For our 50th episode of Child Safety Source, we’re interviewing Melissa Taylor of Small Fish Big Fish Swim School.
In each Child Safety Source episode, Life Saver Pool Fence’s president, Eric Lupton, interviews experts who dedicate their lives to helping keep our children safe. Today’s guest fits this description perfectly.
Swimming Safety with Melissa Taylor
Today’s guest, Melissa Taylor, is the founder of Small Fish Big Fish Swim School.
From an early age, Melissa quickly developed an obsession with swimming. After a successful professional career, she decided to leave her job to pursue her dream of opening a school that provides swimming lessons. As you’ll soon learn, Melissa’s passion still drives her to this day. Today, her indoor swim facility has grown to serve over 600 students each week. It even boasts a staff of over 15 swim school professionals.
Melissa received a BA in Psychology from the University of Tampa; meanwhile, she swam competitively and funded part of her education through working in aquatics. She is also a Water Safety Instructor and Lifeguard Instructor, and was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the United States Swim School Association. She’s done all of this while raising two children and battling breast cancer.
Learn more about her story and philosophy in our full video interview:
Small Fish Big Fish Swim School
As you learned from the interview, Small Fish Big Fish Swim School has a highly trained staff. The mission of the school is to teach self-confidence, discipline and well-being through the lifelong sport of swimming. All of the school’s instructors are typically lifeguard-, CPR–, and first aid-certified. To this end, each instructor must complete a rigorous 40+ hour training program.
You can learn all about Small Fish Big Fish Swim School at its official website.
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Below is a direct transcript of the Child Safety Source interview with Melissa Taylor from October 29th, 2018:
Eric Lupton: Hey! We are live on the internet, just like that.
Melissa Taylor: Wow!
Eric: I know. It’s magic …
Melissa: It is!
Eric: That we can broadcast to dozens or thousands of people simultaneously.
Melissa: I hope they’re all watching.
Eric: All of them.
Melissa: They should be.
Eric: Yes, millions of people … or one day maybe right? It depends. See if you become the swim school empire that you’re dreaming of, people will go back to this. It would be like, “Oh, see that’s when she had … one school in West Palm.”
Melissa: I just want to make an impact. That’s it.
Eric: That’ll be the …
Melissa: Just like your company is making a huge impact.
Eric: Well thank you so much. [00:48 – Unclear] So I know that you started in a different direction, right? You went to the University in Tampa right over there.
Melissa: I did. Yes.
Eric: I went there once for … my friend’s band played at a soccer game, which was kind of weird.
Melissa: That’s right.
Eric: I went on their tour … They rented … because they got paid too much money for the gig. So they wanted to look like they’re a big band, so they rented a tour bus, and we all piled on the tour bus to make it look like they had fans and an entourage, because they got this huge check …
Melissa: It’s all staged.
Eric: Yeah. So they had enough money they can afford like this bus, and then we rolled over there, and … so my one experience with the University of Tampa is watching my friend’s band play at a soccer field. And it was cool though.
Melissa: Did you get to go inside it?
Eric: I just went to the soccer field.
Melissa: Oh.
Eric: Yeah. It was …
Melissa: The school is just gorgeous … all the minarets … I mean it’s amazing. Henry Plant brought in the railroads into Florida, and him and his wife they went and they decorated each room supposedly in a different theme, because it used to be a hotel I believe, and …
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: So much history there.
Eric: That’s really cool.
Melissa: It is really, really cool. Next time you’re in Tampa, you’ll want to go through …
Eric: Go check out the University of Tampa?
Melissa: Plant Hall …yeah. It’s a beautiful school, but I have not been back in a while…
Eric: So is Henry Plant different from Henry Flagler?
Melissa: Yes.
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: No. Henry Flagler …
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: I don’t know where I got … it’s called Plant Hall.
Eric: That’s what it is.
Melissa: So Henry Flagler.
Eric: Henry Flagler and Plant Hall.
Melissa: Yes. I’m sorry. Yes.
Eric: That’s okay. I thought maybe some other …
Melissa: Wow. Nope. Same exact …
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: Same exact … yes.
Eric: Same guy?
Melissa: Yes.
Eric: Fine. It is what it is.
Melissa: Sorry.
Eric: So you went there, obviously nothing to do with aquatics, right?
Melissa: Actually I did …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: I was on the swim team …
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: Over at University of Tampa. So, I started swimming competitively for Teaneck Swim Club when I was five years old. I did my swim lessons there, and learned to swim, and at five and a half I joined the swim team.
Eric: So nineteen years ago.
Melissa: Sounds good to me! Yes. Yes …
Eric: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah …
Melissa: Thank you.
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: Thank you. Just nineteen years ago.
Eric: Yes.
Melissa: Graduated at college and … nineteen ninety-nine, so yeah.
Eric: Yeah, yeah, yeah, right on … yeah.
Melissa: The math …
Eric: Perfect.
Melissa: Matches up.
Eric: Yes.
Melissa: So I joined the swim team, but it was summer, because I grew up in New Jersey, it was four miles outside New York City from George Washington bridge. So I was doing my competitive swimming in the summers only, and I made the private swim team, New Jersey Waves, and I had to drop out, because I was suffering with my grades in school, so I couldn’t swim again until I went to high school …
Eric: Hmm, hmm.
Melissa: But then in high school … we didn’t have a pool at our high school, so we went to another high school’s pool, but if it was snowing and the bus couldn’t drive there we couldn’t make it. If the other school had a swim meet, we couldn’t …
Eric: Got you.
Melissa: Practice. If the janitor wasn’t there, he couldn’t open the pool for us, and … so we didn’t have too much and swimming, even though we think of it as a summer sport, in high school we’re swimming in the winter time …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: And that’s different than Florida here.
Eric: Sure.
Melissa: So I was a walk-on swimmer to the University of Tampa.
Eric: So you’ve only used the pool in high school if the moon was aligned right …
Melissa: Yes.
Eric: And the season was good …
Melissa: Yes.
Eric: And it was exactly seventy-six point four degrees …
Melissa: Yep.
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: And the big thing with my instruction growing up …
Eric: Hmm. hmm.
Melissa: Then was … it was just like, “Kick faster! Harder! Harder!”, and breathe and just … it was all about our speed, but we forgot to focus on the technique and make sure we really knew what we are doing.
Eric: Hmm, hmm.
Melissa: So I wish I could go back, and I could have learned all the technique to make my stroke so much smoother, because I probably would have stayed a swimmer in college. I only swam for the first year …
Eric: Got you.
Melissa: Year and a half, and then like most college students …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: I needed a job, I need to make money …
Eric: Sure.
Melissa: And I was …
Eric: You had to go to college.
Melissa: Taking eighteen credits a semester …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Going to college. I managed somehow to graduate six months … or a semester early …
Eric: Oh, wow!
Melissa: So I could get married …
Eric: There you go. That’s awesome.
Melissa: And start working, and making money, and I was in the car business …
Eric: Sure. So what did you …
Melissa: For many years.
Eric: So you graduated with a degree in …?
Melissa: Psychology and criminology.
Eric: Okay. So what was your plan?
Melissa: I wanted to be an insurance fraud investigator.
Eric: That’s very specific.
Melissa: Yes.
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: Or a pharmaceutical rep.
