Freediving, Empowerment, and being an Imperfect Conservationist with Mehgan Heaney-Grier.

Welcome back to Environmental Professionals Radio, Connecting the Environmental Professionals Community Through Conversation, with your hosts Laura Thorne and Nic Frederick! 

On today’s episode, we talk with Mehgan Heaney-Grier, US Freedive Pioneer about Freediving, Empowerment and being an Imperfect Conservationist.   Read her full bio below.

Help us continue to create great content! If you’d like to sponsor a future episode hit the support podcast button or visit www.environmentalprofessionalsradio.com/sponsor-form 

Showtimes:
2:04  Nic & Laura talk about diving
9:47  Interview with Mehgan Heaney-Grier Starts
19:51  Freediving
30:12  Being an Imperfect Conservationist
40:59  Empowerment

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This podcast is produced by the National Association of Environmental Professions (NAEP). Check out all the NAEP has to offer at NAEP.org.

Connect with Mehgan Heaney-Grier at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mehganheaneygrier/ 

Guest Bio:

Champion Freediver, Ocean Explorer, Educator & Conservationist

At the age of 19, Mehgan established the first USA freedive record for both men and women in the constant weight category to 155 feet. She works as a professional speaker, marine educator, stunt diver, expedition leader, and television personality.  Mehgan holds a degree in Ecology Evolutionary Biology, and Anthropology, is an original inductee in the Women Divers Hall of Fame and Fellow in The Explorers Club.   As a long-time conservationist Mehgan is dedicated to raising awareness on issues facing our oceans today. Recently she developed an original web-series called, “The IMPERFECT Conservationist”, offering bite-sized and impactful ways to easily work conservation action into everyday life. Mehgan’s also a mom, student mentor, and regularly collaborates with conservation organizations, including 2°C, Ocean First Institute, and Safer, Cleaner Ships.

Music Credits

Intro: Givin Me Eyes by Grace Mesa

Outro: Never Ending Soul Groove by Mattijs Muller

Transcript

Transcripts are auto-transcribed

[Intro]

Nic 
Hello and welcome to EPR if your favorite environmental enthusiast Nic and Laura. On today's episode, Laura and I discuss how we are totally not afraid to die for the first time in 10 years.

Laura
Totally

Nic
Yeah. We talked to Mehgan Heaney-Grier about diving, empowerment and being an Imperfect Conservationist. And finally, the tallest wave ever recorded reached a maximum height of 1,719 feet after an 8.3 magnitude earthquake at the Fairweather Fault that rocked Alaska's southern coast. The event caused a massive landslide at nearby Lituya Bay which triggered a devastating tsunami. The wave itself was only 100 feet tall when it ran ashore. But because of the way the geography worked, it actually crusted up high enough to snap trees 1,700 feet upslope. It sounds absolutely unbelievable, but I checked it like eight times from 700 other sources so it is true.

Laura
That's insane. When was this?

Nic
This was in like 1954.

Laura
Ok. So like in modern history.

Nic
Yeah, they have models for it and everything. You can look up how it happened. It's, it's crazy. It's just an entire sheet of like land fell into the water and just shot out the other side. So yeah, I don't know.

Laura
That's amazing.

Nic
Yeah. How about that? So hit that Music.

[NAEP Event News]

Laura  
Okay, by the time you hear this, the NAEP conference will have just ended. We certainly love speaking about the past about the future. So, we'd like to tell you how much of a great time that we had and how it was so wonderful to see so many old friends. And for more information about any NAEP, please check out the website@www.naep.org We appreciate all of our sponsors and they are what keep the show going. If you'd like to sponsor the show, please head over to environmental professionals radio.com and check out the sponsor form for details. Let's get to our segment.

[Nic & Laura Segment: Diving Nerves]

Laura
So this will be in the past.

Nic
Yeah.

Laura
But a week from now we're going diving.

Nic
Right.

Laura
Sooo

Nic 
I'm not nervous.

Laura
I haven't done it in 10 years

Nic
I'm not nervous, you're nervous. I haven't done it met one either. At least 10 years. I think it's actually longer. Yeah, sure. I'll be great.

Laura  
Do I look nervous.?

Nic  
No, yeah, no, definitely not. You don't sound nervous either.

Laura
We're going diving.

Nic
But yeah, it's like we were just talking about it a minute ago and I don't even remember the terms so yeah, yeah.

Laura  
What's the name of my floating, squishy floating thing.

Nic 
Yeah, that floating thing you put on? Yeah, I know it now. Because Laura, remembered, so I'll be fine. Right. As long as Laura remembers half the lingo. And I remember none of it will be good. Right? Yeah. Something about the bends is a thing that I don't remember. There's like a chart where you're like, I'm a K. Remember that?

Laura 
You got to fill out the chart. You got to fill out your your dive log and know how deep are going and for how long.

Nic 
Right? Right. So maybe, yes, maybe it's best that we're going with the Super instructors not just regular

Laura  
Oh no. 100%

Nic
Yeah. It has been a while.

Laura
You mentioned things that you even before would you were more frequently diving that you're afraid of?

