Dawson Hughes, the CEO of US Masters Swimming (USMS), started swimming when he was just eight, and now he stands at the helm of an organization that's making waves in the world of adult swimming. Listen as he shares his journey, his goals for the future, and some exciting initiatives on the horizon for USMS.
In our chat, we dive into the heart of US Masters Swimming's mission - expanding the adult swimming community to a broad range of people. We shed light on the challenges of making the sport more accessible and inviting, especially for beginners who might be intimidated. We explore the unique role swimming plays in providing stability during life's transitions and how to attract a younger demographic. We also touch on the significance of the 'Swimming for Life' hashtag, which encapsulates the essence of the community.
We wrap up our conversation discussing the intrinsic benefits of swimming club memberships, the importance of fostering a supportive team, and the ins and outs of managing a large organization like US Masters Swimming. Dawson shares his commitment to creating a welcoming, inclusive environment and provides valuable insights on career transitioning within the swimming community. So, tune in and immerse yourself in the beauty of swimming and discover why it's more than just a sport - it's a community, a support system, and a way of life.
Dawson Hughes, the CEO of US Masters Swimming (USMS), started swimming when he was just eight, and now he stands at the helm of an organization that's making waves in the world of adult swimming. Listen as he shares his journey, his goals for the future, and some exciting initiatives on the horizon for USMS.
In our chat, we dive into the heart of US Masters Swimming's mission - expanding the adult swimming community to a broad range of people. We shed light on the challenges of making the sport more accessible and inviting, especially for beginners who might be intimidated. We explore the unique role swimming plays in providing stability during life's transitions and how to attract a younger demographic. We also touch on the significance of the 'Swimming for Life' hashtag, which encapsulates the essence of the community.
We wrap up our conversation discussing the intrinsic benefits of swimming club memberships, the importance of fostering a supportive team, and the ins and outs of managing a large organization like US Masters Swimming. Dawson shares his commitment to creating a welcoming, inclusive environment and provides valuable insights on career transitioning within the swimming community. So, tune in and immerse yourself in the beauty of swimming and discover why it's more than just a sport - it's a community, a support system, and a way of life.
Welcome to the award-winning Champions Mojo hosted by two world record-holding athletes. Be inspired as you listen to conversations with champions and now your hosts, kelly Palace and Maria Parker.
Speaker 2:Hello friends, welcome to the Champions Mojo podcast. I am your host, kelly Palace, and, as usual, I am co-hosting with Maria Parker. Hey, maria, hey Kelly, great to be here today and see you. We are in for a treat. Today, we're going to be chatting with the CEO of US master swimming, dawson Hughes. Dawson took over as chief executive officer of US master swimming in March of 2016. He leads the national office staff in providing support for the organization's members in every aspect, including the day-to-day operations of the national office staff. Dawson is great at creating win-win opportunities and partnerships for master swimming. Working with USA Swimming Foundation, where he serves on their board of directors, he's taken the following initiatives to the next level, including the adult-learn-to-swim program, the USMS digital transformation for greater efficiency, the USMS online community, the college club swimming events and the swimcom USMS fitness events. Maria, what else can you tell us about Dawson?
Speaker 3:Dawson is a native of Newport Beach, california. He grew up in and around the water and began swimming competitively at the age of eight with the Irvine Novaquatics. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and swim at the D1 level for the Wolverines for two years. As a new master swimmer myself, I have been very excited about everything USMS swimming has to offer. But Dawson at the helm of the USMS swimming. The future's bright. There's a lot more on Dawson, but let's dive in and hear from him himself. Dawson, welcome to Champions Mocho.
Speaker 4:Hey, kelly and Maria, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3:We're delighted to have you.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's so great. We have the ma'am, the in-charge of USMS swimming, and we call ourselves a master swimming podcast. So we want to get right to the root of all things. Master swimming and Dawson, I know you're pretty darn humble so you're going to push back on this, but you're a champion. You are a champion swimmer Anyone who swims at the D1 level. You swim at Michigan and you're a champion of getting adults to swim. So you have this dual role. What we want to talk with you about today, and so I guess our first question for you is what is it that really draws you to the sport of swimming, to promote it and to do it?
