Latest / Glovisor Podcast / How He Built a Water Business From Scratch | RKIN | Eric Kurbanov (Ep 68)

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How He Built a Water Business From Scratch | RKIN | Eric Kurbanov (Ep 68) · Glovisor Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: This is the story of building a water business from
0:03
Speaker 1: scratch and making every drop count. Welcome to the Globizer podcast,
0:10
Speaker 1: where we explore business growth, communication, and personal development through
0:14
Speaker 1: real conversations with people that make an impact. Our guest
0:18
Speaker 1: built his company from the ground up in one of
0:21
Speaker 1: the most challenging economic periods with a vision to make
0:26
Speaker 1: pure drinking water more accessible. He is the CEO of
0:29
Speaker 1: Arkin Water Systems. Glowvisor welcomes Eric Korbanoff.
0:34
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me on, Joe. It's my pleasure. Oh, likewise.
0:38
Speaker 1: Looking forward to the conversation. So, Eric, let's begin. Please
0:42
Speaker 1: share with us a little bit more about what you do.
0:44
Speaker 3: We do water systems and that's the main focus of
0:49
Speaker 3: our company. We also have air purifiers, but that's the
0:52
Speaker 3: newest addition to our family of products. And basically anything
0:57
Speaker 3: that has to do with water for your home or
0:59
Speaker 3: for your business, we do it. We have countertop water
1:02
Speaker 3: systems that people who rent can use because they don't
1:06
Speaker 3: need any installation or connections. And we also do whole
1:10
Speaker 3: home water systems for people who own their house and
1:13
Speaker 3: would like to have the water treated throughout the entire
1:17
Speaker 3: home as well.
1:18
Speaker 1: I want to talk about a lot of those, but
1:19
Speaker 1: let's begin with the first question I have for you
1:22
Speaker 1: that I've been meaning to ask you this whole time is,
1:25
Speaker 1: where did you come up with the name Arkin?
1:27
Speaker 2: The name Arkin, it's a journey.
1:30
Speaker 3: And it has quite interesting story, at least for me,
1:34
Speaker 3: that I would like to share how it ended up
1:37
Speaker 3: with name Arkin. So a few years back, we were
1:41
Speaker 3: kind of on a crossroads. And I had to make
1:44
Speaker 3: a decision. We had a partnership with a manufacturer that
1:48
Speaker 3: made some of our products in the past. And now
1:53
Speaker 3: I had to make a decision. We're going to create
1:55
Speaker 3: our own brand because we wanted to expand into whole
1:58
Speaker 3: home systems and also kind of differentiate and have that
2:06
Speaker 3: mark as a new stage in companies evolution. And most
2:11
Speaker 3: of the time what new companies do when they change
2:14
Speaker 3: a name or create a new brand name is they
2:17
Speaker 3: register it. And I thought that I'm quite creative and
2:23
Speaker 3: that I would be able to come up with a
2:26
Speaker 3: cool name and have it registered with the U.S.
2:31
Speaker 2: Government for patents and et cetera as a brand name.
2:35
Speaker 3: Well, it turns out that all the cool names already
2:39
Speaker 3: taken and I spent like weeks trying to figure out
2:44
Speaker 3: what should we do? What should we call this company?
2:48
Speaker 3: And I came up with this one name. I went
2:51
Speaker 3: out there, I looked it up. Yes, nobody has registered yet.
2:56
Speaker 3: And also the website was also available. I could get
3:01
Speaker 3: the domain name. And I thought to myself, you know what?
3:04
Speaker 3: I'm just going to think about it one night before
3:08
Speaker 3: it pulls trigger and we're going to do it in
3:10
Speaker 3: the morning. I came in the very next day, 9 a.m.
3:14
Speaker 3: I'm like, all right, let's do it. And as soon
3:18
Speaker 3: as I went to the website, tried to put the
3:22
Speaker 3: name in, someone.
3:23
Speaker 2: Else had registered that night.
3:26
Speaker 3: I'm like, no way. It crushed me emotionally. It crushed
3:33
Speaker 3: me physically. I'm like, I spent so much time and
3:37
Speaker 3: somebody beat me to it.
3:39
Speaker 2: Pretty crazy.
3:40
Speaker 3: And I thought to myself, well, you know, a lot
3:43
Speaker 3: of companies are named for their founder's name, right? And
3:49
Speaker 3: my Uzbek name is spelled Erkin, E-R-K-I-N. But when I
3:57
Speaker 3: was in high school and some early college years, you know,
4:02
Speaker 3: people would make fun of me and they're like, Erkin, Jerkin.
4:04
Speaker 3: I'm like, yeah, we're not doing Erkin. Erkin, because people
4:08
Speaker 3: would mispronounce it, and I still have those scars from
4:10
Speaker 3: way back in the day. I'm like, okay, so what
4:14
Speaker 3: do we do? I thought about it a little bit longer.