Nic  
Yeah. Oh, yeah. Like open water is terrifying to me. Like it's just I don't, I don't like not being able to know I'm gonna die like it just I just I need to see it. I need whatever it is. I have to see it coming at me. I don't care if it's, you know, however I go. If it's a shark or I just, you know, I just need to see it. That's my only requirement for death. I always say that whenever I talk about how I could die then that means I can't die that way because I thought of it. That's the rationale in my brain, you know,

Laura 
So that's why you're always talking about this.

Nic 
Yeah, because I don't want to you know, like get hit with a head in the head with a coconut or something. That would be a really embarrassing way to die. So I just Yeah. How did this get so dark so quick? I don't know.

Laura 
I don't know. We always get dark real quick. It should be me the one who's doing that but it's you.

Nic  
Uh, yeah, it's like we're twins or something. Um, but I don't know like you don't have any fears. You have no worries about like, you're just like, Oh, I love being in the water and not seeing more than 10 feet.

Laura 
No, you know what I have fears of? Shallow water diving in waves. When I was in Hawaii. We were just snorkeling.  The fear of like being slammed into the rocks. Were even touching like fire coral or something. That scares me.

Nic 
Yeah, of course. Of course.

Laura 
I don't know. I've done some deep water diving and the open, like the open blackness. You know, I think that's really cool. However, the free diving that our guest, Megan does, that in my mind seems very like holy. Like, I think it's not really the the open space around me. It's the abyss below you. Yeah, it's more scary.

Nic 
Yeah. And you have to I don't. There are people that dive and they use the bubbles going up as a way for them to determine which direction is up. And to me, that's the scariest thing I can't even fathom that like it's like, Okay, let me turn my flashlight on. Okay, they're going that way. Okay. Up is there? No, thank you. I am not here for that. So

Laura 
I'm trying to think I feel like I have been scared while diving before and I don't really remember the circumstances was probably a good thing, or I wouldn't do it again. You know,

Nic 
Well I mean, the training is pretty intense. You know, like, I think like the good the wildest thing like when you're doing the trainings, they're like, Okay, well, we're gonna rip your mask off your face now. And you have to be able to not panic when that happens. And it's for good reason. Right? If you're diving in freshwater, for example, and you're in mangrove, they can just grab your mask and take it right off and you gotta be able to be like, well, now I can't see great, awesome, but not panic. That's the number one thing is don't panic, you know?

Laura 
Yeah, so I panicked one time, but I wasn't in the water yet. So when I was doing the checkout dive for my particular type certification, we went to this sinkhole, literally just a 200 foot black, dark, dirty, hot sinkhole in Florida. It was disgusting.

Nic
Yeah, Sounds delightful.

Laura
Yeah, but you know after that you're a diver. The dive is meeting at a picnic shelter, putting on your gear, jumping off a dock and then finding your way to a floating dock in the water and then sitting there for 10 minutes while you practice the whole take your mask off and all that stuff. So all you can see is chunks of things floating in front of your face is really disgusting. And but the part where I panicked was so this is Florida. And one of the reasons I don't mind living in Syracuse is we do not have cockroaches here. So the gear had been on the ground, I put the gear on and then there were two cockroaches on me. So I jumped in the water. Yeah. With my weight belt on and no, BC.

Nic 
Oh, yeah. That's not good.

Laura
Or air, or anything.

Nic
Or anything. Just a weight belt.

Laura
Into a 200 foot dark abyss, and I literally grabbed the this was a miraculous moment. I grabbed the side of the dock with one hand. In an instant and caught myself.

Nic  
So that's your almost died moment. Wow.

Laura 
I could have sunk to a dirty, dark, nasty unfindable abyss and somehow caught myself

Nic
Oh, wow.

Laura
In my moment of terror.

Nic 
and and let's not forget killed two cockroaches. So there you go. That's

Laura 
I don't know. Not really. They probably crawled right off of me went right back up the dock.

Nic
This is great. I love this.

Laura
I don't think anybody even realized what was happening. How come she's jumping in the water. She's not ready.

Nic 
Yeah. Oh, gosh. I mean,

Laura 
Second thought was remove belt. But  I didn't get to that part where I was hurtling to the bottom of the water. So yeah, that's my most scariest time.

Nic 
Yeah, right. Right. That's pretty scary. Yeah. No, I think honestly, like the scariest times I've had had been during the training where they're like, well, now we're turning off your air. So you know what that feels like? And you're like, it's quick. It is like, yeah, so you have to pay attention to that, you know, and as somebody with ADD, I feel super comfortable. So what winds up happening though, is I overcorrect. Right. So I'll be like, checking my oxygen levels like 35 times instead of looking at what's going on, so I've had to like kind of, you know, breathe. Yeah, so it's a weird

Laura 
Scary cool moment underwater though. It was like,

Nic
If you say manta rays

Laura
was having a gang of Barracuda staring at you. And then going, do I have anything silver on?

Nic 
I know right

Laura
Let me check my earrings. Let me take these off real quick.

Nic
Yeah. And then there go your fingers. Yeah.

Laura 
Is there anything on me that they would like to chew on?

Nic 
I know I know. It's, yeah, it's a wild. It's a wild experience. It's the for me diving, like looking up always is the most fascinating thing in the world. And you're down from 60 to 100 feet or whatever, and you look up and that's the surface it is there. It is so far away. I have no real sense of anyone. I don't have a time so I don't have any sense of how far he would take me to get there. You know, but it just, it's almost like one of those beautiful things you can see really even though it's just looking at the surface, it's I don't know. Charming.

