my kids than I am. Well, you know, Eric, you're pretty close to me, so I've been pretty rough on you too. But I think it's because, you know, the world doesn't love you like I do. And so I'm constantly trying to look at ways for us to do that.
Why chlorine and acid prices were increased
---
[00:10:30] Harold Evans: But in family business sometimes we postpone decisions and I think one of the things to be fair to HASA, and I know Mark very well, the man that sold that business. The pool industry is full of people that dread price increases. The only people that seem to get it are wholesalers. And I think a lot of manufacturers have postponed decisions to keep their businesses healthy with gradual price increases that when you go to sell your company, you know, it becomes more challenging. So I think to be fair to HASA, there were some pent up demands.
[00:11:01] Eric Knight: So what you're saying is they did not appropriately price their chlorine before they sold?
[00:11:06] Harold Evans: Well, I, I've heard this, you know, you went up to $5 a gallon stuff. And you know, listen, it's no different than you all in your service businesses. If you look at the last two years of inflation, I mean, you need artificial intelligence to keep up with costing in your business. Nobody is making as much money as they were before, unless they're just belligerent about things, which most aren't.
[00:11:31] I remember having a discussion with one of my wholesalers years ago. And I went into a wholesale location. I had three different prices in one week on one product. I sat in his office and I said, listen. I can't run my business if you keep revolving this price. I have to know what my cost is. I can't have three different costs in a week and survive in business. And I think sometimes some of us do that, right?
[00:11:53] We get busy. We don't account for products that we put into a pool that we don't recover from a customer. We give flat rates that don't account for things that go wrong. You know, the pump went down and now you as a chemical provider are suffering a consequence as a result of that. And that builds up on us.
[00:12:09] And then the whole pandemic hit and the demand for equipment essentially in Texas from the freeze equaled that of the national supply of the entire industry. And it went crazy.
[00:12:21] It's still going crazy. Freight's still an issue. Raw material's still an issue. Try to buy a car, folks. You know, our van got hit and totalled the other day at the Pool Surgeon. I paid almost double what I paid for that van this time because there's no supply. And so if I want to keep running at pool service calls, I have a totalled van. What am I going to do? Do you think the insurance company patted me on the back and said, oh, don't worry about it. What other difference is we'll make it up? Of course not.
Quality Control
---
[00:12:50] Harold Evans: Everybody has faced extraordinary, outrageous inflation and accountability of it. I saw a comment the other day that said, oh, you purposely dilute your products and underfill.
[00:13:01] Come on folks. Do you think any company goes out and purposely does that? No way. We make mistakes. Just like you want grace from your customers when you make mistakes. You forget to empty the pump screener. You forgot to put it back on the automatic mode from service mode. Do you get fired every time you do that? You don't want to be fired. Of course you want grace, right?
[00:13:23] And I've told my family members and my workers over the years, we all need grace okay? And I think there have been some things that that haven't been handled perfectly. But I walked into that plant when we had our meeting in Houston. And I looked at all my people and I said, can you imagine every one of these bottles had an Orenda label on 'em? And it was PR-10,000 or CV-600? Holy moly! This is one location.
[00:13:48] Eric Knight: Well it's happening so fast too. And you realize that this is not like microchip manufacturing where everything's automated by robots. It's very human oriented. I think there's like 20 some people on the assembly line. And it's hot, there is a roof overhead and there's fans, but it's still going through these machines quickly. We're talking 70 some bottles a minute or more. I can totally understand where errors can happen.
Control the controllables
---
[00:14:13] Eric Knight: In reading the comments on the Facebook video where I was just showing when people return the bottles upside down, there's more friction on the bottom. And the most common source of a damaged bottle is on the bottom where the seam is. Now, to those of you who did see the video on Facebook Live, some of you commented, some of you texted me privately. The overwhelming response was negative in saying, how dare you blame us. How dare you blame the customer.
[00:14:39] Now listen, I'm not blaming the customer. But let's be real with ourselves. HASA can only control what HASA can control. Right, Harold? I mean, we could only control what we could control. If the source of the weaknesses, let's just say it was bad raw materials. Okay. That's a problem that needs to be addressed, and I believe HASA is addressing those concerns. Because during the pandemic there were material shortages of every kind in every industry, by the way. And we learned that they are ejecting old bottles to update the stock, which is a good step.
