“I think that culture has always been there… There are two fish swimming in a pond, and a bigger fish swims past them and says, “How's the water?” And when he swims away, the fish look at each other and say, “What's water?” Culture is always there. It's always around you. You can feel it, but you don't even realize you're in it.”

We're republishing one of our "Culture Classics" with Miren Oca, the visionary behind the Ocaquatics swim school in Miami, a business whose primary customers are its own employees and for whom culture is the real competitive advantage.

In this episode, Miren talks about founding Ocaquatics after an unexpected life change at age 19, drawing on her restaurant upbringing to instill strong customer service values. She shares insights into Ocaquatics' distinctive hiring approach and her biggest firing mistake, while explaining why she views her organization as a high-performance sports team rather than a family. Miren discusses the Leadership Ocademy, which teaches vital skills including meditation, financial literacy, and emotional intelligence, and emphasizes the importance of intentional culture-building. She recounts Ocaquatics' journey to B Corp Certification and explains how they creatively transformed a negative online review into numerous five-star ratings. Throughout the conversation, Miren reveals her long-term vision: creating a workplace so exceptional that employees would want their own children to work there someday.

📢 Do you want to build a high-performance culture? It all starts here: www.rethinkculture.co
Production, video, and audio editing by Evangelia Alexaki of Musicove Productions.

Listen to this episode to discover:
· How Miren founded Ocaquatics when her life took an unexpected turn at 19.
· How growing up in a restaurant shaped Miren’s commitment to customer service and her passion to teach people
· What makes Ocaquatics' hiring process unique, and Miren’s worst firing mistake
· Why Ocaquatics is not a family but a high performance sports team
· The Leadership Ocademy, providing leadership skills like meditation, financial literacy, and soft skills like emotional literacy.
· Why it’s important to really be intentional about the kind of culture that you want
· What steps Ocaquatics took to attain their B Corp Certification, failing first before succeeding
· How Miren and her team turned a one-star Google review into a wealth of five-star feedback while having lots of fun
· The long term commitment to culture: “we want to have such a great business that you would want your children to work with us”

Further resources:
· Miren Oca on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miren-oca-80561261/
· Ocaquatics: https://www.ocaquatics.com/
· "Delivering Happiness" by Tony Hsieh: https://www.amazon.com/Delivering-Happiness-Profits-Passion-Purpose/dp/0446576220
· "The E-Myth Revisited" by Michael Gerber: https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-About/dp/0887307280
· "Integrity" by Henry Cloud: https://www.amazon.com/Integrity-Courage-Meet-Demands-Reality/dp/006084969X
· "Atomic Habits" by James Clear: https://www.amazon.com/Atomic-Habits-Proven-Build-Break/dp/0735211299
· "The Infinite Game" by Simon Sinek: https://www.amazon.com/Infinite-Game-Simon-Sinek/dp/073521350X