0:01
okay welcome to tuesdays with kelly and
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dan and today we have matt from swim
0:08
university
0:09
co-hosting with me so this should be a
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little bit more interesting when i talk
0:14
by myself
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hi matt hi
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how are you thanks for having me
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i'm good
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yeah
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what's that noise
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i didn't say i didn't do anything oh
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maybe you're liking that
0:32
like it sounded like dogs running across
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maybe i don't know if it's like rudy in
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the background when he can hear him it's
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not it's not here i'm on carpet and i
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don't have any i have one animal but
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he's he's a little tiny cat and he
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sneaks around so
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hey whatever i have two dogs and they're
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driving me nuts
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but i love them
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yeah that's definitely rudy it's not us
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thanks rudy
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anywho
1:00
so how have you been how's the life
1:02
going you know anything exciting yeah uh
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life is is good um pool season was good
1:09
still is good we're still in it right
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um was out at a pool today filming for
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the last two days actually and i have
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one more day tomorrow to film more
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so we just did like a three-day
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you know
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kind of
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uh photo film shoot for
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the website
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do you mind me asking what the subject
1:28
was about uh we are just getting b-roll
1:30
of everything so like today i you know
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we flew a drone to get like drone shots
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of brushing skimming
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vacuuming
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adding chemicals we got gopro shots so
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underwater shots of the same stuff you
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know adding chemicals brushing skimming
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all that stuff so we're just kind of
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getting
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b-roll so that we can do our reels and
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our youtube videos and stuff
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you know what i think would be a great
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video for homeowners is how to brush a
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pool during a startup why why why
2:02
specifically that
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because
2:05
i do i don't have weekly maintenance
2:07
anymore i used to and then i decided not
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to so i do startups a lot and i want to
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say that's the biggest question the
2:14
homeowner has is how do i brush my pool
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during you know that time where they
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have to brush me out three times a day
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yeah two times a day whatever because
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they're like oh my god i'm afraid of
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scratching it you know oh and then
2:27
sometimes they'll like miss spots and
2:28
they're like well i tried getting it
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it's like i know you're trying i'm just
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letting you know those spots need a
2:32
little bit you know but i think that
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would be great so then i could send them
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that video and be like here this is how
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you brush right
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like a dentist or pools that might be
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yeah yeah okay
2:44
exactly i like it so what's your
2:46
background i know that you have the swim
2:49
university i've seen some of your videos
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on youtube i've even used your videos
2:53
when i would have my ipsa meetings and
2:55
trying to start a conversation with the
2:57
members wow
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so
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yeah so i've been doing this since i was
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my first summer job as a 13 year old
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little boy
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was at a pool store and i never left i
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stayed there till i was 17 went to
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another pool store
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worked my way up to assistant manager
3:14
went to another pool store became
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manager
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managed that service department retail
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store
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went
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back and forth to different pool
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companies
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the same two back and forth and then
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started my own all online though you
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know back in 2004 2006 somewhere in that
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rain in their area
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i was like oh i'm gonna
3:36
basically take all of my knowledge and
3:38
put it towards the internet and that was
3:40
it
3:42
okay that was that twenty
3:45
yeah yeah i grew up in the industry
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my whole life did you have it was it was
3:50
that and then i got sucked into it you
3:52
have parents that were into it and then
3:53
got into it or were you like
3:56
just a little kid in a development that
3:58
needed a summer job and
4:01
got sucked into it no like
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my supply house managers have known me