Eric: Or a pharmaceutical … that was a very different …
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: And also very specific …
Melissa: Two very different … but I was told I needed it really for pharmaceuticals.
Eric: Hmm, hmm.
Melissa: I was told I needed it to have a lot more business to business experience. So I became a management trainee with Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: Great company, great training program that they put all their employees through, and they promote from within, which was a great concept.
Eric: So why didn’t you do insurance fraud investigation as glamorous as that sounds? I mean, I don’t know why you wouldn’t pick such an amazing life as insurance fraud investigation.
Melissa: I guess I just needed that little bit more passion, and …
Interviewer: I mean why wouldn’t you be passionate about it?
Melissa: And I wanted to …
Eric: It’s insurance fraud investigation.
Melissa: You know, it’s kind of interesting because people don’t realize … all the lightning strikes are recorded …
Eric: Okay. So people say lightening …
Melissa: So, lightening hit and now they’re putting a false claim in.
Eric: Right.
Melissa: So there’s ways of tracking it, and I think most people …
Eric: Now I need to cancel that email I wrote.
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: And again, we’re going back only nineteen years …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: So …
Eric: I’m sure it’s much …
Melissa: Who knows what the technology is?
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: But that was my immediate thought. That’s what I wanted to do.
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: But I had that great opportunity with Enterprise, and I worked at the Tampa airport doing their rental, and got promoted into their … resale of their used vehicles …
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: And I learned so much just about business, and people, and different personalities … from that experience. Again, I want it to do a little bit more, so I left Enterprise, I did automotive advertising for a little while. The company I was working for didn’t work out. They decided close their doors, and I went to a Bucks game that night. And the guy sitting with me in the club area…
Eric: Sure.
Melissa: That we were in, he owned the Jaguar dealership over in Tampa Bay …
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: So I said … he goes, “I don’t hire, I don’t fire …” Well, I think he fires but …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: “I don’t hire people, but come see us.” And so within next few days I walked in there, and I started selling Jaguars, and it was a great dealership because we … you didn’t have to … each salesperson did their own finance as well, so you didn’t have to go to the finance manager …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: So it was a great opportunity, but my husband moved over to West Palm … well to open a restaurant in Palm Beach, and so I left selling cars in Tampa and came over to West Palm, and worked for Palm Beach Motor Cars for many years, and until two thousand and eight when the recession hit, and I have two kids. I have a twelve-year-old and a ten-year-old, and so in the car business I … working commission only … it’s a little tough being a mom, but I … and give my kids all that attention.
But in two thousand and eight I left. No one was buying luxury automobiles, and so I decided to do private jet charters …
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: And then six months later, General Motors decided to fly private to Congress. So then …
Eric: Hmm.
Melissa: CEOs of companies didn’t want to be …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Flying private …
Eric: Because they had a bad …
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: Image.
Melissa: It … yeah, yeah. And …
Eric: I looked into it once.
Melissa: Huh?
Eric: I looked into it once.
Melissa: Flying Private?
Eric: Yeah. Doing the private jet charter thing. It was more than I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be more expensive … or I thought it was going to be cheaper than it was.
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: It’s an annual membership with the user. Not like you’ve got to just pay to get your foot in the door.
Melissa: Some of them, yeah …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: There’s all kinds of clubs …
Eric: Hmm, hmm.
Melissa: And then there’s some people … celebrities that could just do it, but …
Eric: Right. Yeah.
Melissa: Like, I can only dream. It’s okay. I think it’s a little excessive …
Interview: Yep.
Melissa: And that was just really … the thing was I was just doing luxury sales, and I said, “You know what? I need to really think about what I’m passionate about and what I want to do.” And I said, “You know what made me the happiest growing up was swimming.” And like … I was a walk on swimmer to the University of Tampa and coach said, ‘You got to keep your grades up. You could continue swimming, but your grades, you can’t let them drop …”
Eric: Right.
Melissa: “Anything below a B …”
Eric: Hmm. hmm.
Melissa: “Or you can’t continue swimming.” So that put me through college. It kept me … the discipline aspect of keeping up with my studies and everything, and not getting distracted. So I made sure that I was keeping up with everything.
Eric: Right. You had the inside drive to do it.
Melissa: Yeah. Yeah.
Eric: Hey Mike, can you like turn the music down?
Mike: Yeah.
Eric: Oh. Thanks.
Melissa: It’s starting to jam out here.
Eric: Right. I know. It’s pretty serious.
Melissa: Yeah. So I had to figure out what I wanted to do …
Eric: Hmm, hmm.
Melissa: With the rest of my life, and I said, “You know what, I’m going to just … I loved teaching swim lessons.” I used to work for a YMCA in New Jersey growing up, and I went to people’s backyard pools in Alpine, and I remember working with somebody that was blind, someone else that was deaf, some with special needs, some groups, some infants, and I said, “This was so rewarding, and I was really good at it.”
Eric: And it’s always fun to do things you’re good at, right?
Melissa: It is. It is. I’m just so lucky, because what I … I work nonstop. It doesn’t matter where I’m at. I might take my kids to a park. I can still pull up my laptop, and I can still work remotely …
Eric: Sure.
Melissa: I’ve got a great team, great staff right now that allows me to do that. But I’m always working, so I need to love what I do.
Eric: Right.
Melissa: And there’s nothing more than swimming, helping with water safety, and developing a passion, being able to pass on the passion and love of the sport of swimming.
Eric: So how did the swim school start?
Melissa: So when I decided to do swimming …
Eric: Was it right after the recession?
Melissa: And I went to the Red Cross … Yep.
Eric: Oh.
Melissa: In two thousand and nine is when I incorporated it.
Eric: So, great time to start a business right when the economy is still upset, which …
Melissa: Exactly. Exactly.
Eric: I mean, I know that hit us hard … we’ve been in business since nineteen eighty-seven, and yet two thousand and six at the time was our best year ever …
Melissa: Hmm, hmm.
Eric: And that was really on a high …
Melissa: That was my best year ever.
Eric: Yeah, we were doing a lot of advertising, and I brought in even more inventory than normal in two thousand and seven because I figured it’s going to just keep going …
Melissa: Hmm. hmm.
Eric: And everyone got kicked in the teeth pretty hard.
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: Well thankfully our sales have for three years in a row, for … throughout the recession, and thankfully we’ve come back much better than we were in two thousand and six, like we’ve blown past …
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: But we didn’t … in two thousand and six … But yeah …
Melissa: A lot of companies fell out.
Eric: A lot of our competitors don’t exist anymore.
Melissa: Yeah. And if you’re not constantly changing …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: Your business …
Eric: Hmm, hmm.
Melissa: Philosophy … well your business model …
Eric: Sure.
Melissa: To keep up with the times, you’re not going …
Eric: Well, actually …
Melissa: To be in business.
Eric: I worry about people who started their companies in two thousand and eight, and have been around him from two thousand and eight to now, because they’ve only known good economies. They’ve been growing for ten years and just think this is how it is …
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: I’m afraid that when it pops again, they’re going to be in trouble … that they’re going to …
Melissa: Well let’s hope it doesn’t.
Eric: Yeah. I think everything is a matter of time. But you decided to start a company in the recession.
Melissa: Yeah. But at that point, I wasn’t trying to … I have a great school …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Small Fish Big Fish, and I, it’s a community …
Eric: Sure.
