Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry Joins Us On The Steve Jobs Inspired Join Up Dots Podcast
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Introducing Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry:
OriginClear Founder Riggs Eckelberry is today;s guest on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots Podcast.
He is the founder and CEO of the innovative water technology company, OriginClear, which is delivering water solutions for industrial customers worldwide.
OriginClear has developed and licensed an invention that treats industrial and agricultural waste water with very little energy, and no chemicals.
And now, industrial users can treat their water right where they use it, using prepackaged “point of use” water treatment systems that have an amazing life cycle of up to 100 years or more.
Let’s get things straight as Riggs Eckelberry doesn’t look like a bomb-thrower.
And yet, he’s driving the disruption of a trillion-dollar industry that has fallen behind the times and is affecting the health of millions.
That industry is Big Water.
Simply, those billion-dollar centralized water systems aren’t coping with demand, and water quality is getting worse.
The answer?
Instant InfrastructureTM.
How The Dots Joined For Riggs
Businesses are doing their own water treatment, using modular, prefabricated systems that are trucked right on site.
They get better water quality, lower rates through recycling, and even improved environmental grades!
Ten years after launching public company OriginClear, Riggs and his team are offering those truck-in-place modular systems in the USA, while licensees are building products internationally using OriginClear’s low-energy, chemical-free innovation.
Riggs Eckelberry is uniquely qualified to ride the huge wave of do-it-yourself water treatment that is transforming an industry, having learned management in the nonprofit space, captained oceangoing ships, and achieved several tech successes during the dot-com boom.
So does he look back and think wow I have tackled something bigger than I could have possibly dreamt off?
And would he recommend people following suit and start their own business?
Well lets find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Riggs Eckelberry.
Show Highlights
During the show we discussed such weighty subjects with Riggs Eckelberry such as:
How he has managed to overcome the impostor syndrome that so many people struggling with time and time again.
Riggs shares his belief that one of his talents is seeing the obvious and looking for the simplest way through any problem.
We discuss the series of things that need to occur to truly get momentum in a business and life. These things take to build, so let it happen without stress.
And lastly…….
Why it is so important to build a team that can make the difference to your business potential. You can’t do it on your own.
How To Connect With Riggs Eckelberry:
Return To The Top Of Riggs Eckelberry
If you enjoyed this episode with Riggs Eckelberry, why not check out other inspirational chat with Felicity Aston, Dan Lok, and the amazing Shawn Stevenson
You can also check our extensive podcast archive by clicking here – enjoy
Interview Transcription Of Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry Interview
David Ralph [0:01]
Once upon a time, there was a guy with a dream, a dream to teach jobs for himself online and have a kick ass life working when he wanted him where he wanted across the world. Little did he know that dream would lead him into a world of struggle, burnout and debt. Until he found the magic ingredient and knows drunk was became a thing of the past, of course, was bad person. And now My dream is to make things happen to you. Welcome to Join Up Dots.
Intro [0:31]
When we’re young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be but somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling. Join Up Dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here’s your host live from the back of his garden in the UK. David Ralph.
David Ralph [0:55]
Yes, hello there. Good morning, friends. Good morning friends and thank you so much. being here with us on the Join Up Dots podcast six years and counting, and I still look like a baby not a bad place. Well, we try to bring you many different types of guests doing I’ve entreprenuer stuff adventure stuff, or building stuff that’s going to change people’s lives. And today’s guest is certainly a guest that falls into that latter category. He is the founder and CEO of the innovative water technology company Aventine clear, which is delivering water solutions for industrial customers worldwide. Now origin clear was developed and licenced and invention that treats industrial and agricultural waste water with very little energy and no chemicals. And now, industrial users can treat their water right where they use it using pre packaged point of use water treatment systems that have an amazing life cycle of up to 100 years or more. That let’s let’s get things straight. Let’s get things straight listeners. This guy doesn’t look like a bomb thrower. And yet he Driving the disruption of a trillion dollar industry that has fallen behind the times and is infecting the health of millions that industry is big water. Simply those billion dollar centralised water systems aren’t coping with demand and water quality is getting worse, but the answer instant infrastructure. Now businesses are doing their own water treatment using modular prefabricated systems that are tucked right on site and they get better water quality, lower rates for recycling and even improved environmental grades. Now 10 years after launching the public company origin clear our guests and his team are offering those tracking place modular systems in the USA while I scenes are building products internationally, using their low energy chemical free innovation is uniquely qualified to ride the huge wave of do it yourself waters treatment. So does does he sort of look back and think Well, actually, I’ve tackled something bigger than I could have possibly drempt over here. And what do you recommend people following suit and start their own business? Wherever in the water business or elsewhere? Well, let’s find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Mr. Riggs Eckelberry.
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [3:17]
How are you? David, I’m pleased to be here. And thank you for the wonderful introduction.
David Ralph [3:22]
Hey, it’s lovely to have you here. Because to be honest, I don’t know anything. After 2000 plus shows I’m pretty clued up on what people are going to talk to me about. But something like this. First of all, I think to myself, this is a bigger ask. This is something that is not somebody sitting in their underpants in their bedroom with a laptop, starting as a small startup. This is something that will probably not most people have their feet and think I don’t even know where to start where you like that.
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [3:52]
Thanks. Yes. Well, you know, it’s one of the things that in fact, I was getting asked last night on a zoom I was having with our And partner, what is your background and water? And I said, Well, actually none. And, of course that that is the story of my life is daring to do things that I knew nothing about and of course learning on the job.
