Zenith Search Partners

08/27/2026

Somehow we’re already looking at the final stretch of 2026. I’m not entirely sure who authorized that.

This is usually the point in the year when the list of things we wanted to accomplish meets the reality of the calendar.

Growing revenue. Building the team. Keeping good people. Improving efficiency.

All important. Probably not all getting equal attention between now and December.

So maybe the better question isn’t “What else can we get done this year?”

It’s “What deserves our attention most?”

There’s still plenty of year left. Just enough less of it to make prioritizing a little easier.

08/25/2026

Last week I shared an article about the packaged ice industry.

Then I made the mistake of wondering what actually goes into treating water for commercial ice production.

Down the rabbit hole I went.

Turns out, water treatment can affect everything from scale buildup inside the equipment to the taste and appearance of the ice itself.

Which reminded me of something I've always enjoyed about the water treatment industry: once you start looking for it, it's everywhere.

The ice in your cooler. The water in a manufacturing process. A cooling tower. A data center. The list goes on.

Most people never think about any of it.

The people in this industry think about it for a living.

And apparently, some of us think about it after hours too. Am I the only one?

08/20/2026

“I don’t know.”

Three words that can be surprisingly hard to say when you’re supposed to be the person with the answers.

Earlier in my career, I probably thought experience meant getting to the point where I’d know what to do in just about every situation.

Turns out, experience mostly teaches you how many situations you haven’t seen yet.

Over the years, I’ve gained a lot more respect for leaders who can say, “I don’t know. Let’s figure it out.”

That might mean calling someone who knows more than you do. Asking the person closest to the problem. Digging into the data. Or simply asking a better question before making a decision.

There’s a big difference between not knowing and not finding out.

I still like having the answer. Who doesn’t?

I’m just a lot more comfortable these days admitting when I don’t.

How comfortable are you saying “I don’t know” at work?

08/18/2026

I work in and around industries where people think about water a lot more than the average person.

And yet, I have to admit, I’ve never given much thought to the bag of ice I grab on the way to a cookout.

Then I read this recent article from Texas Monthly about the packaged ice industry.

Turns out, there’s a whole lot going on behind that $3 bag of frozen water.

Water quality and treatment. Food safety. Manufacturing. Refrigeration. Distribution. Seasonality. And an operation that, during the summer, can run 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

For someone who has spent a good part of his career around water treatment, I probably should have thought about this before now.

But that’s also what I liked about the article.

Some of the industries we rely on most are the ones we barely notice because they work so well in the background.

Water treatment is like that in a lot of ways.

So the next time I grab a bag of ice for the cooler, I may have a little more appreciation for what went into it.

Although I’ll probably still complain about the price.

Check out the full article here and let me know your thoughts:

Ice is essential in so many ways. So why does thinking about it give some of us a case of brain freeze?

08/13/2026

Sometimes an interesting industry story is hiding in a pretty unglamorous place.

Cooling towers probably aren't dominating many dinner conversations.

But the U.S. cooling tower market is projected to grow from about $857 million this year to $1.4 billion by 2033.

For those of us who have spent time around water treatment, that gets my attention.

Growth in cooling tower industry creates ripples. Water quality, treatment chemistry, equipment, monitoring, service and the people who understand how all of those pieces work together become increasingly important.

It's a good reminder that some of the most interesting opportunities aren't necessarily in the newest industries. Sometimes they're created when new demands are placed on industries that have been doing important work for a very long time.

Hey, Water Treaters: Is this impacting you yet?

Interesting market outlook from Grand View Research for anyone following this space:

The cooling tower market in the United States is expected to reach a projected revenue of US$ 1,400.7 million by 2033. A compound annual growth rate of 7.3% is expected of the United States cooling tower market from 2026 to 2033.

08/11/2026

Every company has one.

The person everyone calls when something unusual happens.

They know the customer history. They remember why a process changed five years ago. They know what worked the last time things went sideways, and probably what was tried before that absolutely did not.

