Alycia Downs: How Captains for Clean Water Mobilized 25,000 People

Full transcript of the Tom Rowland Podcast, Episode 555, with guest Alycia Downs of Captains for Clean Water.

Introducing the 2022 Push-Up Challenge

Alycia Downs: This is Alycia from Captains for Clean Water, and you're listening to the Tom Rowland Podcast.

Tom Rowland: Alycia, how are you?

Alycia Downs: I'm doing well, Tom. How are you?

Tom Rowland: I'm doing great. Yeah, it's fantastic, everything's going great. What's going on at Captains right now?

Alycia Downs: We are wrapping up the year. We've done a lot of work this year, we've grown our team, we survived the uncertainties of COVID, if you will, and we've done a lot of work on something your listeners may or may not be familiar with, the Lake Okeechobee System Operating Manual, something called LOSOM. If anybody on here is following us, they've seen us talking about it non-stop. Our objective was to get a favorable outcome with that plan, because it affected our waters for the next decade, huge deal, and we were able to achieve that favorable outcome, with the help of our supporters, we had over 25,000 people that took action, they emailed the Army Corps, they heard what we wanted, and we're pleased to report that outcome was achieved. And so the journey with that isn't over, it was a lot of hard work, a lot of people getting involved and using their voices over and over again, we'd probably ask people to take action five different times this year, so we're really excited that we're able to see that tangible benefit for our waters. In 2021 that plan is going to go into effect, I believe 2023, but we're super grateful to everybody that got involved with that. So we're wrapping up the year on a high note, we're excited for what 2022 holds, and we're super motivated, and we appreciate this challenge that you're putting together to kind of help with that.

Tom Rowland: Yeah, well, we haven't talked about that yet, but that's coming up. But I think it's just super cool, before we even talk about the challenge, you know, we have to have someone to take the lead. All the fishermen, the people that are concerned about the water, they may see issues, they may complain about issues, they may be concerned about issues, they may take small actions, but somebody has to take the lead, and that's what Captains has done, in an organized manner of, okay, look, this is the next big objective, this thing is happening, if we can get everyone to speak out on this or write a letter or do whatever it takes, that is what is really moving the needle. And that's kind of what we're going to talk about as far as the next challenge, and I'm sure that you'll have plenty more, but the idea that you're building this army of people that are concerned about the water, people that have maybe business concerns about the water, maybe you're a fishing guide, maybe you're a real estate agent, maybe you're just plain concerned in a financial way, or you're concerned in any way, nobody likes to see the water in bad condition, nobody likes to see dead fish on the beach, nobody likes to see that whatsoever, and certainly it has far-reaching economic impacts too. So for whatever reason you're interested in this, good on you for stepping up and actually taking action, I love that. So that's kind of what, you know, I thought, we've been doing this 10,000 push-up challenge for the last few years, and it has been kind of reserved for crazy people and people that like challenges like this, and for whatever reason there are a lot of people that listen to this podcast that like those kind of things, so that's fantastic, and nothing's going to change there, if you want to do 10,000 push-ups in a month, that's fantastic. But I just kept thinking, it just seems like this is something that people feel strongly enough about to do 333 push-ups a day, so what if we found some way to have this be bigger than just physical exercise, and bigger than just a challenge, and so that's when I started talking to you guys about it, and seeing if anybody saw any kind of correlation like I did, to possibly using this as an awareness campaign, or using this as some sort of a fundraiser, I thought at some point, but I think it makes more sense as just an awareness campaign. So when I brought this to you, what were your original thoughts, how could this possibly benefit Captains for Clean Water and affect the water for generations to come?

