Pools Don’t Add Value? Yeah… That’s a Lie. (Featuring Natalie Hood, George Williams & Ken Rogner)

The myths just keep coming… and in this one, they don’t stand a chance.

In Part 2 of Natalie Hood’s Myth Busting series, industry veterans George Williams and Ken Rogner step in and do what most people in this industry won’t—tell the truth.

Not the sales version.
 Not the “it depends” version.
 The real version.

From the idea that pools don’t add value… to the belief that social media is the only way to grow… to the quiet damage done when service pros choose profit over trust—this episode pulls apart the assumptions that are quietly shaping bad decisions across the industry.

And here’s what becomes clear:

👉 Pools aren’t just features anymore—they’re environments
 👉 Marketing matters—but it’s not the foundation
 👉 Trust is still the most valuable asset you have
 👉 And the wrong service decision can cost you a customer forever

If you’ve been in this industry long enough, you’ve heard these myths.

If you’re new… you’ve probably believed a few.

Either way—this episode resets the conversation.

⚠️ MYTHS WE DESTROY IN THIS EPISODE

“Pools don’t add value to a home.”
→ In the Sunbelt? Not having one might cost you buyers. 

“Leads come from social media and ads.”
→ Helpful? Yes.
→ The reason people choose you? Not even close. 

“Replace the pump—it’s better for business.”
→ Short-term profit. Long-term damage. Trust doesn’t come back. 

“Weather doesn’t affect the pool industry.”
→ Hurricanes, freezes, heat waves… they literally drive demand. 

“Vinyl liner pools dominate the Northeast forever.”
→ That was then. Fiberglass and concrete changed the game. 

🎯 KEY TAKEAWAYS

•  A pool isn’t just a feature anymore—it’s part of a lifestyle environment 
•  Geography matters: what’s optional in one region is expected in another 
•  Social media amplifies—but reputation closes 
•  The fastest way to lose a customer is to recommend what benefits you, not them 
•  Weather doesn’t just influence demand—it can create entire revenue cycles 
•  The industry evolves… but trust is still the constant 

🔥 THE REAL TALK MOMENT

“If you can save a customer a few hundred dollars… and you don’t…
 you didn’t just make money.

You made a short-term decision
 that cost you a long-term relationship.” 

🎧 WHY THIS EPISODE MATTERS

Because bad information spreads faster than good service.

And in this industry, myths don’t just sit there…

They cost people money.
 They cost companies customers.
 And they quietly shape how the next generation does business.

This episode fixes that.

📲 LISTEN NOW

🎧 Apple Podcasts
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 🎧 All major platforms

👉 Follow the Talking Pools Podcast for more episodes that keep things wet, wild, and wonderfully honest

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:53

Welcome back to part two of Natalie Hood's conversation with George Williams and Ken Rogner, where the wisdom runs deep and the advice is stellar. On myth busting Wednesdays with Natalie on the Talking Pools podcast, we join this portion of the interview in progress.

SPEAKER_03 1:17

I think here, first of all, we do not have a swimming pool where we are in Arizona, but it's because we have two swimming pools in the we're in a gated community, and I finally qualified for 55 plus. So we're in a gated community that has uh a country club atmosphere with all of the facilities, including a couple of swimming pools. Because we're only here four to six months a year, I chose not to build one in the backyard. Plus, we have a fairly small backyard that's on the golf course. But there's a home identical to mine that is uh just come up on the market a few days ago. The difference between our homes, and we both have the same layout, similar options, and so on, the difference is that they have a beautiful swimming pool. They have a bigger lot with a beautiful swimming pool. So when it came on the market, it came on the market at exactly$100,000 more than our house is on the market for. So from an economic standpoint, I think in an area like this where everybody recognizes that the pool service companies come in and take care of everything very efficiently, and they are in the neighborhood all the time, uh, just as they are at George's, um I think you know that that's kind of my response. Uh our reasons for not having a pool here in 1972 we built our first pool and had that pool for 19 years until we sold that particular house. And a little bit like George's comment about or the earlier comments, uh your comments, I guess, about all the kids' friends being there. Yeah. That certainly was always true. We knew where our kids were because they were in our backyard with all the neighbor kids. Yeah, they're at that pool. At that pool. Now, remember that in 1972 we didn't have all that automation for chemistry or or for cleaning. So I walked out there every evening vacuuming the pool, uh walking around, which was not a bad deal, actually.

