460 Building Boiler Talent: Fundamentals, Online Training, and Better Partnerships with Eric Johnson
Scaling UP! H2O
Boilers can feel intimidating the first time you step into a boiler room—the heat, the noise, the pressure gauge, and the weight of knowing that mistakes can be costly. Trace Blackmore opens with a reminder that boilers deserve respect, not fear—and that learning fundamentals is how you replace mystique with clarity. The talent gap behind the boiler room door , Founder and CEO of , explains why boiler expertise is becoming harder to replace. He points to the shrinking pipeline of boiler-trained technicians—historically strengthened by Navy steam...
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459 From Wastewater to Resource: Water Reuse with Dr. Veronika Zhiteneva
Scaling UP! H2O
Industrial water professionals are increasingly pulled into conversations about scarcity, resilience, and “where the next gallon comes from.” , CEO and Co-founder of frames water reuse as an implementation challenge more than a technology gap—and explains where the practical starting points are when the scope feels overwhelming. Moving reuse forward when the technology already exists Waterloop Solutions was founded to accelerate implementation: clarifying end-use quality, identifying post-treatment needs on the back end of...
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458 Hiring Olympics and High-Performance Culture with J.D. Roth
Scaling UP! H2O
"Stay curious. And you only have one reputation. Guard it with your life." Hiring for judgment, not just rehearsed confidence Industrial water treatment is full of decisions made with incomplete data—on sites, with customers, and inside the business. (Managing Director and Co-owner of ) builds his hiring around that reality. His aim is straightforward: protect the team and the culture by selecting people who can think, collaborate, and lead under pressure. JD frames the organization as a group of people choosing to work toward a common goal: building a better future for...
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457 2026: A New Year with New Intentions
Scaling UP! H2O
Trace Blackmore opens 2026 with a practical reset: how to plan with urgency, sharpen the fundamentals that make troubleshooting easier, and use the tools around this podcast to keep your development moving all year. The 12-Week Year: urgency you can use Annual goals often feel “far away” until December forces focus. The 12-week year flips that dynamic by treating each quarter like a year—creating urgency sooner and giving you four chances to reset and improve. Trace walks through the structure: start with a vision (he uses a three-year example), then choose 3–5 tactical...
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456 The 12 Days of Scaling UP! H2O 2025
Scaling UP! H2O
A year-end recap is more than a highlight reel—it’s a practical reset. In this New Year episode, Trace Blackmore walks through 2025 using a “12 Days of the Scaling Up Nation” format, tying together performance, community growth, listener engagement, and the sponsor support that keeps the podcast and its companion tools available at no cost. Year-end by the numbers Trace explains how he used to track every stat closely—and how that shifted into an unhealthy measure of self-worth—so the team now uses numbers as feedback, not validation. He notes the...
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455 Mentors, Mindset, and the CWT: Owning Your Water Career with Nella Fergusson
Scaling UP! H2O
“So one thing I never do is try to start giving remediation or advice before I truly have understood and diagnosed the problem.” Mentorship and certifications don’t replace experience—but they can accelerate it when paired with the right mindset and a disciplined approach to learning. (District Manager, Southern California, ), lays out what “growing up” in industrial water treatment actually looks like: repeated exposure to real problems, strong diagnostic habits, and a willingness to keep learning long after year one. Learning that keeps...
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454 Water Recycling, Innovation, and Industry Wisdom with Dr. Kelle Zeiher
Scaling UP! H2O
Industrial cooling is one of the biggest levers industrial facilities can pull on water use—and it’s getting harder to ignore as data centers and other high-heat operations grow. Returning guest (Project Manager at ) breaks down what water reuse looks like when you move past slogans and into the realities of pretreatment, concentrate management, footprint, and cost. Cooling water reuse: the scale of the opportunity Dr. Zeiher reframes “drought” beyond rainfall, emphasizing aquifer recharge and the limits of focusing only on household restrictions. She...
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453 Water Risk, Governance, and Community Engagement with Dr. Annette Davison
Scaling UP! H2O
Industrial water professionals sit at the intersection of risk, regulation, and community trust. In this episode, (“the water risk doctor”) joins Trace Blackmore to show how disciplined governance, clear supply chain thinking, and community engagement can turn fragmented water systems into coherent, defensible risk management frameworks. Water risk from source to customer Annette starts with a simple question most customers never ask: “Where’s your water coming from?” She walks through a conceptual supply chain from source to end point—collection, transfer, treatment,...
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452 UV Innovation and Whole-Building Water Safety with Ron Blutrich
Scaling UP! H2O
Entamoeba histolytica nearly ended Ron Blutrich’s scientific career. Instead, it pushed him to rethink how we protect people in multi-family buildings, senior facilities, and dense urban centers from invisible microbiological risks in their drinking water. In this episode, he joins host Trace Blackmore to unpack what whole-building UV can (and can’t) do for Legionella, biofilm, and real-world water safety. When One Bad Cup of Water Redefines a Career In the middle of his PhD in molecular genetics, Ron drank from an under-sink reverse osmosis tap at an Airbnb and...
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451 Building a Culture of Innovation and Customer Service with Frank Lecrone
Scaling UP! H2O
What happens when you build a company around one niche, listen obsessively to customers, and never stop improving? In this episode, host Trace Blackmore finally sits down for a full-length conversation with , Founder, President, and CEO of . What started in a small 60' x 60' space in Hanover, Pennsylvania, with three employees, maxed-out credit cards, and endless Staples runs has grown into a 300+-person organization serving industrial water professionals around the world. Frank shares how AquaPhoenix became “the booth everyone wants to be next to” at...
