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Good morning, good afternoon and good evening. Welcome to Rethink Culture, the podcast that

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shines the spotlight on business leaders who are rethinking workplace culture.

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My name is Andreas Konstantinou and I'm your host and I'm also chairman and founder at SlashData.

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I am an accidental micromanager who turned servant leader and over the years developed

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a personal passion for workplace culture. If you have any thoughts you'd like to share on

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a personal passion for workplace culture. If you have any thoughts you'd like to share on

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the podcast or have a guest we should definitely bring on the show, please let me know by

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emailing rethink@rethinkculture.co.

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Today I have the pleasure of inviting a friend and

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maybe I would say co-student because we've been studying at a course together who's Miren Oca

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and Miren is the founder and CEO of Ocaquatics in Miami, South Florida and she's been running

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that business for nearly 30 years and it teaches 6,000 swimming lessons a week and besides that

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culture is a very big story and a passion for both Miren and the team and she's going to tell

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us lots about it. Miren, welcome to the Rethink Culture podcast.

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Well thank you, it's a pleasure to be here. This is going to be fun.

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So let's start with what is Ocaquatics and how on earth

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did you decide to start a swimming school?

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Well Ocaquatics is a locally owned, you know,

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I'm the owner and it's a community involved business in Miami. We teach swimming lessons

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to mostly children but we also teach to some adults and we have this really amazing culture

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of team and we have this really great, just this really great environment and vibe and our families

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choose, I think they really do choose to come swim with us because of the amazing people that

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work with us. So we do teach, you know, between 6,000 and 6,500 swimming lessons per week.

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We did that last week and we have 175 team members. 55 of those are full-time and the

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We did that last week and we have 175 team members. 55 of those are full-time and the

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rest are part-time college and high school students and so we have a tremendous, we have a

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lot of people and we have a really great group of people, you know. We really do, I think the

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culture that we've built and the fact that we're a certified B Corporation, we really do attract

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people who want to work in an environment with a strong culture that is really focused on

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community and planet and saving lives because we really do, the work that we do, we save lives, so.

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And how did you decide to start the business?

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Okay, so I actually was in college and I was

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teaching swimming lessons in high school and college and I was a college student getting

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my degree in biochemistry and I wanted to become an orthopedic surgeon. I knew what I wanted. I had

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my whole life planned out and at the age of 19, I got pregnant in college. So I decided to take a

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little break from school and I moved back to Miami and because my family was here and I kept teaching

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swimming lessons and because, and it was what I knew how to do and I really did need to provide

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for my little growing family and then I decided I would go back to school later and I would go back

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to med school later. But as I kept teaching, you know, it just, I really, I was always in love with

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teaching swimming, but I realized that I could make a living doing it and I started hiring people

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and they were helping and, you know, my passion really was teaching the children to be safer

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around the water, but then later it kind of evolved into teaching the teachers and teaching the people

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that we were working with and so I think that the more I did it, the more it grew, the more people I

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could hire and it just, it really became this really great opportunity to keep hiring people

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and I really, it's just grown and grown and grown and in February, we're celebrating 30 years, so

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it's been quite a journey and quite a ride.

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And how much of teaching is the technical side of

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swimming? So it is a technical sport, but how much of it is how to deal with people and team and service?

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So it's interesting, you know, our youngest student is six months old, so we start very, very early,

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very young and the majority of our students are beginner swimmers under the age of, I would say,

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eight. You know, our average age is probably three or four and so we teach a lot of children

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and we teach, it's a lot of child psychology, it's, I'm not hiring people who are superstar swimmers

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to teach, I'm hiring people who are superstar people. They have great character, they have great

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attitude, they work well with children, they have great positive, just great vibes about them

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and that's, they might not know how to swim well and so we will hire somebody who's a really great

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positive person over a really great swimmer because I can teach swimming, I can teach them

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how to swim, but I can't teach them how to be really great and happy and positive and warm

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and wonderful. So we really are focused on bringing in really great, happy, positive people

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and they do the magic.

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So someone comes at Ocaquatics and says, I want to work here and

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how do you know if that is the right person?

