Ocean Conservation and the Rise of the WaveMaker Movement

1:00:00 Welcome back to the podcast, everybody. Thank you for joining us. Today, we're gonna be diving deeper into the undertow. Last episode, we unveiled the undertow with Serena and Amanda, my co-host. And today we're gonna be diving deeper by talking about the wave maker and what we define as a wave maker. Maybe you are either a wave maker now or the next wave maker. We're gonna be talking about why it's important for wave makers to be supported, why it's important for them to be a part of the undertow, and why we're gonna be introducing to you some amazing people over the next little while to talk about ocean conservation. And it's really interesting because each and every one of us, Serena, Amanda, myself, we are wave makers in and of itself, and we are getting together to support other wave makers.

1:00:43 That's what we focus on today, why it's important for them to be supported, why it's important for them to have a community like the undertow, and I can't wait to talk about it. So we're gonna reflect on our progress around the undertow and the wave maker, share a few behind the scenes insights, and of course, that'll give you a little sneak peek into how we're shaping this movement together. So let's get started on this episode of the "How to Protect the Ocean" podcast. Let's start the show. Hey everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the "How to Protect the Ocean" podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin, and this is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for the ocean, what you can do to live for a better ocean by taking action. Now on today's episode, like I mentioned, we are going to be talking more specifically about the undertow's wave maker, what a wave maker is, how you can become one unless you're already one, and how we are going to be supporting them through the undertow.

1:01:36 I've been doing this podcast for about 10 years now. I'm coming up on 10 years this month, and it is something that I've seen a while, the wave maker. I haven't categorized them as wave makers, but I've seen these people who independently start projects, start projects like beach cleanups on a regular basis or a hashtag on the internet that goes viral or starts to pick up a lot of steam, starts a podcast or is a content creator or does something with a project that's above and beyond and maybe in the outer part of what your traditional marine conservationist could be. So that could be someone who's working for a nonprofit organization or someone who's working in government. But these are the people who kind of step outside the boundaries.

1:02:17 These are side projects that become a full-time project or as somebody who's just doing something so incredible, it doesn't really fit within the confines of what we consider a marine biologist, marine conservationist, someone who does mindfulness with the oceans, or there's a number of business with the ocean, there's a number of different ways you can do stuff with marine conservation, but not everybody's supported the same way. And so today we're going to be diving into what a wave maker is and why did he help basically is what we're really going to be talking about. So I'm joined again by Amanda and Serena, my co-founders here at the undertow for this second episode. I can't wait for you to listen about the wave maker and I'd love to hear your feedback. So here is the interview with myself, Serena and Amanda, enjoy and I'll talk to you after.

1:03:01 Hey Amanda, Hey Serena, welcome back to the how to protect the ocean podcast. Are you ready to talk about the undertow? We are always. Oh, wonderful. Like this is the second episode of our undertow series. This is an introduction to what the undertow is. We talked a lot about it in the last episode, but we're going to talk a little bit about like today, about the wave maker and what a wave maker is and what our community is supposed to build. So I'm looking forward to getting into all of this. But before we do, I know we just did it over the last episode, but why don't we remind each other or remind our audience who we are and what we do. So let's start with Amanda. Why don't you just remind the audience who you are and what you do.

1:03:42 I'm so excited to have made some progress since our last episode. I'm Amanda Horn. I am a Canadian ocean advocate. I am a scuba diver. I'm a free diver and an ocean entrepreneur. And I am just so excited to be building this with you guys and just creating a place for everyone. And anyone who's been trying to navigate their pathway into taking action for the ocean. That's why we have the undertow. Awesome. Awesome. And Serena, how about yourself? I am Serena Gwen. I am also an ocean advocate scuba diver. New or a scuba diver though, then I'll say that Amanda, a free diver.

