Hello and welcome to season three of Rooted and Reaching, where we talk with dreamers, doers and difference makers building an innovative future right here in the South Bend Elkhart region.

Entrepreneurs know that where we're rooted matters and where we're reaching matters even more.

Today we're talking to David Sims, inventor of Smart Drain Pro, an app based device that allows you to drain your hot water heater, extending its life and giving you cleaner, hotter water.

Manufactured right here in Elkhart County.

Let's dive in.

Well, it is my great pleasure to be here today with David Sims, inventor of SmartDrain Pro, which is a device that works in water heaters.

And before we dive into your whole story, can you just quickly tell us what is smartdrain Pro?

Smart Drainage Pro is an automated draining device for water heaters.

All water heaters tend to build up sediment or they build up sediment because of the water that we have.

And of course because of as you heat the water, all the irons or different things separate and start to build up in the water heater.

All water heater manufacturers suggest at least a person should go and flush or drain their water heater at least twice a year.

Eliminate this sediment build up because as the sediment build up, a few things happen.

The water heater is less efficient.

It will plug up the process.

So if you need to drain it, if it go out, it makes sense.

It will also cause since it's less efficient, it will give you less hot water.

But we tend not to notice it because we get what we get.

And if you.

But if the family is larger, it won't get that capacity.

Yeah, yeah.

May run out a little faster.

You'll run out a little faster and it causes the water heater to leak or rust.

And according to the insurance companies, water heater is the in the top five of causing water damage within the home.

Because once it starts to leak this water, no one notice it.

Right.

I believe that.

I call it the hardest working appliance in the home that people ignore.

Yeah.

And once again, people just tend not to pay it any attention and it should be flushed.

I have to admit that after hearing about your product and your invention and reading a little bit, I thought to myself, oh boy, I don't even remember the last time I drained my hot water heater.

So.

Yeah, yeah.

I probably need to take your advice here and maybe buy your device actually and make sure I'm maintaining my equipment properly.

Yeah, Maintenance is one of the things, but it's something that you gotta also remember.

Like you said, no one Ever said it, I think like for example, our cooking stoves, we don't maintain them.

We go and we cook.

And when we get to cooking, if there's a spill, we might wipe it off.

But is there anything else we may should do?

But we might pay that a little more attention because it's not out of sight.

Right.

And it's not out of man.

Right.

The water heater is out of sight, out of mind more than any other appliance except for your furnace.

And so people tend not to pay any attention until that failure.

Probably even worse than the furnace because at least for the furnace, you probably change your filter out every once in a while.

Change your filter and your on tv, there's some type of advertisement of heating and plumbing and get your checkup right for your furnace and things like that.

But water heater, that's not so much.

And the average life of water heater 7 to 10 years.

But if you flush it, you can extend that life, possibly double it or even longer because you're once again removing those that sediment that will cause the problem.

So fantastic.

So this device attaches directly to the water heater and just stays there.

It just attaches directly to the water heater.

Once again, it's automated.

So what you do is you set the day and you set the amount of time you want it to drain to remove the sediments.

And every whatever that day in time it will automatically opens and flush.

This, you know, right now as a manual type of system where they say go down and that's the probably something.

Well just screw a water hose to your water heater, open up the water hose and you know, flush it and yes, for sure.

Or drain it for a period of time.

So but once again there are some people, but not many.

So when you do the flush, do you don't have to have the water off in the house?

No, because what at with the.

If you're doing it twice a year, how they're saying it?

Yes, you have everything off because even depending how much of a drain draining you're going to do, when you're doing it twice a year, you're probably totally draining your water heater to make sure it flushes out.

Then you go back and you turn the water on to create a pressure to push out.

Oh, I see, yeah.

So you drain it all the way out, then you fill it back up and start over.

But with our system, what you're doing is once a week or periodically, every so often doing it where you're doing it more than twice a Year.

So what we see is that by flushing it at least for a minute, once a week, you're removing sediment.

I see.

Continuously.

Okay.

So this is not a twice a year thing.

It's a little bit on a regular basis.

On a regular basis that your device then controls.

That controls.

Right.

Turn it on, flush or drain and you're in a better situation then.

And depending on the Indiana or northern Indiana is different from Michigan or down in Atlanta or in Florida because there's different soil types, there's different.

If they're coming down the mountain, there's different minerals.

So there's a tendency some places may build up sediment a lot faster than others.

You can't say what is more or less than the other area, but all areas build up sediment, some not as much as others.

Got it.

Got it.

Okay.

This is super interesting, but so I do want to ask you more about how you got this idea and how you developed the product.

But before we go there, I am very curious about you as an inventor.

You're not the youngest inventor that I've interviewed.

Did you always see yourself as an inventor?

How did you get to the point where I believe you're retired and you developed this device?

What was your life story to get you from where you started to sitting here today as the inventor of a product?

