Storie: 0:15

Welcome back to Market it With Atma, where we share the tips, tools and strategies to help your business be successful. I'm your host Story and today we have on the show a very special friend of mine, mr David Lloyd, with Flow Water. They are on a mission right now to revolutionize water and I am so excited to have you, david, welcome.

David: 0:36

Thank you very much. Story Happy to be here.

Storie: 0:38

Great Well, today is actually hot outside. Did you bring me water, Janae?

David: 0:43

I did. It's in the car. Thank you.

Storie: 0:44

Thank you for that. So tell us. I know we met at a networking event, right? Yes, here, Actually it was a Nouveau Dust networking event, wasn't it? Silent plug for that one, and I honestly was not expecting what you had to offer. You came in with a little cooler and handed me a bottle, a metal bottle of Flow Water, and we have been working together ever since. So tell me, how did you get into Flow Water and what is it?

David: 1:12

Well, I got into Flow Water about two and a half years ago. I was dealing with some long COVID issues, had resigned from my job in equipment finance as I was having cognition issues as well as fatigue, and just took a few months off to recover my health.

Storie: 1:28

Because of COVID, right, yeah, oh, okay, okay.

David: 1:31

So I had some lung scarring and some other inflammation and during those few months where I wasn't working and really just in bed every day, I started reading about long COVID patients that would do fasting in order to recover. And now they were going to special treatment centers where they would fast for three weeks and be hooked up to IVs to get electrolytes. But still, just reading about it made me want to at least try it for myself.

Storie: 1:55

Yeah, why not?

David: 1:55

Yeah, I'm like let me do a 72 hour fast and see how I feel. Yeah, so during this process and preparing for it, I started looking at quality water, because I knew if I'm going to go for three days with no food and only put water into my body. I want it to be the best.

Storie: 2:11

Right. So what is quality water is kind of what you're researching. Yeah, oh, I gotcha Okay.

David: 2:16

Because there's a spring out in Canton, texas, so during my fast I went out there to bottle it and I just I'd known about this spring for years, since 2016. I visited the Fort Worth water treatment facility a very scarring process. You could see the brown sludge that turns into a clear liquid. All the chemical tanks they have just the smell of it.

Storie: 2:34

For the public water For the public water, oh my and.

David: 2:38

Texas does rank 49th in water infrastructure, so there's high level of leads among all the other things that are drinking water. I was just reading the Fort Worth water report and arsenic is in the Fort Worth drinking water.

Storie: 2:50

Is that an annual report, zayson? Yeah, and it's public. Public Yep, you can go to the Fort Worth website.

David: 2:55

City of Dallas. Those are the two big ones because a lot of the cities like where I live we buy our water from the city of Dallas. We actually used to buy it from the city of Fort Worth, but one of those two cities supplies most of the North Texas towns with their drinking water.

Storie: 3:07

Okay.

David: 3:08

But both have those PFAS forever chemicals as well as all these other contaminants within it. So again, when I was doing this fast, I just wanted to just have, as Bobby Boucher would say, from the water boy, high quality H2O. So, yeah, I say I had gotten some natural spring water, uh, but knew it wasn't a sustainable solutions, since once a year, three hours in the car for like two weeks worth of water with my seven gallon jugs, um, but during this fast I'm one of the best. I just wanted to I started looking at sustainable solutions where I could have access to the similar quality water. That's when I found flow water, so I found the product online. I also saw that they were hiring in the Dallas market, so I needed a job as well.

Storie: 3:48

And it all aligned right, and how long ago was this?

David: 3:51

That was about two and a half years ago. It was Thanksgiving of 2022. I started my fast Saturday after Thanksgiving, so it went Saturday, Sunday, Monday with no food. I broke my fast, ended up going 90 hours and that Tuesday after Thanksgiving I broke my fast around 11. My first interview with Flow Water was at two and part of the job description was be passionate about water. So I told them I'm not just blowing smoke when I tell you this, but water is truly changed my life.