4:17
Speaker 3: We'll just take the E off of it, and it's
4:19
Speaker 3: going to be a four-letter word. A good one, hopefully.
4:24
Speaker 3: And the domain was also available. I'm like, I'm not
4:27
Speaker 3: sleeping on this another night. We're doing it right now, today.
4:32
Speaker 3: I went out there and registered it, and that's how
4:35
Speaker 3: we ended up with a name. A lot of people
4:37
Speaker 3: have trouble pronouncing it, and I completely understand why. The
4:42
Speaker 3: easiest way that I can say or communicate how to
4:45
Speaker 3: pronounce it is just imagine if a pirate was saying that,
4:50
Speaker 3: and you're just going to say, Arkin.
4:53
Speaker 1: That's a good way to remember it. Sounds to me
4:56
Speaker 1: like a good commercial for you locally. Now, Eric, what
5:00
Speaker 1: inspired you to get into this path?
5:03
Speaker 3: So water systems and water in general kind of ties
5:06
Speaker 3: in into my childhood as well. Growing up in former
5:09
Speaker 3: Soviet Union Republic, Uzbekistan, during those years, right after the
5:17
Speaker 3: collapse and when our country, the Republic, had become independent,
5:24
Speaker 3: a lot of infrastructure had started to fall apart and
5:27
Speaker 3: started to fall apart fast. Now, I grew up in
5:30
Speaker 3: a small town. And a lot of small towns were
5:34
Speaker 3: the first ones that lost that infrastructure support.
5:37
Speaker 2: So when I was.
5:38
Speaker 3: Growing up, we would get water only once or twice
5:43
Speaker 3: a day in the morning and in the evening. And
5:46
Speaker 3: that's only for 30, 40 minutes at a time. And
5:50
Speaker 3: the water quality also wasn't really that good. Every once
5:54
Speaker 3: in a while, it wasn't uncommon to see creepy crawlers
6:00
Speaker 3: kind of swimming around in the water as well. And
6:04
Speaker 3: what we used to do, you never drink water directly
6:08
Speaker 3: from the tap.
6:09
Speaker 2: You always boil it. And even when you did boil.
6:12
Speaker 3: It, you would kind of put it in a glass jar,
6:16
Speaker 3: you know, like one gallon glass jar. And you let
6:20
Speaker 3: the water settle because the water was so hard. There
6:23
Speaker 3: are so many minerals in it that after you boil it,
6:26
Speaker 3: you can see on the bottom, there's this like kind
6:29
Speaker 3: of layer of things kind of just settling off. And
6:33
Speaker 3: you would only drink the top part. So that's my
6:37
Speaker 3: childhood in the background. And then when I came to
6:40
Speaker 3: United States, you know, things were great. There was never
6:45
Speaker 3: shortage of water. There was water always on and there's
6:49
Speaker 3: no problems with it. So I found it quite enjoyable.
6:53
Speaker 3: And I also got used to it very fast. A
6:56
Speaker 3: little bit further, fast forward, I started working and after college.
7:06
Speaker 3: And I bought my first house. And I wasn't even
7:09
Speaker 3: 21 yet. And that home was a little bit outside
7:13
Speaker 3: of town. And it had its own well water system
7:18
Speaker 3: where the water was coming out. That portion was working great.
7:21
Speaker 3: And then in the kitchen, under the sink, it had
7:24
Speaker 3: a drinking water system, which kind of filtered it even more.
7:32
Speaker 3: And gave her this great drinking water. And we started
7:35
Speaker 3: using it. Kind of got used to it. And it
7:38
Speaker 3: was great. Again, we don't have to buy bottled water anymore.
7:43
Speaker 3: And didn't think much of it. So a couple years
7:48
Speaker 3: down the road, sold that home. Ended up buying another house.
7:51
Speaker 3: Now in town.
7:53
Speaker 2: And I thought I was moving up in life. And
7:57
Speaker 2: we moved in. And I found myself....
8:01
Speaker 3: Drinking buying bottled water again i'm like what's going on
8:05
Speaker 3: that doesn't make sense what what's happening here and then
8:09
Speaker 3: like oh yeah we had that water system and i
8:12
Speaker 3: started doing research what it was found out that it
8:14
Speaker 3: was a reverse osmosis system and started looking for you
8:19
Speaker 3: know where i can buy one put one in or
8:21
Speaker 3: have someone come in and install it couldn't find it
8:24
Speaker 3: anywhere This was.
8:25
Speaker 2: Like 2007, 2008. It's very early.
8:29
Speaker 3: The internet was around, but it's not as robust as
8:34
Speaker 3: it is today. And you could find things, but it
8:36
Speaker 3: wasn't as easy. Then one day, by pure chance, strolling
8:41
Speaker 3: around in Costco, I saw a box that had a
8:45
Speaker 3: picture of the system that looked just like we had
8:50
Speaker 3: one in the previous home.
8:52
Speaker 2: I'm like, this is it. Put it in.
