When I started getting involved with NSPI (now you'd say APSP) and IPPSA and FSPA, that started making a big difference. First of all, the networking made a big difference - even in terms of revenue. I'd meet a guy and he'd say, "Oh, I didn't know you did that kind of work. Here let me give you a lead."
Some people complain about how much it costs to get involved in these groups in time and money, but you're really investing in yourself. And they don't realize that there's a tenfold return for that investment.
When I started going to board meetings at FSPA, and when I started getting involved in the Florida Pool Show, that's when I began to think differently about it.
And then one day you're walking the show and you're seeing friends from California and there's the guy you met in Arizona, and there's your friend from Jacksonville, and you really feel a part of a national network of people. Even taking the Genesis courses during the IPSPE show, I made friends from St. Johns and Atlanta and Memphis . . .
I was a just guy that was cleaning pools. And when I see where I am now, it's like an answered prayer.
This isn't a dead-end industry. You work hard and follow your dreams, and you can make a lucrative professional career out of this.