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Well, we actually have several steps in the

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interview process. Our first interview, you know, we have a phone interview and we just kind of

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screen them and talk to them a little bit, get to know them, but then we bring them in and we

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actually do a surf interview where they get in the water with us and we get to see how they

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interact with children and how they like being in an aquatic environment and we just, you know,

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they learn a lot about us when they're there and we get to learn a lot about them while they're

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there. They meet with some of the managers and then they meet with me and I do, you know, I ask

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all sorts of questions, but really it's, we have them come in for several different interviews

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because we want them to see the environment, we want them to see the children around, we want

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them to see everything because we want them to make a good decision also. It's a good spot for

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them because, you know, we are totally different than any other, I didn't, I'm doing an orientation

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this afternoon and in orientation I will say, you know, driving to Ocaquatics, they probably pass

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10 places that would give them a job immediately. As soon as they applied, they would get the job.

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We are different because we make a difference and because we, you know, we really are looking for

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people who want to have a very caring heart and want to work with children and want to make them

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safer around the water, but also want to work with their team members and want to have this really

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great environment.

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And when did you become this conscious about the fact that you're creating

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culture and not just swim lessons? When did culture become consciously important?

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I think that culture has always been there. It's, I was telling you a story earlier about, you know,

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there are two fish swimming in a pond and a bigger fish swims past them and says, how's the water?

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And when he swims away, the fish look at each other and say, what's water? You know, culture

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is always there. It's always around you. You can feel it, but you just, you don't even realize

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you're in it. And so I think I've always had a culture. It's always been there, but I think I

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became very intentional about the kind of culture I wanted to have in my business in 2008. And that's

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when I ran across Tony Hsieh's book, Delivering Happiness, you know, the Zappos story, and I

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actually visited Zappos. I've been a couple of times since then. But then I realized that it's

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really important to actually be intentional about the kind of culture that you want. And so we

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started putting some systems in place because that's what it is. It's about, you know, kind of

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putting it down and documenting it and deciding, being very, very purposeful and very intentional

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putting it down and documenting it and deciding, being very, very purposeful and very intentional

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about the kind of environment and the kind of culture that you want. So I think I started in

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1994. And so from 94 to 2008, it was always there. Everybody has a culture, you know,

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everybody has one, but I was very, very intentional after 2008.

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And even before that, was there a childhood experience or an influential

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mentor or parent that shaped how you see culture today?

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Well, I grew up. So I grew up in Louisiana. I was born in Louisiana, and my parents were

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immigrants. My father was from Spain and my mother's from Cuba. And they moved to the United

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States and they opened restaurants. They met in Louisiana and they opened restaurants together.

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And I think, you know, being in the restaurant business, it's all about hospitality. It's all

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about, they were very high-end restaurants and it was all about exceptional service and taking

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care of the customer, like taking supreme care of the customer. And so I think that

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became part of who I was, you know, that was a big part of, it's what you did.

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And so then when I opened my own business, we really did focus on the customer. We really did

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want to provide a great experience for them. But over the years, I think I've evolved in that we

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still want to provide a great experience for our customers, but we've evolved in that our primary

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customer is no longer just the swimmer. Our primary customer is our team member.

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We want to provide the best experience possible for our team members. And then our team members

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turn around and provide the very best experience for our families. Does that make sense? You know,

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it's one of those things where the environment I grew up in, we were focused on the customer

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and that was all. And now we're really focused on the team and on our employees. We call them

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team members. And then by default, they take really great care of our swimmers and our families

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and our, you know, of the community. So, so our team members, our primary customer.

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It reminds me of Arnie's from Arnie Malham of “take care of your people and they will take care of your business.”

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Absolutely. Absolutely. So, and I think it's a, you know, from the container store,

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maybe a Kip Tindell quote or something like that as well. So I think there is something to that.

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And I think it's really important to consider that.

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Before we talk more about Ocaquatics and the culture there, I wanted to

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do this little game of two truths and one lie with you and try and guess

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what is the truth and what are the, what's the lie and what are the truths?

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So what is two truths and one lie about you?

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Okay. So two truths and one lie.

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So I have a, I, well, I did go back to school and I have a

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degree in business from the university of Miami. My first job was at the age of, well,

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at the age of 10 working in our family business in the restaurant. And

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I started teaching swimming lessons at a very, very young age before I would ever hire somebody

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to teach swimming lessons now. So, and I was actually hired by the YMCA in Louisiana at the age of 14.

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So, okay. So the three facts are you finished school. Yes. You finished

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the university. With a degree in business. Yeah. And then you started your restaurant job at 10

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and your swimming lessons at 14. Did you say? Yes. Okay.

