{"id":23511,"date":"2022-11-29T14:23:46","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T19:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.dan.org\/?post_type=dan_alert_diver&p=23511"},"modified":"2023-01-27T13:00:55","modified_gmt":"2023-01-27T18:00:55","slug":"dean-hollis-a-passion-for-water-and-impacting-lives","status":"publish","type":"dan_alert_diver","link":"https:\/\/world.dan.org\/id\/alert-diver\/article\/dean-hollis-a-passion-for-water-and-impacting-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"Dean Hollis: Semangat untuk Air dan Berdampak pada Kehidupan"},"content":{"rendered":"

DEAN HOLLIS, FOUNDER OF SWIM AND DIVE RETAILER DIVENTURES<\/strong><\/span>, grew up in Lakeland, Florida, as a third-generation Floridian. \u201cI spent the first 22 years of my life in Florida, where I pretty much lived in the water,\u201d he said. \u201cMy parents and grandparents were in the grocery business and prided themselves on having an exceptional, customer-focused organization, which made it successful. So I grew up with two things in my DNA: water and the customer experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hollis got scuba certified as soon as his parents permitted it. \u201cThey told me I had to wait until I was 16,\u201d he recalled. \u201cOn my 16th birthday, my mom picked me up from high school, drove me to get my driver\u2019s license, and then drove to the dive shop.\u201d He did his checkout dives in Crystal River and was immediately hooked on diving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After graduating from Stetson University in 1982, he continued a career in the grocery industry, including 21 years in various executive positions with ConAgra Foods. It was a career path that led him out of his native Florida to several locations across the U.S. He managed to find a local dive shop wherever his corporate life led him. His experiences at some of them led him to wonder how he could reimagine the dive retail business model.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Hollis with his wife, Lisa, and their five children and son-in-law, all of whom are certified divers. COURTESY DEAN HOLLIS<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cWe\u2019ve all been in those stores where the owners love to dive, but the grind of running a business overtakes the passion,\u201d he said. \u201cThey find themselves doing all the things they don\u2019t like or want to do and not what got them into it in the first place: teaching people to dive and taking them on trips.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hollis along with his wife, Lisa, and their five kids eventually settled in Omaha, Nebraska. \u201cI had moved my kids all over,\u201d he said, \u201cand I promised them I wasn\u2019t going to move them again.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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BRINGING THE WATER TO OMAHA<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2008 Hollis retired as president and chief operating officer of ConAgra Foods, Consumer Foods, and began considering a dive retail store in land-locked Omaha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI thought I was going to open this little dive shop and just have a great place for divers to hang out, talk diving, and take a couple of dive trips a year,\u201d Hollis said. \u201cThe more I got into it, the more I realized there was a real opportunity to transform an industry by focusing entirely on the customer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he started Diventures in 2009, Hollis knew he wanted to create a dive retail store with all the efficiencies of being a well-run organization. More important, he wanted it to be a place where customers felt a sense of belonging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think our secret sauce is combining my experience in the business world with a team of passionate people and a focus on the customer,\u201d he said. \u201cIt took us a while, but we think we\u2019ve found the right vision, mission, and values \u2014 and we have a team of people working hard every day to make it happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diventures has expanded beyond Omaha to Lincoln, Nebraska; Lexington, Kentucky; North Liberty, Iowa; Phoenix, Arizona; Atlanta, Georgia; Battle Creek, Michigan; Springfield, Columbia, and Kansas City, Missouri; and Fitchburg and Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kampung halaman:<\/strong> Omaha, Nebraska<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Usia<\/strong>: 62<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years Diving<\/strong>: 46<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Favorite Dive Destination<\/strong>: St. Lucia<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Became a DAN Member<\/strong>: 2010<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI think our secret sauce is combining my experience in the business world with a team of passionate people and a focus on the customer \u2026\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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ADDING SWIM INSTRUCTION TO THE MIX<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emphasizing water safety and swim instruction has become crucial to the organization\u2019s mission. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every year in the U.S. there are an estimated 3,960 fatal, unintentional drownings, including boating-related drownings, and 8,080 nonfatal drownings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an obligation to teach people to swim, especially when you realize there will be double-digit drownings every day in the U.S.,\u201d Hollis said. \u201cIf we truly have a passion for the water, how can we accept that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hollis realized that a successful swim instruction program could lead to more people getting their scuba certification. \u201cWe had to figure out how to fill the pipeline from swimming to diving,\u201d he said. \u201cIn each location where we currently have pools, we have about 1,000 kids a week learning to swim. It could totally change the industry if we could convert just 10 of those swimmers to scuba divers. If we view this as the pipeline for future divers, we have to teach these kids to be safe around the water and to love the water. Then we can keep them for a lifetime, go on trips with them until they are 90, and eventually introduce their kids and grandkids to diving.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The swim revenue enabled Hollis to hire skilled people committed to preventing drowning, ensuring people are safe around the water, and encouraging them to have fun. \u201cWe want to enable them to love the water, and then let\u2019s keep them as a lifetime customer,\u201d he said. \u201cWhenever we see an opportunity, we\u2019ll say to the younger generations, \u2018Let\u2019s go diving!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Hollis during a Try Scuba experience with a reporter CHRISTINE HUGHEY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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THE EMOTIONAL CONNECTION<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hollis\u2019 personal dive experiences have helped fuel the joy he takes in introducing people to scuba diving. One of his most humbling experiences was tagging great white sharks for research in Guadalupe, Mexico. \u201cComing face to face with a great white was just magnificent \u2014 an unbelievable experience,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hollis was recently diving off Guanaja, one of the Bay Islands of Honduras, at a site called Black Rock Canyon. \u201cThere are a couple of parts called the Spires and Cathedrals that have huge swim-throughs,\u201d he said, \u201cand I turned around and got one of my favorite underwater pictures of my son. His bubbles are rising, the light is shining down, and I was thinking, \u2018This is why I dive.\u2019 It\u2019s almost unfathomable. It\u2019s a spiritual experience.\u201dFor Hollis, the emotional connection is equally important to the economic side of the business. \u201cWe are a mission-driven organization,\u201d he said. \u201cI love our vision statement. We worked long and hard on it: Using our passion and the power of water to impact lives, change the world, and have fun doing it!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery dive trip I go on, somebody cries because it\u2019s such a powerful experience. As a recent customer said as he pulled me aside, \u2018This has changed and saved my life.\u2019\u201d AD<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Hollis at the groundbreaking ceremony of the North Liberty, Iowa, Diventures location
CHRISTINE HUGHEY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u00a9 Alert Diver<\/em> \u2014 Q4 2022<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DEAN HOLLIS, FOUNDER OF SWIM AND DIVE RETAILER DIVENTURES, grew up in Lakeland, Florida, as a third-generation Floridian. \u201cI spent the first 22 years of my life in Florida, where I pretty much lived in the water,\u201d \u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":23512,"template":"","dan_alert_diver_categories":[66],"dan_alert_diver_issues":[482],"class_list":["post-23511","dan_alert_diver","type-dan_alert_diver","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","dan_alert_diver_categories-dive-slate","dan_alert_diver_issues-q4-2022"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDean Hollis: A Passion for Water and Impacting Lives - DAN World<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hollis\u2019 personal dive experiences have helped fuel the joy he takes in introducing people to scuba diving.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/world.dan.org\/id\/ko\/alert-diver\/article\/dean-hollis-a-passion-for-water-and-impacting-lives\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"id_ID\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dean Hollis: A Passion for Water and Impacting Lives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hollis\u2019 personal dive experiences have helped fuel the joy he takes in introducing people to scuba diving.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/world.dan.org\/id\/ko\/alert-diver\/article\/dean-hollis-a-passion-for-water-and-impacting-lives\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"DAN World\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-01-27T18:00:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/world.dan.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/alert-diver-q4-2022_137_memberprofile.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Hollis\u2019 personal dive experiences have helped fuel the joy he takes in introducing people to scuba diving.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.dan.org\\\/ko\\\/alert-diver\\\/article\\\/dean-hollis-a-passion-for-water-and-impacting-lives\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/world.dan.org\\\/ko\\\/alert-diver\\\/article\\\/dean-hollis-a-passion-for-water-and-impacting-lives\\\/\",\"name\":\"Dean Hollis: A Passion for Water and Impacting Lives - 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