Speaker 4:I'll take credit for being a champion in high school, but I don't know if I can take it any further than that with my swimming career. But I appreciate the background In terms of being involved in swimming. I grew up in Southern California and was around the water all the time. Swimming was just second nature. We had a pool in the backyard. I actually started my competitive swimming career at age five in Harbor and Newport. I had a summer camp and we did races.
Speaker 4:I like to say I was an open water swimmer to start with and that experience made me realize how competitive I was. I had a friend that beat me for two years straight and I kept asking why he was faster than me and my parents said he swam with a competitive USA Swimming Club in town and I said I want to do that and at that point I started swimming year-round competitively and I beat him the next year. So I learned that putting a plan in place although it was a pretty limited plan at the time could get me to a goal In terms of transitioning to this. I've been around sports my whole life. Swimming happened to be the one that I was probably the best at and it was also the one that I think took the most long-term commitment and focus. And I did a lot of sports as a kid, typically like all the ones that were around the water played marco, played basketball, and I stuck with swimming all the way through, I think because of the relationships I made with my teammates and my coaches and because of kind of the long-term goal setting and commitment that I was willing to put into it.
Speaker 4:And again, it seems silly to say I think it goes back to when I was about six, but I realized I was pretty competitive. I think that still translates to masters. A lot of people are surprised when I tell them that only about 30% of our swimmers participate in events. Most of them have a fitness goal in mind and it doesn't mean they're just going to the pool three days a week and chatting on the side of the pool although there's a lot of that that goes on. Most of them are putting a plan in place and even if their plan is just to lose a couple pounds or to get in the water three days a week or to swim a certain distance over the course of that year, I think it all applies. I think it's something that's common with swimmers is to put that long-term goal in place, plan in place to reach it.
Speaker 2:So obviously you were a planner, you were competitive and we would love to hear what is that one thing, that plan that you see master swimming really needs? What are you planning for master swimming that we can all get excited about?
Speaker 4:Yeah, there's some things I can tell you about and there's some things I will tease a little bit because they're not quite ready for prime time. But the first thing is really trying to bring master swimming to everybody around the country and make it as convenient as possible. We have about a thousand master's clubs around the country and we have around 300, 400 events a year. But there's still places where we don't have the true master's club environment, and what I mean by that is having a coach on deck that's supporting whatever your individual goals are, having that community of swimmers around you and building that camaraderie that comes along with being on teams One. It's not available to everybody in all places. You obviously have to have a pool relatively close by, but the master's club has to be there as well, and there are plenty of pools where we don't have that now. And it has to be convenient.
Speaker 4:And that's one of the challenges we face with growing the master's swimming ranks is that there's a lot of convenient fit this options out there. There's a lot of people, a lot of my friends from my swimming days, that are like I'd love to get back in the water. I was in such good shape, I just don't have the time, and continuing to grow our clubs and finding the right people to coach those clubs and getting them plugged in is a huge focus of ours. On top of that, trying to get more events in place and potentially more events that are more convenient for people, shorter events, trying some new things that compete with other adult fitness events that are out there. It's easy to run a 5K on a Saturday morning and you have the rest of your weekend. Swimming aren't always that easy. Looking for more unique ways to give people access to swimming events that are fun it can be is a big focus.
Speaker 3:That's great. I love that idea. I love the comparison to the 5K, and this wasn't true when I was young, but I'm 60 now 5K was a big deal, kind of like a swim meet, the big deal when I was in my 20s. And now I can go out and find a 5K anywhere I am, where I travel, and do one. So I love that vision for the future of an easy and not too intimidating, because one of the things that running has done as well has made the whole thing really not intimidating. You can go, you can walk, you can push your stroll or, you know, everybody can participate. If you succeed, what is that going to look like?