1:04:23 And actually more recently now also a an ocean children's book author. Yes, very exciting. And I've been doing a strategy consulting on ocean innovation, how to build your strategies to incorporate or ocean solutions into your businesses. So this is just a part of the journey, but such a critical one that I've seen over the last 10 years or so in the innovation sector. So I'm excited to kind of bring all my worlds together. Absolutely. And it's so fun to be able to work with with both of you over the last almost last year, really, to be able to bring the undertow to everybody else, which is, which is amazing.

1:05:07 Why don't we just admit it? Why don't we just go through just in case people missed last episode and I highly recommend people watch or listen to the last episode. But once you just go through the mission of the undertow, because we're going to be focusing on that today and really focusing on the wave maker, but it really comes down to the mission. So why don't you just kind of let people know what that is? Yeah, absolutely. So the undertow, we say that we are a mission driven marketplace for ocean knowledge and ocean action. And the biggest thing that I think all of us connected over was that once you connect with somebody about water and what inspired them to how that has shaped their personal life, their professional life and inspire them to take action for it.

1:05:53 That seemed to be really the common thread of these incredible change makers, whether they were coming from the creative side, from the sciences, from policy advocacy, there was some sort of connection in their personal life that made them want to commit and dive in at whatever point in time. And for some people, that was very early on, like they knew right away that going into marine biology was the thing. But for a lot of other people, there seems to be a very dramatic pivot or water awakening, if you will. And so it's been, yeah, a really interesting and collective vision that it is coming together. It feels like we're building the thing that we all needed in previous careers as a place to convene and really catalyze ocean.

1:06:35 Action. So the undertow's mission is to unlock 10 million new ocean connections by World Ocean Day 2030. But most importantly, as well as unlock 5 million in ocean in investments for ocean towards ocean action, which is great because I mean, obviously we agree on this because we're driving this mission, but it's something that I feel is needed. And especially with these connections to help guide that awakening. I think a lot of people, once they get that awakening, I'm someone who's had it since I was a kid, always wanting to be around the ocean. But some of the people who are in their adult stage or even any stage of life where they're just like, what do I do now?

1:07:19 And they feel overwhelmed. And then sometimes that leads to inaction. We want to lead them to an action that they feel comfortable with, which I think is really important. I feel a lot of people when I talk to them about the ocean, it's like, well, I don't know where to start. I don't know what to do. And then maybe I'll just forget about it and like move on with my life, but still get that little bit of anxiety. You know, we've heard that the term climate anxiety, ocean anxiety, and we want to get rid of that and start putting people on a path to guiding. So I love that. I love that. Actually, I mean, and so you've been doing that through through business and through, you know, on the on the business stand front. What was that that catalyst that really made you like switch? You talked a little bit about earlier about, you know, being a newer scuba diver.

1:08:04 What was really that catalyst that made you like switch and then actually take action through, you know, your own personal career? Yeah, I think, you know, I think I should this and part of this story in the first episode, but I've always had a bias, you know, younger. I was like, oh, like I care about the environment. I remember doing like a little like project and like presentation on it. I started a little extracurricular volunteer thing about it. And then the pressures of life and responsibility kind of took over and I took a more traditional path and that part of me quieted down. Right. And I think over the last three or four years, as I matured in my professional life and my career, I really started to ask myself, like, what, what do I want to leave behind?

1:08:53 What's what's the impact I want to make? I shared, you know, I've always been a snorkeller and a water lover and starting to see the differences in the coral life in my water experiences and then really asking myself, like, I want to I want to save this for my future family. How am I going to start doing that? I'm working all of these hours. I'm so tired. You know, like we kind of had I hit that wall and I had to ask myself, what am I dedicating that time and that legacy and that impact professionally into? And that's when I started to that was kind of like the tipping point, if you will, kind of like that personal trigger.

1:09:37 And then to your point, Andrew, I'm one of those people that like kind of awakened later in life. And so I started diving into all of the information and the stories and, you know, what is it going to take to be able to take my kids snorkeling and diving and all of this stuff? And it was overwhelming. I connected and I was listening to your podcast, actually, you know, I was I was trying to like educate myself. And so I had internally awoken through my own passion and through my own love for the water and then being able to ask myself, OK, well, why do I care about it?

