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Talking Pools Podcast
If you’ve ever stared at a test kit like it personally insulted your family… welcome home.
Talking Pools Podcast is the pool industry’s “pull up a chair” show—part shop talk, part field manual, part therapy session—built for people who actually live on pool decks: commercial operators, service techs, builders, facility managers, and anyone responsible for water that can’t afford to go sideways. The network was created to level up the pool industry with real-world conversations on water chemistry, filtration, troubleshooting, construction, safety, and the business side of keeping pools open and budgets intact.
Here’s the hook: it’s not theory-first. It’s experience-first—a roster of seasoned pros (with 250+ years of combined “been there, fixed that” wisdom) turning complicated problems into practical moves you can use the same day. And it’s not one voice, one vibe, one corner of the industry: it’s a network of shows designed to reflect how diverse this work really is—different regions, different specialties, different personalities.
Also worth saying out loud: women aren’t “special guests” here—they’re on the mic as hosts, from the beginning, with an intentionally balanced roster. That matters, because the best ideas in this industry don’t come from one lane—they come from the whole road.
If you want a podcast that can make you laugh and make you better at what you do—without pretending the job is easier than it is—Talking Pools is the one you queue up before the first stop, and keep on when the day starts getting weird.
Talking Pools Podcast
Is There Too Much Pool Industry Education?
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In the conclusion of this two-part Mythbusting Wednesday conversation, Natalie Hood sits down with Erik Knight to discuss his move from Watershape University to Pool Brain—and the bigger problems he hopes to help solve.
The pool industry has more education available than ever, but is that actually part of the problem? New technicians are often buried under chemistry, equipment, software, procedures, and safety information before they have enough hands-on experience to understand how it all fits together.
Erik explains how guided workflows and point-of-need education could help technicians produce better results from the beginning while developing a deeper understanding over time. Instead of three days riding shotgun followed by “Here are the keys—try not to turn anything green,” technology can provide structure, consistency, and some desperately needed early wins.
Natalie and Erik discuss:
- Why technician turnover is highest at the entry level
- Whether the education gap is really an education-overload problem
- The weaknesses of traditional pool-company onboarding
- Why hands-on learning creates knowledge that actually sticks
- Using software to reinforce education instead of replacing it
- Pool Brain’s approach to guided workflows and chemistry recommendations
- Using historical data to predict future pH and water behavior
- Why experience—not intelligence—allows seasoned technicians to anticipate problems
- Automation as a force multiplier for pool professionals
- How technology can free technicians to develop higher-value skills
- Why automation equipment can become a profitable service-company revenue stream
- The value of competition among software companies and education providers
- Erik’s continued relationship with Watershape University
- What attracted him to Pool Brain’s long-term vision
- Why professional software requires more than an AI-generated interface
- Inflation, rising equipment costs, and the need for greater efficiency
- Route optimization, properly stocked trucks, and eliminating costly supply runs
Erik also addresses the fear that technology will eventually replace the pool professional. Automation may handle repeatable tasks, but it cannot change filter sand, clean a DE grid, diagnose complicated equipment problems, or replace the judgment developed through real experience.
Better technology does not eliminate the need for education. It can remove some of the repetitive bullshit, help new technicians succeed sooner, and give experienced professionals more time to solve complicated problems, serve better customers, and operate more profitable routes.
Erik’s goal at Pool Brain is straightforward: simplify what makes the job unnecessarily difficult, help pool professionals deliver safer and more predictable water, and give company owners the tools to become more efficient, profitable, and—God forbid—occasionally get home before dark.
Thank you so much for listening! You can find us on social media:
Email us: talkingpools@gmail.com
Do you think that that education gap is because there isn't enough education available to them, or because it's too overwhelming and they don't know where to start?
SPEAKER_06You know, that's a great question.
SPEAKER_08I used to think it was the former. And that's one of the main reasons I went to Watershape. I was trying to show them a path to mastery. You know, let's let's change this turnover issue where people get discouraged and they leave the industry after one summer. But really the turnover is at the cleaning level, right? It's at the entry level. It's not like once you start learning how to repair heaters, you're unlikely to leave the industry. You might go to another company, but you're probably going to stay in the industry because you have a skill now that's like translatable and and and allows you to have mobility. But pool cleaners, that's that's like the grassroots, right? And that's where the most turnover is. And so if they leave, you still have service managers and company owners who are struggling to fill that spot and get those pools serviced because they'll turn green if you don't. So I'll ask the question again. Do you think that the education gap, which I agree, very much real, is it because of a lack of education options or because there's so much information, they're overwhelmed?