SPEAKER_07 3:23

My dad very much enjoyed it. And then you know what? When I got old enough, those were my chores. And he I think he enjoyed that more.

SPEAKER_03 3:30

Good for you. Anyway, the other thing we learned from that, and before automatic pool cleaners and so on, was that what helped to keep the pool clean was lots of kids in the pool. They stirred it up and and it then the filter took it out. So the more active the pool was, the less maintenance there was. Anyway. That's paying. Can I add to that, Ken?

SPEAKER_06 3:55

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 3:56

Um there's automatic pool cleaners. Most swimming pools in uh the frostbelt markets and many in the sunbelt markets have automatic pool cleaners, whether they're pressure cleaners or suction cleaners, or robotic cleaners. And uh that does all the work, uh, the maintenance of of requiring somebody to be out there with a pole and a vacuum and cleaning the pool. So automation is there in the cleaning segment of the pool industry also. And again, most pools would have an automatic pool cleaner of some type.

SPEAKER_07 4:29

Mm-hmm. Well, I'll say the last couple shows, I would say in the last year, I was blown away by how many automatic cleaners there were. And I'll tell you, I remember those days. Again, I told you when I got when I got to the age where my dad trusted me, it was it started out with cleaning and brushing and then vacuuming. And I will tell you, when I used to vacuum our pool, and it wasn't a very big pool, but and it had an adjacent hot tub that would like, you know, had like that waterfall dip over into the pool. I remember sitting there for or standing there for sometimes hours cleaning that pool. And I started to like really get more involved. And I just again a couple months ago, I was at a show and I was like, where were you? Like, I don't know, 20 years ago, I really could have helped, like you really could have helped me out. But you're right, there's so many new products out there, and it kind of goes into our next myth where you know, Ken, you had brought it up about a house that's up for sale, it's a hundred thousand dollars more. And it's a lot of people believe that homes with pools don't add value. And I just think that's so far from the truth. But again, I would love to we've touched on a little bit, but I'd love to kind of hear what you both think about that. I mean, I before we moved to Tennessee, we lived in a community that had in Georgia, actually. I'm in Ackworth, Georgia, I loved it. And we opted not to get a pool in our backyard because A, we had like a nine-month-old, and then we went on to have another baby. But also we had, gosh, I think seven different pools in our community, and we had a massive lap pool. And so I thought, well, shoot, I don't have the time to clean the pool in my community. They have all these different pools, and they had kid-friendly pools, adult-friendly pools, and kind of vice versa. But again, I think a lot of people to this day, maybe that aren't living in that type of community where pools are available, they think, well, shoot, I don't think a pool is going to add value. I again, I think they're gonna go back to that mind frame of it's gonna be too expensive to operate and people just don't want to deal with it.

SPEAKER_03 6:27

Well, I'll tag on to that because you mentioned my earlier comment. Think to some degree it is regional, the concerns about whether it adds value to your home or is a detriment to selling. Certainly when you're in Arizona, if you're not in a community like we are, you almost gotta have a swimming pool here.

SPEAKER_07 6:47

Yeah. Well, but you're gonna make friends with someone who does.