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If I would place a bet, I would place it on not finishing school. Let's see. We'll get to it to the

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end. Okay. So back to, back to Ocaquatics, you shared some fun stories earlier. So I asked you,

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is Ocaquatics like a family? And you said, no, and very consciously so. So why, why is it not like a family?

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We are a team. We're like a high performance sports team. So we actually,

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you know, a lot of people go instantly to, it's a family, but you can't choose your family members.

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And we are highly selective of who we allow onto our team. And our, you know, that's why we have

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such a long interview process. It's why we do an orientation. It's why we do all these different

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things, because we really want to bring people onto the team who are great team players, team

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players is one of our core values. And we want people who are going to work as hard as we do

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and play as hard as we do, and also be as purpose-driven and as focused on the community

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and the environment as we are. So, and that's, that's hard. You know, our selection process is

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pretty, pretty, pretty dynamic. Like we really do a lot of steps in it because we want to make

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sure we're bringing the right people onto our, our team. And I think it shows our team is really

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amazing. And we have an amazing group of people and they have helped grow this business.

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You know, more than I ever could have imagined. So I'm super proud of our team.

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What are some of the things that affected how you think about team and culture today? So

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one of the things I wanted to ask you about is B Corp certification. I know you talk a lot about

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it on the website and there's pictures with like a furry animal and a B Corp and a dolphin and the,

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so it's not furry. It's the entire team around the B Corp logo. So you, so you, you look like,

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you know, it's something important for you. Yeah. So can you tell us a little more about B Corp,

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but really what has it meant for the business to be more conscious, more?

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Sure. Yeah. Yeah. I love talking about B Corp certification. So B Corp certification,

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it's a third party verification and it is, it's like, you know, fair trade for coffee or for

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chocolate. It's like a lead certification for a building, but a B Corp certification is for

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businesses. And it is, you're certified by B Lab, which B Lab is a nonprofit in the United States.

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But now actually there are, there's a system of it in South America, there are B Corporation

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offices all over the world. And actually I think there are probably 6,500 B Corps in the, on the

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planet. And half of them are outside of the United States, more than half are outside of the United

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States. So it's an, it's a global certification and it really shows that a business is focused

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not just on shareholder profit. It's not just driven by the amount of money maximizing that

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shareholder return, but it's focused on a triple bottom line. So it's people taking care of their

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people, taking care of the planet and taking care of profit as well so that you can have a sustainable

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business. And it's, you know, it's just this wonderful certification because it's, it goes

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through all of your stakeholders, community, your workers, your environment, governance. And

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one more, let's see, I've forgotten one, but it just evaluates the business on all those different

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areas. And you can get a possible score of 200 and you have to get an 80 to get certified. So 40%

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shows that it's pretty difficult to get. And the first time we took the certification was in 2018

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and we scored a 50 or just like a 51. And that really showed me that we had work to do. You know,

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we had work to do. We really needed to get some structure in place, some systems in place.

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We wanted to improve the way we were showing up for the world, for our community, for our team

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members. And finally, we did, you know, get over the 80 threshold. We did get certified

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in September of 2022. We're recording this in August of 2023, so we're almost at our year.

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And it's just been really a great opportunity for us to show the world that we really are working

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hard at, you know, at what we preach, at what we talk about. We were the first certified B Corp

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on the planet Earth, our swim school, the first certified swim school planet, you know, planet.

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And since then, two others have become certified. And we really do want to help other businesses to

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become more environmentally and socially responsible because we think business is an

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incredible, is so powerful and can do so much for so many. It's not just about, you know,

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that bottom line of profit. It's about what you can do for the world.

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Do you encourage a sense of ownership or how do you encourage a sense of ownership among

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staff, among team members?

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So it's so interesting that you say ownership, because that is really, really important to it,

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to us. We talk about an ownership mentality. We have five different locations. We have teams

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at the five locations and we want people to own it. We talk about it, own it. You know, it's about,

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um, you're given responsibility, right? You know, we give them responsibility,

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but they take ownership. And we talk about that a lot in terms of this is their building. They,

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when they wear an Ocaquatics t-shirt or a sweatshirt, um, at school or in the community,

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and someone talks to them about it, we want them to feel really, really proud.

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And because of that, we need to make sure that we are just working as hard as we do.

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But also, um, showing up for the team. So we don't have any individual superstars

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at Ocaquatics. Everything that you do is for the benefit of the team.