A lot of that knowledge is never written down.

It lives in experience. Relationships. Pattern recognition. And, in some cases, a frighteningly specific memory for details the rest of us forgot three meetings ago.

In specialized industries, those people are incredibly valuable.

They’re also a reminder that experience can be difficult to replace.

Sometimes you don’t realize just how much one person knows until they’re no longer the person you can call.

Who’s that person in your organization?

08/06/2026

When most people think about the infrastructure behind AI, water treatment probably isn't the first thing that comes to mind.

But I've been watching the connection between data center growth and the water treatment industry with a lot of interest.

As AI workloads increase, data centers are dealing with significantly greater cooling demands. And as this article points out, water treatment isn't something that can simply be addressed after the system is built. Decisions around water quality, corrosion, scaling, chemical treatment and monitoring increasingly need to be part of the design conversation from the beginning.

What interests me is the people side of this.

Growth in one industry has a way of creating demand for expertise somewhere you might not expect it.

Water treatment professionals have spent their careers understanding systems, chemistry, applications and customers. Now some of that expertise is becoming increasingly important to one of the fastest-moving areas of our economy.

That's one of the things I enjoy about working in specialized industries. The knowledge doesn't suddenly become obsolete when the market changes. Sometimes the market changes in a way that makes that knowledge even more valuable.

Interesting read for anyone in the water treatment space:

Mechanical engineers can enhance data center cooling system reliability and sustainability with strategic water treatment planning.

07/30/2026

The customer who taught me to be quiet...

Early in my sales career, a customer asked me what I thought was a fairly straightforward question.

I knew the product. I understood the application. I had done my homework. So I launched into an explanation that covered just about everything I knew on the subject.

Features. Specifications. Options. A few related points they hadn’t asked about, but that I was apparently determined to include anyway.

I was probably several minutes into my answer when the customer stopped me and said:

“That’s not what I was asking.”

He wasn’t rude about it. He didn’t need to be.

I had been so focused on demonstrating that I knew the answer that I hadn’t taken the time to make sure I understood the question.

That moment stayed with me.

Experience gives you a lot to say. Good judgment helps you decide how much of it actually needs to be said.

I still believe preparation matters. Expertise matters. Knowing your business matters.

But sometimes the most useful thing you can do is pause, ask one more question, and be quiet long enough to hear the real answer.

Has a customer or colleague ever taught you a lesson you still think about years later?

07/28/2026

One book I recommend again and again is *Atomic Habits* by James Clear.

Not because I’ve mastered every habit in my own life. My inbox can provide character references.

What has stayed with me is the idea that meaningful progress usually comes from small actions repeated consistently, not one dramatic burst of motivation.

That applies to leadership, sales, hiring, and just about everything else.

The strongest teams are rarely built through one big decision. They’re built through the expectations leaders reinforce, the conversations they keep having, and the standards they practice when nobody is watching.

Goals matter.

But the systems we build around them are usually what determine whether we get there.

What’s one book you find yourself recommending again and again?

07/23/2026

I once spent months trying to win a customer who seemed completely uninterested in helping me win their business.

Which, in hindsight, was probably my first clue that I was approaching it wrong.

I did all the things salespeople do. I followed up. I checked in. I circled back. I'm fairly certain I “touched base” enough times to qualify for some kind of award.

But nothing really changed.

Eventually, I realized I was spending all my time trying to get the customer to talk to me without giving them much of a reason to.

So I changed my approach. I stopped reaching out just to stay on their radar and started paying closer attention to what might actually be useful to them. Sometimes it was information about the market. Sometimes it was something I was seeing with other customers facing similar challenges. Sometimes it was simply sharing an idea without asking for anything in return.

Slowly, the conversations changed.

That experience taught me something I've carried with me ever since. Persistence matters, but persistence without value is just repetition.

Whether you're in sales, recruiting, or simply trying to build a good business relationship, people remember the ones who were useful before they needed anything in return.

Where do you draw the line between staying persistent and knowing when to change your approach?