Episode 182 with Cecil Cohn
The Blue Mind State
LISTEN TODAY:
Click Here to Listen on Apple Podcasts
Click Here to Listen on Spotify
The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast is available anywhere you listen to podcasts. You can also scroll to the bottom of this page for an embedded podcast player.
SHOW NOTES:
🌊 Set Sail on a Journey of Transformation 🚤
Embark on a captivating odyssey with Cecil Cohn from Freedom Boat Club. Whether you're drawn to the tranquility of nature or intrigued by the science behind happiness, this episode promises to ignite your sense of wonder and leave you with a profound appreciation for the world of boating.
Get ready to unlock the secrets of the "Blue Mind State" and experience the unparalleled joy of immersive engagement. Tune in to the latest episode of the 1000 Hours Outside Podcast and let Cecil Cohn be your captain on this remarkable voyage.
Learn more about Ripl >>> https://bit.ly/44aAfkI
Learn more about Freedom Boat Club >>>https://www.freedomboatclub.com/
DONATE HERE:
Your donations play an integral part in keeping The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast running. We appreciate your support!
RELATED EPISODES:
1KHO 109: We are Critically Fun Starved | Michael Rucker, Ph.D. - The Fun Habit
1KHO 112: Let the Mothers Go Out to Play! | Leah Boden, Modern Miss Mason
SHOW TRANSCRIPT:
182 CECIL COHN
Ginny Yurich Welcome to the 1000 Hours Outside podcast. My name is Ginny Yurich, and I am here with Cecil Cohn from the Freedom Boat Club, which is has such a great ring to it, the Freedom Boat Club boating. It made simple. Welcome. I'm so glad you're here.
Cecil Cohn Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to join you this morning.
Ginny Yurich Yeah, I am going to talk your ear off for just a minute about my memories of my childhood boat experiences. All right? Because I don't have many, and then I. Maybe we'll hear yours. I don't have many. I have memories of tubing as a teenager, and it was just a few times. I don't even remember where or with who. So it must have been friends of a friend. Someone's grandparent had a boat. And I just remember loving that. Like a highlight of childhood was getting the chance to tube on someone's boat. And it's just like the summer heat. And you got this, though. It's splashing in your face in this challenge of holding on, and then you're sore the next day. But like in a really good way because you're using muscles that you had never used before or don't use often. And then even when you're just watching, you're on this boat. The wind is whipping through your hair and you're watching the other kids tube. And it's fun and it's funny. People are going up over the week. So I just have extremely positive memories of doing that. As a teenager, even though it was only a couple of times. And then I have a little bit of memories of riding on some jet skis. And here in Michigan, that's where we're at. Someone from our church owns some jet skis. So same thing just a few times. Got the opportunity and you know, you're 13, 14, 15. I don't quite remember the age that you had to be, but you know, you're whipping around in the water. So it is a brand new experience. So I have extremely fond memories from those few experiences as a kid. And then when we became parents, we were in Silver Lake, Michigan, which Michigan has a lot of lakes, and we were with a group of people camping. So everyone was in their early twenties, everyone had little kids, no one had much money, but someone's parent had a boat, a jet boat, a very small jet boat. Maybe it fit six people. And so they ferried us, Cecil, out to this island where we went and had lunch. So everyone took their cooler. And, you know, you pop in with your kids, you put on your life jackets, you know, they ferry over, they come back and get the next group. Maybe we were with five or six families. And I just remember thinking, this gives us freedom to go so many places that other people can't get to. So you kind of have this own private island, basically. Maybe there was a few other families that have docked their boats or things like that, but I just remember thinking what a cool thing to be able to get to these places that you can only see. And so just had these, you know, just small memories, but very impactful ones throughout my years growing up and into early adulthood. And so just love what boating offers. So you have a really cool thing that you do. So that's what I'm going to be talking about today. But I'd love to hear your boating story.
Cecil Cohn Yeah, absolutely. One of the things I love most about boating is exactly what you just did without even realizing it is as you began to talk about your experiences, you smiled and you couldn't you couldn't help yourself because there's like such fond memories of it's not just about that. It is about the wind whipping through your hair and you're probably picturing blue skies and, you know, a sunny day and relatively calm water and getting the boat up on plan. And, you know, that whole experience that's really invigorating. And it's also therapeutic. Yeah. But then in addition to that, just the people that you were with, I can recall as a child learning that camp, how they you go sailing and really learning how to sail a boat and be on the lake and the water and thinking that was like one of my favorite experiences when I when I was a camper. And then as an adult, when I joined the parent company of Freedom Brunswick, one of the roles that I had. And then the company took us to the suburbs of Minnesota and we were I was leading an aluminum fishing and pontoon boat brand, Crestline, our boats and I can recall we would take boats home in the summertime where we'd take it home from the office, a trailer at home on a Friday night, and I'd bring it home on our back to the office on a monday morning. And the biggest decision that my wife and kids and I had to make was which family are you going to take with us on Saturday and which other family we're going to take with us on Sunday? And I can remember dropping the boat in the water, inevitably the kids. But before we're even out of the know weeks on, the kids are asking, did we bring any food on the boat? Yes, of course. But I mean, I don't know what it is about boating and food, but we we bring and we bring like a small buffet or so it seems to have plenty of food and, you know, homemade banana bread, like even just the foods are like a whole conversation unto itself. But there's just these amazing memories to the point where my kids now, they're they're older. I have one actually entering high school here in the fall, which is mathematically impossible, but that's maybe a story for another day. But I can recall when I left that role and moved back to the company headquartered in the suburbs of Chicago. We didn't have access to those boats anymore, and my kids wanted to know if I'd gotten a demotion at work. So it was clearly like, gosh, this is clearly an impactful experience for them and one that we still I mean, they're in and like you were describing in Michigan, some beautiful lakes there. And similarly in Minnesota, I mean, we just fell in love with Lake Minnetonka. And just that that personal connection and those those family memories made it such an impactful time in our lives. That was really remarkable.