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since i was four years old wow okay so
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literally grew up in it yeah my dad's
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been doing it for 35 years wow holy crap
4:12
my mom did it for a long time she had a
4:13
route and everything yeah yeah wow wait
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what part of the country i'm in
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california northern california so okay
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yeah northern california
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a lot of i know there's a lot of stuff
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yeah so i uh i'm like a sacramento area
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to the capital of california i almost
4:32
lived in rockville we are different than
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l.a
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do you know where i almost live i work
4:37
in rocklin oh i work in rockland all the
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time
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so yeah so i almost got poached
4:44
by pool supply world you know them
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yes they're no longer a thing because
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they got bought by leslie's but i was
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like
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this close it's not not
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it's a little close so rocklin is really
4:59
a nice area i was i was looking forward
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to it it's really booming mm-hmm yeah
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it's really booming it's growing really
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fast
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so i predominantly work out there
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roseville lincoln that's where i'm the
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busiest because houses are buildings
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they're just doing it so fast and
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everybody wants a pool and it's like
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okay whatever wherever you want me to go
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if you pay me i'll go yeah i do warranty
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for hayward and i'll travel i'll go to
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chico i'll go to casserville i'll go to
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i own i'll go the bay area if they want
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me to wherever you pay me i'll go sweet
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so
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but yeah that's that's my background
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grew up in it didn't want to do it got
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sucked into it i have this theory either
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you get sucked in
5:42
and you can never get out or you don't
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last very long oh i
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yes it's like you're you're a college
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kid you come in for a bit and you're
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gone right or you are in it for i mean
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like i'm a lifer it's just that's been
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it's my whole life i'm 30
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i will be 39 in like a week
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and that is that is like it's been i've
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been pools my whole life and so i i
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don't know and i even i chose it like
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it's it i got sucked into it as a kid
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but then i was like well i'm just gonna
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parlay this into my thing and now it's
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like my thing and and
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i i pushed it that way so
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yeah that's uh well you're doing a great
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job thank you
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because i like i said i love your videos
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and they're very i like that they're not
6:27
too long they're they're enough to get
6:30
you your attention and listen and give
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you the information
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so
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i'm hey
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however you can find what makes you
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happy in your profession i think is key
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because you're going to be stuck in it
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for your life
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so make sure you love it
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would you say that you you like the
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online feel better than you did when you
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were
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i guess you could call it in the field
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yeah i did a little field work so i
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wouldn't say like i'll be honest like i
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was mostly retail boy right i'm that's
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where most of my experience comes from
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but did run a service department for a
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bit i did have to go out and like
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install safety covers and and fix pumps
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and stuff like that for for
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you know when when things got bad when
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customers were unhappy i'm like all
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right let me go out and
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smooth things over but
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where i am now i don't know i just
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always felt like in the from the retail
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side of thing like i just had you know
7:25
the way i talk about it is this weird
7:28
sense of power being a young
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kid
7:31
and
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your friend's parents coming into your
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store because i was living in a small
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town right in in south jersey
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and
7:39
my friend's parents would come ask me
7:41
