WEBVTT
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Hey guys, welcome back to Navigating Neva.
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I am your host, Neva Nicole, with my co-host.
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And today we are going to talk about the all things aquatic second annual event.
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It has.
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And for those that love spoilers, uh, again, Nicole, as you and I both know, Love Island ended.
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So the way we climb the podcast ranked is we trick everybody and make them think we're about to talk of products, but we're going to talk about Trinity and Bryce, who run one Love Island.
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And how much money they got to take home and how we'd love to have some of that.
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$100,000 for just having love on an island.
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I'm sure they had a lot of love.
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I don't even know what the show is, but I know that you know if we're going to beat Dak Shepherd and Smartless and Amy Poeh, who has Will Farrell this week.
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I mean, I'm as close to Will Farrell as you can get.
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So let's ride.
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You know what I mean?
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Absolutely.
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Absolutely.
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Uh and this, and I blame everybody, you can blame me, everybody, because one, we are recording bright and early in the morning, and anybody that knows me knows I don't need coffee.
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Never had it, never will.
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So my energy is off the charts.
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And it's been a minute.
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And three, Nicole let me be in charge today.
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She let me have the notes with pen and paper.
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So we apologize in advance to no one, but we are here to celebrate the countdown.
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Like you said, Nicole, the second annual All Things Aquatics in Houston, Texas.
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It is.
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We're gonna be at the University of Houston.
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I can't wait.
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I've never been there, have you?
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I have never been, uh, but I'm excited to, and it's somewhat crossing over with my show on Fridays, The Aquatics Life, which we'll get into DPRS and who's gonna be at the show.
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But Kara Green, who is the aquatic director manager at the University of Houston, was my guest a few weeks ago.
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Um, hasn't she?
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And I think she's been our guest.
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If not, we've talked to her enough to make it feel like she's been our guest.
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Um and we're and like you said, we're real excited.
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She uh, I don't know, six months ago, seven months ago, and we put out the call to a year ago, when we put out the call to say who wants to host, um, she reached out and very humbly and very uh earnestly, she said she was a fan of ours, a fan of mine, and she'd been following us, and she offered up the property and the facility and the pool and the nadatorium.
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And now we're all on the way.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Yeah, so Friday, September or uh it's Saturday, September 26th.
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Um, the day after my wife's birthday, last year, it was on my wife's birthday.
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So she asked me how I'm gonna trump, how I'm gonna outdo it this year, and I said we're gonna add a day, and it's gonna be after your birthday.
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Right.
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I got right, I got no brownie points.
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But yeah, tell us what's happening.
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Well, so I just wanted to recap that.
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So this year's event is on September 26th, which is a Saturday, and you said we have a Friday night, September 25th, new edition, correct?
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Yes, it is not um celebrating my wife's birthday, although you're all welcome to do that.
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Uh, it is the lifeguard competition, right?
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What is that?
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Tell me more.
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Yes.
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So I know you've competed in lifeguard games.
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I've look at that setup, by the way.
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Um, I feel like I'm on a TV ad, and there's more.
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Um, but we've done lifeguard competitions, we've done lifeguard challenges, lifeguard games, I've done them for Ellis, the Red Cross.
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I'm sure you've done them for the YMCA.
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What this is, though, if you've ever seen The Wizard, there's your movie callback with Fred Savage in the 1990s, and he goes on this adventure as a kid and plays video games everywhere, and he plays Super Mario and all the games.
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And at the end of the game, Super Mario 3 is up.
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And none of the kids have ever played Super Mario 3.
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That's the idea of the Lifeguard Challenge.
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We're gonna take rescue tubes and test kits and all different items from our uh vendors and from our professionals and integrate them into actual challenges.
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Whether it's a handlebar that you use for water aerobics, whether it's a whistle or rescue tube, uh, whether it's to squim, right?
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Frisbee golf in the water, um, our wonderful friend Tuxtica, uh, Mr.
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T in Jacksonville, Florida, who runs the I'm gonna say the name wrong, the life safety first training, Jacksonville, Florida CPR Company.
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Um, those all those words are in the title of his company, but Mr.
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T Jacksonville uh is gonna lead this.
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We've got five different organizations, companies that are putting their products in, and we'll have lifeguards doing 20-minute, 15-20-minute activities with him and being judged and evaluated.
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How well do you perform with the task?
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Yeah, so I can send my own staff to this event to compete, just like I would a lifeguard competition.
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Is that what I'm hearing?
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Not only that, you should send your staff.
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So if you are in Houston, if you're part of the Texas Public Pool Council, if you're part of IPSA, if you're part of, if you know James Browning at the JCC, there's your shout-out, Jim.
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If you know any of the swim schools, YMCAs, JCCs, if you are a student at the University of Houston, and you're a lifeguard, bring your friends, uh, bring your family.
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But that's the idea is you're going to be doing something new and different while still executing your lifeguarding skills, swimming, buoyancy, awareness, whistles.
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Um, but we're doing it in a way that kind of mixes it up.
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Um, I've had many lifeguard competitions where it's swim out, get the victim, put your goggles on, switch your shirt inside out, and swim back.
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That's cool, but it's not maybe as innovative or as unique as we're trying to do it.
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And also, there's only 50 lifeguards.
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It's not 250 people.
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Um, and lastly, I'll say this: it's not designed to be um life or death.
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It's not designed to be, did you do your CPR perfectly?
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It's not designed to be audited like sometimes our our tushies tighten up when our auditor comes around us.
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When we're, I won't mention the three big players, but I've audited for all of them, and God bless all of them.
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But this is not that.
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This is the exact opposite.
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It's engaging, it's playing, it's trying the product, it's how do you product review?
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Oh, great word, great word.
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With the product owners and the companies being the judges, telling you if you used it right, telling you if it was done in a way that was meaningful, or if you found a way to use the product that they hadn't thought of before.
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So um it's a competition for sure.
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There's gonna be grades and scores and awards together.
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And prizes.
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Yeah, I was gonna say prizes.
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We need prizes.
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And there's another shout out.
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Look at Nicole.
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See, this is why you're in charge.
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If you are in and around Houston and you're a coffee shop, or you're a Photoshop, or you're a trophy shop, or you're a business of any kind and you want to get your stuff out to us, we're looking for donations, we're looking for giveaways.
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If you want to give us coffee, if you want to put up a big poster, if you want to tell your story, let's get involved.
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Last year we had some really amazing prizes, didn't we?
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We had a boat tour and we had a a huge canvas you could win.
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We had some coffee passes.
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What else am I missing?
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We had my wife in the background because she's so awesome.
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Um, she's my prize.
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Um, but do you uh did everybody hear her scoff and roll her eyes?
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I hope everybody's heard that because she 100% did.
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No, but um, Nicole, last year we had one prize per attendee.
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We had so many companies in St.
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Simon's Island, Georgia, and Brunswick, Georgia, and over the causeway, look at me getting that right.
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Um, from the smallest coffee shop to somebody giving away lunch to just having gift certificates to a wine tour.
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Um, and again, we're in Houston.
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So whether you're an independent company, whether you're a franchise, you're gonna be engaging with every aquatic professional in the area.
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And aquatic professional ranges from parks and recreation, YMCA, boat safety, CPR.
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So it's going to a good cause.
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It's going to somebody that's impacting the fire and serve, fire rescue.
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So your donation, your prize, your giveaway is going to a great uh service industry and a great group of people.
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Yeah.
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Well, let's hear more about our lineup for the traditional Saturday morning.
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Yes, Saturday.
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So Saturday, September 26th.
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Um, as anybody may or may not know, again, no keynote speakers, no 45-minute PowerPoint presentations, no butt itis.
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But itis is what happens when you sit around long enough, you get butt itis, so you have to stand up and do a shake break, right?
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The whole day is a shake break.
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Um, and so really the and I'll get to the list too, but the format for the reminder is we have 16 aquatic professionals, um, leaders in the industry that'll be leading small group panel discussions.
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So there'll be four professionals at a time on stage covering one main subject where the audience is discussing, let's say, risk, and we'll have four experts talking about risk in their areas from slip and fall, there's life floor, from chemicals to finances to staffing and retention risk to customer service risk.
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So the audience gets to have a lot of open-ended questions and a lot of individual thoughts on how risk is covered from different perspectives.
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Then, about 20 minutes later, we're going to break out, and those experts will be leading roundtable discussions.
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So you, as the audience, kind of get to play um chase your tail or tag, and you move around the tables and you listen to small group of discussions with a certified pool operator on your left, a waterobics instructor on your right, an LGI next to you, a campus rec director next to you, but all of you absorbing a subject individually and collectively and having a QA back and forth.
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Then we we break the room up, we put four new experts on stage, and we talk about another subject, like rescue or like revenue, I mean.
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And we rinse and repeat.
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Rescues could be one too.
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And we rinse and repeat.
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The intention is that the 100 audience members, again, there's only 100 tickets available.
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We've already sold about 30 or so, so get in now.
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We'll talk about registration a little bit.
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The goal is that the hundred audience members get 16 new best friends and spend the day engaging.
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They spend the day understanding large-scale concepts, personalized to their work, with perspectives from other people they may never garnered.
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And before I get to the list, which I promise I'll do, I'll end with this.
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That's why we built this way, Nicole, so that you're not just with 50 lifeguards, you're not just with 50 swim instructors, you're with people that are helping lead the aquatic industry and understanding large scale scale concepts in a way that you can digest and bring back to your property.
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Yeah.
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So I want to add right here that um you and I have a very large network.
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And it's probably because we've been in the industry for as long as we have.
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But um, there's someone that I've become close to recently, and he just came into this field, like the uh management, the recreation management, actually.
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He came from, I think he came from water therapy.
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Um was his own.
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Oh, I'm sorry.
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It's a different world.
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It is, and so he said, I don't have a network, and I'm like, you know, I feel our event is a great place to build your network.
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So if you are new to aquatics and you feel like you don't have those connections, you don't have that networking because you just came in.
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And a lot of times that happens in aquatics.
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You know, I think you've mentioned it, but you're doing sports, you're doing another thing, and this is just another hat you put on, and now you don't know, you know, you don't know what to do, and you don't have a good network.