8:55
Speaker 3: Absolutely loved it. I was so excited about it. And
8:59
Speaker 3: I was working at local mining company here at the quarry.
9:05
Speaker 3: We were digging rock and sand and et cetera that
9:07
Speaker 3: was used for building the homes around that time. And everybody,
9:12
Speaker 3: all the people that were on my crew, they all
9:17
Speaker 3: ended up buying one from me. Not because they couldn't
9:21
Speaker 3: go out there and get one from Costco themselves. They
9:24
Speaker 3: just wanted one to support me. And also they want
9:26
Speaker 3: someone else to do the work for them because they
9:28
Speaker 3: didn't want to become a water expert. They were technically
9:32
Speaker 3: inclined people that could have done it themselves, but it
9:35
Speaker 3: does involve doing your research, reading all the manuals in
9:41
Speaker 3: detail and making sure you have all the tools, et cetera.
9:43
Speaker 3: So they had me do it. I'm like, wow, there
9:46
Speaker 3: may be something to it. And that's how it all started.
9:53
Speaker 1: What's interesting is that you went from a poor water
9:56
Speaker 1: quality situation to what's considered to be a really good
10:00
Speaker 1: quality situation right the opposite end of it that's correct
10:04
Speaker 1: yeah but some people don't realize that even the great
10:07
Speaker 1: water system that we had they have a lot of
10:10
Speaker 1: impurities in it there's still a lot to filter through
10:13
Speaker 1: in order to have the best quality so that's great
10:16
Speaker 1: that you did your research and put it all together
10:19
Speaker 1: but Can we go back to one thing is you
10:21
Speaker 1: had mentioned that you found a system that was reverse osmosis.
10:26
Speaker 1: Can you just give us a short explanation of what
10:28
Speaker 1: reverse osmosis is?
10:29
Speaker 2: Sure.
10:30
Speaker 3: So the reverse osmosis originally developed by, well, as far
10:36
Speaker 3: as the water system is concerned, I believe by NASA
10:40
Speaker 3: for astronauts to kind of filter and reuse their pee.
10:45
Speaker 2: On the long journeys. So that's how powerful it is.
10:49
Speaker 3: And it's the only process for water filtration that gives
10:55
Speaker 3: you both the quality and the most cost-effective way of
10:59
Speaker 3: doing it. It does waste a little bit of water
11:03
Speaker 3: because it kind of splits the water in two sections.
11:06
Speaker 3: On one side, you have pure, pure water. And on
11:08
Speaker 3: the other side, you'll have some impurities. And that portion
11:11
Speaker 3: goes into the drain. But even with that, when you
11:15
Speaker 3: calculate everything in, it's the most efficient way to purify water.
11:20
Speaker 2: And that's all people need to know.
11:22
Speaker 3: There's a lot of articles out there, opinions out there
11:27
Speaker 3: by companies that's selling different filters, other filters than reverse
11:32
Speaker 3: osmosis that try to kind of give different perspective on
11:39
Speaker 3: the technology itself. But when you boil down to dollars
11:42
Speaker 3: and cents, it's the most efficient way to filter water.
11:46
Speaker 1: The regular filter really only filters out the bigger particulates.
11:51
Speaker 1: It doesn't really filter what's dissolved into the water. And
11:55
Speaker 1: that's where reverse osmosis can really get down really deep
11:58
Speaker 1: into what's dissolved, which is much, much smaller. That's my
12:03
Speaker 1: understanding of it. Yes, Joe, you're absolutely correct.
12:06
Speaker 3: So we've got to look at what's out there and
12:09
Speaker 3: what's being used for water filtration to compare. Way back
12:13
Speaker 3: in the day, in the early 80s, people used to
12:16
Speaker 3: have distillers. And what distillation does, it kind of evaporates,
12:21
Speaker 3: boils the water, and then collects the steam. And steam
12:27
Speaker 3: is like one of the most purest ways you can
12:30
Speaker 3: get water. There's some VOCs that escape, but you can
12:33
Speaker 3: filter them out.
12:34
Speaker 2: Afterwards with carbon filtration.
12:37
Speaker 3: But the problem with distillation and distillers from back in
12:41
Speaker 3: the day, number one, they're very energy-consuming. And number two,
12:47
Speaker 3: they require quite a bit of maintenance because the water
12:50
Speaker 3: you're putting in is not that great quality to begin with.
12:54
Speaker 3: And if you notice, like if you have a kettle
12:56
Speaker 3: or like something where you boil water constantly, you will
13:00
Speaker 3: notice that buildup on the inside and it gets really
13:05
Speaker 3: thick really fast. The same thing happens in the distilleries
13:08
Speaker 3: as well because it's the same process. So you have
13:10
Speaker 3: to constantly maintain, clean and scrub and et cetera. So
13:14
Speaker 3: Very inefficient process. That's what reverse osmosis replaced. And other
13:22
Speaker 3: filters out there that are now being used quite often
13:28
Speaker 3: is carbon filtration. And carbon filtration uses carbon media, which
13:33
Speaker 3: is basically in the easiest way to explain, just charcoal.
