Meet Miren Oca of Ocaquatics Swim School

Today we’d like to introduce you to Miren Oca.

Miren, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Ocaquatics Swim School started in February of 1994 with swimming instruction in our client’s homes. In September of 1994 we moved into our first location, the Hotel Vila of South Miami where programs ran until November 1997. From 1996 to 2012, Ocaquatics taught lessons each summer at the Wellness Center of the University of Miami to various summer camps and the MiniCanes Sports Camp.

In March of 1998, we moved into the Country Club of Coral Gables where we operated our program seasonally from May to October each year until 2008. We also started a year round program at Gulliver Academy in June 2001 until May 2013.

After years of operating in outdoor locations, we decided to move indoors in our own facilities. The indoor Kendall location was opened in July of 2009. The Tropical location opened in May 2013. The Northwest location in Hialeah Gardens opened in May 2015. The Eureka location will open in January 2018.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
There have been tons of challenges and obstacles. But the challenges are what have made the journey interesting. I was under construction for my first indoor, year round location in 2008 which was the middle of the recession. I could not get any banks to even talk to me for my first construction project because I wanted to dig a hole inside of a building to build a pool.

Most people thought it was a crazy idea. Now we are building our 4th location. Running a business is always challenging, especially with construction projects but we have surrounded ourselves with really great people and that has helped us in our success.

Two of my favorite quotes:

“All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me… You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.” – Walt Disney

“Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.” – John Wooden

We’d love to hear more about your business.
We make families SAFER around the water! We love working with our swimmers and helping them to gain a love and respect for the water. We teach swimming lessons but we also work to teach proper behavior around the water. We also strive to form great relationships with anyone who comes into contact with Ocaquatics.

In addition, we are very proud of our team and we are known for having great people working with us. Our culture is all about people….and the concept of team is very important to us. We especially love to develop people.

Ocaquatics has been around 23 years, and my core focus the first 10 – 12 years was with the day to day teaching and operation of a swim school. I did everything and hired people to help me. But then as I started to grow, my role evolved and my focus moved towards building a team, and then to identifying and developing leadership talent because I found that Ocaquatics would not grow unless I continued to develop myself and the people that were working with me. And now I love leadership development. And my reason for waking up every morning is I really want to develop people.

We hire ordinary people with great attitudes and help them become extraordinary leaders. I really want to be known as a great company that produces strong leaders…whether they stay with us or go off into the world. And we want them to be the kind of servant leaders that take care of their people.

I think our clients see the relationship and the friendliness and the service that we have with EACH OTHER. They see that we are all on the same page. We all work together. We are a unified team and unified teams get stuff done.

What were you like growing up?
I have always been a huge reader. When I was a kid, I always had a book in my hand. I read a ton of fiction back then and now I read just as much but I read business books.

I grew up a competitive swimmer. This led me to my first summer job at the age of 14 as a swimming teacher. Being in the water has always been a huge part of my life.

Contact Info:

• Address: 13408 SW 131 Street, Miami, FL 33186
  4950 SW 75 Avenue, Miami, FL 33155
  10502 NW 134 Street, Hialeah Gardens, FL 33018
  11101 SW 176 Street, Miami, FL 33157
• Website: www.ocaquatics.com
• Phone: 305-969-7946
• Email: swiminfo@ocaquatics.com
• Instagram: @ocaquatics
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ocaquatics/

Image Credit:
Mary Walsh | Swim Snaps

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