Jan. 3, 2025
It Takes a Village to Protect the Ocean
It takes a village to protect the ocean even though ocean conservation can sometimes feel lonely. Leaning on your community can help to inspire you to take more action for the sea. In this episode of the "How to Protect the Ocean" podcast, host Andrew...
It takes a village to protect the ocean even though ocean conservation can sometimes feel lonely. Leaning on your community can help to inspire you to take more action for the sea.
In this episode of the "How to Protect the Ocean" podcast, host Andrew Luan emphasizes the vital role of community in ocean conservation efforts. He discusses how protecting the ocean can feel overwhelming for individuals, especially when faced with complex issues like climate change, overfishing, and plastic pollution. However, community involvement can transform this daunting task into a collective effort, providing support, knowledge, and motivation.
Key points include:
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Shared Knowledge: Communities offer access to valuable resources and experiences. Learning from others who have successfully navigated local challenges can enhance individual effectiveness in advocacy.
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Accountability and Motivation: Being part of a group fosters accountability. When individuals work alongside others, they are less likely to give up, as they can draw inspiration from each other's successes.
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Amplifying Voices: A united community can significantly amplify individual voices. Collective action, such as signing petitions or attending public meetings, can lead to substantial changes that one person alone might not achieve.
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Finding Your Community: Andrew encourages listeners to seek out local organizations, clubs, and online groups focused on ocean conservation. Engaging actively and bringing value to these communities is essential for personal growth and collective impact.
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Upcoming Online Community: Andrew announces the launch of a new online community aimed at supporting individuals in becoming better advocates for the ocean. This platform will provide opportunities for connection, learning, and action.
Overall, the episode highlights that protecting the ocean is a shared responsibility that thrives in a supportive community, where individuals can find purpose, strength, and inspiration to continue their efforts despite challenges.
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Transcript
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Protecting the ocean through a community is probably one of the best ways
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to feel not only a part of something bigger, but to
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really tackle the large overwhelming task
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of protecting the ocean. We're going to talk about the benefits of joining
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a community on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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Let's start the show. Hey
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everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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I'm your host Andrew Luan. This is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean,
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how you can speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live for
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a better ocean by taking action. And on
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today's episode, we're going to be talking about the importance of a community. And
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that could be a local community, that could be an online community, that could be many different ways
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that you define a community. But
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the idea of it is that you are a part of something bigger.
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We talk a lot about tackling climate change, overfishing,
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and plastic pollution. These are all very large problems
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and they are complex. It requires not only you as an individual to
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take part in protecting the ocean by living for a better ocean, but you
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also have to be part of a community because we need to do this as
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a community. So if you're passionate about protecting the ocean, you might
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sometimes feel like you're on this journey by yourself. You're
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on this journey alone. But here's the thing, being a part of a community can
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be one of the most effective and inspiring ways to make a
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real impact. Today, I want to dive into why community matters and
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how it can guide you on how you can find a tribe in
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the ocean conservation world. world. So let's start first with the
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simple truth. Protecting the ocean is hard. It's a massive task.
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If you can feel so overwhelming, whether it's tackling
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issues like plastic pollution, climate change, or overfishing, just like
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I mentioned, the problems are global and you might
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wonder what difference can one person. That's where
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community comes in. When you're a part of a group with like-minded people, suddenly,
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you're not alone anymore. You're not tackling this by yourself. You're
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surrounded by others who share your passion, your concerns, your
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drive to make a difference. And here's why community matters.
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One, you can have shared knowledge. When you're part of a community, you
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gain access to wealth of knowledge and resources. Maybe
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someone knows the best way to organize a beach cleanup or
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how to navigate local government policies to protect marine areas.
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Learning from others makes you more effective. Here's
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a little story, Brown. I remember speaking to Emily Cunningham on
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this podcast, and she discussed how she has worked with
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local council people in her area in the UK to
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get things going. She built the relationships with
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the local council. She's the one who talked to each one
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of the council members. She's the one who got their values and
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then discussed her values around the same subject. She's
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the one who helped bring people together from her community to
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help drive further. These are the ways that you can
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learn from people through their mistakes, through their challenges, through their
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successes, so that you can do the same thing in your
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local area. So not only will it inspire you by watching other people do
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it, but they can help you with the menial task of
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getting around certain things. Like how to get a hold of a council person.