13:40
Speaker 3: What it does, it pulls the contaminants out of the water.
13:44
Speaker 3: and holds on to them. So once the carbon is
13:49
Speaker 3: full of contaminants and kind of, it no longer has
13:53
Speaker 3: the ability to pull stuff out, it no longer functions.
13:57
Speaker 3: So you have a limited capacity in the media itself.
14:01
Speaker 3: With reverse osmosis, because reverse osmosis does not filter water
14:07
Speaker 3: in technical terms, but it purifies it, only a certain
14:12
Speaker 3: amount Only the water is big enough to pass through
14:17
Speaker 3: the membrane cell. And anything that's bigger than water molecule
14:22
Speaker 3: itself gets rejected.
14:24
Speaker 2: It doesn't get through.
14:26
Speaker 3: So you would only get technically just nothing but water
14:30
Speaker 3: coming through it. And that's what makes it wonderful. And
14:34
Speaker 3: also the membranes last very long time, anywhere between two
14:38
Speaker 3: to four years, sometimes even longer.
14:41
Speaker 2: Why?
14:41
Speaker 3: Because they're not technically holding on to the contaminants. They're
14:47
Speaker 3: just rejecting them from coming through the barrier on the
14:51
Speaker 3: pure water side. And that's what makes it so amazing.
14:54
Speaker 2: Interesting.
14:55
Speaker 1: You know, I was just thinking that I have a
14:57
Speaker 1: water system that's in my garage, and then every night
15:01
Speaker 1: what it does is, or every other day, I hear
15:04
Speaker 1: it flushing out. What does it do?
15:07
Speaker 3: So you most likely have a backwashing carbon filter or
15:13
Speaker 3: a water softener. And both of them, we don't do
15:19
Speaker 3: backwashing carbon filters because we have found a way to
15:22
Speaker 3: achieve the same or similar result without using.
15:25
Speaker 2: The power head. So I'll cover the water.
15:29
Speaker 3: Softener a little bit more in detail because you cannot
15:33
Speaker 3: avoid that in a water softener. But in carbon filters,
15:35
Speaker 3: you can. So With a water softener, when it regenerates,
15:41
Speaker 3: do you use salt in your water system?
15:42
Speaker 2: Do you put salt? Okay, perfect.
15:44
Speaker 3: So then it's 100% water softener. And what it's doing
15:50
Speaker 3: when it's using the salt, it's regenerating the media inside
15:55
Speaker 3: the water softener to recharge it and replenish it with
15:59
Speaker 3: salt ions. So next morning or the next day, when
16:04
Speaker 3: you go back to using the water, the media is
16:07
Speaker 3: recharged and ready to go for the following process. When
16:11
Speaker 3: the water is flowing through it, those little tiny beads,
16:15
Speaker 3: the media inside, they look for calcium and magnesium, which
16:20
Speaker 3: are hardness minerals, and they're.
16:22
Speaker 2: Pulling them out from water.
16:24
Speaker 3: But now the water is out of balance because when
16:27
Speaker 3: it came in, it had the calcium and magnesium, you
16:29
Speaker 3: pulled it out and it needs to replace it with something.
16:32
Speaker 3: And it gives that salt back. And this way you,
16:37
Speaker 3: physically removing hardness minerals and doing it in a very
16:41
Speaker 3: efficient and replenishable way by exchanging it with salt. So
16:48
Speaker 3: the water will taste a little bit salty, but it
16:52
Speaker 3: will not have hardness minerals in it. And a benefit
16:56
Speaker 3: of that is hardness minerals will build up in plumbing,
17:00
Speaker 3: on appliances, inside of water bearing appliances, on your fixtures,
17:04
Speaker 3: on your shower doors, the tubs. et cetera, you name it,
17:08
Speaker 3: it's going to build up everywhere. But because salt is
17:12
Speaker 3: different in its chemistry and how it reacts with surfaces,
17:17
Speaker 3: it doesn't build up.
17:18
Speaker 2: So you don't.
17:19
Speaker 3: Have that negative effect of having hard water and you
17:23
Speaker 3: have salt water. Now, one question that I may have
17:27
Speaker 3: is why is it regenerating every two nights? It seems
17:32
Speaker 3: like if you're on seedy water, it probably should be
17:35
Speaker 3: a little bit longer.
17:38
Speaker 2: In between regenerations.
17:41
Speaker 3: Depending on the size and how many people in a
17:43
Speaker 3: home and the usage in a home, we have our
17:48
Speaker 3: water systems, our water softeners, what we call smart or
17:51
Speaker 3: metered softeners, and they will only regenerate based on usage.
17:57
Speaker 3: So let's say you have one, two, three bathroom size
18:01
Speaker 3: water softener, and it can handle, let's say, 3,000 or 5,000 gallons.
