Ep 7: Andrew Dugan of PUMA

Ep 7: Andrew Dugan of PUMA

Most water marketing leads with the product. Andrew Dugan thinks that's exactly backwards. An engineer and former manufacturer's rep turned water-industry copywriter, Andrew joins Paul to make the case for niching down, building better case studies, and one move he's always pushing clients toward: humanize the technology. Lead with the customer's problem, talk about yourself in the middle, close on the results. They also get into where AI is genuinely eating copywriting work, where it falls flat in a jargon-heavy industry, and Andrew's new venture, PUMA: the Products for Utilities Marketing Agency. A practical, no-fluff conversation for anyone marketing, selling, or building in the water industry. ---------------------------------------- IN THIS EPISODE * Meet Andrew Dugan: from manufacturer's rep and engineer to copywriter * Why niche all the way down to the water industry? * What niching down teaches you, and advice for finding your "through line" * How a niche pre-establishes credibility and reduces context switching * Translating technical products and jargon into human stories * The push and pull of putting human stories ahead of the engineering * What makes a good case study versus a bad one * Advice for a stretched marketing director under pressure for leads * How sharper targeting creates sharper messaging * What's actually changing in how water companies market * The AI conversation: where it helps, where it hurts * Authenticity as a counter-reaction to AI slop * The one thing to take away: humanize the technology * The question no one's asked, and where to find Andrew (PUMA / runwithpuma.com [http://runwithpuma.com]) ---------------------------------------- ABOUT THE GUEST Andrew Dugan is a water-industry copywriter and marketer who got his start as a manufacturer's representative serving wastewater treatment plants across Colorado and Wyoming. An engineer by training and a certified water and wastewater plant operator, he founded Waterrights to help water and wastewater manufacturers turn technical products into compelling marketing — case studies, white papers, ghostwritten articles, taglines, and more. He is now transitioning WaterWrites into PUMA, the Products for Utilities Marketing Agency, to do deeper, broader work for the companies he serves. Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn (search "Andrew Dugan"), and find his new agency at runwithpuma.com [http://runwithpuma.com]. ---------------------------------------- ABOUT THE SHOW Below the Surface with Paul Balsom is a podcast about marketing, growth, and go-to-market strategy for the water, wastewater, and environmental industries. Host Paul Balsom is a fractional CMO and former water technology company operator who sits down with the founders, marketers, investors, and operators shaping the sector. Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. New episodes drop regularly.

Ep 6: Alex Mason of Hydrec

EPISODE DESCRIPTION Alex Mason has spent seven years building teams across the water sector and recently launched his own firm, Hydrec, dedicated entirely to water globally. In this conversation, he and Paul get into what's actually happening in the hiring market right now: the wave of consolidation reshaping the major players, the redundancies that follow, the "gray wave" of retiring operators with no junior pipeline behind them, and the scramble to land software and AI talent in an industry that has never had to compete for it. A practical, no-fluff conversation for anyone hiring, building, or marketing in the water industry. IN THIS EPISODE * Why Alex stuck with water after recruiting across defense, life sciences, and automation * What makes water different: a recession-proof necessity without the funding spikes of "hot" sectors * Launching Hydrec and the service gap he's trying to fill * The state of the 2025 hiring market and the delayed UK AMP cycle * Consolidation among the big players (Veolia/Suez, Xylem/Evoqua, Grundfos) and the talent that shakes loose * Whether the acquirers are still hiring during integration * The hottest and hardest roles right now: software architects, AI engineers, and smart-water talent * Recruiting from outside water: hire on how someone sells, not what they sell * The "gray wave," the junior pipeline gap, and reaching new talent on TikTok and Instagram, not just LinkedIn * UK vs. US water markets and cross-border hiring * Career advice for people early in the water industry * Why working with a recruiter beats going it alone: network, time, and objectivity * What companies get wrong about attracting talent, and why "recruitment is a marketing job" CHAPTERS * 00:00 — Meet Alex Mason and how he landed in water recruitment * 01:43 — What makes water different from other sectors * 03:03 — Launching Hydrec and the gap in water recruitment * 04:16 — The 2025 hiring market, the UK AMP, and consolidation * 06:56 — How the big players throw their weight around * 08:18 — Are the acquirers still hiring during integration? * 09:37 — Hot roles: AI, smart water, and the salary problem * 11:42 — Recruiting talent from outside the water industry * 13:27 — The "gray wave" and reaching a new generation * 15:29 — UK vs. US water markets * 17:14 — Cross-border hiring between the UK and US * 18:32 — Advice for early-career talent in water * 20:21 — Why work with a recruiter instead of going alone * 22:57 — What companies get wrong about attracting talent * 25:39 — Where to find Alex ABOUT THE GUEST Alex Mason is a UK-based recruiter specializing in the water sector, with roughly seven years building teams for technology providers and companies across the water industry globally. He is the founder of Hydrec, a recruitment firm dedicated exclusively to water, working with clients across the US, Europe, and Asia. ABOUT THE SHOW Below the Surface with Paul Balsom is a podcast about marketing, growth, and go-to-market strategy for the water and environmental industry. Host Paul Balsom is a fractional CMO and former water technology company operator who sits down with the founders, marketers, investors, and operators shaping the sector. Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. New episodes drop regularly.