[00:15:14] But the feedback we got was, how dare you blame us for putting our bottles upside down. HASA should be a hundred percent responsible for putting out these bottles. Okay. True. Except that they can't control how you store your bottles when they're empty. That's out of their control. So if you want to solve the problem, you actually do need to put the bottles back in right side up, because that's something only you can control. Because when it gets to HASA, the damage could already be done.
[00:15:40] Then what are they supposed to do about it? You've got somebody out there flipping them over, doing a quick once over with their eyes. They can't tell if it's compromised or not because you can't see it.
[00:15:50] Harold Evans: I was offended. Those of you that said it. I'm telling ya. By people saying it's not their responsibility to be responsible. It's like really? Come on folks, if there's something you can do to make things better, are you going to play standoff, and say I'm not going to do my part because it's your problem?
[00:16:10] I mean, that's not responsible behavior. I get you're mad or whatever, but listen, we had an entire, two entire truckloads of bottles during the pandemic that we shipped and we filled and they leaked. And we had to go unfill them and redo two truckloads of bottles. Okay. Now, did I set out to package product that was going to not work right? Of course not.
[00:16:37] Do you think it was fun for Jarred to go figure out how to trace back all the item numbers that we had to redo when we saw seam splitting on bottles? We bought the best bottles we could buy. And here's the thing. Let me get real about something that no one wants to talk about.
Why the 4x1 returnable model makes sense
---
[00:16:53] Harold Evans: The number one challenge for a small service person working out of their home or their apartment or wherever is where to put your trash. Okay? Straight up. Now I know because I've done it, that you troll around trying to figure out where to put your next heater carcass. Where to put your filter, oh at the distributor, wherever. because most of you don't have dumpsters. Get real.
[00:17:18] So what are you going to do? My son has 750 pools on service. Where do you get rid of 1500 bottles a week? I mean, it's a responsible process. It's imperfect, but the issue with the bottles was, oh, did you see the PVC plant in Houston that froze in the middle of winter? I mean, it paralyzed the entire bottle industry. No one could get 'em. We went out, I bought six sea containers to store excess inventory to get through the pandemic so that I didn't run out of caps, bottles and labels. Why did I do that?
[00:17:50] Eric Knight: And that's a fraction of the volume of what HASA pumps out every week.
[00:17:53] Harold Evans: And so what was I doing? I was trying not to interrupt the supply chain that was already out there and others were saying, I can't ship product cause I don't have caps.
[00:18:01] So we went out and overbought a bunch of stuff and put it in storage. But I think the whole point is please don't assume. I did not sell this company to a company that lacks character. And I resent people that say that. That is not true. I am not that person. And they are not. They're just like you and I are. They make mistakes. They are imperfect people. They're trying to provide a living to my wonderful people that have worked for me for years, and they're trying to serve you imperfectly.
[00:18:28] Eric Knight: Well, they're also providing a living to the people working on that assembly line.
[00:18:31] Harold Evans: Well, I mean, any number. And so the whole point is, let's, let's be a village and let's get along and let's understand nobody's trying to get to anybody.
[00:18:38] And for people to sit here and say, it's not my responsibility if I'm damaging bottles, that's on you. No, you're not behaving by the golden rule. And, and you know what? We're trying to get there. And I'm convinced that it will be fixed over time and there'll be less and less and less.
[00:18:54] But remember, millions of gallons compared to hundreds of gallons in Orenda. So be patient with the process. Please don't assume the character's flawed. It's not true. Okay? If it is true, you know me. If you know me, I'm, I'm not afraid to admit things that we're at fault for.
[00:19:14] And I think there is 100% a commitment. Quality control people have been employed. But just remember rapid growth to serve you in part is because, thank goodness, we're getting away from stabilized chlorines more and more as an industry. And so I think long term, this is one of the directions that we should go.
[00:19:34] I'm not against the use of stabilized chlorine. We use it in our business today. It's the controlled use of anything. Okay. It is not overusing anything. You know, it's like taking medicine. If you see on the label, take one pill a day and you take three, well, guess what? Good luck.
Education will continue to expand
---
[00:19:51] Harold Evans: Let me just say one other thing about HASA that impressed me. Bob Lowry is a greater icon than I could ever hope to be. As you well know Eric, when you came to work here, I compelled you to understand his teachings because I think he was a father of many thoughts in this industry.
