Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 12:00
Yeah. No, I love the value proposition there. I’ll have to send you. I did an interview with one of the founders of Beatbox Beverages. That was an interesting interview with Amy.
Laura Markewicz: 12:10
Yeah, she is a rock star. Yes.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 12:13
But awesome. Thanks for that, RJ. Let’s talk about your company, what you do, and then some of your favorite tech software tools.
RJ Pire: 12:22
Absolutely. So yeah, I’m RJ, I’m the Founder of Service ID. We help water utilities find and remove lead faster and cheaper. So, you know, most people are familiar with lead as a result of Flint, Michigan, the EPA updated some of their requirements for water utilities coming out of that. And now they have to go kind of go back and identify pipes and materials that they’ve never owned. So they they’ve never kept track of. And we’re able to do that with simple computer vision. Image based. Recognition. So all they have to do is have a homeowner take a picture of of. The pipe coming into their house. And we can take care of that for them. The traditional kind of status quo is kind of like waiting for a cable guy. You know, they’ve got to send somebody out. You got to be at home between 12 and 4.
It’s kind of a it’s a big hassle for, for everybody.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 13:12
The owners take a picture and then. That alerts the utility the company that they need to do something like.
RJ Pire: 13:18
Yes.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 13:19
So a buyer. The utility company.
RJ Pire: 13:21
Correct. Yeah. The buyers the utility company and and ultimately this.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 13:25
This this problem freaks me out. I’ll be honest with you. Like, actually, I feel like the headline should be do you not want your, the people in your area to die, I mean, or something like that, you know, because actually I had a relative. This just happened. I don’t even know how they discovered it, but they discovered there was a high level of lead in their water and it is undetectable. I mean, you’re just drinking it, right? And so this is a issue. How do you get adoption of because you want all the households to start taking pictures and sending it to the utility companies, I imagine, right.
RJ Pire: 14:00
Yeah. I mean, ultimately it starts with with the utility engaging the customers. We really want to empower them to to do that. You know, they’ve tried surveys. They get.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 14:09
So is this an app like how do people download the app on their phone or what.
RJ Pire: 14:12
It’s it’s a web app. Oh yeah. It’s a web app. So they. But you know again we we contract with the utility. So the utility will send a letter to the homeowner. The homeowner can scan a QR code or they want to send an email with a or a text message, however they want to link to the web app. And then, you know, walk through the steps, take a quick picture, and you know they have peace of mind knowing what it is. And on the back end, the utility has the information they need to be compliant from a regulatory standpoint.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 14:41
So I’m in my house. Where do I go to take a picture? And then I just go to your website, get getserviceid.com and upload it. Yeah, I’m going to do this today.
RJ Pire: 14:53
Yeah.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 14:53
I want to be drinking lead.
RJ Pire: 14:55
So it’s you’re going to find it in your basement.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 14:57
And like actually the concern is also like we stop like with the dog too. Like we were, you know, we have filtered water or whatever, but the, the pets, we were just going in the faucet like, I’m not trying to kill my pet, like going to the faucet. And, you know, that’s what the water we’re using for the dog. And I’m like, wait, I don’t want to kill the like. We need to start using filtered water. When I heard that story of one of our family members. So. So yeah. Anyways, keep going. So where do I go?
RJ Pire: 15:25
Yeah, you know it really. We don’t have it open and available for everybody to use yet. You know, we’re, we’re moving in that direction to allow you know people to just know and you know, utilize it on our website. But for now.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 15:38
So I can’t go on there and upload a picture.
RJ Pire: 15:41
I’ll I’ll get you a link. We can.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 15:42
Okay. For now, the utility companies have access.
RJ Pire: 15:47
Yep, yep. The utilities.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 15:48
I feel like this would spread like wildfire if, like, people could just do it. You know, it freaks people like that unknown thing. Like, hey, have you taken a picture of your. You could be drinking lead right now. Like, everyone go like the next door. I don’t know that I don’t use it that much, but some one one mom post a next door. The whole neighborhood is going to be taking pictures of their pipes and sending it.
RJ Pire: 16:10
Yeah, yeah. Well, we we’d love nothing more. I mean, at the end of the day, you know, I’m a recovering regulator. I spent nearly a decade.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 16:17
I was going to say, this is kind of a random business here. Yeah.
