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He Drank Toilet Water to Prove a Point · Prioritize Your Life

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Prioritize Your Life and PrioritizeYourLife.com. I'm honored to
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  Speaker 1: have our guest today, Garth Reese. We have it on
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  Speaker 1: good authority that your life's work in your career, which
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  Speaker 1: I understand 25 years, right? Correct. As a building supervisor
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  Speaker 1: at a big university.
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  Speaker 2: Correct.
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  Speaker 1: Where there were a number of different responsibilities, custodial and
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  Speaker 1: managing the building and things like that. But what we understand,
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  Speaker 1: which is really awesome, is that through your life's work
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  Speaker 1: that you actually meant a lot to a lot of
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  Speaker 1: the students that you helped supervise and that some of
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  Speaker 1: the things that you taught them really stuck with them
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  Speaker 1: and helped them in life. Clark Weininger, who is our
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  Speaker 1: camera guy, was one of your students and some of
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  Speaker 1: the life lessons that you taught him and all of
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  Speaker 1: the students that you worked with meant a lot to
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  Speaker 1: him and helped him in his life. And that's why
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  Speaker 1: we wanted to talk to you. And so one, I'd
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  Speaker 1: just kind of like to get your take on that.
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  Speaker 1: And were you doing some of these things in your
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  Speaker 1: job thinking like, oh, I'm going to try and make
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  Speaker 1: a difference in these kids' life through cleaning a toilet?
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  Speaker 1: Because that doesn't seem like something you'd instantly go like,
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  Speaker 1: You know, they're going to remember this. It's not just
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  Speaker 1: about cleaning a toilet. There's actually a life lesson in this.
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  Speaker 2: I started back in 1991 as a student custodian. My
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  Speaker 2: wife and I actually moved back. We were living down
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  Speaker 2: in New Mexico. We both started working in the custodial
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  Speaker 2: department as early morning students. An opening came available for
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  Speaker 2: a full-time position, and I went ahead and applied for
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  Speaker 2: it and was given the position. At that point, because
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  Speaker 2: we'd had the experience working as students, there were definitely
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  Speaker 2: some things that I wanted to see happen with the
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  Speaker 2: students as they came through and had that experience, that
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  Speaker 2: it was more than just, you know, doing something to
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  Speaker 2: get up at four in the morning and come and
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  Speaker 2: do something that very few others would be willing to do,
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  Speaker 2: you know, other than for the fact that, and we
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  Speaker 2: would have, and this was the fun part, was every
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  Speaker 2: Friday we would have a training meeting. We would train them, obviously,
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  Speaker 2: in what to do and how to do it. But
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  Speaker 2: on Fridays, we would talk a little bit more about Hawaii,
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  Speaker 2: and we would have a half-hour training meeting where we
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  Speaker 2: would talk about some of the things that the experience
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  Speaker 2: was meant to do. And one of them that I'll
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  Speaker 2: share was when I was working as a fairly new
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  Speaker 2: full-time custodian, one morning one of the students didn't make
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  Speaker 2: it on time, and so I was cleaning in the restroom,
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  Speaker 2: and there was a man that came in to watch.
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  Speaker 2: I hadn't seen the man before. And he stood there
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  Speaker 2: for a full two, two and a half minutes, just
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  Speaker 2: watching what I was doing. And I was wondering two things. One,
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  Speaker 2: how'd he get in? And number two, what is, you know,
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  Speaker 2: why is he standing there for this long? And after
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  Speaker 2: the two minutes or so, he said, what are you doing?
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  Speaker 2: And when I tell this story to the students, I was,
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  Speaker 2: in my mind, I go, it's fairly obvious, hello. But
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  Speaker 2: I didn't. I said, I'm cleaning the toilet, or cleaning
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  Speaker 2: the restroom. And he said, no, you're not. And I said, okay,
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  Speaker 2: this guy is, you know, shouldn't be here. And I
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  Speaker 2: stopped for a minute, and I turned around to look
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  Speaker 2: at him, and I said, okay, what am I doing?
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  Speaker 2: And he gave me this lesson that I taught to
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  Speaker 2: the students. You're creating attitudes. You're creating attitudes. by what
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  Speaker 2: you do. And then he left. That's all that I
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  Speaker 2: saw of him. I didn't see him again. But that
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  Speaker 2: was a very powerful experience because as I thought about
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  Speaker 2: it and the things that we would talk about with
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  Speaker 2: the students was, yeah, it makes a difference what we do.
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  Speaker 2: We're not just cleaning. We're creating an attitude for the
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  Speaker 2: people that come on the campus, not just by the restrooms,
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  Speaker 2: but by everything else we did, by the way that
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  Speaker 2: we vacuum, the way that we took out the trash.
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  Speaker 2: Everything that we did was part of them having a
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  Speaker 2: good experience when they came onto campus.
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  Speaker 1: Very cool. And where did you get the idea to
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  Speaker 1: clean a toilet and say, this thing is so clean.
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  Speaker 1: I am so sure of the cleanliness of my work
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  Speaker 1: because this, I think there's so many life lessons here.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not even going to dig into all of them.
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  Speaker 2: And you want to use a chemical that has a
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  Speaker 2: couple of things. You want to have It's an acid
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  Speaker 2: cleaner because you're cleaning hard water deposits that build up
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  Speaker 2: in toilets. And the other ingredient or the other part
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  Speaker 2: that you want in it is a disinfectant because we
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  Speaker 2: obviously want to disinfect what we're cleaning so that it's
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  Speaker 2: clean from germs and viruses and bacteria.
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  Speaker 3: Clean and scrub.
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  Speaker 2: The entire toilet.