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And we have said, you know, we might have one superstar who's an amazing teacher and they are

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an amazing, um, they know how to do really great swimming lessons, but they're not

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a great team player. And we will let them go because they need to, they need to find a job

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where they can be the superstar because at Ocaquatics Swim School, the team is the superstar

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because they own, you know, the environment, they own the culture. They really work hard for that.

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So it sounds super fluffy and super squishy, but that's really what it's all about at Ocaquatics.

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We are really, really, um, that's important to us.

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I'd love to hear more about the details.

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And you were telling me earlier, you spend, um, a lot of time on personal development,

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or at least you've thought a lot about personal development. You have this,

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I think it's called Ocademy?

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The Leadership Ocademy, the Ocademy. So yes. Um, you know,

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and that is something that we are growing our people, uh, or we're create, you know,

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and let me rephrase that. We're creating an environment for them to grow in. They,

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they actually have to make the decision to say, I I'm here and I want to grow.

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Um, and not everybody does, but the majority of them do take part in, you know, we provide like

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from the very beginning, we provide, um, like the Calm app. I don't know if you know, it's an app,

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a meditation app. So we provide that for all of our team members. Um, we have access to SmartDollar

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which is a, you know, not to promote SmartDollar, but to promote any financial

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responsibility tool. So it's something that teaches fiscal literacy and it teaches team

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members how to budget and how to, um, be able to use their savings and how to not use credit cards

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and how to different things like that. So, um, we do, um, Leadership Lunch and Learns once a month

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and we do them on unconscious bias or emotional intelligence. Um, we do them on having difficult

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conversations and they're all, they're soft skills and they're soft skills of leadership that

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are really, really important and they're really hard. So we do, you know, the lunch and learns

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we do are not on how to teach a better backstroke. They're on how to work with others, how to work

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with others who are maybe different than you. So we have a lot of those. And the first four

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months of the year, we actually have a manager and training program where we have a weekly lunch and

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learn. And then throughout the entire rest of the year, we have monthly sessions. So, um, we really do

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believe on all of this, the, the sessions that we do with our team help them in their job, but more than

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that help them in their lives. So that's really, really important. And that's where the personal

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development is, but also leadership development, and we want them to grow with us. So if they're

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learning all these skills, they're going to become better leaders too.

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You also mentioned to me earlier about leading by example and recognizing mistakes

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and how you have a different term for mistakes, right?

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Well, a couple of things from there is

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we, we, one of our guiding principles is model the behavior you want to see.

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So, you know, we talk about that a lot, but we did some work with Garry Ridge, you know,

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from WD-40, and he did a presentation to our team and he calls it learning moments. You don't have

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mistakes, you have learning moments. And that's what they call them at WD-40. We call them learning

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lessons. So, you know, it's how you learn. If we make a mistake, we want people to own it and not try to pass

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on the mistake to somebody else or not to, not to make excuses and not to, you know, again, not make

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excuses. We would rather somebody say, I messed up. I'm sorry. This is how I'm going to fix it.

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I'll do better next time. That's great. That's what we want because they've learned. They've

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learned from that. So yes, learning, learning lessons are really, really important to us.

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I don't like the word mistakes. It's just not part of our vocabulary. So.

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Yeah, I recently read a different definition on instead of feedback, feed forward, which

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basically redirects the intention for the action, not to what happened, which is how we usually see

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mistakes, but how are you going to improve a future behavior? So it sounds like similar intent.

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Yes, absolutely.

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And then you said that service is something you're passionate about

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And then you said that service is something you're passionate about

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in Ocaquatics and you shared with me a story earlier about how you share or have customers

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rate your, rate your firm. Okay. Do you want to share that?

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Sure. Sure. So our culture is about service and relationships and team. Those are like the three

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big words that we focus on. And service to us is taking care of people, taking care of the

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customers, taking care of our primary customer, because we believe in servant leadership. So we

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do take care of our team members and then they turn around and take care of our, our families.

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So yes, we actually, at the beginning of the year, the end of last year, we got a one-star

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review on Google and it was from somebody who doesn't even swim with us. They just made a

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comment about us and gave us a one-star and we thought, well, we can fight this or we can just

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get so many five-star reviews that we kind of push it down to the bottom. And so we went to

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our team and we said, Hey, for every location, we have five locations, for every location who gets

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10 five-star reviews, you will get free lunch on the weekends. And these are college kids.