Is it a mindset you developed as a child?

I think as time went along, it's more of a mindset.

And it was life as I started to see, because as you grow, if you're open, you see there's always been change in my life.

And so do you want to just be a part of the change or do you want to be?

Yeah, one of the reasons that created the change.

So.

So tell us more about that.

There's a lot of change in your life, and at some point you decided you wanted to be part of the change.

So what was that change in your life?

And do you remember a moment where you decided, like, okay, I'm not just going to observe this, I'm going to be part of it?

Well, some of it is like, I like to go all the way kind of back childhood.

So what happens is, once again, I come from large city.

Back then it was, I think Cleveland, Ohio was the 10th largest city in the United States.

It's not that anymore, but I was born in Cleveland, had activity, swimming, roller skating.

And so it was things for us to do, but it wasn't.

It was just things to do.

Sure.

And so fast Forward to almost 12.

We moved to Elkhart.

And when we come to Elkhart, we stayed in the city for about four years and then my father moved us out.

Further out.

I went to a school called Gemtown.

Okay.

Which was rural.

Very rural.

Yeah.

It was from city to rural.

Yeah.

So you went from big city to small city to rural community.

Rural community out on the outskirts of Elkhart.

So people that I was befriended, all of them, they were tinkers.

They would mess their hands.

I mean, very mechanical.

I had a friend, his name was Jimmy.

Jimmy War.

I love Jimmy and Jimmy.

I mean cars growing up, I mean, he could take a motor apart, put it back.

I mean, it was just amazing to see things.

And since we, when we were growing up, although my father was worked construction, we didn't have much, so but some of the things that we got, we would get.

And we would put bicycles together from scratch.

You know, we find parts and create all kind of little different bicycles.

And a lot of my friends also was athletic, so.

Okay, so competition was a big part of our life.

So as even.

Even with school, once again, it was all of this going on too.

And some of the things that was going on was my father, although he worked construction his.

His summers and was taken up with that, but he went to school to learn the income tax business.

Okay.

So he started his own income tax business.

So he was an entrepreneur himself.

He was entrepreneur.

Dave's Tax Service.

He had other interests, but that was a means to support us.

Sure.

When the.

During the down seasons.

So I always seen my father working, doing things he.

We built.

He would take me and my brothers and we would build a garage or add a room.

So we always worked with our hands and was busy.

But also while I was doing all that running with my father, there was a.

There was weekly magazine that we would get during school called Weekly Reader for Education.

And this Weekly Reader wasn't just current, but it also talked about the future.

Okay.

And when I would read that, it would inspire me.

And this inspiration would say, David, once again, you don't want to just be the purchaser of some of these things.

If you find a way, you need to try to create.

So when I got out of high school and went to the service and went to school, I went after service.

I knew I wanted electronics.

Okay.

And so.

So it sounds like you took a lot of inspiration from the Weekly Reader.

The Weekly Reader was a inspiring thing.

Did you take it home from school or was it.

Oh, no, you could take it.

It was just a little.

That's a ten page little booklet.

They would give the image I have.

In my head right now is you underneath your sheet with a flashlight, reading the Weekly Reader until the middle of the night.

No, I wouldn't.

It didn't take long to read it, if you would.

I mean, we were.

But you didn't miss an episode, though.

I didn't miss the episode.

It was one of my favorite things.

And once again, I would always ask my kids as they grew up, do they have weekly readers?

Because I thought it was an inspirational thing.

I really didn't understand until lately that it still was a magazine for the schools in 2012 and they were bought out and things.

It's a little different today, but.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But it was very inspiring to me.

And also there were so many different people coming through in life that, you know, meant a lot.

You know that once again, 74.

To know that there's people that live during your lifetime.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy.

The changes that took place once again.

And you were there observing.

I kind of observed those type of things, and that meant a lot to me.

And you know, when in Jimtown, part of our curriculum, to graduate, you had to be able to say the preamble of the Constitution of the United States.

Okay.

And I still hear myself saying that.

But those things always brought tears to my eyes.

Cause I took that very serious.

And that to know that if you apply, you she'll be able to do.

And so it might have said that sometimes in some cases, it.

That opportunity kind of failed you a little bit.

But you don't keep.

Stop.

Yes.

I feel.

Yeah.

So, I mean, I don't know if that sets you apart, but it certainly seems like at some point in your younger life, you, you were observing history and saw yourself as part of it rather than just an observer of it.

Yes, yes.

I think that, you know, also, you know, when you were.

It's like we're here to not just observe, we're here to contribute.

And so I felt like I needed to contribute.

If there's something that I would walk around my house always looking for, well, what if.

Okay, so I tinkered.

Don't necessarily mean that I ever came up with what I really needed, but I tinkered.

And I think some of my tinkering, I think I see some little small.

He's like, oh, geez, if only I had the resources to continue.