18:08
Speaker 3: based on the hardness that's water that's coming in, it
18:13
Speaker 3: will only regenerate when it's coming close to that limit.
18:17
Speaker 3: There are still systems out there that don't have that
18:21
Speaker 3: functionality where you just set it, let's say, every two days,
18:25
Speaker 3: every three days, or however period that the installer determines,
18:32
Speaker 3: and it just runs nonstop. and it's costing you more
18:37
Speaker 3: in water because every time the system regenerates, it uses water,
18:41
Speaker 3: and it's also costing you more in salt because you're
18:45
Speaker 3: just using it up even though that you may not
18:47
Speaker 3: need it. One clear way to demonstrate why this is important,
18:53
Speaker 3: so for example, let's say a whole family goes on
18:56
Speaker 3: a vacation, right, and you're out for a week. There's
19:00
Speaker 3: no water usage, but those timer-based systems, they will still
19:05
Speaker 3: go on and regenerate and use that salt and go
19:07
Speaker 3: through the cleaning process every two, three days or whatever. Now,
19:13
Speaker 3: with a metered system or a smart system like ours,
19:17
Speaker 3: it will estimate the gallons and it will know like, hey,
19:19
Speaker 3: nobody's using it. I don't need to regenerate. I'm still
19:22
Speaker 3: full of capacity.
19:23
Speaker 2: I'm going to wait.
19:24
Speaker 3: Now, the opposite of that, let's say, you know, it
19:28
Speaker 3: was set up for every three days and it's really
19:31
Speaker 3: close in timing for what the system needs. But you
19:35
Speaker 3: have people come over and now you have two, three
19:38
Speaker 3: more people in a household. Everybody's taking showers. Now your usage,
19:42
Speaker 3: let's say double and you need to regenerate every day instead.
19:46
Speaker 3: um the system will not know it but a smart
19:49
Speaker 3: system will be able to say hey i'm now i'm
19:52
Speaker 3: running low i need to do it sooner.
19:54
Speaker 1: You had mentioned at the very beginning all the different
19:56
Speaker 1: products that you offer which is a lot more than
19:59
Speaker 1: a lot of other competitors or people that are out
20:01
Speaker 1: there so can you share with us a little bit
20:03
Speaker 1: more again because you mentioned one that i know a
20:07
Speaker 1: lot of people that are renting need to acquire because
20:11
Speaker 1: they just can't have an installation.
20:12
Speaker 2: Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
20:14
Speaker 3: Yeah, so this was one of our first products that
20:20
Speaker 3: kind of made a lot of sense to me because
20:26
Speaker 3: I spend a lot of time on the phone in
20:29
Speaker 3: my early days with customers. Somebody calls in, I would answer,
20:33
Speaker 3: I would help them figure out which system they need,
20:35
Speaker 3: what is the best way to install it, and et cetera,
20:38
Speaker 3: et cetera. And every time the people would come back, Hey,
20:42
Speaker 3: I really want your system, but I'm not allowed to
20:45
Speaker 3: put one in.
20:45
Speaker 2: I'm still renting. Okay.
20:48
Speaker 3: Then we came out with a countertop system that would
20:51
Speaker 3: have like lines, the tubing that would connect to the faucet, right?
20:57
Speaker 3: You can use those little adapters that would connect to
20:59
Speaker 3: your faucet. And then you have one tube going into
21:02
Speaker 3: the system, another tube coming out of the system for the, for.
21:04
Speaker 2: That reject water or bad water with all the contaminants
21:07
Speaker 2: in it.
21:09
Speaker 3: And then, talking with customers, I really like your system,
21:13
Speaker 3: but my faucet doesn't use the same adapter.
21:16
Speaker 2: What can I do? Or the adapter is great, but
21:20
Speaker 2: it really gets on the way every time when I'm.
21:22
Speaker 3: Using the sink because I'm washing dishes and it's not
21:27
Speaker 3: the best experience for me. So based on that, how
21:32
Speaker 3: can we make a system that doesn't require Any plumbing
21:37
Speaker 3: doesn't require you connecting it to your faucet, to kitchen faucet.
21:42
Speaker 3: And it's just standalone, very similar to coffee maker concept.
21:46
Speaker 3: And it was really one of the first in the U.S.
21:49
Speaker 3: market that fully accomplished that. And we still do have it.
21:53
Speaker 3: It's the same model. It's almost 20, it's almost like
21:58
Speaker 3: over 15 years now that we had it on the market.
22:01
Speaker 2: And works great. Does what it needs to do.
22:07
Speaker 3: The design is very friendly for longevity, meaning that it
22:14
Speaker 3: has been specifically designed to be able to replace any
22:19
Speaker 3: part in it that fails. Any part that fails, you
22:23
Speaker 3: can replace it. And we had customers that had been
22:27
Speaker 3: using it for like 10, 15 years. And it's an
22:33
Speaker 3: amazing product.
