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 here already there. Let's get inspired. Let's get it going. Rise and shine, Aquatics Nation, we are back. Good morning. Great morning. I hope you get into it. You're in the car and maybe already at work, but listen again, I'm here with you. It is your host, Jamal Hill, and this is the Aquatic Bear podcast episode number four. What got a question for you today is your lifeguard training model out of date. That is the question of the day. That is what today's episode is all about. By now, I'm sure you've got the flow of the show, so I gotta start you off with a really amazing quote, something that's going to make you think that much. You think about this information lead to transformation. If you are not inspired by being informed, you will expire by becoming deformed. It is the information age Aquatics Nation education is more important than it's ever been. And guess what? It's also more decentralized than it's ever been. Education is no longer limited to The Star Spangled Banner and Miss Smith second grade class. It's no longer limited to that Ivy League College or that State College. You know that you got to go and get that piece of paper from education is all over this podcast. Education? YouTube education. Anything you want to know you can research. And if the answer is an extremely clear cut, guess what again, you can start to develop an understanding. Back anymore information by learning the minute you stop learning is the minute you become stale. So how does this quote tie into lifeguard training models and how out of date or end date it may be? This is how it doesn't look. If you're having trouble hiring, training or retaining your lifeguard, you are not informed enough. OK, I hear a lot of people always talking about. I've tried everything. Listen, if you've tried everything, you would be successful by that because it's not impossible. All right. What we're talking about here at the end of the day are real problems with real solutions. Let us not forget what was it? I don't know. Maybe just over a hundred years ago, the first airplane took off the ground. Couple of brothers, Wright brothers. Where are we at now, man? I'm on an airplane every other week, it feels like. And even though I complain about those cold feet listen compared to one hundred years ago, man, I'm a billionaire. They were now flying like this not too long ago. OK. Men and women have been to men, and women are in space right now. I'm just like trying to put in perspective because again, and he didn't get caught up in our own problems and really start to feel like, Oh, this is going to be an impossible challenge to overcome. Not the case. Let me give you a story, man. Recently, I was speaking with the national level, one of the national level directors of the YMCA, director of innovation and the director of innovation and new technologies, essentially. And they shout out to Lindsay, shout out to Lindsay maddick over at National YMCA and not to get into our conversation too much. There are some exciting things develop in there, but ultimately the fact that her role and title exists, that is a red flag if you do not have someone in your organization. And I've spoken about this before dedicated to becoming informed on the latest trend and attempting to influence. Your organization is dying. It's literally dry run from the inside out if you don't have that. This is one of the best organizations nonprofits in terms of service and reach in the entire nation. The YMCA featured millions of people how to swim every single year. We should be taking note. Do you hear me? You should be taking notes. But. A lot of you are afraid to take the time to work on yourself if you think you're driving in a car down the road. You know, I won't even say you're doing what, a hundred down the road? OK, that's a book, and you're probably doing it about a good 60 miles an hour right now, which is solid. All right. You know, we're not a super car just yet, but you're doing 60 miles an hour down the road and you've got to check engine light on Tell me this. Is it possible to pop the hood and go in and figure out what's going on in your engine while you're still driving 60 miles down the road? No, no. If not, it's literally impossible. You got to stop. Pull over that car. Turn it off and then go inspect the problem. Too many of us are trying to fix things while we're still in full swing or even worse. We're just paralyzed on the side of the road. You know, we're sitting on the side of the road. The hood is popped open. Cell phones dead, car batteries dead. Don't know the first thing about an engine we used. We used the car manual as a tissue paper on the last camping trip. And so now we don't have that either. And you're just sitting there waiting for somebody to come by and save you or or some parade to come by. And you just be, I guess, swept up in that moment. And maybe you're going to become a hitchhiker in somebody else's way. But do your organization, your vehicle is still sitting there with a problem and stranded, even if you can get up and running and you get a little bit of momentum. You're still going to have to come back to this place until you get it solved. So that's what it's all about. And I'm just here to make you think, all right, you got to be asking yourself again if my organization is having trouble recruiting lifeguards. I know they're that national lifeguard shortage. If we're having trouble recruiting lifeguard training lifeguards, retaining lifeguards. Why? Why are you having that trouble? Have you ever had this trouble before? One of my favorite saying that you never know who's swimming naked until the tide comes there. And what I'm talking about today described you describe the program, aquatic managers, city managers, you know, pool operators, if coaches, you know, if what I'm talking about here today is described in you, I need you to understand that there is a solution out there. You have not tried everything. You are probably working with an outdated model the way you thought things should work in the past. And you know, we believe that. Oh, guess what? It doesn't work that way. No more, buddy. It's different now. Yeah. These lifeguards aren't just going to fall in your lap, and it's going to take more, maybe than just putting out, Hey, we pay you this much an hour to pull them in. Right? We're coming off. What do they call that? It's like the great exodus or something of the workplace based off a Kobe, you know, so we live in an entirely different landscape there. Fortune 500 companies that crumbled during that time. And you think doing things the same old way is going to get you over? It's going to put your organization in a position to lead a community, to protect and inspire them in aquatic spaces, doing things the old way. This is your wakeup call. Wake up. It's not going to happen, so. Listen, I just want you to think about that. Got to sit down and you just got to evaluate. OK, look at the results, look at where you are and understand things are changing and that problem ultimately is not out of your control, but within your control. We just got to get creative. So there will be some more content. I'm here to support. You guys are quite a few podcasts here for service. So do us a favor. Go ahead. Subscribe to this show if you like it and if you subscribe, man, you might as well go ahead and just send it to a couple of friends shared with them other things you might want to know about. We've got a partners meeting happening on February 28th that is going to be an awesome partners meet, really coming off the heels of the AP via conference. So you want to be they're going to be some amazing people in the house, different lifeguard service companies. I believe we're going to be having Lincoln Aquatics in the house and just some wonderful organizations doing some amazing things in the aquatic space. March the 1st We've got an aquatics today. State of the Union address a special episode State of the Union and Aquatic. It's coming to you. So that's going to be March 1st, coinciding with the same State of the Union address that President Joe Biden will be presenting. Last but not least, Aquatics Nation, we have got our aquatic equity summit. OK, and that's happening March the 23rd. Ultimately, it's going to be an absolutely wonderful. Excuse me. Ultimately, it's going to be an absolutely wonderful experience. One of our speakers is actually going to be him, Lynch, the director over at Diversity in Aquatics. And, you know, ultimately, the equity summit is going to be the perfect place to learn more about how to empower your community and create a place for them to be fully seen and heard through aquatics. This event will celebrate what makes us different in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, religion, disability, sexual orientation, education, national origin and unites us as a one aquatics nation with a deep passion for all things swimming. So that's happening on March the 23rd. We're going to start promoting that pretty soon, so make sure you get registered and don't miss a thing. As always, aquatic nation, I'm sending you love. I'm sending you light. I've given you all the best. I need you to do me a favor. The air time suit up. Take the dove and be that hero. Talk to you soon. [00:00:00][0.0]
