S4:E33 🎙️LIVE with Terell Jones

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I went out to Afghanistan and, you know, you hear a gunshot wound to the head and you think that person's DOA. When they came into our hospital, there was a 98% success rate. We as corpsmen crossed that line of medical assistant to nurse to nurse practitioner to doctor.

And everything in between and bring it all into one very big hat.

There are many different specialties within the Hospital Corpsman rate, which include dental technicians, radiology technicians, pharmacy technicians, behavioral health techs.

You have physical therapists like myself. The capabilities are exactly the same as a private practice. In the military, there's no competition for economics, so we can give them the best care that they deserve.

I wanted to join the Navy to be something better than I am and do something great with my life. I went to my corpsman school and then I went to surgical tech school.

They specialize and then they get stationed at their first command.

And I've gotten my associate's within 2 years and I'm working on my bachelor's, and I don't think I would have had those opportunities. Not only do we get to do medicine, which is what I initially joined the Navy to do, but we also get to propel out of a helicopter. So, I mean, you can't really really beat that. The most rewarding part of my job is having that sailor look at me and say, "Thank you." U.S.

Navy, a force for good, forged by the sea. I'm so excited today, everyone. I'm going to be speaking to a fellow veteran, a brother in arms, former corpsman from the U.S. Navy. And this is going to be a great, great time. Before we get started and I bring him on from the Grim Room, Please let us know where you are joining us from, what city, what region, what country. And also, if you have a question for Terrell Jones, please type your question in the comment. We're going to be answering your question live. So we are live right now on LinkedIn and on YouTube. And we are going to make sure we get to your leadership question. So this is season 4, episode 33 of the Leadership and Success Podcast. We're going to be going live. With Tyrell Jones, and I am so excited to bring him on. So today we are going to be talking about how Tyrell Jones went from Operation Desert Storm to commercializing next-gen atmospheric water tech. Tyrell brings strategic vision, mission clarity, and business grit to every conversation. We're going to be exploring how military leadership principles translate into sustainable business success, solving global water scarcity with resilience, tech, and partnership, and also Lessons from 25+ Years in Sales, Strategy, and Clean Infrastructure Development. So without any further ado, let me bring in the man, my brother, Terrell Jones. How are you doing today, Terrell?

Good morning, good morning, and thank you for inviting me here.

Absolutely. What a privilege, what a great honor to have you here. As you know, in my audience of what, 64,000+ people now, I'm really focusing on the aspiring leaders in the military, any branch, but specifically within the Navy and also high tech. So, uh, we definitely want to learn from your experience, learn those leadership principles, which I believe are universal, right? It doesn't matter if you're in the military, in high tech, in climate change, whatever your industry or your niche, those principles, I believe, uh, still apply and they will help you be more successful. So. Maybe to get started, let me ask you this. Can you tell us about your leadership journey?

Well, it started when I was born on a Navy base. I was born on a Navy base and I spent the first 6 years of my life with Navy housing until we went to San Diego, and that was the first time I was in an actual house. My father was a He's a retired, uh, Chief Warrant Officer 4. So I watched him go from Petty Officer to Chief to Chief Warrant Officer. I've been on multiple dependents cruises with my papa. So I wasn't in leadership. I was kind of born adjacent to it, if that makes sense. You know, as a kid, you can see things. I mean, I'm probably one of the only kids to see the Blue Angels in Guam and also see them in San Diego, uh, as a little kid. Yeah, so seeing the Blue Angels is like, you know, the ultimate. You might as well go to the moon. So, um, I didn't get a lot of schooling about my dad and leadership. It's just that we were environments that we saw it happen. That makes sense. Yes. So going forward, I'm just like every other kid, you know, getting in trouble, playing sports and doing all the crazy things. And, um, I got lucky and got a scholarship to do university, and I wasn't a really good book study person, but I was kind of smart in English and, and got a good grasp on, um, retaining facts, but I got bored very easily in class. But I ended up getting, uh, into college and spent 3 years in college. And in my 3rd year, I was having so many good times at UCLA that I, I dropped out of my 3rd year and I literally joined the Navy, um, out of depression because I was upset at dropping out of college and I joined the Navy and reluctantly actually, because I didn't even tell my father when I joined the Navy and, uh, I wanted to stay to myself and not get in trouble because I kind of knew in the background, oh, just stay out of the way and you won't get in trouble, just follow direction. But that didn't happen. They threw me into leadership position immediately because I had 3 years of college. I was 22 years old. And it made me Master at Arms. And here I'm doing, I'm all of a sudden told to be a leader and I didn't really like it at first, but then I kind of took to it like a duck in water, if that makes sense. It's like trial by fire. You just get thrown into it and, and get into it and learn it fast. I mean, when you learn new things, um, the tempo is so fast you have to pick it up. And move fast, if that makes sense. Yes. And so that's what happened. Wow, that is— I'm a government of a Navy.

Pretty fascinating. And one thing you say, right, it wasn't taught, but I guess one of my mentors sometimes says some things in leadership may not be taught, but it is caught. When you are in the environment where it happens, usually you just picked up on it. Now, one thing in my experience, I'm sure it was yours too, I know you were enlisted for your entire Navy career, but they didn't want to join the Navy as an E-1 seaman recruit, right? Lowest rank. Everybody outranking me didn't know anything. I saw that like the Navy was a leadership organization. Like even at the lowest level, they teach you to lead, not just follow order. Yeah, you are going to follow order and do exactly what you are told, but in many ways they want you to teach the person to your right and the person to your left and take some responsibility and some initiative and That to me is just mind-blowing. I don't know any other organization in the world where leadership is really drilled into you. Was that your experience as well as a commando?