SPEAKER_03 6:51

Yeah, that's exactly right. But the but the truth is I think there's a little bit of what enters into this, into the geography, but there's another factor that's a little bit uh I'll let George elaborate, but I think to some degree, what has changed why we have a swimming pool, we see the move toward these elaborate, absolutely drop-dead, gorgeous backyards. And it's an entire environment. And so it is more than just adding an exercise place or uh or a place for the kids to play. It has become a part of the uh environment that you're living in, and it's where the cocktail party might be in the evening with your neighbors and friends. It there's a whole lot of other benefits that have added to the reasons why we own a swimming pool to begin with. So if you're looking at homes and you're in the buying mood, and the choice is between a home that has a pool or doesn't have a pool, depending on your lifestyle, that might exactly become a very positive sales feature. Let me throw it to George because he he's got pools, both ends, that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_04 8:12

Well, to your point, in the uh Sunbelt markets, Southeast, Southwest, etc., it's almost mandatory because of the weather conditions. And to your point, it added value uh in your neighborhood, and that's what it does here in Florida. If you're selling a home in Florida um and you don't have a swimming pool, you're gonna have less interest, if you will, from consumers. Uh interest is important also. And so uh I I think it is it does add value, certainly, in those markets. Now let's go up to the Midwest and the in the Northeast. My neighborhood up in New Jersey on a dead-end street. There's uh eight homes on the uh on the block, and uh I have a pool, and one other neighbor had a pool for all those years. Well, guess what? There's now five additional pools that have been installed over the past several years. Uh and you know, one more recently, uh neighbor next door just put a pool in. Why? To enhance their backyard. Why? Because of 2020 COVID. Why people were stuck at home for a period of time. They they were gonna take their stay-at-home vacation, if you will. So they were doing a lot of work in their backyards, and pools became so popular the industry couldn't keep up in that period of time. And they still are popular because it does enhance the backyard, and it therefore creates additional value. If you have a well-manicured backyard, whether it's a small one or a large one, properly landscaped, patioed, et cetera, et cetera, it becomes an environment to entertain and to exercise if it has a swimming pool. So I think that myth that was spread years ago about pools not adding value is absolutely incorrect. It does add value because it adds pleasure.

SPEAKER_07 10:07

Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, again, my husband always jokes with me. Again, he anytime people ask him, Well, what does your wife do? And he's like, Hold on. And he'll pull up like a note section on his phone, and he's just like, This, that this is what she does. This is what she wrote here. And, you know, there's so many people that are just so unaware, but it's funny, and I think I said this on my last episode, but he goes, So whether or not I get out of the military, you know, our next house, hopefully it's like our forever home, because right now I know you're shopping for your home. And I'm like, Yes, go on. And he's like, I'd love to have a pool in the backyard. You know some people. And I said, Yeah, I might know a few people, just a couple. But now, I mean, I I think you're absolutely right. I mean, I definitely want to pool put a pool in our backyard. And I I have this vision of this like gorgeous pool and this oasis and this garden and you know, different seeding. But you're right. If you actually take a well-maintained pool, you take care of it, you put in the work, it's gonna attract motivated buyers. And I think that your home could sell a lot faster.

SPEAKER_04 11:13

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_07 11:14

A lot faster. So that myth, again, there's so many myths that kind of continue on, but I think that one's definitely squabwash. Well, let's kind of change gears a little bit, right? So we talked about consumer facing. Let's touch on pro facing myths. And I'm excited about this next one. And I feel like my boss, Lacey Davis, is gonna be like really tuning into this one, but it's new pool leads come from advertising and social media. Is this a myth? Is it fact? Let's debunk it. Ken, do you want to lead with this one?

SPEAKER_03 11:45

I'd be happy to. Certainly, there has been a change in the last 25 years where maybe the amount of likes you have on Facebook or something have an impact on buying decisions because uh the social media wasn't even available before that. So it was all about what the neighbor said, whether he liked or didn't like the people who built his swimming pool or who maintained his swimming pool, whatever. Certainly there is a difference. I think in the end, though, no one factor is gonna help a new potential buyer make the decision. We're talking to the pro here, so we're saying in the end, it's about service, it's about quality, and that's what he should be teaching the builder. No matter where the leads are coming from, it's got to be about how attentive are you to your customer. Everything has to be about the customer. Are they satisfied? Are they happy? You have to do whatever you can to make sure that happens because that's the key. Whether the pro is making a decision about which distributor he's buying from, it's that same thing. What kind of service is he getting, or whether the consumer is making a decision about who they're buying their swimming pool from. There's no one thing in my eyes, there's no one thing that's uh that's the key. It's a combination of a whole bunch of things.

