A Message From the Middle of Nowhere!

Last month, Mary & I participated in a sailing race to Hawaii with my brother and sister-in-law.  It was an incredible experience that we soon won’t forget.  Like so many times when boating, I found a parallel to my work life that I felt worthy to share.  So, I turned on the video camera just after sunrise in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and shot this video for you.

Now in its 20th race, the Pacific Cup is known as “the FUN race to Hawaii.”  We joined the Cruising Division, making the race more of a recreational flotilla than a cut-throat race to Oahu.  It took us 14 days to get there.  We didn’t get there first, but we were far from last.

My brother (Andy) & sister-in-law (Tessa) spent the better part of a year preparing their boat for this excursion.  We experienced very little in the way of mechanical problems, largely due to their diligent planning and hard work.

As it was their boat, Andy and Tessa were the captains.  They spend a ton of time sailing their boat, and know the boat well.  Mary and I were essentially crew.  We could handle the basics, but if a problem arose we often couldn’t handle it on our own.

We had smooth sailing conditions for the most part, but half-way through our journey we encountered some challenges.  In one case, the auto-pilot stopped working in the middle of the night while I was on watch.  Try as I might, I couldn’t fix the issue.  Ultimately, I had to wake up Tessa, who quickly identified the problem and got things straightened out.

It was frustrating for me to admit, but we were dependent on Andy and Tessa for many things.  It reminded me of when Lisa and I started The Blue Waters Group with one part-time employee.  Most of our company tasks required our attention.  It was exhausting, and ultimately unsustainable.

Thankfully, we have grown our “crew” at work and now are a team of 9.  Many of our employees know our business inside and out, and help clients in the same fashion as Lisa and me.  That type of competency only comes from experience, and we are fortunate to have had very little turnover in our team members as we’ve grown.  We are so grateful of our collective, capable group and I want to put them in the spotlight.

Over the next few months, we are going to showcase our crew members here on MattsMemos.com.  I want you to get to know them.  If you’ve worked with us over the years odds are you know some of them, but some may be new faces to you.

I learned early in our business that I cannot help you all on my own.  I need help, and am so thankful for our working family that not only help deliver the high level of service you’ve come to expect from us, but also allow me to take time off to adventure with my family while confidently knowing you’ll still be well taken care of during my absence.

Thank you for trusting my team and me over the years & I look forward to showing off my crew to you in the coming months.