1:10:19 And what do I want to do for? And for me, it was like, well, I'm working all these hours and I'm doing all this stuff in my professional life. Why don't I gear it a little bit more towards something that I want to share in the future with generations to come, my kids being one of them? So that trigger point happened. And then I Amanda and I connected over over this last year or a couple of years ago at you in Ocean Decade where I was like and I started like kind of getting lost in the science and all the stories and all the information that was out there. And I was like, I wish there was just like one place where I could learn about how people were starting to make those pivots in their lives, how they connected and made changes in their daily lives.

1:11:03 And, you know, I wanted to start going plastic free and, you know, it's hard to tell what's not green washed and or blue washed and what is real and what isn't. But I learned a lot through your podcast, through the storytelling that I experienced with people who had shared their journey. And I just started to copy it and I was like, wouldn't it be great if it was just in one place? Like it wasn't wouldn't it be great if I could go somewhere I could listen to those stories and then I could actually make some changes where and when I was willing knowing that these people have dedicated their lives or are just as committed as I am and have started the research themselves.

1:11:43 And so it's kind of like that trusted community crowdsourcing marketplace concept where we didn't see it out there. And so we said, can we create it instead? Yeah. And I think what's what's interesting about each one of our stories and how we all we all met is we all had our different projects that we were that we were doing. Right. Right. Like Amanda, you were on your entrepreneurship journey with and continue to be with with bringing sort of great products that are also good for the environment. Right. Having those values there, but also really helpful products for women and and and so forth. And I think that was that was really good.

1:12:24 And then you're helping corporations really understand their relationship with water, their relationship with the ocean, protecting the ocean. And for me, we mentioned the podcast. We're on it right now to help drive that information there, guide people into less than that anxiety and just be like, look, if you just want to learn that this is where you learn, if you want to take action, you can take action. We all have what we call ourselves wave makers. Really, you know, this is where it really got like coin for us was just like we're each on this individual journey with different homes in space, you know, whether it be on the Internet space, whether it be the corporate space or the entrepreneurship space.

1:13:05 But we didn't really there was really no space for wave makers to have an audience or build an audience or even provide the messaging as well as any sort of products and services. And so, I mean, I want you to talk a little bit about that wave maker aspect here with the undertow and say, look, this is what we want to be doing. We want to be supporting, you know, people who are doing very similar to what we're doing. Yeah, and I love that we've all asked this question like, are we wave makers yet? Like, have we actually done enough? But that's also kind of the beautiful thing about letting this community grow and evolve organically because the idea is whatever your superpowers, whatever your skill set is, the ocean needs it.

1:13:51 So it's not to say this is exclusively only for people who are academics and researchers and working directly on the science because we need everybody together. So we started looking at how all of our paths kind of intersected. And like I said before, we're building the thing that we all individually needed in previous careers. And the thing that I like to challenge people when we refer to it as a marketplace is as an entrepreneur, biggest question I get is how are you going to find your customers? Find your customers who cares about swapping a more sustainable option? And my biggest dilemma when I was in marketing was I worked in wine. So we would always say just get liquid on lips, like get them to try it before they buy it.

1:14:31 And if they can taste it, they're going to love it. But so often, those free samples, they're not only wasteful, but they're very expensive. And if you're not actually targeting the people who want to shop values aligned when we're speaking about ocean safe, water conscious products, solutions, services, there needs to be a place that has that group ready and waiting and willing to hear from you. And in my case, test something that looks very ugly, but is functional at an early stage. I'm very excited to be able to allow the community to test our early prototypes. So basically, wave makers are people who have really committed to the fact that the ocean or water has had such a profound impact on their life that they wanted to dedicate their work and their purpose for it.