Melissa: Within a community but at that point I was going backyard to backyard …
Eric: Hmm.
Melissa: Teaching … I didn’t even have a pool at my house. I didn’t want one with two young kids.
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Even with a pool fence I just … I know the dangers …
Eric: Hmm, hmm.
Melissa: Of the water, and I’d rather go to a destination, because as much as we supervise our children, they’re quick …
Eric: Sure.
Melissa: Especially toddlers …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: Especially if you’re a working mom, you’re busy, and …
Eric: You wouldn’t want … Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah. Yeah. So I did not want a pool at home.
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: So I was going to people’s homes or community pools and just teaching backyard lessons. And it took a toll on me. You walk in all these different pools and all different surfaces, and if you’re teaching a child how to float, you’re walking backwards which is an unnatural position. So every single year I got a stress fracture on my left foot.
Eric: Wow!
Melissa: Yeah. And it’s just because you wouldn’t normally walk on your toes and you’re walking backwards, so you’re using different muscles in the body …
Eric: Hmm, hmm.
Melissa: So it kind of started taking a toll on myself, and I wanted …
Eric: Is that kind of injury common in swim instruction?
Melissa: I don’t believe so …
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: I think it was just …
Eric: You’re just that lucky?
Melissa: Yeah, I’m just that lucky. I think it was just so many different pools …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: All day long, and thank Gosh I had the foresight, because I said to myself, “Well, what if something happens to me? What if I get sick? How am I going to continue?”
Eric: Right.
Melissa: And I also felt like I was doing some really great things and helping lots of children, but I wanted to do more. I wanted to leave more of an impact. So … and I also want to make sure I was insured. That’s one thing that a lot of small swim schools and mobile swim schools, they might not have liability insurance …
Eric: Sure.
Melissa: Which you always want to …
Eric: Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa: Make sure you’re protected.
Eric: We do.
Melissa: We do. Yeah.
Eric: Of course.
Melissa: I mean … we’re dealing with kids; we’re dealing with people’s lives …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: We have to be protected and insured. So I started looking for insurance and seeing how I can afford it all, and I contacted the United States Swim School Association, and I was able to get my liability insurance through them. And the president of the association at that time, his name was Jim Hazen, and he called me up and he says, “Are you coming to San Diego for the conference?” I’m like, “I don’t know if I can afford to.” He goes, “I don’t think you can afford not to!”
Sold! On a plane. I didn’t know anyone. I called up the association and said, “Give me a roommate. Is there somebody I could split a bill with and stay with?” And that way I meet some other people. I’ve never been to California ever before. And I went there and there was three hundred people. Just the most amazing, passionate people, and they inspired me to greatness. They continue to inspire me. Luckily enough I get to see lots of those same people two, three times a year at different conferences, and I’ve met the most amazing friends through it. And I got back from San Diego, and when I got a real estate attorney … a real estate agent …
Eric: Hmm, hmm.
Melissa: An attorney … made sure that I had everything set up. And I was just trying to see how I can build a pool. Could I put an above ground pool into a warehouse? Because that’s all I could do. I wasn’t trying to go to banks and find investors …
Eric: Right. Get the who thing …
Melissa: Yeah. I just wanted to teach swim lessons and have a bigger impact, and be able to help train other instructors …
Eric: Sure.
Melissa: So that they can leave an impact. I found with the building code and everything, it wasn’t able to do that, so it kept getting bigger and bigger, and my real estate agent found me a place right off the Turnpike. There was nothing in the warehouse, and I basically after a year and a half of negotiating, and looking, and researching, and traveling throughout the country and looking at other swim schools, I decided this is the right place, everything is lining up, and wheeled in those bulldozers, and we start it in chopping up the floor, and that was seven years ago.
Eric: And you dug a pool in a warehouse, right?
Melissa: Yep. Yep.
Eric: I’ve been there. It’s cool.
Melissa: Yeah. Yeah. But we didn’t just want to pull. I mean the biggest thing is we have to … because I want to make such an impact …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: I want to be able to have more people in the water. So I wanted to make sure that our turnover rate for our filters is double what’s required. Our pipes are double the size of what’s required …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: By the health department. That way that water’s very, very clean because … I mean, we teach little ones as young as two months old …
Eric: Wow!
Melissa: So keeping that water clean is …
Eric: Is important.
Melissa: So important …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Because you’re not going to have a business if …
Eric: Run it out.
Melissa: You’re going to smell chlorine all the time.
Eric: Sure.
Melissa: We have a UV system which is ninety-nine percent effective in killing the DNA molecules of Crypto …
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: Which is number two.
Eric: Got you.
Melissa: So because having young children in the pool, you …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: You have the risk of, what we’d say a ‘code brown’.
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: So we want that water clean and we want it healthy. Well we want to keep people healthy. We don’t want them to get a water-borne illness. So we made sure that we have all state of the art equipment. So if something isn’t optimal with our chemicals, which are twenty-four hours a day being fed in automatically, I get a text alert; two three people on my staff get a text alert. So if I need to show up at my place … I live eight miles away … at two in the morning, and adjust something, I can do it, or I can do it remotely, just to ensure the safety of everyone that’s entering our water.
Eric: And you built the pool differently, specifically for the lessons too right?
Melissa: Yeah. Yeah, we did. So after telling you my little experience with hurting my …
Eric: Your foot.
Melissa: Foot. Year, year after year, and I used to get little … well like blisters on the bottom of my toes …
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: Just your skin, you’re wet and you’re constantly walking …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: So basically before we filled the pool, everything, I went … every aspect of that pool, I was just going on my hands and knees and feeling if there was a rough spot, because I wanted it really smooth, because my staff is amazing, and I needed to make sure that they’re comfortable, because if they’re not comfortable, they’re not smiling …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: And if a child is not seeing a smile when they’re swimming, I don’t want them to develop any fear. I want it to be a fun in water learning experience …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: All positive reinforcement. So all those little details, I really got to work out and look into what’s the best practices? And built my school.
Eric: So what about the pool is different from normal pools besides the surface?
Melissa: The surface. Just even our floor …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Our decking around it, we went to the state of Florida; we got a variance.
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: water parks now. And it’s actually like floor, this material …
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: And we put our pool deck surface as that. So we have never had to give out a band aid because a child slipped and fell …
Eric: Oh, well.
Melissa: On our pool deck.
Eric: That’s cool.
Melissa: So if we have a lifeguard that’s watching an activity, we’re making sure they’re comfortable, and they can really focus on the pool, or the safety of the children; when they get out as quick as I want … my kids can move faster than my eyeballs …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Can sometimes. So just keeping up with them and making sure that they don’t slip and fall. I just … I looked at all those extra protection.
Eric: Hey! And we’re back! Mike’s phone died, so we’re going to … fifty lashings for Michael. But you were saying … so you didn’t want the kids to sit on the side?
Melissa: Yeah, I didn’t want the kids to sit on the side and waiting for turns …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: And I want them in a group lesson. But I believe that children need to have the opportunity to try …
Eric: Hmm, hmm.
Melissa: And do stuff for themselves. So … and they need to be in the water to be learning …
Eric: Sure.