Alycia Downs: It's a great question, and I laugh, because the first thing I think about was envisioning our founders doing this push-up challenge, they're definitely going to, we're going to make them do it. But I loved the tie-in initially, fitness and preserving the outdoors, there's a lot of similarities, they're both passion-driven pursuits, right, they require similar values, persistence, dedication, you have to have the ability to adapt if unexpected challenges come your way, so the messaging I think just made sense there. But from the perspective of how this actually makes a difference, you touched on it earlier about the importance of this outdoor community being a part of this fight, so I think taking a small step every day, to some people it seems like, what difference is this going to make, I'm one person, but what we've seen and what we know is true with Captains is that we've been around for the past five years, and we've seen more progress on these water issues in Florida than we've ever seen, especially Everglades restoration, that plan has been going on for decades, and not one of the projects had been completed in twenty, thirty years, and now we're at a place where we're seeing this progress happen faster and faster. And I think the difference there was two things, it was Captains for Clean Water bringing the outdoor community to the front lines of this fight and giving them a platform for their voices to be heard by these decision makers. And that's not just the fishing guides, that's who started this organization, but we have supporters in every industry, in every walk of life, the recreational community, the commercial fishing community, tourism industry businesses, and Captains kind of brought all these businesses and said, hey, we all want the same thing, we want clean water, we have to be united if we're going to see progress happen. And so that's where we've seen things change, now we have people across the state speaking up saying the same thing. And I think the difference where we actually see the changes is public engagement, because a policymaker who is making decisions that affect water policy, that actually create real, tangible change with our waters, those people respond to two different motivators, probably money or votes, the voting power, what the public interest is, and we don't have the resources to compete with corporate spending, political contributions, things like that. But what we do have is the power of the people, and that's what Captains has been able to do, is channel all of these voices and all of these public interests into one powerful force that actually applies pressure to these decision makers, and that is what Captains does and how we're effective, along with our supporters, in actually getting these things to change, like we saw with LOSOM, that operations plan, it was the public engagement that mattered. And so with this push-up challenge, I think it's a great way, a lot of your supporters are very passionate about the outdoors as well as fitness, and whether or not they've heard of Captains, maybe they're hearing of Captains for Clean Water for the first time, chances are if they're passionate about fitness they probably have some interest in the outdoors and a desire to protect it. So I think it's a great way for them to get involved, be a part of a movement where we're trying to leave this place better than we found it for our children and our grandchildren, and grow this army of people that are moving the needle, because it is powerful. In 2021 we reached, I have the numbers right in front of me, we reached over 18 million people, and made 24 million impressions just through our digital channels, so the education that we're putting out and the platform that we have is massive, and so we have to grow that, and we're going to be unstoppable as far as advancing these conservation priorities.

Why Do It as a Team

Tom Rowland: I hope that all, that's great. I felt the same way when I was thinking about this, I was like, well, I think Captains is gonna be perfect for this, because that's exactly kind of what I was thinking. But then you mentioned something earlier, you were like, I can't wait to see Daniel and Chris try this challenge, and when we're talking about a 10,000 push-up challenge, a lot of people's eyes are just going to glaze over and be like, well, I haven't done 10,000 push-ups in my life, you're expecting me to do that in a month? So that's the big thing as far as the challenge goes, that's the why, what you just explained is that's the why, we're going to do this as an awareness campaign and do it kind of together, and it's something kind of new and different, it also hits at the beginning of the year, so a lot of people have New Year's resolutions, they want to get fit, this is a great way to get started, or to have a companion goal to go into the gym to get these push-ups in. So what's the big difference as far as the way that we're going to do this challenge this year is that you can do it as a team, right? So Daniel and Chris aren't by themselves just kind of going, there's no way I'm going to get this done, or, let's don't pick on those guys, anyone could be like, oh, I've never done 10 push-ups, I don't know how I'm going to be able to do 10,000 push-ups, I'd like to have some impact on the water, but maybe this isn't for me. But if you do it together as a team, then the number of push-ups you have to do per day goes down with every single person that you bring onto your team. And I even have like a little graph of that, to where one person doing this by themselves, 333 push-ups a day for thirty days, that seems impossible to a lot of people, just like it seems impossible to reroute the water from where it's stopped going south into the Everglades, that's the big problem, how could we possibly redo all these dikes and dams and send water south, how can one person have an effect on that? And this is much the same, that this 10,000 push-up challenge seems like it's just too much for one person to do, but if we band together and we do little actions every single day, and maybe big actions when we're called upon, big things can happen. So it's kind of, I see a lot of similarities there, and so what I've decided to do this year with the challenge, the big difference, is the team, any size team you want to have, you can have twenty people, if you had twenty people on your team that would be sixteen push-ups a day for each one of those people, anybody can do sixteen push-ups a day, you do five at breakfast, lunch, and dinner, that's fifteen, right, so one more, so that's pretty easy. But then in addition to that, if you decide to take it on by yourself, or with maybe six people, that's a good number, that's fifty-six push-ups a day, you could then ask someone else to help you with your push-ups, right, so even if you're doing it by yourself, you're responsible for getting 333 push-ups a day, if you can talk to five people in your office and say, hey, would you want to help me with this today, this is the reason why we're doing this, it's for this organization, Captains for Clean Water, let me tell you a little bit about what they do and what big things have been accomplished this year with LOSOM and all this other stuff, it's a conversation starter. So if you could get those five people to help you just today, just help me out, do five push-ups with me, then that's the conversation starter, you've brought those people into your team, and if we can somehow get them registered to where we can get some information and news to them, that's even better. So that's kind of the idea, you're not alone, you can get help from anywhere, it doesn't have to be in person, you could do it over the phone, over social media, you could do it anywhere, this is more about participation than it is any sort of a rule set, we just want people to get involved. I would love it, I think it would be so cool if we got a million push-ups, and that's only a thousand people.