Yeah.

Can you tell us about one of those things?

Is there one in particular that you remember?

Yeah, well, I, I, Yeah, it's quite a few that I remember.

Just that, you know, it's I like what's real that came to fruition and more so than what hasn't because some, some, some individuals mindset will be like, that can't be real.

But I don't, you know, I'm not here to impress anyone.

I'm just saying it's things in my life that I tinkered with.

I'll give you an example of something that I tinkered with that I think it's a reality in Australia or someone did something.

So back in the early 80s, I really believed, especially with the onset of gun violence, I used to think, I say why do we have guns that you can just pick up point at someone shooting or someone came in and took someone's gun and shot him.

So I always thought that every gun should be a gun that was individually your gun was your gun.

If I picked it up, I wasn't able to shoot it.

Some kind of like fingerprint.

I always called it the palm.

Always figured the palm because the palm is distinctive too.

Okay.

So I always thought the palm would be the point of.

Yeah.

Of the reader.

Electronics wasn't as small as they are today.

So what was kind of sort of not really impossible.

It was a little harder.

But today it may be easier.

So.

But that's also a forensic tool because someone said, oh, I didn't shoot him.

But yes, you did.

Because the record would be on the phone on the gun.

Yeah, yeah.

I used to think, I'll give you one more.

I always thought that just like they said the black boxes in airplanes always thought that those should have been an automobile.

But right now we have basically black boxes and automobiles because they, they read everything.

So that was a thought, but it was something that I didn't have resources, but it's a thought.

Yeah, but you did, you, you served in the army.

Yes.

Okay.

And then you left the army and became an electrician or you, you studied electronics?

Electronics, yes.

Yes.

And you know, so that was obviously an early interest of you.

And it sounds like from these, even these tinkering ideas you have are electronics related.

Yes.

What did you, what did you do for your career?

Well, I worked for a company.

It was not name Miles Laboratory.

When I started working, Miles was an innovator in his own.

Because they.

Alka Seltzer one of their vitamins.

Right, right.

They innovated and that was impressive too to know you worked for someone that started even in the field of diabetics.

They, they, they were some first in a lot of the things they did.

In fact, I don't Know if you're old enough to remember, they had.

For their acoustic, they had a guy named Speedy.

I don't remember.

Okay.

Speedy was there.

Mascot, maybe not the best word to use, but Speedy was a small person, but he.

He had a hat that was like a saucer and a body of Alka salsa.

Okay, and.

But what was.

So.

What I found out Speedy also was a diabetic.

Okay.

And Speedy came to speak to us at Miles Laboratory.

He was a real person.

He was a real person.

Yeah, they.

Yeah, they create.

Yeah.

And.

But since he was a diabetic, Speedy was.

I mean, he.

Full of energy.

And he was saying, if you had to have a disease, diabetes would be the disease for me to have.

Because what a person needs to do to take care of yourself with diabetes is what we should do every day anyway.

Eat.

Right.

Right, Good point.

Yeah.

It's a bad disease.

But if you practice the things that you need to do, and I'm like, oh, okay, Speedy, I don't want to be a diabetic, but you can try.

To practice those things without diabetes.

Yeah, but.

Yeah, that's an interesting point.

Do you think you were.

Were you drawn to Miles Laboratories because they were innovative, or was it just sort of a coincidence that you, as a person interested in innovation, got a job there?

Well, it was kind of.

Kind of a coincidence.

And when I got there, it was just more so some of those things started to come to.

To the forefront once again.

They were.

And citric acid, which is almost in everything.

They were an innovator in that.

Okay, so it was very impressive to know that you was working for a company that was continually trying to improve things.

One of my things over at Barrett, I worked for.

They.

They had came up with machine.

It was a cereal blood.

They wouldn't.

Okay, so.

So Miles Laboratory was eventually purchased by Bayer.

Yeah, it was purchased.

So you worked for Miles and then you worked for Bear.

Right, right.

The purchase.

Yes, carried through.

Right.

Yeah.

So.

But they had an electronic division because they.

They made readers for diabetics.

You know, the strips, you put them on and it was no longer a.

You shake them in there, turn, change colors, but they would give you your numbers or.

And so.

Okay, they were innovative in that.

So that was really something.

Yeah.

So you were.

You were watching this.

You were participating in this, and I.

Was participating, yeah, the employee.

Because I was a instrument tech there.

And as time went, a lot of what I did was.

You just didn't have one particular job as an instrument tech.

They had started bringing in a Lot of automated machines that was conveyor belts, that was automated, that if the weights were wrong, they had blow offs would blow the.

They had camera vision systems that would make sure the packaging right.

It wasn't a sight of person, it was a vision system monitoring.

They had to monitor water because if you're making certain things, they had animals there that they, for all practical reasons, they did study zone.

