Miren Oca is the Founder and Director of Ocaquatics Swim School, a Miami-based company specializing in teaching essential swimming skills while promoting water safety. Over the past 30 years, she transformed backyard swimming lessons into a thriving, 100% employee-owned organization, providing over 6,500 swim lessons weekly during the busy season. Driven by her passion for teaching and servant leadership, Miren has led her business to become the first swim school to achieve B Corp certification and has recently transitioned it into an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT). In addition to Ocaquatics Swim School, she founded Ripples of Impact, a nonprofit in the Miami area that provides resources for personal and environmental resilience.
Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:
- [2:30] Miren Oca reflects on the challenges of growing up in an entrepreneurial immigrant family
- [3:58] How becoming a single mom at 19 shifted Miren’s life path toward entrepreneurship
- [4:53] The importance of swimming lessons as a life skill
- [10:47] What led Miren to build an indoor swimming facility in Miami?
- [13:46] How a controlled indoor environment created year-round swimming opportunities
- [17:59] The impact of B Corp certification on team culture and community responsibility
- [22:14] How COVID-19 affected operations at Ocaquatics
- [25:29] What motivated Miren to sell her business to employees instead of private equity
- [30:57] How Ocaquatics fosters ownership thinking and prepares employees for leadership roles
- [36:49] The role of EO forum and peer support in navigating the sale of the business
In this episode…
How can a business be built for success while ensuring it remains impactful and sustainable in an ever-changing world? Imagine a business model where the employees themselves are the owners. This is the story of a swim school that made a daring shift toward an employee ownership trust, a concept most people have likely never encountered.
Miren Oca, the visionary behind Ocaquatics Swim School, embraced this innovative approach by transforming her business into one of only 50 employee ownership trusts in the United States. She attributes her success to a strong focus on servant leadership, transparency, and cultivating an ownership mindset among her team. By transitioning her business into an Employee Ownership Trust (EOT), Miren ensured her company’s sustainability while aligning with its core values. She also pursued B Corp certification, embedding environmental and social responsibility into her operations, which fostered team loyalty, boosted retention, and created measurable community impact.
Tune in to this episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast as John Corcoran interviews Miren Oca, Founder and Director of Ocaquatics Swim School, about her decision to sell her well-established swim school to its employees. They discuss her decision to transition the business into an Employee Ownership Trust, the importance of aligning leadership with company values, how Ocaquatics achieved B Corp certification, and the challenges of expanding during the 2008 financial crisis.
Resources Mentioned In This Episode
- John Corcoran on LinkedIn
- Rise25
- Miren Oca on LinkedIn
- Ocaquatics Swim School
- Ripples of Impact Nonprofit
Special Mention(s):
- The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber
- Entrepreneurs’ Organization
Quotable Moments:
- “If you don’t take care of your team members, you cannot expect them to go out and take care of the customers.”
- “The best time to swim is the nine months of the school year, so you’re ready for swim season in the summertime.”
- “Swimming is the only sport that can save your life.”
- “I thought that it would work, and I knew that it was going to work.” – Miren Oca on the risk of opening her first indoor pool.
- “This is probably the number one biggest, but also the best, decision of my professional life.” – Miren Oca on selling her business to employees.
Action Steps:
- Develop an ownership mindset: Encouraging team members to adopt an ownership mindset can significantly enhance their engagement and accountability. This approach fosters a sense of responsibility and commitment, as demonstrated by Miren Oca’s success in transitioning her business to an employee ownership trust, which motivated her employees to take more initiative and align with the company’s mission.
- Focus on employee development: Providing regular professional and personal development opportunities for employees can lead to higher retention rates and a more skilled workforce. Miren’s strategy of investing in her team’s growth, even during challenging times like the COVID-19, helped her retain staff and maintain business stability.
- Leverage certification to enhance credibility: Pursuing certification, such as becoming a B Corp, can distinguish a business and demonstrate its commitment to social and environmental responsibility. This move not only strengthened Miren’s brand but also attracted like-minded employees and customers who value ethical business practices.
- Embrace systematization for scalability: Implementing systems and processes allows a business to scale efficiently and maintain quality across multiple locations. Miren’s adoption of Michael Gerber’s principles from “The E-Myth,” such as systematizing her swim school operations, enabled her to grow her business to five locations successfully.