David: 4:17

I'm a big believer in quality hydration, and so I was got not. I also told them, if they don't hire me, they had a customer for life. But I got best of both worlds got it in my house and I also have the dream job of getting out to go talk to people and share the world's best tasting water with them. Share with what makes it different, what makes it impactful and put it to the test.

Storie: 4:39

So how have you been since COVID, since taking on this new I wouldn't say diet, but lifestyle?

David: 4:44

Yeah, it's been a steady progression.

Storie: 4:47

Since.

David: 4:48

COVID, since taking on this new I wouldn't say diet, but lifestyle, yeah, it's been a steady progression. So you know, after that fast I turned myself around.

David: 4:56

Every 24-hour period. During that I would feel just more like my old self. And then, February, a few months after I started working for Flow Water, there was one day I started drinking Flow Water exclusively and 48 hours later I was downtown Dallas for a networking event in the morning, worked my way back home, stopping through Irving and then hitting Flower Mound, where I live, just cold calling until about five o'clock. I went home and I still had all this energy. I couldn't sleep at night. I was just like wired and feeling ready to go.

David: 5:20

And I just put it together with what I'd been telling people for my first month of Flow Water. Is you know, this is going to enhance your energy levels and it certainly had enhanced mine.

Storie: 5:28

Wow, Noticeably so. Tell me more about that. So not only are you helping to purify your body right Drinking water is what everyone knows is helping purify your body, rather than soda or anything like that but you're telling me that, with Flow Water, through your research and working for them, that it also helped you enhance your I mean your stamina throughout the day as well.

David: 5:50

Absolutely, it certainly did. And at this point in time again I'm a month in I've been through the sales training and I'm questioning myself like am I feeling this?

Storie: 6:00

good yeah, you've got to qualify them right and make sure what you're selling is real.

David: 6:08

Yeah, so I definitely questioned if it was the placebo effects that you know I'd had heard all these great things, uh, but then then I started getting my own clients. I started hearing their success stories and that's what let me know. Okay, this is not the placebo effect.

David: 6:17

This is definitely real and every let's say it's been over two years now I've just got so many stories that I can share that people with what they experienced themselves. So it's it's really cool that I've been able to silence that part of my brain that said, hey, maybe this is just that placebo effect. I know without a doubt, it's not.

Storie: 6:36

It's all due to being a quality source of water amongst very poor choices that we have in our society and some people I would say the majority of people don't even know that the choices are so minimal. I mean, we think that even bottled water and I was going to touch on that later is. In your research, you found flow water, but what's to separate you from going with, you know, all the other smart waters and things like that that say they're purifying and helping you? Why did you choose Flow Water before you became an employee?

David: 7:09

Well, big part is say Smart Water is great water. In theory, what they do is similar to Flow Water. They're using an osmosis process to purify the water. They're enriching it with electrolytes and minerals. What separates Flow Water from Smart water? They then package it in a plastic bottle water a bottle and that's absorbing those endocrine disrupting chemicals which, for guys, is lower in testosterone. For women it is causing reproductive issues. Wow and on top of that is also the nanoplastic problem, where they say we're consuming a credit card's worth of plastic every two weeks.

David: 7:43

It's, yeah, it's a frightening situation when you say yeah, it's everywhere and you know a lot of people that I've talked to that are in the field, some engineers that study this. They see it in the air that we breathe, in the food that we eat, in the water that we drink, and it is coming through our tap water as well, in our bottled water. It's causing strokes, it's causing dementia because it's breaking the blood-brain barrier and getting lodged in our brain. Yeah, it's a very dire situation.

Storie: 8:08

Such a small change in your day-to-day life can affect so much. I would have never thought of that until I met you, and I think one of the reasons I wanted to hear more from you is because you truly are passionate about this. You can, it exudes through you and you know you get the sales people that are just trying to sell to you, but it's like you believe in this with with everything in you because, you've seen it yourself Right, and that's amazing.

Storie: 8:34

So when you first came to be with Flow Water, where were they? Where are they out of? And it looks like you've helped them expand over this amount of time.

