Episode #59: John Ensley
Sailing School Owner / Sailing Instructor
Cruise and Learn Sailing International
Guest Bio
John Ensley is the owner, founder, and sailing director of Cruise-n-Learn Sailing International. With a passion for sailing that began at age 11, John has been a professional sailing instructor since 2016, guiding over 200 students to certification. He holds a U.S. Coast Guard Master Credential and has been recognized with the American Sailing Association’s “Outstanding Instructor of the Year” award. John’s commitment lies in transforming aspiring sailors into competent skippers, enabling them to safely enjoy the sailing lifestyle and share it with others.
Show Summary
In this episode, John Ensley discusses his journey from a young sailing enthusiast to the founder of Cruise-n-Learn Sailing International. He shares insights into the unique live-aboard sail training programs offered by his company, emphasizing the importance of hands-on experience in learning to sail. John also reflects on the challenges and rewards of teaching sailing, the evolution of sailing technology, and his favorite sailing destinations, including Puget Sound and La Paz, Mexico.
Key Takeaways
- ✓ Immersive Learning – The benefits of live-aboard sail training for developing practical sailing skills.
- ✓ Technological Advancements – How modern tools like Starlink and advanced electronics enhance the sailing experience.
- ✓ Safety Protocols – The critical role of safety measures, including the use of PFDs, jacklines, and tethers.
- ✓ Sailing Destinations – Exploring diverse locations such as the Pacific Northwest and the Sea of Cortez.
- ✓ Continuous Learning – Embracing ongoing education to adapt to evolving sailing techniques and technologies.
What You’ll Find on Cruise-n-Learn Sailing International’s Platform
- ✓ Course Offerings – Detailed information on various sailing courses, from beginner to advanced levels.
- ✓ Sailing Destinations – Descriptions of training locations, including Puget Sound, San Juan Islands, and La Paz, Mexico.
- ✓ Fleet Information – Specifications and features of the vessels used for training.
- ✓ Instructor Profiles – Backgrounds and qualifications of the instructional team.
- ✓ Booking and Contact Information – Details on how to enroll in courses and reach out for inquiries.
👉 Visit Cruise-n-Learn Sailing International’s Official Website to explore their offerings and learn more about John Ensley’s contributions to sailing education.
Learn more about Cruise and Learn Sailing International and connect with John at:
https://cruisenlearnsailing.com/
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Podcast Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated on recording, and has not been edited by a human. It may contain lots of mistakes, crazy words, and stuff that makes no sense. The host and the guest are not responsible for the accuracy of the transcript.
Jason Elkins (00:00.49)
Welcome back everybody to another episode of the Big World Made Small podcast for the adventure traveler. Today we’ve got an interesting gentleman here to kind of share his story and tell us a little bit about what he’s doing. We’ve got John Ensley. John is the owner of Cruise and Learn Sailing International. And what they’re doing, I’ve had some time to do a little research before we got on this call. What they’re doing is quite unique and definitely fits in the kind of the adventure travel space. So I asked him to come onto the show
bit about what’s going on. John, welcome to the show. Happy to have you here. John K.
John Ensley (00:34.897)
So great to be here. Thanks for having me, Jason.
Jason Elkins (00:38.07)
So John, real quick, where are you right now? Where are we chatting with you from?
John Ensley (00:42.596)
Right now at this moment, I am in La Paz, Mexico, down on the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula.
Jason Elkins (00:49.226)
All right, very cool. And how much time do you spend in La Paz typically in a year?
John Ensley (00:54.284)
So we’re usually down here, let’s say, from November through about April. So six, seven months a year.
Jason Elkins (01:00.37)
Okay, very cool. Oh, nice. Well, we’re recording this in kind of late March. I’m not sure when people are gonna be listening to it, but what’s the weather like in late March in La Paz, Mexico?
John Ensley (01:14.721)
The weather in La Paz, Mexico, pretty much all winter long, could be pretty much described as perfect. So we’re usually in the mid-70s to mid-80s, and light breezes, and clear blue sunny skies. So that’s why I’m here in the winter. And that’s pretty much what we’ve got outside today.
Jason Elkins (01:29.862)
Nice. Yeah, no, I get it and very cool. And I’m not that familiar with the area. I kind of had a feeling you were going to say that. And I’m curious, what is it? Does it get warm? And do you leave in the summer because the weather is unfavorable there? Or is it just because it’s so nice in other places?
John Ensley (01:50.04)
So I would describe the summer here as murderously hot. So it’s pretty common. Yeah, yeah, exactly. It’s very, very hot, right? We’re in the, the whole Baja Peninsula is basically the Sonoran Desert.
Jason Elkins (01:54.306)
Ah, okay. No more explanation is needed. You used the words that made it very, very clear. So I appreciate that. So John, before we, you know, I wanna spend the whole conversation speaking about what’s that?
John Ensley (02:12.48)
Oh, I was saying the Baja Peninsula is basically Sonoran Desert, so in the summer months it is very hard.
Jason Elkins (02:16.522)
Yeah.
Yep, I lived in Arizona for quite a while. And I’m sure it’s, and you probably have a little bit of moderating effect from the ocean. But still, it gets really, really hot in that part of the world. So I can appreciate why you leave. Before we get into too much of what you’re doing now, I want to hear what got you.
John Ensley (02:22.212)
There you go.
Jason Elkins (02:41.218)
to where you are now. So what’s fill in the gap between kind of where you started. We can go back as far as you feel like it’s necessary. Give our listeners kind of an idea, you know, how did you get involved in what you’re doing? And then we’ll talk a little bit more about what you’re actually doing. So how far back do you wanna go?
John Ensley (02:55.672)
Yeah, well, we can very briefly go back to 11 years old. That’s when I actually learned how to sail the first time at a summer camp in central Oregon on the little sunfish, single sail, little sailboat. So I guess you can say it kind of started there, but really we flash forward to about 2004 or five and a friend invited me to the Portland Boat Show. And that’s, it was all, it was all,
you know, smooth sailing, so to speak, from that point.
Jason Elkins (03:27.251)
So let’s dig into the 11 year old thing because that’s actually pretty cool. I wonder about, okay, your parents and what motivated them to get you on the water at the age of 11? What was going on in your world when you were 11 that you ended up learning to sail?
John Ensley (03:44.64)
Yeah, absolutely. So I grew up in rural Southern Oregon, country boy, stomping around the woods and playing in the rivers in Southern Oregon. My dad was always fascinated with sailboats. He never actually owned the sailboat, but he was fascinated with it. And he had magazines and, you know, stuff around the house all the time. He was always talking about it. So I think I kind of took an interest that way. And I grew up Seventh Day Adventist, and there was a Seventh Day Adventist youth camp.
that folks would send us to every summer for a week. And so one summer when I was 11, I decided that I was gonna take sailing for my week. And so that’s, you know, we went up there for a week and spent a week sailing little sailboats on Big Lake in Central Oregon and had a blast.
Jason Elkins (04:32.438)
That’s very, very cool. What’s, what was the, was there a defining moment when you were doing that that, yeah, I want to keep doing this or do you have any kind of memories of that experience that you think may be impacted, maybe in hindsight, looking back at it, you can say, oh yeah, that was the moment or that’s what happened.