Alycia Downs: Yeah, I think it is, that's a thousand people saying, okay, I'm gonna commit to getting 333 push-ups a day for thirty days. You can get those any way you want, you can ask your family to do it some days, you could ask your people in your office to do it some days, or you could get together with a dedicated team, you could have six people that all say, I'm committed to doing this, let's, at lunch, we'll do our fifty-six push-ups every single day for the whole month, right, that's the ideal way, but if some days you're super sore, well, let's bring in a couple more people and let them help us with the push-ups. It's a perfect time to start to talk to somebody about what it is that you're doing, and post it on social media, because that's really where it's going to take off, and people are going to be wondering why all these people are doing push-ups, and it's a perfect opportunity to use that in your posts, which I think we're going to probably provide a lot of different facts and information about what has been accomplished, and what needs to be accomplished in the next couple of years, and what effect that will have over the water in the state of Florida for generations.

Alycia Downs: And what I love about this, Tom, I know this isn't the first year that you've done this challenge, it's your fourth, fifth year?

Tom Rowland: Yeah, it's been going on for a while, I don't know how many, I've done it a few times, I remember seeing it on Instagram, it was just in everyone's stories, I would see people on the bow of a boat doing push-ups, I would see people on a mountaintop doing push-ups, and what I love is that you have made this very easy to participate, it doesn't have to be complicated, we're not asking for a lot of information, you're just saying, hey, this is a great challenge, challenge yourself, get your friends involved. And that's, people are so used to engaging with each other on social media now, that's the way things work, think about those challenges that you see go viral, like the milk crate challenge, or the ice bucket challenge, all these challenges, it's just the way that we interact with each other, it's so easy to tag a couple friends on Instagram and say, hey, do a couple push-ups with me every day, what's the craziest place you can do these push-ups, do ten of them, help reach this massive goal, and it becomes fun, it's not a chore, everybody wants to, they can't wait to post their push-ups for the day on their story, tag their friends, and show their team, part of something bigger than themselves. And so I love what you've done with it, I'm excited that we get to be a part of it this year.

Alycia Downs: Yeah, well, it should be fun, I think that all we need really are our people to get involved, and then we need to spread the word, and so there have been some other sponsors that have gotten involved, I know that Yeti said that they wanted to do something, Hook, Buff wants to do something, and maybe some more, and I believe that other people are going to get involved and help to spread that word. And then each one of the people doing the challenge, that's where the real impact comes, is when they spread the word and use it as a conversation starter, so like if you were to be doing this challenge and you hit a couple of rough days and you're thinking, I need a little help today, and you go to your office, and you're going to use this as a conversation starter, what would you say, give us kind of a sample invitation that somebody might use, what's the invitation that you as a representative of Captains would use yourself, that you would think would be compelling?

