Food Safety With Marcus Washington

Summary

In this episode of Cleaning Processes, Jerry Bauer interviews Marcus Washington, who shares his journey in the food sanitation and safety industry. They discuss Marcus's educational background, his transition into the chemical sales industry, and the importance of training and customer relationships in the cleaning sector. The conversation also highlights the emphasis on chemical safety and the various roles Marcus has taken on throughout his career, including consulting and managing personal life with farm animals.

Takeaways

• Marcus Washington has a diverse background in food safety and sanitation.
• He transitioned from diagnostics to sales of chemicals in the cleaning industry.
• Training customers on the proper use of chemicals is crucial for success.
• Chemical safety and proper usage are increasingly emphasized in the industry.
• Marcus has to wear multiple hats in his current role, as he combines sales and service.
• Building strong relationships with clients is crucial for achieving long-term business success.
• The COVID-19 pandemic impacted education and job opportunities in unique ways.
• Marcus's experience in various roles gives him a holistic view of the industry.
• He emphasizes the importance of understanding production schedules when recommending cleaning processes.
• Personal experiences, such as managing farm animals, offer valuable insights into achieving a work-life balance.

Different Sites Below
https://direct.me/jerrybauer

Jerry Bauer
Hospitality Cleaning 101
Jerry@hospitalitycleaning101.com

Transcript

Jerry

Hi, and welcome to Cleaning Processes with Jerry. My podcast is building an online community of like-minded individuals and businesses in the chemical and cleaning industry. We're going to share some ideas, tips, solutions, and even tell a couple of stories as we expand our markets. Please join me when I frequently introduce a special guest that just might be you. Check out my blog at HospitalityCleaning101 for additional information, and you might learn that I work for ChemStation of Boston as a senior sales consultant. If you ever have questions, feel free to reach out, and I will answer on a future podcast if you like. Today, we have Marcus Washington from Oklahoma. He actually worked for Diversity, and I've already spoken to him. I met up with him probably a year ago on LinkedIn, and really love the content he shares. Welcome, Marcus Washington. So welcome everybody. Today we have Marcus Washington out of, I believe, Oklahoma. And I crossed Marcus.

Marcus 

Yep, that's correct.

Jerry

 Well, Marcus, thanks for joining me today. And I'm really excited to have you here. I've been following you on LinkedIn for a while, message back and forth, and you've been kind enough to join me here today. Tell us a little bit about your journey in the industry of food sanitation, food safety, and so on. Just go ahead and give us the outline.

Marcus

I started with Hygiena a few years back. I was the Territory Sales Manager for their diagnosis. So the way they used to have it then, I think it's changed now, but basically they have an environmental monitoring component of the business, which was like their like globs and stuff that they sold, but they also had their diagnostics part. So prior to joining Hygiene, I was getting my bachelors in food science, got my bachelors in about 2020. and then I was going to get my master. While I was looking for my master's, I applied for the job at Hygiena. They let me finish out my master's project, and then I was working for them full time while still doing my master's online. It was weird. It was low during COVID, so they were allowing stuff to be online that normally wasn't. And worked for them for a while, but my master's was kind of a focus on food microbiology. Worked at Hydena, but then transitioned over to SGS where I worked. as again, like a territory business manager for the lab that is in Oklahoma City. And then after that, kind of started doing some food safety consulting, worked as in QA for a pet food company. So really just focused on a lot on the microbiology side of it now working for diversity for the past five months in chemical sales and then using my micro background to kind of help serve the clients in terms of what their needs are, do they need help cleaning, sometimes they'll ask me. You know, how would you clean this? What would you recommend for this? Things like that. So been able to use my way in microbiology background to really help clients there also while selling chemicals. So that's really been my journey so far. It's been a lot of different stuff. Last year, I mostly do a lot of consulting, did a lot of contract work for different companies. And then this year now, working with diversity for the past five months, really since the beginning of the year in January.

Jerry

Well, a couple of things right off the bat. I would say you're probably, am I correct? You're fortunate that you were able to continue your education through that whole process. And still, I assume you were working at the same time as well, because during COVID, let's be honest, a lot of people lost their jobs. I mean, people are wrecked. It was crazy times.