SPEAKER_07 13:14

Yep. Yeah. Well, and I know, you know, I I've always done social media uh more so for family. More in the last year or so, I've definitely gotten more involved with social media. And then just recently, my brother was like, man, you do a lot of posting on social media. And I was like, on occasion, sometimes I do post quite a bit. But again, for those that trust me and know me, I try and really only share products or information that I trust. And so I feel like by them seeing what I'm sharing, they're like, oh, okay. And you know, when you're constantly resharing, you're that person is resharing to their network. And it's really growing what that product or person is trying to kind of get out there. Because that's the generation we're in. I mean, I'm I'm happy to say I got my degree without before Chat GBT was a thing. I'm very proud to say that. But it's true. I mean, there are so many people that have really dove in and found a niche in advertising and social media. And if you're just getting into this pool business and you're not out there, you're not doing that, I think you're going to have that pressure to be everywhere, constantly on the road. And while you should still be out there visiting customers, doing that face-to-face interaction, going to shows, I think by the type of advertising and social media that's available today, it really does help kind of grow your brand, grow your business. And again, it it makes you more visible.

SPEAKER_04 14:34

May I add to that? Unlike Ken, I am not a social media person. I kind of like my privacy, et cetera, et cetera. And I don't like all the time that it takes to add comments, etc., etc. However, having said that, I have become addicted to Instagram. And it's a curse. Um, and it is an addiction. But in doing so, uh, all of a sudden I'm seeing well, back to Ken's point, a lot of our professional pool builders rely on word of mouth referrals for their business. Back to my Instagram experiences, uh, all of a sudden I see an advertisement from a pool company. Um I clicked on uh because I have some knowledge about uh cleaners, pool cleaners, I saw a cleaner ad come on for a robotic pool cleaner. And I spent more than half a minute looking at it. The next thing I'm deluged with cleaner advertisements. Very professionally done. And because I was looking at for more than 30 seconds at a pool builder's website or that came through, I'm getting hit with those those advertisements also. So I guess my comment to the prof professional pool builders, small or big, utilize it. Utilize it to your benefit. And uh you can grow your business if you're so inclined, not just by word of mouth, but by social media. Use it.

SPEAKER_07 16:02

Yeah, absolutely. I mean it's changed so much from when I was younger. Typically I'll do Facebook and Instagram, more for family, staying in touch with like coworkers and of course, you know, new friends. But I will say I TikTok scroll, it's awful. I try so hard not to, but uh, I I actually introduced it to my husband a couple years ago, and he's like, I don't want to do that. He was a big YouTuber, he would always watch upcoming like new movies that were coming out, and he's big into Superman and comic books, and he'd always watch them on YouTube. And I started I downloaded TikTok and I was like, This is so cool, I love it. I never got into the YouTube videos, but um downloaded TikTok and I made the awful decision to download it on his phone. And I will tell you, every single night, he and I are doom scrolling on TikTok, and then you get the videos that are like, Are you still scrolling? And I'm like, oh, okay, I'm done. Click, let's go to bed. But you're right. I mean, you search something, you know, whether it's on TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, you search something and all of a sudden it's got you, and you start seeing all these different advertisements, right? Your sponsors. And so it it there's definitely something to be said with advertising and social media. Don't shy away from it, especially those that are, you know, opening a new business. You really need to do some research and better equip yourself because that word of mouth and just those constant reposts and shares really will take you a long way. Well, and kind again, we're talking about profacing. And so I kind of wanted to shift gears. And one of the other myths, there are a couple of myths for profacing, was replace the pump, not the seal. It's better for business. And I know we were kind of talking about this before we jumped on, um, but kind of wanted to get your guys' intake on that myth where you should replace the pump, not the seal.

SPEAKER_06 17:55

You know what time it is? Wednesday vibes on the talking pools, punch, jump, not to that.

SPEAKER_00 18:42

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SPEAKER_02 19:22

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SPEAKER_03 19:53

But the problem long term is are you losing a customer because of the expense that you've incurred for the pool owner? So long-term, and George would be better at addressing this, he's the equipment guy. But I just worry about the long-term effect based on how much that service company is charging to fix an issue. If it's a small issue and you're making it into a more costly issue. Yes, it's more cost effective from a time standpoint for the service company, but George.