Ginny Yurich Wow. So how did you end up working at a boating company to begin with? Did you grow up boating?
Cecil Cohn I did not, actually. But when I went back to graduate school to get a business degree, Brunswick, the parent company, was recruiting for people to come in kind of a general management track. And so the boats were kind of the widget. And what I was really excited about was all of the opportunities that Brunswick would offer from a professional standpoint. And it seemed to be a company that stayed really strong culture and values and things of that nature. And so that worked out really well. And I've been with Brunswick for about 18 years now, which is somewhat unheard of, the longevity. But it's it's just always a tremendous opportunity for me and my family and both professionally and personally. And then in 2019, myself and a few other colleagues, we led the acquisition of Freedom Boat Club, which is what brings us here today. And we I've had responsibility for the club and the business ever since.
Ginny Yurich Yeah, well, that's such a testament to have been there 18 years because like you said, that is fairly unheard of. I had read recently that the average jobless 18 months to three years or something like that, very short. So yeah, what a testament to the company. And it even said in your bio that you just work your way up and I think that's such a cool opportunity. So what an interesting thing though, that you didn't have those childhood memories, but now your kids do. And I think it's a really big thing to be able to say that you entered into it as an adult, because I think a lot of times when we haven't done something as a kid, we don't feel like we know what to do, and so we just don't go there. We don't try it. So what was that like having boating experiences and trailering and figuring out where to launch and how the boat works? What was that like learning that as an adult?
Cecil Cohn It was challenging and it was not so much that it was insurmountable, but it was definitely a challenge, more so because I needed to find people kind of, I'll say, organically just through various networks and whatnot, where I would just like found myself talking about it in conversations to find out from other individuals like the answers to all of the questions I might have, Hey, you know, am I better off with my wife and I are taking the boat or putting it in the water at the ramp, is it better for her to be in the boat operating it and me to be driving the jeep backwards or vice versa? Yeah, When we get it in, what's the checklist of things I need to be thinking about? If something starts beeping, could I call? Or what do I do? So just things of that nature. And part of that is my experience boating, because I've worked for a company that makes boats is I haven't actually gone through the purchase process myself to buy a boat. And so I'd imagine like a local dealer that sold me a boat would have gone through some of. So my experience might be a little bit unique in that regard, but I figured it out. And as I continue to, there's all sorts of things going on inside freedom and there's a big opportunity kind of industry wide to professionalize how new boaters get trained on how to operate boats. And that provides all sorts of opportunity to. So I always think about and I think this is what you're getting at. I always think about my own personal experiences whenever I think about where, you know, opportunities are moving forward to really kind of diversify and expand boating participation.
Ginny Yurich Hmm. Yeah. So it's an interesting thing, though, too. And now your kids, though, will have a touch point with it. My husband grew up boating and I think there's something to be said about making sure that kids at least have exposure to different things because it really does help them later in life. They have more confidence because they've been around it. So let's lay out what the Freedom Boat Club is so we can kind of ladder back to it as we go along. So tell us what you have going on.
Cecil Cohn Yeah, absolutely. It's a subscription boating model to get out on the water in a in a really simple and effective manner. So the concept for us, it's a membership model. We have a little over 55,000 memberships, so there's about 80,000 people right now worldwide that call themselves Freedom Boat Club members. And what they do is after they learn more about the club on our website or by talking with various marketing and sales executives, they pay a one time entry fee and then they pay ongoing monthly dues. So it's very kind of in vogue right now relative to a subscription model, but they pay that one time entry fee and ongoing monthly dues, and in exchange for that, they get unlimited access to a diverse fleet of boats, not only at the home club and all of their locations, but then reciprocal access. We're closing in. We have 390. Seven locations worldwide right now, which we're super excited about. So one of the benefits of the Freedom Ball Club model is it's really building made. Simple is our tagline. And when you travel, you know, like you could live as you described in kind of the in the suburbs of Ann Arbor, you can travel like if you go to Florida over Christmas or spring break or so, there's like over, I think, 100 locations in Florida alone. So your membership travels with you and you can reserve boats and things of that nature and just it's like all those different experiences, right? Going out on Lake St Clair as an example, where we have a Freedom Ball Club franchisee who was very successful, it was very different than maybe going out in the Intercoastal Waterway is in kind of Fort Lauderdale and Miami or Palm Beach or in Tampa Bay or in those areas.
Ginny Yurich Oh, yeah. Interesting.
Cecil Cohn And so you kind of get on an even like inland lake boating is totally different than off shore boating. And so there's just a variety of experiences. And that's the diversity of boats is a really like helpful benefit of the club, so to speak, in that the, you know, you can take a saltwater fish boat out on Saturday morning and go fishing with a few friends and then Sunday afternoon you can reserve a pontoon and take the family out tubing like you were describing in some of your your boating experiences. Yeah. So it's it's super exciting.
Ginny Yurich Wow. It's a brilliant idea.
Cecil Cohn And it really is.
Ginny Yurich I truly didn't even know this type of thing existed. It's like Uber for a boat. Yes. I mean, is it very cool. So you're become a member. And what you said was so interesting because we did end up getting a boat because of those. My husband grew up boating and I had these childhood experiences and then we had a friend. We have kids that are similar to yours. That's like a high schooler, you know, And we've got two other teenagers and you know, the kids are getting older.