John Ensley (04:49.72)
You know, what I remember most about it is it was a real confidence builder for me. I was at 10 years old. I was a pretty timid kid. I was a scrawny little thing and I was kind of afraid of a lot of stuff. And I remember going up to camp for that week and being very afraid of these boats and the water and just all of it. But I had an absolute blast, right? I just loved it. Flipped those little sunfish over multiple times, landed in the water, you know, figured out, well, okay, that’s not so scary. That’s actually a lot of fun.
And so that’s what I remember the most is coming out of that experience, just much more confident on and around the water than I was going into it. So, and I think that did, that definitely took me in a direction towards the water, right? Went on to do whitewater rafting in Southern Oregon as a teenager and a lot of that kind of thing as well.
Jason Elkins (05:42.07)
I get that I’m kind of envisioning and correct me if I’m wrong because I don’t know anything about it but I’m envisioning you out there as an 11 year old in your own boat I mean you know belongs to the camp or whatever but you’re you actually have the opportunity to run the boat yourself right that’s the whole point right?
John Ensley (05:54.788)
Mm-hmm.
John Ensley (06:01.796)
Yeah, exactly. There were usually pairs of us on the boat, but yeah, essentially, you know, we’re out there and they give you a little basic instruction, but it’s mostly, you know, here’s the pointy end, here’s the flat end, you know, here’s the wind, go. It’s a lot of fun.
Jason Elkins (06:19.703)
It’s actually pretty cool because I can imagine from the 11 year old perspective, like you said, you felt a little intimidated going into it. I imagine it’s kind of like, you know, for a kid to do something that’s kind of on adult level without an adult sitting right next to you, almost like driving a car around the block without your parents in the car with you.
Or, you know, I’ve heard stories of, you know, younger people, you know, getting into aviation and doing their first solo flight. You know, I did my first solo flight in a hot air balloon when I was 14. And it was looking back at it. I’m like, holy cow. That was a big confidence builder at the time. I was just kind of, you know, absorbed in the whole thing, but it’s, um, I can see being out on the water yourself without an adult in the boat and, um, yeah, that’s very cool.
John Ensley (07:09.092)
Well, that’s about that age, right? Where you’re starting to take steps towards independence. 10, 11, 12 years old, where you’re starting to get out and do things kind of without an adult sitting right next to you and have those experiences. Yeah, I think it’s a cool part of life.
Jason Elkins (07:21.685)
Right.
Jason Elkins (07:25.614)
What do you remember? Do you remember your parents’ attitude about it? Maybe before you went or after you got back and you were sharing your stories? Do you have any memories of kind of how they responded? Were they, you know, super supportive or I mean, was there a difference between mom and dad? What was that like?
John Ensley (07:41.48)
Yeah, no, my folks were always super supportive. I have a brother and a sister, and we are all as different as three people can be. And I attribute that to my folks, right? They just encouraged us to explore whatever we wanted to be at that point in time. And I think that’s why we all turned out so differently, is that we each kind of went our own path and became who we were supposed to be. I kid with people all the time, but I’m not really kidding. I had just a totally idyllic childhood.
You know, we were constantly camping, hiking, rafting, backpacking, just out in nature all the time. And my folks were always just super supportive of whatever we wanted to pursue. Personally, right, they just encouraged that. We didn’t have a lot of resources, mind you. So, you know, it wasn’t an unfettered go do whatever you want to do.
do, but it was, you know, if we took an interest in sailing, for instance, then, you know, we’re going to do summer camp anyway, so we’d make sure sailing happened during summer camp or, you know, those kinds of things. So I just had a fantastic childhood, again, stomping around the woods of Southern Oregon growing up.
Jason Elkins (08:56.606)
I’m just very curious, or I’m curious, like what did your parents do? Like what was your dad doing? Like he was obviously kind of the into the outdoors kind of adventurous, but like I suspect you’re gonna tell me he was something that would be a surprise. I don’t know, what did he do? What was he doing when you were young?
John Ensley (09:07.064)
Mm-hmm.
John Ensley (09:15.812)
So yeah, always into the outdoor thing. I mean, I’ve seen pictures when I was just a tiny little thing, you know, with their old square, Winnebago, right out in the desert, California. You know, so always out camping and doing that kind of thing. They’re retired now. Of course, they do the snowbird thing. They go to Arizona in the winter and they live in Montana in the summer. But dad’s a retired truck driver. He drove truck for, you know.
Jason Elkins (09:42.679)
Hmm
John Ensley (09:44.984)
40 years or so. And mom did different things, kind of office work and some restaurant stuff, but mostly what I remember, she was home with us. One of the unique things with both my folks in particular, my mom, is that so paying for private seve schools was kind of a thing, right? How to figure that out. So my dad converted an area of our home into
a certified commercial bakery. And so we ran a family bakery out of the house when we were kids and that’s how they paid our tuitions with the bakery. And so flash forward, I go to boarding school, some of the Edmonds boarding school at my freshman year in high school, I’m 14 years old. And the cafeteria director finds out that I’ve been working in the family bakery for the last several years. And so at 14 years old, they make me the…
Jason Elkins (10:18.036)
Oh.
John Ensley (10:41.836)
baker for the whole school, right? I did all the, now frankly, I hated the job. I had to get up at like 3.30 in the morning to go to work. But, you know, I took over baking all the breads, cookies, everything for the school there for a little while. So that whole thing has kind of, I then went on to actually open a bakery for a short time as an adult too. So that bakery thing kind of followed me through as well.
Jason Elkins (11:05.974)
Did you? Okay. Yeah. Because I was going to ask what were those, you know, those skill sets or those memories that kind of carried into the future? Because they typically do. And it sounds like that was one of them. And also just kind of the business. Right. I mean, I think that when kids are exposed to a business in the home or their parents business on some level, as opposed to I don’t know what my dad does, he just leaves and comes back at the end of the day. Or I don’t know what my mom does. She’s doing something, but I don’t understand it.
John Ensley (11:16.338)
Mm-hmm.
John Ensley (11:20.675)
Yep.
Jason Elkins (11:35.026)
When kids are involved in figuring out how to make money for tuition or figuring out how to, you know, as a family do those things, I think that can be pretty useful. What would you think? I mean, is that your experience?
John Ensley (11:39.704)
Mm-hmm.
John Ensley (11:47.872)
Oh, for sure. So, you know, my job, I don’t know, I was maybe 12, 11, 12, 13. My job was to, we ground all the whole wheat, right? So we had bags of full kernel wheat and we grind it. We had this big gas powered grinder down in the garage. And that was my job as the oldest kid, right? I would grind the wheat the night before into these big, or these plastic kind of medium sized plastic garbage cans.
and lug them up to the bakery so that when mom got up at dark 30, I mean, and started baking all the flour and everything was ready to go. So and then in the morning, mom would get us up and we had this commercial slicer, right? So this commercial slicer and dad came up with this like sheet metal thing that you could take the slice loaf and put it on and slide it into a bag. Right. So then all come apart. So in the morning, they’d get us up to, you know,
Jason Elkins (12:28.24)
Alright.