SPEAKER_06That's a great question.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, you didn't expect me to ask you questions, huh?
SPEAKER_06I and actually I've always gone with the latter, but thinking about it, now that you've put me on the spot, it might be that there's just it's too overwhelming.
SPEAKER_02You know what time it is? Wednesday vibes on the talking pools punch.
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SPEAKER_01Welcome back to Mythbusting Wednesdays with Natalie Hood and the exciting conclusion to her two-part episode with industry phenom Eric Knight. Why did Eric leave Watershapes? Why did Eric join Pool Brain? Listen as Eric and Natalie quell the rumors and spill the coffee. We join this conversation in progress.
SPEAKER_08So I'll ask the question again. Do you think that the education gap, which I agree, very much real, is it because of a lack of education options or because there's so much information, they're overwhelmed?
SPEAKER_06That's a great question.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, you didn't expect me to ask you questions, huh?
SPEAKER_06And actually, I've always gone with the ladder, but thinking about it, now that you've put me on the spot, it might be that there's just it's too overwhelming. Yeah.
SPEAKER_08I think so too. And pool rain wants to change that. Adam wants to change that. So basically, it so in onboarding, traditional onboarding in any company, and I've now been to a few, and I've seen hundreds of them. Like I've I've met hundreds and hundreds of pool companies around the country, and it's been wonderful. Everybody kind of onboards a very similar way in a pool service business, from what I could tell. I mean, what they're teaching generally is the same. How they do it is different, but how to use a test kit, this is what we put in the trucks, this is what these chemicals are, here's how to not blow yourself up, like those important things. But then basically you get in the passenger seat of somebody who's been doing it for a while and you shadow them for a few days and you're on your own. Right. So traditional onboarding is educate, educate, demonstrate, and get out there and start learning. What this opportunity allows for is what if you could shortcut that part, but without as much education up front, so that you can deliver an outsized result by following a guided workflow that does know what it's doing based on the data, based on the test results. You don't have to understand why it's doing it yet, but the education lags behind that. The education follows that and it reinforces it over time so that you're not stuck like not being able to handle the pool chemistry for a while because there's so much to learn. What if you were delivering great water up front and learning pool chemistry over time? And as you learn the concepts, you're like, that makes sense. That's why I'm adding sodium bicarb or whatever. If I were learning that way, I put myself in these shoes. I I've done a lot of thinking about this before I decided to come to pool right. That would work really well for me if if I'm a pool print tech.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. That would actually I so I have to admit, I had a really hard time learning when I was younger. And it took me to learn how to learn, if that makes sense. Right.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_06I um I had okay grades in high school. I think I had like a 3.3, which isn't bad. And then by the time I got to college, I did graduate with a 4.0, but it took me to learn how to learn. And I actually learn better hands-on. I'm visual, I'm hands-on. So the type of learning experience that you're describing would actually better suit me than doing all the learning up front. We learned more after my degree now than I mean, I learned a lot during my degree, but I've learned more now hands-on than I did before.
SPEAKER_08Most people, most people are dominant visual learners in school. But when it comes to a long-term skill that you never forget, it's kinesthetic. You have to touch, you have to do. And that's what this is. So you're kind of leading with kinesthetic, and then you're visually watching videos or reading after or listening to a stupid podcast like mine or a great podcast like yours. And yeah, you're you're just backing it in. And that way you kind of backfill. And I'm not saying anything that isn't already out today. Everything that I've mentioned so far, Pool Brain already does. They did this before they hired me. So and and then by the way, that's one of the biggest differences that has been a challenge for me is with Arenda's calculator, I built it from a blank screen. So I know every part of it. Pool Brain is like 50 times more complex than that. And I didn't build it. So like I'm looking at this huge, huge program, like, oh man, I don't know how any of this works. And I've just been slowly absorbing kind of the logic and it's deep. It is an amazingly smart software. But uh it's continuing to get better.