for advice as like a 14 13 year old you
7:45
know it's like that's a weird that's a
7:47
lot of power
7:48
you know so
7:50
and i i actively like now i'd rejected
7:53
authority i didn't go to college because
7:54
i'm like wait a minute these people are
7:56
freaking idiots like i'm
7:58
i'm i'm the smart guy in the room so
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yes it's a weird power trip but i i
8:03
basically was like
8:05
it wasn't like i was looking for an
8:07
opportunity and like i was like oh no
8:08
one's talking about pool stuff online
8:10
it was just like i know about this thing
8:13
like i it was my job and then i knew
8:15
about website design because i was i was
8:18
in a band as you can tell by the
8:20
background of my
8:21
video there's a bunch of guitars on the
8:23
wall
8:24
and i was in a band and we couldn't
8:26
afford a website designer so i just
8:27
learned how to design websites and then
8:29
i was like oh what if i took the pool
8:31
thing that i do during my day job and
8:34
married it with my night job essentially
8:36
and that was kind of how it came about
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okay yeah well i think that's a great
8:41
idea especially since
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you know probably at that time there
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really wasn't much for homeowners to
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have as a resource to help them with
8:47
their pool like we're 2004
8:50
so it's like barely the internet
8:52
because was like internet was maybe 10
8:54
years old
8:56
back when we had the flip phones and you
8:58
had to push six buttons to navigate the
9:00
internet if you could even get on we had
9:03
snake and that was like that was the
9:05
that was the that was the uh big game at
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the time yeah
9:09
green screens and blue screens that was
9:11
it
9:12
[Laughter]
9:14
so you figured out there was a need for
9:17
for something you would enjoy doing and
9:19
obviously educating people is a key
9:21
thing
9:22
would you say that that's what's going
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to really help people when it comes to
9:26
care of their pool
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or
9:29
do you think that there's other things
9:32
that are key to
9:34
make things successful you know
9:37
i like to think that education is key i
9:39
i moved into this house
9:41
and there was two existing ponds
9:44
so i would you would think like oh i'm
9:46
in i'm in the pool business like i got
9:48
ponds
9:49
i i don't i don't understand i'm like
9:52
i'm so confused and there's no online
9:54
resource that really tells me what's up
9:57
and there are pawn you know i hired upon
10:00
service to come out and like take care
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of it
10:03
and even that like sometimes they're
10:04
confused and so
10:06
i don't know i i kind of feel like
10:08
education is important but it's really
10:11
like if somebody were to tell me
10:14
exactly what to do
10:16
you know every like hey every tuesday
10:18
you need to do this
10:20
and i put it in a calendar and i was
10:21
just diligent about doing that thing
10:23
that is i think what would be super
10:25
helpful for me and the same thing
10:27
applies i think to pool care which is
10:29
like if you could just give somebody a
10:31
recipe that they could follow and tell
10:33
them exactly when to do things and how
10:37
then they'll actually you know hopefully
10:38
they'll do it and if they don't they'll
10:39
suffer the consequences of that and
10:40
that's you know when you need help but
10:42
other than that like i think
10:44
it isn't just education i think a lot of
10:46
people
10:48
they don't like especially like
10:50
in like myself with the ponds and it's
10:52
my only analogy i have
10:54
i don't want to be an algae chemist i
10:56
don't want to know how it's grown i
10:57
don't want to be
10:59
this like
11:00
biochemist person who understands it and
11:02
goes like oh i'm going to invent my own
11:04
thing just tell me what to add when to
11:06
add it and i will add it you know as
11:08
simple as that and so that is my
11:10
approach to education in the pool
11:11
industry is just to be like just tell me
11:14
what to do when i just want to friggin
11:16
swim in it i don't really want to
11:19
i don't want to be
11:20
you guys i want to be
11:22
like whatever i do for a living you know
11:24
as the homeowner and i just want my pool
11:26
clear so that my you know kids and my
11:28
significant other are not mad now do you
11:31
find that you have more people trying to
11:33
learn how to
11:34
take care of their own pool especially
11:36
when there's like a recession or a
11:38
economic crisis i mean the pandemic was
11:42
huge for i believe all of us right like
11:44
that wasn't like we as a pool industry i
11:47
don't think we saw that since 2004
11:49
and
11:51
maybe 2008.
11:52
i think
11:53
and it's so funny because so many pools
11:56
were
11:57
you know and i don't know as like a
11:58
service company no
12:00
i don't think service companies are out
12:01
there like cleaning in text pools and
12:04
and stock tank pools and whatever else
12:06
people are building nowadays i refuse to
12:08
do above ground pools oh just in general
12:11
like yeah i mean that makes sense well
12:13
most of the time they don't even have
12:14
like the right filter and pump so i i
12:17
can't keep up with it so
12:19
instead of wasting my time on theirs i
12:21
just sorry that's not my cup of tea yeah
12:25
not my bag baby as uh
12:27
to quote
12:28
a movie but yeah i i that makes so much
12:30
sense because
12:32
i wouldn't want to do that either and
12:35
i think
12:36
i mean obviously like so many people got
12:38
pools during the pandemic right and
12:41
business was good
12:43
now they i feel like this year everyone
12:45
went on vacation
12:47
and
12:48
perhaps neglected the pool a little bit
12:50
but it's all going to come back and i
12:52
don't know i don't know what the what
12:54
the future holds for for the industry i
12:56
think it's good i think it's good no
12:58
matter what though
12:59
like i think we're i think we're on a
13:02
upward trend i think that the pool
13:05
industry is kind of a safe industry
13:07
compared to other
13:09
industries yeah that unfortunately
13:12
there's we're always going to need to
13:14
help them take care of their pools and
13:16
it's you with your website where you can
13:18
give them videos or if it's us actually
13:20
going out there
13:22
well what's interesting about it too is
13:23
that if there's a turnover right because
13:25
like
13:26
you know you might sell a pool
13:28
and then the gen z people are going to
13:30
come up and they're going to just
13:32
move into these homes with pools and
13:34
they're going to be internet savvy which
13:36
are you know the people that i were i
13:37
was dealing with weren't absolutely not
13:40
right like the fact that our youtube
13:42
channel even grew at all is surprising
13:44
because like my dad doesn't know that
13:45
you can subscribe to other videos like
13:47
he doesn't you know know that that's
13:49
possible so
13:50
yeah it's i think it's it's funny
13:52
because it is a it's an industry because
13:54
when you build a pool it's it's a cement
13:56
block in the ground it's not going
13:58
anywhere unless you fill it in which i
14:00
mean who wants to fill in the pool i i
14:02
don't know you have to be a crazy person
14:04
but i think it is a safe industry and
14:06
and
14:07
it is
14:09
i mean i don't know if if you agree with
14:10
this at all but i i believe it's also
14:12
like kind of stuck in a weird time zone
14:16
too it's like it's not so how many
14:18
subscribers do you have on youtube
14:22
well let's start with 157 000.