RJ Pire: 16:20
And, you know, it just got to the point where we needed simpler and more cost effective solutions because I, you know, to your point, I don’t I don’t want people drinking this and particularly lead is is has major impacts on on children. And at the end of the day that’s that’s really our mission is to ensure that every family has access to clean, safe drinking water.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 16:43
Yeah, actually it’s funny. Yeah, there’s so many use cases for this. We we run a podcast for a property management company. Shout out to Matt Zalk and Key Renter. But like all of their property, you know like just a one to many approach for that that this is great. So we’ll get to the software tech and I can talk about Service ID. You’ll have to let me know when it’s when anyone could do it. And we’ll spread the word. But some of your favorite software tech tools, Chrome extensions, whatever.
RJ Pire: 17:13
Yeah, I mean, we use a lot in the the Microsoft Azure suite. It’s great for for data analytics and providing, you know, on the back end some, some really useful tools to help water utilities, you know, kind of target key areas where they may, may more likely find lead or, or at least focus, you know, so that they can, you know, they get more federal and state dollars coming in if, if they have a higher percentage of certain things, so help them do that. Also been doing a lot of work with Apollo as a lead generation and an outreach tool.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 17:48
Which is who do you reach out to at the utility companies because there’s so many staff members?
RJ Pire: 17:53
Yeah. You know, it kind of varies. You know, it’s easy to go to the top in terms of contacting utility managers, but certainly water distribution teams and, and program managers that are running the lead programs for utilities are all great places to start.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 18:11
Yeah. Apollo’s cool. What’s your outreach message like? What do you say?
RJ Pire: 18:16
Yeah. I mean really it’s I want to save them time and money at the end of the day, you know? So in the case of our pilot utility, we had a response rate greater than 50%. To a survey or to, to a single letter, you know, so really utilities can move faster. They can get the lead out faster and we do it significantly cheaper than the status quo.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 18:44
Okay, nice. And I see you, Squarespace. You like Squarespace for website okay. We’ll probably do rapid fire favorite books or podcasts. Right. So Laura Leslie get ready. But I want to get to Bradley. Bradley, let’s go with you. Talk about your company. What you do.
We go way back. I think we our first meeting was playing horse on the playgrounds of Chicago. So absolutely. I won’t say who won, but talk about Mumbies, I will.
Bradley Will: 19:20
It’s you. You’re just like a horse legend. I don’t know how you do it, but yeah. Mumbies. We make natural chews and treats for dogs that support rescues and shelters from very simple ingredients. And Yeah. That’s it.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 19:37
What was the idea behind this?
Bradley Will: 19:41
I have dogs, and they would love chewing on sticks. No matter what toys I would buy them. They would rip them apart. Big, aggressive rubber toys. They rip them apart in seconds, and then they would go in the yard. After you spend all that money and chew on sticks. And it’s like letting a dog be a dog. And then I learned about coffee wood and how it’s highly resistant to cracking and splintering from the actual coffee tree. And then I gave some to my dogs. They went crazy for it. It was a little safer alternative.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 20:15
And and because if they use sticks or whatever could splinter and like, you know, injure their stomach and things like that.
Bradley Will: 20:23
Yeah. And have toxins, you know, mold, you know, different things growing on them. If you find a random stick in the yard.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 20:29
Oh, yeah, they’re gross.
Bradley Will: 20:31
Or other stuff.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 20:32
Like my kids will be, like, roasting marshmallow, like s’mores. I’m like, oh, there’s like green stuff on that thing. Like, why are you why are you using that? Don’t let your dog eat it. Right?
Bradley Will: 20:41
Yeah, yeah. And you know, a lot most of what dominates the market is like plastic chews. And we’re very aware of it as people. You know the microplastics 100% studies coming out and but you know as you mentioned earlier about lead with dogs. Dogs kind of get put you know.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 21:02
That’s a great point. Like all these shooters like made of plastic.
Bradley Will: 21:06
Yeah. So microplastics you know, everywhere. So just something that’s a natural alternative. And then we make something out of, you know, so the brown rope that’s made of the husk of a coconut, that’s the outer fiber. Just.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 21:22
Yeah, I see that coconut like.
Bradley Will: 21:24
Yeah. Plush toy.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 21:25
It’s like the, the craze is coconut water for people and then coconut ropes for, for dogs.
Bradley Will: 21:31
Tear em up.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 21:32
I love it. What are the popular products here? Like what’s some of the bestsellers?
Bradley Will: 21:37
The original chew. It’s just our stick. I mean that, you know, dogs, they go crazy for it. And then the root chew. That’s a little bit more dense. It’s for the more aggressive chewers. And then the rings. The balls. The bison liver. It’s all good.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 21:58
What is the bite? What do. Is it just for treats or what’s the. The bison.