Speaker 4:I think there's a couple of things. One is you mentioned intimidation. We have battled this perception of masters being intimidating for a long time, since before my time I'm masters. I think the master swimming brand in general indicates fast, older swimmers to people and it's not necessarily accurate. It's just that perception. Our CMO, kyle Leary, and I have talked about this before. He's a little bit younger than I am, but we both swam in college and we both love college, thinking I'm never going to be a master swimmer because we're going to be of that age group to go do master swimming. What we didn't realize at the time was we were in our early 20s and people swimming in the master's clubs we were aware of were in their early to mid 30s. We just thought they were old because we were 22 and that was old to us. But the mindset hasn't changed. So with all of the initiatives that we're doing, we're trying to break down that perception and get people to realize it's not just about swimming fast or winning at nationals. Those are all great, they're all important. We have a lot of people who are highly motivated by that type of competition, but it ultimately is about people healthy and using swimming to get there.
Speaker 4:We track our success from a business standpoint around how many people are members in USMS. But that's a pretty limited way of looking at it. We have a lot of people that swim on master's clubs that aren't necessarily members for a variety of reasons. There are people swimming in open water events around the country that are USMS sanctioned events. There are triathletes that are using swimming to reach their goals that may or may not be members. So we're looking at a lot of different ways to achieve our goal. Ultimately, we just want to grow a community of swimmers around the country. You guys know it's a great community. It's very supportive. We've got clubs who lift people up in their dark times and people use swimming to get away from some of the stressors of everyday life. So the more that we can grow that community, the better. We've got to find some better ways of tracking how big that community is. It's not just about having somebody join a USMS member. It's more about growing that overall community and supporting our clubs at the local level so they can keep offering that experience.
Speaker 3:One thing I've learned in talking to US swimmers that Kelly and I have interviewed is the most important thing is the community. I think that's so true. So how do we get those people I'm thinking of not necessarily myself, but maybe my adult children and their spouse? That would be so amazing for them to be able to go and work with a group, right where they are, to exercise in an easy way, and that's what you're working on.
Speaker 4:We're also trying to again. It's a hard paradigm to shift. We're trying to change the mindset.
Speaker 4:I told this story a lot and when I took this job and accepted the position, I told the board president at the time, Patty Miller, before I start. I got to go get in the water and swim a little and it had been years since I've swum at all. She goes awesome, you're a division one swimmer, You're going to be fine. I was like I'm not in good enough shape to swim with a master's team. Like I got to get in the water. She's like that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard and your job now is to figure out how to get people not to think that way. I ultimately went swam a few times because I was quite an ego saying I didn't want to jump in the water and embarrass myself. But I got in a workout right when I moved to Sarasota and she was right. There was people from their 20s to their 90s in the workout. There were all ability levels. The coach navigated the workout the way that served everybody's needs and I ultimately was I don't know halfway up the food chain and in the middle lanes with some people that swam all the time, but I still was in decent swimming shape. So we really need to figure out how to get that perception removed and make sure anybody that feels like swimming might be a fitness option for them isn't intimidated, it isn't scared to do it.
Speaker 4:Swimming comes with some challenges. There's driving to the pool, there's the actual getting in the water part, there's the getting out and taking a shower part. You can't just put on a bare running shoes and go run outside here from door. So we got to also make it fun or willing to dig on those extra steps to make this part of their fitness routine. The problem that businesses across the board are challenged with is attracting a younger demographic. We are the same way we have been forever. We have pretty solid statistics that show that our membership starts to come back around 45 or 52.
Speaker 4:Swimming. Typically, their career demands may have come down a little bit, their family demands have come down a little bit, they have a little more control over their own time and they've taken a 20 or 25 year break from swimming. We really want to find a way to not have people feel like they need that 25 year break. They don't need to swim 10 times a week like they did in high school or college. There's a huge community of swimmers out there that aren't engaging with masters for a variety of reasons, and it's not all just from burnout when they were kid. It's just not an easy thing to do when you're balancing career, family, kids and everything else going on in your lives. Finding some ways to have people engage in a more limited fashion when that is the case and it can't be their priorities are some of the things that are coming up soon, different than our traditional model, that I think will help us change that dynamic as well.
Speaker 3:I love that because you're talking to two people at the extremes of your demographic. Kelly is amazing, as you know master swimmers, she holds all kinds of records and I barely swim and it's taken a lot of Kelly talking to me for me to get and I've loved what I've done. I love what masters of swimming is doing and how inviting it's been. But then, yeah, there's a lot of other people, but it is Kelly's pet peeve that people leave swimming.