Tom Rowland: Well, from my perspective being involved with Captains, I'm looking at it as it relates to the fight that we have every single day with water quality, so for me, I want to use it as something that's going to inspire somebody to understand the impact they're making as a person. This challenge, it is a challenge, because you're doing something that you feel may or may not make a difference, these little things every day, but when you work together with a team for this common goal, your impact grows, and you're able to see it more realistically, and you're able to see the impact that your little effort is making to this larger goal. And so it's like, I want somebody to join me in this and help us, because it's not about, I want this for me, you care too, right, so if this is something you're passionate about, here's a cool way that we can be a part of advancing solutions or raising awareness. And I think from the other side of it, for the people who are maybe new to what's going on with our water quality, or just these issues in general, it's a fitness challenge, and it's the new year, and we all are coming out of the holidays and we're looking for that spark, something to get, that we can grab onto and attach to, and find our motivation to get back in shape, or just to start maybe for the first time, and I think that's inspiring, because it's not just you in your little world, you're now part of this larger movement, and that's more motivating, because now every day you're seeing, well, my teammates are doing their push-ups, so I better do mine, because they're going to hold me accountable. And so there's that fitness inspiration to it as well, so I just love the idea of the community coming together, and it being something that we can motivate each other, we can encourage each other, we can remind each other, here's why we're working towards this, this is important, this is fun, and we're doing it together. And so that's what I would say, try to get as many people as possible involved, because it is easy, it's something that social media is very powerful now, and it doesn't have to be an awkward conversation, you don't even have to have a conversation in person, I mean, look at you and I recording this podcast from hundreds of miles away, it's like, tag your friends in this that might be interested, do your push-ups every day, post them on Instagram, people love to show what's going on in their lives, so I think it's going to be fun for everyone.

It's Bigger Than Florida

Alycia Downs: Yeah, that's the other thing too, is that people do not have to be in the state of Florida to value water quality in the state of Florida. Water quality in the state of Florida affects every single state, it affects other countries, it affects everywhere. And if someone has ever vacationed in Florida, or ever has any desire to vacation in Florida, or to fish in Florida, or to come to the Florida Keys, or to go to the Everglades, or to visit every national park in the United States, this all, everyone with any sort of interest like that should be interested in what's going on down here, just as much as the Pebble Mine in Alaska, you know, I don't go to Alaska very often, but when I do want to go to Alaska, I still want it to be pristine, I still want it to be there, so that fight for me was important, that was something I was concerned about, because it's like, I may not go to Alaska next year, I may not go to Alaska in the next five years, but I am going to go to Alaska sometime between now and the end of my life, I'm a hundred percent certain of that. It's the same thing for anyone that lives in any other state, you may not come to Florida this year, but you may come in a few years, and you want that water to be as good as it possibly can be, or to look exactly like all the pictures you see on Instagram, the good pictures, not the water quality pictures, you want it to be the place that you envision. And that's what we're doing here, is protecting that, not only for you to come if you've never been to the state of Florida, but for your kids and for your grandkids, and for every generation to come, you want it to look just like it looks on TV, just like it looks on Instagram, all those beautiful pictures of tarpon rolling and redfish tailing and all that stuff, that's what we're doing it for. And so somebody doesn't have to be in the state of Florida by any means, I would even flip it to, everybody that's listening, to think about their own backyard, and to think about the waters that they're fishing, or that they're hiking, and think about what's going on in your backyard, and chances are there's some kind of issue that's happening that's more relevant to you, even if you've never been to Florida. And the thing about fixing these problems is it takes involvement from a mass amount of people to actually see change happen, and so we want us fighting together to be able to advance solutions to problems across the country, across the globe, so it's like, we need to support each other, especially as a community of people that enjoy the outdoors, recreating in the outdoors, whether you fish or not, whether you're into other things outside, we all need to stand up and speak up for these other places, because we're all going to benefit, it's not just about Florida, there's something in your backyard too that matters, and we want to know about it, so share with us what's going on, we as an outdoor community, let us speak up for your places too. And so I think that's super important, is this community has to work together and unify our voices to see change and to see progress with these issues.