Bradley Will: 22:02
Yeah. Just single ingredient bison liver. Why choose bison liver? It’s just one of the liver. Is one of the the best superfoods, the most nutrient dense foods. You can see it for humans, the packing, you know, freeze dried liver into pills for people to take. And the reason being is it’s packed with vitamins and minerals that are naturally occurring. So it’s like a powerhouse food. So it’s good for dogs. Give them as a treat.
Give them a couple here and there.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 22:30
So your favorite software. I know you’re very experienced in this realm. Software, tech tools that you like.
Bradley Will: 22:38
I am not a tech. I’m an online guy, so not a tech person. So this is Shopify from Shopify standpoint. You know, GemPages has been really good in building sections on the fly. And then UpCart has been really good as far as like being able to upsell in the checkout experience and reward people FOMO for, you know, like purchase behavior.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 23:12
FOMO or what is it?
Bradley Will: 23:14
FOMO has been really helpful. And then what’s really interesting is the audience who’s not on this but is in our cohort a generator. He kind of turned me on to Claude. For us, just a lot of like I would use ChatGPT for everyday stuff, but Claude has been really interesting and got me signed up on a max plan. And so using Claude for writing prompts to give to other AI tools. And then he got me to bolt, which is really interesting because I was trying to do it.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 23:51
Bolt apps, like because I know bolt the bolt apps. Okay.
Bradley Will: 23:55
Yeah. To like code certain things that I can’t go out there and find, you know, like in the Shopify store for like an app or something like that. And you’re like, it’s like frustrating, right? Like this should be easy. And then he turned me on a boat. He’s like, hey, yeah, it’s actually is easy. You can build anything. And and so I’ve been prototyping some, you know, different features and applications to help facilitate sales with Mumbies. So those two I really like.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 24:28
Yeah. Any other Laura Leslie. Any other Shopify plugins that that you like are thought of or those those most of them.
Laura Markewicz: 24:38
I was taking notes on that Upcart and FOMO. I’m gonna have to look into that. Bradley. Now.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 24:43
Someone I was talking to a fulfillment company yesterday and they mentioned a few and I can’t remember what they were, but it was like saving, like for for shipping fast or something like that. But let’s get to just rapid fire books. It could be books, podcasts, some of the things that you’ve turned to throughout the years that are some of your favorites. I’ll just go down. Bradley, I know you said you have you have a book or two, so go ahead. What were some of your favorites?
Bradley Will: 25:14
I mean, my for me personally, in the past year, I, I read the Bible and that’s been the most, you.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 25:22
Know, that’s probably the most commonly mentioned one. And someone was saying they. Yeah, one of them there was like I had seven people on and two of them were like, I, they subscribe to some Bible app and it like sends them an excerpt every day. And if you do read it every day, then you’re basically reading the entire thing in a year or something like that. So yeah, everyone was like, oh, I did not expect that one to come up. But I’m asking this question, but.
Bradley Will: 25:47
You know me, I’m a I’m a big book guy. And then, you know, I kind of set out a, you know, I want to read cover to cover, just, you know, read and understand. But from a business, you know, side of things. One book that’s been really interesting, like, what do I go back to a lot Never Split the Difference for Chris Voss because there’s some little things in there that I use almost daily. And as a hostage negotiator, it’s getting to the no, not the yes. So anybody can kind of look that up. But you know, I.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 26:21
Have a full episode with them actually. If people want to check it out, they want the Cliff notes version of the book. It’s I think maybe it was an hour. I got a good picture on YouTube right there. But yeah, he’s a master. He’s. If everyone’s checked out. Masterclass. Steph Curry teaches basketball. Serena Williams teaches tennis. Chris Voss is teaching negotiation on Masterclass. So that’s a great one. Any others?
Bradley Will: 26:50
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield that’s one I’ve listened to over and over and over again on audiobook.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 26:56
Okay.
Bradley Will: 26:58
But those two are all right.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 26:59
Thanks, Laura. What about you? Any interesting books?
Laura Markewicz: 27:04
Okay. The one I’m the one I always go back to is Contagious by Jonah Berger. It’s basically like the blueprint for building a brand people can’t stop talking about. And people always talk about how virality is like luck. Like, it’s it’s luck, not a strategy. But he really approaches that in a scientific way? Because he is a PhD academic and there are tangible there’s actually if you just look at Google, the contagious there’s there’s probably a graphic that outlines the the core approaches to making your brand stick. I always go back to that when I’m writing copy, when I’m identifying campaigns that we want to lean into, I’m obsessed.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 27:58
No, I love it. Yeah, he’s got several books here. I’ve. I have not heard of magic words. Looks.