John Ensley (12:47.072)
a good pretty early before school and we would go into the bakery and take everything mom had been up, it must be half the night, baking and bag tag put it on racks and then after she dropped us off at school, she’d go make all her deliveries around town, stores and farmers markets and that kind of thing.
Jason Elkins (13:01.925)
Wow.
Jason Elkins (13:05.742)
That’s cool. I’m happy we went there. I’m happy we had that part of the conversation because I think that kind of sheds a lot of light into kind of who you are as a person and how you ended up. You know, with that entrepreneurial mindset and that, uh, kind of, you know, financial business acumen and stuff like that, that we can, we can chat about. I also was curious about like your dad being a truck driver.
John Ensley (13:22.446)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (13:28.534)
because I feel like that’s, it’s kind of that, that maybe that personality, I mean, I remember there was a point in my life where I thought, man, I’m going to be a truck driver because I just want to see things. I just want to every day see different places. And I realize it’s not that glamorous all the time. You know, I’ve done enough driving cross country to realize, okay, yeah, you can only drive across Iowa so many times before, you know, maybe you want to change your route a little bit or something like that. But I do see that personality. I see the consistency,
John Ensley (13:28.812)
Mm-hmm.
John Ensley (13:43.715)
Right?
John Ensley (13:54.168)
Great.
Jason Elkins (13:58.608)
personality? Do you feel like kind of your personality is pretty similar to his or what were the major differences or what was it about his personality that inspired you?
John Ensley (14:09.568)
You know, so he didn’t drive very much long haul. He did a lot of more local delivery kind of stuff. So he wasn’t like gone for days on end quite a bit, but it is interesting. I love road trips, right? I love driving. I will drive, like I have a rule, like if it’s eight hours or less, I just drive, right, rather than fly. So maybe that rubbed off on me a bit. But I think the biggest thing about my dad that when I look back on it,
Jason Elkins (14:18.004)
Okay.
John Ensley (14:39.008)
My dad is one of those men that can fix or build or create anything. Right. He is so handy. And, um, unfortunately I didn’t inherit the level of talent he has with it, but I did, I think, inherit some resourcefulness to be able to, you know, figure things out, solve problems, put things together. Um, that kind of thing, which of course has been enormously helpful on boats because boats break constantly. Right. So.
Jason Elkins (14:52.75)
Thanks for watching!
John Ensley (15:05.388)
being able to fix and figure things out has been very, very helpful. I think that’s a direct inheritance from my dad.
Jason Elkins (15:15.006)
It’s interesting because there’s kind of that mechanical problem solving mindset that some people have and it sounds like your dad definitely had some of that. But then there’s a lot of crossover because.
John Ensley (15:22.91)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (15:26.146)
Like I’m not particularly interested in mechanical stuff to be honest with you. I don’t really have any desire to necessarily fix mechanical things, but I like to figure out other types of problem solving kind of the, you know, maybe more with the technology and, you know, I’ll do a podcast, you know, I don’t know how to do a podcast, but I’ll start a podcast or, uh, figure out business challenges, you know, okay, I want to do this. How do I make that happen? And maybe you never put your hands on anything. You ever fix anything?
John Ensley (15:45.7)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (15:57.244)
kind of mechanical or whatever, but you use kind of the same mindset to help you in business and stuff like that. So that’s a…
John Ensley (16:02.904)
For sure, for sure. It’s basically having an open mind, right? Being able to hold a problem in your mind and work through different solutions until you find something that works.
Jason Elkins (16:15.75)
And I think, and it’s that curiosity, right? I mean, you mentioned open mind. I tie that to the word curiosity, which is something that I think honestly, our listeners can resonate with that because if they’re into adventure travel, if they’re interested in hearing you and I have this conversation, it’s because there’s a certain level of curiosity there.
John Ensley (16:18.692)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (16:36.302)
and openness to the world. That’s what adventure travel is to me. Whether that’s, you know, it doesn’t necessarily need to be wing-suting in the Swiss Alps or, you know, scuba diving with sharks off the coast of South Africa. It can be, you know.
John Ensley (16:46.99)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (16:54.39)
Anything that opens your mind that feeds that sense of curiosity, which is why, you know, everybody that I’ve interviewed on the show here comes with that. And it’s and which is why I’m doing this type of podcast, because frankly, it’s interesting to me because I’m curious. I want to hear your story. I want to learn about sailing.
John Ensley (17:06.52)
Yep. Yeah, absolutely. You know, it’s kind of along those lines, right? We were out with some students on a boat last week here in the Sea of Cortez. And I don’t know, my phone probably has a thousand sunrises and sunsets pictures, right? Cause you just see so many spectacular, but no matter how many I see or take pictures of, we were just at sunrise when we were sailing.
and the sun coming up, the way it painted the clouds, and that’s one of the things I love about adventure travel in general is, no matter how many sunsets or sunrises I’ve seen, I’m still awestruck at the next one, right? And that’s what I think part of it’s all about, is just the sense of being part of a planet that is absolutely spectacular, right? It just takes your breath away, even if you’ve seen it a thousand times.
Jason Elkins (18:03.614)
curious what your thoughts are on the part of that that’s the shared part because I definitely like I love to see amazing things and I definitely realize in myself that if I can share it with somebody and whether that’s you know somebody I love that’s in my life full-time or a client you know if I’m guiding I mean my best memories of fishing I was a fishing guide for quite a while I had a balloon ride business for a while
All of my best experiences and all of my best memories involved other people that were as excited or maybe more excited than I was by what was going on because it’s the first time they had seen it. Maybe they catch a fish that’s, in Montana we’ve got a fish called the whitefish that’s, it’s a native fish, it’s a beautiful fish, but it’s not a trout. And I don’t wanna, it’s not a sucker and anybody that’s listening to this that’s into fishing, they’re not necessarily the most exciting fish to catch.
unless it’s the first fish you’ve ever caught on a fly. Unless you’re in the Yellowstone River and there’s a bald eagle flying over and it’s an amazing day and you catch a big whitefish and your guide is excited and you’re taking pictures. And I have memories of taking pictures of clients with whitefish that…
John Ensley (19:05.666)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (19:21.614)
some of my best memories you know and if I’m out on my own fishing and I catch a white fish whatever it’s still nice to be there but so I’m curious you obviously work with clients you you’re a teacher right you’re instructing people on sailing so tell me a little bit about kind of your thoughts and experiences with sharing experiences I guess that’s the theme
John Ensley (19:23.78)
Hmm.
John Ensley (19:43.536)
Oh, I think it’s just absolutely huge. There’s I think the whole reason I became a sailing instructor is, um, you know, I, I developed just this passion for this cruising life, right? Just being out sailing to different places and being out on the water. Um, there’s nothing quite like it, right? And when you, when you see something from the perspective of the water, um, or you’re sailing along that, like that beautiful sunrise that’s off to the, to the port side of the boat, um, those kinds of things, but
But you’re totally right. Sharing those experiences, right? I’ve seen it a thousand times. I’m still awestruck by it. But the fact that we had this couple on the boat who was having this experience with us, my wife and I, and that was the thrill, is to be able to share that with people. And that not just clients, but family, right? I mean, I love getting my grandkids and kids out on the boat.
those kinds of things because you just you want to show you have this amazing experience and you just want to share that with other people and it’s uh you know i did many years ago
Jason Elkins (20:47.302)
I suspect.