Cecil Cohn Are you also going through denial like I am? Like, you can relate to that very.
Ginny Yurich Fast, doesn't it? And I had heard someone say that when you have a boat or have access to a boat, that pretty much people will always come with you because they want to go on the boat. And so it was one of those things that was really attractive for as your as your kids are getting older, that it's a way for you to spend time around your teenage kids and they still want to be there. They wanted to I mean, they want to anytime there's an opportunity and they bring a friend along or you bring a family along and some people stay on the beach or some people sit up, you know, on the shoreline and you switch on and off and that type of thing. And so I but I didn't know anything about boating the particulars. And so we got a boat and the size of the boat was more suited toward Lake Michigan, a bigger water than the in the lakes. And trying to get it into the in the lakes didn't work as well because of the size. And basically we got the wrong thing. I mean, to put it bluntly, it didn't work well for where we're at, where we're located. It worked well for Lake Michigan, but we're a couple of hours. So it was a big day to get the boat out there. So I had really no idea the differences that there are in boats. And so it really even if you own your own boat, you can't necessarily have all of these different experiences because certain ones are suited for different things. So for someone who has no idea, could you walk through just on a at a high level, what are some different types of boats?
Cecil Cohn Yeah, absolutely. The three most common types of boats within the Freedom Fleet and across the almost 400 locations now, there's a little over 5000 boats in the fleet that our members have access to, and they break down about somewhere in the ballpark of 40 to 50% of the fleet is what we'll call saltwater fish boats. So that's probably the most popular boat in the lineup would be a 24 foot offshore center console boat. So that would have would be made out of fiberglass like a white a white boat, so to speak. And you would be able to take it offshore. So it has a deeper dead rise, it's called. But the keel sits in the water a little deeper, which allows you to kind of cut through rougher waters like what you're talking about.
Ginny Yurich So when you when you say offshore, because I mean, everything is technically offshore, right? Every type of boat, your offshore. But when you're talking about offshore, you're talking about more like ocean.
Cecil Cohn Yeah. Coastal. Now, these boats are 24 feet and they're single engine powered.
Ginny Yurich So that's not that big.
Cecil Cohn Yeah, exactly. So like, you're not going out, like, literally into the middle of the Atlantic. Yeah, sure, sure. And a lot of times the members are thinking about what species of fish in that that particular application, what species of fish they're trying to catch and where those fish are. And what's the best boat is to get them on those fish. Wow. So you have these 24 foot offshore center consoles, then you have kind of the 21 foot or so bay boats. Those are maybe for intercoastal waterways and things of that nature. They're a little bit flatter bottom and they allow you to get into more shallow waters for different types of fishing. And then there's also dual console boats. These are kind of the SUV or the hybrid of boats in the fleet because it has some features that are common in. Like a sport boat or a bull rider, a deck. Boats are some creature comforts and cushions and places to sit out and tan and things like that. But then along the O'Donnell and and other areas, they'll have fishing rod holders and all of that. So it's more like a versatile boat that allows you to do multiple activities and not any of them. Are you like a hardcore like a hardcore angler is not is going to say, oh, that boat doesn't have all the fishing features I want and somebody that just wants to go skiing or, you know, do sports might say, what are some of these fishing features doing on my on this boat that I've reserved? But but it's like a nice hybrid where if the family wants to do different things the same day on the water, it provides that nice experience and those are all make up that kind of saltwater fish category. But we see some of those boats even in freshwater like larger inland lakes. And then in addition to that, you have what we call sport boats. Those are either bow riders or deck boats. Those would be like sea Ray Bay liner, Brown line and others in the fleet are all very popular. And then the final category would be pontoon boat. And so those tend to be in the pontoon, right? That's a more of like a rectangular layout, if you will, with that that really maximizes. It was what you were talking about before. People always want to come on the boat with you. So the best feature of the pontoons are you can max out how many people you can sometimes bring 10 to 12 people, including yourself, onto the boat. So it's not choosing like my kids. And then when we're in Minnesota, it's not choosing one other family. It might be choosing two other families, depending on how big the family is.
Ginny Yurich How big a pizza party out.
Cecil Cohn There or. Exactly.
Ginny Yurich I mean, the cool thing, too, is one of the things I really love to do is I love to see all the houses because when they're on a lake, the best side of the house tends to face toward the lake. And so I remember one time we were on a small family vacation and I mean, our kids were little and we were in this cheap little house, but it was on the lake and the kids could play in the water. And people who were renting right next to us, they had a boat and they let us go out with them. And it was so cool to see all of the different homes. So even just kind of cruising along the edge didn't depending on where you're at and you get to see all of these different things that you wouldn't, once again, it gets you to a place that you wouldn't be able to get to otherwise. So that's so interesting. So people could come to your website Freedom Boat Club dot com and on your blog. So it's Freedom boat club dot com slash learning dash center and I can put that in the notes you go through all the different boat types. So for someone who is a total beginner and who feels a little out of their depth in understanding what kind of a boat they might wonder what might work for a certain situation. You have all the information there and then you also offer I don't know if training is the right word, but you help people learn.