- Educate and involve team members in decision-making: Regularly involving employees in financial education and business decision processes can enhance their understanding and commitment to the company’s success. By conducting lunch-and-learn sessions about financials and ownership thinking, Miren successfully transitioned her team into co-owners, fostering a collaborative and informed work environment.
Sponsor: Rise25
At Rise25, we’re committed to helping you connect with your Dream 100 referral partners, clients, and strategic partners through our done-for-you podcast solution.
We’re a professional podcast production agency that makes creating a podcast effortless. Since 2009, our proven system has helped thousands of B2B businesses build strong relationships with referral partners, clients, and audiences without doing the hard work.
What do you need to start a podcast?
When you use our proven system, all you need is an idea and a voice. We handle the strategy, production, and distribution – you just need to show up and talk.
The Rise25 podcasting solution is designed to help you build a profitable podcast. This requires a specific strategy, and we’ve got that down pat. We focus on making sure you have a direct path to ROI, which is the most important component. Plus, our podcast production company takes any heavy lifting of production and distribution off your plate.
We make distribution easy
We’ll distribute each episode across more than 11 unique channels, including iTunes, Spotify, and Google Podcasts. We’ll also create a copy for each episode and promote your show across social media.
Cofounders Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran credit podcasting as being the best thing they have ever done for their businesses. Podcasting connected them with the founders/CEOs of P90x, Atari, Einstein Bagels, Mattel, Rx Bars, YPO, EO, Lending Tree, Freshdesk, and many more.
The relationships you form through podcasting run deep. Jeremy and John became business partners through podcasting. They have even gone on family vacations and attended weddings of guests who have been on the podcast.
Podcast production has a lot of moving parts and is a big commitment on our end; we only want to work with people who are committed to their business and to cultivating amazing relationships.
Are you considering launching a podcast to acquire partnerships, clients, and referrals? Would you like to work with a podcast agency that wants you to win?
Contact us now at [email protected] or book a call at rise25.com/bookcall.
Rise25 Cofounders, Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran, have been podcasting and advising about podcasting since 2008.
Episode Transcript
John Corcoran: 00:00
All right. Today, we’re talking to a woman who decided to sell her business as an employee ownership trust. There’s only 50 of these types of businesses in the United States, so you’ve probably never heard of it before. Her name is Miren Oca, and I’m going to tell you all about her in a second, so stay tuned.
Intro: 00:18
Welcome to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, where we feature top entrepreneurs, business leaders, and thought leaders and ask them how they built key relationships to get where they are today. Now let’s get started with the show.
John Corcoran: 00:35
All right. Welcome, everyone. John Corcoran here I am, the host of this show. And you know, each week I get to talk to interesting entrepreneurs, CEOs, founders from all kinds of companies. We’ve had Netflix and Grubhub, Redfin, Gusto, Kinkos, YPO, EO, Activision Blizzard.
Check out the archives. Lots of great episodes for you there. And of course, this episode brought to you by Rise25, my company where we help B2B businesses to get clients referrals and strategic partnerships with Done-For-You podcast and content marketing, and you can learn more about what we do by going to Rise25.com or emailing us at support at Rise25.com. And I want to introduce today’s guest today, who I know through the entrepreneurial master’s program, who we have been in together for the last couple of years. Her name is Miren Oca.
She is the founder and director of Ocaquatics Swim School. She has a great, interesting story. Started this business about 30 plus years ago and built it up to five different locations, about 165 employees and it’s 100% employee owned now, which happened earlier this year. So we’re going to hear that story, why she chose that particular format for selling her business, because there’s lots of different things you can do with your business. And she chose that one intentionally.
So that’s going to be an interesting episode. And they do about 6500 swim lessons per week during the high season. And so excited to have you here today. And I’d love to hear about people’s backgrounds and how they got started, how they got exposed to entrepreneurship. Many of my guests had no exposure to entrepreneurship as a kid.
You grew up in an entrepreneurial family. Mom was from Cuba, dad was from Spain, and they had restaurants. And so you kind of got to see that up close and, and personal. And you knew you’d never go into business after that, didn’t you? Because of how hard it seemed.
But it’s kind of funny how the path led you in a different direction. So tell me, what was that like growing up as a kid and observing your parents running these restaurants?
Miren Oca: 02:30
Oh, well, I think it was really interesting. I got a front row seat to see what running a business was all about. My parents were immigrants. They ended up in Louisiana owning a couple of restaurants, and I saw, I mean, amazing food, really, really, truly amazing food. They were restaurants where people came to share their special moments, you know, to have that special meal.