David: 8:44

Yeah, when I was brought on just over two years ago, dallas was a priority market for them. They had a very limited market presence here and really had made a goal in Texas both Dallas and Houston to hire account executives in these markets to build brand awareness, to gain new customers, and so that was what I was hired to do. You know, coming here, no one's heard of it and they're thinking, oh, I've already got water, because every business does have water in some form. So I say they already feel that they've got what they need, they're good, they don't want to talk about it. So it was very challenging early on. Feel that they've got what they need, they're good, they don't want to talk about it. So it was very challenging early on. But I say, just getting that momentum going yeah, how do you do that?

Storie: 9:27

I kind of diverted you from your last comment on the nanoplastics and the smart water and how you differentiate. So how do you come into a market that's inundated with bottled water and you know, and performance enhancers and things like that, and really expand on the value of this and how are you differentiating from the microorganisms and the plastics and everything like that? What does flow water do? How do you bottle it? Do you bottle it?

David: 9:54

We used to. It's something that we've gotten away from, because there is even research about aluminum, both from a resource standpoint and the quality impact on drinking water. Now it's not as bad as plastic, since plastic does degrade into the water. Aluminum does as well, just very much slower.

Storie: 10:10

You're scaring me, I know.

David: 10:12

That is the worst part of my job. That's why I like to focus on the positive and then any time I can tell that I'm bringing the air out of the room which I've done plenty over the past two years. I always like to put a fun spin on it. I actually do a Wonka character and have sang some songs. That's the story for another day.

Storie: 10:27

Oh my gosh. No, the truth is very much appreciated around here. Whether it's scary or not, we appreciate it, so go ahead.

David: 10:35

So I would say the biggest thing that I do is put in a free trial, because I'll put it on a pedestal and I'll share that story that I want to see your, all of your employees just raving about this, that they're bragging about. Hey, I'm sleeping better at night. I've got more energy during the day. I just feel better. I got cause dehydration's associated with poor moods as well. And that's something I see every time I walk into one of my hotel partners, all the whole staff said, hey, it's the flow water guy pointing fingers, big smiles.

David: 11:00

So it's weird. All my clients, there's just this positive vibe, there's no poor attitude, everyone's just happy.

Storie: 11:06

Yeah, whether it's placebo or not, as long as you're providing something that's actually enhancing them, whether they know it or not. I mean, your demeanor at the end of the day has to be better right at the end of the day. So you're telling me that you do not bottle it anymore.

David: 11:20

Not anymore. I do myself.

Storie: 11:25

I've got some empty aluminum ones.

David: 11:26

So when I bring out samples, like I did for you a couple months ago, those are bottled fresh in the morning so there's no degradation of the aluminum. I say it's just a vessel for transporting that water from my house to wherever I'm going. And I've gotten some nicer ones, like the refillable one which I gave you, so you didn't have the actual can one. It's like a can that I break open no, no. I got some nicer ones that are refillable and you can have long-term that I've been using this year, since we used to sell those on the website as well.

David: 11:49

then they're like hey, we're getting away from that if anybody wants some.

Storie: 11:55

So I'm like I'll take 100% of my way.

David: 11:57

Yeah, it don't even let's say, I've got my business cards and that's about it. Some other of my peers have asked for leave-behinds and I have shared the company's approach to that, which is, you know, we don't want to do that. Like we've got digital technology, we can send somebody an email.

Storie: 12:13

Absolutely, we've got.

David: 12:14

YouTube videos Like if they want anything, we can guide them to our website or to a YouTube channel. Provide them digital content, rather than saying you know, here's a piece of paper. Let me print out a thousand of them and just go canvas around North Texas leaving these pieces.

Storie: 12:26

Yeah, you're just polluting everything in different ways. Right, and so you've had some milestones since you've started expanding the company out here, and it's not just with individuals or mom and pop businesses. These are athletes, these are high-end hotels, from what you've told me, where the results from those different places and wanting to put in this machine right, it plugs into the facility or wherever they want it. What are their feedback on what you've done for them?

David: 13:03

Well, a great one that comes to mind is FC Dallas.

Storie: 13:05

Okay.

David: 13:05

Because it was last April. We put one in there and then they were 10 games into their season. Within those 10 games, they won one game and it was a few draws and mostly losses.