David Ralph [4:13]
So why we told time and time again about the imposter syndrome and I’m sure you you know it as well as everyone, where you sit there thinking, I can’t do that, you know, I’ve never done that. How have you overcome that vein? Or if that’s your sort of staple position, or taking on things that you’ve got no knowledge in?
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [4:34]
Well, I really, I made a virtue of my faults and fact, in the.com, I trademarked type of marketing, mistake based marketing, which basically said, Look, you go out, throw it out there, and then fix it fast. And I think that a lot in life can be done that way. In other words, jump in, see what happens now. You know, happened to be a rower. I’ve rode you know, singles, quads, fours and eights, you know and, and there’s a lot of basics to be had, you can’t just jump in and start throwing a skull at your you’re going to flip. So I think it’s all about having some good basics in place. I was really, really, really lucky that my parents gave me a European education. So I actually know a couple things. And as a result, I’m able to sort of pull things off until I get my act together.
David Ralph [5:31]
Now, so you kind of accept that starting ugly is the way to go. It’s not about perfection. It’s not about sexiness. It’s about getting out there. Learn from your thoughts and then pivot.
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [5:44]
Yes, and one thing that I’ve really learned recently I was doing I was getting some, you know, it’s always good to get help from other people and I was getting some executive help and, and I realised that it’s all very well to jump into some And go for it. But there’s also something called ready fire aim. And so I realised that you know what? It’s okay to retain that go for it attitude, but at the same time to put a little bit of thought into which way your gun is pointed. So that’s, that’s the modifier that I’ve learned this year in my 67th year,
David Ralph [6:20]
right? Well, I’m going to throw something at you because if you’re going into something that you don’t know anything about, how do you know where to point your gun?
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [6:29]
That’s very true. Well, there’s a couple things first of all, is is know how to see the obvious right? When I started it firm in the 80s in New York City, in front of me were people who were still using these old Ledger’s called safeguard Ledger’s, and you’d, you’d bear down really hard and would make a copy and that was kind of how you made the mess master ledger, and they were ready to upgrade and so I really just stuck with, what do I see in front of me, I see somebody who’s got a business process. And then I would investigate the simplest possible solution for their problems. And the guy who inherited that business is, he’s a millionaire today. He’s continued that process. So I think that that it, it really is good to observe the obvious, see what’s in front of you and stick with that.
David Ralph [7:22]
And I think simplicity is key. I try to strip back my business time and time again, to literally get it to the point of I speak, somebody connects with me, I talked to them, and then we take it from there, but there’s not that much more. And I know people that have email marketing flying off automatically. It’s just like, just before you I was supposed to be on another guy’s podcast, and he cancelled at the very last minute, and then I got an email that said, David, thank you for being on my show. We had such fun talking to you and You know, I haven’t spoken to him. And I thought, This is when it’s a bit complicated when you’ve got systems going left, right and centre. But you know, you don’t really know what’s happening.
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [8:10]
Well, that’s so true. And in fact, I believe that what matters the most is to really care about the other person. And for example, I, you know, I send out a newsletter to 12,000 people, and they can reply to me then other words, it’s not one of those no reply type emails. The replies go to me, and I will answer them now. You know, it’s amazing that so many so few people do it and it’s not like you’ll get 2000 emails, but the emails that you do get would often would be lost in the cracks. And I think it’s really important to keep that that thing. And you know, I David, if I may quote, something I saw last night late last night, Marc Benioff was was interviewed. He’s the CEO and founder of Salesforce. com and he He was in a bad place and Steve Jobs helped him. And here he Steve said in the quote is no great innovation and business ever happens in a vacuum. A company that wants to achieve true scale, he says, must seek innovation beyond its own four walls and tap into the entire universe of knowledge and creativity. That sounds really really, you know, touchy feely, but it’s true. You’ve got to be willing to talk to that person and get and get knowledge from others. Right?
David Ralph [9:30]
Well, Jobs was the master of going in to other people’s companies, and basically nicking what you saw. You know, it wasn’t only touchy feely, he was he
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [9:42]
was. Now he was very direct in that respect. And he was kind of a dick, if I may say, so. I don’t know if this is for a kiddie show. But nonetheless, he was not a nice guy. But he was famous. And one of the things that I really admired about him that I tried to emulate his there was this thing called Steve Jobs time when developers say this feature, you know, the spotlight search, how long is it going to take to to develop three months? Okay, you’ve got three weeks. And this thing would get done in three weeks and people would go What just happened? The guy just walked time on me. And if you can do that trick, I think that you’re you’ve not been able, you know, to quickly laugh people. Frequently you’re able I find, to, to go you know, to laugh people and get ahead of them in the communication process, especially with emails and get ahead of them and your mistakes have lost deepen the thread far behind, I hope anyway,
David Ralph [10:38]
but we can all do that because what he’s doing Barry is tapping into Parkinson’s Law. And we all do that where we wake up late. And same thing Oh my God, I’ve got to get to an airport. And we still get there. We still managed to get the bag packed, even though we might have spent two days planning and stuff and certainly with my work, I do. wee little I set a time on everything. So because otherwise you do you just spread into the time available and you end up doing eight hours when it could be sort of like 20 minutes of work?