SPEAKER_04 20:32

To me, anyone in the pool industry that's a contractor, service, or a pool builder has a responsibility of getting gaining the trust of their customer, their consumer. And trust is key. You want to gain the trust of a homeowner that has a swimming pool and there's a seal leak. Uh, granted, the tendency is to do what generates the most income for you. But if you can save that consumer several hundred dollars by just replacing the seal because it's leaking, you will have a customer forever for a lifetime because they will trust you on anything else that comes along. I'll give you a very good example. Got a friend who has a pool and a spa combination, and he has a 400,000 BTU uh heater. I won't give the brand name. And the heater is relatively new, probably five or six years old. And the heater stopped working. And his service contractor came in and instead of analyzing what the problem might be with the heater, said, I would suggest you buy a new heater. Well, that's about$5,000. So say that my friend has not replaced the heater at this point.

SPEAKER_07 21:45

I don't blame him.

SPEAKER_04 21:46

And my advice to him, because he came to me, was get a reliable service company to come in and analyze what the problem is. It could be a very simple problem, like a downdraft switch during the windy weather that we may have had. It may be a simple replacement of that uh switch or something else, uh electrical connection or something. But without getting into the mechanics and the electrics of the heater, this particular service guy who addressed it said to replace it. Well, that is not the right answer for a consumer that says, wait a minute, this is relatively new. So it's a concern that I would have if you're doing the service guy, don't take the easy way out and try to make an extra several hundred dollar bill here. Try to fix it for the consumer and gain the trust of that consumer. That's just my advice on that one. So do what is right for your customer.

SPEAKER_07 22:40

Well, and I feel like too, I mean, we always say this industry is small, but it's also quite large at the same time. And I feel like there's so many people in this industry, especially when you're you're first starting out, depending on where you get educated and where you're currently located. It there's so many others that you can reach out to. And of course there's going to be competition and competition's healthy. That's something that I always talk about with Eric Knight. Is it's healthy to have that competition because it helps you grow. It helps you learn. It helps you challenge yourself. But I feel like if you're unsure of something, especially when you're on a service route, you know, connect connect with other those others in your company, connect with your boss. And if no one's aware, reach out to someone. I I feel like there's so many different avenues for you to to educate and learn versus just replacing it versus trying to understand what the actual problem is because there might be more underneath that that's not visible to the naked eye. And especially if you don't know how to to assess what's really going on, replacing that that pump might not fix the issue. So now you've you've you've cost this homeowner quite a bit of money, let's say$5,000 you you've come in, you replaced the pump, but then here a month later, you know, there's there's more issues coming up. And so I feel like that trust is going to be immediately lost. And you know again there's that word of mouth that word of mouth they're probably not going to talk to you about their friend or someone they know buying a house down the street or what have you because again they're they're not very happy with you. So do the right thing do the research if you don't know reach out. Well here's another fun one in the prophasey myths and it's that weather does not play a factor in the pool industry and that you know a lot of the times it's the idea that pools are more of a luxury item and the demand stays steady regardless of the climate.

SPEAKER_04 24:29

Weather plays a very important part in a swimming pool. The hotter the weather the more desirable it is to have a swimming pool. You have cold winters, rainy winters, consumer will say, you know what I was thinking about getting a pool but I'll wait until next year. And if next year is equally the same uh you keep putting it off and putting it off. But here's an interesting take on weather and how beneficial it is to the swimming pool industry. A hurricane hits Florida or Texas. And the pool equipment is flooded out destroyed or hit by lightning it has to be replaced. Boy is that a benefit to the industry because it's also an insurance claim but that does benefit the industry and does help the industry in many respects. So weather does play an interesting factor. In the case of California fires Oh yeah mudslides all insurance claims and uh that do benefit the industry tremendously because the replacement happens to occur. In addition to that freezes in Texas freezes in Florida freezes in Northern California not likely to happen on a regular basis but when it does boy it's a wind it's a windfall for sure because if they don't winterize their equipment and don't run the equipment during the evening when it's freezing and cold the equipment will crack and the piping will crack and so there you go another insurance claim. So weather does play a very important factor in our industry. And again the hotter the weather the more the consumer is interested in getting a swimming pool.