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So this is a nice intimate setting so you can build that network for yourself.
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Uh, two statements.
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One, I want the audience to look behind Nicole.
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The clouds literally parted for her in her Zoom sky.
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Um, she did not design it that way, but the clouds parted for her just like the C's do for her.
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Um, and and number two, uh I always cry on this podcast.
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And normally it's at nine o'clock at night when my day is drawn.
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But now here Nicole's gonna give me to cry at nine o'clock in the morning when we're recording this.
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So, one of our new uh professionals, her name is Bethany Carlson.
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She has the um the walkie-talkie radio holder.
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Um, and she is right out of high school.
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She is a quadruplet.
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She created an amazing product and has been in aquatics for quite a few years.
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She's only 18, but again, started at 15.
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And here's why I'm gonna cry, Nicole.
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I'm gonna try not to cry.
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You talked about having a place to go.
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You talked about having an environment that was intimate and safe and comfortable.
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I've even met, I've I've not met him, but I've had some side um, you know, shout-outs with this young gal's father about hey, she's gonna get on a plane and meet people and what is this environment like?
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When I was 18, we didn't have that.
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You had and again, it's they can send me the letters.
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I had Ellis, that's who I was trained by, and that's what you had.
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You have Red Cross, because that's what you're trained by.
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You have the YMCA, you have the JCC, wherever you went, that's what you had when I was coming up and you were coming up.
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And it really hit me when this young gal who made an amazing um uh radio holder that you can attach to the side of your stand, and so you don't lose your radios, you can customize it.
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It's all great, we'll talk about it.
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Bethany is her name.
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She did it because she had a need, and it's a simple product, and it's great.
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But more than the product, and this is why I get emotional, is she felt she had a place to go.
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She could tell her family, and she and she's in Arizona, and she can tell her other lifeguards hey, I have a place where I can commune and I can talk and I can engage.
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And to your point, Nicole, this started six years ago online and Facebook, right?
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I started All Things Aquatics on the social media on the line.
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My son and I watched the internship with uh Vince Maugh and he says on the line.
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You mean online?
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No, on the line, on social media before COVID, just to like network.
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And now we've created a place where people like Bethany, who's 18 years old, who has a cool product but also has a passion for the industry, can go and meet people like Josh and Nathan from OSO Consulting, who are a representative of Stargard, who are part of the national, international aquatic branding and safety training for major cruise ships and major water parks.
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And Josh uh uh uh Nathan Latti uh and Josh Martinez, amazing human beings, they're gonna be there.
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They're gonna be talking about not only their business and OSF consulting, but also the application of running a property when you're brand new and you've been tasked to just take over.
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How do you engage the staff?
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How do you build systems of culture?
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Um, how do they implement the safety standards?
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How do you take a team of people that aren't really interested in you or what you're doing and saying this is what we have to do?
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Uh, and a lot of the things that Josh and Nathan do well.
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But again, going back to Bethany and and all the other guests and and professionals I have there, that's why I started All Things Aquatics.
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Not because I knew there was a Bethany in the world and she was going to make me cry, but because I wanted a place for people to go.
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And that's why there's only 100 tickets sold.
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Um, and that's why there's no vendor row.
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Or, you know, even as we talk about the vendors, um, Mark Ruddickus from Pittsburgh, amazing uh longtime swim coach.
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He's doing a lot of work with Ron Usher, so Mark and Ron will be there.
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Uh Mark Rodicus is new to our event.
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Uh but Mark is.
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He's not new.
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He's got his own podcast.
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Yeah, he's got his own podcast just like we do.
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What's it called?
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Uh Heavy or Not, which I think.
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I didn't mean to put you on the spot.
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I'm so sorry.
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I knew that you know it.
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I do know that.
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Yeah, heavy or not.
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And it's a great podcast.
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And it's heavy or not, right?
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He gets into some very intense, detailed conversations, but he also gets into light-hearted conversations and has amazing guests.
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So Bethany, who's 18, gets to meet somebody like Mark Rodicus and Ron Usher, which we'll talk about in a minute, who has made their entire livelihood on being a competitive swimmer and running swim events.
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And, you know, maybe Bethany, maybe Mark doesn't need a bunch of radios, but Mark can know that there's a Bethany out in the world.
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And it's not separated by 45-minute keynotes.
00:16:53.200 --> 00:16:57.600
It's not separated by where are we all gonna go to lunch because there's no lunch.
00:16:57.679 --> 00:17:01.279
It's not separated by I have to be quiet because somebody's talking.
00:17:01.440 --> 00:17:02.799
Um, it's the opposite, right?
00:17:02.879 --> 00:17:04.400
That's why the couches were the theme.
00:17:04.480 --> 00:17:06.720
So the couch, yeah.
00:17:06.880 --> 00:17:09.359
I don't know if you talked about it now, so I'll tease it again.
00:17:09.599 --> 00:17:12.640
Your couches are the theme, is because why?
00:17:12.720 --> 00:17:15.599
How did you um our all things aquatics was the first one?
00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:16.240
Was last year.
00:17:16.319 --> 00:17:19.759
This is our second annual, and this idea was birthed where with?
00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:21.200
What was your feeling on that?
00:17:21.440 --> 00:17:24.720
Um, it was birthed from other conferences, um, other events.
00:17:24.880 --> 00:17:32.000
I've been public speaking at a lot of events, I do side speaking at a lot of events, I'm very humbly, blah, blah, blah.
00:17:32.240 --> 00:17:37.599
But what I realized is at these events, when I sat next to Nicole or anybody I knew, I couldn't talk to them.
00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:42.720
So I stopped going to the speeches, and I just sat on the couch in the lobby.
00:17:42.960 --> 00:17:47.119
And I would wait for any human to end exit all the speeches, right?
00:17:47.200 --> 00:17:51.039
When hundreds of people walk out all the doors, all the couches would be empty.
00:17:51.119 --> 00:17:56.160
And whoever would sit on the couch next to me, my badge was there, and I just started talking.
00:17:56.720 --> 00:18:02.000
And Nicole and the audience out there, it changed the way I operate, it changed the way I look.
00:18:02.079 --> 00:18:06.240
And I've been doing, and I was a keynote at spaces and I've done major events, blah, blah, blah.
00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:07.200
Not about me.
00:18:07.599 --> 00:18:13.440
Point is, it changed how I view, and it changed how the people I talked to viewed things.
00:18:13.680 --> 00:18:16.319
Because they'd have to get up eight minutes later and go to another event.
00:18:16.400 --> 00:18:17.839
And I said, I'm just gonna stay here.
00:18:17.920 --> 00:18:20.720
And they said, Oh, well, I'll just stay here and talk too.
00:18:20.880 --> 00:18:26.799
And then eight other people stayed there and talked, and then we all went to dinner, and then we went to dinner, people we would have never met.
00:18:27.039 --> 00:18:37.920
And while I love those events and I still speak at them, and they are great and they're massive and they're awesome, and whether it's aquatics or whether it's medical fitness or whether it's athletic business, there's a place for all those.
00:18:38.160 --> 00:18:54.720
But what I found for me is that the humans, the Bethany's and the Marks and the Nicole's, didn't actually get to create the long-term bonds and the relationships or even the business planning strategies that I felt were essential to the development of the industry, development of myself.
00:18:54.960 --> 00:19:03.279
And so on our flyer that we had last year, God bless Nicole, but the front cover of the flyer had two main images.
00:19:03.440 --> 00:19:07.359
It had a pot of gold, and I'm gonna let you do that one, and it had a couch.
00:19:07.519 --> 00:19:16.000
And the couch was designed to look like an old leather couch, like a fireside chat for our older audience out there, if you think of fireside chats, because that's what we wanted.
00:19:16.079 --> 00:19:19.359
We wanted people to sit down on a comfy couch and just chat.
00:19:19.599 --> 00:19:25.519
We wanted chatting with some structure and some guidance, with some um purpose, but we wanted that environment.
00:19:25.599 --> 00:19:26.960
And I'll even add this, Nicole.
00:19:27.039 --> 00:19:40.319
If you remember last year, uh Meredith and my wife, my wife was there, Meredith, my wife was there and a ton of other people, and we spent the night before color-coding the badges so that if you were a green, happy go-lucky talker, you got a green badge.
00:19:40.480 --> 00:19:44.640
When you walked in, if you were kind of a quiet, shy, unsure, you got a yellow badge.
00:19:44.799 --> 00:19:48.799
And if you were a don't talk to me till I got my coffee, you got a red badge.
00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:54.000
But that way every audience member didn't have to worry about who I'm gonna talk to and what's your name and how are you.
00:19:54.240 --> 00:19:57.200
All the green badges got together and chatted it up.
00:19:57.359 --> 00:20:04.000
The yellow badges we used our aquatic professionals and our experts to kind of integrate and build relationships and get momentum going.
00:20:04.079 --> 00:20:08.400
And then the red badges I just stood over and told jokes to until they got rid of me or laughed.
00:20:08.480 --> 00:20:21.279
Um, I'm kidding, we didn't do that, but that's the whole point of the event is getting people paced by who you are, based on your personality, and integrating so that you can still have a positive feeling and and have outcomes.
00:20:21.440 --> 00:20:24.480
But what was the other image we put, Nicole, on that flyer?
00:20:24.799 --> 00:20:28.640
We had the rainbow with the pot of gold at the end, or maybe we just had the pot of gold at the end.
00:20:28.720 --> 00:20:29.119
So I did it.
00:20:30.559 --> 00:20:33.920
Yeah, I did it like a side table on your couch.
00:20:34.079 --> 00:20:44.720
But the pot of gold was Wes's uh icon image that he added to that because he said that the event is your pot of gold.
00:20:44.799 --> 00:20:46.799
It is what is at the end of the rainbow.
00:20:46.960 --> 00:20:48.720
Um, did I get that right?
00:20:49.039 --> 00:20:49.599
You did.
00:20:49.680 --> 00:20:54.559
Um, I yeah, the whole intention was that you don't have to go through the rain to get the gold.
00:20:54.720 --> 00:21:02.640
And in all things aquatics, whether it's on your website, whether it's on our Facebook group, whether it's in person, Nicole and I have been through the rain.