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How do you discuss that? How do you approach them without saying, I
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demand this, I want this, I voted for you, work for me. No, you
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don't do it that way. There are ways to approach somebody
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and build that relationship with that counsel person. That's what really
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matters. To be able to have that knowledge and share
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that within a group, whether you have it or other people have it, you can learn from
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that and you can be more effective as an ocean advocate. So
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that was the first one. That was shared knowledge. So
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the second one is accountability and motivation. So let's face it,
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it's easy to feel discouraged when change feels slow. But being
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a part of a group keeps you accountable. When others are working
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alongside you, it's harder to give up. So just imagine you
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have all these tasks that you want to take. Let's start
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with one. And you have an accountability partner. I remember as part
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of a podcast group online. And some of the ways that you can help make
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sure that you hold yourself accountable and you do the tasks of the course that they
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gave me and the coaching that they gave me was I had an accountability partner. You
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can choose that accountability partner and you hold each other accountable
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to make sure you get things going. So if I suddenly, you know, I don't feel that
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well that week and my accountability partner is like, you can get these things
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done. at least get the minimal stuff done so that you feel good
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about yourself by the end of the week. And you get it done, and it moves you that much closer
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towards your goal. Imagine doing the same thing for oceans. Seeing
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other people's wins based on accountability, big or small, can
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inspire you to keep going. So it helps with the accountability and
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the motivation. The third thing is amplifying your voice by
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being part of a community. So a community can amplify your
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impact. One person signing a petition, that might not
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change the law, but hundreds of voices, holy cow, that changes everything.
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That's a movement. And an example of that is when I spoke to Dr.
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Chad Nelson, the CEO of Surfrider. He said that there was one
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spot during his tenure where, and
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it was pretty recent, where the council people
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in one area were going to change something
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that would change the access or even change a beach, a
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very popular surf spot for his organization, Surf Riders. That
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was a problem. They were worried that they were going to lose out. It already got
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stamped in. The developers were ready to go. It was going to be a
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done deal. And then Surf Rider jumped in. They access their
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community. It was a community of volunteers, their network of volunteers,
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and they said, Hey, there is a public meeting that
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is happening at this place at this time. We need you
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to show up because right now they think that they have the deal
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done and our surfing spot is going to be affected. But
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if you show up like we ask you to do and like what we want
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you to do, we want us as a community to do. You can show up and
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protect that surf spot. They had to change the location three times
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to get a bigger venue. 500 people from Surfrider, in
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that network of volunteers, who are not only surfers, but
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they're beach advocates, and they're just ocean advocates, and they want
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to see this stay natural. They came out and they said
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to the developers, no, we don't want this. This is why. Here are our stories. You
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need to listen to us. That development never went through. The power
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of people, the power of amplifying one person's voice by
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showing up as a community, a community of individuals who share
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the same passion, that is protecting the ocean, will help
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you and get things done. Whether it's a local community or
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an online community, it does not matter. You can amplify your voice.
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A community gives you strength in numbers, whether it's
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advocating for policies or raising awareness. And I've
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seen this, I've heard the stories from the people who've come on
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this podcast, from other people who haven't been guests yet, but
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one day, one day will. But they've just, they've talked about these stories. I've
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seen it firsthand. Let's think about it. Greta
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Thunberg was one student who did a climate
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strike every Friday in Sweden. How many of
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us knew or predicted that that one strike, that
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climate strike, would turn into a movement of hundreds of
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thousands, if not millions of people around the world, striking on
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Fridays for a while because they wanted more climate action.
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They want to tell their government, not only in Sweden, but in the UK,
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in Canada, in New Zealand, in Australia, in India, everywhere,
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right, where they could protest in South America, they would do that.
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They would have a strike. They would walk hundreds of thousands of people in each
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city, in each area, and they would walk for climate. That's how great
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it was. There was one person I know who walked on a plane, because at the same time
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that the protest was happening, he was on a plane. He had a sign, and he walked up
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and down the aisle and said, hey, I'm on a climate strike. I want climate action.
