May 10, 2024 • 29 mins
Cori Myka transforms adult non-swimmers from fearful beginners into confident achievers of their wildest aquatic aspirations. Even if you are fish in the water, we all have a fear of something and as Julie and our guest discuss, this wisdom goes far beyond your backyard pool.
Connect with Cori:
Like the show? Be sure to Like, Subscribe, Review and Share! Interested in being a part of WEE? Reach out to our group liaison, Kelli@WomenExcellingEverywhere.com
Connect with Cori:
- AdultSwimLesson.com
- 425.793.9870
- Cori@OrcaSwimSchool.com
- Free Online Intro Class
- 2024 Retreat
Like the show? Be sure to Like, Subscribe, Review and Share! Interested in being a part of WEE? Reach out to our group liaison, Kelli@WomenExcellingEverywhere.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
Welcome, welcome everyone to the WomenExcelling Everywhere podcast in twenty twenty four.
I am so happy to be hereon this beautiful day with all of you
and with my amazing guest who hasa very interesting she Actually it's a great,
great business, but I am lookingforward to hearing even more about the
(00:31):
nuts and bolts of the business,and that is Corey Micah. Corey,
welcome so much to the Women ExcellingEverywhere podcast. Hi, thanks for having
me excited to be here. OhI'm glad. I'm glad. So let
me read everyone kind of your professionalbio and then we'll get down into who
Corey really is. Okay, So, Corey Micah transform transforms adult non swimmers
(00:58):
from fearful beginners into common achievers oftheir wildest aquatic aspirations. She's been featured
in MPR and up USA Today.Corey is the founder of Calm with Adult
within Adult Swim and the creator ofthe Foundations of Change Learning method With over
two decades of experience, her uniqueapproach to adult swimming lessons combines mental conditioning
(01:22):
and physical skill mastery, resulting inhighly acclaimed teaching methods. Corey's influence extends
beyond the pool, shaping everyday lives. She imparts her wisdom to students and
instructors at ORCA Swim School in Seattle, Washington. Virtually, that's very cool
that you can do this virtually andthrough personalized OHO Tropical Retreats. Welcome again,
(01:48):
Corey to the Women Excelling Everywhere podcast. Thank you so good to be
here. You know, this issuch a neat because as I was looking
at all of this, I'm like, actually, tropical retreats, like,
like whoo, one of one ofthe things that I enjoy the most every
time because I love the tropics,and at least once a year my husband
and I are in Hawaii or someplacetropical, and one of the highlights and
(02:14):
things that I enjoy the most aboutthat trip as we always go out and
snorkel and we stay at a locationwhere there's you know, we can just
walk out to the beach and snorkeland that's so enjoyable to me, and
it's it's kind of it was interestingto me when I when I read through
this, I'm like, oh,I guess there are a lot of people
(02:36):
that that is overwhelming for so suchan Yeah, so such a unique what
you mentioned that forty five percent ofpeople of adults are afraid to get in
the water. Why why do youthink that is? Is it just something
never learned to swim? That canbe part of it. And you know,
(02:59):
the range goes off away from fortyfive to sixty five percent. Forty
five percent of people are afraid toget into pools, and then you're up
in the more like sixty much higherpercentage when you talk open water. Of
course, there's a lot more variablesright when you tuck open water. But
I mean, at the end ofthe day, if you don't grow up
(03:20):
with a swimming family and a swimmingculture, that's that is a big reason
why people don't know how to swim. And one of the ways that if
you're let's just say your mom.Hate to blame mom, but you know,
if your mom doesn't know how toswim, one of the ways for
her to keep you safe is tohave you be afraid, right, because
(03:40):
then you never go. If younever get in the water, you're never
going to drown. So it's avery effective strategy. However, like you
say, going on vacation to Hawaii, you're missing out on this whole thing,
and it leaves people vulnerable as well, obviously if they found themselves in
water and not knowing what to do. Yeah, and that's that's a very
(04:02):
good point, a very very goodpoint. You hear about drownings all the
time. And my husband is aswimming pool contractor, and there's you know,
so he's he's dealt with that onthe legal end of things when he's
building the pool, right, becauseto prevent the drownings and whatnot. And
it makes me I had thought aboutuntil you just mentioned it, because I'm
(04:26):
the brain lady, and so Ideal with all the psychology of different things,
but I've never really thought about thatpsychological piece of what's generationally passed down
from the parent to the child ofan actual not just not learning to swim,
but a fear of the water.Yeah, and it can be very
direct or. Like I had thisone student, Luanne. She would come
(04:48):
to class and she's like, well, you know, I just talked to
my mom on the way to class. And she gets off the phone and
well, lu Anne, be carefulnot calling your mom before you come to
class. Call her after tell herhow well it went. That's you out.
(05:08):
You're stressing her out. It's nothelping. Yeah, and you know,
there's so many psychological positive benefits tobeing around the water as well,
like being there's from a brain healthpoint of view and a mood a calming
mood point you know, being inthe water, around the water, hearing
the water, putting your feet inthe water, all of those things are
(05:31):
very good and healthy for your brain. So there is you know, looking
at the statistics, that's like halfthe population are missing out on those positive
psychological benefits. Yes, this istrue for those of us who have positive
associations with the water. There isso much positive psychological benefit. I was
(05:54):
talking with somebody, It's like,why did you choose swimming your whole life?