And so I got to work in a lot of different areas, whether it was production or whether it was in some of the labs.

When you were working there, did you ever think back on that Weekly Reader and say, I'm actually, I've always thought about doing something that I read about 20 years ago and now here it is at my new job and we're bringing it to life.

Might sound funny, but I don't have.

I mean, I've always thought about that Weekly Reader.

It's always been a part of, as I grow older, some of the stuff with the space and things.

The only thing that I see that the Weekly Reader might have said that it talked about space and the end of universe.

But in my time, every time it seemed like that there's an end, they go out further and they say, oh, it's expanding.

So there's never been an end to the universe.

They keep discovering further and further.

Yeah, you see, it's further and further.

So that's something that they like.

Oh, they kind of missed that one a little bit.

But maybe at that time they thought it was an end, but there was no end.

So even when you were at Miles Laboratory or Bayer, you were kind of thinking back to some of those stories.

Some of those stories, yeah.

Yeah.

It always was something.

And yeah, you would think about it even like when pay per view tv, I'm like, how would, how are they going to do a pay.

They're gonna have a coin slot.

But here we are.

Here we are.

Yeah, we still get local, but you know, people got all these subscriptions, Netflix.

Subscriptions or whatever they might be.

Yeah, yeah.

So, okay, so this is great.

You obviously were somebody drawn to ideas and innovation from a pretty early age, but you didn't create a commercialized invention until pretty late in life.

Where did the idea come from for Smart Drain Pro?

Were you just.

Did you identify it as a problem in your own home or did you have friends who had this problem and you said, you know what, I have an idea.

Well, you know, growing up once again working with my father and working construction and even the income tax business, we all once again always going with him Doing work for someone.

And I have no idea how many water heaters in my life that I, I helped him change out.

Okay.

And.

And always was.

You could see him leaking bad.

Okay.

And so it was like, what's going on here now?

The light bulb didn't go off until my working with Bear.

Okay.

Or Miles.

And that was based again because since we use a lot of water, a lot of their systems were in some kind of tanking system.

Okay.

And so it was often necessary for these systems to flush.

Okay.

And because if you didn't flush, it was going to be some.

Some type of build up of sediment or you're going to get some bacteria in that water.

It would make sense.

You'd have to.

You want to really control for that.

Yeah.

You want to control.

So.

Okay.

Now that helped me associate.

Associate what was going on with water heaters.

And so that might.

A light bulb might have went off in the 90s.

But once again, resources says you need to keep this.

I'm a believer in if you, once you see it, it's a part of the landscape.

So if you mention it or say it out loud, it becomes a lot.

Okay.

So it's certain things that I might have in my mindset now that I'll never mention it because I believe that somebody's going to do it.

Yeah.

Was there a point that you mentioned the idea of the smart drain and made it come to life?

When I'm saying something about smart drain, it's only a couple of people that I see.

One was I have a grandson that was going to school at Alabama.

Okay.

Huntsburg, Alabama.

Yeah.

And he was going to school to be a engineer.

And he would always tell me, I'm going to school to be engineer because I want to be just like you.

Because he always seen me pink.

He said, yeah, he's.

You gave me that, grandpa.

Yeah.

And I'm sure you did.

Yeah, yeah.

So I told him, I said, okay.

So I said, you want to be an engineer?

This is what I need for you to do.

I said, I have this thought in my mind and I said, I know it's going to take some software and it's going to take some firmware and I need for you to.

Since you're still in school.

Okay.

And you have the professors there that could help you.

I say, maybe.

So he's the only one that ever said anything to.

He wasn't able to help me.

I ended up once he wasn't able to help me, I felt I didn't see it.

Nice full Speed.

So.

So what resources I had, I started to.

I first started on the software, the board.

Okay.

Trying to understand or try to get that.

And get that, the firmware and the software, and so paint a picture for.

Us about where this happens.

Are you at your kitchen table?

You out in your garage?

In a workshop at my table.

I don't have a garage.

Workshop.

Workshop.

My workshop.

I have an enclosed front porch.

Okay.

So it's stuff on it now.

So that was my workshop.

So you were putting things together, testing.

The board, testing things like that.

And then I sent it off to.

I hired some guys in Mexico, Okay.

To build me another breadboard.

Okay.

So get all the components right on that board.

And once that all of that was designed and put together and all the components, I.

One of my associates that work at bear3d printed the enclosure that I put the original unit in from the 3D enclosure and electronics, and we seen that it worked.

I took it to Excel.

Yeah, I want to hear more about the Excel relationship too.

But back up for.

So at this point, you were telling people that you were working on this device?

No, I don't deny that.

Well, you had the guy.

The guy who 3D printed for you anyway.

Yeah, I had the guy 3D print because he.

All he had was the step.

Step files, his enclosure.

And so all I did was send him the files for him.

The 3D printer, just printed it and.