Marcus

 Yeah, it was it was difficult for me because as a student, you know, we had never seen anything like that. Because I think it was the end of my bachelors, probably the last semester as a bachelor student. Everything completely went online. So this was hard for me as a food science student, because obviously we had labs and stuff like that. So the way the university ended up doing it was like only a certain amount of people could be in a lab at a set time. Only everybody had to wear masks and stuff like that, and of course, social distancing. And so, yeah, being able to get a job during that time was kind of hard because I was when I started applying for jobs in grad school, but they don't really tell you when, because if you apply too early, some companies aren't willing to wait that long. But then you don't want to wait until you graduate to apply either. So it was, you know, very fortunate to get a job during that time. And then also with it being COVID, it kind of benefited me because I was able to still have my master, do that online because, you know, we kind of had made things more accessible. Whereas like traditionally doing a food science master's online would just be impossible because of all the lab work and stuff you have to do. So it was very interesting at that time. It was more one of the most interesting things I had in your experience.

Jerry

Now, in working with Diversey, I'm not asking you to share any company secrets, but how large is your geographic region?

Marcus

 So for me, I just cover Oklahoma and Arkansas. So I'm located in Choctaw, which is probably about 20 or 30 minutes east of Oklahoma City, depending on the part of the city. So really, I'm able to cover all of Oklahoma because I'm like right in the center of Oklahoma. within covered parts of Arkansas as well. And that's been pretty, it's been different for me because I'm working at SGS and Hygiena. Most of the focus is on like net new sales, but obviously in the chemical industry, there's a lot of big focus on service. And I can have, you know, one of the differentiators is the amount of service that you can buy.

Jerry

Correct, because no matter what chemicals you're selling, doesn't matter from a car wash, to food, to maybe hospitality, restaurants, or laundry, stuff like that, it's much more than just the chemicals. It has the service that encompasses it, because chemicals Let's be honest, every company has their little patents on certain products, stuff like that, but it comes down to the application and the training and stuff like that. So since I brought up training, I'm sure that's a big part of your job as well, training your customers, am I correct?

Marcus

Yeah, absolutely. So I think you're really spot on with that is that the biggest thing is like we all have our patents and things, but there's a lot of chemicals like quads or different chlorinated cleaners that can be very similar. Biggest thing, like you said, is going to be training the customer on how to use the product effectively and then coming with a different mindset than them to try and solve problems, because A lot of my clients follow very similar cleaning processes, but obviously they have different challenges that come up every day, every month, every week, so really what they expect me to do as a rep is how can we use this chemical most effectively. So sometimes I may suggest removing pieces of equipment, taking things apart, things like that, that they may not have thought of before. That way the chemical can actually reach the places it needs to go and then also stuff like biofilms. You have to figure out how to show them how to break those things down, use a chemical that will get into the biofilms and then clean, sanitize, different things like that. So really being an extension of their quality assurance team, their sanitation team, sometimes being an extension of their maintenance team. Whenever our equipment goes down, we go in and fix that as far as their chemical dispensing. So really just being an extension of the plant itself was where. our value truly is, you know, because obviously, well, we have the products that differentiate us, but we really have to lean into the service aspect pretty heavily as well.

Jerry

Now, a lot of people might not know this. However, I do. You probably have to work many nights as well, don't you?

Marcus

Yeah, absolutely. Last week, I had two overnights back to black. So a lot of people probably don't know, and obviously you already know this, but most sanitation cycles are third shift. So I have a few companies that I see that I will observe their sanitation for them, provide recommendations, feedback, but those that typically happen overnight. So some of my clients in West Oklahoma, They do sanitation overnight, so I'll go there every two weeks, make sure everything's going good. Then I have another client that's in Northeast Oklahoma, same thing, every two weeks, observe sanitation, help them troubleshoot issues. They have third party sanitation, so we have, I'm kind of like an extra layer, an addition, because they have their internal sanitation manager who watches over. then the third party sanitation unit and myself. So we kind of have that layer of all working together, seeing how we can, again, apply the chemical correctly. And yeah, it's been, I'd say maybe five or six nights a month, maybe overnight. Um, sometimes it's more, sometimes it's less, just depends. Sometimes there'll be emergencies and stuff like that. So it really just depends.