1:15:19 And they have been the initiator on whether it's on a project, maybe they're the head of an end, they're a founder of an NGO or they're the founder of a podcast or they have designed a new product and they're a founder. There are infinite ways to be considered a wave maker, but ultimately, it's somebody whose relationship to water radically changed their life. And now they're taking positive action in the ocean through a pathway of their own. And the goal is to be able to give you a place to come and deepen your knowledge of the different ways that people are connecting and taking action for the ocean and inspiring you to find somehow that maybe you could latch on to that or get inspired to start your own piece.

1:16:02 But the other thing is we really wanted to be able to showcase who is working on what because there's so much duplication of effort. And it's really about empowering people to just be very clear on what their specific skill set is and what they could potentially lend and collaborate. And it's about how do we become more efficient when we're trying to collaborate and co design and network with each other and really connect with intention. And yeah, I think that's what excites me the most about it is having this connected network of incredible change makers who as we say are leading the way by making waves and wave makers we see that term and all the ocean puns thrown around a lot when it comes to branding and things in the ocean.

1:16:49 But for us, it's so specific that it's pathways and the waterways that have led you to your path and purpose into the sustainable ocean economy. I'll leave it at that. I think you covered it off so great and the intentionality behind I know wave makers is thrown around, but we spell it as in W.A.Y. first because they're providing other ways for people to get pulled into ocean action. Whether that is by first telling their story and connecting on a human and emotional level to kind of drive that water awakening, if you will, whether that story is because they people want to find a way to sustainably travel or to make swaps in their everyday life to bring this to their company's vision and mission.

1:17:43 And then providing those solutions. So Amanda, you've got your products. I've got the business and then the consulting side and the storybooks. And you've got the podcast, the media side of things covered off. And in between all of that are the everyday life changes that we've made through purchase swaps, through volunteer hours, through initiatives that we've either supported in various ways, whether that's like human resource, capital resource or otherwise. I think what's really important here when you are a wave maker and creating new ways for people to connect in its story, but also the work that you do because the other challenge that a lot of our wave makers face is SDG 14 is the lowest funded SDG of all of them.

1:18:36 We have a fraction of the amount of capital that is being invested in climate solutions going to the ocean. And so we're going to be able to provide that to people who are interested in the future, whether that's being able to make those purchases of ocean safe products, whether that is volunteer hours, whether that is donations, whether that is finding ways to support in bigger ways.

1:19:24 And so I think that's really important because it's going to be an everybody effort and we want to be able to provide that not only place to land that you know that platform that infrastructure to start centralizing things. We want to provide a community to drive that ongoing learning because I can assure you I'm not going to go back to school to become a marine anything. I think that's a simple path to taking action, whether that is everyday products, projects and or company initiatives, this kind of thing. Yeah, you hit the nail right on the head when you just said that. I've met a lot of people over my time where they get that awakening and all of a sudden, like, I need to go back and become a marine biologist. I need to become a science. I need to do four years of undergrad, even though I already did four years of undergrad, or maybe I need to do a master's or maybe I need to a PhD, which if that's their choice, I always say, go ahead, do that.

1:20:17 But a lot of times people are well into their careers. They might have families. They might have financial obligations that they have to be there where that commitment and that sacrifice to go back to school is a lot. You know, it's a difficult thing. And I always tell people like, look, we have a lot of scientists. We have a lot of marine biologists out there. Obviously, we need more, but there's a competition for funding and it's not easy to get jobs when you're doing that. And we need more people in different places and different career paths, different sectors to really have that mindset of what can I do with my skill set right now to be able to put it on there? And I think that's where the guidance becomes a little wishy washy, for lack of a better term.

1:21:02 And it's where do I go from here? How do I apply it? And do I need to join a board for a nonprofit, which that could be a great way to support your local nonprofit or do I need to start my own project? And I think over my time, I've done this for 10 years now, right? And with this podcasting, and I've been in the marine biology business for a long time, like almost more than 20 years. God, I'm old. This is crazy. But anyway, regardless, like I've been in this for a while and I've met a lot of people doing the podcast. I've talked to a lot of people and I've seen some great things from from people like from my guests and talking about different projects, but everybody's doing it on their own.