Laura 
Yeah, that's very cool. So imagine doing that 170 feet down with no gear.

Nic 
oh my gosh, I don't know. How she does it. It's incredible.

Laura
I know. I'm excited to learn more.

Nic
But she also did it. Like she was like the first person to do it. She's like, let's see what happens. You know. She's absolutely incredible.

Laura  
Yeah, so let's turn it over to that interview.

Nic 
Sounds good.

[Interview with Mehgan Heaney-Grier Starts]

Nic
Hello, and welcome back to EPR. Today we have Mehgan Heaney-Grier on the show. She is a pioneering free diver, Ocean Explorer, and longtime conservationist and truly so much more. Welcome Mehgan.

Mehgan Heaney-Grier 
Hey, good to be here.

Nic 
So you are an accomplished diver and maybe one of the most accomplished is you established the first US free dive record for both men and women in the constant weight category, which is really cool. But what drew you into freediving in the first place?

Mehgan Heaney-Grier 
Oh, boy. So going way back to childhood. I moved to Florida keys from the cold tundra of Minnesota when I was 11. So big change of everything really, especially the environment. And that the ocean, the mangrove forest, everything involved with that living on a rock in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean really just that became my default. You know, like my mom saying, Hey, you kids, get out of the house. You're done with your homework, go out and play and so we have you know, this is a very different Florida Keys than what you would see even today it's it's changed so much the landscape and you hear that a lot, right? Like when you grow up somewhere. It's like you're stretching way back and and it's things just changed. There's a lot more of us now, people in general and so it was back then we had the run of the island so much to ourselves, and we my mom would just you know, turn us loose and I started spending all of my free time exploring the flats and then snorkeling and swimming and we were a family that also spent our free time out on the water on the sailboat and I started just exploring the reefs then at that point and from there it progressed once I graduated from high school I had all the time I took some time off and was modeling up in Miami Beach and things like that. But no matter where I've been around this world, I've always kept one fin and the Keys that is my home that is my home reef. And I definitely you know at that point, started exploring some really basic techniques in freediving. It was very much an underground back then I'm talking let's see mid 90s. I graduated from high school in 1995. started spending like I said almost all my time out on the water with friends spearfishing stuff like that and playing around with these techniques that I was learning which were really basic, so like don't look at the bottom because your forehead will create extra drag you know take a couple deeper breaths at the beginning before you go down like these really simple things that you just kind of are like well duh, but but it was it was revolutionary, right? It completely changed my bottom time. So that was kind of the introduction into freediving for me just, you know the evolution of it being my default spending time in and underwater as a little kid and then getting to really just literally take that deeper or to a different level and started exploring with that. And once I started with these really simple techniques and just really kind of dabbling and trying to figure out oh, you know, I wonder how deep I could go it was pushing my own limits. My first try I did eighty- seven feet. And I was like whoa, I had the super old school depth meter watch on and it was like I borrowed it from one of the guys that was spearfishing with them. And I just I always honestly like spearfishing and collecting from the ocean was fun back then it's not so fun for me now just like occupational hazard as a Marine Conservation is you can't un know things right. But I saw I had that depth meter watch. It was just kind of playing around. I didn't really have any of the knowledge for safety at that point with freediving. So I was not now looking back Hindsight is 2020. Luckily, I was okay I didn't have a safety diver at the time but I was just playing around and trying to see what I could do. So I did 87 feet and then the next time I tried to go deep I did 120 feet. And then it was like wow, what can I do with that? I want to be underwater all the time. You know? Where do I take that? And that was the start of it.

Nic 
Gosh, did you ever get scared? Is it ever like you're like wow, I'm going really far down here. Maybe I should figure out how to get back up or to just not compute.

Mehgan Heaney-Grier 
Well no it definitely it definitely computing but you know, mind you I was like Oh, 18 So I was like wow. You know, so I'm down there that very first dive when I did 87 feet and I had that that old school watch I was going down and I'm like, oh okay, you know, I could feel the wind, the wind, the water going through my hair and like I'm going fast you know and then faster and I'm like wow, like it was such a wild sensation. I never experienced that underwater before because there was always I could always get pretty good bottom time and I was always a first pick on the lobster boats because I could always get the lobster and stay down you know and all that stuff. But it was always like really muscling through it right. And this was a completely different approach to it where it was just the calm and conserving your oxygen and your energy and moving as little as possible. So all these things kind of coming together in that first dive. I was like I'm going really fast. And it was a really cool feeling. And I looked at my watch and it said 60 feet. I was like, Well, I've never been this cheap. I feel good. I'll go just a little bit deeper. Like these are all like the little things firing off in my brain like milliseconds, right? So I go deeper, literally. I mean it was seconds later. Because the pressures squeezing, you know, these air pockets in your body are compressing down every atmosphere you go. So it's like the squeeze squeeze. I call it the squeezing the deep blue. It's like a giant bear hug. Or like, I don't know, I've never worn a thunder vest but like a thunder vest that you put on your dog when they're scared.So, it's something like that where you just are like, Oh, this is really for me. It's really comforting and calming. But it was literally after I saw that 60 foot on my watch. It was seconds later and I looked again and it said 87 feet and that's when it went off like I should probably go back up this is really deep, and then I was like  I can't wait to tell the guys how deep I went you know? Yeah, I've always had a competitive flair, mostly for myself to push myself. But I always found that motivating it was like hey, what can you what can you do? Let's see what we can do. So anyway, yeah, those were all the thoughts going through my 18 year old brain. You know, kind of experimenting learning to freedive