Cecil Cohn How to training's exactly the right word. And that's something we're really proud of. The freedom because it's it's a space in the in the broader kind of boating industry and spend space where where there aren't a lot of professional options and certainly not at the national scale. A lot of times you're working locally with individuals that provide training. And so our new member orientation program is kind of industry certified and world class. We've received numerous awards for it, but it's all centered around providing a great opportunity to help, especially new boaters. But even folks that have prior experience boating with the opportunity to get on the water and be able to read the waterways, be able to understand how to operate a boat whenever I go and work the docks to kind of interact with members and stay close to kind of the pulse of the business, so to speak. And when I do that, it's always remarkable to me how effortless and how well all of our members back the boats, because that's a skill, right? That it is. And and it's to the point where our goal is like a dock staff on our catch the boat when it comes in and sometimes they don't touch it. I'm going to get it just right. And, you know, they'll come in and then you know, they'll be going forward or backward and the whole thing and they'll eventually kind of pump the brakes, so to speak, in quotation marks. And when they do that, then we tie up and all of that and they're like proud that they could do it, because when they joined freedom, they didn't have any idea how to dock a boat in the marina left.
Ginny Yurich It says, Oh, that's really cool, because, you know, life is thrilling when you get to grow. It's thrilling when you get to have new experiences, when you get to try out a new skill and learn it and learn it well. So some of the things that are really difficult about boating are storage for the typical person. Storage is an issue where you where you keep in the boat trailering because you have to go, then pick the boat up from the storage and then you have to get it to the dock and then you have to put it in the water and then you have to find a place to park. And then, I mean, it's a lot of work, that part of it, the maintenance. So what Freedom Boat Club offers is it offers all the thrill and all the fun and really extra fun because like you said, you can go to these different types of places, but you're not having to deal with any of the other stuff.
Cecil Cohn That's spot on and. You know, I really always believe that, like you and I are perfect examples. And our respective families will go through different stages in life and we'll have different needs relative to the sorts of things that we're interested in. And so freedom does a phenomenal job of generating really broad appeal. But we do it in a way where we're not only made simple like we talked about, and so there's a nice opportunity there when you when you show up after you've been trained and you go out and you reserve boats and you go out on on trips, when you show up to the dock that day, the dock staff come to meet you at your car. They carry your gear down to the boat.
Ginny Yurich Oh, wow.
Cecil Cohn They've already cleaned the boat off for you. They go through a simple checkout procedure to make sure that you have all the right safety equipment and we give the lifejackets. And, you know, all that kind of stuff is taken care of. Then the member takes the boat out and they go on their way. And typically they'll they'll go for, I don't know, three or 4 hours. But sometimes they go depending on what their schedules look like, maybe for one or 2 hours or maybe they want to go the whole day. Right. So there's a flexibility and optionality within how they go about reserving the boats. And then when they come back, they talk about effortlessly. And then after that, each member goes through a check in procedure to make sure there wasn't any damaged under the boat and to make sure that all the safety equipment made it back and to provide feedback if there's anything you know. Did the boat operate properly and well or if there's anything we can do to enhance the experience, that sort of thing. And then they're on their way and we clean the boat and we maintain it. We store it in the slip overnight and all of that. And so it's really maximizing, especially in times when, you know, like you and I, with our families, like there's so many different activities that are pulling at our time, especially on the weekends, just being able to maximize the time. I can recall as an example or as an analog when I was bringing the boats home from Crestline or on Friday nights and bringing them back Monday mornings, you know, I'd have a travel cover, so I'd take that off Saturday morning before we took the boat down to the ramp. Then, you know, when we'd be done at the day and I'd come back sometimes be a line at the ramp. So, you're know, at the mercy of dealing through some of those things. And those aren't the most efficient experiences I would call them. Yeah, But, you know, at different points in our life, like, you know, when when my kids grow up and they move out of the house, we may want to on our own boat or we might. So I always believe that, you know, there's a great opportunity to meet people where they're at. And as long as they're boating, then then everybody's winning.
Ginny Yurich Yeah, yeah. It's the ramp. It's that putting in and out. That's what I was referring to earlier. And I said, Doc, so I think I said it wrong. It's the ramp where you go and you put your boat in and then you said you got to wait and then you put your boat in and then you got to go park. I had a park one time, so normally my husband does a lap there one time because it was really crowded. I had to park the trailer like in another lot and I'm like hitting curbs. There wasn't anything on it, but it's not going very well. So that part of it is a pain and it takes a long time. I mean, you're talking about the weekends. So where we live, it's hard to even get in the water in the weekends. You have to be there early. If you don't get there early, sometimes you don't get to go at all. You're waiting in a long line when you think about the weeknights. So I have this guy on our podcast named Alistair Humphreys. He's like this adventurer of the Year, National Geographic guy. And he talks about, you know, everyone works a 9 to 5 and obviously there's variation on that. But, you know, if you look at that as a general rule, people are working 9 to 5 and he says, Well, what are you doing with your 5 to 9? And he meant five till like nine. The next morning he'll go like camp overnight on a work night. But I was thinking about it in terms of like you're 5 to 9 in the evening, that a lot of times there's kids activities and a lot of times there's things that you have to do. You've got, you know, laundry or grocery shopping. But here and there you have a packet of 5 to 9 where if you're having to take your boat to the ramp and then also pulling it back out, you just don't have that much time. And so that part's already all done. You're just walking right onto the boat. So it opens up an opportunity to use your evenings, to use your weekends in a way that actually really works. And there's no guesswork. I mean, we'll go to a ramp. We don't really even go on the weekends anymore, but we would go and we think, Well, I don't I don't even know if I can be able to put our boat. We're going to be boating or we're going to be sitting in the car waiting to get a spot to go out onto the lake. So that's really a cool way to maximize your time, especially like you said, for busy families. And if you've got an hour or two here or there, it doesn't feel like you've wasted all this effort for a short period of time.