John Ensley (20:50.956)
I was just going to say many years ago, I did some personal work and kind of identifying your core values, just some real introspective, get to know yourself kind of stuff. And the three core values that came out of that for me very, very strongly were freedom, adventure, and service. And so that totally makes sense with where I’ve gone in my life and the businesses that I’m into, right? And especially the sailing part of it, because it just completely lines up.
with my core values, to be able to serve people in this experience that’s completely freeing and that’s a total adventure. It just, you know, it all just works together so well.
Jason Elkins (21:31.21)
I suspect, I don’t want to put words in your mouth, you tell me, but if you had.
you know, someone offered you, I don’t know, 5,000 bucks for a charter with some clients that wanted to learn about sailing. And, you know, maybe they came from the Midwest somewhere, never been on a boat, or they offered, you know, that’s 5,000 bucks, or they offer you 8,000 bucks to just go out on the boat by yourself, maybe move a boat from place to place type of thing, maybe a little bit more financial reward.
You know, what comes up for you if you have those two choices? I know what my choice would be. I’m like, oh my gosh.
John Ensley (22:10.008)
Yeah, that’s an easy one, Jason. I don’t do deliveries, right? I don’t do deliveries. So I’m a licensed captain. I can do deliveries, but I don’t do deliveries. I only teach sailing. I have a passion for sharing this with people and for doing what I do. So it’s not about money. Money’s nice. We all like to make a good income at what we do, but it’s not just about getting the top dollar for being on a boat.
Jason Elkins (22:12.882)
Yeah.
John Ensley (22:36.46)
You’re right, I do a certain thing that I love to do and that’s what I do, I don’t do deliveries. So I would turn that 8,000 down, that’ll heart beat. Ha ha ha.
Jason Elkins (22:42.466)
And.
Yeah, no, and I get it. And that’s what’s so great about the people that I’m having conversations with, the people that I’ve had conversations over the years. They all kind of, it’s that mindset about the shared experiences is so valuable. Just to go back to when I was a fishing guide, there were days that I felt like I need to go check out a river. I need to go figure out what’s going on. And I’d go out by myself, and I’d fish all day. And frankly, I’m
Probably hard to admit this to myself, but I just really didn’t enjoy it that much. And sometimes I felt weird. I’m like, I’m out on the river on a Tuesday afternoon, catching trout on dry flies. The fishing’s amazing. And it’s all I could think about was, man, I wish I had somebody here to share this. Like the fishing is amazing today and I don’t have any clients here, not because of the financial part. It’s like, I just literally wanted to watch people catch fish.
John Ensley (23:19.287)
Mm-hmm.
John Ensley (23:31.628)
Somebody here to share it with.
Jason Elkins (23:42.55)
more than I wanted to catch them myself, which is what makes a good guide a good guide. And I remember I used to invite friends. I’m like, hey, go fit. Like they weren’t into fishing and I’m like, hey, just come with me. I’ll row the boat. You just fish. I don’t need to catch the fish. I literally just wanted to watch people catch fish because I could learn as much about what was going on in the river through somebody else. I didn’t have to be the one with the rod in my hand.
and it was just a lot more fun. So it kind of sounds, kind of sounds similar.
John Ensley (24:11.896)
Yep, I’ve done a lot of single handing over the years. And not that that’s not a valuable experience, but I agree with you. It’s only a certain amount, right? I really wanna share those experiences with people, for sure.
Jason Elkins (24:26.73)
Yeah, yeah, it’s pretty cool. So let’s chat a little bit. Okay, so you mentioned, that was great, thank you. You mentioned the show. You went to a boat show with a friend or a sailing show with a friend. So what happened there? What happened from that point? Okay.
John Ensley (24:34.985)
Yeah.
John Ensley (24:40.64)
Yep. Yeah, I went to the Portland Boat Show, Portland, Oregon. So I went to the Portland Boat Show in Portland, Oregon, just a random invitation from called up said, hey, you want to go to the boat show tomorrow? And, you know, we went. So they had a booth there for American sailing courses, sailing, sailing instruction. And it just caught my attention. And I grabbed the flyer and signed up about a week later for a basic keelboat course on the Columbia River in February.
Right, so it was wet and nasty and cold, but I had a blast, right? So like, okay, I think the sailing thing is really gonna be something I wanna do. And so I did some research and then a few months later, I went down to Belize and took three more ASA American sailing courses. So kind of finished out the basic certifications that most people get from American sailing down there. And then from…
Jason Elkins (25:10.636)
Oh, that sounds cold.
Jason Elkins (25:37.801)
Were you already kind of the mindset that I want to do this as a business, so I’m going to take these courses to get to a point of business, or is it just I enjoy it, I want to learn it?
John Ensley (25:48.044)
No, at that point, I really wanted to just learn what I was doing so I could get a boat and take off and go cruising, take off and go sailing. So I had no intention of a business at that point. I was working at a pretty good sales job in corporate sales and was also developing a real estate development. I had some other irons in the fire business-wise, but really it was just a personal.
You know, there was a lot of stress in my life at that time as well. And I think that was a contributing factor, the idea of just being on a boat, disconnected from all of it, sailing somewhere beautiful. You know, I think it just, I was ready for that. So that, that’s what kind of drove me that way.
Jason Elkins (26:34.884)
Did you have any romantic relationships in your life at that point? And if so, how did that all fit together? Because I’ve got some stories and connections in my head between romance and relationships and adventure. So I’m curious, how did it work for you?
John Ensley (26:45.486)
Yep.
John Ensley (26:49.184)
Did I mention I had some stress in my life at the time? Uh huh, yeah. So yeah, it was a tumultuous time, a separation and divorce and teenage kids and you know, just all of that as well. So definitely was some stress around that.
Jason Elkins (26:52.206)
Yeah, that’s what triggered me to ask the question. I was like, oh.
Jason Elkins (27:11.662)
I sensed that for some reason, John. I sensed that, and that’s why I wanted to go there. All right, so what would you like to, because I’m curious about that connection between adventure, freedom, you mentioned as one of your values.
John Ensley (27:16.226)
Yep.
Jason Elkins (27:28.19)
and relationships, because some, you know, this isn’t a relationship podcast per se, but I think that people listening to this can either resonate, or maybe there’s some value or something you can share, because I definitely have my own ideas. I’m traveling full-time. I’ve been traveling full-time for two and a half years, trying to figure out how do I make that part of it work? So what have you figured out?
John Ensley (27:46.116)
Right, yeah, absolutely. So there’s an event that kind of was a turning point for me. So I mentioned I did some personal work, some spiritual work. This was all during that same kind of early, the mid 2000s timeframe, right? And so I’d been sailing, getting out as much as I could for a couple of years, two, three years, and I met a guy named Jim. He was giving a presentation at a sailing club on sailing in Mexico.
Jason Elkins (28:01.803)
Mm-hmm.