00:21:02.960 --> 00:21:09.440
Ron Usher, who we'll talk about, Kevin McCarthy, uh the guys from Steady Fast, which I know Nicole, you'll get down on.
00:21:09.599 --> 00:21:12.160
Uh, you'll talk about we've been through the rain.
00:21:12.240 --> 00:21:14.799
We've been through the hurricane, the tornado, you name it.
00:21:15.039 --> 00:21:17.359
El Nino, there's my Chris Faley shout-out.
00:21:17.680 --> 00:21:20.160
Um, Bethany maybe hasn't yet.
00:21:20.480 --> 00:21:25.440
Our attendees uh maybe haven't yet, or have, but in their own way.
00:21:25.599 --> 00:21:33.200
And so we put the pot of gold as an image there to represent the fact that we want to help you uh fill the potholes first.
00:21:33.359 --> 00:21:37.680
We want to give you your umbrella so the rain comes, you're prepared for it.
00:21:37.920 --> 00:22:03.200
And that's why, again, I think that camaraderie, that hundred people audience, that 16 group of speakers really is purposeful because you can have those type of conversations of tell me what it was like when your boss quit, or what was it like when all of your guards left on August 16th, or you know, a rescue happened, or whatever it was, and we can really dive in, pun intended, on Um, that camaraderie uh so that you're not alone.
00:22:03.279 --> 00:22:11.440
And you mentioned at the beginning, Nicole, there's no worse feeling in aquatics than thinking you don't have somebody to call, thinking you don't have somebody to lean on.
00:22:11.599 --> 00:22:14.400
Um and that's one of the purposes of this event of this event.
00:22:14.720 --> 00:22:18.160
So I think the most important thing of this event is that you've made it affordable.
00:22:18.319 --> 00:22:30.799
So when we do have those new people that are wearing multiple hats and their companies are only gonna pay X amount of dollars or not even send them to a conference, even if they have to pay out of pocket to come to this wonderful event, it makes it affordable.
00:22:30.880 --> 00:22:34.319
Our price this year is$69,$65,$69.
00:22:35.519 --> 00:22:35.920
$65.
00:22:36.799 --> 00:22:41.839
Now, you do have to travel, but I mean I think Houston is a great uh vacation spot.
00:22:42.079 --> 00:22:45.680
So, you know, it's just like last year is a great vacation spot.
00:22:46.079 --> 00:22:51.680
I don't want to over speak on the hotel of uh opportunities, but we do have hotels we're working with.
00:22:51.839 --> 00:22:53.359
There are hotels in town.
00:22:53.599 --> 00:22:56.799
Um and with the Friday night, there's other things to do.
00:22:56.880 --> 00:23:04.720
So if you're sending a whole team, if you want to send your lifeguards Friday night and you want to participate Saturday, if you want to bring three or four managers, right?
00:23:04.799 --> 00:23:06.160
That's it to your point, Nicole.
00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:10.400
Uh, and well, I promise we're gonna talk about Kevin and Tom and Life Floor and DPRS.
00:23:10.559 --> 00:23:24.880
But um we wanted to be as cost effective as possible because if you go as the aquatic director and the aquatic manager and you come back to your team and you go, I got all these ideas, you're now having to push uphill.
00:23:25.200 --> 00:23:27.920
I have lived that life, Nicole has lived that life.
00:23:28.079 --> 00:23:29.279
We don't want that for you.
00:23:29.440 --> 00:23:40.799
So we wanted to make it as cost effective as possible is you can bring a rec director, you can bring your head guard, you can bring your uh you know, swim lesson coordinator, you can bring your basketball, who cares?
00:23:40.960 --> 00:23:56.400
The whole point is you're then bringing a teammate or multiple teammates so that you guys can be in this thing together and they can experience the camaraderie and go, oh, well, we've never done a full facility-wide dry land uh sauna drill.
00:23:56.880 --> 00:24:06.640
Oh, well, the aquatics team told us for two years we should do a sauna drill in the or a basketball emergency or a child center, you know, choking emergency.
00:24:06.880 --> 00:24:15.519
The but now that I've got my basketball coordinator here, I've got my executive director here, they can see 99 other people go, well, this is how we do it.
00:24:15.680 --> 00:24:19.839
This is the call effect we've had, and go, oh, you're not fighting uphill anymore.
00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:33.759
So again, that's why it's low cost, that's why we encourage you to bring your teammates, that's why we encourage you bring your line leaders, your department heads, so that they can have that camaraderie itself and and not charge um you know what other events charge.
00:24:34.079 --> 00:24:36.240
So you are leaving out Kevin.
00:24:36.400 --> 00:24:37.839
We were welcome by Kevin.
00:24:38.160 --> 00:24:38.720
McCarthy, yes.
00:24:38.799 --> 00:24:39.279
Let's tell me more.
00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:40.880
Yes, we were welcomed.
00:24:41.200 --> 00:24:42.160
There are two Kevins.
00:24:42.400 --> 00:24:49.119
We were welcome to go visit Kevin and attend his life savings expo uh in Squimish, Washington.
00:24:49.359 --> 00:24:57.119
And last year he was supposed to make it to ours, but he was on there, he was a vendor, he was supporting us, and then weather and flights changed that.
00:24:57.279 --> 00:24:59.200
So this year he's coming again.
00:24:59.359 --> 00:25:00.480
He's one of our vendors.
00:25:00.720 --> 00:25:03.279
And if you don't know, you should go to Instagram and find it.
00:25:03.359 --> 00:25:07.839
It's Squim S K W I M, a very cool game.
00:25:08.160 --> 00:25:10.640
West watched me, but I got to play it when we were there.
00:25:10.799 --> 00:25:12.240
I thought it was amazing.
00:25:12.400 --> 00:25:17.920
Um, had this have been in every pool and every deep end, you know, your membership could go up, your kids could have something to do.
00:25:18.079 --> 00:25:24.000
Camp could be more exciting than you know, drowning each other in life jackets, which that's what happens when I watch the camp kids go.
00:25:24.079 --> 00:25:42.319
I don't know what happens at your facility, but and to swim, there's flippers, there's uh it I call it Fritzby Golf in the water because you get a foam disc, you have goals, you have nets or circle goal in the middle, and it slides through like a slot disc, almost like um air hockey.
00:25:42.400 --> 00:25:47.119
Yeah, and then you can also have flippers which give you, and Kevin loves this, like a 30% boost.
00:25:47.279 --> 00:25:56.880
So here's Nicole's point if your camp kids or your youth are not great swimmers, they don't have to know how to swim to play squim.
00:25:57.279 --> 00:25:58.480
That's a tongue twister.
00:25:58.799 --> 00:26:08.480
Um, but that's the idea is then they learn how to swim through the game and then become accredited and certified squim players or swim teachers.
00:26:08.559 --> 00:26:15.920
Um, and so there's a progressive learning component to it as well, as well as a safe play, or even just I got it out for free time.
00:26:16.079 --> 00:26:21.039
Like instead of getting your basketball hoop out, get squim out, and let's just people far out of the water.
00:26:21.279 --> 00:26:52.160
Um, but that's Kevin's mission, and Kevin talked will talk a lot about, uh, and we'll go to Ron Usher too, but Kevin will talk a lot about the disparity and the and the uh uh unbalanced nature of dry land play spaces, hockey floors, basketball courts, uh football fields versus the amount of pools and the scale number of people that play on those fields versus using pools and how little pools are, but how busy the pools are, and how much more we can do with them.
00:26:52.319 --> 00:26:54.640
So, and then tell us about the other Kevin Nicole.
00:26:54.960 --> 00:26:57.680
The other Kevin, Kevin with Steady Fast?
00:26:57.920 --> 00:26:59.200
Yes, this Kevin.
00:26:59.440 --> 00:27:11.680
So I went to this wonderful event in Orlando last year and I got this amazing card that's plastic, and I looked and looked and looked and looked, trying to tell Wes all season that I wanted them to come.
00:27:11.920 --> 00:27:16.880
And when we finally found them, I looked on my desk and it was like the card was there the whole time.
00:27:17.119 --> 00:27:24.240
So if you guys have not seen the super cool lifeguard tube, um I think the lifetime the lifeguard store sells it.
00:27:24.319 --> 00:27:27.200
Um you can get it from Steadfast, which is where I got mine.
00:27:27.359 --> 00:27:32.960
Um was from Steadfast, but you there are also other places, and it'll be they will be there.
00:27:33.039 --> 00:27:35.920
Um we're very happy to have them for their new product.
00:27:36.079 --> 00:27:37.519
And they were on our podcast.
00:27:37.599 --> 00:27:41.039
If you go back a few episodes, yeah, the whole team was there.
00:27:41.119 --> 00:27:45.119
Um and they talked all about the design process and the phases they went through.
00:27:45.359 --> 00:27:52.559
It was a lot of hard work to get to where they are now, but now they've got a really awesome rescue tube that lots of pools have adopted and used.
00:27:52.720 --> 00:27:55.039
So and a whistle, if I'm not mistaken.
00:27:55.359 --> 00:27:55.599
They do.
00:27:55.680 --> 00:27:59.039
They also have a super cool whistle, and then I'll take that one because it's cool.
00:27:59.119 --> 00:28:01.039
I'm just gonna sell everybody's product today.
00:28:01.200 --> 00:28:04.240
So the whistle has a oxygen key on it.
00:28:04.480 --> 00:28:06.559
So not every state requires oxygen.
00:28:06.720 --> 00:28:11.359
I feel all lifeguards should have oxygen, but it depends on your facility and your state's rules.
00:28:11.440 --> 00:28:14.559
But if you do, everybody's always like, where's the oxygen key?
00:28:14.640 --> 00:28:16.640
And you you can't find it when you need it.
00:28:16.799 --> 00:28:18.559
But you know, every guard should have their whistle.
00:28:18.640 --> 00:28:19.759
They should be rescue ready.
00:28:19.920 --> 00:28:27.680
So if they've got that whistle with that key, it makes your rescue and your life saving that much easier if you're not searching for that key because you already have it.
00:28:27.759 --> 00:28:28.480
It's your whistle.
00:28:28.799 --> 00:28:30.160
So that was a genius idea.