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  Speaker 3: It is the best natural disinfectant on the planet. The
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  Speaker 3: name of it is Tub and Tile by Melaleuca. It's
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  Speaker 3: a company out of Idaho Falls, Idaho. They do all
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  Speaker 3: natural stuff. Everything that they do is sustainable, natural. Okay,
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  Speaker 3: now we're going to let that sit for 10 minutes.
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  Speaker 1: I have done my job so well that I'm going
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  Speaker 1: to drink the toilet water and show you that this
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  Speaker 1: job is done well. Where did that come from?
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  Speaker 2: It just was one of those experiences, and again, working
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  Speaker 2: with the students and having that opportunity to get to
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  Speaker 2: know them on a real level personal level. That was
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  Speaker 2: one of the funnest parts of the job is they
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  Speaker 2: would come in in the morning and we'd have an
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  Speaker 2: opportunity to get to know them. Developing that relationship was awesome.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know how many supervisors actually did it, but
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  Speaker 2: I know with me personally, I wanted to be out
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  Speaker 2: there working with them and helping them in it, not
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  Speaker 2: just showing them, but actually doing it with them. And
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  Speaker 2: as we did it, sometimes there would be questions like,
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  Speaker 2: does this chemical really do everything that you say it does?
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  Speaker 2: And it came up, oh, probably two years in. I'd
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  Speaker 2: been working as a full-time supervisor for a couple of years.
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  Speaker 2: And one of the students asked that question specifically. Does
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  Speaker 2: it really work the way you say it does? Is
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  Speaker 2: this really as clean a surface as we make the claim?
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  Speaker 2: And that's when it clicked. I said, I could do
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  Speaker 2: that very easily. And so that's what we did. Yeah. Personally,
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  Speaker 2: I went ahead and cleaned that specific toilet and urinal
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  Speaker 2: and sink so that everything was done. And we left
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  Speaker 2: it on, you know, we got the dwell time exactly
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  Speaker 2: the way it needed to be. We had the ratios right.
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  Speaker 2: Everything was exactly the way that it needed to be.
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  Speaker 2: And once we flushed it, you know, and the water
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  Speaker 2: comes through that's clean from the pipes, then you just
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  Speaker 2: take a cup, dip it up, drink it, and say, yes,
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  Speaker 2: the water is as clean as anywhere else that you
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  Speaker 2: can get it on campus.
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  Speaker 1: And it really is.
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  Speaker 2: If not cleaner, right? If not cleaner in some cases
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  Speaker 2: because people, you know, they leave residue every time they
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  Speaker 2: use a sink or drinking fountain or whatever. And now
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  Speaker 2: because we've used a good chemical and we've used a
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  Speaker 2: good process to clean this toilet, that water is as
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  Speaker 2: clean as anything that there would be anywhere else. good
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  Speaker 2: water and that was the way to show them that
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  Speaker 2: yes it really is yeah that's fantastic do you.
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  Speaker 1: Have do you have any stories or any questions or
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  Speaker 1: anything that you think would be interesting since it's more
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  Speaker 1: of a personal thing for.
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  Speaker 2: You you know.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah so many but do you why don't you just
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  Speaker 4: first set yeah It wasn't just me. You had this
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  Speaker 4: other kid who was working for you and loved it
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  Speaker 4: so much that he convinced me to leave what was
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  Speaker 4: supposed to be a cool college job to come and
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  Speaker 4: scrub toilets in the middle of the night and then
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  Speaker 4: turn around, you know, I'd work until 2 a.m. and
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  Speaker 4: then turn around and wake up for my 7 a.m.
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  Speaker 4: classes because I had arranged my schedule to work at
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  Speaker 4: this other job. And so, you know, and at the
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  Speaker 4: end of the day, it really was worth it. And
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  Speaker 4: he was right. I loved it. I loved working there
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  Speaker 4: and still remember, you know, some of those lessons and
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  Speaker 4: the way that they stuck with me. And not just
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  Speaker 4: how to clean, but also taking pride in your work
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  Speaker 4: and doing a good job and being able to find
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  Speaker 4: joy in whatever you're doing. It didn't matter that I
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  Speaker 4: was scrubbing toilets. What mattered is that somebody cared about
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  Speaker 4: me and took an interest in my life and was
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  Speaker 4: willing to spend time to show me how to do
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  Speaker 4: things right and teach me good lessons. And that's always
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  Speaker 4: stuck with me, that this supposedly cool job where nobody
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  Speaker 4: cared about me ended up being miserable And the job
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  Speaker 4: that you would think would be terrible, scrubbing toilets, ended
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  Speaker 4: up being a joy and something that I really loved
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  Speaker 4: and still look back on as like one of the
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  Speaker 4: happier times of my life was that freshman year. You
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  Speaker 4: want to take back over, Wes?
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  Speaker 1: Well, I just want to thank you for being the
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  Speaker 1: man that you are and for all the lessons that
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  Speaker 1: you taught all of those kids. And I think having
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  Speaker 1: not directly worked for you, but I think the big
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  Speaker 1: takeaway lesson for me is there's a really strong lesson
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  Speaker 1: for parents and for leaders of no matter what you're doing,
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  Speaker 1: no matter if you're the custodian, the top or the middle, whatever,
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  Speaker 1: however you're defining these kind of hierarchies that are almost meaningless,
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  Speaker 1: you have the potential to really serve others and to
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  Speaker 1: make a difference in their life. And you can do
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  Speaker 1: that through really, really creative and interesting ways that will
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  Speaker 1: make an impact forever. So thank you for that. That's
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  Speaker 1: a beautiful, beautiful message. And thanks for being with us today.
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  Speaker 2: My pleasure. Thank you.