Yes, I remember, um, sometimes when you, you're learning the process, right? But when, when you're learning to be a leader, it's more than just barking orders at people. You got to be willing to do what you're asking people to do. And I remember one time we were cleaning the barracks and some, one of my shipmates go, You gotta stop yelling at us. We gotta get in and help too. And then by the time, in, in, by the time boot camp was towards the end, I was so involved in my shipmate's success that if we were running and a 5-mile run, I'd be in the front because I'm one of the leaders, but then I'd see somebody straggling behind. I'd have to run back, pick them up, and motivate them to get caught up with the group. Another instance, one of my favorite stories is we had a guy that was so gung-ho, he's so young and he's, he was like, he got on our nerves, that's older guy, because he was so gung-ho. And, uh, he became my best friend later. Um, his name was Matthew and he twisted his ankle the last week of boot camp. I said, wrap his ankle, he's graduating with us. I don't care. And so he ended up becoming a Navy SEAL. Um, after that, after multiple tries. And so we stay in contact, you know, but, uh, I'm very proud of the people that I served with and worked with, especially in boot camp. We forged some good memories, uh, you know, in our youth because we were very young. I'm very old now, but yeah.

Because I remember I went to boot camp on Great Mistake, I mean Great Lakes. And that was in 2005. And I remember that summer, first 3 days were the worst days of my life ever. They shave you, get rid of your hair and give you all of this uniform and stuff and you keep walking and walking. I think I had blisters by the end of the day. I think the first night we maybe only slept maybe 2 hours at the most. I mean, they wake us up at 5 in the morning. I mean, it was just horrible, horrible. But then toward the end of the bootcamp, it was like the best time I've ever had. I still have friends today that I met for 20+ years. This is just a mix, all of that happened. And also, leadership aspect, from what you mentioned, in the military, I think it's the same whether it's the Army, the Air Force, or whatever branch of the military, but of course, Navy beat Army. But in the Navy, they really teach us, and it's really ingrained in the training and everything we do. We are only as strong, right, as our weakest link, right? It doesn't make sense for me to be the best and run the fastest and all of that when someone on my team is going to be left behind or get shot. So it is my job, my responsibility to take care of my brother and my sister. Again, I've never seen anything like that in Silicon Valley or anywhere else in the world, but pretty much in everything we do, the way we train, we live our life, it's really, really ingrained in us. Oh, by the way, someone here, let me give a shout out to David Wobbins. He's the Vice President of Aviation Infrastructure Engineering. He's letting us know that he's watching us, it looks like from, let's see, Houston. So this is where you live. It says, eating and indicate a great backstory. All right. And I'll have to watch the comments, making sure if they have a question or something to let you know. I'm gonna need to have an assistant to watch all of the comments for me. Okay, so one thing I wanted to learn from you, Venturi, is take us back again to your Navy days and what core leadership lessons did you carry from the deck plate into business development and alliances?

So one of the great things about the military is that every job that you have has standard operating procedures. And I excelled at those in the Navy. And learning the new skills that you needed to do your job, you became a subject matter expert, and then you started to excel at that job. When you get in the civilian world, a lot of standard operating procedures don't exist. And so you have to learn quickly your position and become a subject matter expert on your position and create your own standard operating procedure because, um, and you might have to teach the organization to do that because it doesn't exist. It leads to a lot of frustration in corporate America where if the employee doesn't have proper expectation of what they're supposed to do for a job, it leads to nonsense like, uh, the 48 Laws of Power where you learn to manipulate your coworkers. Because if everybody's doing their job, there's no time for manipulation, right? And so there's a lot of, uh, things that I've noticed over the years, and I've had a lot of years of experience, that people tend to get frustrated if their objectives aren't clear, if their job, you know, is not clear. I know people have manuals, uh, on job descriptions, but it's very— I've seen very little evidence that those are kept up or— and so there's a lot of consultants out there that know that they can help businesses clean up their act because a lot of people don't know what they're doing. And then they get in situations where it's a, you can't Moneyball strategy employees, right? About performance. Now we have AI. Now that's gonna be mandatory though. Your performance is monitored. So, um, I grew up without it. And so now we got a situation where you get into a job, you don't know what the job is, and maybe you know exactly what your job is and how you're supposed to work. Perform it. In civilian world, you don't. And so there's a lot of opportunity for somebody leaving the military to excel if they understand that. Um, but if they don't understand that, they'll be very frustrated and who might be in a starting their own business because they're so frustrated. But if you're trying to thrive in that environment, you want to create your own. You're on your own. It's part of being a leader. So you're going to have to create your own standard operating procedure to get your job done. Directly.

That is, that is quite a fascinating insight. And I guess for me, another thing that the Navy really taught me is how to deal with people, all kinds of people, right? Like me, I'm originally from the Congo. In the Navy, you see people from the Philippines, from all around the world, Black, white, women. It's like the most diverse organization I have ever seen in my entire life. And then learning to, and especially recently, right? I was a commanding officer at the Global Network Operation Security Center in Suffolk, and about two-thirds of my unit was enlisted. And I would say maybe a third of them were like millennials and Gen Zs. So these are like my kids' age. And these kids, I must tell you, they are not the same as we used to be. When I went to— 40 years ago, there is just no way I could have made it if I felt the way these kids feel today, right now. They have taught me a lot, right? Helping me develop my emotional intelligence, empathy, and all of that. But like, they would need like time out. You can't holler at them. Like, no, like when I was at boot camp, the chief was like 2 inches from my face and just shouting, obscenity, obscenity. Today, you use a curse word, you have to say you are sorry, you hurt their feelings, they need time out, then they need to go into their closet or whatever. It's a completely different world, but. But you really, as a leader, you have to evolve and you have to adapt and you really need to learn how to motivate them and influence them and get them to do their job, right? Mission first, people always, and care for them. Anyway, what I'm saying is the world has changed a lot and more than any other industries, I think the military is the most diverse and is one where leadership has always been key. I don't know, has that been your experience too?