Storie: 13:17

Okay, and we put in the flow water refill station.

David: 13:18

I actually went to a game shortly after that and someone was telling me about their star player, Musa, and we put in the flow water refill station. I actually went to a game shortly after that and someone was telling me about their star player, Moussa, and in my head I'm thinking, oh, I bet this guy looks great drinking flow water. Yeah, and as I'm thinking that he gets the ball on a breakaway at midfield, goes down on a fast break and puts the ball in the back of the net on an uncontested shot four minutes into the game.

David: 13:37

So the game had just started and the whole stadium was going nuts and I'm like, yep, flow Water baby.

Storie: 13:41

We're just going to attribute it all to that, and that's okay.

David: 13:44

But yeah, they did turn their season around. They just missed the playoffs. But for a team that started with one win in their first 10, a very respectable season. I'm excited to see what they do this year.

Storie: 13:53

That is wonderful.

David: 13:54

Because now they've got a whole year of hydrating with Flow Water behind them, and we do work with professional sports teams across the country not at liberty to say all of them, but it's a really cool story. There's one head coach who's very well known, had won some super bowls and just got a collegiate coaching job and we just got an inbound lead from them. Because that coach was actually named as the reference because, as I say, he got to his new job in college and said I want low water for my athletes here.

Storie: 14:20

Wow, yeah. So there there's some realness, I mean, behind this. Just on a straight visual reference these athletes and these coaches would not continue to refer and suggest you and what you have if there wasn't something special to it. So what's the secret sauce?

David: 14:42

Well, the secret sauce is the seven times advanced purification process. That's what separates us from the competitors. Most of them are just using a single filtered solution Usually a carbon filter. Gets some of the chlorine out of the water, gets some stuff you can see with the naked eye.

David: 14:55

Then it's just dispensing the water and saying here you go, ours is using a carbon filter as well as a sediment filter to get just that out of the water, but what it's doing is extending the life of our advanced osmosis system, so it's not getting gunked up with the stuff that filters can handle. It can focus on the microscopic contaminants, like those PFAS, forever chemicals like the arsenic, like all this other junk that's in our tap water that still comes through filters.

David: 15:26

The advanced osmosis eliminates up to 99.9% of those. It really gets the water down to a distilled level Okay, and it uses less wastewater than, or produces less wastewater than, traditional reverse osmosis. Also five times more effective at removing those microscopic contaminants.

Storie: 15:34

Right.

David: 15:35

The problem with any osmosis is it can't be selective. It takes the good with the bad, so you lose electrolytes and minerals in that process. If I walk out of here today, you can Google should I drink reverse osmosis water and it'll say you need to remineralize that water, you need to put the good stuff back in because it's void and that actually strips our body of that.

David: 15:53

Wow as it passes through it because it's void of it and it's like getting it, yeah, so it takes it from us rather than providing that for us, right? So, yeah, so if anyone's got reverse osmosis.

Storie: 16:09

Be sure you're using those LMNT packets, or whatever it comes, you have to add it back in.

David: 16:10

Yes, that's exactly what flow water does you know the first three steps, the sediment, carbon and advanced osmosis is all about purifying the water the next three is all about enriching the water.

David: 16:20

so there's a mineral filter that's got these rocks in it. So the water flows through just like it does in nature, picks up zinc and other proprietary minerals that are in the water. It then goes through an electrolyte filter where it gets sodium, magnesium, potassium and calcium and that process raises the pH of the source water by about 1.5. It can be a little bit higher, but typically the tap water is about a six on the pH scale here in Texas. So it's acidic. It doesn't hydrate us as well. It's not as readily absorbed by our stomach lining and our cells. The benefits of alkaline is it's better absorbed. So this process, with raisin at 1.5, transforms acidic water into alkaline water.

Storie: 16:57

Wow. So you kind of in my mind and this is very lame in terms, I'm sorry everyone you strip it down and then you put everything you need into it, once it's purified of everything, and then you put it in your body and this all happens in a machine when I'm putting my water bottle underneath it.

David: 17:14

Yep, it sure does.