00:28:30.400 --> 00:28:32.079
We should have taken that with a short take.
00:28:32.319 --> 00:28:37.440
Um before we wrap up and sign off and say goodbye.
00:28:37.599 --> 00:28:41.039
I want to We can't forget Ron Usher, Jose, Life Lore.
00:28:41.920 --> 00:28:46.559
And and yep, all those are our last year, and we can talk more about them later.
00:28:46.799 --> 00:28:50.480
Um Julianne James with Aqua Babies should be here.
00:28:50.640 --> 00:28:53.920
So last year we had two out-of-the-country sponsors.
00:28:54.000 --> 00:28:56.240
We had, they didn't make it, but they were there.
00:28:56.319 --> 00:28:59.119
Um we had their material, we talked about them.
00:28:59.279 --> 00:29:04.079
Um, and this year we have an out-of-the-country guest that should be coming.
00:29:04.240 --> 00:29:06.160
Can you tell us some of her acolytes?
00:29:06.559 --> 00:29:18.400
Not only should she be joining us, but um it will give a shout-out to Chad Octon at Quest Swimming in Virginia, who is currently running um USA Aqua Babies Global or Aquababies program.
00:29:18.720 --> 00:29:28.000
And Julianne James is the founder of Aqua Babies Global, and she travels literally the world, like Malta and Ghana and everywhere, teaching aquababies.
00:29:28.160 --> 00:29:36.400
Um, or parent taught classes, we may know it here, or infant child toddler water acclamation, song and games, how we might know it here.
00:29:36.559 --> 00:29:40.079
Uh the point is the parent is in the water uh with the child.
00:29:40.240 --> 00:29:46.480
And Julianne also teaches um pre-postnatal and water yoga and really taking the aquapilates.
00:29:46.799 --> 00:29:48.799
Aqua Pilates and Vernel.
00:29:49.119 --> 00:30:00.240
Taking all those motifs and really integrating water acclimation and water safety and um uh swim lesson uh progression with aqua babies and with the parent in the water.
00:30:00.400 --> 00:30:06.799
Uh Nicole and I are part of this process, as well as Chad, and working to bring this to the United States, which we'll talk about later or another episode.
00:30:06.880 --> 00:30:08.319
But Julianne will be here.
00:30:08.480 --> 00:30:25.200
She's gonna talk about business development, she's gonna talk about how you can build your own program and how we integrate it into the society, if you will, because what she's done overseas has been accepted and accredited and welcomed into thousands and hundreds of nationally recognized.
00:30:25.680 --> 00:30:26.640
JW Marriott.
00:30:26.880 --> 00:30:43.519
And as we know in this country, to my knowledge, and again, send me the letters if I misspeak this, but as far as I know, there is no nationally accredited, universally accepted six months of 36-year-old program that is governed, supported, recognized as the United States program.
00:30:43.680 --> 00:30:52.319
We have Red Cross, we have other systems, we have other services, we have franchises, but we don't have one that the United States goes bingo, that's it.
00:30:52.640 --> 00:31:04.079
The program we're talking about, USA Alchemist Global, does have this accreditation, certification, national recognition in multiple countries overseas.
00:31:04.319 --> 00:31:09.920
And so Julianne will be here ideally to tell us about it, to showcase us, uh, to showcase it to us.
00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:30.000
And Nicole and I have been working with her along with Chad in Virginia to help bring this um to the United States, not discrediting what other people are doing, but just trying to bring um uh the national, the international recognition, maybe the the stamp, and kind of show how that can push things forward, if that makes sense.
00:31:30.640 --> 00:31:32.160
Without stepping on my toes.
00:31:32.640 --> 00:31:36.720
Um, but yeah, um, so again, for audiences, what is all this?
00:31:36.799 --> 00:31:42.559
Uh Julianne James, USA Aqua Babies Global, Aqua Babies Global, look it all up, you'll get to learn about it.
00:31:42.720 --> 00:31:55.119
Um, we also want to be very conscious how we talk because there's a lot of things in play um when it comes to international programming and accreditation and all the wonderful things she's done, but don't necessarily happen here.
00:31:55.839 --> 00:32:02.480
So um, speaking real quick of telling stories for the Daily Parks and Rec show, if you're here, I'm gonna do my best Mr.
00:32:02.559 --> 00:32:12.079
Beast impression and ask you to like and smash the Daily Parks and Rec YouTube page because Craig LeBlanc will be representing in Houston.
00:32:12.160 --> 00:32:25.759
And just like Daily Parks and Rec does for all of the statewide Parks and Rec shows where he does the live broadcast, uh, Wisconsin, California, Illinois, Daily Parks and Rec DPRS has been at those shows and does a live feed.
00:32:25.920 --> 00:32:28.720
They will be doing a live feed on September 26th.
00:32:28.880 --> 00:32:31.759
So everybody asks, can we see the show?
00:32:32.079 --> 00:32:32.400
No.
00:32:32.880 --> 00:32:34.640
Can we watch it digitally?
00:32:34.880 --> 00:32:35.200
No.
00:32:35.519 --> 00:32:43.039
But you can watch all of our professionals uh be interviewed, tell their story, so you can get a great feel for what's happening.
00:32:43.200 --> 00:32:46.880
The reason you can't watch what's happening live is because it's pure discussion based.
00:32:46.960 --> 00:32:52.400
It's intimate, it's integrated, and a camera would never be able to pick up 12 people talking at a table at once.
00:32:52.559 --> 00:32:56.720
So it's not because we don't want you to see it, it's just a hard format to film live.
00:32:56.799 --> 00:33:07.200
But that's another reason why DPRS is gonna be there to help make sure everybody understands what we're doing and showcases all of our wonderful speakers and guests.
00:33:07.599 --> 00:33:08.000
Yeah.
00:33:08.480 --> 00:33:14.079
We are gonna run, but we're gonna add in the show notes for everybody your uh ticket if you haven't bought it.
00:33:14.240 --> 00:33:15.440
The seats are very limited.
00:33:15.599 --> 00:33:17.519
Half the tickets or more than half are gone.
00:33:17.599 --> 00:33:19.680
So if you want to see, grab a seat.
00:33:19.920 --> 00:33:22.480
And we are still looking for two more vendors.
00:33:22.559 --> 00:33:30.240
So if you are interested in speaking and being one of the 16, you should reach out to Wes on Facebook or LinkedIn or just call him if you've got his number.
00:33:30.559 --> 00:33:33.759
Or if you don't know Wes, reach out to me and I can get you in touch.
00:33:33.920 --> 00:33:38.559
And um we're still we are we have a few in the running for our event sponsor.
00:33:38.640 --> 00:33:49.440
But if you want to slide your way in there and get ahead of the other two or three that are on the table, uh again, reach out to Wesley or me and we can we can chat about that.
00:33:49.599 --> 00:33:55.680
So yeah, to that point, that key event sponsor, that made event sponsor, um definitely still looking for it.
00:33:55.759 --> 00:33:58.480
And it goes well beyond Saturday, September 26th.
00:33:58.559 --> 00:34:03.599
So if you're a major organization looking to really expand your brand, um, I just want to put it out there.
00:34:03.680 --> 00:34:07.920
It goes into our monthly webinars, which we have, it goes into the Friday talk show.
00:34:08.079 --> 00:34:14.079
So if you're a big business looking to spread the word, um your uh the impact goes well beyond that day.
00:34:14.239 --> 00:34:16.400
Just putting it out there for the main sponsor.
00:34:16.480 --> 00:34:17.440
So love that.
00:34:17.920 --> 00:34:18.719
Absolutely.
00:34:18.880 --> 00:34:19.760
Thank you, everybody.
00:34:19.840 --> 00:34:24.239
And yeah, and then we'll be back next week with new guests and our regular format.
00:34:24.400 --> 00:34:27.199
And yeah, just under 30 minutes, as we promised.
00:34:27.440 --> 00:34:32.159
You order your pizza, you can get it here, and now you can get all your second annual all things aquatics info.
00:34:32.400 --> 00:34:32.800
Yes.
00:34:32.960 --> 00:34:35.440
All right, guys, see you in Houston.
00:34:35.760 --> 00:34:36.800
Thanks, everybody.
00:00:02.479 --> 00:00:04.799
Hey guys, welcome back to Navigating Neva.
00:00:04.959 --> 00:00:07.440
I am your host, Neva Nicole, with my co-host.
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And today we are going to talk about the all things aquatic second annual event.
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It has.
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And for those that love spoilers, uh, again, Nicole, as you and I both know, Love Island ended.
00:01:08.799 --> 00:01:18.640
So the way we climb the podcast ranked is we trick everybody and make them think we're about to talk of products, but we're going to talk about Trinity and Bryce, who run one Love Island.
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And how much money they got to take home and how we'd love to have some of that.
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$100,000 for just having love on an island.
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I'm sure they had a lot of love.
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I don't even know what the show is, but I know that you know if we're going to beat Dak Shepherd and Smartless and Amy Poeh, who has Will Farrell this week.
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I mean, I'm as close to Will Farrell as you can get.
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So let's ride.
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You know what I mean?
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Absolutely.
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Absolutely.
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Uh and this, and I blame everybody, you can blame me, everybody, because one, we are recording bright and early in the morning, and anybody that knows me knows I don't need coffee.
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Never had it, never will.
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So my energy is off the charts.
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And it's been a minute.
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And three, Nicole let me be in charge today.
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She let me have the notes with pen and paper.
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So we apologize in advance to no one, but we are here to celebrate the countdown.
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Like you said, Nicole, the second annual All Things Aquatics in Houston, Texas.
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It is.
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We're gonna be at the University of Houston.
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I can't wait.
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I've never been there, have you?
00:02:14.719 --> 00:02:25.120
I have never been, uh, but I'm excited to, and it's somewhat crossing over with my show on Fridays, The Aquatics Life, which we'll get into DPRS and who's gonna be at the show.
00:02:25.199 --> 00:02:32.719
But Kara Green, who is the aquatic director manager at the University of Houston, was my guest a few weeks ago.
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Um, hasn't she?
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And I think she's been our guest.
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If not, we've talked to her enough to make it feel like she's been our guest.