Okay, so you weren't telling him, like, hey, I'm working on this device.

I need this enclosure for this reason?

No.

Okay.

No, you were just tinkering at home.

At home, yeah.

How many iterations did you do?

I just looked at.

I got a. I call it my.

My museum of things that I did.

And I think I got six of them in a box that I need to lay out, like I do my other stuff.

So I think it's six of them.

So six.

Six different iterations while you're refining the idea.

Six.

Yeah.

Generation.

Yes.

Generations.

Yeah, Generations.

Yeah.

So, I mean, this is.

This is great.

I love the image of you just working away at this device.

But at some point, like, when did you realize, like, okay, I need.

I need a partner?

Well, I still need a partner.

I guess what I realized was, see now.

Now that, like I said, that a prototype is not the hardest, it's the beyond the prototype.

I see.

Yeah.

You like scaling it.

Scaling it.

And understand what you need to get this unit in production.

You can prototype all day long.

In fact, not only does prototype, you can go out and put a patent on things and put a patent that don't mean you're safe because it depends on who infringe and it's that infringement person or company has more or more financial ability.

Yeah, it'll be a hard road.

It's a hard road to travel.

So what I realized was once again was the reason I was trying to get everything once I had the prototype, I needed someone to.

These boards can't be breadboarded all the time.

They need to be boards.

Okay.

On one of my devices that I didn't talk about, I actually went to Israel and they helped me develop a device.

But that was a.

You know, that's so far away.

Went to Israel about four times.

One time to China.

And you actually physically went to these places to meet with people.

Physically went to Israel at least four times.

People from Israel physically came here a couple of times because the device that they helped me worked on was people like oh, where the heck he come up with that at?

And some of my co workers even work with electronics.

These are like that.

You've been watching too much Star Trek or something.

So.

But that device I got all generations of prototypes up until a finished product.

And I can go into stores today and see that device being so quite.

But anyway, so by me going to Israel and we got depending on the time of year, six hours, seven hours time difference.

And sometimes it was to talk to them physically I'm up at.

Yeah, yeah.

Right.

The time change is a challenge.

Physical and.

And yet then somehow you found right in your own backyard.

In my backyard.

I went with this.

I was like I can't do this one again.

We don't.

Yeah.

And the.

Here's this wonderful company called Excel.

Okay.

That their leader is.

His name is Chip.

And when I took the idea of the Chip, I mean the reception was great.

Quite didn't understand what I wanted it.

I mean what the unit would do.

Okay.

But he listened.

Yeah.

And that's a very important thing.

Why I understand that he listened to.

And his listening made him more.

Become more involved as far I want to see this gentleman succeed.

Okay.

And he made sure to be a mentor to me.

Whatever shortcomings I had before or any roadblocks.

If there was a way, although I'd pay Excel to develop to do the boards got probably would have even cost me more.

He participates in a great way.

He makes sure that if there is a way, if he don't know a way, if he can get on the phone and call someone, try to figure it out, he'll try to figure it out.

Right.

Does Excel do.

Is it software development or actually manufacturing of the boards?

Yes, they actually manufacture the boards.

I think they do some software development too because from what I can tell, they have resources and what they don't have, they have people they reach out to to.

Got it.

Yes.

Yeah.

So they can be a full one stop shop, but they may have to contract something out, whether it's software.

But as far as the board and they do all of that.

They.

They have automated machines that flow solder or insert the components on the boards and things like that.

They do it all.

Were you surprised that you didn't have to go to Israel or Mexico or China to find someone who could do exactly what you needed?

Because Elkhart is.

Well, we were.

We were the musical capital of the world.

We still the RV capital of the world.

That's right.

And so there's still some music too.

Is it Kahn?

Well, they still have house CG Cons Selmers, but those, those facilities have slowly left.

But we still have some manufacturing facilities.

But it was hard to not drive down the road, to not see even although CG Con was large, it was still a little small which still some of those that make flutes and they still exist in Elkhart.

But.

But with the RV industry, everything is.

You didn't think of electronics when you thought of RVs.

It was just hard pressed.

I believe that.

Yeah, that's right.

So I know now that time made that what how Excel exists, I would believe.

Although I. I don't think they're that old of a company.

Some of the RVs required some more.

I think that's what created the.

Probably, you know, everything is getting more complex, more electronic components in all sorts of devices.

Including RVs.

Including RVs.

And so.

And as I living in Elkhart, not only was miles, but even once again musical capital the world.

Elkhart has some people that always kind of looked at.

I knew who Arthur Dicio was.

I don't know if you.

Arthur Dicio was the founder of Skylines Manufacturing Elkhart.

Great.

And as a young man, that's another person that in the evening my mother and my father part time jobs, they would go and clean their offices.

Okay.

And so many evenings when I would go with him, Mr. DCO would be there.

Okay.

So I knew him from a young man and I would go by.