And it was really a really great part of it. I love that part of the business. But behind the scenes I saw how hard my parents worked. I saw the struggle, I saw taxes, I saw, you know, challenges with team members. And I thought, gosh, I’m not sure I want to do this sort of thing.
I did teach swimming lessons, and I did have my little babysitting business and things like that. So I liked business, but I just didn’t think that it was going to be for me at the end. In the end, because of what I saw them go through. So, you know, you and I were talking earlier, I went to Tulane University. I was getting my degree in biochemistry.
I was going to go to med school and become an orthopedic surgeon. That was my life’s dream. And then, you know, at 19, I found out I was pregnant and I had to take a little detour. So send you.
John Corcoran: 03:42
In a different, different direction. You end up coming back from Tulane, back to Miami, where your family was. And what was that like the first couple of years leaving college, coming back to Miami, having a baby to raise on your own?
Miren Oca: 03:58
Yes. Well, it was a struggle. It was. It was really great because I was young. I was a young mom and I had a lot of energy, but it was also, you know, it was one of those difficult times.
And I do remember the struggle. And I remember, you know, a challenge to make ends meet. I did try a couple of different jobs, but in the end, I just thought, let me go back to what I know how to do and let me keep teaching swimming lessons. And so in February of 1994, I was 22 years old. My son was almost two.
He was about to turn two on March 4th, and I opened my swim school. And, you know, I went to homes, I went to backyard homes. I taught swimming lessons everywhere to anyone who needed swimming lessons in Miami. It was a necessary life skill because of pools everywhere.
John Corcoran: 04:48
Yeah, yeah, I grew up in LA and every home has a pool in the backyard. Yeah. Yes. Yeah.
Miren Oca: 04:54
So it really is a necessary life skill, especially for families with young children at home. So I did a lot of home swimming lessons. And then one day I ran across a little hotel and I talked to them and said, can I use your pool and teach swimming lessons? And in exchange, I bartered with them. I taught their family swimming lessons, and I taught their guest swimming lessons, and that launched my career.
I decided, okay, well, let me let me actually hire somebody to help. And, you know, then I got another little pool, and then I got another little pool and hired some more people. And it just started growing organically, little by little. But the more I did it, the more I realized I really, really liked teaching swimming lessons. But I really, really liked also hiring people and kind of building my little team and, you know, just kind of growing this business.
It was really fun.
John Corcoran: 05:42
If you compare that, you know, I was talking with someone else who’s in the restaurant business the other day about how difficult restaurant businesses in particular are. Think of all the different things you have people issues. You have a product. You have a product that people are consuming. So you could poison people.
If it’s like the worst case scenario, you could kill someone, right? If they have an allergic reaction. But then you have all these different issues, you know, you’re managing people and timing and the food and the product has to be really good and it has to be great night after night after night. And if you get it wrong, one night some person goes and writes a bad review online and you know it can ruin things for you. Swim schools also involve people.
You have to hire people. You have to get clients and things like that. You’re not dealing with a product that the consequences are high if something goes wrong. Right?
Miren Oca: 06:30
Absolutely.
John Corcoran: 06:31
The kind of comparison between those two and why you think you were attracted to the swim school so much more.
Miren Oca: 06:37
You know, I grew up in high school as a swimmer. I taught swimming lessons through high school and college. I really loved, you know, what we were doing with children. I really loved working with children and then also just providing this necessary life skill. Like we save lives by the work that we do.
I think running a restaurant is amazing, but it is very hard. Like when I go to restaurants now, I know what’s happening behind the scenes. It is very, very hard work and it’s a perishable product, you know. So if you’re not moving it fast enough, it really is tough. But it is hospitality.
Restaurant business is all about hospitality. And I think swim schools are all about hospitality. It’s all about service and providing a service. And so I really do feel like there are a lot of parallels. It’s interesting that you asked that question, because I think there are a lot of parallels between restaurant and swim schools because of taking care and serving people.
And it’s not just serving your clientele and your customers, but it’s also serving the team members who work with you. Because if you don’t take care of them, you cannot expect them to go out and take care of the customers. So we really do spend a lot of time, you know, working and leading and growing and mentoring and coaching our team members because they’re the ones who make the magic happen and.