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And they're like, who doesn't want free lunch on the weekends? You know, when they come to

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their shift, when they come to work, well, the campaign was quite successful and we received

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over a thousand five-star reviews in the first six months of the year. We actually got 852 in

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the first four months in that semester because our team they just go above and beyond anyway.

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And they provide this really great service. Like they walk our families, I'm in Miami where it

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rains quite a bit. And if it's raining, they will walk you to your car with an umbrella

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because the mothers are holding a baby and a backpack, or the fathers are pushing the

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stroller and we take umbrellas to keep them dry. So we do all sorts of above and beyond

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things like that. And so when somebody would say, wow, this is amazing. Thank you so much.

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Our team member would respond. Would you mind writing us a review? And so that's how we were

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able to get a thousand reviews in six months. It really did push that one star down because I think

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we have an average rating of five stars on all five locations. It's really amazing. You know,

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it's a reflection of our team and our families just write the most, the most amazing reviews

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and they call out people by name and it's really amazing. So yes. And we do like games. You know,

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I do have a younger team, so we like that. And that was a game. It was a competition. It was fun.

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And fun is a huge part of our culture. It's just a huge part of our swimming lessons,

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but also our team member environment as well.

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Reminds me how I started my journey

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in paying attention to culture, which is we had a one star on Glassdoor and it was an employee

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I had just fired, but really mishandled that fire. I should have done it very differently.

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And so I deserved that one star. But then that got me into a journey of being very intentful about

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culture. Not just about increasing our Glassdoor score, but also because I fundamentally believe

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in taking care of the people and not just of looking after performance, which is why,

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you know, this podcast exists.

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That was a learning lesson. It wasn't a mistake. It was

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something that, you know, I mean, Andreas, I'm super embarrassed to tell the story,

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but like the first person I ever parted ways with, the first person I ever terminated,

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I thought, oh my gosh, you know, it was horrible. It was just, he wasn't a bad person,

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but I told him at the beginning of the day, Hey, today's your last day. I said,

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then he had to work another five hours with me. You know, that was just the wrong way to do it.

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And I, uh, we just learn, we, we have it's feed forward. What you said earlier,

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we just have to learn from these, these experiences and just get better over time.

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So we are works in progress.

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We all are. We are perfect in our imperfections.

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Absolutely. Which is why I love this Japanese art of Kintsugi, if I'm pronouncing it correctly,

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which is, um, taking a cracked porcelain and filling the cracks with gold, which makes it

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a work of art, um, you know, even better than the original. Absolutely.

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So back to Ocaquatics and culture, uh, you also talk about conscious capitalism

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and you're a member of the, uh, that network. I think there's a conscious capitalism leader network.

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Um, what does it mean to you and how has it impacted how you think about culture and business?

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So, you know, you and I have met through entrepreneurs organization, EO, and we're

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part of a peer group. We're also part of, uh, uh, an education opportunity. Uh, and so

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conscious capitalism is also, it's very, very similarly structured to EO in that it is, um,

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a peer group and I love peer learning, you know, I think, and peer experience share. I think

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we learn so much from the experiences of others and the group that is in conscious capitalism.

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Um, you know, I read it, this was a group conscious capitalism. It was started.

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I don't know how long ago, but by Raj Sisodia and by, um, John Mackey from Whole Foods,

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the founder of Whole Foods or the co-founder of Whole Foods. And it's about bringing people

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together who want to use business as a force for good. And again, it's not just about shareholder

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return. It's about doing so much more for others and taking care of the people and taking care of

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the community and the environment. So, um, when I, when I joined that organization, it really helped

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to find that peer group and experience share with other entrepreneurs who were very purpose-driven

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like-minded and who had a lot of the similar views that I did. And I, it's been really great.

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I love it. I love going to their summit every year. And it's actually in October

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and it has really helped me to, um, you know, we all know that entrepreneurship can be kind

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of lonely sometimes. And I think this has really helped me find a good group of people to work with

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much like EO, this one conscious capitalism is also really great group, really great organization.

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So for anybody who's very purpose-driven values aligned, um, I think it's an amazing organization.

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Do you have, um, thinking about the Ocaquatics culture,

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do you have your team members who let's say recently joined, come back and say, well,

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I now understand what's different about Ocaquatics. Have you had like

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beginner experiences or testimonials of staff that come and describe how they see the world?

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Of that, you know, their, their work life.