SPEAKER_07 26:08

Yeah. Yeah absolutely I mean again we we have probably another here in Tennessee and one of the locations we might get relocated to is Texas. And I'm going to tell you right now if we go to Texas I know it gets cold but I've already told my husband I'll be getting a pool. I would like a pool. I've seen what the weather looks like there yes it gets extremely cold and we'll we'll figure that out but I I'm ready for those summers with the pool in the backyard.

SPEAKER_04 26:32

And you're another example of how the wife the woman has the greatest influence on what goes into the backyard and into the house for that matter.

SPEAKER_07 26:40

Happy wife happy life I would you are absolutely correct. My husband we we look at a house and he's just like she likes it. Come on let's see the paperwork let's do that and he's learned when I say let's go look he's like my wife doesn't look she buys so yeah he he's he's very much rare but you're right yeah happy wife happy life build her a gorgeous backyard and you know give her that pool let her let her lay out in a a gorgeous like tangent chair or something and sit in that hot tub and you know again you can have those cocktail parties in the evening you can you know ladies go off and do their spa day or what have you or um have a girls day guys are out golfing you come back you have a nice good barbecue outside and you end it by the pool. Doesn't that sound nice? And it's Friday so that sounds like really nice. I love it. Well hey we have one more myth I'd like to cover and it's it's really a regional myth if you will and it's that the Northeast and the Midwest are really vinyl liner markets.

SPEAKER_03 27:37

Let me uh begin that one because let's have some fun both George and I grew up George in the Northeast in this industry myself in the upper Midwest and I think that was very very true in the 60s and 70s for a number of reasons. Vinyl liner pools were probably and this is steel wall polymer wall with vinyl liners were probably extremely popular at that time because it was a lower price point than having a concrete swimming pool. And a part of the reason it was a lower price point was concrete was more difficult to maintain in climates where you have deep freezes in the wintertime. And for a number of reasons so replacing a vinyl liner every 10 years was way less expensive than maintaining the plaster and so on on an on a concrete swimming pool. Now fast forward and it goes a little bit back to what I said about how important the whole ambiance of the backyard becomes now that in turn and all the customization and the walls and the features and the things that you can do with a gun height or with a concrete swimming pool and tile and so on added another dimension. So that began to make the concrete swimming pools more and more popular. Then along comes one piece fiberglass and that adds another dimension with respect to particularly the upper Midwest and the Northeast because here is a low maintenance item probably not as inexpensive as people think it is when they see one alongside the highway when they're driving and they see a a pool laying on its side with an 800 number in it. But because they think well it's just a bathtub uh you know how much how complicated can that be? Well it is a little more complicated than than a bathtub. But they have had a definite impact on the vinyl liner industry. So some of the major manufacturers of steel wall and polymer wall vinyl liner have also jumped uh both feet into the swimming they jumped with both feet into the one piece fiberglass uh swimming pool industry. And I think that it's a big part of the future.

SPEAKER_04 30:03

Yeah one of the other reasons that vinyl liner was so popular in the frostbelt markets Midwest Northeast was because um you know the the swimming season is three or four months, let's put it that way and you want to be swimming as soon as possible. The timeframe to put in a concrete pool can be uh several months to get a completed pool. Whereas a package pool, a vinyl liner pool or even a fiberglass pool can be put in at a very short period of time at a much less expense to the consumer. So that's one of the reasons that it became so popular and in demand for so many decades in the again the frostbelt market. But I'll add to that another myth was there are no swimming pools sold in Buffalo, New York. If you think about that Buffalo New York is it gets what uh you know tens of feet of snow during the winter time and it's cold most of the time so the perception is another myth. It also became the most above ground pool volume in the United States. And why was that? Because it was marketed. There were a couple of companies that came in and did advertising on radio and television and marketed the concept of you can swim in your three month season immediately by installing an above ground pool from us and it became a significant market for uh the above ground pool industry. And I'm back to marketing, promoting, etc. And that's why for many decades the vinyl liner pool was so popular in the frostbelt markets because companies went out and sold the concept of you can swim at a reasonable cost in your backyard.