SPEAKER_06I'm excited. It it's I mean, I think this is well, kind of going back, we're gonna jump around a little bit. I think this could also really help with possibly the technician turnover that a lot of companies experience.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, that's the one of the main reasons I'm doing this. That's the one of the main reasons I went to Watershape, is the turnover problem is huge because the customers that I know, they constantly cite the biggest problem is personnel. Some basically turned that on its head when he was talking to me. He said, What if you can't solve the turnover problem? You still have company owners and service managers who are struggling to get those pools cleaned in time. They're left high and dry, like you still have this problem. How do you get the new technicians moving quickly, get them some early wins? And that was very appealing to me. It really was.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. So I have to get into chemistry, obviously, because you weren't going to take a job where you couldn't talk about water chemistry, let's be honest.
SPEAKER_08Absolutely. I would be farming if I wasn't in the pool business, and that has nothing to do with water chemistry.
SPEAKER_06I feel that, actually. I feel that I'm ready for a bond dominion with all the animals.
SPEAKER_08There you go.
SPEAKER_06Yes, I'm ready for the body.
SPEAKER_08But yes, in the industry, you're right.
SPEAKER_06I'm probably going to be able to But how excited are you about the automated chemistry side of what Pool Brain is developing?
SPEAKER_08I'll be honest, I still don't understand all of it. It's a it's a pretty deep system. I've been onboarded like the the AI dosing for tabs. I've I haven't even started looking at that, but it was really cool that they are leaning into LSI because as much as we think we made an impact at Arenda, most people they know what the LSI is, but they don't really know how to implement it. Here again, where do you aim? What's your strategy? And what pool brain is already doing is it allows a bunch of logic, and anybody who has pool brain already knows this. And again, pre-existing to me, my job is to make that easier. My job is to make that more robust, more predictable, and utilize things like the pH ceiling, which another term for that is future pH, which dictates your future LSI so that you have a good idea of what your chemistry is going to be when you come back. Now, I've been teaching this for years, but it's never been systematized, so to speak. You have to have that intuition to think on every single time you test that water. And technicians who have not been doing this a long time, that's hard to do. And it's not an intelligence thing, it's an experience thing. Until you have done enough pools and you see how pools behave with certain things, you can't really predict water very well. But if a system is on your team and a system knows the data on the pool and it knows the the history of the chemistry readings, it's pretty smart.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_08So it's going to help you out.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. So then I have to ask, are are you secret secretly trying to make it impossible for anyone to uh misuse the LSI ever again?
SPEAKER_08Aaron Powell Oh, yeah, that's my that's my big grand plan. I I don't want anybody to ever not use LSI. No, I've been uh I've been an advocate for a long time, very vocal advocate, that I believe pool service companies need to be on software. And we integrated with all the softwares when I was at Arendo for that same reason. Not because we never got a penny from any of the software companies. It had nothing to do with that. It had everything to do with looking ahead. This job is going to get more complicated. Tap water's changing, there's just too many variables. But most importantly, I, we, every company I've ever worked for, want you to be successful because knowing how to service pools and knowing how to service pools profitably are two very different things. We want you to know how to service pools really well, but we also want you to be able to do it profitab profitably and feed your families and be able to sleep at night without having to work exhausting days and get burned out. Software allows you to do that. And uh it wasn't that Adam hates me for this, but like it wasn't that pool brain was my favorite software. I like software in general, but the vision Adam gave me was like right up my alley. I said, ooh, no one's ever done this. And I can't tell you what that is, but you'll see it over the next you know 18 months, two years. No one's ever even tried, as far as I know. Now, unless there's another company doing it without my knowledge and they beat us to it, uh it might happen. But I'm still gonna do it because I think it's gonna be really good for the industry.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. And again, that and even if someone out there is already trying to develop or they're developing it behind the the closed doors, again, it comes back to something that you and I have always talked about, and that competition is healthy.