Melissa: They need to be practicing their balance. So we have … we built our own, and we’ve bought a few of the swim platforms …
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: So the children are standing in the water, usually about chest deep, but they’re in the water. So a lot of people don’t know, but the center of buoyancy is right between your chest and your chin …
Eric: Well that make sense.
Melissa: And that’s where you need to be …
Eric: And that’s where all the air is. Yeah …
Melissa: Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So you need to be at that depth in the pool to really be able to feel it. So while the children are waiting turns, and they’re not waiting long, because our class sizes are small, our teachers are phenomenal, and they keep the kids moving. So they’re burning up energy, they’re increasing their heart rate, it’s physical education as well as I’m learning lifesaving skills.
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: So that’s cool.
Melissa: Yeah, so that’s one thing that we really pride ourselves on, is keeping those kids moving, keeping them learning, keeping it fun. We have all kinds of primary colors … infants don’t … they pretty much see like black and white, and then they start seeing colors. So that’s why we see a lot of baby toys that are those red, and blue, and bright, brighter colors, and we are able to engage all of those kids. And every two to three minutes we’re bringing out a different toy … like maybe one child is holding a ball, or a fish … this month it’s Halloween, so they’re holding a pumpkin …
Eric: Nice.
Melissa: But we take a little bit more of a Montessori approach …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: So we might be in the corner of the pool, and we might have a swim platform right next to the wall. So one child is standing on the platform; we’re saying, “Okay, swim over to the wall.” “Give Mister Pumpkin a tickle …”
Eric: Right.
Melissa: And then, “choo-choo train; chugga-chugga-choo-choo”, and kids are blowing bubbles while they’re doing it, and they’re learning how to safely walk around the pool using their hands. If they fell in we need them to turn right back to the wall, or turnover and float on their back, as lifesaving skills, so we are getting them going, or we may have … we may give them a little banana … and I’m talking … it’s like a fingernail, and they’ve got to go to the wall, putting it in the monkey’s mouth, and then they go back along the edge, and then they come right back to the platform. And they have to walk across the platform. We also teach adults how swim. First thing before we teach any adult, is we teach them to walk in the pool.
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: There’s no gravity …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: In water. We know gravity. We didn’t know it when we were first … when …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: We spent nine months and mom’s belly …
Interviewer: Right.
Melissa: But we come out and we learn gravity. So when the water there is none. So that can produce fear. So we need to take the time and make sure that the children or adults, any age, everybody has the basics … they know their balance, they know their breath control, they know how to move in the water. Yeah.
Eric: I can actually walk in the water.
Melissa: Of course you can.
Eric: Yeah. Right.
Melissa: I …
Eric: It’s kind of cool.
Melissa: It’s …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: I have the opportunity to work with so many people, and we have a handicap lift as well at our pool …
Eric: That’s cool.
Melissa: We have so many children and adults that come in for therapy, and can’t walk on land, but can walk in the pool.
Eric: Right.
Melissa: And can even be feeling pain out of the water because of gravity. But you get into that pool and you can move in so many positions and strengthen your muscles, it’s just … it’s amazing. And it’s just …
Eric: I don’t think I’ve ever had a doctor not recommended water therapy. I mean, it’s kind of universal across the board; everyone agrees.
Melissa: That’s the thing. The water is healing, and no matter how old you are, whether you’re two months old or you’re a hundred and two; only sport there is that you can do your entire life.
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: A lot of times we might have some children that might drop out of our program, because they’re going to go to football, and if they can’t swim we just want to let the parents know … no one has drowned on the football field or ballet lessons.
Eric: Right.
Melissa: But that’s why it’s so important to learn those safety skills, learn how to respect the water. One thing we do is we invite the children in for their lesson; they’re not allowed to enter the pool until we’ve invited them in. So at our school we work on that discipline aspect of it, and we take kind of that Montessori approach so that kids can self-direct themselves depending upon which toys they want to play with, what objects they like, and we gear and we customize the lessons to that child even though it’s a group session. So it’s really fun. It’s really awesome …
Eric: So you said … you talked about two months old, so what ages do you start at?
Melissa: We start at eight weeks …
Eric: Eight weeks.
Melissa: And you might see me on Facebook with children younger …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: I’m taking … I like to wait until they’re eight weeks, because typically they’ve had their fourteen-day checkup, they’ve had their one-month two-month checkup, they’ve gotten some of the basic shots, the doctors also knowing if there’s any type of respiratory issues. I always say …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: “Check with the doctor …” or, “I’m an aquatic educator, I’m a swim instructor …”
Eric: Right.
Melissa: “Listened to whatever your doctor says…”
Eric: You’re not also a physician … on the side?
Melissa: No, no. I’m not! I’m not an insurance fraud investigator. I’m not … Yeah.
Eric: Unfortunately, you missed out on an amazing life.
Melissa: I did. I did. It sounded really cool back then. I think it would still be interesting …
Eric: Yeah. That …
Melissa: I think it was like we had different people come in and talk about different types …
Eric: Hmm, hmm.
Melissa: Of careers …
Eric: I mean it is kind of like …
Melissa: That was really interesting.
Eric: Like being like a detective, but without having to deal with actual criminals. You’ve got to solve cases …
Melissa: Yeah. Yeah.
Eric: I get it. I see it.
Melissa: I want to be safer.
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: Yeah. Yeah.
Eric: Just in general.
Melissa: Yeah. Yes.
Eric: Insurance, water safety …
Melissa: Exactly.
Eric: All the way around?
Melissa: Yes.
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: Vehicles … doesn’t matter.
Eric: Vehicles … right.
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: You need vehicles [29:32 – Unintelligible] …
Melissa: Airbags. Yeah.
Eric: Airbags.
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. I have those.
Melissa: Yeah. So I really had that opportunity though. I’m so grateful that I took the time, made sure I met some of the awesome people throughout this country and world that are very successful in their swim schools, and really was able to take all those ideas and thoughts, and bring them back to my school, and take the time building it.
Eric: So what can you teach a two month old as far as water safety?
Melissa: Actually we call it brain development …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: and bonding classes.
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: We do have the parents in the pool …
Eric: Hmm, hmm.
Melissa: Because we want them to feel the love and most of the time it’s dads that are in the water with the children …
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: The mom maybe not want to get into the water right after giving birth …
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: But we do have a lot …
Eric: Sure.
Melissa: Which is phenomenal. But dads can’t wait to do sports with their kids! They want to throw a football, or a baseball, or play games, and so this is that physical opportunity to actually move within the water with their children. And we’re taking the children, and we are very zenful, we are going back and forth and just swaying them, letting the water run from their top of their head all the way down to their feet, and we are having the babies, we are crossing midline; crossing Meridians, and it’s actually helping … all that movement is helping connect the synapses in the brain …So there’s this great study out of Australia that children that participate in swim lessons do better in fine motor skills.
Eric: I heard that. Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah. Yeah. The [31:20 – Unintelligible] and they do better in fine motor skills, better in music, better in math, just because they’re using both hemispheres of their brain, and it’s all happening at a younger age.
Eric: Now it’s one thing … I think that should be part of the advertising or however you want to put it, about swim instruction in general. We all know you should do it to help the kid to save themselves if he or she ever has to in the event of an accident, but people …
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: Wrongly say, “Well I watch my kid. That’ll never happen to me.” But everyone wants their kid to be smarter right across the board.
Melissa: Yes.