14:26
oh wow yeah we got a little plaque now
14:29
it's fun it was a fun day
14:32
uh do you find that there are many
14:34
homeowners or a mixture of professionals
14:37
at home it is mostly homeowners but
14:40
there is an audience of professionals
14:44
but i don't know how to i don't know
14:45
like you know just get comments here and
14:46
there so i don't have them segmented out
14:48
to talk to them specifically but you're
14:50
they're there absolutely yeah
14:53
okay that's great and then your website
14:55
how many subscribers
14:56
during the peak months for us right like
14:59
june or may june july we get about
15:02
a million visitors a month
15:05
and then our email list is about a
15:07
hundred thousand
15:09
yeah wow i'm just trying to get a
15:11
thousand followers on instagram we just
15:14
we just passed it like instagram is
15:16
totally new to us and and
15:19
yeah we i just hired we're a family
15:20
business so we just hired uh we
15:23
my wife and i hired my brother so he's
15:26
doing our instagram account
15:28
yeah
15:29
hey as long as he can keep up with this
15:31
yeah we're and like i said we're out
15:32
this week shooting video you know with
15:35
our phones we got a drone i got
15:38
you know all this like equipment out
15:39
there at the airbnb we had to rent
15:41
because the house we moved into doesn't
15:42
have a pool so i'm like
15:44
all right and we live in colorado
15:46
there's
15:47
very little pools here but not a lot you
15:49
could have you could have done this
15:51
there was at the swimly website where
15:53
you can rent a pool you you would think
15:55
except there are none
15:58
in colorado
16:01
yeah you would think
16:03
great name and i and i'm saying that
16:05
very sarcastically that's the it's the
16:08
it's a hilariously bad name
16:12
so i hear you have a rap video is this
16:14
about pools or
16:16
yeah i did that
16:19
i think back in 2000
16:23
maybe
16:24
yeah i did a rap video
16:26
oh my god so i thought
16:30
like
16:32
i have this you know i have this website
16:34
or whatever i also like like doing
16:37
parody rap stuff for fun you know for
16:40
like for my friends yeah and i have this
16:42
concept that i've came up with called
16:44
passion mashing which is like take two
16:46
things that you're good at put them
16:48
together and just see what comes out
16:50
right like if you like two weird things
16:52
and i thought let me just try it
16:55
it's silly
16:56
and it was and it did pretty well in
16:58
like within the industry like not no
17:00
homeowner gave any
17:03
any any thought to it but like the
17:04
industry was like wow that was actually
17:06
pretty catchy i was surprised that it
17:08
was going to be good
17:10
you know so
17:11
that's nice to hear but yeah like
17:13
that was a long time ago and it's still
17:15
up it's still up this little thing hey
17:18
you want to do one right now for us oh
17:20
my god i do not
17:22
i do not
17:24
come on i have not had enough
17:27
i have not had enough alcohol tonight
17:30
down that one and we still got more time
17:33
to go so we have enough for you to do a
17:35
couple more you know it took okay seven
17:37
years it took me seven years to write
17:39
that song it's it's it's one it's one
17:41
word one syllable a day it's for it's
17:44
for it takes forever
17:47
i'm not drake i'm not a freestyle rapper
17:49
i can't do this i'm not i'm white
17:52
[Laughter]
17:55
oh
17:56
so
17:58
i i guess eminem like i said i've seen a
18:00
lot of your stuff
18:01
well yeah but jack harlow his is a
18:04
little bit different than they're all
18:06
right they all they all write and i am
18:08
very uh i i also have to write i can't
18:11
just do this
18:12
off the top of my head well
18:15
thank you matt for coming and talking
18:17
with me today
18:18
i think there's a lot of information and
18:20
i really do think that
18:22
your site and social media would be
18:25
great for any pool professional and
18:27
homeowner
18:28
if any of you want to get a hold of him
18:31
go to
18:32
swimuniversity.com if you scroll all the
18:34
way to the bottom of the page you can
18:36
find all of his links so he has youtube
18:39
instagram facebook all of those and then
18:43
if you like us rate us we really would
18:46
love to know how you like the show can
18:48
advice on spotify apple and all your
18:50
favorite streaming sites
18:52
and if you have any questions you would
18:55
like us to talk about or subjects please
18:57
let us know so go to talkingpools
19:00
gmail.com or direct message us or
19:04
hit up any of our social media on that
19:06
you can
19:07
have a great tuesday and we will talk to
19:10
you soon