Speaker 2:I think a podcast is a good way to reach the youth, because people who are listening to podcasts are those young. Just in our last probably two out of the last four shows we interviewed James Pokronowski and Denise Latender. They both never took a break from college swimming to master swimming. So I thought they were so interesting and unusual and they brought up community. Like when they're getting married, starting a hard career, going through law school, what was something that could ground them? It was swimming. It was like, oh, I'm trying to go to school or I'm trying to start a new job that's unfamiliar and uncomfortable, but swimming is something that I know how to do a flip turn. I know how to do 10-100 or 150 or whatever they're doing. So, denise, it's actually this week's show that she talks about why swimmers should never quit. You and I talked about that and you said you guys have the. What is your hashtag?
Speaker 4:Swimming for life. Swimming for life, swimming for life, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I believe that, like you said, people don't get burned out. We love talking about mindset on this show, from just the newbie mindset. So how does that person who is scared to death to show up on a pool deck? To somebody who is scared to death? Am I going to make a fool out of myself when I tell everybody I'm trying to break a national record? And I don't. It's a mindset thing, it's the pressure. So we'd love to hear from you, dawson, about what you think that mindset needs to be for someone to try master swimming.
Speaker 4:There's risk in anything you do. Right. We struggle a little bit with getting the message across that master swimming is fun. My wife is a former cross-country runner and she's like swimming's what you do to recover from running. I was like that's ridiculous and what's going to smell. I got her in the pool a little bit during the pandemic. But it's hard to go from zero to 60 and it's hard to go from not running at all to running a 5K which is why they have couch to 5K philosophies, and I think that's some of the things we've tried to do with our fitness series.
Speaker 4:On some of the new initiatives that we're coming out with our try master swimming campaign, which is a marketing campaign to just get people to try it I think that first step is saying look, I realize I want to get healthy and fit. I realized that swimming is a good way to do that. Either I did it as a kid and I was in great shape, or I'm at a point where swimming is the best option for me because it's less impact than other fitness activities. Making that first step is the hardest part and we've put some campaigns in place to just get people to make that first step. Then it's really on us our clubs, our coaches and our swimmers to make people feel welcome. And we've done a lot of work with our clubs because swimmers get into a mindset and they have done it for a long time and they understand what a set looks like on a whiteboard and what all the hieroglyphics mean. They know that at 5.30 in the morning that you park at one side of the parking lot and you go to this gate that looks locked but it's not locked and you know how to get in a pool. We've had people who have said I couldn't figure out how to get in a pool. It's my first time there and I had no idea. They told me to be there at six and it was dark and I had no idea. So we have to make sure people feel welcome. I know that a lot of our members do that.
Speaker 4:I know a lot of our clubs do that, but it's easy to forget what it's like to be a new swimmer If you're somebody who has swum before. I think it's more about setting aside your ego, putting together your plan and not your. I'm trying to win my high school state championship or I'm trying to win my conference championship in college, or I'm trying to make the Olympic game. Those things aren't going to happen anymore. If you've taken a 20-year grade, there's lots of other goals you can set as a master swimmer from swimming in nationals to getting into the top 10 to just swim three days a week and I feel great about it. Now I've made a bunch of new friends. But it's really getting that longer term goal in place, putting in the plan that gets there. But you've got to get to the pool and get in the water. That's the first step and I think that's the biggest turtle we'll have.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, I love that story about showing up at a dark pool with the little gate.
Speaker 3:That's so true, that's been exactly my experience. It's like where do I go, who do I talk to and what is that stuff on that whiteboard?
Speaker 2:I don't understand it. So, dawson, if you want to speak to the community, from the Marias to the Kellys, from the new so Swam Melbourne Masters has had a huge growth in our team here. This is Brevard County, florida, and I have called Brevard County Florida historically for the last. I think our team Swam Melbourne is like four years old. Prior to that, I've lived in Brevard County for 20 years and I called it the black hole of master swimming Nothing. So there were times when I thought I'll start a master swimming program but couldn't find full space much, and then there were times when I wanted a master swimming program. So if you're speaking to someone who might be in a black hole of master swimming and unfortunately BJ and Trinity Graham started Swam Melbourne and they really stuck to it and they went through the hard times and they've hung in there and now I think we have 120 people but if you're speaking to the group out there that either wants to start a program or wants to join a program, what would you tell them?
