Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
Bringing Together Local Businesses & Neighbors of Cooper City
Good Neighbor Podcast: Cooper City
EP #274: Angelique and Tim Gaither with AquaCerts
Discover the transformative journey of Angelique and Tim Gaither on this episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast, where you'll learn how a pair of high school lifeguards evolved into the entrepreneurial powerhouse behind AquaCerts. Tune in to hear how they are tackling the post-COVID shortage of lifeguards and swim instructors by providing crucial CPR and first aid certifications to various organizations such as gyms, martial arts centers, and summer camps. The Gaithers bring a wealth of experience in ocean rescue and pool management to the table, sharing unique insights into the challenges they face, including running training sessions amidst Florida's unpredictable weather while holding down full-time jobs.
Angelique and Tim also open up about their lives outside of work, discussing the joy and hurdles of parenting, particularly the adjustments required when welcoming a new baby. They share their love for water activities, jiu-jitsu, and CrossFit, explaining how these pursuits help them stay grounded and connected to their community. The couple highlights their personalized approach to CPR and first aid training, emphasizing the importance of tailored instruction and risk management. Learn how AquaCerts is making a significant impact and find out how you can benefit from their expertise. Don't miss this engaging and informative conversation!
Call: (954) 951-9056
Visit: https://aquacerts.com/
Follow: https://www.instagram.com/aquacerts
Like: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61559594034089
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Jeremy Wolf.
Speaker 2:Hello, hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. I am your host, jeremy Wolf, and today I'm joined by a husband and wife team. We have Angelique and Tim Gaither with AquaCerts Guys, thanks for coming on the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much for having us, thank you.
Speaker 2:It's our pleasure, and thanks as always to our listeners for tuning in. So why don't we start off from the top? Tell us a little bit about what you guys do at AquaCerts.
Speaker 4:So at Aqua AquaSorts we provide basic CPR certifications, first aid, anything that you would need kind of to get into, like the lifeguard space or swim lessons. Pretty much, that's it. We have a history of lifeguarding. We've lifeguarded for several years on ocean rescue departments and with local pools, and we found that after COVID there was a severe lack of just lifeguards and swim instructors in general, and one of the barriers to entry that we found was people just couldn't get the classes. So with our experience we decided to open up a company because we had a lot of people asking us. And here we are AquaSource.
Speaker 2:Nice. So when did you guys open AquaSource?
Speaker 4:Beginning of this year.
Speaker 2:Ah, new venture. Well, congratulations, thank you. Always nice to get a new venture, a new business, off the ground. So you both have a background in lifeguarding and certifications and things like that. Talk a little bit about your journey leading up. Dig a little bit deeper into the background and how you ultimately took the leap to start this company.
Speaker 3:Well, I used to swim in high school, okay, and so my goal after high school was to join the Coast Guard. So I became a lifeguard in attempts to prepare myself and I fell in love with the pool lifeguarding. And then I found out that ocean rescue was a thing. So I trained, worked out at a couple beaches, then I went to EMT school, worked out at a couple beaches, then I went to EMT school and then I went back to the pool on a higher level, so more management level type, where I began certifying and gaining my certifications to be able to certify others. And then, I don't know, I fell in love with that part of my job, so we decided to move forward.
Speaker 2:Now, did you both meet through this work? Were you also Tim? Were you also involved with lifeguarding and all that back? Is that how you guys came together initially?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I started off as a lifeguard in high school, lifeguarded through college, got my EMT in paramedic, worked as a paramedic in an emergency room for a few years, wanted to see daylight again because I worked at night. A friend of mine was like hey, let's get jobs at the beach. So I joined. I started working at a local pool, started training for the ocean rescue tests, got the ocean rescue tests, became a USLA training officer and whenever people would come to the beach with aspirations of being lifeguard, my chief was like hey, go work with this person, let's see if we can get them to pass the test. That's where I originally met Angelique a couple of years ago. Moved to work for a nonprofit, became an aquatics director at a large facility. Again, this was right after COVID, so they did not have enough lifeguards to be able to staff all of their pools. So I jumped primarily into like a heavy training role. I got my lifeguard instructor trainer, which is something I spent like a decade chasing. I didn't realize until I got to that position like I needed that as a prerequisite to be able to get to the course, made a bunch of different lifeguards.