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Um and we're and like you said, we're real excited.
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She uh, I don't know, six months ago, seven months ago, and we put out the call to a year ago, when we put out the call to say who wants to host, um, she reached out and very humbly and very uh earnestly, she said she was a fan of ours, a fan of mine, and she'd been following us, and she offered up the property and the facility and the pool and the nadatorium.
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And now we're all on the way.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Yeah, so Friday, September or uh it's Saturday, September 26th.
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Um, the day after my wife's birthday, last year, it was on my wife's birthday.
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So she asked me how I'm gonna trump, how I'm gonna outdo it this year, and I said we're gonna add a day, and it's gonna be after your birthday.
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Right.
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I got right, I got no brownie points.
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But yeah, tell us what's happening.
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Well, so I just wanted to recap that.
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So this year's event is on September 26th, which is a Saturday, and you said we have a Friday night, September 25th, new edition, correct?
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Yes, it is not um celebrating my wife's birthday, although you're all welcome to do that.
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Uh, it is the lifeguard competition, right?
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What is that?
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Tell me more.
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Yes.
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So I know you've competed in lifeguard games.
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I've look at that setup, by the way.
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Um, I feel like I'm on a TV ad, and there's more.
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Um, but we've done lifeguard competitions, we've done lifeguard challenges, lifeguard games, I've done them for Ellis, the Red Cross.
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I'm sure you've done them for the YMCA.
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What this is, though, if you've ever seen The Wizard, there's your movie callback with Fred Savage in the 1990s, and he goes on this adventure as a kid and plays video games everywhere, and he plays Super Mario and all the games.
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And at the end of the game, Super Mario 3 is up.
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And none of the kids have ever played Super Mario 3.
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That's the idea of the Lifeguard Challenge.
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We're gonna take rescue tubes and test kits and all different items from our uh vendors and from our professionals and integrate them into actual challenges.
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Whether it's a handlebar that you use for water aerobics, whether it's a whistle or rescue tube, uh, whether it's to squim, right?
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Frisbee golf in the water, um, our wonderful friend Tuxtica, uh, Mr.
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T in Jacksonville, Florida, who runs the I'm gonna say the name wrong, the life safety first training, Jacksonville, Florida CPR Company.
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Um, those all those words are in the title of his company, but Mr.
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T Jacksonville uh is gonna lead this.
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We've got five different organizations, companies that are putting their products in, and we'll have lifeguards doing 20-minute, 15-20-minute activities with him and being judged and evaluated.
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How well do you perform with the task?
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Yeah, so I can send my own staff to this event to compete, just like I would a lifeguard competition.
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Is that what I'm hearing?
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Not only that, you should send your staff.
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So if you are in Houston, if you're part of the Texas Public Pool Council, if you're part of IPSA, if you're part of, if you know James Browning at the JCC, there's your shout-out, Jim.
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If you know any of the swim schools, YMCAs, JCCs, if you are a student at the University of Houston, and you're a lifeguard, bring your friends, uh, bring your family.
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But that's the idea is you're going to be doing something new and different while still executing your lifeguarding skills, swimming, buoyancy, awareness, whistles.
00:06:02.639 --> 00:06:05.519
Um, but we're doing it in a way that kind of mixes it up.
00:06:05.680 --> 00:06:12.800
Um, I've had many lifeguard competitions where it's swim out, get the victim, put your goggles on, switch your shirt inside out, and swim back.
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That's cool, but it's not maybe as innovative or as unique as we're trying to do it.
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And also, there's only 50 lifeguards.
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It's not 250 people.
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Um, and lastly, I'll say this: it's not designed to be um life or death.
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It's not designed to be, did you do your CPR perfectly?
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It's not designed to be audited like sometimes our our tushies tighten up when our auditor comes around us.
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When we're, I won't mention the three big players, but I've audited for all of them, and God bless all of them.
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But this is not that.
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This is the exact opposite.
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It's engaging, it's playing, it's trying the product, it's how do you product review?
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Oh, great word, great word.
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With the product owners and the companies being the judges, telling you if you used it right, telling you if it was done in a way that was meaningful, or if you found a way to use the product that they hadn't thought of before.
00:07:09.040 --> 00:07:11.600
So um it's a competition for sure.
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There's gonna be grades and scores and awards together.
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And prizes.
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Yeah, I was gonna say prizes.
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We need prizes.
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And there's another shout out.
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Look at Nicole.
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See, this is why you're in charge.
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If you are in and around Houston and you're a coffee shop, or you're a Photoshop, or you're a trophy shop, or you're a business of any kind and you want to get your stuff out to us, we're looking for donations, we're looking for giveaways.
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If you want to give us coffee, if you want to put up a big poster, if you want to tell your story, let's get involved.
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Last year we had some really amazing prizes, didn't we?
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We had a boat tour and we had a a huge canvas you could win.
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We had some coffee passes.
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What else am I missing?
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We had my wife in the background because she's so awesome.
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Um, she's my prize.
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Um, but do you uh did everybody hear her scoff and roll her eyes?
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I hope everybody's heard that because she 100% did.
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No, but um, Nicole, last year we had one prize per attendee.
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We had so many companies in St.
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Simon's Island, Georgia, and Brunswick, Georgia, and over the causeway, look at me getting that right.
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Um, from the smallest coffee shop to somebody giving away lunch to just having gift certificates to a wine tour.
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Um, and again, we're in Houston.
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So whether you're an independent company, whether you're a franchise, you're gonna be engaging with every aquatic professional in the area.
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And aquatic professional ranges from parks and recreation, YMCA, boat safety, CPR.
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So it's going to a good cause.
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It's going to somebody that's impacting the fire and serve, fire rescue.
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So your donation, your prize, your giveaway is going to a great uh service industry and a great group of people.
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Yeah.
00:08:52.559 --> 00:08:56.559
Well, let's hear more about our lineup for the traditional Saturday morning.
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Yes, Saturday.
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So Saturday, September 26th.
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Um, as anybody may or may not know, again, no keynote speakers, no 45-minute PowerPoint presentations, no butt itis.
00:09:10.159 --> 00:09:15.679
But itis is what happens when you sit around long enough, you get butt itis, so you have to stand up and do a shake break, right?
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The whole day is a shake break.
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Um, and so really the and I'll get to the list too, but the format for the reminder is we have 16 aquatic professionals, um, leaders in the industry that'll be leading small group panel discussions.
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So there'll be four professionals at a time on stage covering one main subject where the audience is discussing, let's say, risk, and we'll have four experts talking about risk in their areas from slip and fall, there's life floor, from chemicals to finances to staffing and retention risk to customer service risk.
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So the audience gets to have a lot of open-ended questions and a lot of individual thoughts on how risk is covered from different perspectives.
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Then, about 20 minutes later, we're going to break out, and those experts will be leading roundtable discussions.
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So you, as the audience, kind of get to play um chase your tail or tag, and you move around the tables and you listen to small group of discussions with a certified pool operator on your left, a waterobics instructor on your right, an LGI next to you, a campus rec director next to you, but all of you absorbing a subject individually and collectively and having a QA back and forth.
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Then we we break the room up, we put four new experts on stage, and we talk about another subject, like rescue or like revenue, I mean.
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And we rinse and repeat.
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Rescues could be one too.
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And we rinse and repeat.
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The intention is that the 100 audience members, again, there's only 100 tickets available.
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We've already sold about 30 or so, so get in now.
00:10:46.559 --> 00:10:48.080
We'll talk about registration a little bit.
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The goal is that the hundred audience members get 16 new best friends and spend the day engaging.
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They spend the day understanding large-scale concepts, personalized to their work, with perspectives from other people they may never garnered.
00:11:03.759 --> 00:11:06.480
And before I get to the list, which I promise I'll do, I'll end with this.
00:11:06.559 --> 00:11:22.480
That's why we built this way, Nicole, so that you're not just with 50 lifeguards, you're not just with 50 swim instructors, you're with people that are helping lead the aquatic industry and understanding large scale scale concepts in a way that you can digest and bring back to your property.
00:11:22.720 --> 00:11:23.039
Yeah.
00:11:23.279 --> 00:11:27.120
So I want to add right here that um you and I have a very large network.
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And it's probably because we've been in the industry for as long as we have.
00:11:30.559 --> 00:11:40.399
But um, there's someone that I've become close to recently, and he just came into this field, like the uh management, the recreation management, actually.
00:11:40.720 --> 00:11:43.919
He came from, I think he came from water therapy.
00:11:44.240 --> 00:11:45.120
Um was his own.
00:11:45.279 --> 00:11:45.919
Oh, I'm sorry.
00:11:46.159 --> 00:11:47.120
It's a different world.
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It is, and so he said, I don't have a network, and I'm like, you know, I feel our event is a great place to build your network.
00:11:55.600 --> 00:12:02.080
So if you are new to aquatics and you feel like you don't have those connections, you don't have that networking because you just came in.
00:12:02.240 --> 00:12:04.159
And a lot of times that happens in aquatics.
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You know, I think you've mentioned it, but you're doing sports, you're doing another thing, and this is just another hat you put on, and now you don't know, you know, you don't know what to do, and you don't have a good network.
00:12:13.840 --> 00:12:19.039
So this is a nice intimate setting so you can build that network for yourself.
00:12:19.440 --> 00:12:20.639
Uh, two statements.
00:12:20.799 --> 00:12:23.039
One, I want the audience to look behind Nicole.
00:12:23.200 --> 00:12:26.320
The clouds literally parted for her in her Zoom sky.
00:12:26.480 --> 00:12:31.679
Um, she did not design it that way, but the clouds parted for her just like the C's do for her.
00:12:31.919 --> 00:12:36.639
Um, and and number two, uh I always cry on this podcast.
00:12:36.799 --> 00:12:39.440
And normally it's at nine o'clock at night when my day is drawn.
00:12:39.600 --> 00:12:44.000
But now here Nicole's gonna give me to cry at nine o'clock in the morning when we're recording this.
00:12:44.399 --> 00:12:48.799
So, one of our new uh professionals, her name is Bethany Carlson.
00:12:49.120 --> 00:12:54.159
She has the um the walkie-talkie radio holder.