Jerry

Right. So the, what, since you, you're fairly new with Diversey, but you have a lot of the education, what is the one thing that probably has surprised you the most about your job in sewing chemicals? What is it that you never, you know, let's be honest, it doesn't matter if you're selling chemicals or if you're selling cars or anything. There's things that you don't learn in that interview process. where he got working or I didn't know this part. Some of it's positive too. So I'm just not looking for the negative. What's anything big that has stood out and not trying to be negative or a customer or even the company worked for but something made you go, wow, I never knew.

Marcus

The thing I really didn't think about before was with service, you're at the customer you know, pretty frequently. And so when I would sell diagnostics or lab equipment, like we typically touch base with the customer like once a quarter, because when I was at Hygiena, the way it work is you have your account manager or your territory sales manager who manages the sales. But we also had a technical support specialist who would do all of like the service that like I would do now as an account manager. So if there's something wrong with their equipment, they'll go down there. They're troubleshooted that fix the equipment. They know all the technical stuff. The thing that surprised me was once I came here was why I have to do both of those roles now. So, um, I'm the person who will. Yeah. We're out. Yeah, exactly.

Jerry

One day, you're the plumber one.

Marcus

Oh, yeah. Well, yeah, because so one day it will be like routine, normal. And there's another day there's an emergency. So they call me. I go to the plant. I have to troubleshoot and fix. And really, that's been the biggest difference for me is not the fact that I'm having the third look, but the frequency and being in the plans. And it's really good, though, from a relationship building standpoint, because, you know, let's be honest, a lot of people don't like those people. So whenever you're there in the plant with them, you really get to build a better relationship with them. long term and it helps you keep the business going. But I think that's been something that I was not really truly anticipating was, you know, wearing multiple hats. But it's it's not like terrible or anything like that. You know, sometimes you can get overwhelmed, but I think it's been pretty good so far.

Jerry

 I got a call about. For every holiday, I'd go, I think it was once on an Easter, and I had small children at home. This was many years ago. And I was there, and quite honestly, it was a plumbing problem, totally. They needed a plumber. And somebody came up to me and said, why did they call you? you know, why did my upper management call you? And I said, well, I said, I come out because you call. I go, do you realize how hard and how much it would cost to get a plumber today? And Arthur said, oh, I understand. You know, I was a path of least resistance. Let's call him. And you know, I don't remember. All I remember is I patched it up so they could get a plumber the next day. But No, you have to wear many hats, like one day you're an electrician, one day you're a plumber, one day you're a school teacher, you're doing the education and stuff like that. So going back, since I brought up the training again, are you finding more emphasis lately on chemical safety as well as the use of the products? It seems like it goes in spurts where chemical safety is very important today.

Marcus

Yeah, the biggest one for me has been chemical safety. Also, proper usage. So with using the machines that we have, you know, you'll have a list of the formulas and then you can click whichever one. Just making sure that people are following the proper dilutions because you don't want to put something that's not food safe at that concentration onto a food safe service. And then also when it comes to usage, people could be overusing if they're not using the correct dilutions. And then all that also goes back to safety, making sure when people are dispensing chemicals, that they're wearing the proper PPE, they're not doing X, Y, and Z, you know, they're paying attention. I actually had a, who was my, second month I had diversity, a client almost spilled acid on me because it was during the pastivation and it was like six or seven in the morning. Well, he worked in sanitation obviously, so he had been working spent the night before and he was dispensing it and then the hose, he wasn't paying attention because he was tired and the hose like flew out of the tote from the machine and we had to clean it up. Luckily, there was no actual spill or anything that but You know, it just goes to show you even when you think there's not a risk, you know, there could be a risk of something happening and it could just have to be, it doesn't have to be something super big. So I think safety has been the biggest one. I actually recently had two clients request safety trainings that I did last month. So interestingly enough, yeah, I think that's been the biggest one.

Jerry

Yeah, safety is, safety is big for the customer and safety, and I'm sure no secret, all companies want us to be safer as well. Absolutely. I got a new pair of goggles. I used to wear cheap glasses. Then I had to wear glasses, and then I used that. Oh, I got glasses. No, I actually saw it was I'll give him credit, it was Ecolab, a guy on Ecolab had a picture and he had bought a ski mask. And I said, well, you know, he had it over glasses. I said, my look might not look, you know, fashionable. I was sending him an email, I'm thinking, hey, great idea. I'm showing a picture of mine. I don't look the most fashionable. I'm not going to win a prize. But, you know, you only have one set of eyes. You got to be careful for ourselves as well.