SPEAKER_08It is. And look how much better the softwares have all gotten because of it. Yeah. When there was just one, they had no incentive to get better. But look, Watershape. Watershape makes all the other education groups step up their game. That's good. And all the other education groups make Watershape step up their game. That's what competition does. Amen. Capitalism does that.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Stop stop sitting there and letting the education sit for years and years without changing.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. And there's no reason to disparage any competition. Just be bitter or be better.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Get better. And that is a win for the consumers. The more competition, the better. That's a really good thing. So yeah, I'm all about it. And I, I don't know about you, I love competing. I absolutely love competition and I'm excited for it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_08You got all your medals in the back. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. It's funny. My girls are, my little girls, they know I'm doing this, these three races coming up. They're like, mommy, we want you to win. I'm like, oh, that's sweet, but they there's uh 10 uh Olympic trial swimmers in one of the races that I'm doing, and I'm like, mommy's not gonna win, but she's gonna have fun watching the other ten Olympic swimmers go in front of her.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. Well, it that doesn't mean they're gonna win unless they've been doing open water, because that's a very different skill set.
SPEAKER_06That is true. Yes, that is true.
SPEAKER_08I mean, I do swim across America every year, and teenagers beat me consistently. And it doesn't mean I don't know how to swim, it's that I don't swim much anymore. And uh I don't swim open water. Open water is so different than swimming in a pool. But let's get back to the subject side. Yeah. We don't want to waste the uh listener's time with swimming talk, you know?
SPEAKER_06Yes, yeah. We could do that all day. So with this audience listening, and I've seen it out on social media, they hear automation, they think, you know, in guided workflows and point of need education, they immediately think, okay, well, great. Now nobody is actually gonna learn anything. But, you know, with better technology, I don't think it reduces the need for education. I think it just allows us to deliver better education. But again, I still see a lot of people and they see all this advancement with technology and they get extremely nervous. You're trying to do all this technology and replace the boots on the ground. And I think they're just kind of missing the point.
SPEAKER_08Is that a where's your question in there?
SPEAKER_06Well, I'm saying with the with people saying, well, now that we're doing all of this, you're adding my brain is not braining. I've not had enough protein today, obviously.
SPEAKER_08Well, you swam 10 miles. What did you expect? There's nothing left. Yeah.
SPEAKER_06That's true. So my guess my question is, does better technology reduce the need for education, or does it actually allow us to deliver better education? And I guess what will always require human knowledge and judgment to no matter like no matter how good the software becomes.
SPEAKER_08That's a okay, nah, that's a deep question.
SPEAKER_06It was there. I just had to.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, no, that's good. It's a good question. I'll I'll start by saying this. For repeatable commodity tasks, for instance, automation is going to replace a lot of those. Yes. Um AI is replacing knowledge workers at a pace that has never before been done ever. And because for instance, a paralegal or a team of paralegals at a big law firm has to look through hundreds and hundreds of pages of case law and hundreds and hundreds of court documents and all this stuff. AI can do that in fractions of a second and synthesize it better than they could anyway. Okay. That is a very replaceable skill for AI. But here again, doing a filter sand change or cleaning a DE grid is not an AI replaceable task, at least not until they have robots physically doing the work. And that's not a priority for the AI overlords, right? I don't think it replaces the need for education. I think it simplifies the, I'm gonna call it the menial stuff, like the entry-level stuff, to a point where you can learn it very quickly and then automation does it for you. What it does allow for you to do is learn deeper on the bigger concepts. So instead of just struggling to figure out how to keep your pools from turning green all the time, which is, you know, that's a cleaning level job. And that, you know, you have to understand basic chemistry and stuff, you can start predicting what your chemistry is going to do. That's a very different level of water understanding. And, you know, I've been teaching it for years, but like if you just let physics be your t your um your teammate instead of your opponent, water becomes very predictable. It doesn't have to be chaotic. And um I I I think technology, what it does, in my opinion, is a force multiplier. Just like a tractor is to a landowner or farmer, one tractor can replace 30 or 40 people. And you're going to have these things going. For instance, if for some reason you are trying on an outdoor residential pool to maintain a pH between 7.4 and 7.6, even if it's a stabilized pool, if that's what you're trying to do, unless you're visiting it three times a day or more, every day, you alone can't do that without automation. Correct. But automation can do it. So why not use it?
SPEAKER_06Yeah. No, I absolutely agree.
SPEAKER_08How about robotic cleaners? How many pool pros listening to this, and I know there are a lot of you, how many pool pros listening to this genuinely like vacuuming pools? I've never met one.
SPEAKER_06Definitely not me. Never.