00:12:54.480 --> 00:12:58.559
Um, and she is right out of high school.
00:12:58.720 --> 00:13:00.480
She is a quadruplet.
00:13:00.639 --> 00:13:04.159
She created an amazing product and has been in aquatics for quite a few years.
00:13:04.240 --> 00:13:06.799
She's only 18, but again, started at 15.
00:13:06.960 --> 00:13:08.559
And here's why I'm gonna cry, Nicole.
00:13:08.639 --> 00:13:09.519
I'm gonna try not to cry.
00:13:09.679 --> 00:13:11.519
You talked about having a place to go.
00:13:11.759 --> 00:13:15.600
You talked about having an environment that was intimate and safe and comfortable.
00:13:15.759 --> 00:13:25.840
I've even met, I've I've not met him, but I've had some side um, you know, shout-outs with this young gal's father about hey, she's gonna get on a plane and meet people and what is this environment like?
00:13:26.159 --> 00:13:30.080
When I was 18, we didn't have that.
00:13:30.480 --> 00:13:34.960
You had and again, it's they can send me the letters.
00:13:35.039 --> 00:13:37.919
I had Ellis, that's who I was trained by, and that's what you had.
00:13:38.080 --> 00:13:40.159
You have Red Cross, because that's what you're trained by.
00:13:40.240 --> 00:13:46.159
You have the YMCA, you have the JCC, wherever you went, that's what you had when I was coming up and you were coming up.
00:13:46.559 --> 00:13:58.559
And it really hit me when this young gal who made an amazing um uh radio holder that you can attach to the side of your stand, and so you don't lose your radios, you can customize it.
00:13:58.720 --> 00:13:59.840
It's all great, we'll talk about it.
00:14:00.000 --> 00:14:01.519
Bethany is her name.
00:14:01.840 --> 00:14:05.200
She did it because she had a need, and it's a simple product, and it's great.
00:14:05.279 --> 00:14:09.200
But more than the product, and this is why I get emotional, is she felt she had a place to go.
00:14:09.279 --> 00:14:17.840
She could tell her family, and she and she's in Arizona, and she can tell her other lifeguards hey, I have a place where I can commune and I can talk and I can engage.
00:14:18.159 --> 00:14:22.159
And to your point, Nicole, this started six years ago online and Facebook, right?
00:14:22.240 --> 00:14:25.840
I started All Things Aquatics on the social media on the line.
00:14:26.159 --> 00:14:30.320
My son and I watched the internship with uh Vince Maugh and he says on the line.
00:14:30.480 --> 00:14:30.879
You mean online?
00:14:31.200 --> 00:14:36.480
No, on the line, on social media before COVID, just to like network.
00:14:36.720 --> 00:14:57.519
And now we've created a place where people like Bethany, who's 18 years old, who has a cool product but also has a passion for the industry, can go and meet people like Josh and Nathan from OSO Consulting, who are a representative of Stargard, who are part of the national, international aquatic branding and safety training for major cruise ships and major water parks.
00:14:58.080 --> 00:15:05.759
And Josh uh uh uh Nathan Latti uh and Josh Martinez, amazing human beings, they're gonna be there.
00:15:05.840 --> 00:15:15.440
They're gonna be talking about not only their business and OSF consulting, but also the application of running a property when you're brand new and you've been tasked to just take over.
00:15:15.679 --> 00:15:17.279
How do you engage the staff?
00:15:17.440 --> 00:15:19.279
How do you build systems of culture?
00:15:19.440 --> 00:15:21.600
Um, how do they implement the safety standards?
00:15:21.759 --> 00:15:27.039
How do you take a team of people that aren't really interested in you or what you're doing and saying this is what we have to do?
00:15:27.200 --> 00:15:29.679
Uh, and a lot of the things that Josh and Nathan do well.
00:15:29.840 --> 00:15:38.320
But again, going back to Bethany and and all the other guests and and professionals I have there, that's why I started All Things Aquatics.
00:15:38.480 --> 00:15:44.720
Not because I knew there was a Bethany in the world and she was going to make me cry, but because I wanted a place for people to go.
00:15:44.879 --> 00:15:47.200
And that's why there's only 100 tickets sold.
00:15:47.279 --> 00:15:50.080
Um, and that's why there's no vendor row.
00:15:50.240 --> 00:15:58.480
Or, you know, even as we talk about the vendors, um, Mark Ruddickus from Pittsburgh, amazing uh longtime swim coach.
00:15:58.639 --> 00:16:01.840
He's doing a lot of work with Ron Usher, so Mark and Ron will be there.
00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:04.480
Uh Mark Rodicus is new to our event.
00:16:04.559 --> 00:16:05.279
Uh but Mark is.
00:16:05.759 --> 00:16:06.559
He's not new.
00:16:06.879 --> 00:16:08.320
He's got his own podcast.
00:16:09.039 --> 00:16:12.080
Yeah, he's got his own podcast just like we do.
00:16:12.720 --> 00:16:13.679
What's it called?
00:16:14.000 --> 00:16:15.840
Uh Heavy or Not, which I think.
00:16:16.320 --> 00:16:17.279
I didn't mean to put you on the spot.
00:16:17.360 --> 00:16:17.919
I'm so sorry.
00:16:18.159 --> 00:16:18.879
I knew that you know it.
00:16:19.120 --> 00:16:19.519
I do know that.
00:16:19.679 --> 00:16:20.399
Yeah, heavy or not.
00:16:20.799 --> 00:16:22.080
And it's a great podcast.
00:16:22.159 --> 00:16:23.679
And it's heavy or not, right?
00:16:23.759 --> 00:16:30.320
He gets into some very intense, detailed conversations, but he also gets into light-hearted conversations and has amazing guests.
00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:40.720
So Bethany, who's 18, gets to meet somebody like Mark Rodicus and Ron Usher, which we'll talk about in a minute, who has made their entire livelihood on being a competitive swimmer and running swim events.
00:16:40.879 --> 00:16:47.679
And, you know, maybe Bethany, maybe Mark doesn't need a bunch of radios, but Mark can know that there's a Bethany out in the world.
00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:53.039
And it's not separated by 45-minute keynotes.
00:16:53.200 --> 00:16:57.600
It's not separated by where are we all gonna go to lunch because there's no lunch.
00:16:57.679 --> 00:17:01.279
It's not separated by I have to be quiet because somebody's talking.
00:17:01.440 --> 00:17:02.799
Um, it's the opposite, right?
00:17:02.879 --> 00:17:04.400
That's why the couches were the theme.
00:17:04.480 --> 00:17:06.720
So the couch, yeah.
00:17:06.880 --> 00:17:09.359
I don't know if you talked about it now, so I'll tease it again.
00:17:09.599 --> 00:17:12.640
Your couches are the theme, is because why?
00:17:12.720 --> 00:17:15.599
How did you um our all things aquatics was the first one?
00:17:15.680 --> 00:17:16.240
Was last year.
00:17:16.319 --> 00:17:19.759
This is our second annual, and this idea was birthed where with?
00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:21.200
What was your feeling on that?
00:17:21.440 --> 00:17:24.720
Um, it was birthed from other conferences, um, other events.
00:17:24.880 --> 00:17:32.000
I've been public speaking at a lot of events, I do side speaking at a lot of events, I'm very humbly, blah, blah, blah.
00:17:32.240 --> 00:17:37.599
But what I realized is at these events, when I sat next to Nicole or anybody I knew, I couldn't talk to them.
00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:42.720
So I stopped going to the speeches, and I just sat on the couch in the lobby.
00:17:42.960 --> 00:17:47.119
And I would wait for any human to end exit all the speeches, right?
00:17:47.200 --> 00:17:51.039
When hundreds of people walk out all the doors, all the couches would be empty.
00:17:51.119 --> 00:17:56.160
And whoever would sit on the couch next to me, my badge was there, and I just started talking.
00:17:56.720 --> 00:18:02.000
And Nicole and the audience out there, it changed the way I operate, it changed the way I look.
00:18:02.079 --> 00:18:06.240
And I've been doing, and I was a keynote at spaces and I've done major events, blah, blah, blah.
00:18:06.400 --> 00:18:07.200
Not about me.
00:18:07.599 --> 00:18:13.440
Point is, it changed how I view, and it changed how the people I talked to viewed things.
00:18:13.680 --> 00:18:16.319
Because they'd have to get up eight minutes later and go to another event.
00:18:16.400 --> 00:18:17.839
And I said, I'm just gonna stay here.
00:18:17.920 --> 00:18:20.720
And they said, Oh, well, I'll just stay here and talk too.
00:18:20.880 --> 00:18:26.799
And then eight other people stayed there and talked, and then we all went to dinner, and then we went to dinner, people we would have never met.
00:18:27.039 --> 00:18:37.920
And while I love those events and I still speak at them, and they are great and they're massive and they're awesome, and whether it's aquatics or whether it's medical fitness or whether it's athletic business, there's a place for all those.
00:18:38.160 --> 00:18:54.720
But what I found for me is that the humans, the Bethany's and the Marks and the Nicole's, didn't actually get to create the long-term bonds and the relationships or even the business planning strategies that I felt were essential to the development of the industry, development of myself.
00:18:54.960 --> 00:19:03.279
And so on our flyer that we had last year, God bless Nicole, but the front cover of the flyer had two main images.
00:19:03.440 --> 00:19:07.359
It had a pot of gold, and I'm gonna let you do that one, and it had a couch.
00:19:07.519 --> 00:19:16.000
And the couch was designed to look like an old leather couch, like a fireside chat for our older audience out there, if you think of fireside chats, because that's what we wanted.
00:19:16.079 --> 00:19:19.359
We wanted people to sit down on a comfy couch and just chat.
00:19:19.599 --> 00:19:25.519
We wanted chatting with some structure and some guidance, with some um purpose, but we wanted that environment.
00:19:25.599 --> 00:19:26.960
And I'll even add this, Nicole.
00:19:27.039 --> 00:19:40.319
If you remember last year, uh Meredith and my wife, my wife was there, Meredith, my wife was there and a ton of other people, and we spent the night before color-coding the badges so that if you were a green, happy go-lucky talker, you got a green badge.