Speaker 4:I love teaching. It's kind of like a passion that I have, and this was one of those things that if you love what you do, you're not really working. You know what I mean. So it was nice to make money doing that. But again being in that space, a lot of different people asked us like along the side, like hey, can you do this or can you run these types of classes? I recently transitioned away from that role and back to Ocean Rescue because it's again I wanted to work in the sun and be more active and things like that. But still a lot of people know our names when it comes to training, just because over the years we've trained so many different people. So when the recertifications come, or when did you get your class, a lot of word of mouth stuff came. So having our own business just kind of made sense.
Speaker 2:Very cool. So walk me through, if you could, just to help me understand, because I wasn't like. I've interviewed a lot of people on this show that are in industries that I'm completely unfamiliar with. Obviously, there's what you guys do certifying. Help me understand what your ideal audience is, who your ideal clients are and what exactly it is that you do on a day to day basis through AquaShirt it is that you do like on a day-to-day basis for through aqua shirt.
Speaker 4:So through aqua shirts, right now we are primarily doing cpr certifications because, again, there's a big barrier when you're doing lifeguard classes. There's a lot of insurance. You need a pool space to do it florida florida is notoriously thunderstorm prone so it's hard to run classes. We do have full-time jobs outside of this. So right now we are working with a lot of different gyms to get first aid and CPR certified. So CrossFit gyms, martial arts gyms, summer camps that are coming up. We kind of follow when Florida has its peak season for tourism. We have, or are expecting like a busy season right before. So if you hire anyone from 16 all the way up until as long as you can work, you need a CPR certification. We can help you with that. So a lot of the different summer camps that come by, if they're going to have, let's say, 50 kids, they're going to need at least five instructors or like staff members to be with those children, and a lot of places want them to be first aid and CPR certified.
Speaker 2:Now you mentioned you both have jobs outside this business. Is the ultimate goal with this business to do it full time, or is this just a? It is Okay, so that's all right. So, going back to when you started, you said the beginning of this year, what was maybe one of the biggest challenges or obstacles that you faced in launching this new business?
Speaker 3:We had a baby in February.
Speaker 2:That'll throw you for a loop.
Speaker 3:Yeah, by the time we were ready to get started again, we had kind of missed our window to train people before the summer started, before the summer camps took off or before everyone was already trained. So we missed our window there. So we're trying to use now advertising getting ready for winter break, spring break, summer break, all over again. But yes, we took a little break as we opened.
Speaker 4:Yeah, the other major hurdle was becoming a licensed training center. So you have to meet a lot of different requirements in order for you to be a training center. It would be easy. So a lot of CPR businesses will find a large training center and will go underneath their umbrella but when you pump out the certifications and things like that complete the classes, at the end of it it'll say that training center. It wouldn't say Aqua Certs, so being able to do the legwork now. So that way when we do our trainings people can look back at the certifications like, hey, who trained me? It says Aqua Certs right there. So it doesn't say you know, josh, moe, cpr or something else like that. So that way the business comes back to us.
Speaker 4:Ideally this type of business takes three to five years to be able to start seeing like true returns because you need to have the repeat clients. A lot of our certifications expire every two years CPR, first aid and anything in the medical field. A lot of those certifications and licensures expire every two years because they're constantly updating with new science, new material, new techniques. So also it's kind of one of those if you don't use it, you lose it. And how many times is the person performing major first aid or CPR or anything else like that. And so when you start getting more and more people coming back and you build a name for yourself, then you know three or five years you start seeing a little bit more return.
Speaker 2:Got it. So on the other side of that, obviously anytime you start a new business, there's a bunch of obstacles and challenges. What's been one of the most rewarding things in getting this thing off the ground for you guys?
Speaker 4:Honestly, seeing people get it like that's teaching in itself is a noble pursuit. So being able to teach for ourselves and being able to make our schedule it it helps that we're both qualified to teach all the classes, especially having a new family. So if you know a class comes up and a gym needs, uh, you know, six or seven people done, it's like okay, well, let's look at our schedule. Can you teach it? Can I teach it? How does it work out? Um, and having that flexibility and being able to work as a team, um, is really nice.
Speaker 2:I've seen, you know, seen some people have some friction between their team members and we don't have that, so it's really nice being able to work with the person I love. Very cool. So you mentioned you had a baby earlier this year. Was that your first child? I'm guessing yes. The rollercoaster I got a 10-year-old and a 12-year-old, so strap in, it's a wild ride.