Storie: 17:15

That is amazing. So tell me the difference, obviously, is this advanced process. You say you have a filter, but when I think of like the gem, you put your water bottle underneath it. There's filters at those, right. Sometimes, Tell me more.

David: 17:32

If there's not a bottle count, there's not a filter in it. If there's not a light on like red, green, yellow, there's not a filter in it. Our tech sees it all the time. There's plenty of water fountains out there that do not have filters in them that people assume have that we were actually talking about that earlier today. So, yeah, it happens all the time. People think oh yeah, this is a filtered water station and yeah, the red light comes on. Team just takes the filter out, doesn't put it back.

Storie: 17:56

But what if they don't take the filter out? So you're actually filtering it through all the yuck and muck.

David: 18:01

Yeah, and you see that at the airport all the time. If you ever go to the airport and the water's barely trickling out. It's because it's coming through all that gunk and those filters haven't been changed. The water flow's not there.

Storie: 18:15

So if it's ever trickling, then you know the filter's backed up Now that we're all terrified, you'll have to have low water. So to that point, how often do you have to maintenance this? Obviously, if the hotels and the sporting facilities have you in there, it seems like it would be a low maintenance.

David: 18:30

It definitely is.

Storie: 18:30

Okay.

David: 18:31

There's really no upkeep required from our clients, maybe wiping down the machine every so often, but our technician handles everything when it comes to the maintenance aspect of it. 100% of my clients to this point have done our rental agreement, which comes with 100% warranty throughout the term of that rental. So any service call they have outside the filter change is just included. We cover the cost of sending out the tech parts, labor time. All that's covered under the warranty that comes with the rental. The filter change is considered a consumable but it's something that our technician does as well. He changes out six filters, so it's the first three. I mentioned the mineral and the electrolyte filter. The other two parts of that process is activated oxygen which is pumped into the five gallon holding tank and the two gallon chilling tank.

Storie: 19:16

Wow.

David: 19:17

And then it's finished with a coconut carbon filter, which is the shell of the coconut, so it's hypoallergenic.

Storie: 19:22

So cool it gives the water a crisp, clean taste.

David: 19:24

So, yeah, he changes out all of those filters, does preventative maintenance and it's done either every 12 months, so you've got a year of filter life, which a lot of our competitors have about a 10th of the filter life and capacity, because if you do use 35,000 bottles in less than 12 months, you're going to be due for a filter change.

David: 19:43

So it's about 12,000 gallons of water that comes through. But, as I say, you're saving 35,000 bottles of water and I have had clients that do that and those that get multiple filter changes a year absolutely love it because, again, if you were to equate a cost of 35,000 bottles of water, it's going to be thousands of dollars and so they're saving thousands of dollars just to change filters and have this on site.

Storie: 20:04

So it's really saving any business owner that puts this in their facility a ton of money at the end of the day.

David: 20:11

It really does yeah, there's been some of my clients where this is an investment over their already built-in water fountain.

Storie: 20:19

But, another.

David: 20:19

There's a large section of my clients that it has saved them money. One is Journey to Dream. It's a nonprofit in Louisville, texas.

Storie: 20:26

Okay.

David: 20:26

So they had a five gallon jug dispenser at Kyle's house, which is a place they have these kids who you know they've given a second chance. You know that come from some bad backgrounds.

Storie: 20:36

And.

David: 20:37

I say it's just an incredible place. And when I was talking to the CEO, nisa Greider, she told me about their five-gallon jugs and asked me more about Flow Water. And as I was telling her about it, we got down to brass tacks and she's like well, how much is it? After I shared the cost, she goes. Well, this will save us money.

Storie: 20:54

Wow For a nonprofit. For a nonprofit, that says a lot, right, and that's just direct costs, so we're not factoring in.

David: 21:00

Hey, you've got to go fill up these five-gallon jugs at the store, so we've got to factor in the gas, the time just the manual labor, putting them up, the storage of them because they say they put them in the broom and, as businesses know, every square foot is a square foot that should be producing revenue, Absolutely. So if you're taking up a square foot by just putting down a five gallon jug a lot of my hotel partners have seen that as well you know when.