He started in a garage.

Okay.

And that garage grew into.

I can't even fathom or remember how many different RV plants he had.

But he was considered one of the richest men.

Yeah.

So yeah, that Was something.

You had a lot of sources of inspiration.

Yeah.

If you.

I mean, I think so.

I mean, Eric Parsikian was an inspiration to me.

I wonder.

I wonder how much of it is like we all have inspiration, but you just.

You saw it differently or you noticed it in a way that maybe another kid.

It would have just gone right over their head, but you were paying attention in a different way.

I don't know if it was different.

Once again, this may be or may not be.

Got to remember I followed my father wherever.

If he said, come on, he didn't call me David.

He called me Junior.

He said, come on, we going.

And I would say I'm behind him.

Yeah.

And my father always.

I had to respect whoever.

I don't care.

My elders.

That was the thing that I had to do if they were wrong.

You know, you don't say anything.

Just going about your business.

You know, don't disrespect the elder.

Okay.

Because somebody.

His teaching was some.

You.

If you listen somebody somewhere, it's possibly.

You want to hear something that you need to know.

Right.

Okay.

And he also was the type of person that was.

Even though they're your elders and I'm older than you, you're from a different generation.

It's something you possibly have to teach me.

Sure.

So it was not only was I there to learn, it was a possibility that I was supposed to be there to teach.

So I guess if that makes sense to you.

So you got to keep your mind open.

A very mature mindset, actually.

And really, it seems like your father prepped you to keep a really open mind when you met new people.

Yes.

Both in terms of what you could learn from them, but also keeping an eye towards what you might contribute.

What you might contribute.

Yeah.

Because you never know who you're talking to.

You never know.

Some people say first impressions is very important, so.

But you never know.

So you don't look at a person because you think they're has.

You just can't do that.

Yeah.

Because that person has something for you, may have something for you.

So.

So you found Excel and it was a.

It's been.

Sounds like it's been a really successful partnership so far.

So far.

Were you.

You know, there's a lot of talk right now tariffs and manufacturing.

United States were.

What, what.

What did you see about the difference between working with an Elkhart based company versus an Israeli or a Chinese or a Mexican?

Like, did you notice.

Was there something about Elkhart Manufacturing that stuck out, stood out to you?

Well, what.

What Stands out to me once again.

Remember, I just said in Israel, six hours, I had to get on the plane.

And you.

It's, it's kind of different going to Israel.

For example, when I went to Israel, they, you, you, they.

Their security.

You know how you go through tsa?

Sure.

There's a TSA you go through for United States and this even before you get to Israel.

I seen it more so in Newark when I took the plane to go over.

You go through rtsa, then you go through what's necessary to go through to get in Israel.

They check you again.

Another.

Another checkpoint.

Yeah, yeah.

Because.

Significant checkpoint.

So then they stopped you.

I think it was in France.

Then you go through a checkpoint there.

So it was a, so that travel to Israel.

I think it was a eight, nine hour flight.

Yes, nine hours.

So now I don't get on the plane.

I get in my car, drive.

Yeah.

I don't.

I'm on the same time zone.

I don't have to wait till 3 o' clock in the morning to get on the phone or wait when I email them.

Wait.

So the conversation and the ability, the speed of what I see, what I need to see is so much better.

It's better.

It helps you work out the tanks a lot faster.

That makes sense, right?

So, yeah, you're not, there's not a lag time.

There's no lag.

You can pick up the phone, you can go drop in and visit, Right?

Yeah.

So the proximity and the, and the, the accessibility.

The accessibility is.

And Elkhart I kind of look now is more.

It's really diverse, you know, like working for Miles or Bear.

We.

Miles was an employer that was getting close to 10,000 people.

Now that company don't exist in Elkhart anymore.

Yeah.

Where did those people go?

Yeah, so that's why I say Elkhart is very diverse.

Did what it needed to do to keep on and it stayed growing.

So.

And they have some individuals in Elkhart.

Some of the guys that I went to high school, not necessarily went to high school with, but paid attention to throughout high school, especially mostly because of sports.

A lot of those individuals became owners of businesses.

And so I played against them or I always followed their.

In high school.

Whether there's a Mike Franger or Corky town, you know, these people, you wouldn't know.

My friends and I, we get in the car and some of the individuals that played basketball or whatever they.

In Mishawaka, we would come and find them just to compete.

You know, we want to find.

Yeah, I don't Know all those individuals.

But I do know Elkhart to be a competitive tight knit community.

Very tight knit.

Yeah.

So, yeah, well, like we come all the way to South Bend.

We, we wanted to find the best of the best.

We wanted to play and, and you know, friend had a car.

We drive over here to play basketball because we wanted to compete against the best.

That's how it was.

How much that has that competitive spirit affected you as an inventor?

Like when you started doing Smart Drain Pro, do you get in your mind like, okay, I have to be the best.

