How I Grew the Marina Plunge Club to 175 Members

I’ve got a confession.

I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. Never have. Probably wont any time soon.

I just try to figure things out as I go. That’s how I stumbled in this not so little group: the Marina Plunge Club.

I moved to San Francisco from San Diego in January of 2024. I didn’t know anyone in the city. What I did know is that was where I wanted to be.

Why?

I wanted to be around interesting people doing cool things. Business builders to be specific.

One issue… I didn’t know anyone here.

Now I’m a little weird, even a little crazy. But I LOVE people like that. Let your freak flag fly baby. I’ve got a couple of those quirks.

One of them is that I LOVE cold plunging. I feel like goku going super sayin after I do one.

I’m convinced there’s a biochemical reaction going on where you HAVE to tell someone you just did a cold plunge after you do one. There’s also science behind why it’s going for you too…

For me? I just like the way it makes me feel. That’s why I keep doing it.

Being brand new to the city I asked myself: How can I find people that are a little crazy like me?

Enter: Cold plunge parties

On new years eve, my roommate Vinneeth mistakenly told me if I wake him up on new years day, he’ll cold plunge with me. Big mistake. I barged into his room at 7:30am. “Get up we’re cold plunging.” The night before he was out ringing in the new year with Diplo. He was the first member of the plunge club.

He hasn’t come back since.

RIP

I started doing this every other week for 8 weeks. I invited anyone I met to jump in the bay with me.

Here’s how many people came to the first 6 events:

Plunge 1: 1 Person

Plunge 2: 3 People (1 refused to jump in and took the pic)

Plunge 3: 7 People

Plunge 4: 4 People

Plunge 5: 12 People

Plunge 6: 5 People

Inflection Point

After 6 events a lot of interest. I was getting new faces to come in and it was slowly growing. How?

There’s a nice trick for getting people to do what you want.

1. People like trying new things

2. Sell a feeling

3. FOMO

For every event, I asked someone to take a picture of use. I’d ask a random person or set up a tripod. I did this every time. Then I post and tag every single person that comes on the social platforms where I knew I was going after the people I wanted to meet.

For new friends: Instagram

For new entrepreneur friends: Twitter (SF loves twitter)

There’s three kinds of people when it comes to cold plunges:

1. Softies —> people who will never cold plunge

2. Crazies —> people who are willing to cold plunge

3. Curious —> people who want to cold plunge but have not tried yet

I knew the crazies were going to come. But how do you get the curious to convert to the crazies? Give them FOMO. Then they want to come. Sell them the feeling you feel after the plunge.

People love free media. They end up engaging and reposting it. It creates exponential reach and a ton of inbound interest for what you’re doing.

Learn by copy.

I did this for the plunge parties. It worked because the thing we were doing was slightly edgy and controversial. People would respond directly to me and tell me I’m crazy for doing this. We knew that already. By cold plunge 6 I had about 30 people that were consistently interested in coming. Only by using these three tools.

I was struggling to grow it much more. Why? I was plunging on Saturdays, it conflicted with a lot of other activities that people were doing. Run club, hikes, cycling…

I thought about moving it to Sundays. Then I saw this tweet by Alex Schachne:

I told him I’d be there the next day.

I showed up. Then asked if I could be a part of it. He said yes. I asked if I can help grow the sh*t out of it. He said hell yes.

Enter: Marina Plunge Club.

By the way. This would not be where it is without partnering with Alex and Mark. Alex has lived in the bay for over a year and already got over 50 people interested in joining his plunges as well.

Partnering with them really helped this turn a corner!

Growth

Consistency:

The plan was to do this at the same place, same time, every week. Sunday at 8:30am at Crissy Field East Beach. This helped minimize the burden for people to think about doing this. Make it easy for the curious people to convert to the crazies.

Make it free too. Easier to say yes.

Create Your True Fans:

Make the experience so good you have true fans that want other people to come. Focus on why they like it, and lean into that. I can immediately name three people off the top of my head that were massive advocates for the activities: Marianne Cruzat, Eric Bower, and Mia-Rose Voss. They spread the word like wildfire. When new people show up I ask them how they heard about the event. The top three ways were from:

1. Founding member invites (Alex, Mark, Myself)

2. Word of mouth from current members

3. Twitter

At this point half of the people that have joined the plunge club had come through word of mouth. Mostly through the big advocates we had in Marianne, Eric, and Mia Rose.

Community

If you’re a little crazy it’s hard to find people that are a little crazy just like you. That’s probably why this works. People crave IRL events right now and a sense of community.

That’s why we have everyone do an introduction before we plunge. They typically share:

• What’s their name

• What part of the city their live in (or what they do for work)

• How they’re going to spend the rest of their Sunday

People have left these events with new friends and come back to plunge together. Create a local community space where like minded people come together. It quickly turns into a magnet for new people just like you.

What’s next:

I called Alex up on a Monday night last week. I couldn’t believe this is already at 175 members. We brainstormed for over an hour what’s next. Where would we want to take this?

Goals for the Club

• Host a 100 person plunge in the summer

• Throw at least one large events outside of plunges for summer

• Do a Marina Plunge club 1 merch drop

Other ideas

• sponsors

• coffee and chill

• “hot ones” content in water

• Drone content

• DJ

• Club ackyard jam

• Big gala/Half marathon

• Better announcements

We’re not sure where this can go. But we are sure people love it. If you want to see what this is all about. You know how to find us.

Every Sunday 8:30am. Crissy Field East Beach

See you there?

For the Crazy ones…

I love you,

Jared