David: 21:22

I first go in, their back room is just full of empty five gallon jugs and the other half of the room's got the full five gallon jugs and we can eliminate all of that. There's no more need to store all these five gallon jugs all over the place, never have to worry about running out of clean drinking water and resorting to the tap.

Storie: 21:40

Oh, because it taps into the actual water line, right.

David: 21:42

That's incredible.

Storie: 21:43

And to your point about us ingesting a credit card of plastic, having those bottles stored if it's not stored in the appropriate temperature. You're getting more of those chemicals and things in your body with the water sitting there in those jugs, right.

David: 21:58

Yep, there's been a lot of studies that came out about heat produces more of those nanoplastics in the water.

Storie: 22:03

Is it true that can cause cancer? Absolutely, wow.

David: 22:07

And colon cancer awareness month is this month and a national study just came out about a month ago where it talked about colon cancer and these nanoplastics, these PFAS, forever chemicals. Which is related to it's polyethanol all very scientific. You know I read the stuff and yeah.

Storie: 22:24

But I mean sometimes you need somebody to kind of bring it forward to say, hey, I mean you drinking water. I mean my boss has been trying to get me to quit drinking Red Bull for I don't know how long and I won't do it. But even from what you're telling me, if I don't do my research every once in a while or listen to somebody that has done it, I might as well be contaminating myself with almost something worse if I'm drinking the tap water that's really polluted.

David: 22:50

Yeah, full of arsenic and other stuff.

Storie: 22:51

It's scary to me. So I'm so glad I think the universe aligned when we all met because I kind of connected you with one of our wellness facilities as a client and I won't say their name or anything right now, but they are big into one sustainability, which I think everybody should be right now. And two, and to put they truly believe, like you expressed to me, putting the things in your body you need to not only help you survive but be better at everything you do right and I feel like that was a great partnership for you guys.

Storie: 23:23

I mean, it seems like a win-win right now it definitely is, and I say like even this early on, you know it's gone from partnership to friendship.

David: 23:29

That's all thanks to you. I say what? A great introduction and yeah, I said it's great to have. That's. The coolest thing about this job is I don't really call them clients or partners. I've gained so many new friends through this.

Storie: 23:43

That's another good point. I mean at Atmo we work on the build launch growth scale methodology, but explaining that to prospective clients because you could have been a prospective client is completely different than after I get their perspective right. I have been a prospective client is completely different than after I get their perspective right. I feel like a part of our job and I think this is where we had a common ground is we create relationships? If we can't help people, why even be doing what we're doing at the end of the day? And I think that is what truly makes part of business growth successful. Would you agree?

David: 24:17

Absolutely yeah. I tell everybody. I don't want anyone to have buyer's remorse, which is why I'm glad that we do the free trial so that they can test it out.

Storie: 24:24

Ooh, how long is that free trial?

David: 24:25

Typically two weeks.

Storie: 24:27

So we do a two-week free trial.

David: 24:29

I say at the end of two weeks, we don't just show up and yank it out. But you know we do ask for feedback and if it's, I tell everyone the same thing if it's not providing value to your health and to your business, please give it back. We don't want you to have, I don't want this to be a burden.

Storie: 24:41

I want you to say oh, this no-transcript trust someone when you're using a certain type of product or even a service. It's hard these days and I truly appreciate that about the company, not only what you guys are providing, but you guys also are incorporated in some community development as well. So sustainability, helping these businesses and then the community Tell me more about that.

David: 25:34

One story I'd really like to tell when it comes to helping the community is what the company did in Flint, michigan, a number of years ago, so obviously they're dealing with a massive water crisis there. Their lead levels in the water are 45 times.

Storie: 25:43

EPA limit for lead Wow.

David: 25:44

The water's brown coming out of the tap. It's just awful.

Storie: 25:46

They labeled that an epidemic right.

David: 25:49

Yeah, it's just this huge, massive problem that it's still ongoing.

Storie: 25:52

Yeah.

