In late 2019 and the first cold weeks of the 2020 Chicago winter, two major events had not yet happened in our world. Kobe Bryant was still with us. COVID hadn’t arrived. And I was in the very early stages of launching my consulting business.
At that time, I spent my days doing what every new consultant does — networking, emailing, calling, and reconnecting with anyone who had ever crossed my path in the aquatics world. I was sharing my story, talking about reducing risk, improving service, and helping facilities run safer, stronger, more efficient operations.
But something felt missing.
Even with social media, I didn’t have a true gathering place — no coffee shop feel, no corner-of-the-bar conversations, no informal spot where you could simply talk aquatics with people who “get it.”
Sure, there were Facebook groups. Good ones. Helpful ones. But I wanted something different. I wanted a space with no labels, where it didn’t matter what letters came after your name or which organization signed your paycheck. A place where the brand on your uniform didn’t decide whether you were welcome.
More than that, I wanted a place for the people who don’t always have a place — the new aquatic supervisors, the part-time guards who are now managers, the seasonal staff who have big questions, the leaders who can’t always ask their boss without worrying how it will look. A space where aquatics professionals could be honest, curious, and supported.
So on January 9, 2020, I quietly launched a little Facebook group called All Things Aquatics. I had no idea what it would become.
A few weeks later, I was home on a Sunday morning working on my first national conference PowerPoint when the news broke: Kobe Bryant, several coaches, and others had been killed in a helicopter crash. For me, it landed strangely hard. Kobe and I were born just days apart. He was a children’s book author. And his “Mamba Mentality” was the exact mindset I had been carrying into my consulting career — focus, consistency, growth.
Six weeks after that, during the week of my daughter’s third birthday, COVID hit. The world stopped. Pools closed. Facilities shut down. But the digital world accelerated — and with it, something unexpected happened.
The All Things Aquatics group began filling with voices. Questions. Ideas. Frustrations. Solutions. People who had never met were suddenly helping each other through the hardest operational moment our industry had ever faced.
Slowly, steadily, the group became more than a page on Facebook. It became a community — one built on generosity, openness, and the belief that aquatics professionals are stronger when we share what we know.
And that’s why I started it.
Not for business.
Not for branding.
But because this field deserves a place where everyone, from new guards to veteran directors, can talk openly, learn freely, and know they’re not doing this work alone.