Um, yes and no. I'm actually, uh, Generation X. I tell people all the time that legends were born in October of 1965. I'm one of those kids that drank from the hose. And so I've seen it all. I was there before technology. I watched, in fact, my first email was in 1988 in Jacksonville Naval Air Station in the Navy. First time I ever seen a fax machine. First time I ever seen a, uh, email, um, any of those things. And so I was there with the first Atari when you played Pong at home. So I, I'm before that with the Walkman and then the MP3s and CDs. And, and so we're a little tougher. And so we had fistfights in school, whereas people had, you know, we didn't play. We were too busy fighting to get outside when I was growing up. We weren't trying to stay inside. And so there's a, there's a Big difference. I mean, I played organized sports, basketball, football, baseball, 13-year-old lucky, uh, all-stars in baseball, Lucky Wallet Park, San Diego, on the Els from 619. But anyways, um, we, uh, we grew up differently. So we seen, we were there before the internet, we were there before MTV. So we saw a lot and we experienced a lot. We had smoking sections in our high schools. So again, we're a little tougher. Um, I grew up, my, my bus drivers were hippies and, you know, so we, we had a little bit different growing up. So we're a little tougher, but some Generation X, you know, I was lucky to be in information technology for 25 years. So I watched these trends and I followed these trends. I was there when these things took off. I was there for every hype cycle that, that existed, even the new hype cycle, which is AI and data centers. Which I think we don't need all these data centers, but, um, we need to plant more trees before we need to build all these data centers. We can't eat AI. We need to eat food, right? So we need to grow more food. We need to, you know, fix our environment so we can live. So yeah, the leadership principles, you have to be, um, flexible enough to understand where millennials come from. They never had a fist fight in their life. They probably spent a lot of time inside playing video games. And, um, they have 3-second, um, attention spans because of all the social media that they watch. Um, so they haven't had the strict discipline that we may have had. They have a, you know, they have all these things that occupy their brain power. And so it's, you have to realize where you're, where they're coming from and, and accept people where they're at and try to figure out how to make that work.

Wow. That is very, very insightful because I do believe that leadership is the most critical skill of the 21st century. All of the changes you mentioned, the technology, now we have AI, quantum computing, and all of that, and so many changes people are uncertain about. They are like, uh, no, AI and robots gonna take over the world and all of that. But one thing that remains constant, I think, is leadership. And people really need to learn skill. And that's part of the reason why I've been hosting this podcast for 4 years now. So let's go back to your Navy time. So you served during Operation Desert Storm and Shield. How did that high-pressure environment shape your approach to resilience, adaptability, and strategic thinking today?

So Operation Desert Storm, I can tell you where I was at when Saddam invaded Kuwait. I was in medical lab school here in Texas at Fort Sam, and on graduation week, Saddam invaded Kuwait. 75% of my class right away went to Saudi Arabia. And when I got my first duty station, I was slated to go to Fleet Hospital 5 in Saudi Arabia on the second run. So I was staying back at Norfolk Naval Base and, um, We were doing, I was a medical lab technician. I just graduated from medical lab school at Fort Sam, and I'm in the medical lab at Suls Point Branch Clinic. And we are processing all the physicals for everybody getting on the ship, all the Marines going downrange, everybody that's going downrange. So from 1990 to 1991, Korswood Naval Hospital, in conjunction with the multiple clinics around there, did 8 million specimens that year.

Wow.

Operation Desert Storm. That's what pretty much why we got medals, but I got Blue Jacket of the Quarter in April of 1991 because I think my department head saw me. So to back up, I learned computers in my pro student station.

I believe you are talking about this right here. Yeah. Comment.

When I made, yeah, when I made Blue Jacket of the Quarter in April 1991, I was at E3 and I wasn't Betty out there yet. Amazing. I did very hard work and heavy duty work in my first duty station, Jacksonville Naval Air Station. And I did, I was gung-ho when I got out of boot camp because I made rank right away. And then, um, I went to E2 right away and then I was supposed to get E3 right away, but my commander didn't like me at that time. You know, I was working the job of a second class petty officer because all my, all my group was second class petty officer. I'll be the lowest man on a total column and I was doing their job. And I was working really hard and for some reason they kept my rank back and I stayed at E3, E2 for like a year with them in E3. And, um, my, um, I went to my senior enlisted advisor to complain, but I kept working hard. But I was so angry with that commander that I changed. I told him, I'm getting out of this canoeing club. Give me a school so I can get a job when I get out. And they changed my orders. Now here's the unique thing. Um, I had orders at Twentynine Palms, which is greenside in the sand, Marine Corps in the sand. And I didn't know the war didn't happen yet. And so I tell the redhead sheep, it was a female, I said, hey, change my orders. I want to go to school so I can get a job when I get out of this canoe club. This is exactly what I said. And she changed my orders, switched them. And guess what? Graduation day at lab school. Saddam invades Kuwait. Guess where I would have been? I would have been at Fort Twentynine Palms, Marine Corps Desert Training Base. I would have been on the front line in the first wave, and I missed it by that much.

Wow.

And then I, then I was supposed to go again and hospital, or Fleet Hospital Five the second time, and Stormin' Norman, uh, Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf bombed the place up. And so the war ended very quickly, and so Fleet Hospital Five Group 2 didn't make it, but we were getting crushed at Sewells Point Branch Clinic. And so let me explain what we did. That's all that's left.

Fascinating. I really like what you say because in both, no, the U.S. Navy active duty and the reserve, we pretty much every day what we're doing is training for war. That is exactly what we do. And during times of conflict, I don't think you're really wise to the challenge. I think what happened is you fall to your level. Of, uh, training. So some, sometimes I see few people, they really want to go to war and experience combat and all that, which is perfectly fine. I guess that's one reason why you would want to join the military. But even if you never go to a combat zone, as a veteran, if you have served, even if even just for one day, I, I say thank you for your service because very, very few of us in this country join the Military, but, but really that is what, uh, John.

Well, don't get it twisted. We have, we had a lot of stress where I was at. So let me explain. I figured out with the computer how to make a cheat sheet for all this, the computer systems inside the lab, and it increased our production. And so the department head saw what I did because I learned computers illegally in my first duty picket, but my commander had me. Bootlegging floppy disk in my first vessel down here. I was one of the first corpsmen on the Composite Healthcare System before it went from Unix to Windows. Wow. I was one of the first to be trained on the Composite Healthcare System. I think Science Application International Corporation built it. And then I get to the new duty station and I go, here's the manual for the cheat sheet. So I put it up there because it was still Unix based and there was, you know how the shortcuts, I put all the shortcuts of, of on every duty station. And our production increased in that lab. So they gave me Blue Jacket of the Quarter for that. But at the same time, they gave me another job. They gave me Broken Arrow Response Team. So what does that mean? So we had to wear the hazard mat suits and be the medical team that responded from Norfolk to Maine when they moved warheads. And so I was on that emergency team to, to move those things and bartend. So Broken Arrow Response Team. And that was very stressful. I remember my wife calling me and said, you need to come home. I said, you know, we're in the middle of war. I can't come home when we're doing this operation.