Eric: Everyone wants their kids to be better in school.
Melissa: Yes.
Eric: They want them to live a better life and have their brain synapses fire a better, and …
Melissa: And swimming is the vehicle to do it!
Eric: And swimming does that.
Melissa: And it will help them when they’re young as well as when they’re old. It’s just so crucial. So our main thing is that they’re developing that passion, and that it’s a positive. It’s … nothing is traumatic during those lessons. We don’t even charge. That’s how important we think is. We do it free for under six months old. So two to six month olds. I was saying we don’t start earlier because the children’s … for their development, their head … they might not be holding their head up …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Right. So usually about seven eight weeks is when they get head control. So we’ve got a lot of first time parents and they … I don’t want them to accidentally be dropping their child in the pool …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: And having them swallow all this water and everything …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: So that’s why predominantly one of the reasons we wait till they’re eight weeks, as well as we want the umbilical cord completely dry …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: And off to prevent any type of infection. We want to make it as safe …
Eric: As it is possible.
Melissa: Yeah. Well safe.
Eric: Yes.
Melissa: Yeah. Yeah. And that’s just the basics of what we need to do. If the parents are comfortable with it, we will have those children start experiencing breath control. One of the ways that I introduce breath control … well we are born with reflexes …
Eric: Hmm. hmm.
Melissa: When we’re in the womb we’re not swallowing …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: So we are born coming from water. So if we are going back right into it, we have what’s called the dive reflex. The children will automatically hold their breath when put under. But we always go to a second layer as well and …
Eric: So what age it is that the dive reflex go away by the way? Doesn’t it wear out at a certain age?
Melissa: Yeah, and every child is different …
Eric: Like a year or eighteen months; something like that?
Melissa: Yeah. But I see it in two and a half year olds …
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: As well. So when we put them under … when the child holds their breath … if I took a washcloth and I put right over child’s face, you’re going to see them … their eyes going to go like this, and they’re going to start pumping their legs and moving their arms, just like they would do when they are swimming …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: So the parents get really excited, but their children is doing all this movement. But they don’t realize that’s a reflex. We are born to be able to do that …
Eric: Born to swim?
Melissa: Yeah. We are.
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah. So I explain the breath control part to the parents. I ask all … because I want them to feel it. I need the parents to understand it, if we’re going to be putting their infants under water. So I ask them to turn their head to the side …
Eric: Hmm, hmm. I’ll do it.
Melissa: And try to swallow. It’s a little hard. And then I ask them to turn their chin to their chest and swallow; it’s really difficult.
Eric: And they’ll just refuse to swallow it?
Melissa: What’s the first thing you would …?
Eric: That was like, “No I’m okay.”
Melissa: What’s the first thing you’d have to do if you had to do CPR?
Eric: You’d tilt your head back.
Melissa: You would open up …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: The airway.
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: So as we’re teaching breath control, we’re relying on that dive reflex, but we’re also going secondary and we’re saying, “Okay, we’re going to have for that second too that they’re going to go under water gently. We’re going to have them not swallowing water, because we’re going to put them in a position under where that airway is actually being closed.” So we’re either going to go one, two, three, nice and soft. We take them under, and then they come up and they face their parents. And they see their eyeballs. Babies interact with their moms or dads. They look for … you could tell your baby whatever; they’re not understanding at two to six months of age. But they can communicate with their parents through their eyeballs. They learn. They know if their parents are scared or not …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: And I do … we work with fearful parents. I say, “Mom, dad, keep your eyeballs in!”
Eric: Yeah, yeah.
Melissa: I want that to be a fun and mortar learning experience. So they come up and they see their parents and their parents smile, and babies are born to please, and they’re born without fear. So we’re work … So the younger that children start, the better. So they’re seeing mom and dad, and they’re smiling, and guess what? At three, four months of age, those kids are smiling; you start to go, “Pfff”, and you like … blow a raspberry, the kids will start imitating at five and six years of age. So if you’re doing that smile, the child’s going to do it, and then we bring them in for a hug, they can … it’s a bonding experience. I mean, there’s all this research out there. Children that don’t get physical touch can grow up with neurological problems …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Later. So we just take all that child psychology right into our lessons, right into our curriculum, and there’s many schools out there across the country that are doing things like this, but just making sure that we take the time and they’ve got proper breath control, before we have them ever fall face down … well feet first into a pool or anything like that. So we either put them under like this, or to the side.
Eric: And then at what age you start actually training rolling over or floating and that kind of thing?
Melissa: We start it right away. And …
Eric: Right at three months?
Melissa: So … yeah …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: We do. So … and we’re not going to do lots of submergence …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: We’ll do two or three, just introductory for the parents …
Eric: Hmm, hmm.
Melissa: And so they can understand it so they’re not scared. But … and then we’ll work. A lot of the time we’re just … spent swaying, but if you’re on your back … we have the parents just hold the back of the head, look into the baby’s eyes; again so much communication can happen eye to eye, and so we’re looking down at those infants, and mom and dad are kissing their head, holding the head, and they’re walking backwards. And it’s … it feels so good if somebody is holding your head and you’re just kind of swaying in the water, you’re able to get so much movement into the body; it’s amazing.
And so those parents are starting right away with the floating, and then as they grow … we have babies … four and a half, five months old, floating by themselves …
Eric: That’s crazy
Melissa: But we don’t … at that point a child is not in immediate danger of … I have to be careful saying this, but …
Eric: We’re not as [39:01 – Unintelligible]
Melissa: Drowning … yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: They’re not crawl … They’re not walking yet.
Eric: Right.
Melissa: They’re not even …
Eric: Crawl …
Melissa: Typically, children are not crawling …
Eric: Not. Well …
Melissa: Under six months …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: Of age. That’s a little bit later, but I’ve seen it …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: We’ve got great kids! We’ve got nine month olds walking …
Eric: Future Olympians. Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah. Who knows? Possibilities endless.
Eric: I’ve had somebody who’d say, “What if my two-year-old can climb over your five-foot pool fence?” I said, “Well that kid should go in the Olympics and you should sign them up for the NFL and every sport that exists; it’s possible. I’m sure it’s happened, but your kid is an athlete and congratulations!” Yeah.
Melissa: Well I love watching children problems solved.
Eric: Right.
Melissa: If a child wants something bad enough, they’re going to find a way …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: They’re going to take a chair and just push it …
Eric: Sure. Yeah.
Melissa: Over to that pool fence and climb over it. It’s a barrier of protection …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: I mean our number one thing is adult supervision …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: That’s number one key. Then we need to have safer water. We need those pool fences, pool arms. We need to make sure we’ve got self-latching gates …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: We need to make sure we’ve got alarms on our doors if the children get out of the house …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: But here in Florida we’re surrounded by water as well …
Eric: Sure.
Melissa: So unfortunately there’s not a pool fence around every body of water …
Eric: Unfortunately, right. I’m trying. I’m getting there. I want to fence the ocean.
Melissa: It’s always worked.
Eric: Yeah. That’s [40:40 – Unintelligible] I won.
Melissa: Yeah. And then the second barrier of protection is safer …
Eric: Safer kids.
Melissa: Kids.
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Yeah. So I mean the CDC put out a statement that children that are actively involved in swim lessons are eighty-eight percent less likely to drown …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: So, that’s huge!