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That's the power of numbers. that's what it gives
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it and it's just it's amazing how much work has been
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done by governments because of those strikes
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because of those movements whether it's a local government
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a state government or provincial wherever you're from or federal government
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The tune of climate change, that term has gone from
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denial to figuring out what the action might be. Now,
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let's be honest, we may not agree on every action, every country is
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different, but we know action needs to be taken. It's
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just a matter of how fast and how much will
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be done, right? That's the big problem with governments right now,
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but it's being done because of that movement. People shared ideas, whether
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it be one person, two people or a community, organized events and
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support each other when the going got tough. Let's be honest,
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Greta Thunberg did not have an easy life going through this. She was
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mocked, she was insulted, she
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was yelled at, and she was all a teenager while doing this.
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That's a very difficult life to go through. But she had one thing,
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she wanted climate action. She wanted to inspire. She turned from doing
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it herself as an individual to inspiring hundreds of thousands, if
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not millions of people to doing it, to taking those strikes, to taking that
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action to say, hey, you know what? If a 16-year-old could tell
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a prime minister, a president, they're not doing enough, and get angry at
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them, we could do the same thing. We can tell each and every one of our
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members of parliament, our members of Congress, or whoever they
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are, the people who represent you as a government, to say,
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you are not doing enough, we want you to do more. And it's about doing it
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in a group, because one person's not going to change their mind. If
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you're in a democracy, it's the power of the popular vote, the
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power of the majority. Right? If we can get the
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majority to say that we need ocean conservation, we need climate
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action, we need to reduce overfishing and eliminate overfishing,
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we need to eliminate and reduce plastic pollution, that's
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how you do it. It's not just what you
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can do for the community. It's what you can bring to the
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table. When you join a community, whether it be on Facebook, whether
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it be on a WhatsApp group, or a Slack group, or whatever
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that might be, don't just join it for the sake of
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joining it. Join it with a purpose. Join it because a
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community matters to you. You wanna bring value to
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the community as much as you wanna get the value out of that community. You've probably
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heard that before in anything that you've talked about. You get what you
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put into it. And so you can do that with the community. For
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example, I work out at CrossFit. I'm
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horrible at it, but I enjoy it. I really enjoy working as a
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community. And going to a gym, community matters. Who I
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work out with are the people that motivate me to come each and every day, right?
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That I go work out. I don't work out every day. That would be killer for me. But I
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go, every time I go, I look forward to seeing the people, I look forward to working
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out with people that will push me, that will motivate me, that I can somewhat
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compete with. Don't tell them I'm competing, but I always look at what they do and it
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kind of drives me, right? But the value that I bring is I
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encourage other people, I support other people, whether they're better than me or
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they're not as good as me or whatever, we finish first or finish last, it
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doesn't matter, I support everybody. I'm cheering people on
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as I'm working out, if I have a breath. You know, I'm after, you
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know, we were done. We all give each other, you know, knuckles and be like, hey,
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good job. Good job. That's how we build that community. But
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at one point I lost my community. The gym that I
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was a part of, it shut down for whatever reason. We moved over to
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another gym. It was a different gym. We tried our best to make it
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like the community that we had before, because we had a really good community at the original gym.
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And we just couldn't feel it there. We just couldn't feel it. And
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I don't know if it was just the abruptness of the move, or we moved to a larger gym,
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so it was a larger community. We just couldn't find our place. But I
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had a crew of people who worked out at 6 o'clock
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in the morning. And that's a special crew. Not everybody can work out at
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6 o'clock in the morning. But we were all in the same age group and we all had
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kids and we were all trying to go through the same challenges and
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successes in life and that kind of stuff. We had a really good French group.
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We would hang out afterwards and at
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night and stuff like that. It was fun. But then at that group, at
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that gym, we just didn't have that community feel. We weren't happy there.
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And we eventually went back to the place where our
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original gym was, but it was a different name gym, run differently by
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a different person. And we said to ourselves when we went over there, there was like three
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or four that went over there, we said, look, we're not gonna have the same dynamic and
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the same people as we always did. But what we could do is when
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we get there is we can put in more effort than we did at last gym to
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make it a community. And let's make the community, if we wanted to make it a
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certain way, let's bring in the value that we can
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provide to bring in that community. Always be friendly, always
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walk up to people, ask how people are, ask about their lives and all that
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kind of stuff. As much as they want to share, let's get that out and let's make
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them feel welcome when we're there. so that they feel like
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it's the same community that we want it to be. That's the same
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thing you want to do in an online community. I know online and
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local communities, like everybody's abrasive and everybody argues with each
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other. You don't have to argue, right? You don't have to be abrasive
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with somebody. You can support. Man, what an idea. Imagine
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going into an online group and you support people. right you help them
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out or you say good job hey that really inspires me
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to do something I don't know what can you help me out right and people will be
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thoughtful people will be happy and I think that's the
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key right so the question is like now I've made a case
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like hey let's be part of a community. Government
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right now in North America, probably not going to help. I'm not familiar
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too much with Mexican government, but I know U.S. and
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Canada, we see it all the time. The next administration for the U.S. not going to be
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a help for environment. The next administration for the next
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government for Canada in a year or so, probably not going
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to be helpful for the environment. The community is going to be
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the place where you need to be. So how do you find your
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ocean conservation community? Especially if you live inland, right?