Tom Rowland: Yeah, and that's the reason why, when we decided that we were going to do this together, what are the important things, what are we trying to get out of this, one of the things is it would be really important to get a registration from someone, and that registration is nothing but an email address. So give your email address, you're part of this challenge, and you're going to join the newsletter to get information on what's going on in the water fight, and then you're part of this community, just like you said, so if there's something going on in a neighboring state or in some other place, you have this voice, that now you can notify this group that looks out for things like this, Captains for Clean Water, and maybe they could give advice, maybe they can give you a different way to go about solving that problem, or maybe in the future Captains can get involved, when I know you got your hands full in Florida right now, but maybe who knows, maybe you could get involved in other water quality issues, and maybe you already are, I don't know, I'm worried about Florida right now. But that's why it's important to register, would there be any other reason why it would be important to register, for somebody, that we get that email address from anybody that's doing this challenge?

Alycia Downs: Yep, so when I mentioned earlier about how we make the difference and we grow the army, and then when it's time to take action on something, we need to be able to mobilize that army and let everybody know, hey, here's a chance for all of us to make a difference with this issue, and the way we do that is by notifying you through social channels, through our email, through all of these things, email we're going to reach you directly and let you know, hey, this action opportunity, we need you to use your voice, we need you to send this email, whatever that is. And so if you want to be a part of the solution, that's the number one question we get, how can I be a part of this, how can I make a difference, and it's, you need to stay informed, you need to know what's going on, and you need to stand up and speak up when it's time to make a difference, and even if you think, oh, I'm one person sending an email, that adds up to a bigger goal, just like that's what we're talking about here. So yeah, definitely social media as well, we put out a lot of educational content and just updates on what's going on with water quality, so just engage with us, we have a great community for the most part, everybody, they enjoy learning about these issues and staying informed, and I think it's just a conversation that's important to keep having.

How the Challenge Works

Alycia Downs: So the challenge is going to start February 1st, the registration is going to start January 1st, so just after you make your New Year's resolutions that you're going to get in shape, or you're going to lose weight, or you're going to go to the gym, or you're going to do the 10,000 push-up challenge, it's going to be set up for you to do that. So you can go to captainsforcleanwater.org or tomrowlandpodcast.com, and you can sign up right there, and you can start to form your team. And as you form your team, you can, I don't know, we'll figure out how to get their email addresses too, because that's super important, to also get their email addresses, but you can be the captain of your team, and you can be responsible, and look, it doesn't really matter, I don't even care if you do the push-ups right, touch your chest, don't touch your chest, do them from your knees, I really couldn't care less, just do them, get involved, and help out, and be a part of this challenge, that's the most important thing. It's super easy to be involved with, and it's about participation, it's not about form, it's not about anything other than participation and actually moving your body, move your body, participate, be informed, be educated, and do your part to make this a better place and keep it a better place, that's kind of what it's all about, twenty-eight days.

Tom Rowland: Twenty-eight days, well, most people finish way less honestly, once you get started.

Alycia Downs: Yeah, and you can bank the push-ups too, like if today you do 500, or your team does 500, good, you're 500 push-ups closer, you don't have to stop at 333, you might get a thousand, if you had enough people, and all of a sudden one day you have a lot of people jump in, oh, I'll do a hundred, so you have ten people that jump in and do a hundred, you've got an extra thousand push-ups there, great, you just bank that. And most people that have done the challenge, even up until this year it's been a singular, individual participation kind of thing, so most people that do it individually finish it in under thirty days, way under thirty days, like even twelve, I've seen people finish it in twelve days, 10,000 push-ups in twelve days, that's one person by themselves, so a team of six, yeah, a team of six, you'll get out there and you'll start doing it, the first couple of days you might be a little bit sore, but then after you do it for a little bit, then you're like, okay, let's do a hundred today, and so you do a hundred today, now you're banking these push-ups and you're getting ahead of your schedule. And I even have like a spreadsheet that my friend came up with, and it's really simple, it has the 10,000 push-up thing in there, it has every day of the month, and you just put in how many you did, and then it immediately calculates how many left, and at this rate you need to do this many a day. So let's just say you did 333 push-ups, it would say tomorrow you need to do 333 push-ups, and it would go down all the way down. But if you did 500, it would calculate, oh, well, now you only have to do 327 push-ups a day, and then you do another 500, now it's down to, I mean, I'm no mathematician, I certainly can't do that in my head, but that spreadsheet can do it for you, so that'll be available on the website as well, or at least on my website, you can go and get that spreadsheet, and that helps a lot of people keep track of it like that, and then there's a countdown, so you're like, wow, I only have like 4,000 left, and then maybe you can recruit a whole bunch of people to do them for you if you're tired of doing them. And nobody says you have to do them every single day either, you could do five days, take two days off, and you just have to get 10,000 done in thirty days, so that's the challenge, and I'm really proud that it's for a really good reason this year, really good cause, and really good reason, happy to partner with you guys on it, and I really hope it makes a big difference.