Speaker 4:In terms of starting a program. This is our biggest focus is figuring out how to get Quadrix facility connected to a coach like BJ and get them negotiated into a startup position with a club that has planned to be viable. Once we can put those things together, us Master's swimming is put together, programming to support them in terms of marketing, in terms of just really that logistical and negotiating support with the Quadrix facility, but also grant money to get things going for lane space, for coaching fees, for whatever else they may need. Bj has done an awesome job and he's had some awesome champions like you guys to help grow the club and spread the word. That's the most important thing is having that kind of entrepreneurial swimming minded coach who can put together business aspect of it. It's not the fun part of it, but it's got to be a place to make it successful. And then having enough people that come in the club and are like this is what I've been waiting for. This is awesome. I want to bring more people in. I want to get a bigger group here. I don't mind necessarily having an extra person in my lane. It's great We've got a bigger club. It's going to be viable in the long term. Because of that we can't do all of that from the national office level at the local level. But we can provide a whole lot of marketing negotiations or we can provide some funding.
Speaker 4:There's some clubs that have started, one in particular in Southern California. It took 15 or 20 grand to get the club going to a point where it was just going to break even over time and some people who really wanted a club in that area and had a coach in place funded that initial startup. That's kind of an extreme example. Prices are different, different places. Lane Reynolds are different, different places, but it's tough to tell a swimmer that's looking to start a club or get a club put together. You're not going to go in your own pocket and you might never recoup that money, right? So we have the resources to do that. We can build a plan with them, build a budget with them and try to build that program up to a level over several months maybe four to six months and then turn it over and let it run from there. So that would be.
Speaker 4:Step one is reach out to us at the national office and we can help start that conversation. If you have a pool in mind, that's Boston. If you have somebody who wants to coach or you want to coach, that'd be the better. That's actually our hardest thing. Why is somebody who's willing to be the CEO of a club? They don't necessarily have to coach every work, but somebody's got to manage it or put together a board that will help manage it.
Speaker 4:If you are looking to just join a club and get into swimming, number one is go to our website and see if you have a club close by. We don't have clubs everywhere. We do have a thousand of them around the country. All of them are a little different. All the personalities are a little different, based on coaches and based on the people that are there. If you have questions, again, you can call the national office and we can help navigate that for you. We know most of them and if not, we know somebody locally who does.
Speaker 4:If there's not a club close by, we have lots of resources online for both, from online workouts to fitness logs to track your swimming, to the partnership with swimcom to track your swimming and try to engage with the broader community. But again, even if you're an individual and you would really like to swim with a club instead of independently, feel free to call us. We would love to hear that there is a group of people that are looking at this and figure out if there's a way we can help support at the local level. It's not as easy for us as hey put this big marketing campaign together and all these people want to come and swim. There's got to be a club there for them to swim with and a group of people to join. There are people who swim independently and do an open swim hours and training by themselves works and they still come and swim in events too.
Speaker 4:But we found that when you have the club environment, it's a better experience. You've got the community around you, you've got a coach to support you and, ultimately, if you set a goal of I want to swim in this meet in six months and two months in you stop coming. Somebody send you a text that where were you, this flying? Or the coach picks up and says, hey, I come and see what's going on, is something wrong? Can we help? And I think it's just. It's that motivation I know that was always part of my motivation was I can't not show it for practice, because either I'm letting my coach down or I'm letting my teammates down, and it's not as serious as that. When you're a master's member, people know there's mornings where you're going to sleep in or you'd rather have a cup of coffee instead of drive to the pool, but over time those are things that keep the motivation going, and having that club experience is really what we want to have happen for most masters members as possible.