John Ensley (28:14.368)
And I chatted with him afterwards, and I ended up going down and sailing with him for two weeks here on the Pacific coast of Mexico. And when on the boat, we became friends. And so over the next 10 years, I spent anywhere from two to eight weeks a year with Jim cruising in Mexico. So early on in that process, I went to my boss who’s also a friend of mine. And…
I said, hey, here’s the deal. I’m gonna take all four weeks of my vacation at once. And of course he freaked out. Now, wow, you can’t do that. Okay, but I’m gonna. I said, oh, by the way, am I gonna tell anyone I’m on vacation? Right, you’re the only one that’s gonna know. I’m not gonna tell anybody I work with, not gonna tell any customers, no out of office email, no out of office voicemails, right? Nobody’s gonna know I’m gone except you. And then I said, oh, by the way, I’m gonna go to Mexico when I do this. And after he got done freaking out, we figured it out. So I left.
And I came down here to Mexico and I, back then it was a 3G dongle, right? The broadband, the plug in your laptop. So I picked one of those up at the local tell cell and, um, added Mexico to my Verizon plan and I spent a month sailing down the coast, Pacific coast of Mexico. And nobody I worked with customers had any idea that I wasn’t sitting in my office in Portland. And so the wheels are turning, right? And then, and so we’re the, the turning point came, we were.
Jason Elkins (29:18.268)
Mm-hmm.
John Ensley (29:43.256)
in Mazatlan, into a Marina in Mazatlan. And I had this call set up with a customer and three or four of my coworkers with the company I worked for and three or four of the customer reps. And we were finalizing this negotiation on the supply contract. And here I am, I’m sitting on the deck of the boat in Mazatlan, this beautiful Marina and our insider resort in Mazatlan, my back against the mast. I’m in shorts with a polo on, right? And a barefoot, laptop in my lap. And I’m…
Cold Pacifico on deck next to me. And we spent, I don’t know, an hour or so on this call. We wrapped everything up. I went up to the, I was sitting there and as I hung up the, you know, disconnected the call, I’m like, okay, I need to change my life, right? I can provide value and do business from literally anywhere. And this was back then before Starlink, before, you know, any of the stuff we have now.
Jason Elkins (30:31.254)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (30:40.938)
Before being a digital nomad was cool, right?
John Ensley (30:41.524)
And so, yeah, exactly, exactly. And so it took a few years, but that was the turning point. That was like, okay, I gotta change things. Four weeks a year vacation isn’t gonna cut it, right? That’s just not gonna work. And so that freedom piece.
Jason Elkins (30:55.774)
Mm-hmm. And you, such a great way to do it, it comes up because I’ve been doing the digital nomad thing for a couple of years. And I’m in the social media groups. I see people, oh, I want to do this. I want to, how do I do this? How do I do this? My boss this, my boss that, my job the da da. But I love your approach was like, hey, boss.
You know, it’s my vacation time, so you’re not, it’s just my vacation time. I can take my vacation time and not do anything, or I can take my vacation time and continue to work. And so clients will be happy, dah, dah. And it’s an opportunity for you to both figure out if you wanna do it, if it works for you, but also to show to your boss that, hey, look, I can do this. It makes sense. It worked well.
John Ensley (31:43.234)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (31:50.719)
as opposed to, you know.
Showing up at the office on it, you know a Friday morning and saying hey boss. I really want to work remotely Can I please work remotely? You know, I want to start March 1st and I’m gonna be traveling the world that it at it because that’s overwhelming Right for the boss. It should be overwhelming for you. If you’ve never done it I mean I can relate to why you think that what’s a good it’s a good idea But what you did was like so anybody listening to this that’s thinking man, I would love to go do that
John Ensley (32:10.836)
Mm-hmm, for sure.
John Ensley (32:15.424)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (32:24.74)
approach is do it on your vacation. And if you have to start doing it on your vacation from home, OK, whatever. Just show to the boss that you can still keep doing things. Because it’s pretty great. If you are sitting somewhere you really enjoy, if you have a little bit of discipline to actually go and do the job during the day or whatever, and it is an important part of it.
John Ensley (32:48.836)
That’s the key.
Jason Elkins (32:54.474)
your value of life can just go way up in a heartbeat. And all of a sudden, you’re like, wow, I can’t believe I’m traveling the world. I can’t believe I’m in Bangkok or I’m in Malaysia or Bali or wherever it is. I can still do my work. I’m happy about where I’m at. Because if you’re just sitting at home in Milwaukee and there’s no knock on Milwaukee, but if you’re in Milwaukee.
John Ensley (33:04.868)
Thanks for watching.
Jason Elkins (33:19.918)
going to work every day, it can be kind of a grind. So it sounds like you found the answer. So how did?
John Ensley (33:24.192)
Yeah, absolutely. This whole period of my life, I refer to as kind of my awakening, right? And the period prior to that, I referred to as my zombie years, where I was just plodding along and going to work every day and doing what everybody thinks they’re supposed to do. And so with all the personal work and just all the circumstances, I just woke up. I became aware of the world around me.
Jason Elkins (33:31.414)
Yeah.
John Ensley (33:53.32)
that I could mold it any way I wanted it.
Jason Elkins (33:54.142)
I, yeah, you can do whatever the F you want to do. You know, when you realize, oh man, I can do whatever the F I want to do. I’ll share with you, because it’s relevant to the sailing, the last three years of, my ex-wife is a wonderful person, love her to death. And our direction, our desires, you know, I’ve got that value of shared adventures and experiences.
John Ensley (33:59.453)
That’s right.
John Ensley (34:04.716)
Yep.
Jason Elkins (34:22.718)
And I spent the last three years of my marriage watching the sailing videos on YouTube. You know, just like, man, I know nothing about sailing.
John Ensley (34:30.003)
Ha ha.
Jason Elkins (34:34.502)
But it was like, oh, it just was so incredibly romantic. And I would say to her, I’m like, hey, let’s buy a sailboat. I wasn’t trying to get away from her. It wasn’t that. I mean, she’s a great person, but I’d be like, let’s buy a sailboat. And the three of us can travel and we’ll do a travel vlog and with our kid. And, and to her, that sounded like the worst idea that she could possibly imagine. She’s like, are you kidding me? That there’s no way I want to be on a boat with you and Jackson 24 seven. And I don’t, I don’t blame her. I get it.
John Ensley (34:51.186)
me?
John Ensley (35:01.196)
Hahaha!
Jason Elkins (35:04.196)
I’m not that easy. So I get it. But yes, it was that just kind of that miserable point in my life where I just knew I wanted to go. I knew I wanted to get out and explore. I wasn’t working so much in the travel business anymore. I didn’t have as many opportunities. And it was, frankly, it was painful. And then after the divorce and after a couple of years of trying to give myself the permission,
John Ensley (35:24.718)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (35:32.906)
to go, I finally went and it was yeah, and I’m in that same spot. I went through some personal development stuff as well. Kind of that awakening like, okay, so this is what you want. What’s in the way? Well myself, my stories in my head and now, you know, I know my ex wasn’t real happy when I made the decision, but my relationship with my son is much better because I have my relationship with myself is much better. And yeah, I, I get that.
John Ensley (35:46.547)
Right? Yep.
John Ensley (35:59.533)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (36:03.77)
And do you have, just curious, have you had the opportunity to create new relationships or are you just like, man, I’m doing the solo thing and I don’t know, what’s your status in life now? Do you find it difficult to connect with people when you’re going back and forth between Canada or between the, I guess the states, right?