Speaker 4:Do you sleep?
Speaker 2:now oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, eventually.
Speaker 4:Eventually, we'll be able to sleep.
Speaker 2:That's going to be great, yeah, no, as soon as you're able to finally sleep, you'll end up having another one and they start all over again.
Speaker 1:And then you'll go through it.
Speaker 2:So it sounds like you're really busy. You got your hands full, but do you got any free time? What do you like to do for fun when you're not working, when you're not taking care of the baby?
Speaker 4:We're water people, man. There's surfboards on the wall right behind the screen. We free dive, scuba dive, go to the beach, teach our little kid how to blow bubbles. We are water people through and through. Oh jiu-jitsu.
Speaker 3:CrossFit, which is how we got into the gym stuff, realizing that there was a need for those kinds of people to get certified for the classes, and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:You both do jiu-jitsu.
Speaker 3:No, after the baby I stopped. I stopped once I got pregnant.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess that kind of makes sense right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's primarily my sport. I wrestled in high school and into college and I found jujitsu. Maybe about four years ago. I was like, oh man, this is great, I miss this.
Speaker 2:I had someone on the podcast I can't remember. Off the top of my head he's a, I think, eddie Bravo accolade. You know, I think 10th level Miami, his name, his name escapes me. I had him on the podcast. We were talking about jujitsu and how incredibly powerful it is in so many ways. It's something that I always wanted to try and I still I've still yet to do it. I told him when he was on the podcast I was going to come by and try it and I still haven't haven't done it. But I I keep getting reminded of it and I will. I will check it out for sure.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean hydrate stretch. Prepare to be humbled. Um, but as much as vigorous as it'll be. You'll find really good friends and really good people there. Everyone just goes through something in life and that's what they're out there For sure.
Speaker 2:What? What would be the one thing that you'd like our listeners to know about Aqua Certs?
Speaker 4:We will come to you, okay. Yeah, that's going to be one of the biggest things, because a lot of places they have like brick and mortar storefronts and you've got to come to them and they want to pumping out classes on a different schedule. Ideally, we're tailored to what it is that you need gyms, martial arts gyms, a lot of just people who find out that they need their people to be certified and like hey, how can we get this done? A lot of different companies. You'll go and you'll pay an online class at a certain fee. Then you'll have to pay another fee to be able to have the instructor come out and then you only see the instructor for like an hour or so while they do your skills check. We can offer online classes, but have found that people retain the information and actually learn it a lot better through in-person instruction.
Speaker 4:So, instead of having is there a baby? Instead of having to do that route, we will come to you and not only teach you the CPR and the first aid, but we'll walk through your facility and kind of do like a little bit of like risk management, like hey, these are some things that you should think about. If you do have an AED. Where's your AED placed? Where's the best place to put your first aid equipment? What type of first aid equipment do you really need? Cause you can go on Amazon and you can spend $200 buying a big old kit. But let's say you know you're at a CrossFit gym. It's like, hey, you're going to need a Sam splint or you're going to need some elastic bandages, cause we're going to have to work more on splinting than we are going to have to do other things like that. So kind of figuring out what your company needs or what your business needs and tailoring our class towards that. We're still going to teach you all of the material because we have to. It's by standard, but these are some extra things to look out for at your facility.
Speaker 2:How can our listeners learn more? For anybody out there that's listening, that would like to go through the certification or would like to learn more, how could they reach you guys?
Speaker 3:Well, we have a website up, so it's aquasearchcom. You can find more information there. Our email, our contact information reach out to us. Let us know what you're looking for, when, how many people, and we're pretty quick about getting back to you.
Speaker 4:Yeah, just fill out the contact card and we'll get back out to you and figure out what exactly it is that you need.
Speaker 2:Very cool. We will, of course, drop a link in the description below to all of your contact information. Guys, thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 4:No thanks for the opportunity.
Speaker 2:No, it's our pleasure, and thanks as always to our listeners for tuning in, and we will catch everyone next time on the next episode of the good neighbor podcast. Everyone, take care, have a wonderful day, goodbye bye.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the good neighbor podcast cooper city. To nominate your favorite local business to be featured on the show, go to gnpcoopercitycom. That's gnpcoopercitycom, or call 954-231-3170.