David: 25:53

They'd invited some water companies out there. Flow water went out there. Third-party tests showed that those 45 times levels of lead got down to undetectable levels of lead. There's a picture of the brown water in a bottle versus the flow water connected to the same tap. That's crystal clear. And what really impressed me about the company is that they didn't just go there and, like you know, pound their chest and say, ah, we've got the best product available on the market.

David: 26:15

They donated refill stations to the police department, the fire department and the schools in Flint.

Storie: 26:20

Wow yeah, so you guys were a part of transforming that from not livable to to back to sustaining.

David: 26:28

Yeah, it certainly helps. Kids say they have to go to school, so at least when they go to school they've got access to clean drinking water.

Storie: 26:34

That's terrifying as a parent to think about even the water possibly ruining your whole family. I don't know how many passed away, but um, or didn't pass away, but for the company to want to provide that service and to be there for them, um, to take the initiative, I think it is. It's a big part of business today. A lot of people don't take the initiative. They, they come what's easy, but to actually reach out and help communities, it's, it's huge and being successful in my opinion.

David: 27:04

And then for more of a micro level. You know I've been very involved in my community flower mound that I like to call flow water mound, just cause you really can find it everywhere.

Storie: 27:11

That is a good play on words. You've done your work over there, right?

David: 27:17

Yeah, and it wasn't just, you know, going out and selling, but it was getting involved with the community, not only the chamber of commerce, but volunteering at events.

Storie: 27:22

The.

David: 27:22

Rotary Club does this duck derby? I volunteered to pick up the trash when it was all done, which I felt not only tied into my specialty, since some of the volunteer stuff I do it's usually picking up after the event's done but it just it falls in line with that sustainability. You know, cleaning up, getting all the bags that are full of the water bottles that people are drinking every all day long.

Storie: 27:44

keeping them out of our beautiful flower mound river. So, um, yeah, it's just because some people I mean you want to, you want to keep it clean and you want to go help, but sometimes you don't have the time. So when you do, I mean it's great what you do. It's very admirable that you actually try to give back to the community, because we need more like you.

David: 27:57

Yeah and that's why I really want to be insanely successful here and give you a chance to give back even more and just help all my wonderful clients. A big supporter of their businesses, as I mentioned once at the fc dallas game, but even the smaller ones like flurries and flower mound I'm there multiple times a week getting either beef jerky or something from the deli or just eating a meal there.

Storie: 28:16

Right. I mean, that's a part of of businesses and community is how I'm being there for each other, even if it's just a stop in to get a croissant one day. I mean just showing up now. I know you didn't want to touch on this, but I kind of want to know more. Tell me about coach Denise.

David: 28:32

Okay, yeah, uh, she was my first client at Flow Water and I was going around cold calling, can't remember? I just say it just happened. Stance walked in her door and I know you asked me earlier today. It's actually, I think, the first time anyone has asked me since her what my middle name is.

Storie: 28:46

Right.

David: 28:46

And when I told her my middle name was Winston, she told me that was her father's name.

Storie: 28:50

Oh.

David: 28:51

And so this was like a sign to her that you know this was this was she'd been praying about water and she yeah she cause. She knew she's like water was so important to her because of her past. So she was trying out for the 1988 Olympics as a gymnast and during the physicals they discovered esophageal cancer. So she had part of her or she had her esophagus removed and yeah.

Storie: 29:14

Wow, I didn't even know you could do that.

David: 29:16

I didn't either, and I didn't know that. Another result of that was when she would drink water, like if she came drink tap water, she would regurgitate it. So her body would say, nope, can't, it's too toxic, can't process it just how do you survive? Well, she got prescription strengths, potassium, magnesium supplements, like these things that she wasn't getting from water.

David: 29:35

So very high levels that she was taking? Um, but yeah, I'd say she had just been praying about it. And then I walk in her door, um, and she told me her story. I shared a sample of water and again this is when I'm under the placebo effect, like, is this real?

Storie: 29:48

So I was like right Kind of testing it out? Yeah.

David: 29:51

So. So, after our meeting, I'd left her a bottle and she told me you don't have to be here when I drink this, in case it doesn't go well.

Storie: 29:58

Yeah.