John Corcoran: 07:51
Was for you. Did you find yourself getting, you know, out of the pool quicker over time, or was it an overnight thing, or was it a gradual thing? You know, are you still in the pool these days or have it been years since you’ve been in the pool?
Miren Oca: 08:07
Yeah. Well, you know, it’s really funny, you know, so kind of rewind again. My son and I used to spend a lot. I did not know a lot about business, so we’d spend a lot of time in bookstores reading. And I ran across the E-Myth classic.
John Corcoran: 08:22
Yeah. Michael Gerber.
Miren Oca: 08:24
Absolutely. And one of those. And it was to work on your business. Not in your business. Work on your business, not in your business.
And kind of design it, systemize it, pretend it’s a franchise. So you could put every system in writing so that somebody else could help you with it. And, I really started to do that a lot and that helped me, you know, grow the business and realize that I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t grow the business if I was in the water teaching every single lesson. I love teaching swimming. I love teaching babies, and I did teach babies for a long time.
But then I moved more towards teaching teachers and that was what I did. And then I moved to teaching managers. And so I think now I still have a part, a role in that. I run our manager and training program. I do ongoing manager development, but it is very far removed, you know, from the days when I did every single lesson that was taught at Ocaquatics.
John Corcoran: 09:20
And yet you still enjoy it because I love it. The classic case from, you know, the E-Myth is that, you know, the baker, I think, is the character in that who gets, you know, they start a bakery because they love baking pies. And then all of a sudden they find they’re not baking pies anymore, and they don’t. And they hate it.
Miren Oca: 09:38
Right, right, right. Absolutely, absolutely. And by doing our ongoing manager development programs, I get to keep you know, I’m still close to it. I get to see what they’re doing. And I also get to help continue to develop and build a strong culture, because we have an amazing culture at Ocaquatics, especially around servant leadership, especially around relationships.
So, you know, by doing those programs, I can just continue to model that, develop that, build that. So, so.
John Corcoran: 10:08
Now that you built your schools around Miami and around the mid 2000, you kind of got tired of the unpredictable weather, which for those who are in the northeast or, you know, in the Midwest or something like that, they probably are laughing at that because they have some worse weather. But Miami. So South Florida can have some unpredictable thunderstorms.
Miren Oca: 10:31
Thunderstorms in the summertime. Yes.
John Corcoran: 10:33
Exactly. So that’s a challenge. So you decide to explore the idea of actually constructing your own indoor swimming facility, which must have been an amazing leap of faith. At that point in time. Tell us about what that was like.
Miren Oca: 10:47
Oh, it was an incredible challenge. But I knew that if I really wanted to grow the business, that would be the next step. Before that, I was kind of growing my empire on sand because I would lease a little hotel pool or a country club pool, and we would grow and grow and grow, and then we’d get kicked out. And that was as we, you know, we got too big. They would kick us out.
So I really needed to have my own pool. And so I looked and looked and looked. I knew every single street in Miami, every single property that was available. And I finally found a landlord that would allow me to do an interior renovation and put a pool inside of his warehouse.
John Corcoran: 11:22
Wow. So you. So you didn’t own it, so you built it. I built a pool inside of a warehouse I did. That does not sound cheap.
Miren Oca: 11:30
No, that was our first pool. Yeah. And we’re still there. We’re still in that location today, and it’s great. It’s still doing amazing.
It opened in July of 2009.
John Corcoran: 11:41
So you were doing this during the whole economic downturn?
Miren Oca: 11:44
Zero eight yes, we built. I signed the lease in December of 2007, and that’s how long it took me to get open.
John Corcoran: 11:51
So during that period of time throughout zero eight, there must have been some people who turned to you and said, what are you doing here? This is crazy. You’re trying to expand your business in the midst of this massive economic downturn.
Miren Oca: 12:04
Yes.
Miren Oca: 12:04
A lot of people actually said that it was hard. I mean, it was really hard. I couldn’t get bank financing. So I mortgaged my house and I maxed out every credit card. And I, you know, looking back on it, you take a lot of risks, but I really did think that it would work.
You know, it was going to work. And I did have a lot of people who thought I was crazy. I also had a lot of people. It’s really interesting because this was, you know, 15 years ago or so who would come to the building when I was interviewing contractors or subcontractors, and they would come into the building and look at me and say, okay, well, who is going to make the decision for this job? You know, where ‘s the man behind this project?
And that was a really hard building, doing a construction project in Miami in 2008. It was a.