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Like there's not an ocean around, you may not have that. But the first thing
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is you start local. Look for organizations, clubs, events near
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your area. Any kind of beach cleanups, educational programs,
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any volunteer opportunities are great places to meet like-minded
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people. So just start local, get out of the house, get out of
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your apartment, get out wherever you live, and start going into places where you
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look at like a surf ride or a Trout Unlimited or something local.
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And if they offer something where you can volunteer in person, say, hey, I
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want to volunteer in person. I want to meet other people, other volunteers. I'd be
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happy to work a certain amount of hours a week or a month, and I'd be
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happy to go out there. So that helps too. Go online. Social media
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and forums are full of groups focused on ocean conservation.
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So join Facebook groups, follow activists on Instagram, or
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participate in online discussions. When you participate, remember, you
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want to bring as much value as you want to get out of it, right? So
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if you have expertise or you have some kind of knowledge or experience, share that
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experience when it's necessary, right? And I'll talk about the online
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group in just a sec. Be proactive. Don't
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wait for the perfect opportunity to come to you. Reach out, ask
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questions, and put yourself out there. The ocean needs
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your voice. It is imperative that we provide value
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quickly, that we join groups that are effective quickly,
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and you must be able to recognize whether this group is going to be
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effective or they just want to argue all the time. There are a lot of Facebook groups
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out there that just argue all the time. There's like, they're dominated by
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one or two people around. You want to make sure that everybody has a
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voice. You want to make sure that maybe they meet online virtually or
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on a regular basis, or they, you know, they ask from you
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personally. Say, hey, what do you thought, what are your thoughts about this? Or provide content,
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you know, fairly regularly, right? I think it's really important. I
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think it's important that we were able to get our voices
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out there from everybody, listen, and then provide constructive
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feedback, but not just get involved in arguments. Here's
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the bottom line. Protecting the ocean is not something that you can do alone.
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It takes a community. None of us can do it alone. It takes a
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community, a network of people united by their love for the
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ocean and their determination to protect it. So when
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you find your community, you'll find more than just support, you'll
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find purpose, you'll find strength and inspiration to keep
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going, even when the challenges feel overwhelming. And I'm
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going to guarantee you the challenges are going to feel very overwhelming, but
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we can persist through those. If you're listening to this
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and you haven't found a community yet, I encourage you to
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start looking. And better yet, I've been talking about this for the
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last six months, and I've been talking about creating an online community
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myself. I've started Facebook communities before.
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I have one for marine science and conservation careers. I
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had one for Speak Up for Blue, like this podcast.
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But in reality, I've got another one brewing, and it's going
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to be released at the end of January. it's an online
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community where it's supportive where we're going to help
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guide you to become a better advocate
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for the ocean more knowledgeable on the ocean and be
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able to act to live for a better ocean by taking the
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actions that you need to take that could be purchasing products
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that could be doing services connecting with the ocean right being part
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of workshops being together as a community and
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interacting with each other. So if you are interested in
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being part of this community, we'll release the name and
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have other people involved as well. It's not just me, okay? It's this
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new venture that I'm a part of. I want you to
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go to www.speakupforblue.com forward
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slash community to sign up and be
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on the wait list for the first people to
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come in to this community. This is a chance for
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you to shape the community that you want to be in. This is a
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chance to be one of the first to be part of this community. This
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is a community that's not going to start and then just go away. It's going to be around for
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a very, very long time. It's going to be around to provide
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value, not only to you, but to everybody in the community, and
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to be able to allow opportunities to connect to the ocean,
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whether that be virtually or in person, and interact with
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people around you, whether that be virtually or in person. It's
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a lot of fun. I'm very excited about this new opportunity. It's free to
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sign up to get this access to this list. All
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you have to do is go to speakupforblue.com forward slash community.