1:21:45 You know, a lot of the times they there's what I've noticed is there's this category of people and doesn't happen with everybody and that's fine. But there's a category of people who are just they've got such a passion for what they want to do that. They just they do it on their own. They just go ahead and do it. And they may get funding another way, whether it's through Patreon or whether it's through a service or a product or whatever. But they do it no matter what at a sacrifice of their own time of their own lifestyle and or they change their lifestyle to do it because they have a real passion for it. But it doesn't fit within the mold of our traditional marine biology, marine conservation, nonprofit or even government model. And they may not get support through that through their own company or through their own whoever they're working for. So they started on their own, but they're all it's all individual. It's all on their own. And I feel like they're there and they felt like this for a long time.

1:22:39 And when Undertow came along, I'm like, yes, this is this is it. There needs to be a place where people can come share their projects, share their missions and then also have that infrastructure to build a business around it and get supported financially through it because these are important things that could do it. And it doesn't only drive the next big wave of change that we've seen and and go beyond what we see the traditional join a non profit organization get paid very little. You know, there's nothing wrong with making money and still doing good for the ocean, you know, and I've been a big advocate of that for the last, you know, 1012 years and and I'm still going to be that for going forward. going forward. So I love to like once we started talking about the WaveMaker and defining what that is, I can see people.

1:23:24 You know we have a list of people that you know we are going to invite and we're inviting it already to join as a WaveMaker and this is exciting because now we get to provide a place where they are supported, where they can share with each other, they can share with us. I mean we're all you know we've kind of coined ourselves WaveMakers because we've been doing this so we know a lot of the struggles, we know a lot of what what's necessary and I know and both of you ladies know too like building a community, being part of a community, doing something that may be different will really help support us and that's that's what I'm really excited about you know around this time like obviously the need for you know building that in for helping them build that infrastructure, having a community and building that community for them but also just being able to talk to somebody else who's gone through the same thing and share the woes and share the successes you know and support each other because like I don't know about you ladies but like there have been a lot of times where I'd be like am I is this right is this what I'm like should I really be doing this I spend a lot of time on this like is this what I really need to be doing and the answer is yes every time but sometimes it helps because we all the three of us talk about it's like no we're doing the right like this is all of us individually are doing what we need to do and then collectively like yeah this is what we need to do we need to help support through I think you were about to say so yeah like it's funny because we're early enough to that the beauty of this is our community and our way makers get to shape the rest of this infrastructure we're we're just the

1:24:56 catalyst of this all right because we had such a desire to be like where do I get this information oh I met that person along my journey and I met that person along my journey and they're really cool and I'm like how do I keep track of them all you know how do I keep track of them all and the progress that they're making in the products are creating or the initiatives that they're kicking off how do I share that with people because you know as I dove into this sector people are like Serena like what is the blue economy like why the ocean and I start to share what I've learned over the last little bit they're like oh yeah you know what I've always had a connection to the ocean and I'd love to do something but like where do I start back to kind of like what people were saying you right and so now when I have those conversations with people who first off question why I made the change and to want to know how they can support me or want to make changes in their life and say like I'd love to help somehow but you know I'm too busy like can you just point me in the direction I can invite them to the the undertow and they'll have a place where they can hear more stories like mine probably strengthen their connection to the water learn a little bit more but also take that action right so infrastructure community the action pathways like they're they're all such a fundamental part of this community right now and we hope that everybody will participate in helping us continue to evolve it and continue to give them the experience that