Ep 5: Beth Boeh of Boeh Agency

EPISODE DESCRIPTION Beth Boeh has been in water for 30 years — and like most of us, she didn't mean to be. What started as a temp job at a Philly-area instrumentation company in 1996 turned into a career, and eventually into Boeh Agency, a marketing firm that works exclusively with water companies. In this conversation, Beth and I get into why she made the call to specialize, what too many water companies still get fundamentally wrong about how they go to market, and the line that should probably be on every water CEO's wall: marketing is not sales. We also dig into a hot take on where water companies are overspending versus where they should be putting more, why PR is suddenly more valuable than it's been in years (thanks to LLMs), and what's actually shifted in water marketing over the past three decades. WHAT WE COVER * (01:00) Thirty years in, by accident — from a 1996 temp job at Capital Controls to building an agency * (05:00) An introvert running an outgoing business: navigating trade shows and relationship-driven work * (10:00) Agency vs. fractional CMO — when a water company needs one, the other, or both * (12:00) Green flags for a good engagement: budget, leadership buy-in, timing * (19:30) Inside Boeh Agency's recent rebrand and the return Beth is already seeing * (21:00) "The brand is not the logo" — what brand actually means in an engineering-driven, risk-averse industry * (25:00) What water companies still get wrong about taking great technology to market * (29:30) Hot take: where water companies overspend (paid digital) and where they underspend (PR) * (31:00) PR in the age of AI — why earned media is having a renaissance now that LLMs are pulling from it * (33:00) Standing out in an AI-flooded content landscape * (34:30) The next shift in water marketing: storytelling, brand, and moving away from collateral * (36:30) One thing every water CEO should hear: marketing sets the table for sales — they aren't the same thing ABOUT BETH BOEH Beth is the founder of Boeh Agency, a full-service marketing agency that works exclusively with water and wastewater companies. She got her start in the industry in 1996 at Capital Controls and has spent three decades helping water technology companies — from early-stage startups to global manufacturers — sharpen their brand, tell their story, and grow. CONNECT WITH BETH Website: https://www.boehagency.com [https://www.boehagency.com] Recommended reading: Boeh Agency's blog post called, "Engineers Deserve Better Marketing" CONNECT WITH PAUL Paul Balsom is the founder of Balsom & Co., a fractional CMO firm serving the water, wastewater, and environmental technology industries across the US and Canada. Balsom & Co. partners with water technology startups, environmental tech firms, and municipal and industrial water companies to build marketing strategy, go-to-market plans, brand positioning, and demand generation programs that actually resonate with engineers, utility decision-makers, and plant operators. Website: https://www.balsom.co [https://www.balsom.co] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulbalsom/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulbalsom/]