[00:20:07] Eric Knight: Yeah, we had to read all his books as a prerequisite for employment at Orenda.
[00:20:11] Harold Evans: So who put their money where their mouth is to buy the educational mechanism to keep that man's legacy going? It is HASA. I believe, because I take him at his word, and I've been talking to him for a long time, that a major component of HASA's interest in Orenda was cultural and educational. And products as a matter-of-factly.
[00:20:34] Not speaking for them. That's what I believe, and I've been told. So the access that we have to learn our trade is greater than it's ever been. And are you grateful to the people that are helping you? I have no bone in the game anymore on a day-to-day basis, but my attitude hasn't changed. My thoughts haven't changed.
[00:20:59] We're here to help our customers become better pros to better serve their customers. To improve their margin, help them recognize how to capture costs so they don't get stuck with things.
[00:21:11] I used to have to travel 2000 miles to get the most basic course. I'd go to Cal IPSSA in California. And now it's, you could sit up if it's raining outside and you can't work, you can, you can learn sitting at home.
[00:21:26] So the access to improvement is at your feet. Don't be lazy about it. Invest in yourself and the people that wanted to continue to do that by buying my company, I'm grateful to. Because they didn't tell me, oh, cut down that education. And there's some blending of messages that we're going to figure out.
[00:21:46] We are trailblazers. I think there are standards in the industry that we need to continue to look at. Uh, and I think they will in my lifetime. I see how we measure water now. And it's not even approachable, the difference. So, um, all those things led to this. And then who, who's my family going to work for?
[00:22:07] We had our first get together as a group and you know, they're good people. They're just people trying to make a living. We're here to help one another just like we always have, and our culture's a little different. I feel like our culture will influence the industry as a whole. And I think us selling the company provided that in perpetuity.
New email address for complaints and feedback
---
[00:22:31] Eric Knight: To wrap this episode up, Harold, I go back to why you actually pursued and started Orenda as a pool company anyway. How you found Dr. Kersey. You weren't being heard. Remember? You were struggling as a pool service professional with startups and algae and all sorts of issues, and you kept asking questions and people weren't calling you back and you just felt ignored, right?
[00:22:56] Harold Evans: Yeah. That and the other discredible thing that happens in our industry to this day, which makes me crazy. Which is every problem has a product solution that just so happens to be sold by the person that's giving you advice.
[00:23:09] Eric Knight: Yeah.
[00:23:10] Harold Evans: Which is annoying and ridiculous.
[00:23:12] Eric Knight: It is. It is. And we've made it a point on this podcast and in private conversations, phone calls, help desk, anything that if it's not our specialty, we punt for that reason. But to boil down to the point I'm trying to make. When you read these very passionate Facebook comments and the private text messages and phone calls that we get after the fact, I think it boils down to people just haven't been heard.
[00:23:41] People have not felt like HASA has listened, and we're going to change that. We've talked to upper management about it, and they agree. We want to hear you. So I have formally requested in the last couple of days a new email address to be created. It has not been created just yet. These things take time. But we're going to have a new email specifically so that you can write privately. It will never be published. We may read anonymously on a podcast if it's a lesson learned like a few episodes ago. But if you want to vent, I want to know the real story.
[00:24:15] Do not hold back. Because we need to know where we need to get better. And right now we don't. Facebook comments don't do it. We just hear the same multiple things, and I understand that they are important to you.
[00:24:27] Hey, listen, we want you to be successful in your businesses. We want you to be able to have safe, clean, and clear water in every backyard that you service. And for the homeowners listening, we want the product that is in those retail stores where you are getting it to be exactly to brand standard.
[00:24:43] We know that HASA is investing heavily in more quality control machinery. Things that will you know, test the pressure with air to make sure that the bottles are intact and sound before they get filled with the liquid, before they go on down the line. These things are happening. They are underway, they're still being tested, but the quality control mechanisms are happening. They take time.
[00:25:06] You can't just do it overnight. It's a big company. We're learning as we go, but in order for us to help you the most, it's going to come directly to me. I'm the man you want to vent to. I will aggregate all of this, and while I can't promise that we're going to have a direct conversation with each and every one of you with multiple responses back and forth, I can promise you one thing. I will give you my word I will read every single email, and I will jot down your concerns. You need to be heard. We want you to be heard.
Want grace? Then give grace.