So we've always stressed in the military, uh, family life is not easy. There is no telling how many birthdays, holidays, and special occasions with Sattel I have missed just because I was serving. So again, thank you so much for your service. This is excellent. So the last thing I'm going to ask you from your military career before we start talking about SkyWater, what advice would you give to current service member or veteran looking to transition into clean tech or the business world?

Well, like I said before, when most people getting out need to understand that we had some leadership skills that we can bring to the table. Especially when it comes around the standard operating procedures, you're going to get in environments where they don't actually have them. So you're going to have to be a quick student and quick study, figure out how that job works and put it in a standard operating procedure. And maybe you might be leadership at that new company. You'll excel and you got to continuously learn new skills and become subject matter experts at them to stand out. Um, and also for You know, as a leader, you, you're responsible for everything in your environment. And that's where I get that from Jocko Willink and, and Extreme Ownership. You are responsible for everything in your realm regardless of what position you have. You need to know what that job is to get it done. Um, you can't just say, oh, that's not my job. Yeah, I see a lot of young people in the millennials, especially, oh, that's not my job. I said, How are you going to stand out? How are you going to learn new skills if you don't know that part of the job, even if it's not part of your job? And so that's how I've been able to succeed. I just take on responsibilities that were outside the scope of what my job was, and it helped me get further along. So becoming a subject matter expert on the subject makes you better.

Wow.

So what drew you to SkyWater and the mission of atmospheric water? Generation.

So, you know, I spent 25 years in information technology because of my commander in the first duty station, and I learned some skill sets there. But, um, and, and during, um, COVID, um, I was outside of an IT job and I wasn't working, and I was helping— I was consulting and helping businesses. And, um, I came across Alexander von Welchek in He said, I see you raising money for these startups and why don't you do it for me? I go, well, what is it? And Alex is a pioneer in solar. And in California, they had a drought in 2016 and he said, I am going to focus on water. And so basically Sky H2O makes water from air. We are advancing and scaling atmospheric water generation for large-scale projects. So atmospheric water generation is not a new technology. It's been, it's been around since World War II. The Germans used it in U-boats to stay out to sea longer. And because we've been doing a very good job of destroying the environment, it's become, uh, something that we need to use for climate adaptation. And atmospheric water generation is not a panacea, but it's a very good way to get clean drinking water from a completely new source, which is the air. Wow. And, um, that's what we do.

Water is life. That is very fascinating. So how do you position Clean Water Innovation to industries like data center and semiconductors where water is mission critical?

So water is used in just about everything. We like to focus on clean drinking water as a business, but we also can provide ultra clean water for industry like data centers. Data centers are very unique. I have a lot of experience with data centers. Um, I mean, built one in Danville, Virginia with a previous company. And data centers are basically big refrigerators for computer systems, right? Um, they try to keep the computer systems cool. They might be 200,000 square feet or they might be 90,000 square feet under roof, depending on how big it's basically keeping the systems cool because when you generate compute, you generate heat. And so with atmospheric water generation, the way our technology works is that we have these big variable fans that suck the air in and then they go through a filtration system to make the air very clean, like a cleanroom. We're very good at cleanroom technology. And then we take that air and we freeze it down to the optimal dew point. I mean, for the, you, you know, the most optimal dew point for it to get the most water off of. That's just above freezing. And that water just drops down into a tray of UV light, comes out basically raw distilled water. And so we were able to do that at scale, um, in our AWG Maximus machine. And, um, we can use that as a plug-and-play device, IoT device, a smart machine. When we need more water, we add more machines. Our business is not selling hardware. Our business is developing large-scale water projects. We use our, our Maximus machine as a device to add to the project. So we are like, so like Alex is doing 100 solar farms, um, we're doing water farms, basically a retail water business and different applications. So when it comes to data centers, we can do some synergistic things with their heat, convert it to electricity. We can also recycle their steam coming off the roof., but we are this, the original point of water, and because our water's clean, they literally can recycle the same water 3 times. So if they need 300,000 gallons of water, they can just get our original source water of 100,000 gallons and recycle that 3 to 5 times.

Amazing.

So that's what data centers can do. So same with quantum computing, but where the other applications are with chemical manufacturing or, um, hydrolysis of hydrogen. There's so many applications for industrial water that I, I'd spend a whole afternoon explaining it to you, but there, we can do a lot of things. But first and foremost is drinking water. We have a hard, we have a big challenge getting drinking water, especially here in Texas, getting clean drinking water. A lot of people think about water as, oh, drought is a problem, but beyond drought is toxicity. For instance, here in Houston, we have 51 total contaminants of water. Um, and that's because most people don't understand the origin of the water they drink from the tap. And so, um, if you understand, uh, that industry, um, and pollute— I'll give it— I'll just back up and say this. Man has used nature to create a society away from nature, right? Not realizing they need nature to survive. So we polluted the air. Which polluted the ground, and then the ground polluted the water table. Naturally, spring water is supposed to be structured by the ground, but we polluted the ground. And so now we look at, you know, atmospheric water generation, we bypass all that, and we, we have to add minerals for drinking. And so in Houston, we have 51 total contaminants in the water, and that's not because what happened in Houston, it happened in Central Texas. And, you know, water flows to the Gulf of Mexico, similar to the Mississippi River. That's why New Orleans is probably in second place as far as bad water, because they're taking up all the toxins from the Mississippi River. When we get our, you know, water from the Colorado River, comes down from Central Texas and moves over to the coast. So the coastal bend of Texas has some of the most toxic water. And Houston being at the top with 51 total contaminants, 14 of which are above health guidelines. Now, what we have in America is what we call, um, legal and safe water. Legal because it was voted on for toxins that are being able to dump. And then safe doesn't mean that it's safe. Just because it's legal doesn't mean that it's safe. Yeah. That's why everywhere in America where you see a cancer cluster— now let's go back to the military. I was at Jacksonville Naval Air Station when it was an EPA Superfund site. So when you saw all those commercials about Camp Lejeune and toxic water on base, just about every base, including Great Lakes, where you and I both went to— I went to Corps School at Great Lakes— um, they all have toxic water because there's nobody watching the commanders that manage those bases, the toxic dumping that was going on. And so we have in America, half the country has forever chemicals in our municipal water. But in Texas, we have 75%, and in Houston, we have 100% of our municipals have forever water. So you remember the movie Erin Brockovich? It was chromium-6, right, in California that they had a problem with. Well, we have that here in Houston, you know. But we also have the world's most famous cancer center, the MD Anderson. So there's no— to me, there's no surprise that we have this Texas Medical Center because we have You know, a lot of cancer clusters around here.