John Ensley (36:26.912)
Yeah, the US, Washington. Yep.
Jason Elkins (36:28.83)
Yeah, Washington, right, and Mexico. So what’s that like?
John Ensley (36:33.712)
Yeah, so I do have great relationships in my life today. There was a long period of time where I was kind of a lone wolf, just kind of on my own mostly. I was technically in a relationship at the time that was sort of fluid. But then the love of my life came out of the woodwork here about four years ago or so, a little less than that.
And so we have a fantastic relationship in my life today that I get to share all of these things with. And so, yeah, turned out just amazing.
Jason Elkins (37:14.446)
And that’s why I wanted to ask because I don’t know your whole deal but I suspected that would be the case. So what was different? Like when you’re living the adventure life, you’re doing your thing and it’s time to select someone else to be a part of that. What’s the one piece of advice that you’d give to somebody listening?
John Ensley (37:34.844)
I mean, just be completely transparent, right? When Amber and I started dating early on, I basically said, hey, this sailing thing’s like pretty big deal, right? This is pretty big thing in my life. And so she pretty quickly found herself out on a boat taking some ASA courses. And I had an open spot on one of the classes I was teaching. So we did a one-on-one course on a little lake.
Jason Elkins (37:54.359)
That’s cool.
Jason Elkins (37:58.151)
Mm-hmm.
John Ensley (38:03.436)
in Vancouver, Washington, because this was a 103, 104, which is a coastal cruising and bare boat cruising combination course. So she had to get that basic keel boat done. So we did that on a lake, and then she came up and jumped on the boat. And so I knew she, I had her hooked, right? The first morning we were anchored in this beautiful spot called Echo Bay on Susha Island up in the San Juan Islands in Washington. And it…
I was making, we were up early, I started making coffee and she went up on deck. And, and, uh, I was making the coffee and all of a sudden she sticks her head in the panning way and she’s just giddy like a little kid, right? She’s, oh my God, you’re going to come up here and see this. Right. And, uh, so I stick my head up there and it was just the most picture perfect vision you could imagine, right? Water was like glass. The sun was coming up behind Mount Baker on the horizon.
Jason Elkins (38:46.34)
Hmm?
John Ensley (38:58.836)
And just the light at that moment was reflecting Mount Baker and the sky on the water. And there’s other boats, and it was just absolutely beautiful. And she was so excited. She’s like the most beautiful thing I think I’ve ever seen in my life. I’m like, aha, she’s hooked. Ha ha ha.
Jason Elkins (39:15.266)
Yeah, I can see how you guys bond. I can see how you both bonded over that. Yeah, I get that because it’s that, wow, she likes the same thing I like and she’s excited and I’m excited. And you know, it’s interesting because in the kind of relationship world, the coaching, the whatever you listen to about relationships or books you read, quite often they’ll say it’s really important that both parties have their own interests, their own group of friends, their own this, that, and this.
John Ensley (39:19.896)
Yeah.
John Ensley (39:24.534)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (39:41.542)
And I get that for 80% of the world, that probably makes sense. It’s not necessarily bad advice. But what I’ve noticed, if you’re the adventurous type that is really passionate about sailing or traveling or whatever it is, that advice might not be the best advice. You know, maybe it’s, maybe it’s not necessarily a good idea to seek out somebody that has their own interest, their own group of friends, their own.
their own kind of direction because it’s really complicated when you’re changing locations or you’re doing something quite dynamic. So I just kind of feel like it’s much more important to find, like you said, be transparent, open, honest, like, hey, this is my thing. This is what I do. If you can get excited about what I do, then great. If you can’t get excited about what I do, it’s probably not going to work very well. So what do you think?
John Ensley (40:33.412)
Yeah, yeah, I agree. I think overlap is important, right? I do think it’s important for individuals to be individuals, right? The best relationship are two completely adjusted, mature individuals who come together and synergize, right? So I do think that’s important, but I think there does have to be overlap, right? If I’m into something that she’s totally 100% not into.
Jason Elkins (40:50.027)
Yes.
John Ensley (41:01.476)
right, then that can create some conflict. I mean, cause we all have a limited amount of time. So we’re gonna go spend time doing this or are we not? So, you know, Amber is not as passionate about sailing as I am. She loves it, she enjoys it, but it’s not like, right, her all dying passion like it is for me. And so there’s an overlap and that works, right? She doesn’t go on every class with me. She goes on a lot of them.
Jason Elkins (41:05.862)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
John Ensley (41:30.508)
but she doesn’t go out on every class, right?
Jason Elkins (41:31.402)
Right, but did she live, is she in Mexico with you?
John Ensley (41:34.884)
She is, yeah, she is right now. You know, there are times when she goes back up to our home in Washington and we’ve got, we’ve got the little farm thing going on, we’ve got chickens and you know, that kind of thing. So that’s, she’s like, that’s her passion, the plants and the growing things. And that’s not my passion. I like it, I enjoy it, right? I enjoy helping her with it. So I think that overlap is where it’s important. We don’t have to both love the same thing.
Jason Elkins (41:42.505)
Okay.
Jason Elkins (41:53.081)
Mm-hmm.
John Ensley (42:03.428)
but we’ve at least gotta be able to overlap on the things we each individually love. Does that make sense?
Jason Elkins (42:08.438)
that and yeah it does and maybe the kind of the ability to embrace what your partner loves whether you love it the same way and just appreciate it and see it as a positive in the relationship as opposed to he’s gone all the time or she’s gone all the time and she would like you know
John Ensley (42:18.104)
Yep.
Jason Elkins (42:29.63)
he would rather go fishing than spend time with me or, you know, that, that constant conflict, because if one of you feels like you need to give up what you’re passionate about in order to, you know, for the other person to have what they’re passionate about, that can be, I mean, that can be a bit of a challenge. So yeah, yeah.
John Ensley (42:33.251)
Right.
John Ensley (42:48.96)
Yeah, for sure.
Jason Elkins (42:52.298)
We’ve talked a lot about relationship stuff. We’ve talked a lot about a bunch of it. But I want to really understand this is the opportunity for you to share with our listeners. OK, now that we’re here, what are you doing exactly? You’re obviously doing classes. What should our listeners know about what you’re doing with your business and in your life right now so they can figure out if it makes sense for them to connect with you and maybe start their own journey?
John Ensley (43:14.244)
Sure.
Absolutely. So I’ve been a professional sailing instructor. So there’s much more to the story, but we’ll flash forward here. I’ve been a sailing instructor since 2016. So about eight years now, primarily with American sailing. And there’s a couple of things over the years that I noticed, and that is there’s a movement in the sailing instruction industry, so to speak, kind of for expediency. So people like these one week learn to sail programs.
And I’ve taught mostly those over the years, where they’re doing multiple certifications for American sailing. So some of the ones I’ve talked about will do them all in one week in a location. But what I’ve noticed over the years is, and students will even tell me this at the end of the course, is that they got through the course, they passed the written test, but they still don’t have the confidence and they’re still not really competent in terms of…
actually knowing what they’re doing. And so when we’ve created Cruise and Learn Sailing International, what we were seeking to do was kind of address some of these types of problems, in that how can we share this experience with people but develop competence, which will make them confident, which will make them go out and do more with it, right? And so we were looking for a program that still encompassed that one week adventure, right? Because it is amazing.