Eric: Absolutely.
Melissa: And then our third layer protection is safer response …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: Parents need to know CPR. I mean, whether it’s around an aquatic environment or anywhere, we could pull up on scene of a car accident … know CPR. There was this viral YouTube video going around of his baby choking in The Gardens Mall recently …
Eric: Oh no, I didn’t see it.
Melissa: It happened several months ago and it is right here local. But everybody came over, they did the back slaps, and they able to get the back thrust, and they were able to get the object removed from the child …
Eric: That’s awesome.
Melissa: But unless you have that training or you’re exposed to …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: In some … whether they’re exposed in a movie or … just being able to know how to remove an object …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Or be able to start compressions or rescue breaths is just key. So we want … especially at our school, we make sure that everybody knows that those are layers of protection to follow, to keep their kids safer. A lot of times I get parents that come to me and they say, “Oh, is my kid safe?” And I said, “There is no such thing. They can become safer.” We’ve recently had a family …this in February; they moved to West Palm, and they had moved from Texas where there was flooding, and they didn’t have a pool there or anything, but the flooding was coming into their house, and their two-year-old was stuck standing on the couch, until they were able to be rescued. That’s scary!
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: That’s scary.
Eric: Seriously.
Melissa: So we’re never safe, but we can be safer.
Eric: Right …
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: I mean you can put airbags and seat belts, roll cages into a car …
Melissa: Yep.
Eric: And it’s safer …
Melissa: Hmm, hmm.
Eric: But it’s still … it’s not perfectly safe. You’re still driving a car.
Melissa: Yeah. Another thing people don’t realize is that more children die from drowning …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: Than car accidents …
Eric: Absolutely. Yeah. Number one accident killer in kids three and four.
Melissa: And we spend so much time …
Eric: On car seats…
Melissa: On car seats …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: I hope our country takes a position … I think the work that you’re doing is amazing. You’re providing all these people from aquatic backgrounds to talk to the public. Hopefully doctors around the country…
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: I think Kerry Morrison locally is really pushing …
Eric: She’s got to study it, which I talk about all the time. I feel like I have mentioned it literally every time …
Melissa: Yeah. Yeah.
Eric: I do this. Crazy.
Melissa: It doesn’t matter. Type swimming lesson or anything, parents need the education; they need to know how to keep their children safe …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: They get it from learning about the car seats, but were are missing the aquatic …
Eric: Yeah …
Melissa: Factor.
Eric: Eighty-five percent of doctors don’t mention any kind of water safety …
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: To children, when kids come in.
Melissa: Yeah. I spoke with my staff … half of them …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Have children.
Eric: Right.
Melissa: And they all looked at me when I told them that, because all the local doctors …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: Here … are … they say …
Eric: Oh, oh.
Melissa: “Oh!”, at the one at the one-year-old checkup they’re asking, at the two-year-old …
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: And it is a question … so I don’t know … I think we’re moving in the right direction …
Eric: That’s good. Yeah.
Melissa: When my kids were one and two I didn’t get asked that question, so I’m not really sure how that’s working throughout the country. I know locally here …
Eric: That’s good.
Melissa: My children’s doctor, my staff’s, my employee’s doctors have brought it up, but there’s still so much we can do …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: It’s hard for them though because they might be seeing so many patients all day long …
Eric: And the list of things they need to cover is …
Melissa: It’s immense!
Eric: It’s immense. Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: So I mean …
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: It’s always time, and …
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: Mike, did your doctor mentioned anything about water safety?
Mike: No, not yet.
Eric: Not yet? No?
Mike: I’m going for the six months checkup next week.
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: Hmmm.
Eric: We’ll see.
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: And I think they’d wait maybe until their mobile, because there’s not many people will do swim lessons for under a six months old …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: They’re just scared; they haven’t been educated …
Eric: Sure.
Melissa: On the benefits. It’s not even that they’re against it, they just …
Eric: They just don’t know.
Melissa: They just don’t know …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: So that’s where I come alive …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: I want to tell the world. I want to …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: I want to say, “Look at the benefits. It’s just … it’s amazing!”
Eric: Right.
Melissa: There’s nothing better we can do for the … our children.
Eric: Especially the neurological benefits and …
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: It’s huge.
Melissa: Yeah. Yeah.
Eric: So you were recently elected to the US Swim School Association board, right?
Melissa: Yeah. Yeah.
Eric: That’s awesome!
Melissa: So much of my success I contribute to the United States Association.
Eric: Right. You were talking about it earlier.
Melissa: Yeah, and I’m so fortunate because now I get to give back …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: And help others and leave a larger impact.
Eric: And it’s a lot of work. How long you’ve been on the board now?
Melissa: Just in September.
Eric: Oh, okay.
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah. So I’m looking forward to the work.
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: I like working. Working gives me a reason …
Eric: To get up?
Melissa: To live. Yeah. One year after I opened my business and I said … somehow I had some insight and idea that I needed to be able to impact more people. So I had found a lump in my breast, and I had gone to a doctor, and I had a mammogram done and they said, “We see that lump but we’re going to follow up in six months.”
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: And then I went back to the doctor again, I had another mammogram. Oh, well I’m sorry … they called me up right away and they said, “We’re going to do another mammogram, and we’re going to do an ultrasound, and you’re young …”
Eric: So it wasn’t the last thing you wanted to hear though? Yeah.
Melissa: I needed that reassurance though …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Because something in my gut said something wasn’t okay. So I had all those tests done, I went back again, and then I had them all done again, but I said, “You know what? I need to go check with a breast surgeon.” So I went to a local doctor up in Jupiter and he goes, “I don’t care about the mammogram you just had two days ago, I’m going to feel it and we’re going to do an ultrasound.” All he did was take the ultrasound machine … the cancer was right here … he took it an inch and a half up into my armpit, and I said, “What’s that?” And I could tell he’s measuring stuff …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: I said, “What’s that?” He said, “That’s your lymph nodes.”
Eric: Hmm, hmm.
Melissa: “So am I supposed to have them?” He goes, “Just not that big.” And then I started crying. Next morning he opened up his office he did a biopsy. The following night he called me up, on Friday night eight o’clock and then said yes it was cancer.
Eric: Hmmm.
Melissa: So I had just opened my swim school one year new, and …
Eric: What year was this?
Melissa: It’s life altering … Two Thousand and Thirteen, so …
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: I’m five years in remission …
Eric: Nice.
Melissa: Yeah. So I’m just … I’m ecstatic because I’m on track to leave a legacy and leave an impact, and that’s just … this is way bigger than me or just our local community …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Country … the water is so healing … just the impact that we can make through education is just tremendous. So, luckily I had that hindsight, I was building myself, the school, where we can be the vehicle and do all of that. So it was challenging …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Because I went through six months of chemo …
Eric: Sure.
Melissa: And there were days I was too sick to get in the water, but I was able … I would say the babies and the children that I work with allowed me to get better. They kept my mind sane, they kept my heart saying, “So I have so much to be thankful for.” And the members of the United States Swim School Association throughout the country, we’re sending me just gifts or something inspiring, a card every single week in the mail, and I just said, “What a won … there’s nothing like swimmers …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: They’re just … sorry I’m biased, but they’re just good people!
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Or typically …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: Phenomenal people. So I’ve just been inspired and I’m fortunate, very fortunate.