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [11:10]
Yes. Well, I’m famous for actually dawdling to the last minute and then rushing around. My wife knows me too well, but fortunate she’s not on this podcast,
David Ralph [11:18]
and she won’t hear this kind of rubbish. Anyway, Riggs, I promise you. So so let’s get back to origin clear then. Because this, as I say, it seems one of those things that when I read about it, and why I wanted you on the show, is I thought, yeah, I can see that there must be a problem here. But more often than not, it’s kind of other people’s problems. You know, it’s just I saw the guy the other day, and they’ve created I don’t know if you’ve seen it a straw, but you can just put into really rubbish water like a nail, and you suck up the straw and it filters it going through the process. So you can basically drink straight out of rivers, but people that are trapped in exits and stuff. And I thought to myself brilliant idea I should have thought about.
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [12:05]
Well, yes. And that really underlines the what’s what’s interesting about water. First of all, water is the great unknown, disruptive market. You know, yesterday I was watching a presentation at Tony Seba clean disruption to, to the Robinhood conference in October. And he was talking about massive disruption in energy and transportation. I won’t go into it because you know, you and I know what it is. So, but people aren’t talking about what’s happening, you know, where’s the Tesla of water? Right? Where’s the Elon Musk and I don’t pretend to be any Elon Musk. But the position is kind of vacant. And, and it’s odd because water is everywhere. It’s our life. And as I as you just in the intro, you said it’s not become a trillion dollar industry worldwide, and it’s about to double this decade. And yet, weirdly enough, 80% of the sewage in the world is never treated as All. So this trillion dollar industry is a fifth of the size it should be. And nobody seems too concerned about it. Now, your guy with the straw descending very smart, because when you try to move a huge elephant, then perhaps you just push a little bit at a time. And what he did is he took existing technology and just changed how it was packaged right. And I always think back to 1986 when I was running around New York City, and I was trying to demonstrate my software to different places in New York. And thank God Compaq came along with the luggable the luggable laptop, right, the big huge 50 pound thing with Compaq had done was they had taken existing technology and just put it in a briefcase. That’s all they did. They didn’t change anything. And yet they became a multi billion dollar company. So what we learned at origin clear was we started a dozen years ago, with this breakthrough technology and the breakthrough technology just would not get traction, it was kind of like a pelican taking off across the water flap, flap, flap, flap flap. And meanwhile, I’m funding the company funding the company. And so we, we got really good at finding the company. But we kind of were having a big problem with like, how do we move the needle? Eventually, we found out that the water industry is very, very unfriendly to big changes, for good reasons, public health, etc. But they don’t mind ways to package technology better. And that’s when in 2008, we we acquired the modular water product line with these prefab drop in place. And its existing technology that’s in a black box. And so wow water system in a box who thought it seems obvious to you and me, but it was it is a big breakthrough. And the reason it’s a big breakthrough and the reason it matters so much is let’s take for granted that we only 20% of the world is being treated in the world. The remaining 80% is going to be fixed how by giant billion dollar public works? I don’t think so. We’re we love spending money in the trillions of dollars in Middle East we don’t like spending money on infrastructure How boring right? So these billion dollar central systems are falling apart going away. What’s going to replace it? Well, just the same way that a California is not going to have a high speed rail, it’s just going to have the self driving car. People are going to take care of the problem themselves on site, and they need a simple, quick solution. Ever since that happened. We have had a big change in how we deal with our business. David, we normally we talked to these municipalities that take five years to decide something, then the event inevitably give the job to Veolia and what the hell. But now we’re talking to businesses that say, Look, I’ve got a water problem, and I’m a businessman. I don’t want this problem. I’m not in the water business. How can I make it go away? Oh, maybe I can even make a profit. Maybe I can even turn it into Something that I can take out, we’re working with a top, top, incredibly exclusive hotel chain that wants to put super premium water everywhere in the hotel, not just in the little bottles for $2 they want to put it in the shower. And we know the kitchen everywhere it great water. And then they want to advertise that. So they’re stuck with treating the water. They’ll recycle it for the the shrubs and get some good PR for that. And they’ll have super premium water everywhere in the hotel and you know women washing their hair will have you know a better outcome. And that is something that a business thinks about that a municipality will not. That’s why this is a revolution.
David Ralph [16:44]
You’re going to be the world’s richest man and your weeks.
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [16:47]
Well, you know, I’ll settle for changing a few things because you know truthful now this is really interesting that you bring that up David because, you know, I have looked at my life and I have flown away opportunities At one point I helped, you know, start up a small company called WebEx. And then when subra a year the founder said, well Rick’s once you come to Sunnyvale and be our VP marketing, I went, Oh, no, I don’t want to move to Sunnyvale. And, you know, had I done that I would, I would have a huge ego. And I would probably, you know, like, I’m not going to talk to David Ralph. So I think it’s good for my, you know, modesty, that I’ve flung away all these opportunities, but we’ve
David Ralph [17:30]
lowered your standards. That’s what you’re saying. You’re lowering your standards by coming on to these kind of rubbish.
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [17:36]
Well, if the truth is that I think it’s made me a better man. And I also think that everything that I’ve gone through in these 40 some years of being a professional, has made me better able to deal with what I think is the biggest challenge of the modern age. And it ranks right up there with energy and transportation, which isn’t a huge revolution. It’s a What do we do about the water? And that is, people know that, you know, what I will we’ve been using for the non stick pans is now getting in the water system and we get some human bodies and it doesn’t come out. These are called forever toxins. What the freaking hell are we going to do about that? And it’s not so much that the will isn’t there is this there’s so many pieces to the problem. It’s just like this huge Domino, and you got to somehow get that domino effect started. That’s where I helped to make a difference. And I believe we’re moving that needle.