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Well, you know, I I'm doing orientation this afternoon. And one of the things we talk about

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is we have a lot of boomerangs on our team, meaning they work with us while they're in

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high school or college, they leave us, they go off into the world, get their college degrees,

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get their real jobs. I'm putting that in air quotes. And then they come back to us because

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and then they come back to us because they say, Oh my gosh, the world is a different place. Like

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I, you know, I didn't realize everybody wasn't like this. And our goal is that a hundred percent

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of our team members come back to us as boomerangs, either as future team members, they want to come

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back and work with us or future, uh, parents in our swim school or bringing their neighbor's

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children to swimming lessons or their cousins or their, you know, because we want them to have

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had such a great experience working at Ocaquatics that we want them to come back to us,

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you know, in some way, you know, um, and when we want them to become evangelists out there talking

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about the experience they had as a team member, but also, um, the opportunity for children to

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learn how this life-saving skill. So, um, so I think that the people we work with,

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some of them tend to be, it's their first job. A lot of them, it's their first job.

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And so when they work with us, they think, well, everybody's like this,

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you know? And so we hear more stories when they leave. I actually heard from a team member

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yesterday. I got a text message. He hasn't worked for us in 10 years, but he texted just to talk

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about something he was doing at work and how it reminded him of Ocaquatics, you know,

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and he's a financial planner now, but it's just so funny. We hear, we hear from our team members so much.

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And now that you'll be well soon, uh, in six months celebrating the 30 year

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anniversary, what do you think you'll be very proud of? Like looking at the legacy you've created?

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Oh, um, I, you know, I am incredibly, incredibly proud of, I mean, I'm proud of so much. I really,

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I never would have imagined ever 30 years ago that this is where the business would grow to.

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I love our community involvement. Uh, I love the environmental, uh, responsibility

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programs that we have. I love everything, but it's the team that makes it happen. I love my team. I'm

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so incredibly proud of my team. Um, we have people who have been around for 10, 12, 15 years,

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and they've watched the organization grow as well. And, you know, it's just an amazing

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evolution, you know, because of where we started and how we've grown here and all that we've been

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able to do. All the children we've been able to make safer around the water is huge. We do

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life-saving work. But in addition to that, we also do community cleanups and beach cleanups.

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We go to the zoo and help clean out pins and build cages and do all sorts of things.

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We make contributions, um, to gifts for the planet. We have a gifts for the planet program where

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when our team members have a birthday. So if one of them is turning 20 years old,

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we donate $20 in their honor to an environmental, um, nonprofit. Um, so we have all of these

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different just initiatives that we've done. We built a community garden we've, and it's kind of,

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you know, that, that expression that now I look at it and it's like, wow, look at everything we've

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done, but overnight success takes a very long time. I think it was Steve Jobs who said that

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it's taken so long to get here. And it's just been on the relentless pursuit of let's do more.

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Let's do more. Let's do more. But what more can we do? And, um, I'm super proud of it all,

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but there's no way I would have been able to do it without this amazing, wonderful, cool, fun

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team that we have. Um, they're really, they're really amazing. So you have to visit one day,

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so I can introduce them.

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We as leaders are standing on the shoulders of giants.

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Absolutely. Yes. Yes. Yeah.

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So if you could, um,

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whisper to the ears of leaders who are less intentional about culture

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and help them see what they're missing, what would you tell them?

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What do they need to rethink about culture?

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Um, uh, you know, culture is an opportunity.

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It is such an opportunity to be able to add to the business that you have, to be able to add

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to the lives that you're impacting, the people you're hiring, the people that you're serving.

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Um, but it, it is just such an amazing opportunity to be able to add this layer. Cause not everybody

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is intentional about their culture. So I think if organizations suddenly say, you know, we need to

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do some more work around our culture. I think it's an opportunity. It's, I think, frankly,

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it's our competitive advantage. I think there are a lot of different organizations that teach

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swimming lessons in my area. And I think culture is our competitive advantage. So I think there

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are a lot of people out there who could gain something by, um, starting some culture initiatives

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and really being intentional and being purposeful and thinking on what kind of culture they would

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like to have. It doesn't have to be like ours. It has to be the way they want their organization to

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be and how they want their culture to be. So. And we talk a lot about customers, but every customer

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be and how they want their culture to be. So. And we talk a lot about customers, but every customer

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is usually an employee at someone else's business. And we forget how, um, how to be,

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to lead, help our customers, sorry, our staff lead fulfilling lives and not just,

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you know, have satisfied customers. Well, you know, it's interesting because everyone we work

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with, we kind of, sometimes we just get in that mode of thinking of our team members and our

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customers is just that transaction. And really every customer, whether it's a team member or

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a customer is somebody else's, you know, child or somebody else's grandparent or somebody else's,

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you know, and, and how would, how, if they were our family member, how would we want them treated?