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That's it for me today. I'm really excited about this. I'm going
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to have more information in the next coming weeks, but please
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sign up. Keep tuning into this episode. If you have any questions, you
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can DM me at how to protect the ocean on instagram that's
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at how to protect the ocean so just dm me on instagram and of course if
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you don't want to miss any other episode you can subscribe to our youtube
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channel hit that notification bell so you don't miss any of the monday wednesday
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and friday episodes and of course we're on spotify
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video we're on apple podcasts overcast all
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your favorite audio podcast apps were there as well I
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want to thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the
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Ocean podcast. Let's start the new year off with a bang and join
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the community that will help you live for a better ocean. Thank
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you so much for listening. I'm your host Angelo and have a great day. We'll talk to you
00:00:00,229 --> 00:00:03,991
Protecting the ocean through a community is probably one of the best ways
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to feel not only a part of something bigger, but to
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really tackle the large overwhelming task
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of protecting the ocean. We're going to talk about the benefits of joining
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a community on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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Let's start the show. Hey
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everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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I'm your host Andrew Luan. This is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean,
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how you can speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live for
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a better ocean by taking action. And on
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today's episode, we're going to be talking about the importance of a community. And
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that could be a local community, that could be an online community, that could be many different ways
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that you define a community. But
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the idea of it is that you are a part of something bigger.
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We talk a lot about tackling climate change, overfishing,
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and plastic pollution. These are all very large problems
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and they are complex. It requires not only you as an individual to
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take part in protecting the ocean by living for a better ocean, but you
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also have to be part of a community because we need to do this as
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a community. So if you're passionate about protecting the ocean, you might
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sometimes feel like you're on this journey by yourself. You're
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on this journey alone. But here's the thing, being a part of a community can
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be one of the most effective and inspiring ways to make a
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real impact. Today, I want to dive into why community matters and
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how it can guide you on how you can find a tribe in
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the ocean conservation world. world. So let's start first with the
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simple truth. Protecting the ocean is hard. It's a massive task.
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If you can feel so overwhelming, whether it's tackling
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issues like plastic pollution, climate change, or overfishing, just like
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I mentioned, the problems are global and you might
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wonder what difference can one person. That's where
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community comes in. When you're a part of a group with like-minded people, suddenly,
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you're not alone anymore. You're not tackling this by yourself. You're
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surrounded by others who share your passion, your concerns, your
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drive to make a difference. And here's why community matters.
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One, you can have shared knowledge. When you're part of a community, you
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gain access to wealth of knowledge and resources. Maybe
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someone knows the best way to organize a beach cleanup or
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how to navigate local government policies to protect marine areas.
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Learning from others makes you more effective. Here's
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a little story, Brown. I remember speaking to Emily Cunningham on
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this podcast, and she discussed how she has worked with
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local council people in her area in the UK to
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get things going. She built the relationships with
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the local council. She's the one who talked to each one
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of the council members. She's the one who got their values and
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then discussed her values around the same subject. She's
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the one who helped bring people together from her community to
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help drive further. These are the ways that you can
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learn from people through their mistakes, through their challenges, through their
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successes, so that you can do the same thing in your
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local area. So not only will it inspire you by watching other people do
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it, but they can help you with the menial task of
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getting around certain things. Like how to get a hold of a council person.
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How do you discuss that? How do you approach them without saying, I
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demand this, I want this, I voted for you, work for me. No, you
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don't do it that way. There are ways to approach somebody
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and build that relationship with that counsel person. That's what really
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matters. To be able to have that knowledge and share
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that within a group, whether you have it or other people have it, you can learn from
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that and you can be more effective as an ocean advocate. So
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that was the first one. That was shared knowledge. So
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the second one is accountability and motivation. So let's face it,
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it's easy to feel discouraged when change feels slow. But being
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a part of a group keeps you accountable. When others are working
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alongside you, it's harder to give up. So just imagine you
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have all these tasks that you want to take. Let's start
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with one. And you have an accountability partner. I remember as part
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of a podcast group online. And some of the ways that you can help make
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sure that you hold yourself accountable and you do the tasks of the course that they
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gave me and the coaching that they gave me was I had an accountability partner. You
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can choose that accountability partner and you hold each other accountable
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to make sure you get things going. So if I suddenly, you know, I don't feel that
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well that week and my accountability partner is like, you can get these things
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done. at least get the minimal stuff done so that you feel good
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about yourself by the end of the week. And you get it done, and it moves you that much closer
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towards your goal. Imagine doing the same thing for oceans. Seeing
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other people's wins based on accountability, big or small, can
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inspire you to keep going. So it helps with the accountability and
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the motivation. The third thing is amplifying your voice by
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being part of a community. So a community can amplify your
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impact. One person signing a petition, that might not
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change the law, but hundreds of voices, holy cow, that changes everything.