David Ralph [18:31]
Let’s hear some positive words. And then we’ll be back with breaks.
Jim Carrey [18:34]
My father could have been a great comedian, but he didn’t believe that that was possible for him. And so he made a conservative choice. Instead, he got a safe job as an accountant. And when I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe jobs, and our family had to do whatever we could to survive. I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don’t want. So you might as well take a chance on doing What you love?
David Ralph [19:01]
Now I had a guy on this show back in Episode 82, over six years ago, and I always reference his story. But basically, the long and short of it, he went after something that most people would have said, It’s not possible. What’s the point in doing it. And out of everyone on the planet, he ended up in a 5050 shootout with one other person who also went for it. Now, when you’re looking at something like your thing, and as I started off, I went, Wow, you know, this is a big thing or credit to you for tackling it. Is it something that you end up with less competition for those same thoughts that went through my mind earlier? So just a few prayers battling it out?
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [19:43]
You know, David, I look at Elon Musk. And what that guy has achieved is he’s achieved orbital velocity. And he’s just soared way above the pack. And I think that’s possible to do it. It’s possible and it wasn’t done overnight or We know his background in 2005. There’s a picture of him repairing his own, sorry, and the 1995, repairing his own car window. And then of course, you got swept up in the.com. And the rest is history. But here’s a picture his mom took of him, fixing his car, his own car window, and kind of grinning sheepishly while doing it. So as a series of many incremental things, that over time got him that momentum. And so that’s what I think the arc of a career is about is how can you get that lift off, and then completely differentiate yourself to the point where people go, I’m a decentralised water. That makes sense. Whoa, what the heck is origin clear doing? Maybe we should just buy it. And at that point, David, I admit I would allow myself to be bought up
David Ralph [20:50]
is interesting with base because I’m reflecting now I get a lot of people connect with me, who used to connect with me six years ago, and when I used to connect with me five years ago, And they kind of come round in about sort of like every year. And we I remember saying to him, oh God, things are crap and things are really going difficult and this and now I kind of say to him, it’s really easy. You know what I’m doing is really easy. I’ve just kind of pushed through and managed to get to it. I want to reference that statement you made when you were just throwing money at your company constantly and and supporting it was that truly tough times? And why did you do that? Why didn’t you just go dead duck can’t afford bass, let somebody else do it.
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [21:36]
That is such a good question. And I asked myself that to this day. And that is that you and I know that it is incredibly stressful. Continuously funding a company for 10 years. It’s ridiculous is stressful. And also by the way, you’re not everybody’s winning. Right your your You’re not always this occasional investor that, despite all your best efforts didn’t do well. And they kind of feel that down. And that’s the hardest part of my job. And what I try to do then is to do good by the people who’ve stuck with us. That is the thing that recharges me is that I’m able, I have the power. We are a public company, we can make things happen so that our investors are, you know, as many of them as possible, try to shoot for most of them are doing well. And as we continue this journey, this incredibly tough project. They believe in me and one really important thing that I’ve learned if you want to reduce stress, don’t raise money from Wall Street, raise money from regular people, because they believe they will talk to you. And they know about your cause they invested Yeah, they want to make money but they also really care about whatever you’re doing, as opposed to wall street who care about their family. And their firm. And yeah, well, you know, so it’s really tough. And again and again, I’ve I’ve just bashed my head against the wall going, I did not need to take that money, or maybe I did. But God, I’m not happy I did. And so we’re very fortunate today that we are. We’ve built this up disability internally. Now we’re big plan this year is we’re actually going to start deploying capital to make our own acquisitions, self funded, which is mind boggling. And yet, we now have that capability. So finally get it we’re getting there. And so I think the key to not going completely insane with anxiety is to work with normal people who will interact with you and not take you for a ride.
David Ralph [23:45]
It’s fascinating that you use a base because I have so many conversations with people around, don’t use your own money, use other people’s money, you know, get something up and one of the things that I do I do sort of coaching People come along and I go, I’d love to do your coaching, but I can’t afford it. And I always say to them, you know, you don’t have to afford it. There’s other people out there. So they will lend you the money. And then all you’ve got to do is have that as your first goal, to pay back that money back in a year or two years or whatever, and then continue building the profits into your life. Don’t use your own money. Why do you think people because it seems bloody obvious to me, Rick, so I wouldn’t want to spend all my savings leaving myself tight when there’s other people willing to offer me the cash.
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [24:33]
Yes, and that’s very true. I think what what our job is to come up with a really compelling reason. And this truthfully, not that many compelling things going on. There’s a whole lot of follow going on. And there’s not a whole lot of, you know, stuff that is really really, really exciting that people go wow, I I want to contribute to that. You know, I’ve got a little bit of little bit of crazy money and I think I’ll throw it into And I’ll convince my wife, it’s okay. I’ll do it. You always have to convince the wife, don’t you?
David Ralph [25:07]
One of my conversations I have with everyone.