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You know? So we always say that we want to have such a great business that you would want your

389
00:36:27,500 --> 00:36:33,833
children to work with us, you know, and, um, we, we joke with our, with our customers, our swimmers

390
00:36:33,833 --> 00:36:37,916
all the time, you know, Oh, we're, we're building this place so that your children will be able to

391
00:36:37,916 --> 00:36:43,000
work here one day, you know, and it's just creating that place where it is a community.

392
00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:49,416
We want that community so that people feel like it's just a warm, a really warm spot in Miami.

393
00:36:49,416 --> 00:36:56,291
Um, so we are in Miami and Miami is not known for having exquisite customer service.

394
00:36:56,458 --> 00:37:01,333
Um, it's kind of a bunch of different cultures, you know, people from different countries thrown

395
00:37:01,333 --> 00:37:09,166
in traffic's crazy. It's hot. Um, it's just a really impatient. Um, I don't want to say the

396
00:37:09,166 --> 00:37:13,333
word culture because we've used it so much in this, but it is, that's the way it is in Miami.

397
00:37:13,333 --> 00:37:19,833
And we really want to make Miami different. We are, people walk into our, our business sometimes

398
00:37:19,833 --> 00:37:25,416
and say, what is going on? Why is everybody so happy here? And that's a win. That's what we want.

399
00:37:25,416 --> 00:37:27,708
So we're, we're always working towards that.

400
00:37:27,708 --> 00:37:29,958
Like, uh, it reminds me like, uh, sorry,

401
00:37:29,958 --> 00:37:38,041
that's my, that's my dog in the background. Um, Gene Browne in a previous episode said that one

402
00:37:38,041 --> 00:37:44,625
of his values is treat your customers like you'd like a business to treat your parents,

403
00:37:45,166 --> 00:37:51,416
which I really loved. It's so like, um, meaningful, right? Absolutely. You're right.

404
00:37:51,416 --> 00:37:52,708
That's a very good way to put it.

405
00:37:52,708 --> 00:37:56,166
So, as we wrap Miren, um, I have two more

406
00:37:56,166 --> 00:38:03,291
questions for you. So you have a ton of books behind you in your library. Is there one or two

407
00:38:03,291 --> 00:38:12,333
that you think more people should be reading or listening to? Um, so I have a ton of books. I mean,

408
00:38:12,333 --> 00:38:17,708
I have bookshelves in front of me, behind me on the side of me at work everywhere. Um, you know,

409
00:38:17,708 --> 00:38:23,458
there's that expression that leaders are readers. And I think there's some truth to that, but more

410
00:38:23,458 --> 00:38:28,500
than that, I think leaders are learners. And so I think you can learn so much from books.

411
00:38:28,500 --> 00:38:34,250
I love books. I listen to audio books as well, but you can also learn so much from podcasts

412
00:38:34,250 --> 00:38:39,375
like this podcast. Um, you can learn from mentors, you can learn from peer groups.

413
00:38:39,375 --> 00:38:44,791
So I, I, you know, I hate to sometimes just say you have to read this book because people,

414
00:38:44,791 --> 00:38:49,041
if they're not readers, they, they turn off. And I think that you can learn so much from,

415
00:38:49,041 --> 00:38:54,958
from groups and from other people. So, um, now I do love books. So, you know, the first book

416
00:38:54,958 --> 00:39:01,458
that I read that really transformed my business, which is not maybe now it's from 30 years

417
00:39:01,458 --> 00:39:05,750
ago was the E-myth, the E-myth revisited by Michael Gerber, because it really showed me

418
00:39:05,750 --> 00:39:11,458
how to set systems in place for my business. And then, you know, but now, you know, I've read

419
00:39:11,458 --> 00:39:15,625
Integrity by Henry Cloud, which is one of my favorites I've read. I mean, there are just so

420
00:39:15,625 --> 00:39:22,500
many I could name, but now I really love Atomic Habits by James Clear, really, really great.

