Wreck Diving On A Sunken Boat Wreck – And How It Helped My Business

It was a beautiful, clear morning as we pulled away from the marina in Clearwater, Florida.

There were at least 10 of us on board. We had met out there at the marina in order to go offshore about 20 miles and go diving.

I arrived with my big pile of diving gear that I bought for myself after I completed my certification. A brand new BC, regulator with auxiliary (often called “the octupus” as a slang), even a dive computer.

I didn’t really know where we were going, exactly. I was going with some people from my diving group as well as the instructor. I knew it I would get wet…and that’s about all I knew.

After a long ride and some definite anticipation, we arrived on the site. There were a few boats around, but we were out of sight of land. There was a big mooring ball out there which was the marker for what was below – a boat wreck.

It was in about 80 feet of water – out in the Gulf of Mexico. It was a little out of my comfort zone at the time. I was a new diver. I was ready for the experience, though, and I had the support of the group.

I Took The Punge

So, I put on my gear as did everybody else. I had to remember to connect the SCUBA gear up correctly. Weights? Check. Air flow? Check. Adequate air pressure? Check. Spit in the mask… a little trick to keep it from fogging up.

Then, one by one, we jumped overboard. All the weight of the SCUBA gear instantly lightened up.

Now, here is where that group support came in handy again…

Confronting My Fear

It was 80 feet of water and I couldn’t see the bottom. There was a time – before my certification – where that would have totally freaked me out. It is a fear I had since childhood. Deep water where I couldn’t see the bottom – UUGHH.

Even more freak out…. the anchor line of the boat simply went into the green darkness downward and disappeared.

So, we made our way downward by going hand-over-hand down the anchor line…

Down to a sunken tug boat. And it was cool as hell. The water down there was actually pretty clear. We dove into the wreck a bit. I even visited the bridge. An amazing amount of life had grown on the boat. It had turned into an artificial reef, in a way.

VERY COOL.

After the dive, we all chilled out on the boat. To wash the salt water taste from the mouth, I of course had a beer. Good times.

There was a great comradery on the boat on the way back. Just really fun times.

So, What’s The Business Lesson In This?

I would never have had the cajones to do a wreck dive were it not for the group I was with. Even though many of them felt the same, we backed each other up. We encouraged each other.

It isn’t that a wreck dive is a weird or dangerous thing, but it was for me. I had a little bit of my old childhood fear of deep water still in me and I had to get over it.

It is very much the same in business. Surrounding yourself with like-minded people is a powerful thing. They can back you up and act as mental support. They can help you see things that you may not see for yourself.

And with the group, you find that you are more willing to confront things than maybe you wouldn’t be if you were alone.

Online business can be a lonely business, by its nature. Plus, I can’t possibly keep up with everything. So, mastermind groups and coaching can be invaluable. We bounce ideas off each other, give fresh viewpoints on each other’s businesses, etc.

Trying to expand your business to the next level can sometimes feel about the same as diving into deep water where you can’t see the bottom. You don’t know what’s ahead… but you follow the line and see where it leads. And it is best done with others.

So, I encourage you to get involved with like-minded peer groups. Put together a mastermind group. Or consider just having somebody else to bounce ideas off of.

I’m not here to sell you some expensive mastermind or a group coaching like many “gurus” do. But, I do offer strategy calls.

In almost all cases, those strategy calls are more for people to bounce ideas, get feedback, handle some little confusions or indecisions.

The good news, too, is if that’s something you might be interested in doing, I keep it super simple and affordable. Service credits are used for those calls. Nice and easy. Then, you book and we hop on a Zoom session.

In diving, you never dive without a dive buddy. Why try to embark into business waters alone? Use the buddy system.

Tech Talk

HTTP Archive published their annual state of the web report, and the section on WordPress is interesting. WordPress is the most commonly used CMS on the internet. Almost 3 out of 4 websites that use a CMS of any kind are using WordPress. Wow.WP Mayor has posted a great opinion piece about deceptive marketing in the WordPress space. I found it rather funny that their first screenshot contains mostly products owned and marketed by Awesome Motive. This is the company behind OptinMonster, WP Forms, MonsterInsights, Trustpulse and many other popular products. And while Syed (the company founder) is an old acquaintance of mine and a really nice dude, I have never been a fan of their methods. Those methods are to offer time-based discounts which are... .fake. Just straight-up fake deadlines that constantly keep bumping out their "expiration date". They have also acquired several plugins and proceed to ruin them by over-commercializing them with aggressive marketing.This company also owns WP Beginner. Great site, but I think the authenticity of their recommendations has been ruined because every piece is just an SEO job to promote one of their own products. And most of the time, they don't disclose that the product is their's.But, the piece wasn't by any means a hit piece on one company. They proceeded to point out the weird intro-pricing on so many popular web hosts that lure you in with low pricing, but then the annual renewals are significantly higher. Or how most hosting recommendations are driven purely by affiliate commissions and not by which company is actually the best fit for the reader. Or how some companies actually change the WordPress dashboard with their own plugin in order to promote their stuff inside of WordPress itself.It goes on. And frankly, this is something I may write about myself. Because it bugs me. And it does mess up the WordPress space.