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [25:11]
True. But here’s one thing that I realised late last year, because one of the things about being in Los Angeles is there’s called the influence inflation of expectation, meaning, the more money you make, the more money you’re expected to give, to all the end, of course, to spend on wonderful mansions think my wife is not like that. But one thing we we do a lot is we are asked to give and give till it hurts to, you know, charitable opportunities. And I used to go, Oh, I would do it in a flash but my wife, you know, her, and I decided one day, you know, that doesn’t paint my wife and a very good picture. So, from now on, it’s us deciding it and, you know, internally if we want to fight about it, that’s fine. But we’re a unit. So a trident Not say, you know, well my wife would go for it if, and the truth of it is that if somebody really is excited about something, they’re going to go for it. They’re going to convince their wife, they’re going to just, you know, take some pocket money they got somewhere else, and they’re going to do it. And, you know, they may lose some money, that’s fine. God knows I lost some money in the wonderful crypto, the winter of crypto. And so many of us did. Because, you know, I believe in cryptocurrency, and I’m going to take another shot at just because I lost money in some stupid you know, protocol. And crypto does not mean that I’m not interested in crypto and in fact, an origin clear has a crypto project that is currently dormant. We’re going to come back to it and I personally want to come back to crypto so I think the appetite for do it for putting your hard earned money into something exciting, is a good thing. And you know, sometimes it pays Often spades. Look at what Tesla when it happened to recently to Tesla. I mean, it was finally validated and God knows. You know, Elon Musk had his naysayers
David Ralph [27:10]
but he’s mental as well, isn’t it? You’ve got to, you know, I remember somebody saying he’s the closest to a Bond villain that we have. He could basically destroy the earth and sit in his rocket with his car. just laughing.
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [27:24]
Ground Control to Major Tom
David Ralph [27:26]
Yes, yeah, absolutely. Hey, let’s talk about Elon Musk for a moment because there is mindset and there is mindset. And a lot of people don’t believe in themselves for even the smallest stuff that’s already been proven. You know, for example, an online business I say to people, success leaves clues. And if you want to create something is more often than not somebody’s already done it. So look at what they’re doing. Pivot it slightly, but it’s there. It’s believable. How do you think people get to that point When they can do stuff that we haven’t even imagined yet,
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [28:04]
Elon Musk lacks one bone in his body, which is he has no mindset, right? He’s not set in his mind. The beauty of Elon Musk, in my opinion is he has a very solid engineering background. He’s a, he’s a beautiful engineer, you can tell and everything he does and says, and he imparts that on his people. He likes to say that, you know, people who lose their jobs at at his companies go to Apple. So he he really has excellence in his background, but then he kind of picks it up as he goes, like, you know what, I think we’re going to sell a flame thrower. You know what, I think we do a recent reasonable capsule, and that I think that kind of carefree nature makes it possible for him to move very quickly. And to go You know what, I think we’re just going to go you know, we’re going to use the horrible Lotus Lotus Ilan platform and build an EV and then we’re, we’re going to fail at it and build our own. Well, obviously he didn’t decide that You just said, let’s do electric vehicle. What seems good, huh? The Lotus Ilan is available. Let’s do that. And then of course, he learned heart that it was a horrible platform and they had to reinvent everything. Not Lotus is fault. But nonetheless, I think that his ability to just be kind of chill about it like, you know, he was on that Rogan podcast and you know, despite the, the, the notorious, you know, puffing on the on the joint, it was clear from his talking that, you know, he really has learned to not take the decision process too seriously. And I think that is really, really good for him. And for the rest of us. We play a speech
David Ralph [29:41]
I might play in a minute when Oprah basically says, you know, nothing is definitive. You can you can pivot, you can make a decision, look, see how it’s landed and then change direction but as long as you’re quiet and you reflect and you think things through More often than not, you can find the next right thing to do.
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [30:04]
And that’s even true for things we consider inevitable, you know, a person was very, very close to me had passed away from cancer and, and everything at the time seemed inevitable. But then when I look back on all the decisions that were made, I saw different points where something could have been done, that would have changed the course of it. And so I think in the moment, this the solutions are always available to us, even for the most dire problem. And the challenges to kind of, can you not have a fog? Can you just, again, see the obvious, see what’s in front of you, and go, and then when you are not directly handling the problem, try to relax right which is why I ski in deep trees and, you know, try to do do things that are really really dangerous, because it allows me to take my mind off that stuff.
David Ralph [30:56]
I say stupid though, and it is skiing in deep trees.
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [31:00]
This insane Of course it is.
David Ralph [31:03]
You don’t get any speed up Do
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [31:05]
you know you shouldn’t you shouldn’t go really fast in the trees. But what it does give us this marvellous sense of being it’s I call it my cathedral is being in this this lovely, very quiet because the snow mix everything quiet. And then the trees you’re all alone The snow is usually wonderful because no one else is going there. And you’re not you’re not going at a mad rate because hitting a tree at any speed, but that it wants and it was once was enough and the entire lifetime. I only hit only barked my shin but it was so painful that I remembered for all my days and so you don’t hit trees. There is there are survival skills for that. But you know, My son and I have become very good at that. And we we had this legendary three days at the beginning of this month in a magical place called powder mountain Utah which I hope you’ll go to one day unknown largest acreage in Utah. Nobody there. We were there in a snowstorm with 50 people in the mountain. And it was a playground. And you know what, those three days relaxed me more than a month of going to Cancun?
David Ralph [32:12]
Yeah, I can see that exactly. because your mind is focused on the moment, you’re in the moment instead of letting your mind wander. Online, check out the amazing Join Up Dots business coaching.