Jason Elkins (44:37.543)
Mm-hmm.
John Ensley (44:45.12)
That week on the water is amazing. Amazing progress happens when you kind of immerse yourself in it. And so what we created is what we call the Sailing Immersion Program. And it’s basically a 12-month program that is built around that one week adventure. And so as I mentioned, I’ve taught American sailing courses quite a bit, but I got associated with an organization called Nautic Ed.
which is another sale training system. And it really addresses a lot of the problems that we have out there. So without getting too technical, right? There are sailing training standards, but there’s really no accountability to those standards, which means there’s not much of a standard, right? There’s a lot of pressure on schools and instructors to kind of rubber stamp people through because they paid a lot of money to…
do this so they kind of expect to have a
Jason Elkins (45:44.49)
Paid a lot of money, they’ve got one week, they kind of expect to go home with certification. Yeah.
John Ensley (45:47.36)
Yeah, they expect to go home with a certification in a book, right? As I refer to it, a little sticker in a book, right? That’s kind of what is pretty common out there is we get a little sticker in a book. And so my question is always, well, do you want a little sticker in a book or do you want to actually know how to be a competent sailor or skipper? Right. So we created the immersion program. It’s a 12 month program. We use the Nauticaid platform. Nauticaid has done some…
Jason Elkins (45:53.488)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (46:04.78)
Mm-hmm.
John Ensley (46:12.484)
pretty amazing things. They’ve leveraged technology. So they have this multimedia online knowledge theory training system that’s self-paced, all online, multimedia, et cetera. And so we can then, over the 12 months, you can just work through these online training programs from NauticEd. The other thing that they’ve done that’s just incredible is they’ve tied in virtual reality. So believe it or not, we can do sailing instruction now on virtual reality with the Oculus Quest.
Um, I’ve even got a program that, that we’re working on. We’ll roll. If you don’t have a headset alone. Right. We’ll, we’ll loan you one. If you sign up for the immersion program, we’ll loan you a headset so that you can get, we have docking training, we have sailing training, we have racing, all of this in virtual reality. Right. So again, during this 12 month program, I can plug into the, the theory and knowledge training on the Nauticaid platform, virtual reality training. And then we’re tying in, um, networking.
We have a private Facebook group, a weekly meeting with an instructor-led meeting. So you have access to an instructor every week through a Zoom. We call it a sundowner, right? It’s kind of a happy hour. Bring a drink. And you can ask questions. We can go over any of the course material that you might have questions about. We’re also going to bring guest speakers in, things like that. And so we’re tying in that networking piece. And then it all kind of culminates with that one week.
seven day cruise and learn adventure, either up in the Pacific Northwest and San Juan islands or the Gulf islands in British Columbia or down here in La Paz and the Sea of Cortez. And so we’re adding a whole bunch of value to that one week, right? So the other thing with Nautic Ed that was important is that standard piece. So Nautic Ed, their training program, the US Coast Guard adopted some sailing standards in 2017.
Jason Elkins (47:53.674)
Yeah, I get it.
John Ensley (48:07.936)
And an organization called the National Association of State Voting Law Administrators was asked to go out and basically certify what sailing training organizations meet those standards and not against the only one, right? That has that certification. That they meet the American national standards for sail training that the Coast Guard adopted in 2017. So…
And so they’re getting an internationally recognized certification that’s accepted by charter companies worldwide because it meets this American national standards for sale training requirement. So that’s super important. So we have this immersion program with all these extra value that we built in, but we also wanted to make it accessible and affordable. And so what we did is we said, okay, well, what are people paying for these one week?
learning to sail programs in general, whether they do it close to home or they travel, what do they cost? And then we also said, well, okay, to do all the other things we’re doing here, because we’re also gonna give some, if you’re in our local area in Washington or Oregon, we’re gonna offer some local sailing opportunities as well to get out on boats, day sailing and that kind of thing. And so if somebody had to put all of these pieces together individually, what would that cost? And so…
Jason Elkins (49:18.915)
Yes, really, I don’t know if you have any other projects in mind, and if you have any other projects in mind, or if you have any other projects in mind,
John Ensley (49:30.604)
What we came up with is something I think people are pretty familiar with today is a subscription-based program. So the immersion program takes that cost and splits it up into 12 zero interest payments. So somebody can just basically…
Jason Elkins (49:44.478)
which is a benefit to people as well, yeah. Yep.
John Ensley (49:47.276)
makes it affordable, makes it accessible. And by the estimates of all the cost of all these individual pieces, it’s actually over that first year or maybe two years where you’re learning how to sail, it’s probably a 40 to 60% sales over what it would cost to build it all individually. To take the individual courses or to buy the holding costs of buying a boat or sailing clubs, yacht clubs, all the different ways you could get out on the water if you take all those costs.
Jason Elkins (50:02.225)
Mm-hmm.
John Ensley (50:16.672)
It’s a significant cost reduction. And we’re able to do that because as a subscription-based service, we can build groups a lot easier than the typical school can, which allows us to drive some cost efficiencies and be able to drive our prices to where they’re very affordable. So that, yeah, so it’s a pretty cool, it’s a pretty unique program. I’m super.
Jason Elkins (50:37.183)
Very, very, very cool.
John Ensley (50:43.204)
super excited about it. We intend to, right now our local sailing area, so we have kind of two programs, one’s for Oregon and Washington folks that are close enough to go do the day sailing, the other is for people everywhere else that just doesn’t include the day sailing piece at a bit of a discount for that. And then eventually though, we do intend to expand our local operations into other boating communities and offer that day sailing opportunity.
Jason Elkins (50:57.378)
Mm-hmm.
John Ensley (51:12.545)
other places as well.
Jason Elkins (51:14.814)
So if somebody’s listening to this and like, well, I don’t, I’ve never even been on a sailboat and I’d like to see if it feels like something I’d be interested in and they’re too old to go to Seventh-day Adventist Youth Camp. What do you suggest? Cause I feel like someone I had a conversation with said, you know, you can go down to a yacht club and just say, hey, I’m available. I’d like to learn a little bit. And like oftentimes, and I don’t know if I’m talking out my butt, but.
John Ensley (51:28.501)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (51:44.482)
People let you on their boat if you’re willing to just do a little bit of work. It was like that with ballooning, you know, with my hot air balloon ride business. Oftentimes if somebody came to me and said, hey, I want to learn about ballooning, I’d like, great, show up at 6 a.m. and we’ll put you to work and you’ll learn about ballooning. And every once in a while you might get an opportunity to fly in the balloon. And some people would just stay for years and just keep coming every time because they just enjoyed.
You know, maybe some of them decided they wanted to get a license and learn how to fly and buy a balloon, and others just like to come hang out and spend time. Is it similar with sailing? Is that something somebody realistically could do? Cool.
John Ensley (52:10.424)
Yep.