SPEAKER_08Like it God, I got vacuumed. This is such a pain. Look at all the leaves on the bottom. There was a rainstorm or whatever. I mean, the grumbles are real. And trust me, I had that pool. If you've if you've followed uh the Arenda channel and the podcast, I was cleaning leaves out of it every single day. The chemistry, I didn't have really a problem with the chemistry at all. Chemistry was easy for me. Cleaning the leaves was such a pain. I hated it. I mean, I just dreaded every single day netting and having to vacuum.
SPEAKER_06My shoulders always were like burning by the end of it.
SPEAKER_08But guess what? There's automated pool cleaners, there's in-floor cleaning systems. Those are automated, right? Those things make your job easier so you can focus on higher levels of skill here again, like troubleshooting equipment and adding exceptional value to your customers. And by the way, automation equipment is a great profit center for a pool service business. If you are putting automation on a pool or installing a new controller, or you can automate valves now, you can you can change from spa mode to pool mode, and it's amazing what technology is doing. And by the way, it's not slowing down. So you're gonna want to know what this stuff is because it unlocks your ability to service those higher-end pools, which yield higher monthly rates, and it can transform your business, really.
SPEAKER_06Aaron Powell Well, you know what what just had me thinking, you know, I would say in other areas, in different industries, I would say automation has been much quicker, right? I'm wondering if the pool industry is just feeling threatened that all of a sudden all this automation has just come full swing.
SPEAKER_08Aaron Powell We're just small. I don't think we're that far behind. I think my uncle is absolutely but Well, my uncle was an investment banker, and he told me this many years ago when he looked at our industry. He said, Your industry is in its adolescence. When you look at HVAC and plumbing and all this stuff, they're basically like 10, 15 years ahead of us because there's so many more of them. And private equity came in, the consolidations happened, the technology, the software, all that stuff is way ahead of us. But we're a very similar trajectory. We're just a decade behind, so to speak. But the technology is caught up because in the last three or four years, I mean, there's some very smart people getting into this space. But where the bleeding edge of technology is, it's not in a small industry that doesn't have the dollars. You're gonna see it in the energy sector, you're gonna see it in the healthcare sector, you're gonna see it in the hundreds of billions and trillion dollar type industries, automotive, things like that. They're gonna always be way ahead. And then it it trickles down to the smaller industries like ours. And and by the way, that's not an insult to the industry. I love it.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_08This is a great industry to be in. There's a lot of prosperity in this industry. Savor this because we don't want it to become a huge industry. We want it to grow, but we want it to be this leisure industry that we're in. Pool pool people don't leave the industry very often. And I'm speaking now on behalf of like manufacturers, especially the people that exhibit at trade shows. Most people stay in the industry for one main reason that I've found in talking to a lot of them. This is a fun business.
SPEAKER_06Yeah.
SPEAKER_08Like, like we bring joy to people. If pools are fun and the service providers that go into backyards are keeping water clean. People like looking and swimming in clean water. I mean, it's a fun business. Everyone associates the backyard pool with joy and recreation. That's cool. And not a lot of business are businesses are like that. I mean, think about the mining industry. Think about waste management. You know, think about these huge industries that they're not fun. So you get to go to the pool show and you get to see all this cool new stuff. You realize we get to see a lot of new stuff because we are a small industry. Yeah, not it hasn't all been discovered yet. And so I'm enjoying it. I really am. And I hope you are too pros. And come to the shows and see what people are rolling out because especially with AI, it is freeing up some of the best minds in this industry to think of things that they never had the time to think of before.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. No, I would absolutely agree. And I I I love this industry too. I don't I people will ask my husband, what's your wife do? And he's he actually has like a notepad on his phone. He's like, give me a second. And he'll be like I don't know. She works in the pool industry. And he's like, and it's a thing. But I agree. I love the pool industry. You couldn't kick me out. I I live and breathe aquatics, obviously. Yeah. Um, with how much swimming I'm doing. But so let's have a little fun. Um the one before this an announcement, so obviously it was hard about keeping it quiet, but who was the first person that you told?