22:34
Speaker 2: It will stay alive.
22:35
Speaker 3: It will not die if you're willing to support it.
22:39
Speaker 1: So say I own my own home. What are the
22:42
Speaker 1: products that you offer?
22:43
Speaker 3: So we usually recommend the number one thing, and it's
22:47
Speaker 3: kind of interesting.
22:51
Speaker 2: There is a little bit of twist to it.
22:52
Speaker 3: Because whole home water systems cost quite a bit more
22:57
Speaker 3: than a drinking water system like you would install.
23:00
Speaker 2: For example, for under the sink.
23:03
Speaker 3: So when customers ask us, if I get the whole
23:07
Speaker 3: home system, do I still need.
23:09
Speaker 2: An under sink drinking water system?
23:12
Speaker 3: And I think they may be expecting an answer that
23:15
Speaker 3: we're going to say no, because, you know, you just
23:17
Speaker 3: get the whole house system and it takes care of everything.
23:20
Speaker 2: Don't worry about it.
23:21
Speaker 3: Just buy the most expensive thing, which is, in my opinion,
23:25
Speaker 3: is not the case because the whole home systems, right?
23:30
Speaker 3: They do a great job at filtration and treatment.
23:35
Speaker 2: Of large volumes of water.
23:38
Speaker 3: If you think about it, more than probably 90% of
23:40
Speaker 3: water usage in a household doesn't get consumed. You're washing dishes,
23:46
Speaker 3: washing clothes, flushing toilets, showering, and et cetera, et cetera.
23:49
Speaker 3: So the water that goes into entire home can benefit
23:54
Speaker 3: from being filtered.
23:56
Speaker 2: Yes, of course. But does it have to be absolutely clean?
24:00
Speaker 3: Purified with reverse osmosis, which is kind of like the
24:04
Speaker 3: top-notch level of cleanliness you can get in a home setting.
24:11
Speaker 2: No, it doesn't.
24:12
Speaker 3: So the general recommendation is, first and foremost, take care
24:18
Speaker 3: of drinking water system because whatever you're consuming goes inside
24:24
Speaker 3: of your body, has to be the best quality you.
24:26
Speaker 2: Can get, period.
24:29
Speaker 3: And then once that's taken care of, think about whole
24:33
Speaker 3: home filtration.
24:34
Speaker 1: You've taken that a step further, and now you added
24:37
Speaker 1: also some.
24:38
Speaker 2: Type of air filtration. Air purifier, that's correct. Can you
24:43
Speaker 2: tell us a little bit more about that?
24:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, so air purifier, it kind of came out of
24:48
Speaker 3: my personal pain with air purifiers. Again, you can see
24:53
Speaker 3: the pattern they're developing. So I myself had severe... allergies
24:59
Speaker 3: up to about two years ago and like taking claritin
25:05
Speaker 3: d every day for like 10 15 years crazy so
25:09
Speaker 3: we always use like very high-end filters for the ac
25:16
Speaker 3: and then also for the air purifiers at home trying
25:19
Speaker 3: to minimize that the the allergies and then my middle
25:23
Speaker 3: child who is now nine also ended up having allergies
25:27
Speaker 3: out of nowhere. So we, we, we got like air
25:30
Speaker 3: purifiers again that I bought in Costco in every room,
25:35
Speaker 3: in every bedroom of the, um, of the house for,
25:39
Speaker 3: for all the family members. I probably should have bought
25:42
Speaker 3: the Costco stock many years ago. I still haven't done it.
25:46
Speaker 3: I probably should do it.
25:49
Speaker 1: I know where I'm going to find you this weekend.
25:52
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness. Yeah.
25:54
Speaker 3: So, and, We got these air purifiers and this was
25:58
Speaker 3: years ago. And every time when I go to replace
26:01
Speaker 3: the filters, they do have an app, right? I go
26:06
Speaker 3: to the app and they don't list the filters. I
26:11
Speaker 3: can't find the model number. So I have to go
26:14
Speaker 3: Google it. And then there's like three different layers. I
26:17
Speaker 3: don't know which one to get. Setting up schedules. That's
26:21
Speaker 3: what I like to do with my air purifiers. I
26:23
Speaker 3: just set the schedule up. Hey, turn on at night.
26:26
Speaker 3: And then everybody, when everybody leaves in the morning, just
26:29
Speaker 3: go ahead and shut yourself off because there's really no
26:31
Speaker 3: need to filter air when nobody's at home. That's very cumbersome.
26:37
Speaker 3: And you almost have to have a computer science degree
26:39
Speaker 3: to set one up. If I have this problem, a
26:42
Speaker 3: lot of people probably have this problem. So we developed
26:46
Speaker 3: an air purifier that takes care of all of that.
26:49
Speaker 3: One single filter. You don't have to remember what it is.
26:52
Speaker 3: It's listed in the app. You just click on it.