Alycia Downs: Oh, absolutely, and we appreciate you, Tom, just thank you for all your support, and I know your community is super passionate about the outdoors and fitness, and we're just excited to partner together and see these communities come together to work toward this shared mission, 10,000 push-ups, clean water, 2022 is going to be huge.

Big Agenda Items for 2022

Tom Rowland: Alright, with 2022 on the horizon, are there some things that Captains kind of sees as big agenda items that you're going to try to tackle that maybe we should know about?

Alycia Downs: Yeah, so we're working on what we call our vision of success for the year, we actually take these certain objectives that we know, there's three big buckets that we look at with water quality and how we can actually influence it in Florida. It's not exciting stuff to talk about, it's operation, how the water is managed, there's infrastructure, and that's the different devices and structures that actually move that water, Everglades restoration is infrastructure, and the third thing is nutrient pollution, and that's a massive undertaking, that's something we're seeing the consequences of with the red tide in Tampa Bay, and that's a problem that affects every water body. So those are our three big buckets, we're looking at how we're going to be able to influence things in those buckets, and we create what our vision of success looks like, and so how is Captains and our supporters and the people that are getting involved actually making a difference for cleaner water out in your backyard. So we're working on that, we're excited to keep making progress together, and we're excited to have your team involved.

Tom Rowland: Yeah, well, we're happy to do it, there'll be some good participation from the listeners, and I hope they bring in lots of people that really aren't involved, those are the real people to target, I think the people that don't even know about it, or they don't care, or I didn't realize the magnitude of what's going on and the implications for the future, and that a few small actions can make a big difference. I mean, those are really the people that, if you can mobilize those people to actually care, and a lot of it is just education, some people just think, god, what is one person going to do, right? Well, one person can do a lot, and that's what this is all about. Alright, well, February 1st, that's when the challenge starts, so start warming up, get ready, January 1st is the start date, and we're recording this a little bit in advance, so this might actually be coming out after January 1st, if that's the case, which I think it might be, go to captainsforcleanwater.org, you can register your team there, you can go to tomrowlandpodcast.com, it doesn't matter, all the registrations are going to go to the same place, and you can register there, register your team, and be responsible for getting 10,000 push-ups together over the thirty days. That's the challenge, I know you can do it. Alright, Alycia, who's going to be on your team?

Alycia Downs: You know, I'm going to rally as many of our team members as I can to be a part of it, I think we're going to make it mandatory, all Captains for Clean Water staff must be involved.

Tom Rowland: There you go, we have a small team.

Alycia Downs: We have a small team, but we can do big things together.

Tom Rowland: That's right, there you go, see, that's what it's all about, that's what it's all about. Alright, well, good luck, register, and that'll be great, it's gonna be a great start to 2022 physically, and also as something getting involved in something bigger than yourself. This 10,000 push-up challenge, Captains for Clean Water, the fight for Florida water quality, all of that super important, and then find other things in your community that you can get involved in and be a base, do some things that are bigger than you, use your physical ability to do things, like, I don't know, sometimes we've helped different schools move different things, and on Thanksgiving we moved like a big tractor-trailer load of turkeys, with your big muscles that you've worked on with the 10,000 push-up challenge, put them to use and help your community, and help Captains for Clean Water, and help us with this fight. Get ready, 10,000 push-ups coming up in February, I know you can do it, a lot of you have done it before, now's your time to recruit some other people, and we'll get it started. Alright, Alycia, thank you today, that was fantastic, and man, I'm really looking forward to seeing how many people you can get involved.

Alycia Downs: We're excited, thank you for having us, Tom.

Tom Rowland: Alright, see ya.