David: 29:59

So I was like, okay, that's fair, don't you be embarrassed or anything. But I look forward to hearing from you after you've had a chance to drink it. At that point, flow Water is new here in this market. We didn't have our warehouse, so we were shipping these free trials directly to people, so we were about two weeks out on delivery.

Storie: 30:13

Okay.

David: 30:14

And she had an event that was coming up that weekend and she's like I'd really like to give out some bottles at the event. So I ended up meeting her halfway between our businesses and brought her a few cases of water, and this was about 48 hours after she had tried the sample and she was just beaming Really.

Storie: 30:31

She told me she's like.

David: 30:31

David, I could feel this hydrating me.

Storie: 30:34

It was, yeah, the life-changing experience for her. I mean to not be able to process water and then actually feel it absorb in your body. That has to be incredible.

David: 30:44

It really was. That's what, as I say, helped. Let me know from the early early days, when I was working for Flow Water, that, yeah, this was not just any product, this is something special. This is something that makes a huge impact and six months later, when she had been a customer, I went to do a Zoom meeting with her and my company.

David: 31:03

I wanted to share her story with my colleagues and they'd asked her to be a special guest on this monthly All Hands that we do. They've been doing it since and she was the first to ever do it and I knew I was. Like technology, it's probably easier if I just show up and say I showed up to get on my Mac with her and get her on the meeting. But before we did that, she lined up her kids that were there that day and said all right, tell Mr David what you think about his water. And just one by one they went. You know, tell me they hate the water at school, they hate the water at home, they just want to drink flow water all the time and some of them just refuse to drink it without flow water.

David: 31:36

So I say, come, bottle up and take the medicine there, especially gymnastics, because I love the taste of it and it is a noticeable taste difference, that's a completely unfiltered response. Yeah.

Storie: 31:52

It seems more like maybe you were brought to her for a reason to really validate what you're doing is right. That's an amazing story.

David: 31:55

Yeah, and, as I say, she's continued to be great and continue to have her own battles. Uh, she's still dealing with the cancer it did. A year ago she had to have part of her stomach removed because it has continued to spread. And I just remember her being so positive when I talked to her on the phone before her surgery. Uh, she said she was on an ice diet and she's like I don't even mind because I'm using Flow Water to make my ice and it tastes so good. And she always had such high spirits. It's still to this day. She's just amazing.

Storie: 32:20

Wow, you can never leave Flow Water.

David: 32:22

I know you really can't.

Storie: 32:25

So if anyone wants to try this free trial, since you cover all of North Texas, right, yep, how can they reach you?

David: 32:32

Many ways. Let's say I'm on LinkedIn, David Lloyd Flow Water. You can actually Google David Flow Water F-L-O-W-A-T-E-R, and an article I did with the Crosstimbers Gazette will pop up, as well as my Instagram Hydrating North Texas Awesome. I can be reached via email at david at drinkflowwatercom. Okay, my LinkedIn page does have a QR code that goes to my digital business card and I don't think anyone scanned it, but it's on there.

Storie: 32:58

I'll go and scan it right after this.

David: 33:00

I just like to make myself accessible, because that is the hardest part. A lot of times people would just go to our website. I mean, this happened after I've cold called the business, walked in their door, gave them my card. Then they just go to the website and unfortunately at that point I don't get to work with them and they don't get to do a free trial. They have to go direct contract. They work with our inside sales team.

David: 33:17

Wow so that's a big thing. Is you know to contact me? I can give them a free trial. Let them test it out. I kind of test driving the car before you drive it off the lot.

Storie: 33:25

Absolutely. Having that personal touch is important, especially from you with all the history that you have and the experience you have with it. If anyone I refer to, I'm giving them your personal cell phone number by the way, because there's something to your story that just brings so much validity to what this is, and I mean you've sold me on it forever. Every business I go to, I'm letting them know about it, so thank you for sharing it with everyone. Oh, yes, my pleasure.

Storie: 33:50

I truly appreciate it, and if anyone wants to reach out to David or has more questions for him, I'll put his information in the chat below his contact information directly, or you can reach out to me and to all of our listeners out there who will be joining us next time. We'll see you then.