Cecil Cohn And there's this like really interesting kind of general societal phenomenon going on where during the pandemic and now Post-Pandemic Freedom experienced very significant growth, being able to get out on the water was one of the few safe activities that could happen with social distancing and all of the things that were in play during that era. But the other thing that it did is it created very significant shift, if you will. In working schedules. And so a lot of people now, adults have much more flexible working schedules and arrangements where they can work remotely. They can, you know, maybe they do a little bit of work in the evening, but it frees up late afternoon. And so we've seen the utilization of the boats, especially like you're describing in kind of the afternoon and early evening during the weekday, has grown significantly over the past few years as compared to kind of pre-pandemic where things were a bit more rigid. So exactly which you're describing and what resonates with you, we're seeing in our data and we're seeing a huge uptick this year in even freedom offers. The typical plan is where you can go boating seven days a week, 465 days a year. But for those that have flexible schedules, we offer also a weekday only plan where you say, well, I don't need to go on Saturday or Sunday, I can just go on the weekday. And we're seeing like a very I think we're selling three times as many of those memberships this year as we did last year. Wow. Pretty, pretty significant growth within within parts of our our club and footprint in that regard. So I think it kind of supports exactly what you're describing.
Ginny Yurich Yeah, people are maybe just going right after work, especially if they don't have the commute anymore. So if you get done with work at five or 530 and you don't have maybe a commute like you used to, and you can happen over and go on the boat for a couple hours. That's an interesting thing too. And we're talking about the Outdoor Humphrey's and he talks about these micro adventures is the word he uses, that it really has changed our mindset. Sometimes you can have a ton of fun in 45 minutes. It doesn't have to necessarily be a four day thing. So if you can pop over and do a dinner, like a little dinner cruise down the water and, you know, get that fresh water air, I mean, it's got a smell to it. It just is really good for your mental health and your overall well-being.
Cecil Cohn And it even comes up and exactly like you're describing, but in ways you wouldn't suspect. So one of one experience I've really enjoyed since becoming part of freedom is even in the fall, like I live in the Southeast in kind of the greater Raleigh, North Carolina area. And one of our locations offers the ability, you would think, like who's going boating even in the southeast, where it's a bit of maybe a more moderate climate in the winter than than Michigan per se. But in the southeast, like who's going boating in November, in the summer, it's not like it's 80 degrees that time of year. Right. Or 70 or whatever. But what we find is the pontoons get utilized quite a bit where families will bundle up. You know, they'll wear like lightweight jackets and they'll do the cruising like you're describing and they're looking at houses and they're also really enjoying all of the changing of the leaves and the foliage. And they might do like family pictures that they can include in like holiday cards. And, you know, they'll take the picture in November and then piece it together and send their holiday cards out. So there's all sorts of experiences you can get even throughout the year at the same location where it's not just about I think when people think about boating, they immediately gravitate to either the tubing or the water sports in the middle of summer when it's hot, it's so refreshing to jump in the water, you know, kill the motor, jump in the water, have a have a great time, are just floating in the middle of the lake, we're told. Look, almost your personal swimming pool. And then also to be able to go fishing are kind of two very common experiences. But there are all these other opportunities in that regard.
Ginny Yurich Mm hmm. And you would be more likely in the middle of a school year, because that's really actually an interesting part to. So I think that a lot of people do associate it with summer, They associate it with summer vacation. You maybe have a little bit more flexibility because there's no school, there's no homework, there's no sports. But then in the fall, if it's easier, if it's already at the dock and you don't have to do the ramp and you can just go hop on for a bit of time, then you get to enjoy the waterways throughout these different seasons. That's super interesting. Earlier in the spring into later fall, what an opportunity for families. So you talked about this week, day only membership. What are the different types of memberships?
Cecil Cohn Yeah, absolutely. The most common membership and it's offered based on what works best in the local club. So like as an example in your area, we have Freedom Boat Club of Lake St Clair and I think they have don't quote me about it, they have a number of locations kind of in the greater Detroit area, not in Lake St Clair, but also in other expanding into other markets within kind of southeastern Michigan. And so there you would join that club and in that case you might have like a freedom boating plan, which is the most common membership. And that's one where you get for rolling reservations in the system, two of which can occur on the weekends. And then you pay the one time entry fee and the monthly dues and you can kind of go boating any time you want that that the club and its locations are open in Michigan. So probably not January but no.
Ginny Yurich Yeah yeah. Every place has its boating season. Ours I think is April 15th to October 15th. That's what is in Michigan.
Cecil Cohn No, that's perfect. And then we have the weekday only plans and that's where it's the same thing. But you're basically doing it. On a for a weekday. And then there's also. Those are by far the two most that's probably like 90 to 95% of the membership. And then there are a few other kind of there's one that's friends and family where especially like as the kids get older and, you know, move out of the house, so to speak, and there could be enough. Well, we still want the whole family to have access. So it's still one membership. I maybe the kids live in a different city or that sort of thing. So we try to accommodate those folks.
Ginny Yurich Well, yeah, that's really neat to to have that multi-age. It really is a great opportunity for multi-generational experiences because your baby can go and your grandma can go and so everyone can go and be together. So for rolling reservations and you can even reserve up to six months in advance. So if you had some sort of a birthday or something that you wanted to make sure that you had a reservation for a certain day and time, that's an option as well.
Cecil Cohn Absolutely. Yeah. And there's all sorts of birthdays and holidays and special events and there's enough flexibility in the system that's nice where maybe you have one or two kind of future bookings and then you keep one or two of your reservations for more near-term activity where you're watching the weather.
Ginny Yurich And that makes sense. Okay. For rolling reservations. So if you have a couple things you planned a little further out, you'd be holding those with your for. Interesting. It's a really interesting model. So it's been around since the eighties and has that I mean, who figures this stuff out.