Ep 4: Björn Otto of Interius Solutions

In this episode, Paul sits down with Björn Otto, an environmental engineer turned water industry marketer based in Germany. Björn founded Interius Solutions four years ago after spending over 15 years in sales and marketing roles at membrane companies, where he repeatedly hit the same wall: he couldn't find a marketing agency that actually understood water technology. That frustration became a business. Paul and Björn cover a lot of ground, starting with why so many water company CEOs have soured on marketing — and why misaligned expectations are almost always the root cause. Björn argues that expecting a B2B marketer to deliver instant leads for a six-figure membrane system the same way you'd sell a consumer product is a fast track to disappointment. The real job of marketing, he says, is long-term brand building and preparing the path for sales. The conversation gets tactical from there. Björn makes a strong case for embedding marketers alongside sales teams and service departments so they can speak credibly about the technology, rather than relying on other departments to feed them content. He shares a pointed anecdote from WEFTEC where a booth staffer told Paul, "I'm just in marketing, let me go get a salesperson" — exactly the problem he's trying to fix. Other topics include the overlooked importance of competitive monitoring, why trade shows still matter (even on a tight budget), the 1-9-90 rule on LinkedIn and why Björn is happy most executives think it's a waste of time, and how European and North American water markets differ when it comes to trade show culture, advertising, and buyer behavior. Looking ahead, Björn pushes back on the AI hype and urges water companies to master the basics first — SEO, website performance, email marketing, and social media — before chasing the next shiny tool. He also flags press releases as an underrated tactic experiencing a comeback thanks to large language models using them as authoritative source material. His parting advice to every water company CEO: manage your expectations. You're in a long-sales-cycle, conservative, B2B industry. Marketing works, but not overnight. ---------------------------------------- Balsom & Co. is a fractional CMO practice built exclusively for the water and wastewater industry, helping water technology companies, water treatment providers, and environmental services firms translate technical expertise into market growth. Founded by Paul Balsom, a former water tech company owner and operator with over a decade of experience in water utility sales, water infrastructure marketing, and B2B go-to-market strategy, the firm works with water sector companies in the $2M–$75M revenue range serving municipalities, public utilities, industrial water users, and commercial accounts. Their service portfolio spans water industry marketing strategy, brand positioning, content marketing, thought leadership development, SEO for water companies, digital marketing, and lead generation for water technology and water treatment businesses. Balsom & Co. specializes in bridging the gap between engineering-led water innovation and commercial messaging clarity, partnering with CEOs, founders, and operators who need fractional marketing leadership without the overhead of a full-time CMO. Their ideal client is a water or wastewater company that has outgrown word-of-mouth referrals and trade show marketing but hasn't yet built a sustained, strategic marketing function. Balsom & Co. differentiates itself through deep water industry credibility, operating as a peer to the water sector executives it serves rather than an outside marketing agency, with firsthand experience navigating the long sales cycles, conservative municipal and utility buyer base, and relationship-driven dynamics unique to the water and environmental services market.

Ep 3: Lauren Howard (Arc Aligned Strategy) & Jessie Peters (Peak Potential Marketing)

The conversation explores the world of fractional CMOs and their work in specialized marketing services for companies in climate tech, renewable energy, and the water space. It delves into the challenges faced in marketing strategy, educating founders on marketing, misconceptions about marketing, the role of trust in marketing, budgeting and planning for marketing, incorporating marketing into business, and marketing strategies including free marketing. The conversation delves into various marketing strategies, challenges, and trends in the industry. It explores the impact of funding, market consolidation, and the future of marketing trends, providing valuable insights into the evolving landscape of marketing in the industry. Takeaways * Specialized marketing services for climate tech and renewable energy companies * Challenges in educating founders on marketing Channel partners play a crucial role in marketing success. * Messaging and buzzwords significantly impact marketing effectiveness. Chapters * 00:00 Introduction to Fractional Spaces * 05:30 Educating Founders on Marketing * 19:07 The Role of Trust in Marketing * 28:06 Incorporating Marketing into Business * 33:23 Marketing Strategies and Challenges * 38:29 Buzzwords in Marketing * 47:32 Digital Advertising and Marketing ROI * 54:06 Market Consolidation and M&A