Eric: It’s awesome. Well I know from being on the board of the NDPA it’s a lot of work …
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: And it’s a lot of energy, so I’m sure they’ll appreciate having you. How many people are on the board there?
Melissa: They’re seven of us there. Yeah.
Eric: Okay. So not that many.
Melissa: Yeah. Nope, nope.
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: But there is five hundred swim schools across …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: The country, and we have members from seventeen different countries.
Eric: That’s crazy.
Melissa: Part of it … so that’s what’s really great is last … actually beginning of September, I was over in Mexico City, and I was there and there’s a swim school over there, with four locations and they flew in an aquatic expert educator from Portland area to do a training, and people from China flew in, and so we had all this diverse language going on and translators, because over in China, the birth rate is just expanding …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: You can have more than one child, so …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: There’s a lot of new swim schools opening. But they’re not surrounded by water …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Like we are here …
Eric: Sure.
Melissa: In Florida. So you got to really be able to allow those instructors to get in there. They can’t even … they don’t know how to … they don’t have any background in breath control, but you can teach it at all. But you’ve got to want to, and you got to be a charismatic person, you got to …
Eric: Well, like anything else right?
Melissa: Yes, exactly.
Eric: If you’re not into it, if you don’t care about it …
Melissa: You got to be passionate.
Eric: Then it’s not going to work at all.
Melissa: Yeah. Yeah.
Eric: So I know … well you’ve been combating this for years, the American Academy of Pediatrics …
Melissa: Hmm, hmm.
Eric: Used to say under five and now I think it’s two, right? Is there age recommendation?
Melissa: I don’t believe that they have a recommendation. It just … they changed it in Two Thousand and Nine …
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: They used to say that children under the age of …
Eric: Five …
Melissa: Four …
Eric: It was five …
Melissa: Oh five. Okay …
Eric: But that could have been in the nineties when I read that the first time …
Melisa: Yeah. But there are so many statistics out there. Yeah …
Eric: Because I remember writing an article in Nineteen Ninety-Five, and I remember …
Melissa: I’m going to Google it and see …
Eric: Yeah. Because I said most kids drown before … between ages one and four. So if you wait till …
Melissa: Because they’re starting to walk …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: And explore …
Eric: So if you …
Melissa: And they’ve got little creative minds.
Eric: Right. So if you wait until five which is what the AAP says …
Melissa: It’s too late …
Eric: Most kids have died already …
Melissa: Yeah.
Interviewer; It’s too late. All the kids were going to drown and drown.
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: And I know a big thing was ear infections. That was their …
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: You want to put the kids in the water, they’re going to get an ear infection …
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: And I used to tell people like, “You’d rather have an ear infection than a drowning.”
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: I mean … but do you see a lot of that? Is that even a thing? I mean …
Melissa: We have so many children in our school that swim with ear plugs. So, and I’m speaking from experience …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Here again …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: I’m not a doctor …
Eric: Right. But unequivocally it’s … but I mean …
Melissa: But my …
Eric: But your sample size is pretty large too …
Melissa: Yes, yes, yes.
Eric: You’re seeing … I mean …
Melissa: We see thousands of kids every year …
Eric: Six hundred kids a week roughly?
Melissa: Six hundred kids a week currently is what we have swimming in our school …
Eric: Which is amazing.
Melissa: Now …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: This time of year in winter …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: Well, approaching the winter season …
Eric: Florida winter.
Melissa: Florida winter. Yeah …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: Still gorgeous.
Eric: Yeah. It’s finally not ridiculously hot out …
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: Like …
Melissa: I can get out of my car and not be drenched.
Eric: Like today I actually was like, “Oh, it’s kind of … it’s not cool, but it’s not hot.” It’s like some kind of nice middle ground feel …
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: That I’m appreciative of.
Melissa: Yeah. It’s gorgeous …
Eric: You should come to Florida.
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: It’s the best! I love Florida. But …
Melissa: So … but the parents come in and they say … so another thing with floating is in order to float your ears do need to be submerged …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Under the water. So … because if they’re not your heads out of the water, your butt’s going to sink …
Eric: Right. Your posture is wrong.
Melissa: Yeah. You’re in the wrong position. So we need them horizontal. So their ears do need to be in. And so that’s a big question from the parents, and the truth is that children are more likely to get an ear infection in the bath or the shower, because they’re washing their hair, and the soap suds can get in the ear, and then there’s going to be … then bacteria might grow, whereas in the pool … if it’s properly chemically treated, we are killing …
Eric: Most things. Yeah.
Melissa: Most things. Yeah. So there’s that aspect of it, and a lot of parents also don’t realize a lot of times … the way I had a ENT explained it to me, was that if you’re given oral antibiotics …
Eric: Hmm, hmm.
Melissa: It’s an inner ear infection.
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: Swimmers ear is your outer ear.
Eric: Got it.
Melissa: So those inner ear infections that we see that children get so commonly, are because they’ve got a cold, they’re teething, and they got … your station tubes when you’re adult, are a lot bigger. But when you’re a little, they’re just so small, so easy for them to get clogged, and you get that build up, and you get …
Eric: An ear infection.
Melissa: In your ear. But if you’re getting oral antibiotics, we know it’s inner ear. So that’s not your outer ear …
Eric: Got you.
Melissa: Infection. So that’s a really …
Eric: And I guess ear drops would be outer ear right?
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah. Most commonly. Again … that’s just my experience, and when every one of my clients I’ve talked to …because I’m always engaging …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: The moms again … community within a community, and we’re always talking … what school’s great, which ear, nose and throat doctor you go into …
Eric: Sure.
Melissa: Is this safe for my child? …
Eric: Which pool funds company should I pay?
Melissa: Yours! Yeah. I mean we have your sign in our lobby …
Eric: Oh, that’s cool.
Melissa: And our clients come to us all the time, and they ask, and they pick it up. That’s what so cool about our schools. The parents are picking up the materials that we leave out …
Eric: That’s awesome.
Melissa: And then they’re asking. And our front desk’s saying, “Call her! Call Casey! Go get them!” My neighbors just had a pool and fence installed by you guys, and …
Eric: Nice.
Melissa: You guys have come out to our world’s largest swim lesson …
Eric: Hmm, hmm.
Melissa: And just … you guys are giving back within the community, and …
Eric: We try.
Melissa: You’re doing a great job of it.
Eric: Well thank you.
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: So what’s a common question that parents ask you? Or the most common?
Melissa: “What can I do to help my child at home?”
Eric: Okay.
Melissa: Because like anything repetition is key …
Eric: Sure.
Melissa: So yes it’s warm year round in Florida, however, a lot of people stop swimming come October because the water temperature drops …
Eric: It gets cooler.
Melissa: Outside.
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah. And most pools are not heated.
Eric: Right.
Melissa: So if they’re not in the water and they’re not being able to practice, they will lose what they’ve learned, and a growing child … they say children grow two inches per year on average …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: And I think it’s even more accelerated when there are little …
Eric: Sure.
Melissa: When they’re infants and babies, so they’re center of buoyancy changes. So it’s so important for children to continue year round …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Lessons, because they’re growing, so they might learn how to float six months ago, but then they haven’t experienced it recently. So that’s another thing, is … a lot of community pools will offer lessons two weeks, and the parents say, “We did swim lessons.” Or, “My kid can put their head under water and they could swim at the bottom of the pool. They know how to swim.” Well, there’s a lot more …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: To it. I want to know if your child fell in, could they save themselves?
