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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450 Wastewater Advocacy and Innovation with Robin Deal
Scaling UP! H2O
“The More You Know” - Robin Deal A million-gallon-a-day perspective, distilled into actionable steps. , AquaPure Product Manager at unpacks how seasoned pros can squeeze more performance—and less sludge—out of industrial wastewater systems without compromising compliance or plant uptime. From “clear water in a jar” to stable discharge in the field Robin details a practical jar-testing workflow: start from upstream processes, target pH using hydroxide/sulfide solubility curves, choose the right coagulant (aluminum, iron, calcium, lanthanum, or organics),...
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449 Michael Bourgeois on AWT Partnerships and Professional Growth
Scaling UP! H2O
Get stuck in – Michael Bourgeois, CWT How do standards get written in ways that working water treaters can actually meet? In this conversation, AWT Past President, current Related Trade Organization (RTO) Committee Chair, and Chemco Products Company Operations Manager, , explains how AWT’s liaisons collaborate with peer organizations, so guidance reflects field reality—operations, risk, and achievable compliance. From Field Bags to Board Rooms: Why RTOs Matter Bourgeois outlines the purpose of AWT’s RTO structure: volunteer liaisons track and influence work at groups...
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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 goals for the next 12 weeks, so you don’t overload and quit. He also ties it to a water treatment reality: quarterly customer touchpoints are simply more productive than an annual “re-introduce everything” meeting.
Trace points listeners to planning support and easy on-ramps:
- the book link: ScalingUpH2O.com/12weekyear
- the planning guide PDF: ScalingUpH2O.com/12weekyearplan
- and an Audible option (free month + free book mentioned in the transcript).
Mailbag: how the show is made—and what’s changing
A listener asks how an episode goes from spark to air. Trace lays out the workflow: idea sourcing, research and pre-production, guest outreach, scheduling, outline creation, recording discipline, post-production with audio engineer Sean, then show notes, graphics, social posts, scheduling, and promotion. He also shares a key quality upgrade: guests now receive equipment prerequisites (including budget-friendly mic options) because the Scaling Up Nation can hear the difference.
On what’s new for 2026, Trace shares a major personal commitment: he’s pursuing a Doctorate in Business Administration, including research, data collection, and defending a thesis—with an intent to involve listeners through future surveys.
Skills to build in 2026: foundation, communication, and technology
Trace’s recommendations land in three buckets:
- Strengthen fundamentals (chemistry, products, and the “why” behind test kits),
- improve communication and relationship-building (including temperament-based communication concepts he references), and
- Learn what’s available in data and technology so you can show up to accounts better prepared—and avoid time-wasting return trips.
He closes with a direct action: browse the ScalingUpH2O.com events section and pick learning opportunities you can attend (especially those nearby), then build a 12-week plan that helps you justify bigger conferences by clearly stating what value you’ll bring back.
Stay engaged, keep learning, and continue scaling up your knowledge!
Timestamps
02:38 - Welcome to 2026 and what this “first show of the year” is designed to do (reset, tools, and a mailbag).
07:30 – 12 Week Year Planning format
21:09 – Dive Into The Scaling UP! H2O Mailbag
30:54 – What Is New for 2026 for Trace Blackmore
38:05 – Words of Water with James
40:15 – Trace's Favorite Food
46:42 – What Are The Top 2 to 3 skills Water Treaters Should Focus On
Quotes
“Now the reason I really like the 12-week year is because it puts the urgency of not having a full year of time, only having a smaller amount of time to work for you.”
“It also gives you 4 chances a year to reset and improve, not just one.”
“Everybody in water treatment should focus on developing skills around a solid foundation.”
“That leads me to my third skill that I want to talk to you about, and that's learning what's available to you when it comes to data and technology.”
Connect with Scaling UP! H2O 
Submit a show idea: Submit a Show Idea
LinkedIn: in/traceblackmore/
YouTube: @ScalingUpH2O
Scaling UP! H2O Resources Mentioned
AWT (Association of Water Technologies)
Scaling UP! H2O Academy video courses
Book - The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months
Episode 117 The One With Temperament Expert, Kathleen Edelman
Episode 179 Another One that Teaches Us to Communicate Better with Others
I Said This, You Heard That 2nd Edition by Kathleen Edelman
Words of Water with James McDonald
Definition: Today's definition is the ratio of the dissolved solids in a system's circulating water to the dissolved solids in the makeup water. Can you guess the word or phrase?
2026 Events for Water Professionals
Check out our Scaling UP! H2O Events Calendar where we’ve listed every event Water Treaters should be aware of by clicking HERE.