421
00:39:22,500 --> 00:39:28,083
I read it every year and I give it away a lot to my team members. And then probably one of my

422
00:39:28,083 --> 00:39:34,333
all-time favorites is, um, The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek. And it's because, you know,

423
00:39:34,333 --> 00:39:39,125
I've been doing this 30 years, you know, and, and there's no winning in business. And I think that

424
00:39:39,125 --> 00:39:43,750
that's what this book is about is it's a game and it keeps going and you want to keep going.

425
00:39:43,750 --> 00:39:48,666
And I was telling you earlier that one of my favorite at the prologue, right at the beginning,

426
00:39:48,666 --> 00:39:52,666
he starts with, you know, you're in a race and there's a fork in the road and one side,

427
00:39:52,666 --> 00:39:58,166
one way says victory and the other says fulfillment. And I'm on the road of fulfillment,

428
00:39:58,166 --> 00:40:02,416
you know, and that doesn't end. You just keep going and you keep making it better. And you,

429
00:40:02,416 --> 00:40:06,958
you just keep, again, we're working some progress because we can always do better.

430
00:40:06,958 --> 00:40:11,375
We can always do more. We can always just find new opportunities. So,

431
00:40:11,375 --> 00:40:12,875
so I'm really excited about that one.

432
00:40:12,875 --> 00:40:16,583
And finally, do you want to tell us about what

433
00:40:16,583 --> 00:40:19,750
of the three facts was a truth and what was a lie?

434
00:40:20,916 --> 00:40:25,625
So I do not have a business degree from the university of Miami, but I actually did go

435
00:40:25,625 --> 00:40:30,666
back. I finished my degree. I got it in biology. So I, cause I really thought I was going to go

436
00:40:30,666 --> 00:40:34,583
back to medical school. And I thought I was just going to wait until my son was a little older.

437
00:40:34,583 --> 00:40:42,083
He's 31 now. Um, I thought I'll go back when he's three or four and I never went to med school. I

438
00:40:42,083 --> 00:40:48,500
did this and it's been the best thing that's ever happened to me. So the day I found out I was

439
00:40:48,500 --> 00:40:54,250
pregnant, I probably was not the most grateful person on the planet, but now I realize it was

440
00:40:54,250 --> 00:41:01,000
the best thing that could have ever happened to me because I got my amazing son, Ian. And it also

441
00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:06,666
changed the trajectory of my life in that it put me on this path of running the swim school,

442
00:41:06,666 --> 00:41:10,166
owning the swim school, and just doing so much more than I ever thought I could do.

443
00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:16,583
Yeah, every challenge I firmly believe it's one of my values. Every challenge is an opportunity

444
00:41:17,166 --> 00:41:22,625
and we might not see it now. In fact, we should try and see it like, uh, the pandemic was an

445
00:41:22,625 --> 00:41:28,666
opportunity for a lot of things, self-reflection, spending time with ourselves, cutting down on

446
00:41:28,666 --> 00:41:35,791
things we don't really need to do, uh, reconnecting with friends and so on. Um, so

447
00:41:36,500 --> 00:41:41,875
it's up to us to see the challenge as an opportunity and, and make the most of it.

448
00:41:42,750 --> 00:41:48,916
Absolutely. And COVID was hard, you know, and it was, it was sad because people did lose loved ones

449
00:41:48,916 --> 00:41:55,541
and, and it was tough. You know, we were closed for three months, but at the end of it, we have

450
00:41:55,541 --> 00:42:01,791
made, um, changes and we did get better and we did grow stronger, but we did it because

451
00:42:01,791 --> 00:42:05,625
we were together. We had a really great team. I could not have pulled through COVID without my

452
00:42:05,625 --> 00:42:12,166
team. So yeah, again, that culture of team really important.

453
00:42:12,166 --> 00:42:15,625
So I'm waiting for the,

454
00:42:15,625 --> 00:42:21,875
I'll be waiting for the pictures from your 30th year anniversary. Absolutely. I'm sure it will be

455
00:42:22,083 --> 00:42:29,083
an amazing party and very, very well deserved. Miren, it's been a pleasure, uh, learning from

456
00:42:29,083 --> 00:42:39,875
your love for people and team and giving your soul and your heart to, um, building not a family,

457
00:42:39,875 --> 00:42:46,250
but something that is as strong as a family, even if you get to choose everyone who's part of it.

458
00:42:46,250 --> 00:42:49,125
Right. Um, and, uh, and keep leading.

459
00:42:49,958 --> 00:42:53,583
Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you for the time today. This was fun.