My old football coach, he didn't finish my high school years with me.

I wish he would have, but he always said to me, a loser never wins and a winner never loses.

And he would say, you got to dig deep.

Now that don't mean I dug deep all my life.

But the words would always, when I seemed like I was kind of pouting, those words would always be there.

So.

Yeah, you, you.

All I feel is that you got to keep going.

You got to.

You may not succeed at something, but you are going to succeed at.

You want to.

You're going to succeed somewhere.

Yeah.

As long as you keep working.

You got to keep working on it.

Yeah.

Because there's intent for all of us.

You know, that's just how it's made up to be.

The only thing that keeps us is that we don't work towards those goals that we've been inspired to work towards.

You know, I'm not.

You may achieve to a level and only reason you stop at that level is because that's where you're content.

Sure.

If you're content at it.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Yeah.

So I mean, all that said, what's next for Smart Chain Pro?

Well, as you know, just when you innovate something that's no one is aware of, how do you make sure they are aware that you have something that they didn't know they need?

Right.

How do you communicate that?

How do you communicate that?

Yeah, I imagine that's a huge challenge.

That's a huge challenge.

That's probably.

It's not an impossible challenge, but the challenge in that is that there's, in today's standards, there's a cost and so am I capable?

Am I up to the challenge?

I'm trying to figure it out.

Okay.

And I'm continually.

Is there influencer out there that I can possibly get on board.

Board to say, oh, not the greatest thing since sliced pie, but it seems like it's something that would be helpful.

And innovative device that can add Years to your water heater.

Heater.

The expense of all of this where rather than in seven years paying another whatever dollar value for water heater and to get it installed and everything.

Oh, you, you can put this off.

Do you imagine a future where there's a factory building smart drain pro devices and you're selling them all over the world?

Or do you think more I'm going to develop this thing to a point and I'm going to sell it to Smith or something.

No, I don't think of selling it to Earl Smith or any other anyone else because I call it.

There's something else I got brother for Smart Drying Pro.

And maybe if I once I developed a brother or whatever I would call it.

Maybe.

But right now there's, there's another path.

Okay.

And right now I think as long as I can continue with the relationship with Excel, I think that would be probably direction I would stay in.

I don't know if I would.

I would possibly warehouse and, and ship, but as far as manufacturing, I would continue to.

If the relationship.

Okay, so they'd be your manufacturing part.

That would be my manufacturing right now.

Because I'm very happy with them.

I'm very happy with the type of relationship, the communications.

I'm.

I'm happy with it.

You know, so, so the biggest challenges right now sounds like maybe some kind of marketing piece marketing and.

Yes.

And so more so to make sure people understand that you can't force anything for the person.

But if you got to educate them to know, say I haven't paid attention.

This is why I need to pay attention.

Right.

Yeah.

It does feel like there's a big educational component to this one.

There's educational.

So do.

Can, can.

Can I in time outrun who's possibly coming after me?

Because once again, mindsets is that someone else might have looked and said, yeah.

So yeah, so yeah, it's possible you're already there.

Yeah, I'm already there.

So can be.

I mean once you, once again, once you let the genie out of the bottle, I mean if the genie has a trick for someone, they're going to just do what they got to do.

But yeah, so place like IRO Smith might say, okay, we can't do it right now, but it depends on how far down the road I am with this with patent and so on and so forth.

Or they may decide because it just helps their marketing, it betters their opportunity and they have the ability to grow it.

Well, yeah, their distribution network is already huge.

Right.

Are you looking at all institutional partners Like a hospital or a nursing home or a school that is probably maintaining their water heaters and could use this to become more efficient.

Well, I reach out that.

Funny you should ask.

You gotta places like restaurant.

Okay.

Restaurants.

Nursing homes.

Now, the reason a restaurant is there's a requirement for them to have hot water.

So there's a requirement for them to maintain.

Sure.

That level of hot water makes sense.

You can't go.

You shouldn't be able to go into hot water.

Especially when the health department come in to inspect and they don't have the quality of hot water that's needed because they'll be shut down.

Then you got the other component of the nursing homes.

They must have hot water also 1.

Because they feed a lot of people.

So they.

Hot water standards.

And how.

Hot water is probably very dirty.

Nasty.

I mean, if it bacteria.

So if that sediment builds up, I'm not absolute on it, but legionnaires, I think they call the bacteria licta.

Okay.

But anyway, that bacteria can build up.

Okay.

That's a nursing home.

Yeah.

It's a bad thing for you and your family.

Hot water is not to be drunk.

Yeah.

Because if you drink hot water, it depends on what is coming out of that water.

Oh, I see.

That can cause harm.

Yeah.

Can you imagine you got a little baby and instead of the mother taking cold water, making up whatever day and then taking the bottle and warming it up like it.

Normally they take the hot water water and put it in there and make it part.