Marcus

Absolutely.

Jerry

So I know you're involved in a couple other things. Tell me a little bit about yourself and am I correct, you also do some other work for another company as well?

Marcus

Yeah, so I do, basically I've had food safety consulting for the past year or two, or actually probably the past three years now. So I did, I started back when I was at SGS and she title was putting my technical knowledge sheets because one of the things about Hygiena was we sold to labs. And so when selling to labs, I got to use a little bit more of my technical knowledge. SGS was a little bit different because Excuse me. We were selling testing services and not so much using the technical knowledge as much because there wasn't as big of a focus on what types of equipment being used. It was mainly what pathogen can you test for? How deep is it? It's just a different type of sales process. So I wanted to start consulting to still be able to use my food safety quality assurance knowledge. Um, and then during that, so last year, my wife and I, we bought a house and then we started with farm animals. So we have, let's say pigs, goats, chickens, ducks, donkeys, and then we have like lifeguarding dogs. So, um, we, we used to have about 10 goats. but we recently cut that in half or a little bit less than, or a little bit more than half we got rid of. We got down to, I'd say, four now. So we had 10, what we really did, they would eat all the grass and eat all the brush and the weeds. But the problem is they would love to escape. So we had to get rid of all the troublemakers basically because The troublemakers were the ones who, you know, goats are like herd enemies. So one gets out and then the other one's gonna get out. So we had one girl who she was like really spinning and able to get through. Well, she had a child who was able to get through pretty much any type of fence because he was so small. And then everybody else would try to follow him. And you know, we were like, okay, we can't be too much. So we kept the ones that don't escape as much. And it's been a lot better so far.

Jerry

As we come, as I slowly wrap this up, but I wanted, I do this recently, is at the end, I want you to know, I put your information, your LinkedIn, your different contact information where people can contact you and stuff like that. But tell me the one question that you wished I would have asked you that I haven't yet. You have as long an answer as you want. There's probably something you were begging me to ask.

Marcus

That's a good, that's actually a good question. I haven't, I think the really the biggest thing that I'd like to share about myself was that, you know, I've been through multiple parts of the industry, so been able to be on the sales side, but then also worked in QA, as you know, in the production facility, also was able to work on the farm and do that from that perspective. So really, that's allowed me to have a whole holistic approach in there when I see things now as a rep, I understand how that like the ideal way to clean and the amount of labor it takes is going to be hard or may not work for somebody's production schedule. Like when we're talking about breaking down pieces of equipment, maybe it's ideal to break down something once a week or two or three times a week. But how do we do that and still have time to start a production at 5 a.m., right? So those are the things that I'm able to learn from working in all the parts of the industry rather than And I think a lot of technical reps have that experience where they have either plan experience or something. I think that just fails in general. You kind of have to prove yourself as knowing because they're, oh, this is just a sales person, you know.

Jerry

It's called surrounding the customer. You know, you you've walked their walk. You know, you live in there at night on yourself. Before you sold chemicals, you've had to work nights for it. It's not your first time. It's not your first rodeo. This podcast isn't about me, but I had to adapt different times through careers and selling because originally I was selling, originally at age 15, I was a dishwasher. The next thing you know, I wanted to be a chef and worked in restaurants, restaurant management. Next thing you know, I was selling the restaurant. and I was selling pet chemicals with a dish machine. Well, I could walk into any dish machine area, I'd walk into any manager, and I can walk the walk, I can talk the talk, wherever, you know? I've been there, I know what it is, so it really matters. Now, I'm more toward food and food production, like yourself, but… I've been there because it doesn't matter. You you can tell a person who hasn't because they they they they don't have to feel for it, stuff like that. So, Mark, I really appreciate the time you've given me. Everybody that I I've had on this show becomes a friend. And it's been great talking to you. I can never help you reach out to me and we'll stay in touch.

Marcus

All right. Absolutely. Yes. And likewise, as well, if you ever need anything, Lorraine.