Unknown Speaker [32:25]
Hello, my name is Alan. And I’ve just completed the excellent eight week course with David before I started working with David Actually, I had no idea at all, where to start. I had a lot of ideas about what I probably thought was going to be good in business. David was able to help me through that, to find that passion. Within literally minutes. We had a we had a business idea. And for the last seven weeks, we’ve been building on it and building on it and the position I’m in now I don’t think I’ve ever got here
Unknown Speaker [32:55]
on my own because of the amount of information that David gives the structure. He’s got the full package here. And he explains it in a way that I can understand. His support is is phenomenal. I feel like this is the way business is supposed to work. David helped me understand. Okay,
Unknown Speaker [33:12]
what was the next logical steps that I should do? How, how can I get this up and running? So I would really recommend this as an excellent course helping you if you have an idea if you have no idea, really teasing that out and at some of the practicalities and steps to take to really launch your business, whether as
Unknown Speaker [33:29]
a full time job was a side hustle.
Unknown Speaker [33:31]
So it was really excellent. I recommend it for anybody thinking about setting up their own business. I don’t think
Unknown Speaker [33:36]
it’s an exaggeration to say David will totally save you years.
Unknown Speaker [33:40]
Thank you, David, for all your amazing help and support which keeps on going. And we certainly couldn’t be where we are today without you so you’re awesome.
David Ralph [33:51]
So if you would love to become my next success story and have your own life changing online business following my step by step system, fine tuned over many years. To take away the ethic and expense that others struggle with, and come across to Join Up dots.com and book a free call with myself, let’s get you living the easy life as it’s there waiting for you to get it that is Join Up dots.com business coaching. Now listening to those words that always playing rigs, I always reflect on that last bit, and I wonder whether it’s right or whether it’s wrong, let’s get you living the easy life because no business is easy. Is it? Even the ones that look like somebody is in an infinity pool swimming around in their trunks, there’s still an awful lot of work to get to that point. Do you think that it’s worth doing?
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [34:46]
Well, I have to say, David, that the guy or gal swimming in that infinity pool in their trunks soon gets bored, right? So, you know, the worst thing that could happen would be that you would finally reach all your goals and they You are. And I’ve made very sure that that’s why I never became a billionaire, because it would be very hard, don’t you think? So? I’ve kept you have kept from being there, just so that once I finally get there, I’ll have 1000 things to do. And that’s I think, if you can get there in your old age and have too much going on and have too much stress, then maybe that’s the definition of business happiness.
David Ralph [35:27]
So are you I’m interested, are you assume you’re a millionaire? What does it take to become a billionaire? What because it is not just luck is it is mindset is everything. I often think
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [35:41]
about that. It’s a very interesting thing I think that billionaires have have, first of all, they’ve had that lucky moment when they were in a good spot. But then they were able to do a series of thousands of things. Very Very well and get that momentum look, for example at, you know, Amazon, how Amazon was built. I remember when they stopped being a bookseller and they were starting to sell drugs and stuff like that now with no don’t lose your focus stay with books. Turns out, he was right. Right. So that’s where I think I think billionaires depart from the rest of us in that they’ll they’ll do these moves that seem illogical at the time and it turned out to be good. So, you know if there’s something that takeaway from that is, you know, look at huge disruption. Let’s take another look. For example, it is Tony Seba, and I really recommend that your listeners look up Tony Seba clean disruption, his talk that he did in October at the at the Robin Hood conference, and what what he basically said is Look, the big disruptors always come from outside and industry look at smartphones, right? It was it should have been Motorola Nokia. What the But instead instead it turned out to be Apple and Google who never had a phone before, right? So, innovation, and disruption often comes from outside. And if you can be the outside are disrupting. And that’s a key the key, I think, to being a billionaire, unless you know, pueden is to be an external player, look at a space and go, Okay, these people think it’s this, but it really is not that at all. And it seems obvious to me. I mean, David, when we had when we were when we had little PDA is, my thought was like, why isn’t the phone built into this? Oh my god, right? And yet, it took an outsider, because, you know, palm wasn’t going to do it. Palm was just happy doing PDA. And so somebody had to just now they had to have this bright idea, but then also they had to have the chops. So Steve Jobs and and also the people at Google had the technical chops, and that’s so I think it’s a combination of seeing what seeing from The outside. And as Steve Jobs said, you know, tap into the entire universe, blah, blah, blah, and then have the chops to do it. What I’m so excited about this year, in January 2020, is that I believe that this company that that I’ve been, you know, working to penetrate an impenetrable market that won’t change is finally making changes happen. Why? Number one, because we are the external guys, and we’re saying, hey, guess what? It’s self cleaning that’s going to make this going to change the world, not some big central government authority. They’re not going to do it, get over it. Number two. We have helped we have more and more allies. We have an amazing marketing agency that just made us despite having, you know, 50 clients, they decided to make us the number one and number three, I have finally a team that is so powerful. And this is the weirdest thing is so hard To build teams so hard to find good people who can operate at your speed, and if you can do that, that final piece, that’s it. Game over. unquestionably no question about it. I’ve proven it again and again to myself that you know, you cannot be that lone candle holder. And nobody is Elon Musk has an amazing engineering team come on. And I can I can Marc Benioff at Salesforce my god is it so you know, all these people have Elon Musk, and so on. I could go on and on, you know, have an amazing team and they make a difference look at Apple when they’ve gained or lost good people. The products just suffered or gained immensely. So I think that you’re you, the people you put you get around you. You’ve got to stand out but until you have those people and you know, and it’s weird because I had a hardest time getting a really good CEO of Pretty good number two. And I got Tom marchello, our current CEO, the weirdest way I started a cryptocurrency water chain, and during, you know the craziness during the crazy times beginning 2018 and which is, by the way already too late, as we know in retrospect. And he was
what it did was it reconnected me with all my good friends from the.com. So all of a sudden, from being in the wilderness of water, I was back in a tech space, connected to water, but it was tech. So all of a sudden, I was back at the top of the tech world, which which was at the time crypto met Tom, because I was finally in those circles showing up in Puerto Rico talking to all the hot people. And Tom got excited. And he decided to dedicate time to this. He’s a guy that in his own right, you know, he’s going to end up being a very, very successful top executive. He’s young enough to do it. And also true of Ken Baron Who’s, who learned how to raise funds during the, you know, the 80s and 90s in New York City and now, he puts together Amazing, amazing world changing funding packages that are now as I was saying, that enable us to acquire whole companies with internal resources. Without these people, I guarantee you origin clear would not exist today. It would be dead. And that’s where it’s at. So, yeah, I you know, I love being you know, leader of men and so forth. Women too, but I did this is the keys have a strong circle of strong people that can operate at your speed?
