By: Erik rinda
How one scuba instructor is changing the business of diving
Think for a moment about the words, teacher, leader, mentor, businessman, disruptor.
What kinds of things come to mind? The first three most people can connect pretty easily. Most people would consider some of their teachers to have also been leaders and mentors at some point in their lives. A disruptor normally carries a negative connotation, but in the business world it can mean a company or person that is changing things through innovation or simply doing things a different way. And what about businessman? In today’s world the term businessman probably brings about the idea of a rich person in a suit, stressed out, only focused on making money. But there are many different types of business, and a few different ways of doing business. For instance, Daniel Gonzalez’s business requires a different type of suit. His suit, is either wet, or dry, depending on where he is going, how long he’ll be there, and what the temperatures are. You see, Daniel is a scuba instructor in Cancun. But he is also much more than that. After 20 years of working in the diving industry in the same area, he has become a teacher, a leader, a mentor, a businessman, and a disruptor. And he is showing his students that the way we’ve always done business DOES NOT have to be the way we keep doing business. Teacher Leader mentor business man Disruptor Dry suits keep divers warm and dry in cold water I first met Daniel in December 2019 after the Vice President of Business Development for International Training, Inc. visited my dive shop. We were the new kids on the block and didn’t know anyone that wasn’t introduced to us by the previous shop owner. We also had a very American attitude toward every other shop in the area, they were our competition. Daniel was introduced to us because he is THE Instructor Trainer in the area, in fact, he had just been awarded the honor of being named an Instructor Trainer Ambassador, one of twenty-seven people in the world. Immediately upon us meeting, he asked how long I had been an instructor, if I was a cave diver, and if I was interested in becoming one. One of the reasons he asked if I was a cave diver, was because cavern and cave diving is big business in this part of Mexico. So before we even knew each other, he was trying to ensure that I was fully qualified to work in this area. At the time I was not a cave diver, the equipment for cave diving is expensive and so is the training. That’s when Daniel first showed me how he is disrupting the old way of doing things in the industry. I love teaching people how to teach, it changes thier lives If you ask ten people that have had success in any industry, what the secrets to their success have been, you will inevitably hear “hard work”, “perseverance”, “innovation”, and if they are being honest, “a little bit of luck”. Even “self-made men” aren’t entirely selfmade. Somewhere along the way there was a someone or a lot of someone’s that helped that person out. Daniel is no different. In 1999 he was working as a lifeguard at Xcaret (pronounced Ish-Car-Et), a major resort between the cities of Playa Del Carmen and Tulum. As he puts it “scuba diving found me… I was in the right place at the right time.” His manager at the resort was an instructor and asked if he wanted to get certified, so he took the opportunity that was presented to him and within the next year he had become a Divemaster, the first professional level rating for scuba divers. This was a significant event in Daniels’ life for multiple reasons. The first, is that he was presented an opportunity that most Mexican’s don’t get. Looking at the diving industry in the Riviera Maya and around the world, you will see that there are a lot of Americans, Canadians, and Europeans working as instructors and divemasters. That is significant because the majority of the great diving around the world is in what is considered the Third World. Scuba diving is expensive, as a hobby and certainly as a profession when you are just starting out. The average cost for the first certification level in Playa Del Carmen is $420 US Dollars. On average, to become a divemaster a diver will spend between $5000-$10000 US Dollars in order to meet the prerequisites and training. Minimum wage in Mexico is $141.70 Mexican Pesos per day (Mexperience, 2021), roughly $7 US Dollars. The cost alone puts working in the industry, which is a major part of tourism in Mexico, out of reach for many people. So how do people pay for it? They either get sponsored, like Daniel did, or they work for it. Working for it typically means working at a large international resort and having sales quotas. If you meet those quotas, you get to dive and get training, if you don’t you get invited to leave. And your only pay is your diving. At best this is exploitation, at worst it’s slave labor. But people like Daniel are working to change all that. “HELP PEOPLE, ALWAYS. MAKE THAT A LIFESTYLE.” Daniel has been teaching diving for more than 20 years. He has been an Instructor Trainer for 6 years. He has taught over 50 people to become instructors, approximately twenty percent of the cave divers from Cancun to Tulum, 15 Cave Instructors, and hundreds of other certifications. His favorite course to teach is the Instructor Development Course (IDC). When asked why he said “because you get to change people’s lives… they gain a different perspective of business, life, everything. Everything changes when you become an instructor.” Daniel will also say that he learns from every one of his students, and especially his IDC students because they come with a completely new set of eyes for the industry. He often tells his students that they “can me kick me in the ass if I ever say that I know everything, and then I’ll quit teaching.” The opportunity to change people’s lives for the better and to keep learning and growing is what drives Daniel to continue to teach and learn after 22 years and a mountain of accomplishments. It’s also the reason that his IDC is just a little bit different than the standard one. Daniel likes to include more information in his IDC than what the training standards require. “My IDC is a business oriented model, not just a diving instructor model… I give them tools to become entrepreneurs. I show them a path so they can be dive shop owners and business managers, not just work in a resort”. But he doesn’t just talk about the big picture stuff when it comes to business. Diving has always been and will always be the business of people. So Daniel teaches his students about what he calls “Franklin Days”. What’s a “Franklin Day”? A “Franklin Day” is when the people you took diving give you a $100 tip. When I was Daniels’ student he talked to me about what it means to GIVE SOMEONE a “Franklin Day”. You see, a “Franklin Day” isn’t really about you getting a $100 tip from your clients, it’s about the level of service that you provide to them. It’s something you give, not something you get. To have a “Franklin Day” you need to be polite, engaging, fun, caring, and you need to make the people you are with the center of your attention. Whether you are doing an ocean dive tour for 4 hours, or you are going to be with them for 8 hours going for a cave dive. You need to show your clients that their safety matters, show them the area, point things out that others don’t, take pictures before and after the dive, put your phone away. Most big, resort dive centers want their divemasters and instructors to turn over clientele the same way that restaurants in the United States do. They want you to get the clients in, get them wet, get them out, focusing on a high turnover rate. Daniel teaches a different approach, to give your clients your whole day if need be. Because even if you don’t get a $100 tip that day, they’ll come back to you year after year, and that can be far more valuable than a single day’s tips. “you don’t have to be an asshole to be successful in business” Daniel also likes to encourage collaboration amongst his former students and with the dive shops that he works with. Shortly after my interview with Daniel I had the chance to go cave diving with him and his most recent group of students. One of those students, Eren, now has a shop in Puerto Morelos, just north of Playa Del Carmen. Daniel encouraged the two of us to work together for the benefit of both of our customers. Collaboration among businesses is not a new concept when the two businesses are not in the same geographic area, but Daniel encourages it when working with other small shops in the same town as well. As an American with an American view on the business world this was an extremely foreign concept to me prior to 2020. After the pandemic wiped out much of the industry in Playa Del Carmen, collaboration became the norm, and Daniel has been preaching it, and teaching it for years. It is this encouragement for his former students to work together, the fact that he keeps in touch with them long after courses have ended, and the fact that if you send him a text, you’ll get a phone call back because a text is too impersonal that make people want to stay in touch with Daniel. It’s also one of the things that ensures he gets paid back for his efforts with all of his students. “I’m always working, and that’s because of my way of doing things. When I have a student who gets a customer that wants a cave course, or to become an instructor, they send them straight to me… You don’t need to be an asshole to be successful in business.” What a concept, be nice, be friendly, help people, and you can be successful in both life and business. “Always keep learning. If I say I know everything… I will quit teaching” Daniel is a disruptor. But his disruption comes from kindness, compassion, and the desire to pay forward the support that he was given along his journey. He is a teacher, a mentor, and a leader to many of the people that are fortunate enough to have attended one of his courses. He is a businessman, practicing his business in ways that are different from his peers, but that make his livelihood and his life abundant. His motto for life is to “help people, always” and his example may just be able to light the spark that changes an industry for the better
It was an incredible experience learning with Daniel Gonzales and his Ape Divers Academy school, despite being a very demanding course both physically and mentally, Daniel has the experience, charisma and patience to teach you in the best way, since we all learn from different ways and it is precisely there where its human part makes the course totally different from other academies or instructors, doing this course changed my life, thank you Daniel!