Laura 
So it was 18 year old you attach to something, or you're literally just going down

Mehgan Heaney-Grier 
Just freefalling down so later in training at the time I had one of my safety divers and coach was also an underwater cameraman. And so it was really me you know how like a lot of sports, they'll film the practice and you get to go back and watch and you can correct your form and the plays and whatever it is. It was very similar with freediving and it was neat later. Some of the dives as I was adjusting my form and technique and just as things evolved, I saw one dive I was literally going down almost horizontal to the surface where it was very slow process you do not cover very much ground because he talked about drag it was like a pancake falling to the bottom of the ocean. So it was and I thought oh yeah, I could see a lot of the surface at that point and you get almost vertigo because a lot of times we would go out and actually most of my training dives were out in the blue water off the Florida Keys as opposed to they all were off the Florida Keys but as opposed to like on the reef or whatever. So out in the blue water. It's just, you know, hundreds of feet deep. There is no visual on the bottom. And so it's really easy to get vertigo in this big, you know, just fish bowl of water. And so it was really helpful to watch the videos later and adjust my technique. And so what we ended up doing was dropping a line like a sheet line so it wouldn't stretch and we had a an anchor that we would just drop down and it would be free floating and as long as the currents and everything wasn't too crazy that day it would be a pretty good perpendicular line to the surface so that you visually follow that and but back then it was just literally yeah every once in a while I peek and look at the bottom and and make my way down but

Laura 
Okay, currents speak to me about that what happens when you're free diving and there are currents?

Mehgan Heaney-Grier 
Well, yeah, so you just really like blow off of your target because that is going to be coming and hitting you broadside because obviously if your form is good, you're gonna have your fins up towards the surface and your hands point a you know over your head pointed  at the bottom even if you can't see it and so you're gonna get back that cross current basically come in and when you off your target but the boat was also free floating so at that point everybody was kind of it's kind of like a drift dive right like everybody is drifting together the boat anchor with that's on the line so I can follow that visually and but every once in a while, like a lot of free divers over the last 20 plus years have taken to using a mono fin, which there's a lot of reasons for that. It uses less oxygen, all of these things and it's more efficient for your body. I am not a big fan of the mono fin myself from my freediving I like I'm very old school. And I like having the bi fins and so I often would just use one is like a rudder and just tilt it slightly to keep online and on the line visually a little bit better if the currents you know, really crankin that day. But yeah, so it's definitely one of the variables to contend with.

[Freediving]

Laura 
Yeah, well, I appreciate having those visuals now. Because we have a picture of like what you're actually doing. How long are you doing this now, if you're,

Mehgan Heaney-Grier 
Well, you know, being in Colorado, the only place to freedive really is at the airport when you're heading out of town, but we have we have a thriving ocean community here. It's small but it is a thriving ocean community and concert you know, marine conservation and and raising awareness and all of that but right now I freedive for fun and for work wherever I can. And obviously those are always like the most fun jobs when I get to go and be underwater and free dive. But I yeah, I mean, it's it to be completely honest. It not as much as I would like right now. So I'm working to retool and work a lot more ocean into my into my day to day life. The actual like being in the ocean and around the ocean. I get so much just inspiration and fuel and just it's literally where I go to unplug and plug in, right to myself to the environment. And it's been a big, missing piece of my life for the last many years to where it just hasn't been at the level that I want it to be at and so I had everything lined up for kind of launching back into a bunch of new projects for 2020 and no need to go into that story because we all know what happened in 2020. But I got derailed on that and so it's been, you know, the last couple of years of retooling again and working that back in so the answer will be different in a couple of months because I'm working on on bringing a lot more ocean into my my world.

Laura 
Awesome. Well, I know we'll love to have you back in the future to hear how things are going.

Mehgan Heaney-Grier 
Sounds good. Yeah, for now I'm a dry dock mermaid but

Laura  
Well said, Well, you know, we're like 20 minutes in and we will ask you one question. So

Mehgan Heaney-Grier 
Oh my gosh. Well, I really like talking to you guys. So I'm free for you. It's all good. We've got time.

Laura 
Right? So you did mention though your day to day I don't assume that your day to day is very same every day after day because you're a professional speaker and educator, an expedition leader, a stunt diver, which we'll talk about in a little bit Unless stunting is different than freediving, and you have a podcast also and television show. You do something with television. Yeah, so

Mehgan Heaney-Grier 
A lot of different things weren't all all the many many hats of entrepreneurship.

Laura 
Yeah. So we were talking elevator pitches for a minute. Why don't you give us a little bit of you know, what is the day in the life of Mehgan like?

