Jennifer Idol; Unveiling Her Underwater Photography Secrets! .

Absolutely, and you touched on something that's interesting, and I think it's kind of on the mind of a lot of the divers coming up to the industry is, we live a more modest lifestyle. I think they look at us and see this almost fame and fortune glamorous lifestyle, but the fact of the matter is, to live this lifestyle, it's a harder dollar. You put a lot more time in, especially as an entrepreneur. It's not a nine to five. It's ten hours. Can you talk to us a little bit about that? It's 365 days a year. When I have a vacation day, I'm still responding to client messages. When I'm overseas, I'm hopping on Wi-Fi while I'm on a project trying to deal with other things that happen. I manage websites. I'll have a client who's like, oh, something happened to my website, and then I have to go in and fix it remotely. There's also a physical toll. If you're sick, you're still working. I'm fighting a sinus infection from my last trip. You have the whole travel immune system thing that happens. It's an investment, and we do it because we love it. We talked earlier on about conservation, that I'm purposeful in the things that I introduce in my life. Most of my belongings are my equipment. The rest of it, I don't know what people own, but I own my dive equipment. I own my cameras. I had a neighbor. I have this bucket I use to rinse my dive gear. I bought it from Big Lots 20 years ago. It said $3.99. It's a giant bucket. It's awesome. She had to borrow it because they had no water in their house. We filled up my bucket, and she goes, ooh, I want a bucket like this. Where can I get it? I was like, well, I got it 20 years ago. She's like, you have something in your house from 20 years ago? I was like, I have older stuff than that. I get something so I don't have to keep getting new things. I'd say it's accumulative. There's sacrifices you make. I have another friend who she just wants to do everything in life. When you want to do everything, you don't do as much deeply. She wants to, say, be an author, but she plays video games. I'm like, I don't play video games. I don't watch TV. People are constantly asking me. There are certain recreational activities. My friends are near and dear to me, are few. Over the years, you have people that you talk with, but the social connections change. I have friends like you or Alex, and we don't get to connect. It's not like we're there every day as a tight friend group. We're part of a tribe. We're part of a community, but it can feel very isolating at times. Your friends over time, the ones that want to go to the party or the pub or just do whatever, you don't have time to be doing any of that. You're going diving. You're prepping for your next dive. You're doing home repairs. Something broke. You're recocking a sink. Life happens. The car needs maintenance, too. I'm on my second vehicle for diving. Technically, my third. The first two, they yelled for help when they were done. I get it completely. You've got a series called Protected Waters. Talk to me about that. I've seen the videos, and I love them. Absolutely love them. Talk to us about that. I started out of the 50-state journey in talking with Alex over COVID. Really before COVID, she just knew I was doing this weird freshwater thing and cold water stuff. Her history as a photographer has largely been in exotic. We call it exotic, but if you think about it in Asia, that's their local waters. She's always working, say, in Asia or the Coral Triangle or in the Philippines and what we would consider exotic and the most rich underwater tropical life possible. Whereas I've been humping it in sand-filled quarries with toilets and artificial exhibits, things that are meaningful to local divers here, but I also had found some of these natural resources like the spires at Yellowstone. That inspired us to collaborate on our first film, which was Protected Waters Exploring Yellowstone, to showcase the world's first national park. After Yellowstone was created, the world realized there was benefit in having national parks, both economically to governments and to protecting these precious resources. But it's true. But anyway, so we started with the first national park and then we had plans to do Glacier, the second national park, as our next video, and COVID really happened. So then we juked and we did the Laguna Matre, which was a hypersaline lagoon. So in this year's Protected Waters episode, we're also explaining what it means to be a protected water and what that means beyond a national park or a national sanctuary. Like, what are protected waters and what do those protections mean in local places? Because people don't realize the regulations are in place to protect commerce and industry as well. And I know fishing culture, some of the fishing culture in particular, understands that if we overharvest, we're ruining our future crops. And some of it goes, well, it's going to be overharvested anyway, so we should take it out because their economy depends on it. So there are different uses that are allowed of land and waters depending on the level of protection it has. And we're going to explore some of that as we talk about the leopard shark migration in California. So it's a passion project and we do hope to find a broadcasting home for it at some point. Now, you won some awards for your Yellowstone one, didn't you? We did. We won some film awards for that. Now, how would we go see your Protected Waters series? Where can we go to find the videos? They're on YouTube. Excellent. Excellent. I've seen them and I love them and I encourage everybody. And I'll make sure to put a link to those in the comments section of this as well. So, Jennifer, what do you see as the biggest challenge facing the dive industry in the coming years? People getting outdoors and loving the underwater life. That's one of the things I love about Avelo is because it's fun and cool and it's easier to do. I think scuba diving has a perception that it's cumbersome and expensive and hard. And that's a barrier to entry for new divers and for growth in the industry. I would love for more people to be connected underwater. And I feel like as a population as a whole, we've become more digital and less outdoors. Although the numbers don't show that like in our national parks, people are going for certain uses of outdoor facilities. I think people love to be connected to nature. I think it's important to our psyche and our health and our mental health and physical well-being as a species to be outside. So I just I'd love to see growth in the industry and see people rekindle their love for either whatever subject interests you. Personally, I love the animals and the habitats, but wrecks, caves, different environments have their charms. So whatever is near you or around you, I'd love to see people get connected. Overcome their uncomfort with cold water too. Absolutely. You and I both are deep