Cecil Cohn And that that's maybe a few freedoms done through a few different owners over that I think it's almost 35 years now if I remember correctly to your point that 1989 and so it's just it's one of these amazing business models that just has like it's really rare to find something that has such broad appeal. Like one of the things that I'm so excited about is one of our missions at Freedom is, like I said, to expand and diversify, broadening participation. And so it's pretty rare in any industry to find a business model that has such broad appeal. We have grandparents that are joining that, you know, that winter in southwest Florida and want to join the club to go boating themselves and maybe take their kids and grandkids out when they come to visit. We have parents with kids like like you and I are at that stage right now. We also have young professionals that maybe don't have families yet that have more free time on their hands and just want to get out on the water together. So it just has like whether it's age a little over a third of the members that joined freedom every year are female, which is like two or three times that of who typically buys a new boat from an ownership standpoint. And so that's something we also want to really well.
Ginny Yurich Like because it gives we don't have to do the trailering.
Cecil Cohn You know, I think it's just the just how simple it is, but it's something and like when I was thinking about the experience, I was telling you earlier where I work the box and I see the members boating. The very first time I ever worked the docks at Freedom, I think like two thirds of the members that brought the boats back in that they were female and as compared to seeing boat dealers or even my own experience from other boating experiences I've had, it was really remarkable at how well they operated the boats. They were really well trained and they kind of took pride in it. But I think I think it's just like a much more contemporary way to to engage with the boating lifestyle and and it has broad appeal as a result. So we're really proud not only of the ability to attract the female from a diversity standpoint that way, but also all sorts of other underrepresented minorities as well.
Ginny Yurich It's one of those things that it just makes people where they're at. You have to be 21 years old and that's basically the only requirement. You could have voted before or not voted before. You can still join and become a member once you're 21. So yeah, what a cool thing. It's one of those things that's an easy entry point because you don't have to have prior skills or prior knowledge or experience. And with boating in particular, it's one of those things that feels like you have to have that in order to start, but not with the Freedom Boat Club.
Cecil Cohn It's such a great entry point. So we find that over nine out of every ten people that joined Freedom had no intention of buying a new boat when they join the club. So they're not even considering new boat ownership. They're really focused on getting out on the water. And a lot of those folks really value the new member orientation and the training that our certified captains provide to each and every member. And then they also value, hey, you know, I joined two years ago, but I haven't bought it in three, four or five, six months. Can I do that refresher course with the captain and kind of and absolutely like unlimited ongoing training is also part of it's just included in your membership kind of, you know, free of charge, so to speak. So that's tremendous. And then on the tail end, we have a really strong retention rate. We retain about 90% of the membership every year, which for a higher ticket subscription model is kind of best in class. Wow. But of the 10% that leave one out of five people leaving the club are leaving because they say, I love this so much I wanted to buy. I own both. So we're kind of graduating people to boat ownership, but what a tremendous experience to come in, even if it's for a few years, get world class training, get these great experiences where you like, you were describing you bought a boat, but it wasn't the right fit for you.
Ginny Yurich There was a little bit of a costly mistake and then we had to sell it and find something else. So it's an interesting thing that if this is a thing like we're you said at the beginning, it's like an ad hoc thing. If you're trying to find help, if you're trying to figure out what to do, you're just hoping that you have someone in your network or community or someone that you might already know that would be willing to help you. But this is a systematic way to get help and to learn about it so that maybe someday if you do want to buy your own. But it's an interesting thing. Cecil I could imagine that on the surface it seems like it's for non boat owners. That's what it would seem like. But you could also see that it would be both.
Cecil Cohn Yes.
Ginny Yurich Because if people love to vote and they don't want to trailer their boat across the country, but they want to go boating in another state that they love boating. So this gives you an opportunity to do that. Other places.
Cecil Cohn Yeah. If you were to take a look at kind of the average age and age pockets of a freedom member and compare it to a new boat owner, one of the things that's really interesting about freedom is we have a much higher percentage of younger members than typically before people get into prime boat buying age. But then exactly like you're referring on the tail end, there's also a much higher proportion of our membership is kind of grandparent age where they've maybe aged out of wanting to own their own boat and deal with all of the upkeep and the maintenance and storage and things like that that you've talked about earlier. But they don't want to exit boating entirely. So it's like a way to kind of keep them in boating and extend their boating lives longer than than than what they might have done otherwise.
Ginny Yurich They are getting families outside and really putting the boat in at those ramps. I mean, it's slippery. It's not easy. It's a physical process. So, yeah, it extends the opportunity both on the front end. We need maybe have no money and on the tail end when maybe it's a little trickier physically that you still get those experiences. And even if you owned a boat, your own boat, you could still be a member. And I mean, I never really thought about it. You know, we just go to the same spot all the time and the kids go tubing. But I never really thought about, oh, gosh, if you go out on a different lake, if you go on a different waterway, there's going to be all sorts of new things to see and new things to try. So all across the country, how neat.
Cecil Cohn And even like the same lake to have more like a larger lake. They have multiple locations on the same way can be really appealing. I can recall those times in Minnesota where we'd go out and we'd start in kind of the northeastern part of the lake in Canada was that area. But then other times where we'd say, Oh no, we want to actually like, I don't think we ever did the same trip twice. Like we would just kind of go boating. And that was part of the adventure as well. Which coves are we going to go and drop the anchor and, you know, jump in the water and then get back in and crack into the banana bread and all the other food that we talked about earlier. Which restaurant are we going to dock up next to and have lunch to get some time, maybe off the boat in the middle of the day to get a break? So there's just all sorts of opportunity there where even that provides you a different experience every time you go, even to go to the larger lakes, even to different parts of same lake.