Mehgan Heaney-Grier 
Yeah, yeah, so those probably are going to be different because I am in Colorado so day in the life right now is is different than the scope of my career. So one thing you said  is stunt driving different than the freediving and it is. The stunt driving that I did in the past has been were for television and movies. So it's very, you know, tapped into Hollywood. Very well. I've done yeah, I've done a lot of commercial work and modeling and things like that stemming way back to when I was a teenager and so I was working in front of the camera for a long time. And then my very first actual stunt diving job was doubling Keira Knightley on the first Pirates of the Caribbean.

Nic
I knew it!

Mehgan Heaney-Grier
Of course, I didn't know what that movie was going to become. I just thought well, that sounds like a really cool movie. Pirates. Caribbean sounds fun, exciting. Of course. I'll go and so anyway, that was what kicked that off and I doubled a lot of leading ladies and did the underwater free diving and scuba work and a lot of shark work, which has been really exciting. So my background I would you know, to kind of give the elevator pitch in a nutshell, I am a pioneering US free diver, as we discussed with my you know, coming in at the ground level with my establishing the first US free dive record in the constant weight category for both men and women. And I'm also an ocean explorer and you know, work in marine conservation with outreach and education. And really, everything is about ocean impact. For me positive ocean impact and so my, my LLC is MHG Ocean Impact. And so all of the different things that I've done a bit like speaking to, you know, everything from like K through 12, to universities, to international trade shows and things like that. Or as a television personality. I have worked a lot on camera and collaboration for documentaries that are very ocean centric and having to do with marine conservation, but also have had a pretty eclectic and adventurous career so far. And so a lot of the television work that I've done in the past is focused on the water but also expeditions out in remote locations. So the most recent was a few years back I was on Treasure Quest Snake Island and that was a Discovery Channel original series. I was the dive mat I was recruited by Discovery Channel and was the dive master setting up logistics and safety and all of that for our dive team and leading the search and discovery dives for looking for this this treasure down in South America. And so there were a lot of hair raising moments throughout that whole process. And before that, you know working with sharks and alligators back I started doing that when I was 18 years old, and we were very much on, my team and I would go out and dive with sharks chumming them in and it was in the Black Swamp we called it with alligators the American alligator and the whole thing back then is this was the late 90s. And it was not commonplace for people to be in the water with these animals without cages and without weapons like a baying stick or something or without you know chainmail or any kind of protection or especially not freediving. So we were down there with no weapons, no cages, no protection and no tanks. And so we were documenting our encounters with these animals really pushing the envelope and seeing what it was kind of calculated risk right like we we understood a lot about their behavior we were learning every single dive more and more about their behavior. And then we would change our behavior each time like this is now we would back then it was very hands on it was the kill this is the late 90 So it was the Kill or be killed mentality so much with predators. They were very misunderstood. We've come so far with conservation and the understanding of the importance of these animals in the ecosystem. And it's not as commonplace now for people to take the approach of like, oh, well we saw a shark and we had to kill it or we couldn't get in the water you know like it just so at the time though, we were trying to dispel these myths. I'm down there and my bathing suits we're you know, hand feeding hammerheads and Tiger sharks and hanging on to the dorsal fin for a ride now I do not condone that any more. This is very you know, outdated vehicle for conservation messaging. You know, everybody's got a GoPro and iPhone and everything that can go underwater. So we know so much more about these animals now but back then it was like, do you really the approach was do you really need to kill it because I'm down here, you know, in my bathing suit, and like it didn't have any interest in me and I had no weapons or anything like that. So that was like not an elevator speech, by the way, because that was a very long journey. I just took you on, so there, that I need to work on that, I guess so for my elevator speech.

But what I will say is that circling back around, I have had this very eclectic career that is threaded together with water and with conservation. So the importance of that animal work throughout the course of my career is that I really started to not only understand that we that just about everything we thought about these animals was wrong. But also I was getting this front row seat to the changes taking place underwater. Right, like our human impact, like really starting to be present underwater with climate change and ocean acidification and the coral bleaching and starting to see the beginnings of the place we are at now with plastic pollution and all of these things. I was getting this front row seat to it. So meanwhile, you know, we took all this footage from the animal encounters and we did a show a series on Animal Planet called Extreme Contact. And we were doing all these different television things and I was honing my skills speaking on camera and speaking to schools and out in the public and developing conservation messaging throughout these years and later, I decided to really round out my understanding of that science and the human impact and how all of that comes together in this interface in the ocean where we're impacting each other, right like Not a day goes by whether you're in the middle of the country like I am right now in Colorado, or right on the coast that there's not a day that goes by that we are not all impacted by the ocean, and that we have an impact on the ocean. So I decided to round out my understanding of all of that by going back to school and that's how I landed out here in Colorado from the Florida Keys is I came out here to go to CU Boulder, and I earned my degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. And second major in anthropology, which was a really interesting combination, especially bringing together you know, our our humaneness and our background and how we got to be where we are with all of this science and the understanding of how you know how these systems work independently and then how all of this comes together.