So what would you recommend my audience at home? Just adding a nice filter, would that be a good idea?

You want to investigate filtration, obviously. I live in an apartment, it's not real economical for me to have atmospheric water generator in my apartment, but if I had home, I definitely would have my own atmospheric water generator. I would definitely have a filtration to go along with it. And so yes, you know, if you live in a slum, get you a Berkey, a Berkey Waterdrop or a Waterdrop system, a gravity-based, um, filtration system. I have one on my sink. I send my bottle of water through it. I wash my hands in it, you know, if I don't trust the water. I have filters on my shower head. I have water filters., but doesn't do anything that makes me feel better that I have it.

Definitely compared to the rest of the world, I think America has pretty good water because I was born in Africa. I've lived in, in Europe, but, uh, yeah.

Are you sure about that?

Water, at least from my point of view, because, uh, in, in Africa, Central Africa where I was born, some of the water is extremely toxic. But, uh, anyway, that was a while back. Later on, I was about 17 years old, so I'm sure a lot of things have, have changed now. But, uh, water is definitely life. So one last question I'm gonna ask you before I, I go into the second segment where I ask you, um, the 7th question I ask everyone who comes to the podcast. How do you see clean water solution intersecting with ESG, right? Environmental, social, and governance goals for corporation and government.

So obviously sustainable water meets that criteria like solar does with, you know, we're taking from nature, what nature provides, like solar does from the sun. We take what nature provides, which is humidity. And, you know, islands and coastal regions have a lot of humidity. And so we take advantage of that because nature gives it to us for free. So we do that automatically. But water is more strategic beyond ESG or sustainability. It is a climate adaptive technology because we are running out of clean drinking water from the ground. It is also a mission-critical situation because we're not being able to afford the water treatment that exists now for the amount of toxins that are in the water. It's becoming cost prohibitive to maintain and sustain the cost of treating water for potable drinking water. And so we can circumvent that. And be more profitable in that, that way, and we can help the environment, help the people, um, that are based on the situation that we're in. Wow.

Okay, before we go to, uh, the, uh, second section of this podcast, anything you would like to, uh, share in regards to Sky H2O or anything at all?

Oh, Well, um, as far as leadership's concerned, I do like, um, the philosophy of Jocko Willink and Extreme Ownership of what you're trying to do. Um, too many times in leadership, you, you want to tell people what to do, but you're not leading from the front. You're probably just barking orders. And I think that's very pivotal. I think your work ethic and your discipline, he says discipline is freedom. I think, um, I got a quote from John Crowe a long time ago that said, commitment to continuity develops emotional stability and mental toughness. And he was an engineer. And I, I really looked up to him. He gave us a lot of good wisdom. Another point of wisdom is Bill Britt said, um, there are no great people in the world, just great decision makers. And you can decide to be great. And thirdly, um, when I was at Prairie View A&M, I was in a theater arts class and Maya Angelou visited. She, she told our class, live life with the concentration of somebody that's going to be executed in the morning. And those are words of wisdom that I gained from out there that I think I would like to share as far as leadership's concerned. You have to have discipline, you have to have focus, and you have to lead from the front.

Yes.

Okay.

That is wonderful. We are going to get more into this for the second portion of the podcast, because I think those lessons are enduring, they are universal, and they can be applied anywhere. So the first segment for this portion, I'm going to be asking about what is the greatest lesson you have learned so far?

The greatest lesson that I learned so far is that You can probably do more than you think you can, and you can never stop learning. It's a lifelong endeavor. You have to keep learning. And, and technology kind of teaches you that because you get a new version, iteration. It's a— you understand that we had to get certified and all these things. Every 3 months you're going to get a new technology. But, um, I've learned that, you know, as smart as you get, you're still dumb in a lot of areas. So you got to continuously Educate yourself. I cheat a lot. I read, I don't read books anymore because I don't have time for it. What I'll do is I'll, I'll speed up an audiobook. I'll listen to books that I think are important to me and I'll do an audiobook. And I don't do a lot of fiction. I do a lot of nonfiction because I want to be up to speed. So I'll be working in the background. I can hear it off the YouTube audiobooks and I turn it up to 1.25 or 1.5 because your brain can retain information fast. I'm weird like that. I don't know if everybody else is like that, but I like to get things done. So, all that. That's a tip.

Powerful. Yeah, I've been subscribed to Audible for as long as I can remember. Pretty much every book out there has an audio version. And another secret I learned from Tony Robbins, one of my mentors, is net time, right? No extra time. Like when you are driving, you can be listening to a book. When you're waiting in line, you can listen to a book. When you're working out, you can listen to a book. So yeah, that saves a lot of time and you keep on learning just like you, you mentioned.

I'm going to tell you in the car, I have another tactic that I use and that's self-talk. Um, if you want to motivate yourself, you have to come up with your own script of self-talk. There's a book called What to Say When You Talk to Yourself. We do more harm to ourselves based on our thought process and I like to program my thought. And so I think that's very important that you come up with your own script of the things that you want to do. And manifest and speak that to yourself. And if you wanna go even deeper, say it in the mirror because you have to program your mind all the time. There's too much stimuli from the outside. Well, when I get in the car, that's my, that's my me time. And I like to, you know, sometimes I'm singing, uh, my manifest to myself or I'm talking. It sounds weird, but you have to be on top of this brain because there's too many things competing for it. Social media, TV, radio. And you need to be directing where your ship is going. And you know what they say, if you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there. So you have to be on top of your— this 3-pound bill of each in your ear, because it will, you know, if you want to, you want to get in trouble, stay out of your own head. It's a bad neighborhood. But if you control that thing between your ears, you got to focus and control where it's going to go. Otherwise it leads you somewhere you don't want to be.

Wow. So What to Say When You Talk to Yourself by Shad Amster, right? That's a classic. That is powerful. Definitely add it to the books that are recommended. So you kind of talked already about some of the things that you are learning now, but what is the greatest investment you have made in yourself?

I continue to buy books. And I read them, um, I'll, I'll shortcut and read the titles and then I'll go and listen to it in the background. But, um, I keep adding to my library. Um, investing into myself is the most important thing for my education. All the things will be added to me if I keep learning new skills, right? And new thought process. And so if I don't continue that, you know, I look at, you know, the reading of Bill Gates and reading Elon Musk and the books that they recommend, even Obama and a few other people, they recommend the books that they— but I look at the topic areas that I want to be in, I try to find the top, the best topical books on that. You become a subject matter expert at that. But, you know, for my own skill set, I want to keep improving on those different things. That's why my basic books were— my very first pivotal book was Success Through a Father of Mental Attitude by W. Clement Stone, which introduced him to Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. Um, I think he kind of stole ideas from Napoleon, to be quite honest, but that was the first book that kind of sparked my motivation and direction. Second was, um, How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. Um, I don't think people come out of the womb knowing how to communicate, but I think this is a good foundational book to help you. Um, learn communication skills and let you know that you're not the most important person in the conversation. Other people have their own ideas and opinions, right? So you have to be able to communicate that way. Wow.

That is, that is powerful. Okay. Uh, let's talk. So we are now in the third segment of the second portion of the podcast. Let's talk about failure for a second. I had this coin here, which I love. On one side it says success, on the other side it says failure. So really, success and failure are two sides of the same exact coin. And when we look at the leaders like you, we always kind of focus on the successes and everything you've achieved and all of that. But the truth is, you have to fail. Maybe you failed more than you succeeded, like, uh, MJ, which I believe is the GOAT, the greatest of all time, right? Some people say it's somebody else, but I think MJ is the one. But in any way, even MJ says he has failed much more than he has succeeded, and that's why he became a success. So the question for me is, how has failure shaped your life?

Oh, wow. Failure is the prerequisite for success. You can't succeed without failure. I will tell you that I've failed a lot. Um, nothing— everything has been a fight. Life is a fight, you know, you have to keep fighting. And it's when you're in a fight, you're going to get knocked out. And every time you get knocked down, You gotta get back up. You gotta make that decision to get back up. A lot of people don't get back up. And to my veterans that are suffering from PTSD, I'll just tell you, you gotta get back up. I, uh, became homeless in 2018, um, financially, not like out on the street homeless, but like couch surfing homeless. And to a point, I had a car accident. I was rebelling in my, I was having a middle age crisis and I was working full time at, uh, at Uber driver, right? In between tech jobs, and I was so upset my last job laid me off, and I moved to Austin to get that job, and I was rebelling, and, um, I totaled my car. I got brake checked on the east side of Austin, and that was in April of 2018, and by August of 2018, I found myself homeless and running into hotels and running out of money, and then I ended up in a homeless shelter for veterans in San Diego. It didn't even dawn on me what was going on, but I, at that point I said, oh, you gotta draw a line here. You gotta make things happen. And if you watch the movie of The Pursuit of Happiness, kind of like what happened to me. And so I made it a mission in 2018 that we're not gonna do this anymore. And so I got, I started treating my life as a mission. Don't ever get in the financial situation. The car was my income. I ran out of rent money. And I ran out of time before the court kicked me out of my apartment. And so I made a decision to never get in that situation again. So I treated it like a mission. And so that was one of my down, down points. People look at me, oh, you never helped. I go, yeah, I'm telling you, I got video. I got tapes. You know, I was there. And it's not a good place to be. Eventually I had to get up. And I saw a lot of people in that tent that I was living in with the veterans. That gave up. And so I'll tell the veterans that are out there struggling with PTSD, and that's another thing I didn't know for 20 years. I'm walking around this earth undiagnosed PTSD.

Yeah.

It's painful. I got benefits back in 2022, finally, after— and I got out in 1992. And so I had a lot of periods of panic disorder and all these different things over the years, kind of self-medicated with alcohol. Clear, clear circumvent that. But lucky, the one thing about becoming homeless, they had to do a physical for me. And I found out I had all these different issues and PTSD being one of them. And it didn't even dawn on me to ask for benefits. Because, you know, we're proud. We don't really think about asking for benefits. Yeah, after you ask for them. My friends said, you know, you should talk to them about the panic attack. That might be PTSD. I go, pfft, nah. Sure enough, it was a lot of that. So we sorted that out and We kept it moving, but I keep my mental aspects of how I, I had to revert back to how I trained in the military. When I got outta situation, uh, in the military, I used that mindset and I treated everything, every step to get outta that situation like a mission. And I actually approach my job today like a mission because I don't wanna be ever be in that position again. And so I'm always. Strategizing, okay, how do I get out of that situation? How do I protect myself? And how do I— and so life is a fight. You're going to fall, you know, you're going to have to be able to get back up. Powerful.

Thank you so much for being vulnerable and sharing. I think this is going to help a lot of people. Life is a fight.

I know there are veterans out there that are struggling, and some of them will never ask for benefits, never— some will never go to get seen. And I think, um, as somebody experienced that, I owe it to them to tell them that they can overcome that.

Yes, but I think one problem with the military culture, at least in my opinion, from my experience, especially when I first got started, when you are having even some physical issues, sometimes you don't want to tell because if you do, they're going to try to kick you out because you are no longer, you know, physically qualified to stay. Stay and to fight, especially if you have emotional issues. Now, for those of us who have high security clearances, back in the day, I've been on the team, so I'm not the only one, they would get rid of you for going to speak to a psychiatrist or having some emotional troubles that you are working through. So instead of helping you here, it's like shame, you know, taboo, and they want to kick you out. So therefore you keep your mouth shut and you don't say anything. So you suffer in silence and, uh, that's not good. And then you also mentioned being a man, oh, I'm a man, I'm strong and all of that, Rambo or whatever. So you get courage, you want to go see a good doctor, you just keep it yourself. That's really silly because there's a lot of program and a lot of benefit for you. So really my advice is for people in the military right now to really be true to themselves and to seek help when needed. What would you add to that?

Um, I would say that pride goes before destruction. And sometimes in the military, we're too prideful. Um, pride will humble you. And, uh, also ego. Ego is evil going on. So you have to be able to manage that and understand that your life is more important than this pride that you have. 'Cause you blind yourself, you're blinded by that pride. And there might be some underlying issues that are life-threatening that you need to address. And so don't be afraid to go get seen by the medical professional. Um, it's important whether it's physical or, uh, mental. You need that help. I think most people need to understand that they need help. Now, one of the things in leadership too is you don't know something, ask the question. You don't ask, you don't get. And I'm not afraid to ask anybody anything. And if it's going to help me, I'm going to ask for help. Now, it sounds counterintuitive to be a tough leader. I will tell you, when you're in the middle of a panic attack and you're used to commanding 80 men. In a room and then you, you, you lose all your faculty in the middle of a panic attack, you're not in leadership of anybody at that time.

Yeah.

So you're gonna have to rein in your sympathetic nervous system fast. And then no amount of box breathing the Navy SEALs teacher is gonna help you at that point. You're gonna have to do some corrective measures and you're gonna need help doing it. You're gonna need the tools and the mental tools to do it.

So this stuff will lead up Great humility. Yes, that is, uh, something we, we all need to take to heart. Okay, Bob Fabien Zinga.

There's a saying, there's a saying about humility. Um, walk in the clarity of humility. Because you don't know everything, you gotta learn, keep learning, right? And you'll be, you'll, you'll, you'll be more effective in life if you walk in that clarity of humility. Because pride will kill you every time. It blinds you. There's one part of your Vision, you can't see when you have too much pride.

Wow, that is powerful. Walk in the clarity of humility. Okay, the fourth segment of the second portion of the podcast, uh, who are your mentors or thought leaders, people that you are following that you think we should all follow? I know you, uh, mentioned Joko a couple of times, so I'm guessing Joko Widink is one of them.

Well, when it comes to leadership, he's top of mind because he's the most recent. I'm old school cuz I come Generation X. I mean, there's some old, old standards, but recent developments in my podcast listening is Jocko Willink. As far as leadership is concerned, he's, he's to the point, no fluff. Um, for me, motivation, and I grew up where the Navy yelled at you, so I will listen to David Goggins cuss me out while I'm trying to get on my fitness program. I have weight to lose. Yeah, so I'll listen to him to get me motivated, to get my butt up to go walk and do my weights and get some exercise in. I'm not a spring chicken. I'll be 60 this year. So, um, I'm in the situation where I need to lose some weight, get my, my sugar down and manage my heart and all that stuff. So I gotta lose weight. So David Goggins is there to kick me in the pants and keep going.

Anyone else?

Um, you know, there's a lot of spiritual people that I listen to and talk to. I, I'm kind of a Pan-Africanist, if you want to say. I'll listen to Dr. Arakanu Chombari from the African Development Institute, Diaspora Institute. Um, there's a lot of people like that. There's, um, mentally, um, I mentioned earlier, I like the saying from, uh, Maya Angelou. Yeah, it's kind of the spiritual thing of how to think about life and how be disciplined and have your focus be focused. And, um, yeah, her, her, you know, having the focus, you know, extreme focus is very important. And focus, I think Bruce Lee talks about it. Bruce Lee has a lot of, um, a lot of people know that he was a philosopher. Yes. And I listened to a lot of his philosophy and it gets back to focus, intensity, and discipline.

Wow.

Um, so I have old standards and I have new standards because, you know, I've been around since the '70s.

So if you could choose 3 people to have dinner with, they could be alive, dead, or either mythical figure.

Ah, who would you start with and why? Yeah, so there I am biased. Um, like I said, I'm African American, so I, I like to look at African American history. Lewis Latimer would be the first one. Um, he kind of helped, uh, Edison and Alexander Graham Bell. You know, quite frankly, I think he invented the light bulb, to be honest. And, um, second would be Benjamin Banneker. He designed the District of Columbia. He was the first architect of Washington, D.C., right? And then, uh, third would be a young man from Zimbabwe, um, Maxwell Sanyulani Shikumbutsu. He has created energy from air with, uh, I think radio frequency. So he is using free air or energy from the air.

That's amazing. Wow.

He's a young guy too. Yeah.

Wow.

Okay. Fifth segment. We are running out of time. Uh, what have you read that we should read? Which book do you recommend? I know one of them is this one, Extreme Ownership by, uh, Jocko Willink and Leif Erikson. Yes.

Um, I think the foundational books is Think and Grow Rich and, um, Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude. Those are foundational books, but for communication skills, it would definitely be Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. We have to continually learn how to speak with each other, and it's a book that you have to keep going back every decade to look at, to refresh your memory. Um, those are foundational books. And What to Say When You Talk to Yourself, that's probably the chapter in, in Think and Grow Rich's book that people miss.

Yeah.

It's how to program your own mind. It's a 3-pound deal between your ears.

So what about, uh, podcasts? Any podcasts you recommend to the audience? I know this one.

Open Medical Ones. Yeah, that's definitely one. I got a lot of them. There's him. Sometimes I do Joe Rogan when he doesn't have crazy people on there. But there's— as far as informational stuff, there's Huberman is another one for health. I do a lot of them. Naturopathic doctor podcast, because I'm older now and I need to try to do the most natural thing for my body. And I try to follow the new trends. So I had to, Dr. Berg, and there's a few others. I try to stay on top of those. Those are more top of my mind in the background, perhaps.

Make sure after the show you give me the link to those so we can add at the end of this event. Now, for movies, I know you mentioned The Pursuit of Happiness. Great, great movie. Actually, this year alone, this is the 5th time someone on this podcast has recommended this movie. I've watched it before, so I'm going to watch it again. Any other movie you recommend?