26:53
Speaker 3: It takes you directly to the page when you need
26:56
Speaker 3: to order it. and setting the schedules super easy. Just
27:03
Speaker 3: a couple taps, boom, you're done. Put in a time
27:06
Speaker 3: that you want it on, put a time that you
27:08
Speaker 3: want it off. And the ones in my house, I
27:11
Speaker 3: haven't touched, logged in an app, now probably more than
27:15
Speaker 3: two years.
27:17
Speaker 2: So it just kind of runs on its own.
27:19
Speaker 3: And that's what I believe the great product is, is
27:24
Speaker 3: once you have it and you start using it, you
27:27
Speaker 3: forget that you have it. You're just getting the benefit
27:30
Speaker 3: out of it and it doesn't get in the way.
27:31
Speaker 1: Now, if a customer calls Arkin today, will they be
27:35
Speaker 1: able to just go through their situation with you and
27:37
Speaker 1: then you'll be able to provide them and ship to
27:41
Speaker 1: them the right product?
27:43
Speaker 2: Yes.
27:44
Speaker 3: Yes. So, we do have a customer service team that
27:48
Speaker 3: handles all the incoming calls. I do participate in certain
27:52
Speaker 3: whole home consultations up to this day. I want to
27:54
Speaker 3: stay connected. And, Also, we ship all over the United
28:00
Speaker 3: States and even into Canada. We may even be shipping
28:05
Speaker 3: into Mexico as well. So the option is out there.
28:09
Speaker 3: If you're looking to get something, we will get the
28:14
Speaker 3: right product to you.
28:15
Speaker 1: I'm sure after all these years, you have at least
28:18
Speaker 1: one amazing story that someone has had great success using
28:23
Speaker 1: your products. Do you mind sharing one of those?
28:26
Speaker 2: Yes, of course.
28:26
Speaker 3: So I got two. One is a personal anecdote and
28:30
Speaker 3: the second one is about the customer. So I'm going
28:32
Speaker 3: to share the one that's my personal one first.
28:36
Speaker 2: That's okay. So I used to have eczema.
28:41
Speaker 3: On my hand and kind of felt a little bit,
28:45
Speaker 3: you know, concerned about it, what people see, it doesn't
28:48
Speaker 3: look good. So I used creams and all that. And
28:51
Speaker 3: then I also had on my feet as well. But
28:55
Speaker 3: once we have moved into, and I was able to
28:59
Speaker 3: put in a water system, within like a couple years,
29:04
Speaker 3: cleared up, and it's gone. Now I don't have it.
29:08
Speaker 3: Is it related to water system or something else? I'm
29:11
Speaker 3: still in the same area. I don't know, but now
29:14
Speaker 3: it's gone. And so that's the first. And some people
29:21
Speaker 3: may want to know further into it. I know a
29:24
Speaker 3: lot of people when they call us, they have, they
29:26
Speaker 3: mentioned that they have some skin issues, uh, potentially due
29:29
Speaker 3: to chlorine or hard water and.
29:34
Speaker 2: Et cetera, et cetera.
29:34
Speaker 3: So I believe it helped me and, can also help
29:39
Speaker 3: other people. Now, that's a personal side. Second side involving
29:45
Speaker 3: one of our customers. And this one is very near
29:51
Speaker 3: and dear to me because my grandparents still alive on
29:56
Speaker 3: my mom's side. And the one gentleman called, he must
30:03
Speaker 3: have been like 80 years old. He goes, you know, Eric,
30:06
Speaker 3: I'm kind of living up my last, what seems like
30:12
Speaker 3: last few years and I want to enjoy it. And
30:14
Speaker 3: he goes, I always wanted, you know, I like to
30:16
Speaker 3: take baths. And, but my water is just really bad
30:21
Speaker 3: around here and around this area. I want a water
30:24
Speaker 3: system that will make my baths, you know, water nice
30:28
Speaker 3: and soft and so I can enjoy. So, okay, we
30:31
Speaker 3: went through, we figured out exactly what he needs. The
30:34
Speaker 3: system got shipped. It got installed. The guy did a
30:37
Speaker 3: great job installing the system, someone else that he hired.
30:42
Speaker 3: And then later on, he calls and he said, I
30:44
Speaker 3: want to talk to Eric. And I get on the phone.
30:48
Speaker 3: He goes, Eric, you know what? The first time in
30:53
Speaker 3: my life, I took a bath yesterday and And it
30:58
Speaker 3: was the best bath I ever.
31:01
Speaker 2: Had coming from an 80-year-old person.
31:05
Speaker 3: And I said, you know what? Thank you for sharing that.
31:10
Speaker 3: I needed to hear that. Because I personally myself like
31:13
Speaker 3: to take baths as well. You know, I go to gym,
31:16
Speaker 3: I work out, you know, sometimes a little bit of
31:18
Speaker 3: elbows get, or joints get a little bit sore, put
31:21
Speaker 3: a little bit of Epsom salt in the soap for 20,
31:24
Speaker 3: 30 minutes.