David Ralph [41:41]
Well, let’s hear from somebody that we’ve referenced a couple of times.
Steve Jobs [41:47]
Looking forward to college, but it was very, very clear looking backwards. 10 years later. Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to try trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future, you have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well worn path. And that will make all the difference.
David Ralph [42:23]
Now, thank good words. I’m I you know, a lot of the time I switch off a bit as that’s playing because I’ve heard it so many times. I mean, every now and again I really listen to him. But they are Tom on bass.
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [42:35]
He’s talking about connecting with with that magical ether. But I think that that again, how do you like somebody who’s sitting in his basement right now going Yeah, dude, I would love to do it. But where’s the freaking you know, karma? And I think I think what Steve did, he’s he went for it. Number one, right? He just went for it. So having that strong, just Do it just go and don’t don’t overthink it, number one. Number two, be aware that particular thing if a particular karma is a bad karma Well, no, I don’t think so. And the biggest challenge of all that I think we all have trouble with is, don’t beat yourself up if you do something stupid, right? And this is I tell you that to this day, I find myself you know, going, what if I had to do it if I hadn’t taken it? What if I didn’t do this? Like, what the hell wake up. And so the ability to to say, you know what, that is stupid. And I’m just going to put it aside. I’m going to extract myself from it, and I’m going to do this, this, this better thing. And if you can do that rapidly, you’ll stay ahead of your car, your bad karma, and I believe create your own good karma. And it does good karma come
David Ralph [43:53]
from good karma because, you know, we see people doing good stuff and they end up living in a cardboard box. So in a business sense, doing something like you’re doing, which obviously from the outside is a great thing, and you can’t imagine why it would be a struggle to get it off the ground. Does it deserve the good results to come back to you? Does it deserve the good karma?
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [44:16]
You know, somebody very wise once said that you’re always doing your very best. And so if you look at your past, you were always doing your very best now. You’re doing a good job. No, but that’s because maybe you were fighting yourself. Were you sitting down on a couch and eat potato chips? Well, it’s because there was something about that you were literally doing your best against whatever force you directed against yourself. And so I think it’s important to go You know what, at all times, I’ve done my best, but now I’m going to do my best a little bit more efficiently. Okay, shall we do that now? And, and kind of take away those barriers. I believe that all barriers are self directed. All problems come from within in final analysis. Why? Because otherwise, why we couldn’t do anything about them figure, well, this problem is a problem that I just can’t handle it, there’s nothing to do about it. Well, either, it really is a problem, you know, think about like, a tornado in, you know, wherever, and you don’t think about it. So get off the Weather Channel. Or if you can do something about and immediately handle it. So I think 90% of the time, you can do something about it, and just start start doing something about it. And don’t get into this constant thinking about I could embed it because guess what, just take it for granted, you are doing the very best and now just figure out how to do it better.
David Ralph [45:42]
Before we take take you back in time on the Sermon on the MC where where is origin clear now, based on where you want it to be?
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [45:52]
That’s a really good question. Okay. First of all, we know we’ve got the space, the sweet spot space that I believe will enable it To change the water industry in a big way, which is helping businesses at the edge, trying to solve their everyday water problems. And so we got that we’ve got a really good team both in in Los Angeles, but also in Texas where all the heavy lifting is done. You know, heavy lifting is always being done in Texas. It’s never been done in LA, right. So the we’ve got the team, we’ve got our business model, we have the ability to to raise funds. The final piece now is replication. How Amazon became big was because it replicated it just scaled up. How Tesla has done well is again, he’s scaled up. So our challenge now in in January is we are now putting together a programme to take this vision of ours that we’ve figured out is is the winning vision and spread it rapidly. It’s still confidential but it’s it will be revealed very soon. People should go to origin clear, calm, subscribe to our newsletter, they will hear from me directly and when they hear from me directly, they can reply and I will reply.
David Ralph [47:09]
Wow, I’m blown away when you said 12,000 people on your newsletter. I know how many people struggle to get anyone on their newsletter, and the fact that you’re talking about water. It seems amazing that 12,000 people have joined you on that.