into cold water diving and love it because there's so many different things you see. And people are always surprised when I tell them, they say, ask me what my favorite dive site is. Yellowstone Lake by far. I love Yellowstone. There's a special connection in the national park and dive in that cold water. And, you know, you and I both know you start out in June at 33 degrees and you eventually warm up to a brisk 50 degrees. Which is awesome. Oh, absolutely. You pray for those days. The 33 degrees definitely, you know, an hour and a half at 33 degrees definitely wears on you. That's for sure. But it's amazing. There's a special connection. So I agree. Thank you. So can you share any exciting projects or initiatives that Diveavelo has in the works and how they're going to be benefiting the dive community as a whole? We're hoping to make diving accessible for more people. We're hoping that people will find it a great entry point to rekindle their love for going underwater. You know, it's been a while since Jacques Cousteau brought everyone underwater commercially as a recreational industry. And we're hoping that Avelo kind of reconnects people kind of like, you know, snowboarding to skiing. You know, so we're hoping that the people really get into it and see that we're a welcoming, friendly community of people who want to share our underwater experiences. Right now, Avelo is publicly available in Maui. So you can earn your specialty certification to learn how to dive the equipment as an existing diver. So you do need to be open water certified at this point to use the system. We see that as an impetus for people to learn scuba and then come learn Avelo at this point in time. But we're opening a couple of more of our Avelo dive centers this year. We will be announcing those at DEMA and other partnerships. DEMA has sort of been where we tell people what our next steps are. And right now, we're building all of the materials for that dive show to tell people. But right now, it's available on Maui, either on boat dives or shore dives. You know, you learn through Dive with Harmony, our first Avelo dive center. And then you're off and running in Maui with more locations to come. So I'd say the biggest thing in Avelo right now is making it accessible to everybody and giving them more destinations where they can experience this system. Because the people who get on it then just get mad that they had to learn scuba. They're like, this is awesome. So they really just they want more. And we're hoping to give them that this year. That's amazing. So what do you have in the works initiatives that are coming up for Jennifer? Well, between Avelo and protected waters and leading big fish expeditions, those are kind of my big three. I certainly have my dreams that I'm working toward. And the way I'm hoping to get there is by telling meaningful stories that connect with people about our underwater habitats. So that certainly leads me, hopefully, in the direction that people resonate with. I'm not a bucket lister, although the 50 state tour may have led people to believe, you know, I've had so many like, are you going to do all the provinces in Canada or, you know, all of Mexico or, you know, all the countries in the world? No, that's not the kind of bucket listing. But it is nice to be understood as somebody who celebrates the underwater world through what I like to think of as really high end image making. That's fantastic. And I have met other people along the along the way that have mentioned, hey, I found this book about diving all 50 states. I'm trying to do it, too. And I was like, I know that gal. She's amazing. You should absolutely do that. So I'm very excited. You've you've got a lot on your plate already. So, you know, asking what more is out there. So how do we sign up for an expedition with Jennifer? I leave my expeditions, my public expeditions through big fish expeditions. So if you want to sign up for a trip, that's where I'm leading public trips. Some of my other partnerships, like working with you or Alex, those are kind of personal connections and I'm open to meaningful projects. But I am being more particular about where I'm going and what I'm doing, because there is a limit to the time and energy to create quality work. So I did quit my column. I was doing a column for scuba diving magazine for three, four years. And I quit that because I was just I was tired of hopping from weekend trip to weekend trip to weekend trip. So I'm trying to tell longer stories where I can be in a place for at least two weeks at a time. That's amazing. So the final piece is what advice would you give somebody interested in pursuing a career in photography, underwater videography or marketing within the dive industry? Become expert in photography or marketing or whatever aspect you want to bring to the underwater world. Be a scuba diver and practice what you're doing. Don't give your work away for free. Add value to your work. If you're wanting to get experience and show people what you're doing, show people what you want to show, not the work that they're asking you to do, because that doesn't always get you further. I mean, if I gave away my work for free, everyone would be like, could you come shoot on this boat or this boat or this boat? And then I can't pay bills and I can't stay in it. And you're doing something else. I think that's key advice. We undervalue ourselves way too often. Don't give your work away for free. You've taken a long time to develop and figure it out. Charge it appropriate value so you can, as you said, grow and continue to expand within that industry. And if people aren't wanting to buy your work the way it is, package it differently. So be that photography or videography or being an instructor, just keep learning and reinventing yourself. Keep at it. Absolutely. Keep at it. And eventually, I think most people don't realize the becoming portion. I'm quite sure that it took you a while to get from where you were at as a 14-year-old diver to where you're at currently. And even your 50 state tour was five years. That's a commitment to get from point A to point B. So you have to take the time to get there as well. Not only just become an expert in it, but be patient with yourself. Celebrate the wins along the way. That is amazing. And I don't think we do that either nearly enough. Jennifer, I always love talking to you, and I can actually talk to you for hours and hours. And campfire stories are one of my favorites. So thank you so much for taking the time with us today and doing this and giving our audience this opportunity to meet you more closely. Thank you. I hope that people get something out of the presentation and that they fall in love with the underwater world in the same way that I know you and I and our colleagues do. It's an obsession. You know, you don't need bad habits when you're a diver because diving is your habit. Fair enough. Well, thank you so much. Thank you.