SPEAKER_03 32:03

Well can I add on to that please George triggered a memory in my mind. One of the things that I think helped to dramatically expand in the 60s and 1960s and 1970s the vinyl liner package pool market, let's call it steel wall vinyl liner package pool market. And now let's include in that the fiberglass wall concrete bottom swimming pool. One of the things that made that growth so dynamic in that period were franchising companies. They were guys who peddled to uh maybe it was somebody who did concrete work whatever they peddled the idea of buying a franchise and with that franchise came these are the hallmarks the Polynesians the uh universals the guys who were peddling package pool franchises and whether whether it was a lot of suede chew and it was the the point was they drove the market because then all these guys in all these little communities who had gotten suckered into buying one of these franchises now they had nine more pools they had to sell to get their money back on the franchise. And whether no matter what we thought about those guys they did explode the market in the upper Midwest, the northeast that whole area actually all the way down into Tennessee they were selling those uh franchises a farmer with a backhoe became a pool builder and there's many of them out there today in the industry that started in the farming industry.

SPEAKER_07 33:46

I love it. Well you know I I have to admit so again we don't have a backyard in our pool. I actually have someone coming over tomorrow because we bought a play set and we have a bit of a slope in our backyard and they're gonna hopefully level it out so we can get our girls play set up so we don't have to go to the park every single day. Anyway it's not that we don't love that but you guys just be like get outside. But I will say because I I I mean I grew up with a pool in my backyard but because I haven't had and I haven't I've chosen not to get a pool in my backyard, I've been doing it above ground pools or I'll get those really fun blow up pools that you can get at like Costco where your kids can climb up into a shark's mouth and you know take the the slide down through the teeth. Yes I have that one it's in my backyard. My kids are like is it time? Is it warm enough? But it's convenient in many ways because again I don't have a pool in our backyard. Our community that we currently live in does not have a pool. We are members of the YMCA and we're members of a few other places that have pools. But when I look at the weather if I'm like oh man it's gonna be really hot for like two days and then you know a couple days later it's gonna snow I know for those two days I can set that pool up or that blow up pool and my kids are going to be happy. Mom and dad might get an hour we're lying to us ourselves five minutes of of downtime where our four and six year old are out there doing their thing. But I can absolutely see why um they were so popular and you know maybe to this day still are. But George Ken, I can't thank you both for bringing your expertise and your honesty and you know your history and your perspective you know you've seen this industry grow, you've you've seen it stumble, reinvent itself and really rise again. And your willingness to share that knowledge is what helps the next generation make smarter decisions. And so to our listeners, whether you're a homeowner trying to understand your pool better or a service pro looking to sharpen your craft or build a builder navigate and a change in market, remember good information is always good business, right? So keep asking those questions keep challenging assumptions and keep learning from the people who've been there who've gone through it right. And so with that Ken and George do you do you guys have anything that you want to leave our listeners before we we uh wrap this bad boy up?

SPEAKER_04 36:01

Well I'll just add for anyone out there that's watching this enjoy the industry enjoy your pool have a wonderful life God bless.

SPEAKER_03 36:11

I'll tag on to George and say uh when when you commented about the next generation actually in many cases it's two generations for George and I because when I my first customer when their grandkids made me promise that the last order that I did before I would retire was with their company because their grandpa had bought the first one. That was that was a reality check but it's a beautiful industry. It's a wonderful place. Uh I'll go along with George God bless.

SPEAKER_07 36:45

I love it. Well thank you both and as you said God bless and you know thank you for joining us with another episode of the Talking Pulls podcast where we like to keep things wet wild and wonderfully honest. Until next time guys have a great day.

SPEAKER_04 37:00

Thank you Natalie