Eric: Yeah. If your kid can’t get up and take a breath or not swimming, they’re just …
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: Drowning quickly forward …
Melissa: A next other thing is I don’t want them just to come up and get a breath …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Because they can fall in, come up … maybe they’re bouncing off the bottom, they’re coming up for breath, they’re getting that one breath. But unless they’re then comfortable enough to put their head back underwater, and blow bubbles … because exhale now … pshooooo … you’re relaxed. But if you’re in a fearful situation …
Eric: Right. It’s not going to happen.
Melissa: You can’t do that. So they come up … [gasping sound] and as they’re taking another breath of air, they start swallowing that water and then they’re in that vertical position …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: I personally like to have people … adults and children, turnover and float.
Eric: Right.
Melissa: You get pulled out into a rip current into the ocean, you turn over and float. Let it pull you out …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: And then swim perpendicular back …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Back to shore; get out of the rip current first. But I want people floating. Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. Floating is good for everybody …
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: It’s the safest thing to do.
Melissa: Exactly. You’re not using as much energy. You fall off a boat …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: You can float. Hopefully coast guards come in to you.
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: Hopefully you’re wearing a coast guard approved life jacket …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: But I’ve been going all there …
Eric: Fear of the open water. Yeah.
Melissa: But the parents want to help their children succeed. So we tell them that … let the children play, have that opportunity to feel the buoyancy, feel how they’re going to float up, practice their balance. So tell them, “Put a ring on the stairs. Put a ring on the bottom. And left the children …” and you’d be there right there with them obviously supervising them, but let them experience it. Their positive reinforcement is picking up that ring, and they’re happy. You get to toddlers saying, “I did it mommy, I did it!” And it’s just … they’re so proud, and then they get the parents reinforcement. I think it’s magical.
But being able to experiment and have that child do it for themselves, and they’re self-initiating it, that’s the number one thing. They’re also … the deeper they’re putting it, the more they’re challenging themselves, and the more they’re expanding their lung capacity …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Then we’re getting into all the benefits of that. It’s great.
Eric: All the cardiovascular benefits …
Melissa: Yes, yes …
Eric: On top of the neuro-synopsis and …
Melissa: Yep.
Eric: Plus, the lifesaving skills on top of it.
Melissa: Yes. Yes.
Eric: So what should someone look for if they’re looking for a swim school? Say if they don’t live in West Palm; they live in …
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: Minnesota somewhere, and they want to …
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: Go to swim school?
Melissa: Fin a swim school. Find swim lessons. Get your children start as young as they can. Fear is learned. You’re not born with fear. But make sure the water is good. Ask to see pool records, their chemicals …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Because you don’t want to get in a pool and end up with chemical burn …
Eric: Yeah. No.
Melissa: Or anything like that …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Or it’s dirty, or any of that.
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: So that shuts up your basics. Look for people that are insured. I mean, again, you we’ve got to protect ourselves. I say, see how much training and education those teachers have …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: There’s all … there’s American Red Cross, there’s … they’re so many different curriculums …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Out there, and some have great things and some don’t. I don’t know …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: Just get them in the water, get them learning. Having that experience; let them have the repetition. Let it be positive. Trauma free. I hate seeing a child just in peer panic, arched back, water coming over their face, and hands, fists or like this …
Eric: Hmm, hmm.
Melissa: If the child is in the pool and they’re all screaming and crying, it doesn’t justify the means. We can build their confidence, because in the long run they’re going to succeed, and just be happier, better individuals in life.
Eric: Make sense.
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: Where did you come up with the name?
Melissa: ‘Small Fish Big Fish’?
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: I actually … when I first created my website, it was like two in the morning, and I was looking for what I was going to …
Eric: Call it.
Melissa: Call the school …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: And so I had to find a domain.
Eric: Right.
Melissa: So ‘Little Fish Big Fish’ I think was taken. And so ’Small Fish Big Fish’ it ended up being, because I don’t want to discriminate and say, “We’re only for infants. We’re only for children. We’re only for adults.” I want … again I want to leave an impact … I want it to be a community, and I want to be able to serve …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: The entire community.
Eric: Make sense.
Melissa: So we don’t turn anyone away. I don’t care if somebody has a feeding tube, has seizures, we can’t walk … it makes no difference. Water is medicine. It’s healing. It’s just … the benefits of swimming are just … they don’t want to know.
Eric: Is it? So how can people find you?
Melissa: Well, it’s Small Fish Big Fish …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Swim School …
Eric: .com?
Melissa: .com
Eric: Yes.
Melisa: Yes. We’re on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all the …
Eric: All the stuff?
Melissa: All the social media …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: Platforms. Our phone number is eight one eight SWIM … seven nine four six … that’s five six one eight one eight …
Eric: Okay. There we go.
Melissa: Seven nine four six. And word of mouth, and we want everybody.
Eric: Nice.
Melissa: But if … you’ve got a broad reach …
Eric: Hmm, hmm.
Melissa: Even international …
Eric: Sure.
Melissa: But I would recommend people go to United States Swim School Association, look for swim schools in their area; they can search by zip code. Go to Australia Swim School Association for all your friends over there …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: There’s international swim schools that … in every country has got … in Canada they have the Canadian Red Cross …There’re so many different options out there …
Eric: Sure.
Melissa: But do your research. Not all programs are created equal …
Eric: Right.
Melissa: And not all … every child is different. So some might succeed in one program but not in another. And if they’re not, then don’t stop. A lot of times people say, “I need to take a break …”
Eric: Right.
Melissa: And … continue on, but just slow it down. Make sure your child has that confidence and continue on, because it’s just … it’s so important.
Eric: Make good sense.
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: Perfect. Well thank you so much.
Melissa: Thank you!
Eric: Thanks for coming down here.
Melissa: Awesome.
Eric: Thanks for doing the first one in my office. That’s kind of cool.
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: Did you tell me this is your fiftieth?
Eric: This is our fifty-year. Right …
Melissa: Whoohooooo!
Eric: Thank you handling it. Yeah. You’re on for fifty.
Melissa: Congrats! Yeah.
Eric: Yeah. Absolutely. I would have forgotten that. Thank you. Yeah. So it’s number fifty. It’s in the office. We’re going to eventually have a shelf here, or something we’re going to put. Chachki is up here beside Groot. Groot … I always like to have Groot around. That’s Groot right there. Baby Groot.
Melissa: Great for Halloween. Groot.
Eric: Yeah. Baby Groot. He’s good to go.
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: But yeah …
Melissa: Well I look forward to watching everybody else …
Eric: Oh.
Melissa: You bring on. You bring a great diverse …
Eric: Thanks.
Melissa: Group of people, and …
Eric: Yeah.
Melissa: It’s phenomenal.
Eric: Yeah. We try to do anything child safety related …
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: That’s the plan …
Melissa: Yeah. Just education.
Eric: That’s the idea.
Melissa: That’s it.
Eric: Perfect.
Melissa: Yeah.
Eric: Well thank you so much.
Melissa: Thank you.
Eric: I appreciate it. Thanks everyone. Have a good day.