---
[00:25:35] Harold Evans: If I thought for one minute that somebody that lacked the golden rule was buying my company, I would starve under a bridge before I'd sell my company. So folks, know one thing for certain. Not everybody and everything's for sale. And the reality is the people of HASA are trying to operate by the golden rule. Imperfectly as you are. The next time you screw up and forget to close the gate and the dog gets out, the next time that you forget a step as Eric did when he did his cleanup. If you want grace, you have to give grace.
[00:26:14] These people are trying to do the right thing. They are not monsters. They're human beings who I've vetted and I know what their intentions are. And you know what's yours are. So please know that there's no intent to mislead. There's no intent to underperform or underdeliver anything. Okay? Just like you need grace in your business, we need grace and we've had some of these growing pains as Orenda.
[00:26:47] And I think what some of the people in Orenda have figured out through this transition is just how much Jarred and Kelly, when she was alive, managed complete chaos when it came to all the moving parts of manufacturing and shipping and, you know, raw material supplies. And I mean, believe it or not, caps controlled the pool industry for a lot of years.
[00:27:15] Caps coming out of Canada. A two year wait for caps. Okay. So we've been placed in extraordinary circumstance. If there are any indication that I hear of people thinking that there's character flaw here, they're wrong. Mistakes made, yes. Uh, could we get better? Every day. And we're striving for that. And I think if it's being heard and, and also be kind, you know, be kind when things don't go well, please. Because it will come back to you.
[00:27:49] So there are strides to serve you better going on, and part of the reasons some of you know more about what you're doing is because of people like Orenda and people like Pentair, and people like Bob Lowry and people like Jandy, and all the other people out there, and not trying to isolate anybody but all of the offering to make you better.
[00:28:14] And I'll be honest with you, sometimes you all disappoint me because you don't want to do the work. If you want to get better, you got to do better. And you got to expand your horizon of understanding.
[00:28:26] You never have permission from me to overlook getting better because you're too busy. Because a lot of what may make you better is going to happen when you learn more. And then your process becomes more reliable and more profitable to you. So nothing about the way that we have served you over the years is going to change. There will be some changes, some of which I won't agree with everyone. I mean, that's something I have to get used to. Um, but I know the heart and the intent of the group that we're dealing with here.
Looking forward with gratitude
---
[00:29:04] Harold Evans: This is a process that I've been thinking about sculpting for very many years, and I hope that, uh, that we can continue to serve people.
[00:29:15] So I want to thank every person that ever put their hands on a red label, or a blue label, or a black label, that I benefited from and my family benefited from. I honor the trust you gave me. I have gratitude beyond your understanding, and I am the American dream.
[00:29:35] I came from zero means. A single mom raising two boys by herself with the grandparents that were amazing. And managed to get to the top of a food chain of an industry and didn't hurt anyone getting there. Or at least I didn't try to.
[00:29:53] I'm very grateful for those of you that trusted and believed. And I hope that we made your life better than it was before you knew us. So, yeah. God bless the pool industry and God bless all the young people that have helped me carry the torch because it became unbearable. And thanks to honoring the legacy of Dick Kersey, who isn't alive to know this today.
[00:30:16] I tried to call his wife after we transitioned to HASA and I haven't talked to her yet. But I know that Dick would be proud of how much we have changed the water industry. And, and we're not done yet. We're still on a path and through people like you, Eric, and my son, Jarred, and Joe and Sean, and Miguel, and all the things we're doing with language and education, there's more education coming.
[00:30:44] Uh, before you know it, commercial Academy will be here, and then we're going to get involved in trying to encourage the messaging of HASA and the HASA products around an educational form that includes video and the like. So there's a lot of positive education that's still going to be done.
[00:31:00] Eric Knight: Awesome. Well, I think that's a great place to end. Thanks for everything you've done for the industry. This has been the 111th episode of The Rule Your Pool podcast. We will get back into more water chemistry in the future episodes, but since Harold is back, it is good to have him back.
[00:31:14] So if you have any questions, reach out: podcast@orendatech.com. As I said earlier, we don't yet have the feedback email for HASA yet, but we will and I will announce that as soon as we have it. Please be patient and we'll go from there. Thanks, Harold.
[00:31:31] Harold Evans: Thank you, Eric, and thanks for helping us bring Orenda to where it is today.
[00:31:36] Eric Knight: Thanks.