1:26:29 maybe they were looking for and so kind of put this on the back burner because it was overwhelming and there was too many options and it was hard to tell what was real versus you know on its way to being real versus maybe something that that could use a little bit more research yeah absolutely well I think I think also it's interesting too is like we I when I meet someone who is a wave maker or who we define as a wave maker I get so inspired I get excited I get giddy when it when I when I mean it like just the other day posted an interview I've had him on a number of times and dr. Andrew Thaler it's always doing these individual projects you know working with this you know local government you know being on and commissions and stuff like I spending a lot of time doing this stuff just for his local town you know of a small town getting over flooding and all this kind of stuff and he comes up with all these projects and you get inspired by it you're just like oh this is awesome and I think having wave makers in the undertow community will help I think inspire people who join the community who may not have that project just yet or that individual sort of like goal yet but might get inspired by what other people are doing but oh maybe I can do something similar or I've always wanted to do this and just finally pull that trigger and say yes like like this is it just like kind of what we all went through in a different pathway so man like you meet a lot of people you know

1:28:02 who were doing different things in and outside of the ocean was there one point where you were just like so you met somebody and you were just like oh wow like this person is a wave maker like this person I would love to either work with this person or just get completely inspired in what they're doing yeah and so when I first was starting my company because I decided I need to pivot from the wine industry figure out how to be a marketer in the ocean space not gonna go be a marine biologist but I love scuba diving so maybe I can find a way for the ocean scuba diving to be in my life as a communications professional and so I needed to build a network I needed to talk to people who are in it but no idea the vastness of opportunities that existed and so I was trying to develop products and develop a brand I didn't have time to blog so I'm like I'm gonna start a podcast I just love documenting these conversations with people who's amazing again personal connection to water has inspired them to initiate something cool and it started as just a way for me to all be able to look back like once I had launched a business and think of all the cool intersections of people so like I talked to water some l.a.s who had like health scares and that was their path into educating people on the importance of clean safe drinking water and health and hydration I did a citizen science project of my own and I talked to the founder of that she was a Canadian she

1:29:32 established a product project in Nusa Penida Indonesia and now has scaled that project to multiple sites all over Asia and being able to bring people along to educate pairing them up with marine biologists on the ground involving them in their coral research so I was meeting mermaids like I was meeting all these super cool people with interesting stories people who consistently felt like even though they were doing so much they felt like it wasn't of value and so it was also a way to remind people that whatever small action you are taking whether you've chosen now to eliminate plastic in your bathroom or shorten your shower time all the way up to like establishing a citizen science project whatever you're doing it's important and we need to bring awareness to it so that people don't feel irrelevant or undervalued and starting with your story and your connection and your why behind why you're doing your work and it's such a beautiful and sometimes complicated thing to have your personal life intersect so much with your work like because there's no separation sometimes but um it was also a struggle for me as I was trying to navigate who am I in this ocean space am I amanda the marketer am I an ocean advocate I'm not really a credible ocean advocate yet what do I need to become that how do I build products that people who work on the sciences would actually validate and want to use um so that's been a whole

1:31:04 very interesting I don't want to be another greenwashing marketer that was my reason for wanting to leave um the industry and create real change from the outside and hopefully bring that back into supply chains and when you're doing all of this mission driven work and you're an individual or independent you have you wear a lot of different hats you've all these different projects doesn't matter what organization you work for it starts with you and what your connection is and then you're the sum of all of those experiences your own knowledge maybe you're not considered you don't consider yourself an expert but your lived experience and knowledge is just as important um in a different way so it's how did we create this organic ecosystem where people can show up as they are um leading with themselves leading with their personal story that's where people connect and those were the conversations that were having the most impact on me was when I can tell somebody like oh my first love is dance and now all of a sudden I'm meeting like somebody who is working with dancers underwater and playing with freediving techniques and doing this I don't know needing stuntmen and like who are the avatar freediving team like there are infinite intersections in ways that everything connects to water so that's what inspires me there's not one that stands out and I've been I have this running record of over like 200 names now of people that like you're away from here like anyone so um I'm so excited to see this grow and have people be inspired to refer and nominate each