00:19:40.480 --> 00:19:44.640
When you walked in, if you were kind of a quiet, shy, unsure, you got a yellow badge.
00:19:44.799 --> 00:19:48.799
And if you were a don't talk to me till I got my coffee, you got a red badge.
00:19:48.960 --> 00:19:54.000
But that way every audience member didn't have to worry about who I'm gonna talk to and what's your name and how are you.
00:19:54.240 --> 00:19:57.200
All the green badges got together and chatted it up.
00:19:57.359 --> 00:20:04.000
The yellow badges we used our aquatic professionals and our experts to kind of integrate and build relationships and get momentum going.
00:20:04.079 --> 00:20:08.400
And then the red badges I just stood over and told jokes to until they got rid of me or laughed.
00:20:08.480 --> 00:20:21.279
Um, I'm kidding, we didn't do that, but that's the whole point of the event is getting people paced by who you are, based on your personality, and integrating so that you can still have a positive feeling and and have outcomes.
00:20:21.440 --> 00:20:24.480
But what was the other image we put, Nicole, on that flyer?
00:20:24.799 --> 00:20:28.640
We had the rainbow with the pot of gold at the end, or maybe we just had the pot of gold at the end.
00:20:28.720 --> 00:20:29.119
So I did it.
00:20:30.559 --> 00:20:33.920
Yeah, I did it like a side table on your couch.
00:20:34.079 --> 00:20:44.720
But the pot of gold was Wes's uh icon image that he added to that because he said that the event is your pot of gold.
00:20:44.799 --> 00:20:46.799
It is what is at the end of the rainbow.
00:20:46.960 --> 00:20:48.720
Um, did I get that right?
00:20:49.039 --> 00:20:49.599
You did.
00:20:49.680 --> 00:20:54.559
Um, I yeah, the whole intention was that you don't have to go through the rain to get the gold.
00:20:54.720 --> 00:21:02.640
And in all things aquatics, whether it's on your website, whether it's on our Facebook group, whether it's in person, Nicole and I have been through the rain.
00:21:02.960 --> 00:21:09.440
Ron Usher, who we'll talk about, Kevin McCarthy, uh the guys from Steady Fast, which I know Nicole, you'll get down on.
00:21:09.599 --> 00:21:12.160
Uh, you'll talk about we've been through the rain.
00:21:12.240 --> 00:21:14.799
We've been through the hurricane, the tornado, you name it.
00:21:15.039 --> 00:21:17.359
El Nino, there's my Chris Faley shout-out.
00:21:17.680 --> 00:21:20.160
Um, Bethany maybe hasn't yet.
00:21:20.480 --> 00:21:25.440
Our attendees uh maybe haven't yet, or have, but in their own way.
00:21:25.599 --> 00:21:33.200
And so we put the pot of gold as an image there to represent the fact that we want to help you uh fill the potholes first.
00:21:33.359 --> 00:21:37.680
We want to give you your umbrella so the rain comes, you're prepared for it.
00:21:37.920 --> 00:22:03.200
And that's why, again, I think that camaraderie, that hundred people audience, that 16 group of speakers really is purposeful because you can have those type of conversations of tell me what it was like when your boss quit, or what was it like when all of your guards left on August 16th, or you know, a rescue happened, or whatever it was, and we can really dive in, pun intended, on Um, that camaraderie uh so that you're not alone.
00:22:03.279 --> 00:22:11.440
And you mentioned at the beginning, Nicole, there's no worse feeling in aquatics than thinking you don't have somebody to call, thinking you don't have somebody to lean on.
00:22:11.599 --> 00:22:14.400
Um and that's one of the purposes of this event of this event.
00:22:14.720 --> 00:22:18.160
So I think the most important thing of this event is that you've made it affordable.
00:22:18.319 --> 00:22:30.799
So when we do have those new people that are wearing multiple hats and their companies are only gonna pay X amount of dollars or not even send them to a conference, even if they have to pay out of pocket to come to this wonderful event, it makes it affordable.
00:22:30.880 --> 00:22:34.319
Our price this year is$69,$65,$69.
00:22:35.519 --> 00:22:35.920
$65.
00:22:36.799 --> 00:22:41.839
Now, you do have to travel, but I mean I think Houston is a great uh vacation spot.
00:22:42.079 --> 00:22:45.680
So, you know, it's just like last year is a great vacation spot.
00:22:46.079 --> 00:22:51.680
I don't want to over speak on the hotel of uh opportunities, but we do have hotels we're working with.
00:22:51.839 --> 00:22:53.359
There are hotels in town.
00:22:53.599 --> 00:22:56.799
Um and with the Friday night, there's other things to do.
00:22:56.880 --> 00:23:04.720
So if you're sending a whole team, if you want to send your lifeguards Friday night and you want to participate Saturday, if you want to bring three or four managers, right?
00:23:04.799 --> 00:23:06.160
That's it to your point, Nicole.
00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:10.400
Uh, and well, I promise we're gonna talk about Kevin and Tom and Life Floor and DPRS.
00:23:10.559 --> 00:23:24.880
But um we wanted to be as cost effective as possible because if you go as the aquatic director and the aquatic manager and you come back to your team and you go, I got all these ideas, you're now having to push uphill.
00:23:25.200 --> 00:23:27.920
I have lived that life, Nicole has lived that life.
00:23:28.079 --> 00:23:29.279
We don't want that for you.
00:23:29.440 --> 00:23:40.799
So we wanted to make it as cost effective as possible is you can bring a rec director, you can bring your head guard, you can bring your uh you know, swim lesson coordinator, you can bring your basketball, who cares?
00:23:40.960 --> 00:23:56.400
The whole point is you're then bringing a teammate or multiple teammates so that you guys can be in this thing together and they can experience the camaraderie and go, oh, well, we've never done a full facility-wide dry land uh sauna drill.
00:23:56.880 --> 00:24:06.640
Oh, well, the aquatics team told us for two years we should do a sauna drill in the or a basketball emergency or a child center, you know, choking emergency.
00:24:06.880 --> 00:24:15.519
The but now that I've got my basketball coordinator here, I've got my executive director here, they can see 99 other people go, well, this is how we do it.
00:24:15.680 --> 00:24:19.839
This is the call effect we've had, and go, oh, you're not fighting uphill anymore.
00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:33.759
So again, that's why it's low cost, that's why we encourage you to bring your teammates, that's why we encourage you bring your line leaders, your department heads, so that they can have that camaraderie itself and and not charge um you know what other events charge.
00:24:34.079 --> 00:24:36.240
So you are leaving out Kevin.
00:24:36.400 --> 00:24:37.839
We were welcome by Kevin.
00:24:38.160 --> 00:24:38.720
McCarthy, yes.
00:24:38.799 --> 00:24:39.279
Let's tell me more.
00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:40.880
Yes, we were welcomed.
00:24:41.200 --> 00:24:42.160
There are two Kevins.
00:24:42.400 --> 00:24:49.119
We were welcome to go visit Kevin and attend his life savings expo uh in Squimish, Washington.
00:24:49.359 --> 00:24:57.119
And last year he was supposed to make it to ours, but he was on there, he was a vendor, he was supporting us, and then weather and flights changed that.
00:24:57.279 --> 00:24:59.200
So this year he's coming again.
00:24:59.359 --> 00:25:00.480
He's one of our vendors.
00:25:00.720 --> 00:25:03.279
And if you don't know, you should go to Instagram and find it.
00:25:03.359 --> 00:25:07.839
It's Squim S K W I M, a very cool game.
00:25:08.160 --> 00:25:10.640
West watched me, but I got to play it when we were there.
00:25:10.799 --> 00:25:12.240
I thought it was amazing.
00:25:12.400 --> 00:25:17.920
Um, had this have been in every pool and every deep end, you know, your membership could go up, your kids could have something to do.
00:25:18.079 --> 00:25:24.000
Camp could be more exciting than you know, drowning each other in life jackets, which that's what happens when I watch the camp kids go.
00:25:24.079 --> 00:25:42.319
I don't know what happens at your facility, but and to swim, there's flippers, there's uh it I call it Fritzby Golf in the water because you get a foam disc, you have goals, you have nets or circle goal in the middle, and it slides through like a slot disc, almost like um air hockey.
00:25:42.400 --> 00:25:47.119
Yeah, and then you can also have flippers which give you, and Kevin loves this, like a 30% boost.
00:25:47.279 --> 00:25:56.880
So here's Nicole's point if your camp kids or your youth are not great swimmers, they don't have to know how to swim to play squim.
00:25:57.279 --> 00:25:58.480
That's a tongue twister.
00:25:58.799 --> 00:26:08.480
Um, but that's the idea is then they learn how to swim through the game and then become accredited and certified squim players or swim teachers.
00:26:08.559 --> 00:26:15.920
Um, and so there's a progressive learning component to it as well, as well as a safe play, or even just I got it out for free time.
00:26:16.079 --> 00:26:21.039
Like instead of getting your basketball hoop out, get squim out, and let's just people far out of the water.
00:26:21.279 --> 00:26:52.160
Um, but that's Kevin's mission, and Kevin talked will talk a lot about, uh, and we'll go to Ron Usher too, but Kevin will talk a lot about the disparity and the and the uh uh unbalanced nature of dry land play spaces, hockey floors, basketball courts, uh football fields versus the amount of pools and the scale number of people that play on those fields versus using pools and how little pools are, but how busy the pools are, and how much more we can do with them.
00:26:52.319 --> 00:26:54.640
So, and then tell us about the other Kevin Nicole.
00:26:54.960 --> 00:26:57.680
The other Kevin, Kevin with Steady Fast?
00:26:57.920 --> 00:26:59.200
Yes, this Kevin.
00:26:59.440 --> 00:27:11.680
So I went to this wonderful event in Orlando last year and I got this amazing card that's plastic, and I looked and looked and looked and looked, trying to tell Wes all season that I wanted them to come.
00:27:11.920 --> 00:27:16.880
And when we finally found them, I looked on my desk and it was like the card was there the whole time.
00:27:17.119 --> 00:27:24.240
So if you guys have not seen the super cool lifeguard tube, um I think the lifetime the lifeguard store sells it.