John Ensley (52:21.236)
It is. Yeah, it is. So in our local area in Washington and Oregon, right? We’re gonna have that opportunity available. You can come out on a boat for half a day or two day or whatever. Outside that area, that’s that network piece that’s included in the immersion program. So we’re actually gonna reach out and try to create some connections for you in your local area that you can then tap into and get out on, basically get out on boats with private boaters.
Jason Elkins (52:36.754)
Okay. Oh, okay. Yeah.
John Ensley (52:49.92)
and just have the experience.
Jason Elkins (52:50.346)
Yeah, I see the value of your network and your program, the subscription program. And I suspect if someone’s not quite there yet, they can also, I have a feeling there’s probably Facebook groups or social media groups for sailing groups where somebody could go in.
John Ensley (53:07.3)
tons.
Jason Elkins (53:08.818)
and say, look, I want to get into this. Does anybody need any help? How can I get involved? And is that the real low barrier to entry way to do it?
John Ensley (53:21.368)
Well, and I think what we can help with too is vetting, right? You don’t necessarily want to get stuck on a boat with just anybody, right? So I think, yeah. So I think we can help with the vetting to make sure you’re getting out with somebody that’s actually gonna be of value for you, right? So I think we can help with that too. And boaters are always wanting, are always helpful, right? Boaters are awesome. I’m sure it’s similar in the, you mentioned ballooning and smother.
Jason Elkins (53:26.966)
Well, yeah, I understand.
It’s like that with hot air balloons as well, trust me. Ha ha ha. All right, OK, cool.
Jason Elkins (53:41.931)
All right, very cool.
John Ensley (53:49.524)
activities that are similar. It’s kind of a knit group, but they love helping. And so I think, yeah, I think that’s totally possible to do that. The other thing too, being subscription based, right? You can cancel your subscription anytime. So you start the Nautic Ed courses and you get out on a boat once and you go, nah, not for me, right? You can cancel, you might only spend a few hundred bucks.
Jason Elkins (53:50.123)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (54:06.088)
Okay.
John Ensley (54:15.956)
instead of, you know, you book a seven day trip in La Paz and you spent four grand plus travel expenses to find out, you don’t like sailing. Yeah, exactly. I don’t like this, right? Now what am I gonna do? So I think that’s another advantage of that subscription service.
Jason Elkins (54:16.439)
Yeah, okay.
Jason Elkins (54:20.342)
Right. And you get seasick the first day. You’re like, I don’t like boats. All right, so we’re not going to discuss specifics of your subscription, because things might change before this even airs. I don’t know. But, or I should say and.
John Ensley (54:38.66)
Sure.
Jason Elkins (54:41.99)
We’ve got your website link in the show notes So I’m assuming that if someone were to click on that link it wouldn’t take them very long to figure out kind of Get more information connect with you and your team to kind of figure out if this is something that you know, because
The podcast is not an infomercial, but it’s important. It’s interesting what you’re doing. So that’s why I wanted to have that conversation. I want to ask you one question that came up because I remember it coming up when I was sitting on the couch looking at sailing videos, this idea that sometimes people want to sail across large vast expanses of water. And maybe it’s a couple. And apparently it’s nice to have three people in a boat when you’re traveling long distance. And I remember…
came across somewhere where like you could like go volunteer to like sit on the boat and you just basically sit there at night I guess and just make sure that nothing weird happens so I don’t know if you have to know that much about sailing but is that something realistically somebody could volunteer and say look I’ve got a couple months I’d be happy to sit on the boat with you across the Atlantic Ocean is that really something somebody could do that has no real sailing experience or is that just a weird idea yeah I’m sure it’s not
John Ensley (55:51.316)
It is, but I think it’s quite that simple. So there are a lot of crew finder sites, right? And I kind of joke about this. What you’ll find in the sailing community is there are a lot of old guys with boats by themselves. Right? And so they go on these crew finder sites to try and find crew that help them get across the passage or whatever the case may be.
Jason Elkins (56:08.755)
Ah!
Jason Elkins (56:17.646)
Two young ladies in their early 20s that want to go on an adventure. Yeah, I can see. Yeah.
John Ensley (56:22.472)
Yeah, you have to sift through those sites carefully because there is definitely some of that going on. But so usually though, they’re asking for some experience. I mean, it’s possible to go on with no experience, but they want some experience so that, you know, you’re not halfway across the ocean and now you’ve got somebody who wants off the boat, right? There’s nowhere to go.
Jason Elkins (56:44.842)
Well, yeah, no, that’s true. You have to know what you’re signing up for. And also they probably want to do some sort of vetting around personality because that’s a small space to be on with somebody.
John Ensley (56:48.033)
Yep.
John Ensley (56:52.884)
Yes, you want to be careful who you get stuck on a boat with.
Jason Elkins (56:58.506)
they might end up on the other side of the ocean with one fewer crew member. Yeah, okay. Well, that’s something to, something to avoid. John, I know there’s a lot more to your story and we’ve covered a lot of things. Um, I, what did I miss? What, what do you wish I would have asked you that you want to make sure our guests know either about your story? I mean, we talked a little bit about your business, but.
John Ensley (57:02.852)
Yeah, well hopefully it doesn’t go that far.
Jason Elkins (57:27.953)
What do we need to talk about before we wrap up?
John Ensley (57:31.736)
I think the main thing is if you have a dream, right, if you’ve been watching those YouTube videos you were talking about and you just dream of getting out there, you know, find a way to do it. Take some action. Do something, right? Even if it’s in your local waters, right? Just go find a way to taste that experience and decide whether to go further or if a taste was enough. You know, just do something. That’s always my advice. Take action. Do stuff.
Jason Elkins (58:01.302)
That’s a super, that’s the big one. That is the big one in life. Is if you wanna do something, if you know you wanna do something, if you know something’s gonna happen, if you’re like, and maybe it’s a relationship, a change, whatever, if you know something’s gonna happen. I remember the last video I listened to over that course of three years was somebody talking about, if you know you’re gonna do something, if you know something’s gonna happen, you’re committed to making it happen, why wait? What are you waiting for?
John Ensley (58:25.696)
Yeah. Yep. Something I talk, something I talk about.
Jason Elkins (58:27.534)
I mean, that was the last video I watched in the house. You know.
John Ensley (58:31.68)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, go do something. Something I talk about a lot, right? There’s about 780,000 hours in a 90 year lifespan. Right, I’m coming up on 55 years old. So, you know, I’ve used well over half my time. So we have to take action. There’s no time to waste.
Jason Elkins (58:41.398)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (58:48.366)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, yeah. John, thank you. There’s no better way to wrap up the conversation. You brought a lot of value to our listeners today and me personally. And that’s why I do this is because I’m just curious. I wanna meet people. I wanna have conversations and hopefully other people will wanna listen. If they do great, if they don’t, that’s okay. I’m still gonna keep having these conversations. So John, thanks for giving me about an hour of your time to come on and.
Just chat. Look forward to our paths crossing soon, and maybe I’ll learn something about sailing.
John Ensley (59:18.532)
Thanks.
John Ensley (59:23.392)
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, Jason. It’s been a whole lot of fun chatting with you. It’s been a great conversation.
Jason Elkins (59:28.962)
Thanks, John. You have a great day. Bye.
John Ensley (59:30.817)
You too.
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