Maybe it’s his newest one.
Laura Markewicz: 28:04
That must be I haven’t either.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 28:07
All right. Cool, I love it. Thanks for mentioning that.
Laura Markewicz: 28:10
Yeah.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 28:11
Leslie, what about you? Books, podcasts?
Leslie Danford: 28:14
I have a.
Laura Markewicz: 28:15
Couple.
Leslie Danford: 28:15
I love the Bible reference. I actually did the whole Bible two years ago. I think since being an entrepreneur like this, this grounding stuff is so important. And I just started It 365 tau like tau kind of meditations every day. And I find it so helpful because you can get so stressed and caught up in the in the grind. But I had an investor I have I have two other books. One of them is like more macro. I had an investor send this to me. It’s called the Go Giver.
Bradley Will: 28:42
That’s a great one.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 28:43
Yeah.
Leslie Danford: 28:44
Super small, but it’s like about it’s like a, a story about this guy who’s trying to go be successful. And he meets this guy who kind of like teaches him all these lessons through stories. But basically, in the end, it’s about giving, like you kind of get the more that you give. And I really liked it. It was like really easy to read and just like very inspiring.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 29:05
And then Bob Burg is also his books are some of the most mentioned. I had him on twice. He talked about the go giver, and then he talked about adversaries into allies when people over without manipulation. So that’s great. What was the other one you.
Leslie Danford: 29:19
Writing that down and then the other one that came to mind, Laura, you recommended, I think, the Ramping Your Brand. I listened to that one on audio and it was I don’t I’m trying to remember the name of the author.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 29:32
Look it up.
Laura Markewicz: 29:33
He’s goofy.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 29:33
James Richardson.
Leslie Danford: 29:35
Yeah. He’s funny. He’s funny. So it’s like he’ll say things like, yeah, I know, as a founder, like, you think you’re so smart. You think your idea is so great. I was like, laughing.
Laura Markewicz: 29:44
He’s like, no one gives a crap.
Leslie Danford: 29:46
Yeah. It’s so true.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 29:47
This is it right here.
Leslie Danford: 29:48
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 29:49
That’s it. Okay.
Leslie Danford: 29:50
So it was a combination of, like, super practical, like watch outs and strategies combined with sort of like calling out these sort of founder mentalities that make no sense. So I just I laughed like, many times during. I thought it was really good.
!no name provided!: 30:05
Love it.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 30:06
No thanks for that. RJ, what about you?
RJ Pire: 30:10
Yeah, I just finished The Mom Test by Rob Fitzpatrick. I kind of to. Leslie, it gets to Leslie’s last point here that, you know, I, I think a lot of customers lie to you and say. Yeah, that’s a great idea. And they just want to get off the call or whatever. So kind of some tips and strategies to to work around that which I enjoyed. I’ve, I’ve read multiple times now Dale Carnegie’s You know.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 30:37
How To How to Win Friends and Influence People.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 30:39
That’s classic I love that.
RJ Pire: 30:40
Yeah. Just every time I read it I pick something else new and.
Laura Markewicz: 30:44
How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. Speaking of founder stress, it’s my go to.
RJ Pire: 30:51
And then, you know, just just getting into to David Goggins book. I took up ultra running this year as a badass. You know, I think I think all founders should, should run at least one ultra. It teaches teaches.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 31:07
You ultra considered more than like 30-50 miles or what’s what’s considered ultra well.
RJ Pire: 31:13
As soon as you’re above a marathon, it’s technically an ultra okay.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 31:16
So I’ll run like 26.3. Yeah, like I just did an ultra.
RJ Pire: 31:21
Yeah. So I ran my first hundred this year.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 31:24
Wow. That’s wild. I think that’s because you don’t have lead in your water. That’s the only reason you could do.
RJ Pire: 31:29
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
Laura Markewicz: 31:32
I think it.
RJ Pire: 31:34
Teaches persistence and just I don’t know, you. You keep moving forward when when things aren’t, aren’t going great. So it’s it’s a good life skill for for all the entrepreneurs out there.
Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 31:47
No. This has been great. I, I just want to thank I know you all have to pop off in a bit, but this has been great. I appreciate you sharing your companies, your resources and this was fun. Everyone can check out more episodes of the podcast and we’ll see everyone next time.
And thanks everyone.