SPEAKER_08My wife. Obviously. Well, I actually no, that's not even fair because she was involved in the decision to do this. So I'm a very transparent person. Uh I'm I'm a pretty private person too, but I didn't hide anything from anyone that needed to know. So before I even accepted the position, we had open conversations with Bill and Dave at Watershape. Like nothing was, hey, by the way, I'm I'm leaving. No, it was we we really talked it through of of how this could work. Um so early on, the people that knew, I mean, Bill and Dave were aware basically day one, obviously Adam, my wife, and in terms of people outside of the know that that we told, I'm not gonna say who they are, but I've got a select ring of very close customer friends that we've got some uh we've got some text groups. I've I've told some of them. And but um but generally I tried not to tell really anybody that didn't need to know. I told some of the woo instructors because I wanted them to know ahead of time so they weren't caught off guard. But um no, it wasn't it was never really like clandestine. I wasn't really held feet to the fire. Are you leaving? No, I never got to that point. And it's not that big of a deal. It it's just me. Who cares? Like people change jobs all the time.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I agree. Life changes, things happen. So well, and one thing I thought was pretty cool is that, you know, in the announcement, WU, they said they were looking forward to expanding, you know, access to quality education. And so it, you know, it looks like there's possibly some exciting opportunities. Obviously, you can't talk about it just yet, but it looks like there's going to be some opportunities with WU working with Pool Brain.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I mean high quality education and and access to it is one of the exciting things that that pool brain could do, even in the short term. But i the bigger picture is is something different than that. But yeah, I I think uh pros deserve to have access to the best information they could get.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, I absolutely agree. So how many new ideas have you already thrown at Pool Brain?
SPEAKER_08Not so many. The reason for that is I'm not trying to upset the Apple cart because I still don't even understand 50% of what they have. Still in sponge mode, learning, learning, learning. Uh the only like ideas, little corrections I've made. There was like a typo on one of the pages, very small stuff like that. I've I've found a few things that I've made note of. I have a book where I write down everything so I don't forget it. And I think I'm on seven pages in several weeks. So that's that's not a lot of notes, by the way. Uh it's just things that I've picked up on. So honestly, it's it's a really well-developed software and it's a very mature software at this point. So because I don't know what's behind it, I don't feel that I have any sort of standing to start trying to change things until I really understand how it works and also how it's used. You know, I I'm now that this is out in the open, I'm gonna speak to customers who are using it and get their honest feedback as well.
SPEAKER_06Love it. I absolutely agree. So what's more dangerous, Eric Knight with a chemistry calculator, or Eric Knight with access to a software development team?
SPEAKER_08Aaron Powell Well, I have access to a chemistry calculator. That's not dangerous at all. I mean, I think that the better I'm the better question is a a software development team and resources to actually employ it, because software is very expensive to develop. So if you don't have the resources to back it, well, you can have all the ideas in the world. And and it's kind of funny how AI has really shaped things just in this short amount of time since you know just the last few weeks. There have been like five different AI-generated website startup app software companies in the pool business that reached out to the Rule Your Pool podcast and reached out to me at Watershape, trying to get featured on the show or whatever else, and just introducing their software. But there's really not anything behind it except it was clearly AI generated very, very rapidly. And uh you haven't heard of them yet for a reason. So until you have the backing, I mean, there's personnel required if you're gonna serve this industry. There's an entire customer support team, there's a development team, there's a lot of there's a lot of payroll to operate one of these businesses. It's a lot more than what we did at Arenda. Uh we did not have nearly as much payroll requirement because we had uh third-party reps, just like the grid game, had um manufactured district. I'm sorry, we had distributions, we had you know local reps like that, and then we had relationships with customers. So it was mostly a sales organization. This is a service organization. It's a fundamentally different business.
SPEAKER_06Yes. Yeah. Well, I'm excited for you. It's uh it's always fun to do something different, right? And it sounds like you're gonna have some fun.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, I do have fun, and I've I've made uh no bones about challenging the status quo, and I think it does need to be challenged. I have some serious problems with some of the way that things have been done in the industry. And it's not problems with any individual people. I just I see a clear picture of things that are hurting pool pros and what can make their jobs easier and better and they're water safer and more enjoyable for their customers, and I I want that. So yeah, when you when you break eggs to make an omelette, some people really preferred the eggs. There's there's been some uh mixed reviews about this as if I mean I don't care. What other people think of me is none of my concern, but I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing. And um I think it's good for the pros, and that's really what motivates me. So I've gotten to know so many of them. I consider a lot of them very good friends, and they open up to me and tell me what's frustrating them and what's hard about what they're doing. I'm thinking it doesn't have to be this way. There's so much prosperity in this industry if we get out of our own way, simplify what we're doing, and focus on what matters, and and that's what I want to help do. And Pool Brain aligns perfectly with that.
SPEAKER_06I agree. Well, my last question is what do you think pool pros should be paying attention to right now? What should they be paying attention to in the industry, let's say, in regards to being successful in running their routes? I know I just I keep giving you like these deep-end questions.
SPEAKER_08No, it's a good it's good. You'd you'd I mean, I appreciate that. It's better than surface-level talk. The first thing that comes to mind is inflation. Inflation is out of our control. Inflation is a very simple the best way to explain inflation is when the government prints more money than the goods and services produced. So if there's more cash circulating in the economy than the goods and services that created that cash, you have a gap. And that gap is called inflation. And so the value of the dollar decreases, therefore, it costs a lot more of those decreased dollars to get the same stuff. And I I made this comment that uh when I first got to Arenda, I could fly across the country to a trade show or whatever for under 500 bucks consistently. I can't get there for under 800, and that's like lucky if I get it in the 800s. Yeah. It's usually $1,000 or more to get to California. That's double, more than doubled. That's real. And that that's at a big level of a flight. But how much are you paying now for your chemicals? How much are you paying now for your equipment, for your fittings, for your brushes, for your poles, for all the things that are essential to your business? Lord forbid, having to buy a new truck. I mean, when I got my truck in 2018, it it was I think $38,000. That same truck, that model, like today's model, is $62,000. I mean, think about that. Uh F-150.
SPEAKER_06Okay.
SPEAKER_08But like a basic one. It's not like a super tricked out one or anything. It's like, you know, mid-level. And that's a $60 something thousand dollar truck now. And it's no different. I mean, it's updated, of course, but it's not really any different than the truck that I had just eight years ago. And that makes you think like you have to get more life out of the equipment you're using. You have to get more, more bang for your buck, so to speak. And so I think the the main thing that pool companies need to be focused on is how can you stretch your dollars and be more efficient with what you're doing and be more profitable with what you're doing? Optimizing your route is a great way to do it. Gas is expensive, less wear and tear on the vehicle. And then having the right stuff in your truck, predicting where your chemistry is going so that you don't have to route and go back to your shop or go to distribution in the middle of the day, which takes time and gas and everything else, and then get back on route. If you knew, hey, I've got these 10 pools to hit today, and you knew exactly where their chemistry is supposed to be within some very precise tolerance, give, you know, barring some major weather event, you could have everything on your truck that morning and you don't need to stop. You can just, and you could be home by four. You can be with your family and all that stuff. And I want that for you. And it can be done, and you need tools to do that, and that's what I want to build.
SPEAKER_06Yeah. Well, I'm excited. And I appreciate you so much coming on and and talking with us. And all of us here at the Talking Pools podcast, we appreciate you, and we are very excited for you in your next chapter at Pool Brain. And, you know, I I think this career move is exciting. And again, I see I'm happy to see the relationship with Watershape is still on very good terms. And it's remains strong because ultimately, you know, all of these organizations were all working towards the same thing, right? Helping pool professionals become better. Because at the end of the day, that's what we do.
SPEAKER_08Yeah. Well, I can guarantee you, not all hosts at the rule at the Talking Pools podcast really like me. I I get along well with Rudy, I get along well with you, but there are some hosts that really can't stand me. And I'm okay with that because I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing. But in all seriousness, it it's nice to be on the show and to reach out because we share the same audience. And and when I do talk to Rudy, we are on the same page. Though we have disagreed on some chemistry things, we've talked quite a bit in the last year. We are absolutely aligned in trying to make things better for pros. There is no gap there. And um, I'm I'm really happy that this show is is growing like it is, and I'm happy to be part of it. And for the pros listening, I'm happy to still be in this industry and serve you and I hope to see you out there.
SPEAKER_06Yes. Well, thank you for being on again. And thanks, guys, for tuning in. Continue to uh challenge those myths and educate yourselves. Until next time, guys, thank you.
SPEAKER_08Thanks.