Um, believe it or not, I like Shawshank Redemption. That's like my favorite movie, but it's not a motivational movie. There's a lot of movies. I mean, you can go back to Rocky. That's the foundation, right? Um, as far as watching movies for motivation, um, everybody's different. So they have different things that motivate them. Yeah. Um, I could think of things from a military standpoint or a sports standpoint. There's a lot you can take 45. You can take, you know, there's all kinds of, if it's in sports, there's multiple sports movies that you should watch. Um, if it's for ingenuity, you can look at the history of the people that invented things. Like I, I'll tell you, I like that Ray Kroc movie. He invented McDonald's. We're kind of doing that with water stations. You want to be the first franchise-type water station out there.

And, um, well, that's pretty amazing because I used to not watch TV or movies at all until I think I was looking at JG, my skipper at the time, one of the top 5 skippers in the entire US Navy. He was telling me I was watching movies to look for leadership principles. I've never done that before. So he actually used movies as a teaching lesson. I normally do book, I guess many books. Eventually get turned into movies. But anyway, so that's what I do now. So looking for some type of life lesson or leadership when I watch entertainment.

So, you know, J. Paul Getty, J. Paul Getty is a prime example of somebody's autobiography being an inspiration. He said, I'd rather get 100% effort from 100 people than 100% effort from myself. He was the first gas station. He made the first gas station. We're trying to make the first water station. So you can take from history people's stories. There's great success stories in business that you can take. And, and I invite people to look at those stories and be a historian on people that built great businesses. Go back and look at the people that, you know, Steve Jobs and people that did Hewlett-Packard and IBM.

That is awful. I could be talking to you for hours. I know we are coming to the, to the end of the hour.

So.

Um, number 6, we're almost toward the end. Uh, if you had one day and only one day to live, what would you have liked your final contribution to be?

Now people remember how I helped them, that I, I, their life is a little better because I was in it. So if I was giving them more water or if I was giving more good advice or I was just being there just to say that I cared. Um, I would want to be remembered for the good things that I made people feel, and I would want to leave something that people would remember and be an example for. So I think my last job is, my last job is to create water for people that need it.

Wow.

I don't think I need to do anything else. I don't need to learn the new AI. I don't need to learn. People are going to need water and they're going to need more water by 2050. Wow. Yeah.

What is life? Like my primary mentor, Dr. John C. Maxwell, always told me, right? Big difference between success and significance. And that's what you're talking about. Legacy. It's not just about you being successful, but trying to help others. That is, that is powerful. Okay. We have to coming to the end. So the last segment 7 is how can we add value back to you? Thanks so much for taking the hour to speak to us. So what can we do to support you?

I don't know. Well, if you have interest in, um, investing in Sky H2O or any of our projects, we have a lot that we're trying to do here in Southeast of the United States, as well as in Europe, as well as in the Mediterranean, as well as in the Caribbean Islands and Pacific Islands. Islands are very particular that they are surrounded by water, but they don't have their own aquifers, so they need to ship their water in. So we can make water right there on the space. And, um, that's where we're at at this point in time. Um, and if you need to have a conversation, feel free to reach out. I'm on LinkedIn. Very, very good.

I'm going to make sure to show your LinkedIn page so people can follow you. Okay. Now at the very, very end, uh, really quickly, uh, what is the most rewarding aspect of your life experience so far?

Every day is a new experience. I mean, every day above ground is a blessing. And so you have to be in it to win it, right? So you have to be. Present in your life. And so you have to absorb what's like, you know, one day at a time. Yeah, not a 12-step, but there's some nice things that happen, you know. Were you nice to somebody today? Did you learn something new today? Every day has its own blessing. So every day is a blessing.

As long as I have breath in my lungs, I have hope. Wonderful. Okay, only really quickly, 3 adjectives that describe you as a child.

As a child, I was initially shy until they put me in acting class, but I was shy, but my mother said I was always a loner. I always did my own thing. She said I always did my own thing. I guess that's true. And then I guess most of my friends when I was a kid probably said I was a class clown.

But, um, what about, as another thing he asked, as an adult? 3 adjectives.

3 adjectives. Um, they'd probably say I'm passionate about sustainability. They'd probably say I'm a little intense.

One more.

And, um, they know I'll be honest.

Honest. Fantastic. Thank you so much for your time. Actually, we went a couple of minutes over, but thank you for being patient. I know you told me you could stay up to 15 minutes later, but I'm very, very grateful that you are here. So the very, very last question I'm going to ask before we shut down the show is, uh, actually before I do that, do you have anything else you wanted to share on this podcast?

Again, focusing on the, uh, I would like to, I would, I would like to give a special thanks to my number one mentor is my father, Frank Edward Jones. He's a retired Chief Warrant Officer. He's 82 years old, still alive. And he's the first person that I go to get advice still today. I'm. Fortunate enough to be able to ask my dad a question, uh, about— he is very knowledgeable on a lot of things. So I'd like to give a shout out. A lot of people don't know this about my father, but he has a crevice named after him in Antarctica called Jones Nunatak. He was one of the first Navy men to manage the National Science Foundation in Antarctica. So if you go Google Jones Nunatak, you'll see Frank Edward Jones. That place on the map in Antarctica is my father.

That is, that is, friend. I could even not, not to bone it.

That is huge.

Okay. So now at the very, very end, just give me one word to represent our shared experience on this podcast today.

Um, I had fun. Um, it's fun talking about, um, positive things and how I can help other veterans and other people and leaderships. And so for me, it's fun, uh, speaking about subjects I'm very interested in. It's fun. So that's why.

I think for me, it will be resilience. Thank you so much for teaching us today. I really appreciate that. Hopefully I didn't go over the hour too much, but I'm very, very grateful. And I know the people listening to us are going to learn so much insight and wisdom from you. Thanks again, Troy L. Jones. I really appreciate that. Before I let you go, let me check LinkedIn to see if there's any other question. Let's see. Okay, it looks like we have David Hudson from Washington, DC. He's saying hi. And then I also broadcast on Twitch. I guess it's things used by gamers, mostly Gen Z folks. But one of them, of course, they don't use their real name there, but his sign name is Burress Dwarf, and he just said hello. I'm sure he stopped playing clever games he was playing, but, but people are watching, people are listening. And thanks again for being with us today. I'll see you next time.

Bye-bye.

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