So I now a day in the life of me is my constant journey of getting back to the ocean. And I've been doing a lot of different things. I actually recently started taking my role as a storyteller to a new level and I've been working a lot in social media and with some political clients and things like that of bringing the stories together for conservation, for getting the messaging out there, like bridging kind of the gap that we often see between some of the scientific community and the general public and making this digestible in bite size to where I can actually understand the general public can understand why it's important, why I should care, and the impact of what I can actually do about it then. So to that note, I started a web series over the pandemic, which I did one season of it, and as soon as I find the opening to hop back on it, I'm going to be doing more but it's called the Imperfect Conservationist. And I very much consider myself an Imperfect Conservationist, I think we all should all of us who care are and it's okay to be the Imperfect Conservationist. Anyway, so this is a web series that I created that basically gives bite size digestible solutions to the problems that we face every day. So it's how I can implement these changes in a sustainable way in my life and how everybody can do that. So it's about picking your battles and making these changes for the good for the positive impact on the world around us. Easy, affordable and impactful. So that's my criteria when I make a change in my life, because, you know, let's face it, I mean, as an entrepreneur, Money comes and goes, so I'm on a budget. I'm a single mom, I'm super busy. We all are where I'm going in a million directions. And so it's like, but I still care. What can I do? How can I do it? And I saw this kind of opening where whether it's a documentary or a speaker or whatever it is having to do with the environment. I think at the end of it, everybody you've got everybody's hearts cracked open, minds eager to learn and what can I do and that's always the first question I hear we add public speaking stuff, you know, venues where whether it's myself speaking or somebody else that is the audience is is just on pins and needles, what can I do? And so often it's these big broad answers that are like, well, you can write your senator and you can, you know, start a group where you can do these these really big undertakings to some degree whether it's you know, getting into a group or something, or maybe writing your senator even though these are really important things. It might not be everybody's in everybody's wheelhouse. And so, for me, all these changes start at home. And that's where we're going to make the biggest impact is our day to day life. This this stuff that we're doing every day and making these changes and how that inspires other people. And that's where we make this impact because it ripples out. You know.

[Being an Imperfect Conservationist]

Nic 
Yeah, and I think my favorite part about the term Imperfect conservation is right because this happens all the time like in people be like, Whoa, you're not you're not doing everything you possibly can. I'm like, what if you did everything you possibly could it would make you crack over time. So you have to allow yourself to have some kind of break right? Give yourself some credit, you are doing things. You don't have to do things all the time everywhere, because it's impossible. So how did you come up with that term? Like, where did that come from?

Mehgan Heaney-Grier 
Well, it really, it came from my own struggles because I was feeling really discouraged and like I wasn't, I tend to be a perfectionist in many ways trying to get everything right and everything you know, before I do it and line up all these things and do this first before I do that, and it just got it got overwhelming to where it was literally paralyzing. I couldn't do anything and it felt so overwhelming. The issues the you know, the what we were seeing around us I remember at the beginning of the of the pandemic, everybody, not everybody, let me rephrase that. But I remember at the beginning of the pandemic, so many people I would either overhear or they'd say it to me, it was like, oh, you know, the world's just going to hell in a handbasket. And I've heard that constantly and it can be so discouraging and paralyzing and just make us feel like it's all out of our out of our control. But I really I don't believe it's all out of our control. I think that there are many things that we do control. And in fact together. That is how we got here. It's through the decisions and it is at this you know, it is like turning the the big ship right it takes time. But all of it starts it begins, and ends, and changes with the individual. And we you know, whether it is the changes we're making in our home, the choices we're making, and the power we have with our wallet, what we buy what we support, it all makes a difference. And then of course how we vote you know looking at people's environmental report cards and things like that. I think all of these things are ingredients that go into the pot of where we are right like we've made our bed, we've made this soup now you know but we are all the the ingredients that we need to change as well for the better and I just think you know, I'm a believer in the power is with the people and we all have this incredible decision to make every day of how you know do we want to be part of the solution or part of the problem and it may be this 50/50 Right? Like the imperfect part comes in and just our you know giving ourselves the hall pass to be human. We are going to error we are going to make mistakes, we are not going to be able to do everything and do it all perfectly. And that's okay. Pick your battles and whatever it is and it might change over time. I mean, we're also allowed to change our minds on things of like, well this year, you know, like for the last couple years, for example, actually probably last three years I was not buying any produce that came in plastic. And it was just one of the battles. Did I do other things that were not the best choice for the environment because it was convenience. Because let's face it, it usually boils down to convenience. Of course, I was making you know, but that was one battle I was picking at that time I could sustain that. And recently I went back to some things so now I'm just like doing the discounted stuff in plastic where I'm rescuing it, because I feel okay about it. I'm like they're gonna throw it away. So I'm going to do the one that's discounted to like $1.29. And then you know, it's easier on the budget too but then it's not getting thrown away because waste is one of the huge, you know, something that I teach my son, he's nine now and he's gotten very good and he'll even remind me like, oh, we shouldn't waste that or we shouldn't you know, and it's so awesome how you can see that reflected back. And he's like, a great source of inspiration for me. And also, you know, I think it's important that we because it's easy to lose motivation and become uninspired you know, and just feel down about things when we look at the world around us but like finding that person or thing in your life that is your why. So whatever your why is. Why do you care? What's going on in the environment or around you? Why do you care if your Creek is polluted or the ocean the shorelines polluted air, where you're at or whatever it is, like, What's your why? And once you ground yourself in that so for me, it's my son, I care because of him. We'd snorkel around and he say, oh, you know, through snorkel, he's like, oh, so beautiful, so beautiful. And I think I started realizing that like, every time he would say that my response was, yeah, it is. It looks really pretty. But all of this is just brown algae when I kept saying when mommy was a little girl, this was live rock and I had to explain to him what live rock was that it's literally a rock just full of life and all of this and there'd be these fish here and these fish here in the walls and the boat bases were alive with sponges and crabs and all this stuff. And so I found myself doing that and it's like, I want to show him what I'm fighting for. What we are fighting for is that there's still tons of nature out there. That is in amazing condition considering where things are at with climate change and everything and nature wants to thrive. So given the space, it will bounce back it will reproduce, it will grow and expand and spread. That's what it it's constructed to do. It is amazing, right? And so, anyway, I think you know, the imperfect conservationist circling way back around the beginning of that question, I still remember is that basically we are all imperfect. And I thought that it was very relatable, it certainly was relatable for me. And I think that we, you know, stepping into the shoes of us all being imperfect conservationists gives us the reality of being human as well as the hopefully inspiration and self discipline to take that next step forward. The little steps right have these little changes that we can manage in our day to day busy crazy lives.