And now this hot water got whatever.

Yeah.

Some of the houses are being changed.

Yeah.

We got lead pipes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And lead is not good for especially a miner.

Right, right, right, right, right, right.

No, those are all really good points.

That's interesting.

I didn't.

I didn't think about it that way, but that obviously makes a ton of sense.

Yeah.

So you've mentioned a couple times you're 74 years old.

What.

What would you tell a young entrepreneur right now who's struggling to get started but has a good idea?

One of the things with struggle, it builds character.

I suppose.

So you can't know something until you keep learning.

I mean, we don't come out talking, we don't come out walking.

So there's steps.

Yeah.

In everything.

I've been frustrated a lot.

I'm still frustrated somewhat because until I first podcast.

So this is a documentary.

So normally a nervous person for something like this.

I'm not a person that sits and speak and think it's okay.

You're doing a fantastic job.

But yeah, so what you just asked is you got to just keep going.

You don't back away from your challenges.

You gotta.

Because if you back away, you'll never get to where you're going.

You know, hard to make me go.

Sometimes I would write myself a poem.

I make it up.

And one of them that I wrote myself was called Reflections.

Okay.

And Reflections were.

It was a poem like to reflect on my life was.

I need to reflect on what was in back.

So it would tell me how to move forward.

That's what the meaning of Reflections was.

So I wrote it and I would read it to myself.

Just a little.

Reflections are the things we like.

You'd read this when you were feeling a little down, like.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I don't know where that came from, but all I know is somewhere I would always write something.

And one of them, once again, was reflect.

I would write something that would kind of be my motivator.

And so I would go back and look at that.

Yeah.

Would you tell an older entrepreneur the same thing, same advice?

If you have a 70 year old friend who came to you today and said, hey, I've got this idea.

He came to.

I wouldn't discourage him.

Yeah, I wouldn't.

You know, my.

You talk to believe in people.

Yeah.

That's what, you know, people are.

We're here to help one another and, and to make things better.

Not to be harmed.

You know, we're here to be supportive spiritually.

That's what I was told that, you know, not to convince someone that.

So you got, you know, I believe that when I say my Lord's prayers and I asked him to help me, he tells me in that prayer that forgive those that I think has did something to me and be helpful towards them that has meaning to me.

And so, and so we're all here as contributors to one another.

Not, not to be selfish or, you know, but to be helpful.

So I see that one.

Yeah.

So you, you a 70 year old, you'd say, oh, great idea.

Like, yeah, I tell them, great idea.

Yeah.

As long, as long as you got life.

Yeah.

If you think you can do what you got to do, keep it moving.

What do you need me to do?

If I, if I'm able, I'm able.

I'll try to help you as much as I can.

You know, I do.

I'm not there to discourage, you know, not unless they're trying to do something harmful to someone.

Well, right.

I suppose at that point you might say, hey, wait a minute.

Yeah, yeah.

I don't yeah.

But when it's.

When it's.

It's more positive than it is negative, there's so much for our.

We'll never know.

Our life is so short anyway.

We don't have that long, so we need to be as positive as possible.

It's just so much more opportunity for us as people.

Yeah.

Yeah.

David, this has been fantastic.

You've had so many words of wisdom for young and old entrepreneurs out there, I think today, and I'm very curious to hear what's next for you and where Smart Drain Pro goes.

So hopefully we can have another conversation in the future and you can give us an update on how things are going.

I pray so.

Yeah, I hope that'll be a great thing.

Yeah.

Anyway, thank you for joining us today.

Thanks for being here.

Thanks for telling your story.

And I think everybody who hears this is going to be rooting for you to say, like, okay, when can I buy this at Menards?

Hopefully soon.

Hopefully soon.

Right now, I guess what I could say is that right now is available on the website.

Okay.

It is.

Yeah.

On Smart Drain Pro.

Com.

That's where it's available.

Okay.

When that happens.

Sorry, I'm gonna wrap up, but are they.

Have you already manufactured a set of them?

Yes, I order one.

You've got.

You've got some in stock?

Yes.

And then you'll.

You'll build more as needed.

Yes.

As.

As demand grows.

As demand grows, yes.

Got it.

Yes.

Okay, awesome.

I may actually check that out because I know I have a problem with my water heater and.

Yeah, well, not a very good maintainer of it.

Well, once again, no.

At no fault of your own.

You know about changing your oil in your car.

I do do that.

Yeah.

You're like, I don't want to buy another one.

Yeah.

They're too expensive.

So you do it because, you know.

But.

So there's no fault now that, you know.

Once again, in my.

My mindset, the only way I can do it is try to educate, maybe someone else, pick up the baton and do a bit.

But now, once again, the juniors out of the bottom.

Right.

There's such a thing.

So.

But I thank you for the opportunity and it was great talking to you.

Also great having you here.