For some people what’s happening below the water line of a boat is a bit like what’s going on with life right now.

If you don’t pay attention to it regularly then an accumulation of nasties can take over and ultimately render the boat nearly useless. The worst case scenario is damage that leads to a hole and the boat sinks; lessor scenarios are that it drags itself through the water sluggishly or at the very least gives its passengers a bumpier ride than they might desire. You certainly wouldn’t win a race with a dirty bottom!

Cleaning the bottom of a boat and making it efficient again is called antifouling.

Until a few months ago it was a term that I had heard of but didn’t understand intimately. In the process of giving my yacht “SV Vitality” a clean bottom it occurred to me that comparisons can be made with businesses and people.

Comparing antifouling to you and/or your business situation

Technically speaking, antifouling is the process of protecting the hull of the boat from marine growth by applying a layer of special paint. For boats that normally live in the water (some are stored on racks in a special facility and put in the water by a fork lift) this process needs to be done regularly.

How often, for example once a year or every two years, depends on how often the boat is used, where it is being stored and what part of the world you’re in. In some situations the growth might be slime and algae and in others large weeds and hard animals like barnacles and oysters can take over and make the boat home. It’s a serious maintenance job…just like maintaining your life and/or your business!

A sidenote I should admit at this point that it was so serious a maintenance job with an almost overwhelming amount of unknowns to work through that we gathered as much information as we could whilst really leaving it to the last minute to start.

And once we started, being with other boats and boat owners doing the same job was tremendously comforting both from the perspective of learning from them and the camaraderie that came from that. Huge luxurious vessels as well as ones smaller than ours still need this basic task done!

In life this maintenance might be, for example, a new relationship and someone moves their chattels into an already established home. For a while there is stuff literally everywhere and it takes disciplined processing and time to sort through everything and remove the excesses. In the meantime there will likely be stress and overwhelm before centring to bring the home back to a “calm” combined space that is comfortable to move forward together.

In business this might be the chaotic desk with piles and piles of stuff everywhere, and randomly darting from one job to the next without any real systems or organisation.

This often leads to a customer experience that is full of friction rather than one that is smooth.

Will you use diving gear or a marine hoist?

Depending on the build-up of “extras”, a bottom clean might be done by donning a wet suit and diving gear whilst holding a scraper or hiring a professional diver to do the job. Both will probably use some kind of anti-shark device – currently large magnets are popular!

For the “big” thorough job though, the boat probably needs to come out of the water on to a hard stand and this may include some specialised lifting equipment by a company like Marine Travelift.

PEPP®ing up you

When your life is not working for you and vitality seems a distant dream, making a plan to take action yourself is always the starting point. Engaging support in the name of some kind of mentor/coach (or therapist or medical practitioner if the situation is more serious) almost always speeds things up and makes progress easier, which usually makes it more enjoyable.

In my coaching world I have my own word for vitality and that is PEPP®. PEPP®ing up or living with more vitality or PEPP® means to use Purpose, Energy, Pleasure and Profit as a lens before doing anything.

And that means considering each of those elements before doing anything. Anything at all.

That might seem cumbersome but in time once it becomes an ingrained habit, it’s a classic case of “slowing down to speed up”. Or plodding along steadily like the tortoise in the fable who won in the end because the hare went too fast too early, needed a rest and got overtaken.

In the highly acclaimed bestseller “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” Stephen R Covey referred to sharpening the saw and taking time for renewal and reflection. In my world this could tie in with all the PEPP® elements but most certainly Energy.

PEPP®ing up your business

If things are rough in your business world right now, we can PEPP® up your business too.

  • Perhaps you’ve had premises shut as a result of lockdowns and everyone including you is having to work from home, along with other members of your family… and home schooling.
  • Perhaps a lack of customers has impacted cash flow.
  • Or the opposite: I know of many businesses who have never been busier or more profitable.
  • Perhaps you can’t get stock from overseas because of the shipping container crisis.
  • Perhaps you can’t get qualified team members.
  • And the list goes on…

Any one of these could make life feel overwhelmingly stressful and some people are experiencing most of them simultaneously. Looking after your mental health is of paramount importance and also really hard.

It’s like all the lumpy stuff on the bottom of the boat.

If you’re the business owner or team leader then we need to PEPP® you up first. And then apply the same principles to the business but in a slightly different way.

A business has a degree of vitality too. It is felt by the team members and customers. When the leader feels “down” or “ho hum” the team members feel it and when the team members are low it transfers to the customers who them may spend less money so profit really is impacted. I say vitality travels.

Next steps

After thoroughly cleaning all the rubbish off the boat, the next step was to cover it with primer – a preparation coat to make sure the antifoul would stick and last a long time – and then antifoul which is a protective layer of very special thick paint. It includes copper and biocides to obstruct the growth of marine organisms.

As SV Vitality hadn’t been antifouled for a couple of years we gave her a couple of coats. It was a very messy and smelly job that we may get someone else to do it for us in the future. But on this occasion it was important to see every detail of her underside ourselves.

In life that is like building a foundation of resilience and vitality or PEPP® to ride out the tough times.

None of us are going to avoid tough times, as you are never guaranteed to avoid rough seas on a boat. What you can do though is try to regularly practice activities to help.

PEPP®ing up includes everything from setting goals as part of living your Purpose, looking after your health as an element of Energy, being grateful as an aspect of taking time for Pleasure every day and being mindful of how to increase your Profit whatever currency you’re using to measure it.

And in business, systems are a huge part of providing that buffer to even out the challenges and make commerce work more smoothly. And increasing profit at the same time.

How may I support you right now?

For over 15 years I’ve been running workshops for small business owners as part of the PEPP® Exceed Program in Brisbane and Geraldton in Australia. Both of these groups have capacity for limited new members.

Additionally this year I’ve been running a shorter 2 month PEPP® Express Program that just about anyone would benefit from. We can do this as an in-person event in Brisbane (next opportunity to start is Tuesday 28 September.

Most excitingly though, I have also run PEPP® Express via Zoom with great success. We had attendees from all over Australia and this group can now potentially help people all over the world to improve their vitality or PEPP®.

And what heartens me most is when we improve our vitality or PEPP® we are also looking after our mental health.

We have 3 dates locked in to start:

  • Thursday 30 September AEST 9-12.30
  • Wednesday 6 October AEST 11-2.30
  • Wednesday 20 October AEST 11-2.30

And that means we can sail through life more smoothly, just like the boat with the clean bottom can cut through the water more easily, perhaps saving 30% in fuel.

And, by the way, the boat does actually need to move! Having gone to all the trouble of antifouling, if the boat stays stationary for a long time, the dirty bottom growth will return more quickly than if the boat is used. The process is an ablative so as the vessel moves through the water, fresh attachments of flora or fauna will slip off easily.

That too is like life really. We need to move and I’d love to know your thoughts and help you move in the right direction…