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That's a movement. And an example of that is when I spoke to Dr.
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Chad Nelson, the CEO of Surfrider. He said that there was one
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spot during his tenure where, and
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it was pretty recent, where the council people
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in one area were going to change something
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that would change the access or even change a beach, a
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very popular surf spot for his organization, Surf Riders. That
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was a problem. They were worried that they were going to lose out. It already got
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stamped in. The developers were ready to go. It was going to be a
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done deal. And then Surf Rider jumped in. They access their
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community. It was a community of volunteers, their network of volunteers,
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and they said, Hey, there is a public meeting that
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is happening at this place at this time. We need you
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to show up because right now they think that they have the deal
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done and our surfing spot is going to be affected. But
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if you show up like we ask you to do and like what we want
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you to do, we want us as a community to do. You can show up and
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protect that surf spot. They had to change the location three times
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to get a bigger venue. 500 people from Surfrider, in
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that network of volunteers, who are not only surfers, but
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they're beach advocates, and they're just ocean advocates, and they want
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to see this stay natural. They came out and they said
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to the developers, no, we don't want this. This is why. Here are our stories. You
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need to listen to us. That development never went through. The power
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of people, the power of amplifying one person's voice by
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showing up as a community, a community of individuals who share
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the same passion, that is protecting the ocean, will help
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you and get things done. Whether it's a local community or
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an online community, it does not matter. You can amplify your voice.
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A community gives you strength in numbers, whether it's
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advocating for policies or raising awareness. And I've
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seen this, I've heard the stories from the people who've come on
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this podcast, from other people who haven't been guests yet, but
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one day, one day will. But they've just, they've talked about these stories. I've
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seen it firsthand. Let's think about it. Greta
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Thunberg was one student who did a climate
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strike every Friday in Sweden. How many of
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us knew or predicted that that one strike, that
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climate strike, would turn into a movement of hundreds of
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thousands, if not millions of people around the world, striking on
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Fridays for a while because they wanted more climate action.
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They want to tell their government, not only in Sweden, but in the UK,
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in Canada, in New Zealand, in Australia, in India, everywhere,
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right, where they could protest in South America, they would do that.
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They would have a strike. They would walk hundreds of thousands of people in each
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city, in each area, and they would walk for climate. That's how great
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it was. There was one person I know who walked on a plane, because at the same time
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that the protest was happening, he was on a plane. He had a sign, and he walked up
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and down the aisle and said, hey, I'm on a climate strike. I want climate action.
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That's the power of numbers. that's what it gives
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it and it's just it's amazing how much work has been
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done by governments because of those strikes
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because of those movements whether it's a local government
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a state government or provincial wherever you're from or federal government
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The tune of climate change, that term has gone from
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denial to figuring out what the action might be. Now,
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let's be honest, we may not agree on every action, every country is
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different, but we know action needs to be taken. It's
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just a matter of how fast and how much will
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be done, right? That's the big problem with governments right now,
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but it's being done because of that movement. People shared ideas, whether
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it be one person, two people or a community, organized events and
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support each other when the going got tough. Let's be honest,
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Greta Thunberg did not have an easy life going through this. She was
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mocked, she was insulted, she
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was yelled at, and she was all a teenager while doing this.