00:27:24.319 --> 00:27:27.200
Um you can get it from Steadfast, which is where I got mine.
00:27:27.359 --> 00:27:32.960
Um was from Steadfast, but you there are also other places, and it'll be they will be there.
00:27:33.039 --> 00:27:35.920
Um we're very happy to have them for their new product.
00:27:36.079 --> 00:27:37.519
And they were on our podcast.
00:27:37.599 --> 00:27:41.039
If you go back a few episodes, yeah, the whole team was there.
00:27:41.119 --> 00:27:45.119
Um and they talked all about the design process and the phases they went through.
00:27:45.359 --> 00:27:52.559
It was a lot of hard work to get to where they are now, but now they've got a really awesome rescue tube that lots of pools have adopted and used.
00:27:52.720 --> 00:27:55.039
So and a whistle, if I'm not mistaken.
00:27:55.359 --> 00:27:55.599
They do.
00:27:55.680 --> 00:27:59.039
They also have a super cool whistle, and then I'll take that one because it's cool.
00:27:59.119 --> 00:28:01.039
I'm just gonna sell everybody's product today.
00:28:01.200 --> 00:28:04.240
So the whistle has a oxygen key on it.
00:28:04.480 --> 00:28:06.559
So not every state requires oxygen.
00:28:06.720 --> 00:28:11.359
I feel all lifeguards should have oxygen, but it depends on your facility and your state's rules.
00:28:11.440 --> 00:28:14.559
But if you do, everybody's always like, where's the oxygen key?
00:28:14.640 --> 00:28:16.640
And you you can't find it when you need it.
00:28:16.799 --> 00:28:18.559
But you know, every guard should have their whistle.
00:28:18.640 --> 00:28:19.759
They should be rescue ready.
00:28:19.920 --> 00:28:27.680
So if they've got that whistle with that key, it makes your rescue and your life saving that much easier if you're not searching for that key because you already have it.
00:28:27.759 --> 00:28:28.480
It's your whistle.
00:28:28.799 --> 00:28:30.160
So that was a genius idea.
00:28:30.400 --> 00:28:32.079
We should have taken that with a short take.
00:28:32.319 --> 00:28:37.440
Um before we wrap up and sign off and say goodbye.
00:28:37.599 --> 00:28:41.039
I want to We can't forget Ron Usher, Jose, Life Lore.
00:28:41.920 --> 00:28:46.559
And and yep, all those are our last year, and we can talk more about them later.
00:28:46.799 --> 00:28:50.480
Um Julianne James with Aqua Babies should be here.
00:28:50.640 --> 00:28:53.920
So last year we had two out-of-the-country sponsors.
00:28:54.000 --> 00:28:56.240
We had, they didn't make it, but they were there.
00:28:56.319 --> 00:28:59.119
Um we had their material, we talked about them.
00:28:59.279 --> 00:29:04.079
Um, and this year we have an out-of-the-country guest that should be coming.
00:29:04.240 --> 00:29:06.160
Can you tell us some of her acolytes?
00:29:06.559 --> 00:29:18.400
Not only should she be joining us, but um it will give a shout-out to Chad Octon at Quest Swimming in Virginia, who is currently running um USA Aqua Babies Global or Aquababies program.
00:29:18.720 --> 00:29:28.000
And Julianne James is the founder of Aqua Babies Global, and she travels literally the world, like Malta and Ghana and everywhere, teaching aquababies.
00:29:28.160 --> 00:29:36.400
Um, or parent taught classes, we may know it here, or infant child toddler water acclamation, song and games, how we might know it here.
00:29:36.559 --> 00:29:40.079
Uh the point is the parent is in the water uh with the child.
00:29:40.240 --> 00:29:46.480
And Julianne also teaches um pre-postnatal and water yoga and really taking the aquapilates.
00:29:46.799 --> 00:29:48.799
Aqua Pilates and Vernel.
00:29:49.119 --> 00:30:00.240
Taking all those motifs and really integrating water acclimation and water safety and um uh swim lesson uh progression with aqua babies and with the parent in the water.
00:30:00.400 --> 00:30:06.799
Uh Nicole and I are part of this process, as well as Chad, and working to bring this to the United States, which we'll talk about later or another episode.
00:30:06.880 --> 00:30:08.319
But Julianne will be here.
00:30:08.480 --> 00:30:25.200
She's gonna talk about business development, she's gonna talk about how you can build your own program and how we integrate it into the society, if you will, because what she's done overseas has been accepted and accredited and welcomed into thousands and hundreds of nationally recognized.
00:30:25.680 --> 00:30:26.640
JW Marriott.
00:30:26.880 --> 00:30:43.519
And as we know in this country, to my knowledge, and again, send me the letters if I misspeak this, but as far as I know, there is no nationally accredited, universally accepted six months of 36-year-old program that is governed, supported, recognized as the United States program.
00:30:43.680 --> 00:30:52.319
We have Red Cross, we have other systems, we have other services, we have franchises, but we don't have one that the United States goes bingo, that's it.
00:30:52.640 --> 00:31:04.079
The program we're talking about, USA Alchemist Global, does have this accreditation, certification, national recognition in multiple countries overseas.
00:31:04.319 --> 00:31:09.920
And so Julianne will be here ideally to tell us about it, to showcase us, uh, to showcase it to us.
00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:30.000
And Nicole and I have been working with her along with Chad in Virginia to help bring this um to the United States, not discrediting what other people are doing, but just trying to bring um uh the national, the international recognition, maybe the the stamp, and kind of show how that can push things forward, if that makes sense.
00:31:30.640 --> 00:31:32.160
Without stepping on my toes.
00:31:32.640 --> 00:31:36.720
Um, but yeah, um, so again, for audiences, what is all this?
00:31:36.799 --> 00:31:42.559
Uh Julianne James, USA Aqua Babies Global, Aqua Babies Global, look it all up, you'll get to learn about it.
00:31:42.720 --> 00:31:55.119
Um, we also want to be very conscious how we talk because there's a lot of things in play um when it comes to international programming and accreditation and all the wonderful things she's done, but don't necessarily happen here.
00:31:55.839 --> 00:32:02.480
So um, speaking real quick of telling stories for the Daily Parks and Rec show, if you're here, I'm gonna do my best Mr.
00:32:02.559 --> 00:32:12.079
Beast impression and ask you to like and smash the Daily Parks and Rec YouTube page because Craig LeBlanc will be representing in Houston.
00:32:12.160 --> 00:32:25.759
And just like Daily Parks and Rec does for all of the statewide Parks and Rec shows where he does the live broadcast, uh, Wisconsin, California, Illinois, Daily Parks and Rec DPRS has been at those shows and does a live feed.
00:32:25.920 --> 00:32:28.720
They will be doing a live feed on September 26th.
00:32:28.880 --> 00:32:31.759
So everybody asks, can we see the show?
00:32:32.079 --> 00:32:32.400
No.
00:32:32.880 --> 00:32:34.640
Can we watch it digitally?
00:32:34.880 --> 00:32:35.200
No.
00:32:35.519 --> 00:32:43.039
But you can watch all of our professionals uh be interviewed, tell their story, so you can get a great feel for what's happening.
00:32:43.200 --> 00:32:46.880
The reason you can't watch what's happening live is because it's pure discussion based.
00:32:46.960 --> 00:32:52.400
It's intimate, it's integrated, and a camera would never be able to pick up 12 people talking at a table at once.
00:32:52.559 --> 00:32:56.720
So it's not because we don't want you to see it, it's just a hard format to film live.
00:32:56.799 --> 00:33:07.200
But that's another reason why DPRS is gonna be there to help make sure everybody understands what we're doing and showcases all of our wonderful speakers and guests.
00:33:07.599 --> 00:33:08.000
Yeah.
00:33:08.480 --> 00:33:14.079
We are gonna run, but we're gonna add in the show notes for everybody your uh ticket if you haven't bought it.
00:33:14.240 --> 00:33:15.440
The seats are very limited.
00:33:15.599 --> 00:33:17.519
Half the tickets or more than half are gone.
00:33:17.599 --> 00:33:19.680
So if you want to see, grab a seat.
00:33:19.920 --> 00:33:22.480
And we are still looking for two more vendors.
00:33:22.559 --> 00:33:30.240
So if you are interested in speaking and being one of the 16, you should reach out to Wes on Facebook or LinkedIn or just call him if you've got his number.
00:33:30.559 --> 00:33:33.759
Or if you don't know Wes, reach out to me and I can get you in touch.
00:33:33.920 --> 00:33:38.559
And um we're still we are we have a few in the running for our event sponsor.
00:33:38.640 --> 00:33:49.440
But if you want to slide your way in there and get ahead of the other two or three that are on the table, uh again, reach out to Wesley or me and we can we can chat about that.
00:33:49.599 --> 00:33:55.680
So yeah, to that point, that key event sponsor, that made event sponsor, um definitely still looking for it.
00:33:55.759 --> 00:33:58.480
And it goes well beyond Saturday, September 26th.
00:33:58.559 --> 00:34:03.599
So if you're a major organization looking to really expand your brand, um, I just want to put it out there.
00:34:03.680 --> 00:34:07.920
It goes into our monthly webinars, which we have, it goes into the Friday talk show.
00:34:08.079 --> 00:34:14.079
So if you're a big business looking to spread the word, um your uh the impact goes well beyond that day.
00:34:14.239 --> 00:34:16.400
Just putting it out there for the main sponsor.
00:34:16.480 --> 00:34:17.440
So love that.
00:34:17.920 --> 00:34:18.719
Absolutely.
00:34:18.880 --> 00:34:19.760
Thank you, everybody.
00:34:19.840 --> 00:34:24.239
And yeah, and then we'll be back next week with new guests and our regular format.
00:34:24.400 --> 00:34:27.199
And yeah, just under 30 minutes, as we promised.
00:34:27.440 --> 00:34:32.159
You order your pizza, you can get it here, and now you can get all your second annual all things aquatics info.
00:34:32.400 --> 00:34:32.800
Yes.
00:34:32.960 --> 00:34:35.440
All right, guys, see you in Houston.
00:34:35.760 --> 00:34:36.800
Thanks, everybody.