Speaker 3:I think that's so true. That is what we keep hearing again and again from the master swimmers that we interview the community, and just my personal experience is that, like, for instance, bj, you go to that practice and it's very welcome for newbies, which is an amazing thing. I have had other experiences where it said on the website don't come unless you can do this, this or this, and that's not, I think, what you're going for, although I guess there's clubs for everybody.
Speaker 4:There are. It's not my favorite that there are some that say, look, this is the type of club we are, but we have also encouraged people to put that on a website, so there's not an expectation that it is exactly as you think it's going to be when you get there. There are some clubs that really do focus on training triathletes and the last thing you'll ever hear them talk about is flip turn, because triathletes got planning on doing one and they don't want to learn how to, and that's a different experience than a lot of swimmers and former swimmers would be looking for, and so we want people to know that, going in Personally some of the best quality coaches that I've seen from a master standpoint, they have this ability to make sure every ability level in the pool during a workout feels like they're part of the same team, and I've seen it happen across eight or 12 lanes of different ability levels that warm up ends at the same time. The first set ends at the same time. The coach is speaking to the entire group about whatever the upcoming social event is or whatever the upcoming meet is, or whichever people have volunteered to time at the youth meet that they committed to do as a team.
Speaker 4:It's not just the separate groups of ability levels, but they're able to run the workout in a way that it works for everybody. And that's really the biggest thing we're trying to foster with these clubs, particularly the large ones. They all have the capability of doing that. It's a little harder for a master's coach, from that's end point, than running an age group program where you're putting people in the groups based on ability level on purpose. When you're running one workout, that's all you're doing. This takes a little more planning in advance, but it ultimately makes it feel like a team for everybody. Yeah, without a doubt.
Speaker 2:And the fact that you have that energy. We have a lot of triathletes that listen to the show and you know how much easier it is to go on a run when you're in a pack of eight friends running. It goes like that. It's the same with swimming, mark, and I call it the conveyor belt. Every day, all day long, I'd rather swim with seven people in my lane than me have my own lane. Yeah, it'd be great to have my own lane and I can do flip turns and I could swim down the middle.
Speaker 2:But oh, it's just, it's so much easier when you have that energy and once you learn the circle, swim and you learn to flip and it's a lot of fun. So that's another key. We keep saying the word community, but I think, to break it down, it's kind of like, wow, if you try to do two thousand on your own, oh, my gosh, that is like pulling teeth and you're like I want to get out every 200. I'm like, oh, that's enough, that's enough you do it within group and it's like, wow, was that two thousand?
Speaker 2:It's really so great stuff in Changing gears. Just a little bit because we don't want to run out of time with you. So obviously, dawson, you have been successful as a swimmer and in your career. Can you share with us any routines or rituals that you think have helped you be successful?
Speaker 4:I have twin 11 year olds, so routine doesn't really exist in my vocabulary.
Speaker 4:We just go with the flow every day. But what I would say is it kind of going back to our earlier conversation about planning, knowing what the end result is and using the time that is available wisely, because there's always going to be something unexpected comes up in my daily life. It's work stuff, it's family stuff. There's always something that changes in terms of the plan, but if you put enough time into the plan for those things to happen and you're looking far enough down the road, I think that's probably the one thing that I've learned in this role in particular is that every day is different and I Can't control all of the schedule from a work standpoint, because there's always something that comes up that's unexpected. I can't control the schedule from a family standpoint, because there's always something that comes up that's unexpected. So, not giving away time when there is a window and making sure that time is being used the right way.
Speaker 4:I've got this window between my daughter going off school at everybody coming home from the school day, where I do have a little bit of control, as long as nothing is in crisis mode, and I make sure I put blocks of time during that window, but I can actually get some real work done and plan for the following week, but also down the road and make sure that we're at least staying on this long-term plan. We as a staff, with us MS, go through an annual cycle that a swimmer would go through and a seasonal cycle that a swimmer goes through and we're not just going from one crisis to the next. There's still a plan that's longer term and making sure we're having those check-ins, we're following the plan, maybe tweaking it at times because it may not be working the way we expected, but making sure we use the open windows are available and that we do plan for the unexpected, because there's always something.
Speaker 3:It's wonderful.
Speaker 4:Very nice.