I don't know, I just amattracted to it. Are very there
isn't innate attraction to water. Butyeah, if you are don't know what
to do, or like are tryingto do these very advanced things, the
experience doesn't create the psychological benefit.But that is the place that we have
(06:17):
to set people up in a wayso they can access that psychological benefit.
Yeah. Well I want to hearmore about that. But before we get
to that, tell me this,because you kind of started to say there's
such an interesting field to be inthat you've actually that you're focusing not because
(06:38):
when you hear swim teachers, youknow, ninety percent of the time,
I would think your brain goes toteaching kids, or coaching adolescents or something
you don't think about taking an adultwho has no experience in the water.
What made you? What made youdevelop your business and the adult swim Wait
(06:59):
a minute, what's the name?I'm sorry, Adult swim Lesson Adults Adult
swim Lesson at the orcat swim poolSchool? What made you? Like what
led you to this path your inyour life? Corey? Yeah, well
I did start with kids. Itwas the thing I did all you know,
summer, every summer at the pool, all that kind of thing.
(07:21):
Started our swim school in nineteen ninetynine for kids. But it was the
adults that really sparked my interest becauseI could get them to swim across the
pool doing a perfectly adequate stroke likeanybody walking by and be like, oh,
they're swimming front crawl. But you'dask them how was it and they
(07:43):
would have this like deer in theheadlights look and like I have no idea,
And I thought, all right,this is interesting. And curious,
why is what I do for kidsnot working for adults? Why is it
that they can do perform the taskbut they don't feel confident or safe for
secure? So there was a muchbroader, bigger answer, you know,
(08:07):
question to kind of go for.So that is really where I leaned into
and I think why I'm still inthis business because it was so interesting for
me to help unfold that and unpackthat. Now do you find Okay,
we're gonna get a little philosophical here. Can't you find that the fear in
(08:30):
one area of their life is expressedin their fear of swimming or vice versa,
their fear of the water. Ishouldn't say swimming as a whole,
as you know, but the fearof water, especially if you go into
the larger you know, oceans,rivers, lakes, that kind of thing.
Do you find that that fear eitheris manifest from another fear or it
(08:56):
manifests manifests itself in other fears.Did that make any sense? I think
I get? Yeah, I thinkyou get like, does it show up
in one place and another place?Do they kind of mirror each other?
And I mean, so there's acouple different things in there. So we
(09:16):
certainly because we're working so closely withthe body and coming in tune with the
body and what the body feels,both as emotion and as sensations and as
body reactions. All this stuff ishappening when people get into the water,
so people who have sometimes when peoplehave traumas that are not in the water,
(09:41):
they will show up for them inthe water. And that just in
that being in this presence of yourbody and feeling what's going on. So
you know, I had one studentwas swimming along fine, and then suddenly
she just was overwhelmed from a childhoodmemory of you know, a boat sinking
(10:01):
and hearing you know, lots ofpeople drown, like this very traumatic thing
that happened when she was a child. She hadn't remembered that until we were
in the water together, right ityou know, it was able to come.
It kind of came forward, andshe then needed to decide do I
want to process that or not?Right, and we give space for that.
(10:24):
So there's so that definitely that kindof thing comes up. And then
as it turns out, you know, when I'm working with people in the
water, we're doing lots of understandinghow our brain and our body works together,
and so people I pull in thingsof their daily life as examples so
(10:45):
that we find out, oh,learning to swim, learning to overcome your
fear here does work the same asother areas in my life, and I
was successful with that. I canpull in that confidence from some other area,
so they do go back and inthat way. Way. Yeah,
I actually like that because when youthink about, you know, in reality,
what you just said is basically whatTony Robbins does with walking on coals.
(11:11):
You know, it's it's in ina term, in psychological terms,
it's really kind of that same processof overcoming something, something big and scary
that you didn't think you could dothat Once you do it, it opens
up your mind to realize, oh, hey, if I could do that,
I can do this. Yes,but with swim. But with swimming
(11:35):
bonus, you get to learn toyou know, you get to go to
Hawaii and ghost exactly. Sounds muchmore fun than walking on goals. Yeah,
and you're not gonna have minor burnson the bottom of your feet for
sure. This is way more fun, way more fun, way more fun.
Yeah, I tell you, Iam. Like I said, I
thoroughly. I've gotten in trouble withhow much I love just floating in the
(11:58):
water. Are in the peacefulness ofthe floating in the water. There was
a there have been snorkeling trips thatthe entire boat has been on the boat
waving at me, going come on, it's time to come back, and
I'm just like, why, whycome back? It's a gravity. Yeah,
so it's a huge It is ahuge for me, a huge stress
(12:22):
release. But obviously for someone whohas never learned how to gain the skill
to be in the water, orhas had like your client that you just
mentioned, had a traumatic experience,then of course it's an entirely different situation.
Are there specific things other than thetechnique of this is how you swim,
(12:50):
that you help them calm and relaxand focus on the positive instead of
those negative emotions that they're feeling.For sure, I mean the you'd mentioned
in the bio. You know,we have this foundations of change, So
we say there's two steps mental toevery one step physical. That eighty percent
(13:11):
of it is the mental piece ofit, and so it's really a piece.
The first piece is getting truly groundedright here, right now, you
can call this mindfulness, body awareness, all these kinds of things. Right,
there's lots of techniques and pieces toit, but really getting present right
now because the fear is in thefuture, I'm not going to be able
(13:35):
to breathe and I'm going to die, right, That's like the big picture,
and so but we have to startwith oh, but right now I
am okay, Right, So gettingpeople really present and then keeping them connected.
The other piece is, well,where do I want to go?
How do I want my swimming tofeel. I want my swimming to feel
like Julie talked about a funny,this sort of ah lovely moment. So
(14:01):
I have to take a step forwardthat keeps me in that zone that I'm
not taking such a big physical stepor physical risk that I'm not staying connected
to how I want my swimming tofeel. And so we really it's about
that feedback loop. Then you takea little step. I mean in that
(14:22):
little step could be I stepped downonto the first step of the water and
put my feet in the water.And so now I've taken an action step.
But whooh, Okay, I'm stillalive. I can still breathe.
Great, We start again with thatwhere I'm at Yeah, you know,
there's so many as you're talent,as you're going through that these steps and
(14:45):
that application of mindfulness and being present, and this applies the principle of what
you're teaching in this situation applies toevery aspect to everything in our life that
brings us fear, every limiting beliefthat we have, every fearful situation.
What you just describe, the stepsof what you just just described helps us
(15:07):
in every aspect of our life.So anyone listening, you know, the
other fifty percent of the population rightcan can go Okay, this is what
this is amazing information for you.Now you actually so you have you do
virtual How does that work? Yeah? So, how that works is we
(15:30):
are breaking the steps down again,both the mental and the physical steps,
and we're breaking it down into smallenough chunks and pieces that people can you
go online, you listen, youdo a little written feedback kind of thing
exercises, and then we give youa very small step to go do.
At the water. We don't recommendgoing out by yourself somewhere. You don't
(15:54):
go to a public pool where there'sa lifeguard. You're taking a lifeguard with
your or whatever but even at thatso, yes, you want to have
that backup system there, but we'regiving people such a small step so that
they can learn to be in chargeof their safety as they go. So
(16:14):
so they do a small step andthen and then they come back and provide,
we provide feedback, you know,and they have next lessons and we
just break it down into these tiny, tiny parts. I love it.
So now you have you actually notonly do the training there and the training
virtually, but you have a programwhere if there's a woman out there or
(16:40):
a man for that matter. We'renot biased against the men, but if
there's an individual out there who's lookingat you know what I want to I
want to start something unique. Iwant to do an entrepreneurial business. You
actually have a training course and certifyother individuals to base sickly be the same
(17:02):
type of a trainer that you are. Yes, we do. Because the
online it works. Do people followthrough with it the real like tenacious person
does. They're amazing, But peopledo they want in person too, write
and we can't be everywhere. Sowe are dedicated to certifying instructors to be
(17:22):
able to start their own shop intheir own local communities. And with their
own local people too, because it'sthe diversity of instructors is super important.
People need to see themselves and soyeah, we train folks up on how
to have the most heart centered lovelybusiness. Could be primary or a side
(17:48):
business, you know. Yeah,it's wonderful. That's pretty cool. So
if you're somebody who loves the water, definitely definitely makes for a plus.
That's awesome. And you have aninstruction school there that you so you do
yep, yep, yep, that'sthat's very cool. Now you did mention
something we were talking about before westarted this the recording. You actually do
(18:17):
retreats because this really well, ofcourse, you know tropics. I already
said I love the tropics, butyou actually do retreats during the year where
you I'm assuming it just might besomeplace tropical, I don't know. Yeah,
we do. The tropical ones arethe most fun. Yes, they're
(18:41):
the most fun because, yeah,people can come and they learn to swim
in beautiful places. Right, you'rejust walking from your room to the pool.
No, l like commuting and allthat kind of stuff. But they
also get to learn to swim andlearn to snorkel. Right, we get
we get folks out into the ocean. And that's really what people want to
(19:03):
be able to do, is againthe experience that you talked about. That's
that's the majority of people have thatdream to be able to do that.
So that's what they get to doon the tropical retreats. And then we
also have many retreats that are likewe do them here in Seattle, and
then we have other locations too,but where you come in for three days
(19:26):
and you take the class in threedays and you make a huge transformation of
your understanding of yourself and the waterduring those three days, and so those
are those are great fun too.Until we have a teacher trained in your
local community, that's the best way. That's that's very cool. That's awesome
that you do that and that youmake that available and really that pardon the
(19:49):
pun, that immersion in that,in that atmosphere and in that you know,
working at it so intensely for afew day makes I'm sure for a
lot of progress that you can makevery very quickly. So that's that's pretty
cool, and I would definitely encourageit because to me, of course,
(20:12):
I'm a water baby, but tome, there's that thing better than you
know, being able to go outthere. When we were out there a
few months ago, we swam withthe dolphins and it was it was kind
of interesting because we were in Hawaii, so you know, you can't pull
the boat up very close to youhave to keep the legal distance. But
we jumped in the we got inthe water and we just kind of floated
(20:33):
and the entire pod just went rightunderneath us and they came to us,
which was just such a beautiful,such a beautiful experience. And there's there's
so many positive physical things to beingin the water as well, from exercise
in the water to if you havejoint inks and pains, right am I
hitting on some? Oh for sure? For sure. You know, it's
(20:56):
one of these things. It's anactivity that you can really do do your
entire lifespan, and it can beso joyous and wonderful. I mean,
you know, I have my childrenare young adults. Do I call my
eighteen year old adults? I guessthey're young adults. But I think of
all the times that we had justreally bonding times in the water, and
(21:21):
even you know, we're going totake a big graduation trip this summer,
and there's going to be a lotof swimming, and it's this place that
it's the great equalizer when we doall that hiking, Like Mom's going to
be dragging and you know, right, I'm going to be behind these young
fit people. Yeah, huffing andpuffing' but you get in the water,
(21:41):
right, It's this great equalizer andit's this wonderful experience that we get to
have together. I love it.I love it. So what would be
your I'm going to ask you toshare a couple of pieces of advice.
One, what would be your pieceof advice to an individual out there who
has the desire to get past thisfear, but has never picked up the
(22:08):
phone and made that phone call orhas never like what's your what's your piece
of advice to encourage them to makethat next step. My piece of advice
to them is to get started onone small step. And I think really
the easiest small step is go watchour YouTube videos to see there's a different
(22:32):
way. Because most of the timewe when we take on and this is
true for our entrepreneurial life, thisis true for you know, our family
life. We look at like thebig end goal and the reason why you
do that is so that you donothing pretty much right of the fight flight
(22:52):
Beer concerned with draw kicks in andit's like, I'm I'm not even touching
that with a ten football totally.We were talking about so media before.
It was like I have to doall the things on Solis reput no just
post one post today, comment onecom right. You have to have like
a tiny step to get you started. So that would really be my step
is to take the pressure off andto see a new way and that doesn't
(23:18):
involve having to do everything to gofrom where you're at to joining Julie in
Hawaii with the Dolphins. Right,we don't have to go quite you know,
just one tiny step and that isa great one or the in this
we're gonna have a free intro classas part of the show notes here too,
that you just take one tiny stepthat doesn't feel too scary. Right,
(23:42):
you can sit in your own homeand watch a video. We're not
gonna die. We're not gonna likehave to put the swimsuit on yet,
right, right, I like thatone one step at a time. Now,
you've been doing this for a while. So that leads me to my
second question, and that would beyour top piece of advice to entrepreneurs who
(24:04):
are in those those little those allthose things about being in business for yourself.
What what piece of advice would yougive on that? Well, I'll
give the the motto that my officemanager or like she's more than an office
(24:25):
manager with me a long time.The screening process we do for all problems,
keep it simple and let it beeasy. How often we make the
problems or the things so complex andso right? Like what you know,
she comes to me with a clientquestion or a teacher you know we have
(24:45):
teachers on staff or whatever some problemand we're like, what is this simple
and easy answer for this? Afterwe like, let our hair go on
fire, hang on right? Whatdo we do keep it simple and let
it be easy that moves you tothe next thing. I like that.
(25:06):
I like that, keep it simpleand let it be easy. I love
that. Love that great advice,Corey. So, for individuals who are
interested in the adult swim Lessons,you are at adultswim Lessons dot com.
That's your main website, and thatis also the retreats that we talked about.
Is that same website forward Slash SwimmingDash Retreat correct. Yeah, Adult
(25:33):
swim lesson dot com just one lesson, oh lesson. Thank you for correcting
me on that. Okay, greatadult swim lesson. So just think about
for yourself. And you do havethat free introduction class to calm that is
also on there. That's you've gota lot of great resources. You mentioned
(25:57):
a YouTube channel and if people wantto stay connected to you, you can
go to the website. Obviously,you can go to YouTube, uh,
to your YouTube channel, and wewill have the exact link in there in
the show notes. You're also Facebookdot com colm with in adult swim yes
(26:18):
and again and that's your IG handle, so we will put that Twitter is
adult swim Lesson. So we'll putall of that in the show notes.
For anybody who's driving, or foranybody who didn't want to have to write
that down, don't worry about it. Just go to the show notes and
you will see all the different waysthat you can stay connected to Corey and
(26:40):
find out more about what she doesand the services that she offers. So
thank you so much Corey for beingon the show today. This was such
a fun conversation. As you cantell, I get a little excited about
the show. Thank you so much. And I loved your I loved you
providing that vision of being in thewater with the dolphins and letting them come
(27:03):
to you. Yeah, you knowyou had to have a certain calm space
to have them come to you.And that is a beautiful vision for people
to have. Yeah, And Ithink that's that's what I enjoy the most.
Like I just float around, justfloat around and see what there's to
see, and it's it's a wholenother world under there. Yes, the
world. It's beautiful, all right. Well, thank you for being here,
(27:26):
and for those who have listening,thank you for taking your time to
spend with us this afternoon, eveningmorning. Whenever or wherever you are at,
we are honored that you spent itwith us. Stay connected with Corey
as well as with us at WomenExcelling Everywhere. Our website is women Excelling
Everywhere dot com. We have lotsof resources there as well as links to
(27:47):
our women's success Women Excelling Everywhere SuccessCollective. It's a big mouthful, but
it is our private membership group.So, as Corey and I were talking
before we started the show, youknow, sometimes everything gets overwhelming online,
everything gets overwhelming on all of themain social media platforms, and we wanted
to create a safe, calm,intimate space where we can interact and we
(28:12):
can really truly connect with the othermembers and provide all kinds of resources for
them. So thank you very muchfor being with us. Stay connected.
Check that out at We'll leave allof those links, or you can just
go straight to the website, WomenExcelling Everywhere dot com. Be sure to
give a thumbs up and share thispodcast with others, because I think everyone
(28:34):
would enjoy hearing about, you know, wonderful things in the water like swimming
with dolphins. Okay, and asI close every every episode, I want
everybody to roll those shoulders back,open up those lungs, take a night
deep bread deep breath in, goout there and simply enjoy every moment until
(28:56):
next time. Thanks for being withus, mister
Welcome, welcome everyone to the WomenExcelling Everywhere podcast in twenty twenty four.
I am so happy to be hereon this beautiful day with all of you
and with my amazing guest who hasa very interesting she Actually it's a great,
great business, but I am lookingforward to hearing even more about the
(00:31):
nuts and bolts of the business,and that is Corey Micah. Corey,
welcome so much to the Women ExcellingEverywhere podcast. Hi, thanks for having
me excited to be here. OhI'm glad. I'm glad. So let
me read everyone kind of your professionalbio and then we'll get down into who
Corey really is. Okay, So, Corey Micah transform transforms adult non swimmers
(00:58):
from fearful beginners into common achievers oftheir wildest aquatic aspirations. She's been featured
in MPR and up USA Today.Corey is the founder of Calm with Adult
within Adult Swim and the creator ofthe Foundations of Change Learning method With over
two decades of experience, her uniqueapproach to adult swimming lessons combines mental conditioning
(01:22):
and physical skill mastery, resulting inhighly acclaimed teaching methods. Corey's influence extends
beyond the pool, shaping everyday lives. She imparts her wisdom to students and
instructors at ORCA Swim School in Seattle, Washington. Virtually, that's very cool
that you can do this virtually andthrough personalized OHO Tropical Retreats. Welcome again,
(01:48):
Corey to the Women Excelling Everywhere podcast. Thank you so good to be
here. You know, this issuch a neat because as I was looking
at all of this, I'm like, actually, tropical retreats, like,
like whoo, one of one ofthe things that I enjoy the most every
time because I love the tropics,and at least once a year my husband
and I are in Hawaii or someplacetropical, and one of the highlights and
(02:14):
things that I enjoy the most aboutthat trip as we always go out and
snorkel and we stay at a locationwhere there's you know, we can just
walk out to the beach and snorkeland that's so enjoyable to me, and
it's it's kind of it was interestingto me when I when I read through
this, I'm like, oh,I guess there are a lot of people
(02:36):
that that is overwhelming for so suchan Yeah, so such a unique what
you mentioned that forty five percent ofpeople of adults are afraid to get in
the water. Why why do youthink that is? Is it just something
never learned to swim? That canbe part of it. And you know,
(02:59):
the range goes off away from fortyfive to sixty five percent. Forty
five percent of people are afraid toget into pools, and then you're up
in the more like sixty much higherpercentage when you talk open water. Of
course, there's a lot more variablesright when you tuck open water. But
I mean, at the end ofthe day, if you don't grow up
(03:20):
with a swimming family and a swimmingculture, that's that is a big reason
why people don't know how to swim. And one of the ways that if
you're let's just say your mom.Hate to blame mom, but you know,
if your mom doesn't know how toswim, one of the ways for
her to keep you safe is tohave you be afraid, right, because
(03:40):
then you never go. If younever get in the water, you're never
going to drown. So it's avery effective strategy. However, like you
say, going on vacation to Hawaii, you're missing out on this whole thing,
and it leaves people vulnerable as well, obviously if they found themselves in
water and not knowing what to do. Yeah, and that's that's a very
(04:02):
good point, a very very goodpoint. You hear about drownings all the
time. And my husband is aswimming pool contractor, and there's you know,
so he's he's dealt with that onthe legal end of things when he's
building the pool, right, becauseto prevent the drownings and whatnot. And
it makes me I had thought aboutuntil you just mentioned it, because I'm
(04:26):
the brain lady, and so Ideal with all the psychology of different things,
but I've never really thought about thatpsychological piece of what's generationally passed down
from the parent to the child ofan actual not just not learning to swim,
but a fear of the water.Yeah, and it can be very
direct or. Like I had thisone student, Luanne. She would come
(04:48):
to class and she's like, well, you know, I just talked to
my mom on the way to class. And she gets off the phone and
well, lu Anne, be carefulnot calling your mom before you come to
class. Call her after tell herhow well it went. That's you out.
(05:08):
You're stressing her out. It's nothelping. Yeah, and you know,
there's so many psychological positive benefits tobeing around the water as well,
like being there's from a brain healthpoint of view and a mood a calming
mood point you know, being inthe water, around the water, hearing
the water, putting your feet inthe water, all of those things are
(05:31):
very good and healthy for your brain. So there is you know, looking
at the statistics, that's like halfthe population are missing out on those positive
psychological benefits. Yes, this istrue for those of us who have positive
associations with the water. There isso much positive psychological benefit. I was
(05:54):
talking with somebody, It's like,why did you choose swimming your whole life?
I don't know, I just amattracted to it. Are very there
isn't innate attraction to water. Butyeah, if you are don't know what
to do, or like are tryingto do these very advanced things, the
experience doesn't create the psychological benefit.But that is the place that we have
(06:17):
to set people up in a wayso they can access that psychological benefit.
Yeah. Well I want to hearmore about that. But before we get
to that, tell me this,because you kind of started to say there's
such an interesting field to be inthat you've actually that you're focusing not because
(06:38):
when you hear swim teachers, youknow, ninety percent of the time,
I would think your brain goes toteaching kids, or coaching adolescents or something
you don't think about taking an adultwho has no experience in the water.
What made you? What made youdevelop your business and the adult swim Wait
(06:59):
a minute, what's the name?I'm sorry, Adult swim Lesson Adults Adult
swim Lesson at the orcat swim poolSchool? What made you? Like what
led you to this path your inyour life? Corey? Yeah, well
I did start with kids. Itwas the thing I did all you know,
summer, every summer at the pool, all that kind of thing.
(07:21):
Started our swim school in nineteen ninetynine for kids. But it was the
adults that really sparked my interest becauseI could get them to swim across the
pool doing a perfectly adequate stroke likeanybody walking by and be like, oh,
they're swimming front crawl. But you'dask them how was it and they
(07:43):
would have this like deer in theheadlights look and like I have no idea,
And I thought, all right,this is interesting. And curious,
why is what I do for kidsnot working for adults? Why is it
that they can do perform the taskbut they don't feel confident or safe for
secure? So there was a muchbroader, bigger answer, you know,
(08:07):
question to kind of go for.So that is really where I leaned into
and I think why I'm still inthis business because it was so interesting for
me to help unfold that and unpackthat. Now do you find Okay,
we're gonna get a little philosophical here. Can't you find that the fear in
(08:30):
one area of their life is expressedin their fear of swimming or vice versa,
their fear of the water. Ishouldn't say swimming as a whole,
as you know, but the fearof water, especially if you go into
the larger you know, oceans,rivers, lakes, that kind of thing.
Do you find that that fear eitheris manifest from another fear or it
(08:56):
manifests manifests itself in other fears.Did that make any sense? I think
I get? Yeah, I thinkyou get like, does it show up
in one place and another place?Do they kind of mirror each other?
And I mean, so there's acouple different things in there. So we
(09:16):
certainly because we're working so closely withthe body and coming in tune with the
body and what the body feels,both as emotion and as sensations and as
body reactions. All this stuff ishappening when people get into the water,
so people who have sometimes when peoplehave traumas that are not in the water,
(09:41):
they will show up for them inthe water. And that just in
that being in this presence of yourbody and feeling what's going on. So
you know, I had one studentwas swimming along fine, and then suddenly
she just was overwhelmed from a childhoodmemory of you know, a boat sinking
(10:01):
and hearing you know, lots ofpeople drown, like this very traumatic thing
that happened when she was a child. She hadn't remembered that until we were
in the water together, right ityou know, it was able to come.
It kind of came forward, andshe then needed to decide do I
want to process that or not?Right, and we give space for that.
(10:24):
So there's so that definitely that kindof thing comes up. And then
as it turns out, you know, when I'm working with people in the
water, we're doing lots of understandinghow our brain and our body works together,
and so people I pull in thingsof their daily life as examples so
(10:45):
that we find out, oh,learning to swim, learning to overcome your
fear here does work the same asother areas in my life, and I
was successful with that. I canpull in that confidence from some other area,
so they do go back and inthat way. Way. Yeah,
I actually like that because when youthink about, you know, in reality,
what you just said is basically whatTony Robbins does with walking on coals.
(11:11):
You know, it's it's in ina term, in psychological terms,
it's really kind of that same processof overcoming something, something big and scary
that you didn't think you could dothat Once you do it, it opens
up your mind to realize, oh, hey, if I could do that,
I can do this. Yes,but with swim. But with swimming
(11:35):
bonus, you get to learn toyou know, you get to go to
Hawaii and ghost exactly. Sounds muchmore fun than walking on goals. Yeah,
and you're not gonna have minor burnson the bottom of your feet for
sure. This is way more fun, way more fun, way more fun.
Yeah, I tell you, Iam. Like I said, I
thoroughly. I've gotten in trouble withhow much I love just floating in the
(11:58):
water. Are in the peacefulness ofthe floating in the water. There was
a there have been snorkeling trips thatthe entire boat has been on the boat
waving at me, going come on, it's time to come back, and
I'm just like, why, whycome back? It's a gravity. Yeah,
so it's a huge It is ahuge for me, a huge stress
(12:22):
release. But obviously for someone whohas never learned how to gain the skill
to be in the water, orhas had like your client that you just
mentioned, had a traumatic experience,then of course it's an entirely different situation.
Are there specific things other than thetechnique of this is how you swim,
(12:50):
that you help them calm and relaxand focus on the positive instead of
those negative emotions that they're feeling.For sure, I mean the you'd mentioned
in the bio. You know,we have this foundations of change, So
we say there's two steps mental toevery one step physical. That eighty percent
(13:11):
of it is the mental piece ofit, and so it's really a piece.
The first piece is getting truly groundedright here, right now, you
can call this mindfulness, body awareness, all these kinds of things. Right,
there's lots of techniques and pieces toit, but really getting present right
now because the fear is in thefuture, I'm not going to be able
(13:35):
to breathe and I'm going to die, right, That's like the big picture,
and so but we have to startwith oh, but right now I
am okay, Right, So gettingpeople really present and then keeping them connected.
The other piece is, well,where do I want to go?
How do I want my swimming tofeel. I want my swimming to feel
like Julie talked about a funny,this sort of ah lovely moment. So
(14:01):
I have to take a step forwardthat keeps me in that zone that I'm
not taking such a big physical stepor physical risk that I'm not staying connected
to how I want my swimming tofeel. And so we really it's about
that feedback loop. Then you takea little step. I mean in that
(14:22):
little step could be I stepped downonto the first step of the water and
put my feet in the water.And so now I've taken an action step.
But whooh, Okay, I'm stillalive. I can still breathe.
Great, We start again with thatwhere I'm at Yeah, you know,
there's so many as you're talent,as you're going through that these steps and
(14:45):
that application of mindfulness and being present, and this applies the principle of what
you're teaching in this situation applies toevery aspect to everything in our life that
brings us fear, every limiting beliefthat we have, every fearful situation.
What you just describe, the stepsof what you just just described helps us
(15:07):
in every aspect of our life.So anyone listening, you know, the
other fifty percent of the population rightcan can go Okay, this is what
this is amazing information for you.Now you actually so you have you do
virtual How does that work? Yeah? So, how that works is we
(15:30):
are breaking the steps down again,both the mental and the physical steps,
and we're breaking it down into smallenough chunks and pieces that people can you
go online, you listen, youdo a little written feedback kind of thing
exercises, and then we give youa very small step to go do.
At the water. We don't recommendgoing out by yourself somewhere. You don't
(15:54):
go to a public pool where there'sa lifeguard. You're taking a lifeguard with
your or whatever but even at thatso, yes, you want to have
that backup system there, but we'regiving people such a small step so that
they can learn to be in chargeof their safety as they go. So
(16:14):
so they do a small step andthen and then they come back and provide,
we provide feedback, you know,and they have next lessons and we
just break it down into these tiny, tiny parts. I love it.
So now you have you actually notonly do the training there and the training
virtually, but you have a programwhere if there's a woman out there or
(16:40):
a man for that matter. We'renot biased against the men, but if
there's an individual out there who's lookingat you know what I want to I
want to start something unique. Iwant to do an entrepreneurial business. You
actually have a training course and certifyother individuals to base sickly be the same
(17:02):
type of a trainer that you are. Yes, we do. Because the
online it works. Do people followthrough with it the real like tenacious person
does. They're amazing, But peopledo they want in person too, write
and we can't be everywhere. Sowe are dedicated to certifying instructors to be
(17:22):
able to start their own shop intheir own local communities. And with their
own local people too, because it'sthe diversity of instructors is super important.
People need to see themselves and soyeah, we train folks up on how
to have the most heart centered lovelybusiness. Could be primary or a side
(17:48):
business, you know. Yeah,it's wonderful. That's pretty cool. So
if you're somebody who loves the water, definitely definitely makes for a plus.
That's awesome. And you have aninstruction school there that you so you do
yep, yep, yep, that'sthat's very cool. Now you did mention
something we were talking about before westarted this the recording. You actually do
(18:17):
retreats because this really well, ofcourse, you know tropics. I already
said I love the tropics, butyou actually do retreats during the year where
you I'm assuming it just might besomeplace tropical, I don't know. Yeah,
we do. The tropical ones arethe most fun. Yes, they're
(18:41):
the most fun because, yeah,people can come and they learn to swim
in beautiful places. Right, you'rejust walking from your room to the pool.
No, l like commuting and allthat kind of stuff. But they
also get to learn to swim andlearn to snorkel. Right, we get
we get folks out into the ocean. And that's really what people want to
(19:03):
be able to do, is againthe experience that you talked about. That's
that's the majority of people have thatdream to be able to do that.
So that's what they get to doon the tropical retreats. And then we
also have many retreats that are likewe do them here in Seattle, and
then we have other locations too,but where you come in for three days
(19:26):
and you take the class in threedays and you make a huge transformation of
your understanding of yourself and the waterduring those three days, and so those
are those are great fun too.Until we have a teacher trained in your
local community, that's the best way. That's that's very cool. That's awesome
that you do that and that youmake that available and really that pardon the
(19:49):
pun, that immersion in that,in that atmosphere and in that you know,
working at it so intensely for afew day makes I'm sure for a
lot of progress that you can makevery very quickly. So that's that's pretty
cool, and I would definitely encourageit because to me, of course,
(20:12):
I'm a water baby, but tome, there's that thing better than you
know, being able to go outthere. When we were out there a
few months ago, we swam withthe dolphins and it was it was kind
of interesting because we were in Hawaii, so you know, you can't pull
the boat up very close to youhave to keep the legal distance. But
we jumped in the we got inthe water and we just kind of floated
(20:33):
and the entire pod just went rightunderneath us and they came to us,
which was just such a beautiful,such a beautiful experience. And there's there's
so many positive physical things to beingin the water as well, from exercise
in the water to if you havejoint inks and pains, right am I
hitting on some? Oh for sure? For sure. You know, it's
(20:56):
one of these things. It's anactivity that you can really do do your
entire lifespan, and it can beso joyous and wonderful. I mean,
you know, I have my childrenare young adults. Do I call my
eighteen year old adults? I guessthey're young adults. But I think of
all the times that we had justreally bonding times in the water, and
(21:21):
even you know, we're going totake a big graduation trip this summer,
and there's going to be a lotof swimming, and it's this place that
it's the great equalizer when we doall that hiking, Like Mom's going to
be dragging and you know, right, I'm going to be behind these young
fit people. Yeah, huffing andpuffing' but you get in the water,
(21:41):
right, It's this great equalizer andit's this wonderful experience that we get to
have together. I love it.I love it. So what would be
your I'm going to ask you toshare a couple of pieces of advice.
One, what would be your pieceof advice to an individual out there who
has the desire to get past thisfear, but has never picked up the
(22:08):
phone and made that phone call orhas never like what's your what's your piece
of advice to encourage them to makethat next step. My piece of advice
to them is to get started onone small step. And I think really
the easiest small step is go watchour YouTube videos to see there's a different
(22:32):
way. Because most of the timewe when we take on and this is
true for our entrepreneurial life, thisis true for you know, our family
life. We look at like thebig end goal and the reason why you
do that is so that you donothing pretty much right of the fight flight
(22:52):
Beer concerned with draw kicks in andit's like, I'm I'm not even touching
that with a ten football totally.We were talking about so media before.
It was like I have to doall the things on Solis reput no just
post one post today, comment onecom right. You have to have like
a tiny step to get you started. So that would really be my step
is to take the pressure off andto see a new way and that doesn't
(23:18):
involve having to do everything to gofrom where you're at to joining Julie in
Hawaii with the Dolphins. Right,we don't have to go quite you know,
just one tiny step and that isa great one or the in this
we're gonna have a free intro classas part of the show notes here too,
that you just take one tiny stepthat doesn't feel too scary. Right,
(23:42):
you can sit in your own homeand watch a video. We're not
gonna die. We're not gonna likehave to put the swimsuit on yet,
right, right, I like thatone one step at a time. Now,
you've been doing this for a while. So that leads me to my
second question, and that would beyour top piece of advice to entrepreneurs who
(24:04):
are in those those little those allthose things about being in business for yourself.
What what piece of advice would yougive on that? Well, I'll
give the the motto that my officemanager or like she's more than an office
(24:25):
manager with me a long time.The screening process we do for all problems,
keep it simple and let it beeasy. How often we make the
problems or the things so complex andso right? Like what you know,
she comes to me with a clientquestion or a teacher you know we have
(24:45):
teachers on staff or whatever some problemand we're like, what is this simple
and easy answer for this? Afterwe like, let our hair go on
fire, hang on right? Whatdo we do keep it simple and let
it be easy that moves you tothe next thing. I like that.
(25:06):
I like that, keep it simpleand let it be easy. I love
that. Love that great advice,Corey. So, for individuals who are
interested in the adult swim Lessons,you are at adultswim Lessons dot com.
That's your main website, and thatis also the retreats that we talked about.
Is that same website forward Slash SwimmingDash Retreat correct. Yeah, Adult
(25:33):
swim lesson dot com just one lesson, oh lesson. Thank you for correcting
me on that. Okay, greatadult swim lesson. So just think about
for yourself. And you do havethat free introduction class to calm that is
also on there. That's you've gota lot of great resources. You mentioned
(25:57):
a YouTube channel and if people wantto stay connected to you, you can
go to the website. Obviously,you can go to YouTube, uh,
to your YouTube channel, and wewill have the exact link in there in
the show notes. You're also Facebookdot com colm with in adult swim yes
(26:18):
and again and that's your IG handle, so we will put that Twitter is
adult swim Lesson. So we'll putall of that in the show notes.
For anybody who's driving, or foranybody who didn't want to have to write
that down, don't worry about it. Just go to the show notes and
you will see all the different waysthat you can stay connected to Corey and
(26:40):
find out more about what she doesand the services that she offers. So
thank you so much Corey for beingon the show today. This was such
a fun conversation. As you cantell, I get a little excited about
the show. Thank you so much. And I loved your I loved you
providing that vision of being in thewater with the dolphins and letting them come
(27:03):
to you. Yeah, you knowyou had to have a certain calm space
to have them come to you.And that is a beautiful vision for people
to have. Yeah, And Ithink that's that's what I enjoy the most.
Like I just float around, justfloat around and see what there's to
see, and it's it's a wholenother world under there. Yes, the
world. It's beautiful, all right. Well, thank you for being here,
(27:26):
and for those who have listening,thank you for taking your time to
spend with us this afternoon, eveningmorning. Whenever or wherever you are at,
we are honored that you spent itwith us. Stay connected with Corey
as well as with us at WomenExcelling Everywhere. Our website is women Excelling
Everywhere dot com. We have lotsof resources there as well as links to
(27:47):
our women's success Women Excelling Everywhere SuccessCollective. It's a big mouthful, but
it is our private membership group.So, as Corey and I were talking
before we started the show, youknow, sometimes everything gets overwhelming online,
everything gets overwhelming on all of themain social media platforms, and we wanted
to create a safe, calm,intimate space where we can interact and we
(28:12):
can really truly connect with the othermembers and provide all kinds of resources for
them. So thank you very muchfor being with us. Stay connected.
Check that out at We'll leave allof those links, or you can just
go straight to the website, WomenExcelling Everywhere dot com. Be sure to
give a thumbs up and share thispodcast with others, because I think everyone
(28:34):
would enjoy hearing about, you know, wonderful things in the water like swimming
with dolphins. Okay, and asI close every every episode, I want
everybody to roll those shoulders back,open up those lungs, take a night
deep bread deep breath in, goout there and simply enjoy every moment until
(28:56):
next time. Thanks for being withus, mister
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