Today we’d like to introduce you to Jamie Douglas.
Jamie, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started working as a pool lifeguard for the city of Miami Beach when I was 19 years old.
Part of our job was teaching infants, children and adults how to swim. That was the best part of the job. I loved being able to give people confidence in the water to feel safe and not feel fearful. I started doing private lessons in the community and decided why not make this a business. A few years later I found myself stuck as an instructor.
Realizing it was taking me way too long to teach infants and toddlers how to swim. So, I did my research and found a swim school that could teach me how to teach my younger students self-rescue skills. I did so and I have found my job to be a thousand times more rewarding.
Watching my students graduate from a 6 week program and potentially save themselves if they were to ever fall in is an amazing thing to watch.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I’d say it’s been pretty smooth as far as teaching. Marketing and references from previous clients has definitely helped put my business grow. I think having to learn the business aspect has been the more difficult part… It’s all been a learning process and it’s getting easier every day.
Aqua Fit – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I am a swim company that goes to clients homes and does one on one or semi group classes. I have a variety of programs that I offer. Parent and child classes 6 months – 10 months, survival class which starts at 10 months to 4 years old. Stroke classes for children, beginner adult and advance adult classes.
I specialize in the survival program. This program is the most important to me because statistics show that drowning is the number one cause of death in ages 1-4 in Florida. This survival program is another barrier to help bring that statistic down. We are losing way too many kids due to drownings. These numbers can be brought down by educating parents and encouraging parents to enroll their kids in self-rescue programs (survival).
My most proud moment was when I had a mom call me out of the blue to tell me thank you for saving her child’s life. My previous student fell off the dock fully clothed into the bay behind her house and went straight to her back and floated while yelling for help.
When the mom asked are you okay the daughter said yes mom I just relaxed and floated like Ms. Jamie taught me. That story reassured me that what I do for a living is saving lives.
I believe what sets me apart from other swim instructors and schools is my calmness, and my understanding of my students. They are all different and I work really hard on getting to know their personalities so that I can make learning to swim an exciting, fun experience.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The story of my past student doing self-rescue when she fell in is my proudest moment.
To be honest, seeing all my students successfully graduate after 6 weeks fully clothed is a reoccurring proud moment for me.
Contact Info:
- Website: Aquafitswim.com
- Phone: 305-761-0735
- Email: jamie@aquafitswim.com
- Instagram: Aquafitswim
- Yelp: http://yelp.to/qTKq/znHvYdZgZE
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