Speaker 2:Maria, you want to ask the last question. I want to do the sprint around.
Speaker 4:Oh boy.
Speaker 3:Kevin asked one, one more question before the last question, which is, of course, the two-part question, and you can answer it quickly. What are you most proud of that you've accomplished at us MS? And then what's been your biggest challenge?
Speaker 4:The thing I'm most proud of is our staff. I worked in baseball for a decade before Transitioning to a job at the Orange Bowl committee in South Florida in college football and then coming back to swimming. I had a group of people that I worked with in San Diego when I first started in baseball. There was just lighting in a bottle. We had this team of people building a new ball arc. We were a sales team. We all had goals, we were all former athletes of some form and it was just most fun experience. Part of it was we were living in San Diego and we were in our mid-20s and we were all single. We had a great time, but the work experience was really fun and so I've always wanted to foster that and getting into leadership roles and I think we have that here.
Speaker 4:It's unique because with the pandemic we've really moved it almost fully remote, but we still have this group of people who are really focused on swimming, focused on masters. They really love what they do. They have a passion for even those that aren't swimmers or weren't swimmers Really love working for a company with the mission that we have and I'm really proud of what we built. We've been able to keep a lot of people for a long time and everybody's really growing into their roles as we come out of the pandemic. I could really try to push things forward. So that's number one. Number two was what are the biggest challenges? This is a big. It's a big organization. We're gonna have 57 or 58,000 members. You've got a pretty significant governance structure in place as an organization that used to be entirely run by volunteers really until about 15 years ago, and we're pretty conservative organization. I don't think swimmers are necessarily big risk takers and so we've been very traditional in how we've approached things.
Speaker 4:I was surprised when I came to this job that swimming hasn't changed. Swimming are the same, swimless in events, they run generally the same. Sure, there's been tweaks in equipment and swimsuits and everything else, but swimming is the same. Workouts are the same, everything's the same. But the model around that is really what we need to adjust a little bit, and it's a challenge. Managing change in an organization this size, with some people who have been involved in volunteer leadership roles for 40 or 50 years and not coming in looking like the new guy that just wants to change everything, is A challenge. That has been. The hardest part of this for me is working with people who really don't want to see some things change. And trying to get some of what's needed and what we're hearing from a new generation of swimmers, versus what we've always done, has been a big challenge.
Speaker 3:That's great. The last question before the sprint around is what would you like to tell our listeners that we haven't already covered?
Speaker 4:I would say, if you're listening to this podcast and you haven't tried swimming, she just find a club and go to it or call our office and we'll help you navigate our online workout library. Can you some tips? We've got all kinds of people that can help with that. If you're already swimming, get a friend to come it's one with you. Do a kelly did with Maria and convince her that it's worthwhile and get her to try it and come join the community.
Speaker 4:It's a pretty amazing group of people and I have the good fortune of traveling around country and seeing a lot of our volunteers that have bought into this, a A lot of our clubs and our coaches and our members and the connections that are out there are pretty amazing. It's a big community but it's really feel small and if you talk to anybody and on a master's club it's only one or two degrees of separation to somebody you swam with as a kid or now, and sometimes it's people that Aren't even part of swimming, that just part of your life, that are connected to a swimmer in some other way. You're already swimming. Bring somebody else into the pool.
Speaker 2:I love it, love it. That's great. All right now, are you ready for these sprint around? This are just fun questions for our listeners. Get to know you a little better on a silly level, and it's short answers here All about fun.
Speaker 4:Let's do it.
Speaker 2:What is your favorite sandwich?
Speaker 4:I like a turkey and roast beef sub from Wawa nice.
Speaker 2:What do you own that you should throw out?
Speaker 4:Probably the jammers I've been wearing for the last five years definitely Scariest animal to you Sharker, right there with you.
Speaker 2:bud, that one is scary to a swimmer. What celebrity might you want to meet?
Speaker 4:Jimmy Buffett was always my top on my list. I'm not gonna get that chance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right. What is the hardest swimming event in your mind in the pool?