Nic 
Yeah, that sounds like it's a it's very well said and I love the concept and or you encourage everybody to check it out. Because it's really cool.

Mehgan Heaney-Grier 
Yeah, please do. It's on YouTube. And you can just go on there and either search my name Megan Haney Greer, or you can search the Imperfect Conservationist and it'll pop up and there will be more calming I'm working on I got a lot of great feedback from the first season from viewers and people engaging on social media and I'm gonna make a lot more coming up the just, you know, really bite size shareables for Instagram and things like that as well because I think you know, as we're all scrolling through and rolling through our days, the short things are really important. So these give a little bit deeper dive on stuff. They're about like six to 10 minutes. Yeah, those episodes and they're fun, I keep it light and you know, definitely tap into some of the adventure and our connection to nature to

[Empowerment]

Nic 
Yeah, I can say really worth checking out so please do but you know, I want to switch gears with you a little bit because I think it's fair to say you're also very much a champion for women's empowerment. And I want to hear a little bit more about what the kinds of things that you've been involved in and that you're involved in now on that on that front, too.

Mehgan Heaney-Grier 
Yeah, absolutely. So I definitely, that's one of the hats I've worn over the years. Is as a motivational speaker and working with kids in particular. And I started actually when I was just a few years older than the girls groups that I was speaking with, and it was at risk youth girls that were at risk for dropping out and teen pregnancy and this was down in Key West. So I was 18/19 years old and speaking to young high school students, and I really, you know, throughout my career and all the different things that I've done that has remained really important to me to empower and encourage seeking validation from within. So right now I am working on a project for developing a couple core talks specifically for middle and high school students. And I'm definitely going to be branching some of it out in particular for young girls and women. And just Yeah, taking that forward. I think it's equally important. And as a mom of a boy, you know, I think that we all interact and work together for our empowerment of each other, you know, and we all play a huge role in that and so it comes from like with my son I'm, I speak very frankly with him and talk about how you know, women over time have had to fight in different ways than men in our society and how all of that's kind of unfolded. And he asks the most amazing questions and then has, you know, at the end of it has this different view of how he can be an asset and how he can take this power he has to help other people and to help women and girls and how to use that. Like I think we all have power and standing in our power is where we are really able to validate ourselves and move ourselves forward and also each other and so the work that I've done over the years has largely been with this motivational speaking and working with youth in particular, and I'm really excited about this new kind of, you know, group of core talks that I'm putting together to continue doing that.

And I've been a mentor over the years as well working a lot with women divers Hall of Fame, we have scholarships and grants totaling over I think we're at about like $75,000 now annually that we give out to young women and men and of all ages actually having to do with diving and marine science and everything having to do with the water. And we do that and I've been a mentor through them. And also with a lot of the different collaborations that I do with nonprofits in particular. Ocean First Institute's we have a lot of marine science camps and things like that and I'll speak with the youth every year. They have a girls marine science camp, which has been really particularly only fun for me to go Yeah, and speak with those girls as well. So it's definitely something that I would say, I'll get invited to go and share my stories with these young girls and young women and I end up you know, it's meant to like inspire and encourage and all these things to keep going and everything and I'll tell you what, I get more inspiration back from seeing these kids and answering their questions and seeing their enthusiasm. That is the huge like just, well you know, if you think about it, like it's just my fuel, it keeps me going. So that's something that anytime and it happens to all of us especially, you know, whatever field you're working in, but especially if you're on the forefront of of you know, of the environment and you know environmental professionals out there like you get tapped out. You get run out and it can be really disheartening at times and it's so important to circle back around, you know, recognize that circle back around when you're burning out like that and find that resource, that source of your energy of where you can refuel, and for me, it's kids where I'm just like, Ah, it's amazing. Like, this is why we're fighting right. This is why we're, we're working for all of these positive changes.

Nic 
Yeah, I mean, that's gotta be pretty humbling, right doing that kind of thing.