1:32:35 other and that's I think the thing that I want us to always be conscious of is that Serena, Andrew and Amanda like we are not the undertow it is this collective and it's everybody as individuals so three of us came together as individuals underneath this umbrella and anybody else who is taking positive action for water like you belong here and whether like it's as a wave maker or is as a community member like that's that power of small like individual collective action that is going to add up to a positive impacts yeah and I think the big thing here is as part of this community is collaboration right like that's a big thing we are from an industry no matter where you come from science business you know marketing communications it is a community that continues to talk about collaboration a lot of times fails with collaboration you know on a on an over you know just an overview site even in in the when you get into the weeds of it all and that is the the most frustrating part of working with an industry is the lack of collaboration and a lot of times it's not necessarily one or two organizations or people it's just the way the system is set up it's this it's you know people are competing for the same funding over and over again and people are competing for just different aspects of it and it just forms this me against you type of thing and I need to get ahead and and that's a big problem which we're trying to

1:34:06 cut away you know in in the undertow with with wave makers is to collaborate there might be some wave makers that speak about the same things or have very similar missions and you know they're they might do well by combining might do well by supporting each other they might do well you know interacting with each other and still be able to succeed both of them or more than one or or however that might be and I think that is one of the the foundations that we've been wanting to discuss because we've all gone through it and and it sucks and when we're come together and we collaborate that's when we really start to start to really see change happen and I think that's something that I'm looking forward to seeing in the undertow and providing in the undertow and and it takes a lot from each individual to just be like yeah look I want to see you succeed I want you to do well and I think that's what it really comes down to when we see these wave makers get inspired like I wanna do something that helps you know build whatever business you have whatever services or products that you have.

1:35:04 have what are their services or products that you have what can I do to help and let's provide a community for that. So I think this is this is really great in terms of of WaveMaker. Let's let's now people might be listening to this like like I think I'm a WaveMaker or I want to join the undertow as a community member or thing. I mean why don't we just talk a little bit about like how they can join and and what the next step. Wait can I jump in Andrew because I think I think you know you frame that up so well and and it's a great lead and and so like if we've talked about all the components so if we were to summarize this if you're a WaveMaker right what I'm hearing slash what I know because we're building this is we're going to be that that place for you that infrastructure for you to plug your years of work dedication research commitment to whether it's the products you've been creating the services the initiatives and the story that started at all yeah we're going to give you that place we're all going to be a part of this collective community on this mission to drive 10 million new ocean connections and drive more funding five million in ocean action and we're going to create the action pathways for people who don't really know where to start to be able to start making those everyday changes in their lives in their personal

1:36:35 lives in their communities and hopefully at at a later stage in the companies that they might represent and be advocates for and within so that's our WaveMakers and for our community side the 10 million of you hopefully we bring together because you're inspired by Amanda's story you're inspired by Andrew's story maybe you're inspired by mine or Amanda the the folks that you met the 200 the list of 200 folks you have on your list Andrew the I don't know I don't even know what number episode you're on to be honest episode a million of the podcast that you brought through like our community has a place now to come be inspired by those stories learn build their ocean knowledge and then take those action pathways so now Amanda you know I I think this is a great site I wanted to summarize everything that I heard I think that we talked about it in pieces but Amanda over to you that's perfect excellent segue there's so many things to do um so we're excited because right now tomorrow I guess is uh the start or this week is the start of world ocean week or ocean month and we always reach this dilemma oh it's earth month like just do a social media post it goes so much beyond that like how are you now integrating and weaving in these conscious actions in your everyday life I love now when people say oh you're really into the environment I'm like well we kind

1:38:06 of have to be and that's not like a trend it's not a hot new thing so we're excited that the first action that if you have no idea where to start join the community and that means that what you're going to have access to is you're going to hear and it gets to the chance to explore a new ocean connection every month um we're going to whether that's art that's music mindfulness travel conservation coral will get super specific depending on who the wave maker and what their story is but we invite you to explore and open your mind to a new way that you never thought life was interconnected to the ocean through the life and the lens of whoever that featured wave maker is as a storyteller that month and from there you'll be invited to shop around the marketplace whether it's something in action that you can take in your personal life um or if it's a solution maybe it's you work for your you're like looking for a b2b solution of a new plastics replacement to pull into your your supply there are infinite things that are going to appear on here all the way to immersive water experiences so you can get yourself in the water and really feel connected to what it is that we're talking about because reconnecting with nature I can tell is just driving people's new passion for saving the environment and once you go underwater you snorkel on a coral reef when that is alive and thriving you never