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Industrial Water Week 2025: Careers Friday brings the celebration back to first principles—mentors, disciplined training, and field diagnostics that go beyond the screen. Trace reflects on the people who invested in his craft, recognizes guest contributors across the week, and issues a practical challenge to invest in one new professional before the day ends.
Foundations that Compound
A candid mentorship story anchors today’s episode. Trace recalls how early-career intimidation turned into decades of teaching fundamentals and math at AWT—proof that asking better questions grows better practitioners. Careers Friday becomes a prompt to text the person who built your foundation—and to be that person for someone else.
Fieldcraft Over Flash: A Detective H2O Lesson
The Detective H2O case distills high-value diagnostics for cooling systems: TTPC biocide can mask PTSA and fool controllers into overfeeding inhibitor; missing blowdown lockout during biocide feed wastes product; and stabilized bromine can become over-stabilized in long-HTI systems—driving ORP spikes, corrosion risk, and poor microbial control. Technology is essential, but interpretation is the craft.
Community Voices and a Career Pledge
Careers Friday features greetings from industry professionals and closes with Water You Know, a reminder that water often carries purchased energy (heat, cooling, pressure, flow, pre-treatment) that leaders must account for. The day ends with a clear ask: celebrate your mentors, share your origin story with #IWW25 and #ScalingUpH2O, and pledge to help one newcomer discover industrial water treatment.
Durable careers are built on shared knowledge, thoughtful diagnostics, and intentional mentorship. Use today to do all three.
Listen to the full conversation above. Explore related episodes below. Stay engaged, keep learning, and continue scaling up your knowledge!
Stay engaged, keep learning, and continue scaling up your knowledge!
Timestamps
02:20 — Opening: Industrial Water Week recap (Pretreatment, Boiler, Cooling, Wastewater) leading into Careers Friday.
03:15 — Community recognition: Scaling Up Nation “20,000+ members” and daily celebration via #IWW25 and #ScalingUpH2O.
05:20 — Careers Friday actions: take photos with equipment, mentors, or customers; share to celebrate the craft.
05:29 — Team traditions: the Industrial Water Week cake (including the infamous “water cake” anecdote).
09:16 — Mentorship story: meeting Bruce Ketrick Sr. and Jay Farmery; intimidation becomes investment.
13:12 — Writing the Fundamentals program with Mark Lewis to build durable entry-level foundations.
14:18 — Personal note: when Trace’s father passed, how Bruce showed up—mentorship beyond the classroom.
16:15 — Careers greetings begin (Lee Bainbrigge, SMS Environmental): be open-minded, keep learning, focus on customer assurance.
18:07 — Episode reference: Lee’s prior appearance (Ep. 370) for Legionella perspectives.
18:21 — Careers greeting (Kalpna Solanki): environmental operator roles as purposeful, global, and essential.
21:39 — Detective H2O — The Case of Knowing It All begins.
38:21 — CWT pathway: free prep resource and 100-question practice exam walkthrough .
42:46 — Water You Know with James McDonald
44:38 — Gratitude for James McDonald’s ongoing community impact.
45:04 — Careers Friday challenge: thank your mentors; post your origin story with #IWW25 and #ScalingUpH2O.
46:15 — Final pledge: help one person discover industrial water treatment this week.
Connect with Mike Taraszki
Phone: 510.368.4549
Email: michael.taraszki@wsp.com
Website: www.wsp.com
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/michaeltaraszki/
Connect with Kalpna Solanki
Phone: 778.688.9196
Email: kalpnasolanki1980@gmail.com
Water Environment Federation (WEF)
LinkedIn: in/kalpnasolanki
Connect with Lee Bainbrigge
Email: l.bainbrigge@sms-environmental.co.uk
Website: https://sms-environmental.co.uk/
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lbainbrigge/
linkedin.com/company/sms-environmental-ltd/
Connect with James Courtney
Phone: +1 443 878 2407
Email: james@csctech2o.com
Website: https://www.csctech2o.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-courtney-cwt-leed-ap-379a6877/
Connect with Laith Charles
Phone: 941-301-1309
Email: laith@ewatermark.net
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMuigehZdcquaY14QtGm
Connect with Mark Lewis
Phone: 704.322.5406
Email: MLewis@SELaboratories.com
Website: https://www.selaboratories.com/
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mark-lewis-01a3b56
Connect with James McDonald
Email: james51471@gmail.com
Website: chemaqua.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-mcdonald-pe/
Links Mentioned
AWT (Association of Water Technologies)
Scaling UP! H2O Academy video courses
034 The Other One With Mark Lewis, CWT
062 The One with the Pulsafeeder Guy
112 The One Where Trace Is Interviewed By Mark Lewis
141 The One About Neglected Accounts
149 The One About Some of the Lesser-Used Technologies
224 The One About The Internet Of Things (IoT) Augmented Industrial Water Treatment
355 Backflow Prevention: Safeguarding Water Quality
362 Navigating 97-005: Insights and Impacts on Potable Water
370 Unlocking Legionella Solutions: Perspectives on Regulations and Best Practices
394 Visibility and Value: Enhancing Sustainability in Water Treatment
404 Eight Tips for Business Management: Part 1 – Essential Strategies
406 Eight Tips for Business Management: Part 2 – Essential Strategies
Water You Know with James McDonald
Question: What forms of purchased energy may be present in water?