Mehgan Heaney-Grier  
Absolutely. It's 100. Kids are so, so humbling. Like I always say Being a mom is my most adventurous, extreme and just educational and utterly humbling experience ever. And I think that anytime you work with kids, you know parenting is like its own thing. But then anytime you work with kids, that is my experience for sure. It's incredibly humbling, to say the least.

Nic 
Yeah, I can say I really do appreciate that. And it's really cool to get to do that man. Thank you for doing it seriously. But we also love asking our guests what their secret hobbies are. And you have a pretty great one. I think so forgive my dad joke here, but you'd like to dive into DIY projects in your free time.

Mehgan Heaney-Grier 
Yeah. Dad joke forgive it. It's ok.

Nic  
So it's cool. But what's your favorite part of that process?

Mehgan Heaney-Grier 
Well, so for me, I call it my DIY therapy. It's where I can it's so like cathartic, kind of see how I can zone out and just really get into a project and then the result is that the environment around me is better than it was at least that's the goal right? So as long as my as long as my project was successful, which they usually are at this point because I've been doing the DIY for a long, long time. But the favorite part of the whole process for me is extracting the materials from the environment around me. So what I mean by that is I call it urban treasure hunting and I love hitting thrift stores. And you know, I really look at it like that as one of the most important parts of the recycle triangle, right? Like I'm not recycling it or is I'm recycling it but more so reusing it or repurposing and so I will hit we have this amazing out here in Boulder County. It's a very advanced and progressive recycling we have this place. So we have Eco cycle. This is a nonprofit here so we have Eco cycle, and we have this place called charm and it's an acronym for center for hard to probably butcher this but Center for Hard to Recycle Materials. Does that spell charm? Okay, so anyway, whoever's out there counting. But yeah, so it's term and so we have this this great place, but one of the things that they do there is they have this at Eco cycle they have this place that's called resource and you can donate unused or partially used or repurposing you know things for repurposing for construction and building materials and all of this stuff. So I will hit that it's literally like treasure hunting. Anytime I'm going that direction I'll stop in because you just never know what you're gonna find, you know, and I've also been known to do some dumpster diving. So this is actually which I have no shame in this whatsoever. I think it is, people throw out the craziest most usable stuff. And I will a lot of times I'll rescue things from the dumpster or alongside the dumpster or the side of the road. And then I'll either put it on the free list or I'll sell it and donate the money. Like I got my puppy from a place called RezDawg Rescue and they're always needing donations. And so I'll donate you know this stuff I commandeer from people just throwing it out, I will take it and I'll donate back to charity and give it new life for people's projects or use it myself. And so one of the coolest projects that I did when I was you know, when we were all were kind of stuck home and wondering when the you know, in the very beginning of the pandemic, it was like, Oh, I'm sure this was just last you know, maybe maybe a month max right? So I was like, well, since everything screeching to a halt, I'm gonna finish my garage into my she shed and so I was getting off of the free list and whatever and from you know, leaning up against dumpsters and stuff, all these old cedar fence panels, because a lot of people started doing, you know, home projects and whatever. And fencing was a big one that I noticed out here. And so I disassembled all the fence panels, these six by six or whatever foot panels and repurposed all of that cedar planking to do kind of like a shiplap look. So I insulated my garage and then I did all this rough cedar planking horizontally in my garage, and it's awesome. Like it was all free. All I bought was the little screws, you know, Oh, wow. Yeah. So, I mean free it I'm putting in a lot of time. But I consider that my therapy. So there Yeah, it's like it is it is a really fun habit. To have a hobby, I should say. Well, maybe it's also a habit. Treasure Hunting at this point.

Nic 
That's really cool. That's pretty cool.

Laura 
 That's awesome. I know. I want to hear more. I want to talk more but we are running out of time. Is there anything else that you'd like to share with us today before we go?

Mehgan Heaney-Grier 
Well, I will say that I love to connect with people. I very much love to hear stories about adventures and conservation. Trial and error things. So your successes, what's worked for you what hasn't? What you're working into your life that has been sustainable for you for conservation changes, and just kind of those life hacks right? I love sharing that stuff with people and hearing from people as well. So please connect with me on social media or my website. You can just find me my handle is Mehgan Heaney-Grier, which can be hard to spell but if you start out with M E H you'll find me for sure. And also if you forget that and you just want to type in freediver.com you can hit my website and I have my all my socials and the contact on there as well. So I love I love connecting with people and for anybody out there that's listening. I am always available and interested in hearing about Blue-minded you know, ocean-centered projects and aligning with nonprofits and individuals or companies that are working on projects like that, whether it be in storytelling, or just you know, different conservation collaborations. It's something that I'm always excited to hear about the next project and keep a space open in my schedule, always to work on that type of stuff. So, so please reach out.

Laura  
Well, that's awesome. I love that you're ready to share with people and invite them to connect with you. Thank you so much for joining us today. This has been a blast, and I can't wait to talk to you more.

Mehgan Heaney-Grier 
Likewise, thank you so much for having me on.

[Outro]

Nic 
And that's our show. Thank you Megan so much for joining us today. We had such a great conversation with you. You're such a good storyteller. It was really fun to get to know you a little bit. As always please be sure to check us out each and every Friday. Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review. See everybody.

Laura
Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai