Speaker 1: [00:00:00] Aquatics Nation. This is your community, and I am your host of the Aquatic Today podcast, Jamal Hill. So strap in, whether you're on your way to work is already there. Let's get inspired. Let's get it going. Testing Aquatics Nation. Welcome back. Welcome back. It is episode two and I'm your host. Jamal Hill. This is the Aquatic Today podcast, episode two. You guys have been saying that you've you've been hearing the word around town leading with innovation as the topic of the day. But before we get into that, I got a quote for you all. Something that one of my favorite quotes I read. I try and read this at least at least a few times a week. Listen up. All men dream. All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their mind wake in the day to find it is only vanity. But the dreamers of the day, they are dangerous men where they act their dreams with open eyes to make it possible. That is a quote from T.E. Lawrence. Seven Pillars of Wisdom 1922 Listen. Today we are talking about leading with innovation. What does that really mean? That really means you have a dream. OK, that really means that you have a dream. That really means that you have a vision. And I promise you guys this will be a resource. So one of the books that is going to be extremely helpful to you all as you develop this vision just to even understand better what our vision is. I want you to check this out. Pick it up on Audible ordered on Amazon, go to your local bookstore. It's called Vivid Vision by Cameron Harrod, Vivid Vision by Cameron Harrod. And you know, a lot of you guys know that you know me from Swim Up Hill. And now, obviously representing Aquatics Today team here on the podcast. Let me tell you a story about about not even just this specific story about the early days of Swim Up Hill, but this is something that I do on a regular basis, especially with Swim Up Hill, with any business and and that's doing the hardest thing that any of us can do. That is, I think that is think through what my vision is. And I remember the very first time I read this book, Vivid Vision by Cameron Harold. You know, before that, I had a low level understanding of it. I thought it was just, you set goals. That's it, right? Well, this guy pretty much laid out a manifesto for his vision of his business, his life, even his personal character, his goals and things like that. But it was all in. It was so detailed and there were different statutes to it. And after I was introduced to this book by a mentor, I'm reading it and I understand something. You have to spend the time with your own thoughts, emotions, feelings to understand the vision that's inside of you. Now if you're an aquatics manager, OK, you're a pool manager. I don't care if you're a lifeguard. I don't care if you're a janitor. All right. When we talk about a vision for the future, for what we're creating. OK, now I'm going to bring it back to aquatics here when we talk about that vision for what we're creating. You got to spend the time. Nobody can create that for you. OK? Does it matter who you partner with? None of that matters. If you have not spent the time to understand who, what, where, when, why you exist as an entity, what are you providing? How do you do it? What makes it special? And it's so much deeper than that. I mean, I remember the first time I did my vivid vision, I drove up the coast to Palisades and and I went to Paradise Cove. Go into Paradise Cove, I'm actually with one of my teammates there, Bowfinger, and I'm coming out here specifically to spend just five hours in a cabana. That's my intention. I got a notebook and a box of pizza, and I'm going to spend five hours in my cabana just thinking and writing as much detail as I can do with with this vivid vision and some great things. As fate would have, it ultimately ended up getting the whole cabana for free that day and some souvenir towels. Shout out to my brother over there at Paradise Cove. You met him on site. We did vibe so much man about, but you know, intentional and energy. The whole nother conversation. What my point here is, I spent so much time with that vision. And guess what? After five hours of intense thinking and concentration, it still wasn't complete. I had to go on a whole nother excursion. And when I went out to the wilderness, the woods for a few hours to try and finish that, and then I brought it into a written format. And guess what? After I did, I shared it with every single person in my organization, everyone that was coming in. They had that vivid vision. So that is what I am bringing to you today. This is going to be, you know, critical to leading, right, let alone leading with innovation. And I just broke down the base level of leading. OK, you got to have a vision if you're going to lead. OK, got to you got to you got to spend that time. If it was the olden days, what we would say? Well, in the new days too. You got to go commune with God. You know, you got to go spend the time and really just again doing the hardest thing. Nobody just wants to sit and think it challenging. With that said, let me give you three ways. Let me give you three things when we talk about innovation, OK, you got the leader when we talk about innovation that you should be looking for. Number one is trends. All right. You've got to wake up. You got to put your ear to the pavement to open up your eyes. What are the trends that are going on in the world, specifically aquatic community? I'm talking about technology here. I'm talking about the virtual space. What is our home as an aquatic community in VR, in air, in the virtual space are coated in lifeguards? Are they going to be being trained in VR, you know, at the Swim Up Hill Foundation? We had a VR component built into our swim lessons. OK, so that is one thing you're going to think about the second thing? Do culture. All right. And culture comes with the one two punch. Everything after that. Not that important. Number one ability, you got to be thinking of your facilities with ability first accessible to people with any type of physical, a disability or ability, whether that be blind. Whether youโre like Jamal &, you have neuropathy, you know, wheelchair bound, making sure your facility is accessible, thinking ability first and making sure your staff is trained up on that, that's going to be super important. The second most important thing do your facility need to reflect the culture of your community? OK. That is something you really have to sit on, and this is the responsibility of your team, right? To again, not only embrace, but to enhance the culture of the community. So there you go. All right. Now couple of updates. Listen, today, February 8th and tomorrow, February 9th, we're down here. Me and Aquatics Today media team are down here, St. Petersburg, Florida at the AP. That's Association of Aquatics Professionals and the Diversity in Aquatics Conference. Two wonderful organizations run by great people shout out to Julian after shout out to Miriam Lynch. Just wonderful people. So we're down here. Listen, you're going to want to check out the YouTube. OK, we're going to be covering footage. There is going to be live interviews. We're going to be catching the award shows everything there to see that's going on here. That is where it's going to be. It's going to be on the Aquatics Today YouTube channel. Shout out. Listen to 23 February 20 30 later this month. We've got our sponsors meeting going down. OK, there are a lot of opportunities. People chomping at the bit to get involved with Aquatics Today Magazine at Aquatics Daily dot com to be involved with the podcast, to be involved with our different programs. Then there's a bunch of opportunities even in the virtual space NFT, then things like that that are happening in our aquatic state that sponsors meeting. It's going to be on February 23rd. You guys got it, man. I love you, Aquatics Nation. Make sure you subscribe to the show. Follow it on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Why not go Google podcast to watch there, too? You can always find the show on aquatic today.com. You know, I didn't mess up. You know how to forget about you. I promised you three things, right? I promise you. I promise you three ways that you can be looking to innovate. And the last one is going to twist you up a little bit. I want you to look into the. Hearth and do some research. How long have things been the way they are? And why are they that way? Is it the best? Have we maximized not only ourselves, but our communities, our efforts? Are we happy being stagnant? I want you to look at the past and that I promise you, if that doesn't inspire you to create a vision for your own future, it will. Nothing will acquire this nation. So don't be that guy. Be this guy. Suit up. Take the dove and be the hero. I'll talk to you soon. [00:00:00][0.0]