Speaker 4:the mile. I'm in middle distance freestyle, or who really desperately wanted to be a sprinter? This is longer answer than you want for the sprint around, but if you're thinking about being a master swimmer, you can reinvent yourself however you want to be. So I am now officially a sprinter, so anything over 400 is out in my mind.
Speaker 2:That's a great sales pitch for master swimming. You can start in, you could have been a distance, or now you're a sprinter, or vice versa. Okay, they were movie top gun. Okay, Maria favorite smell.
Speaker 4:We have a Spray in our house called Kai and it's a tuberose smell.
Speaker 3:Do you make your bed every last year? Most foreign extended a kickboard or no kickboard? No kickboard window or aisle aisle. Describe your life and five forts.
Speaker 4:Hectic probably about it.
Speaker 3:Okay, here's the last one. What word comes to mind when you dive in the water?
Speaker 4:Peace.
Speaker 2:Oh nice Peace. I like it All right. Wonderful. This has been so awesome. I know our listeners are going to love it. We loved it. Thank you for your time. We really appreciate it. We really appreciate it.
Speaker 4:Yeah, thanks for having me, kelly and Maria. I'm happy to check in anytime If there's anything else you guys want to talk about Masters related. I think we will have some announcements in the next couple of months you guys will be interested to hear about, okay.
Speaker 3:We might want to have you back to talk about those.
Speaker 4:Happy to if it makes sense for you.
Speaker 3:Thank you, thanks so much Thanks everybody.
Speaker 1:Stay tuned for the takeaways.
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Speaker 1:And now the takeaways.
Speaker 2:Maria Dawson Hughes, the CEO of Masters Swimming. We could have talked with him for hours. Just so much there, and even after we shut it down we still went on and talked. There were a lot of takeaways. What was your first takeaway?
Speaker 3:I loved that he wants me which.
Speaker 2:I think is a nice he wants everybody to swim he wants everybody to swim.
Speaker 3:It's so true. Swimming is just an amazing sport, but it can feel hard, as we talked about during the episode, and I love that he's really reaching out to not just past competitive swimmers but everyone. Swimming is a great sport for everyone and anyone can do it. I love that he's motivated to bring swimming everywhere and to everyone.
Speaker 2:Yes, very inclusive and has a real passion for it, a real focus. He was very intent on talking about all the different ways that this could happen, but, yeah, I love that passion to include everyone and have them have this great benefit. So my first takeaway is what a planner he is and how he both planned his own success as an athlete. I loved his little story about how he wasn't beating one of his friends and then he larsed how his friend was on a team and, hey, I'm going to get on a team. He really plans and even within the USMS organization he worked within cycles and seasons short range planning, long range planning, having those goals. So I think that sometimes we forget we just maybe go running towards something without how we're going to get there, what it's going to look like, and I love that.
Speaker 3:I did too, and he is clearly very goal-oriented and competitive, as you said. I loved the way he talked about that in several different ways, about several different aspects of his life and then, just going from there, how he uses this time. He mentioned that he had 11-year-old twins and the time is always going to be wild and crazy, but he mentioned and I love this that he blocks out time for planning. I've been talking with actually my own family about this. Time is like money, and if you don't decide in advance what you're going to spend your time on, you're just going to be willy-nilly all over the place, whoever tugs at your sleep. So I love that he blocks. That's. A great takeaway for me is make sure every week, you block out time for planning so that you can keep moving towards your goals.
Speaker 2:Time management Love it.
Speaker 4:Very important.
Speaker 2:And I learned that through swimming time management. My last takeaway of the two is that he really values people and relationships. So when you asked him what he's most proud of, he said his staff, that it's very important for him to work with people. We didn't even have time to get into his partnership with the USA Swimming Foundation and all that he's partnering with there, but he has a relationship and everything we want or need comes through another person and I think it's great to remind ourselves of that and he values that. Yeah, I love that too. The relationships Yep, relationships, or everything. Thank you so much, maria, for being on this journey, as always. Love you. I love you too, kelly. Bye-bye.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Champions Mojo podcast. Did you enjoy the show? We'd be grateful if you would leave us a five-star review on iTunes to help others find us, and we'd also love to hear from you, or on all social media platforms, or you can reach us at championsmojocom.