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [47:25]
You know, it’s so true because what I learned, you know, I was going around to all the press I was doing press junkets and, and and talk about water and, and eyes would go up into their heads. I Oh my god, and I realised people think water is important, but they don’t want to know about the sewage plant on the Hudson River. They just don’t want to know, like, too much information don’t want to know. So what I what I think is is is the thing about what we are trying to do here is make water less of a sort of a thing that the manor is Take care of in the background that is kind of like, yeah, the people in water are just magically making things happen. But guess what, there’s a whole bunch of horrible stuff in the water, and instead making it something exciting, that is real, that’s about the struggle, and that you may see like that guy with a straw, you may see a real change happen soon. And that is why people are attracted to what we’re doing. I believe. I get many, many, many people who say I love what you do. You know, stock hasn’t done what it should be. That’s fine. I’m with you. And let’s go and that heartens me know. Yeah,
David Ralph [48:39]
I should do it should do. You’re doing great stuff. Well, this is the part of the show that we called a sermon on the mic when we’re going to send you back in time to have a one on one with your younger self. And if you could go back in time and speak to the young Rick’s What advice would you give him and what age weeks Would you like to speak to? Well, we’re going to play the music and when it fades Europe, it’s seminar MC.
Unknown Speaker [49:08]
We go with the best bit of the show.
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [49:26]
Well, the last time I really knew everything was when I was 12 years old. And I really think that I had my act together to time. And I was wise in a way that have not been wise since and of course what hit literally the next year was hormones. And I became part of the world when, when you’re confronted with you know, oh, wow, girls matter in a way that I hadn’t thought before and so forth. You’re now being swept up into I think the the conspiracy of the world to sweep you up into the life that you’re supposed to have and so forth. And one of the key things that I felt later, really misled me in a big way was that I read the Playboy philosophy by Hugh Hefner at the time. There were there were words in Playboy magazine in between all the pictures, and I actually read this stuff. And, you know, weirdly enough, I kind of drank that kool aid that you should, you know, take every woman that you can, you know, the whole kind of weird philosophy that I think is, you know, proved to be incredibly destructive, destructive. And I drank from that and I drank from some other Kool Aid and and i think that naive attempt Kind of programmed me in a way that I’ve worked to overcome ever since. And so what I would say to my younger self is just go with the friendships and the love that you have the women that you know girls right now you’re young still their girls are worth knowing for who they are, and and getting to know them well, and maybe one day, you’ll marry one but you don’t have to bed every single one that doesn’t have to be your agenda. And the same thing goes for work. You can just enjoy work for what it is at the time. Enjoy the pleasure of effort and don’t try and get some kind of advantage or or convince somebody of how hot you are or whatever. And so, to me, it’s about just enjoying relationships, not letting the world programme you But in just being yourself and discovering what it is you like about people, and eventually, you’ll figure out what you like about yourself and what you want to do and how you want to help. I think that’s the simplest way I can say it. I think today I am getting back to that place. It’s been a long trip. I don’t regret any part of it. And but today, I really do enjoy other people. And it’s the pleasure that I like the most. I’ll close with a quote that I’ve carried for many years in my wallet. And it’s from settings up his book terrorism and I opened that book one day and it quote, stared at me right there. Nick and Luke severely toddler. This is a video that shows you man there is but one true luxury, and it is human relations. And that’s what I hope to live by. For as long as I can do. Thank you. Now
David Ralph [52:58]
powerful stuff required What’s the number one best way that our audience can connect with you?
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [53:04]
It’s very simple. They can always send, again, sign up for my newsletter, and they will get an email the next email that they get, they can reply to, they can also always send email to info at origin, clear calm, it will automatically. We have very good people who don’t let these things go into a bin. And so I will hear and and if you really, really want to get to me, then you will come through our funding channel because we are like hawks on that one. So invest at origin clear, calm, and my good. Assistant, Devin will make sure that I get that and I will personally answer I look forward to exchange your viewpoints with each and every one of you. And David, I so appreciate the time with you.
David Ralph [53:48]
It’s been an absolute delight. And thank you so much for spending time with us today. joining up those dots. Please come back again when you got more dots to join up rigs because I do believe that by joining up the dots and connecting up our pastis the best way to build our futures Riggs Thank you so much.
Origin Clear Founder Riggs Eckelberry [54:05]
Thank You
David Ralph [54:08]
Mr. Riggs Eckelberry. So do you think that you could do that? Do you think that you could set a business up that’s basically changing the world changing the ways people have their water or that air cleaner or whatever. If you have got that passion then connect with Rick’s and I’m sure that he will be able to help you. And if you want to join in with him as well, as he says, Get on these newsletter and find out more about reaching clear but interesting guy. I think he was mad about going skiing through trees, what is the point but other than that great guest. Until next time, thank you so much for being here with us on Join Up Dots. We’ve got a lot more coming to you. If you want to come on to any of the free coaching courses that we’re doing once a month. Come on over to Join Up Dots and you should see a link halfway down and you can book I bought a free podcasting one or free business coach. We’re trying to give you more and more to get you to believe in yourself so that you can tackle it on like so many other people and create life changing income for yourselves. Until next time, I will see you again look after yourself by
Outro [55:15]
David doesn’t want you to become a faded version of the brilliant self you are wants to become. So he’s put together an amazing guide for you called the eight pieces of advice that every successful entrepreneur practices, including the two that changed his life. Head over to Join Up dots.com to download this amazing guide for free and we’ll see you tomorrow on Join Up Dots.