Ginny Yurich Amazing. We did one boat rental experience and that really was our catalyst to getting one when we got the wrong kind. But that one experience just it was 4 hours, I think, and the kids, our kids were maybe five and under six and they had so much fun, like an unbelievable amount of fun that we were like, you know, we need to add this into our lives. So I wish we would have known about the Freedom Boat Club then we know about it now. But there is an interesting thing about renting that there wasn't an option for 45 minutes and it wasn't it really wasn't that cheap. It was cheaper than owning a boat, but it certainly wasn't that cheap. And I think we did a four hour option and it was a chunk of change. We had a great time and felt that it was worth it. But you don't have an option to say, Look, I just want to go for a couple of hours. It's seven at night. We just want to go cruise around till the sunset. And a lot of the rental companies don't allow that. So it's interesting, this model that gives you a lot more options.
Cecil Cohn Yeah, there's tremendous flexibility from a timing and reservation standpoint and it's all included price. You're paying one monthly rate each month whether you go boating once or ten times or whatever the case may be. It's an addiction. So at different times of the year in different locations and all of that like we talked about.
Ginny Yurich So. Right. And it's not getting rented out by like a bunch of partiers or I mean, maybe maybe, maybe the boat Club members are partiers, but it's a different thing because it's like it's only the members that are it's not like those boats are getting rented out to other people.
Cecil Cohn Never. Exactly. It's strictly the members. And there's like the best way to describe it, There's a community feel to the membership at each club and each location where. Each of the members take care of the boat like it is their own, because they recognize that if they have the boat in the morning and they do something to break something on the boat, even by accident or whatever, they take it very seriously because they know they're impacting the next member's experience that afternoon or that evening. Sure. And so we have all sorts of parts and supplies on hand and things like that to keep the fleet in great working condition. And, you know, we clean the boats after every every use there is every reservation and so on. But there's also it's not just our tremendous dock staff that are delivering that experience every day. It's also the members, your fellow members within the club that are taking good care of the boats. And there's like a maybe a collective responsibility if that's the right way to describe it.
Ginny Yurich Yeah. So that's a different something that's unique. Let's flip over to just the benefits of boating. What are some of the benefits of boating for individuals and families?
Cecil Cohn Yeah, absolutely. There's just a tremendous and it's like scientifically proven, but and you and I have described it through all of our experiences here together this morning. But there's a tremendous benefit to getting out on the water socially, mentally, emotionally, psychologically, all of that where there's just a tremendous opportunity to to really have remarkable experiences that have long term staying power within your mental psyche. We really saw a lot of this during kind of the COVID era, where boating was one of the few kind of safe and socially distant activities like we talked about. But it really provided that true escape especially. It was a very stressful time for really everybody. A lot of things that were normal were not normal during that time, whether you had to, as a school aged individual staying home and discovering what Zoom was all about and things of that nature, or as an adult, I think the lines between work and home kind of really got blurred where, you know, there was a lot of a time where folks were on call and things like that. But there's just that escape and that peacefulness and that calmness that you get like you described when you're on the water. There's a it's called the blue mind state, but there's a scientific connection between water and happiness. And it's ultimately this amazing way to kind of unwind and relax and it helps to rest our brains. It's meditative, it's on inspiring. It really promotes the ability to play, and it introduces you to be more creative, which is something I could use quite a bit of. And and it really appeals to many of our senses, many of our five senses. And so that blue mind kind of state of mind is something that boating unlocks. And it it really provides the means to get outside of our daily routines.
Ginny Yurich Yeah, it does a lot. And it's one of those things that you tend to not have your phone out because you don't want to drop it in the water. Just from that perspective, we're going a little faster on a boat. You don't want to drop it in and there's just so much to look at and so much to see and conversations that you can have a different types of things that are happening, banana bread that you can eat. So a lot going on where it tends to be. I mean, if I think about where we boat is not super crowded, but I can't really think of a bunch of experiences where you look over at another boat and everyone's sitting on their phone. I mean, that doesn't really happen, right? Is it one of those rarities in this day and age where it's a place that feels a lot more tech free?
Cecil Cohn It's also that's a very natural experience. The reason the people on the boat that you're looking at are not on their phones is not because the parents or whoever is in charge of the boat are telling everybody to put their phones away. It just naturally happens. Good point, because you're out on the water. You want to kind of see the sights. You want to see those houses, you want to see changing foliage. You want to see your family member, your friend on the tube and how long they can stay on and what waves they're going on. Yeah. So it's very much an immersive experience in that regard that people just naturally disconnect and really engage in in the moment, if you will.
Ginny Yurich That is so interesting. So because yes, it is a natural thing. You don't even have to ask. I just read this book called Play Boyhood, which is about turning your neighborhoods back into a play space. And he was talking about basically how nothing outside is more alluring anymore, that it's not attractive enough because of the alternative things that we can do. Those are more attractive. So the, you know, immersive video games and YouTube and all of those things that if you look outside and there's no other kids, it doesn't have the pull. So this naturally has a pull. It's one of the few things left that naturally has a pull for teens. They're not on their social media or on their phones. They're just out there swimming and jumping off the back and riding the tubes and eating the food and, you know, getting drinks out of the cooler and that type of thing. And so it naturally gives them an experience. And I think those type of experiences are important because they're not growing up in an analog childhood like we did and they're growing up in a digital one. And so it's good for them to have stretches of time where they learn that you can be away from your phone and still have a whole lot of fun.