1:39:37 forget it like whether you love spending time just by the water or on it it's physically being connected to it that is going to be the most inspiring and the best way that we can do in a virtual context um is to bring you as many different stories and perspectives as as we can and that's a whole other conversation on like building an online community and that's what we're talking about. um from a community and what this looks like from a design side but we know that community driven initiatives are the most effective and digital infrastructure underlies a lot of what we do how we can coordinate and collaborate in a more effective and efficient way and build new interesting social enterprise like business models that are actually going to help flow funding into the issues um and the sustainable develop goals that we that we care the most about so join the community that's that's a really important thing to want. and efficient way and build new interesting social enterprise like business models that are actually going to help flow funding into the issues and the sustainable development goals that we care the most about.

1:40:25 So join the community. That's your first action. Come on in, start joining our monthly events, meeting other people whose lives and work have been inspired by water. And I guarantee there's no shortage of inspiration in this group of people that is lurking below the surface. Absolutely. I love that. I love that. And to do that, if you want to sign up, you can do so speakupforblue.com forward slash the undertow. So that's speakupforblue.com forward slash the undertow. I'll put the link in the show notes so that people can get access to it. Sign up. We'll be in touch with you on how to join and everything like that. And as we're getting this online community ready for you, but we want to announce it because this is something we want people to be a part of.

1:41:12 We want people, we want to see you in this community. We want to see you taking action. We want to see you taking part in conversations. It's a fantastic way to be able to see all the different conversations that are going around about the ocean, whether you're a marine biologist, whether you're in business, whether you're in marketing, whether it doesn't matter. You know, you want to be a part of the ocean that you get to be a part of the ocean. So we're looking forward to doing that. So speakupforblue.com forward slash the undertow. Ladies, it's so great to have you on the podcast. Obviously, this is not the last time we're going to have you on. We're going to have you on more to talk about the undertow. We'll have our own little series here on the how to protect the ocean podcast. But thank you so much for joining me. Just to let people know, this is we're recording this really early in the morning because our schedules are so busy because we are wave makers and we have a lot of stuff going on.

1:41:59 So I really appreciate you guys taking the time to come out and talk about the undertow and wave makers. And for everybody else, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you very much. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you, Serena. Thank you, Amanda, for joining us today on the how to protect the ocean podcast. You're going to hear a lot more from both of those two incredible women because one, they're wave makers to they're my co-founders. And the how to protect the ocean podcast is now powered by the undertow. We're doing a full on integration. I can't wait for this. There's going to be some podcasts that are coming in. Remember, we have beyond jaws and we have the how to protect the ocean podcast as part of the Speak up for Blue network. This is going to be amazing what we're going to be putting together as we move forward with the undertow.

1:42:45 So I can't wait for you to be a part of it to do so. All you have to do is go to speak up for blue dot com forward slash the undertow. Just go on a list. We'll give you some information when we fully and functionally launch this online community. You're going to love it. I can't wait to be a part of it. We're going to be having a lot of things going on community like virtual meetups and so forth is going to be a lot of fun. But you get to the podcast. You know, there's no algorithms. It's basically as information comes in, you're going to get to know about it. That's going to be a lot of fun. You're going to get to meet our wave makers. So keep connected. Speak up for blue dot com forward slash the undertow. Put your email in. You will remain connected with us. And it's not just for this podcast, but for building a community for the ocean to do 10 million connections and five million dollars in action.

1:43:29 I can't wait for you to be a part of this. And thank you so much for listening to this episode of how to protect the ocean podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin from the true North strong and free. Have a great day. We'll talk to you next time and happy conservation.