31:25
Speaker 2: Feels good. So I can relate.
31:27
Speaker 3: I'm like, this is one of the stories, you know,
31:30
Speaker 3: I wish I could do the same thing for my grandparents.
31:35
Speaker 3: And I just made my day for so many, like
31:38
Speaker 3: for weeks on after that episode that has happened.
31:43
Speaker 1: Well, it sounds to me like an amazing review. Now, Eric,
31:46
Speaker 1: if listeners remember only one thing from today's conversation, what
31:49
Speaker 1: do you hope that message is?
31:51
Speaker 3: Maybe I could share two things. One on the business side.
31:56
Speaker 3: and in the business side is when you're just starting
31:59
Speaker 3: out or even in the hardest moments when you're kind
32:04
Speaker 3: of laying down at 4.30 in the morning or three
32:09
Speaker 3: o'clock in the morning, can't sleep, thinking about different things
32:12
Speaker 3: that you need to take care of and how to
32:16
Speaker 3: solve them is.
32:18
Speaker 2: Believe in yourself because nobody else will.
32:21
Speaker 3: You know, people may say, Yes, I support you or
32:25
Speaker 3: your family, you know, your close friends will support you.
32:28
Speaker 2: I believe in you, et cetera, et cetera.
32:29
Speaker 3: However, when the evidence out in the market kind of
32:36
Speaker 3: says otherwise, it's hard for other people to believe. So
32:42
Speaker 3: as a person who needs to be the strong person
32:48
Speaker 3: in this situation, needs to have the strongest belief. And
32:53
Speaker 3: that's the only way to make anything happen is to
32:56
Speaker 3: believe in yourself, make a plan, do all the right
33:02
Speaker 3: things like all the homework, et cetera, et cetera, and
33:05
Speaker 3: then just believe in yourself and execute.
33:09
Speaker 2: So that's what I would.
33:11
Speaker 3: Like to share with all the business owners that may
33:13
Speaker 3: be starting up or facing some challenges and et cetera.
33:17
Speaker 2: So just believe in yourself and be a little bit delusional.
33:23
Speaker 2: It's okay. Because nobody else will. That's our job as
33:29
Speaker 2: business owners.
33:31
Speaker 3: And on the water system side, one thing that I
33:36
Speaker 3: would like people to know is about everybody has a
33:41
Speaker 3: refrigerator and that refrigerator most likely has a filter in it.
33:45
Speaker 3: And a lot of people think that this little tiny
33:47
Speaker 3: filter in their refrigerator is good enough.
33:51
Speaker 2: Most of the time, it's not. So, and what I would.
33:55
Speaker 3: Love to do for people, if they would like to
33:58
Speaker 3: know their local water quality, they can message me on
34:03
Speaker 3: my Instagram, which is eric007, eric007, with a code word report,
34:14
Speaker 3: and I'll reply back with their local water quality. And
34:17
Speaker 3: if they would like me to, I can also go
34:20
Speaker 3: through it and break it down, see what they have.
34:23
Speaker 3: see what they may need or may not need. And
34:27
Speaker 3: I just love to help people.
34:28
Speaker 1: Well, the first was great advice. The second is extremely
34:31
Speaker 1: helpful in your community.
34:32
Speaker 2: Thank you.
34:33
Speaker 1: Now, Eric, you know, where can the audience connect with you?
34:37
Speaker 1: Find out more about what you're doing and continue this conversation.
34:40
Speaker 3: Instagram to connect with me personally. Our website is arkin.com
34:46
Speaker 3: and it's spelled with only four letters, R-K-I-N.com. Or you
34:51
Speaker 3: can just Google Arkin. that would be the best way
34:54
Speaker 3: to check out our products if anybody's interested. We also
34:58
Speaker 3: have social media accounts as well for our brand, for
35:02
Speaker 3: the company. But like I mentioned, if you like me personally,
35:06
Speaker 3: check out your water report and give you advice, like
35:11
Speaker 3: what do you need or may not need, just message
35:14
Speaker 3: me on Instagram, eric007.
35:16
Speaker 2: That's my handle.
35:18
Speaker 1: Eric, I think we're going to have to have you
35:20
Speaker 1: back on, but not for the water, but for Eric
35:22
Speaker 1: being 007. I did not know that about you until now.
35:28
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate
35:30
Speaker 1: your time and the value you've shared today.
35:33
Speaker 2: Thank you, Joe. It's my pleasure. You're welcome.
35:36
Speaker 1: Thanks, everyone, for listening. If this episode inspired you, make
35:39
Speaker 1: sure you share it with someone who needs it. And
35:41
Speaker 1: don't forget to follow the Globalizer podcast for more conversations
35:44
Speaker 1: that make an impact.
35:46
Speaker 2: Till the next time.