Cecil Cohn Absolutely. And that's really what 1000 Hours Outside is all about, having learned more about your blog and your organization. It's remarkable. I think you were saying, is it just 20 hours a week when add up to 1000 hours every every year? That's that's tremendous.
Ginny Yurich Yeah, it definitely is life enhancing. But even just your typical outdoors, I don't think necessarily has quite enough allure, especially if there's no kids outside playing. But the boat does. Like I said, I mean, you're you're never at a lack for friends when you invite people out on the boat. There's always something that's going to want to go with you. And so just a place to learn and to have different experiences. And you can even go and do this in other parts of the world.
Cecil Cohn Mm hmm. Yeah. Something we're really excited about. We have, I think, like 35 to 40 locations across Europe now. So you can go and boat in the United Kingdom, you can go and vote on the southern coast of France. You can go and boats in Spain. I've been out on boats recently off the island of Mallorca, which is exactly as glamorous as it sounds. It was it was not the toughest day at the office, so to speak. The water is like kind of similar to the Caribbean. It's that light green. Just it's like beautiful. I just it was remarkable and how clear the water is, too. And you have the island in the background in these, like, picturesque moments. So, you know, Spain, France, United Kingdom, we have locations that are kind of emerging in other parts of Europe, and that's been in the works for a few years now. And that's how we're continuing to emerge there. And really, we want to be everywhere. People want to go boating. But then in addition to that, this year, starting in January, we started cultivating our presence in Australia and that is Australia has such a strong boating culture. Like people said, Oh yeah, that makes sense. It's an island, a really large island, but all of the intercoastal waterways and all of the opportunities where you go boating and you can go stock at a restaurant and like the whole culture along predominantly right now we're kind of on the eastern coast of Australia in places like Sydney and then also the Gold Coast and Brisbane and kind of those that that eastern part of Australia. There's all sorts of restaurants and experiences that you can do where you take the boat and you know, you never really need to go out into the open water. A lot of it is kind of either lakes or protected waterways kind of along the coastline similar to Florida in that regard. And it's just these are just additional experiences that it's a flight, right. That's for for North American members of freedom. That's a that's a bit of a commute to go boating, but it's one where your membership travels with you. And that could unlock a whole series of experiences where it's just a different way to experience a country like Australia, right? You can go and you can do all the touristy things, but why not do them from the water? Right? I can remember also when I lived in Seattle previously, I can remember kayaking along kind of Portage Bay in downtown Seattle and out into Lake Union, and you come around the corner and you have the whole skyline and you're looking at it from a kayak on the water. It's just a very different experience than driving by and seeing that. And and you're outside and the weather is nice and all of that. So it's just another way to kind of experience it, you know, seeing a city and touring it for the first time.
Ginny Yurich Yeah, it's like a key that unlocks something new because you're seeing things from a different vantage point. We have the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and it's one of those things that you really can only get a very good view of it from the water. So there's a lot of places like that where it's like this key, you know, and then you get to go see things and, you know, if you happen to find yourself in Australia or international travel, I heard is up probably just because it wasn't available for several years. And so I've heard, yes, passport people are getting passports. We got ours because we thought, well, goodness, yeah, we couldn't go do these things. We live not that far from Niagara Falls and wanted to go through the Canada side and couldn't. So we thought, well, gosh, we got to get these. Our kids are getting older, we've got to get these passports. And so international travel is up. So what a neat thing. I mean, if you were going to another country, there's no way it would be very difficult, I would think, to trailer a boat or rent a boat. But if you're already part of the boat club and you know where to go, that just makes everything so much more seamless. So that's all people want to find you. It's Freedom Boat Club dot com, easy to find and they can find information there on how to become part of the world's largest and oldest members only boat club So cool boating mates simple anything else that people would need to know in order to get a membership or to learn more?
Cecil Cohn Yeah, I think if you go on the website there's a lot of great content and information there to learn more about the experience. And if it sounds like something that you're interested in learning more about, you can submit your information or reach out to us via various means on the website and we'll take it from there. And we just want to make sure you have a great experience, whether whether you decide to go join freedom or other ways to get out on the water and go boating. We really, like I said, just want to make that boating kind of affordable and accessible to all.
Ginny Yurich Awesome. And there's other things on the website, like great family boating activities, or it's a website just to pop over to bring your car games on the boat, make a scavenger hunt, go geocaching, all sorts of different things that you can do on the boat. So lots of information there just on the blog. So that's how we always end our podcast with the same question. Here's the question What is a favorite memory from your childhood that was outside?
Cecil Cohn Oh wow. I feel like I should have thought about this because I have already shared one or two. I can recall playing tennis growing up competitively, like in summer tournaments and things like that. And I can recall it being like a bit of a pivotal moment in my life when I was able to win a few tennis matches against common opponents that I had lost too many times that were just better players than me, but that I ended up winning once. And and so it kind of taught me a number of lessons that I've carried through through my life, so to speak. But kind of the the ability to rise to the occasion, you know, that the ability to to compete the work hard and it pays off reward like some kind of really basic but important lessons in life. And it all happened kind of outside on a tennis court, you know, with with a lot of hard work and perseverance.
Ginny Yurich So awesome. That is awesome. So really appreciate your time. It's super cool what you're doing. What a unique concept. I had never heard of it, and I think it's such an amazing answer for families and for grandparents. And so just a lot of ways that you can join in with the Freedom Boat Club, if that's something you're interested in and well, I don't know. I'm looking into it more for us at a cool thing that's outstanding.
Cecil Cohn So great meeting you. Thank you so much for having me on your podcast.
Ginny Yurich Yeah, nice meeting you too. Thank you.