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That's a very difficult life to go through. But she had one thing,
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she wanted climate action. She wanted to inspire. She turned from doing
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it herself as an individual to inspiring hundreds of thousands, if
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not millions of people to doing it, to taking those strikes, to taking that
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action to say, hey, you know what? If a 16-year-old could tell
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a prime minister, a president, they're not doing enough, and get angry at
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them, we could do the same thing. We can tell each and every one of our
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members of parliament, our members of Congress, or whoever they
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are, the people who represent you as a government, to say,
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you are not doing enough, we want you to do more. And it's about doing it
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in a group, because one person's not going to change their mind. If
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you're in a democracy, it's the power of the popular vote, the
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power of the majority. Right? If we can get the
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majority to say that we need ocean conservation, we need climate
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action, we need to reduce overfishing and eliminate overfishing,
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we need to eliminate and reduce plastic pollution, that's
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how you do it. It's not just what you
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can do for the community. It's what you can bring to the
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table. When you join a community, whether it be on Facebook, whether
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it be on a WhatsApp group, or a Slack group, or whatever
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that might be, don't just join it for the sake of
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joining it. Join it with a purpose. Join it because a
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community matters to you. You wanna bring value to
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the community as much as you wanna get the value out of that community. You've probably
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heard that before in anything that you've talked about. You get what you
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put into it. And so you can do that with the community. For
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example, I work out at CrossFit. I'm
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horrible at it, but I enjoy it. I really enjoy working as a
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community. And going to a gym, community matters. Who I
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work out with are the people that motivate me to come each and every day, right?
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That I go work out. I don't work out every day. That would be killer for me. But I
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go, every time I go, I look forward to seeing the people, I look forward to working
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out with people that will push me, that will motivate me, that I can somewhat
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compete with. Don't tell them I'm competing, but I always look at what they do and it
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kind of drives me, right? But the value that I bring is I
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encourage other people, I support other people, whether they're better than me or
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they're not as good as me or whatever, we finish first or finish last, it
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doesn't matter, I support everybody. I'm cheering people on
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as I'm working out, if I have a breath. You know, I'm after, you
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know, we were done. We all give each other, you know, knuckles and be like, hey,
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good job. Good job. That's how we build that community. But
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at one point I lost my community. The gym that I
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was a part of, it shut down for whatever reason. We moved over to
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another gym. It was a different gym. We tried our best to make it
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like the community that we had before, because we had a really good community at the original gym.
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And we just couldn't feel it there. We just couldn't feel it. And
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I don't know if it was just the abruptness of the move, or we moved to a larger gym,
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so it was a larger community. We just couldn't find our place. But I
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had a crew of people who worked out at 6 o'clock
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in the morning. And that's a special crew. Not everybody can work out at
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6 o'clock in the morning. But we were all in the same age group and we all had
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kids and we were all trying to go through the same challenges and
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successes in life and that kind of stuff. We had a really good French group.
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We would hang out afterwards and at
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night and stuff like that. It was fun. But then at that group, at
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that gym, we just didn't have that community feel. We weren't happy there.
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And we eventually went back to the place where our
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original gym was, but it was a different name gym, run differently by
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a different person. And we said to ourselves when we went over there, there was like three
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or four that went over there, we said, look, we're not gonna have the same dynamic and
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the same people as we always did. But what we could do is when
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we get there is we can put in more effort than we did at last gym to
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make it a community. And let's make the community, if we wanted to make it a
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certain way, let's bring in the value that we can
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provide to bring in that community. Always be friendly, always
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walk up to people, ask how people are, ask about their lives and all that
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kind of stuff. As much as they want to share, let's get that out and let's make
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them feel welcome when we're there. so that they feel like
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it's the same community that we want it to be. That's the same
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thing you want to do in an online community. I know online and
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local communities, like everybody's abrasive and everybody argues with each
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other. You don't have to argue, right? You don't have to be abrasive
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with somebody. You can support. Man, what an idea. Imagine
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going into an online group and you support people. right you help them
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out or you say good job hey that really inspires me
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to do something I don't know what can you help me out right and people will be
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thoughtful people will be happy and I think that's the
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key right so the question is like now I've made a case
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like hey let's be part of a community. Government
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right now in North America, probably not going to help. I'm not familiar
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too much with Mexican government, but I know U.S. and
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Canada, we see it all the time. The next administration for the U.S. not going to be
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a help for environment. The next administration for the next
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government for Canada in a year or so, probably not going
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to be helpful for the environment. The community is going to be
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the place where you need to be. So how do you find your
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ocean conservation community? Especially if you live inland, right?
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Like there's not an ocean around, you may not have that. But the first thing
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is you start local. Look for organizations, clubs, events near
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your area. Any kind of beach cleanups, educational programs,
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any volunteer opportunities are great places to meet like-minded
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people. So just start local, get out of the house, get out of
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your apartment, get out wherever you live, and start going into places where you
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look at like a surf ride or a Trout Unlimited or something local.
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And if they offer something where you can volunteer in person, say, hey, I
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want to volunteer in person. I want to meet other people, other volunteers. I'd be
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happy to work a certain amount of hours a week or a month, and I'd be
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happy to go out there. So that helps too. Go online. Social media
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and forums are full of groups focused on ocean conservation.
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So join Facebook groups, follow activists on Instagram, or
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participate in online discussions. When you participate, remember, you
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want to bring as much value as you want to get out of it, right? So
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if you have expertise or you have some kind of knowledge or experience, share that
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experience when it's necessary, right? And I'll talk about the online
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group in just a sec. Be proactive. Don't
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wait for the perfect opportunity to come to you. Reach out, ask
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questions, and put yourself out there. The ocean needs
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your voice. It is imperative that we provide value
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quickly, that we join groups that are effective quickly,
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and you must be able to recognize whether this group is going to be
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effective or they just want to argue all the time. There are a lot of Facebook groups
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out there that just argue all the time. There's like, they're dominated by
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one or two people around. You want to make sure that everybody has a
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voice. You want to make sure that maybe they meet online virtually or
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on a regular basis, or they, you know, they ask from you
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personally. Say, hey, what do you thought, what are your thoughts about this? Or provide content,
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you know, fairly regularly, right? I think it's really important. I
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think it's important that we were able to get our voices
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out there from everybody, listen, and then provide constructive
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feedback, but not just get involved in arguments. Here's
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the bottom line. Protecting the ocean is not something that you can do alone.
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It takes a community. None of us can do it alone. It takes a
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community, a network of people united by their love for the
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ocean and their determination to protect it. So when
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you find your community, you'll find more than just support, you'll
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find purpose, you'll find strength and inspiration to keep
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going, even when the challenges feel overwhelming. And I'm
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going to guarantee you the challenges are going to feel very overwhelming, but
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we can persist through those. If you're listening to this
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and you haven't found a community yet, I encourage you to
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start looking. And better yet, I've been talking about this for the
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last six months, and I've been talking about creating an online community
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myself. I've started Facebook communities before.
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I have one for marine science and conservation careers. I
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had one for Speak Up for Blue, like this podcast.
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But in reality, I've got another one brewing, and it's going
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to be released at the end of January. it's an online
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community where it's supportive where we're going to help
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guide you to become a better advocate
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for the ocean more knowledgeable on the ocean and be
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able to act to live for a better ocean by taking the
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actions that you need to take that could be purchasing products
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that could be doing services connecting with the ocean right being part
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of workshops being together as a community and
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interacting with each other. So if you are interested in
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being part of this community, we'll release the name and
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have other people involved as well. It's not just me, okay? It's this
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new venture that I'm a part of. I want you to
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go to www.speakupforblue.com forward
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slash community to sign up and be
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on the wait list for the first people to
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come in to this community. This is a chance for
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you to shape the community that you want to be in. This is a
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chance to be one of the first to be part of this community. This
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is a community that's not going to start and then just go away. It's going to be around for
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a very, very long time. It's going to be around to provide
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value, not only to you, but to everybody in the community, and
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to be able to allow opportunities to connect to the ocean,
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whether that be virtually or in person, and interact with
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people around you, whether that be virtually or in person. It's
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a lot of fun. I'm very excited about this new opportunity. It's free to
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sign up to get this access to this list. All
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you have to do is go to speakupforblue.com forward slash community.
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That's it for me today. I'm really excited about this. I'm going
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to have more information in the next coming weeks, but please
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sign up. Keep tuning into this episode. If you have any questions, you
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can DM me at how to protect the ocean on instagram that's
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at how to protect the ocean so just dm me on instagram and of course if
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you don't want to miss any other episode you can subscribe to our youtube
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channel hit that notification bell so you don't miss any of the monday wednesday
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and friday episodes and of course we're on spotify
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video we're on apple podcasts overcast all
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your favorite audio podcast apps were there as well I
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want to thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the
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Ocean podcast. Let's start the new year off with a bang and join
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the community that will help you live for a better ocean. Thank
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you so much for listening. I'm your host Angelo and have a great day. We'll talk to you
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