We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mikey Tapocik a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Mikey, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
Offishial Business Outdoors, was formed from the start of a lure company. The lures were only the foot into the outdoor industry. Offishial Business was and is an online forum site for the Outdoors. While all of this was going my Dad’s batte with prostate cancer was on going and we decided we wanted to help raise awareness and money for prostate cancer . Thus, we created a fishing event called The Catch Tour in 2013.
In 2015, we added to the event by including a trout pond for the kids to insure they would catch fish. The Trout Pond ended up being a huge hit and the kids loved it. Fast forward, after attending and working as a vendor at the Pacific Coast Sportfishing show for a few years, I finally had the opportunity to meet with Bill Depreist of the Pacific Sportfishing Magazine. During the meeting I pitched what I could do with the trout ponds. After working through the details, we did the shows first ever Kids 12 and under trout pond in 2016. Now here we are preparing for our 10th year of doing the event.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Capt. Mikey as my friends and clients call me. My passion for the Outdoors has always been strong. Being fortunate to grow up in the outdoors and experience fishing, hunting and boating in places that only some dream of going. My dream to be a guide outfitter lead to the start of getting my captains license. I created Offishial Business as a forum page to document my experiences in the outdoors and with others who share the same passions. This then lead too many other ventures. One such venture was the “Catch Tour” family fishing tournament. This amazing event was to encourage families and kids fishing, Along with raising money for “Prostate Cancer”. The idea to utilize this event for Prostate cancer awareness and fundraising was because of the battle my father has had with prostate cancer. After finding out that it is not only genetic, but can be caused by many other chemicals. It made me realize there wasnt enough awareness or funding on the topic. We wanted to give information and let the guys know that it is just a simple blood test, Unlike years ago and the testing procedure. However, this great event was only a short lived event, as the topic of prostate cancer isnt really a topic to chat about. Even though it is right next to breast cancer. We have thought about bringing the event back. Maybe in a year or two.
The next chapter stemmed from the event mentioned above, this was setting up our kids trout pond for the Pacific Coast Sportfishing travel show.
Now over the years we have grown with this show. My family has also grown from my wife and daughter, to another daughter and a son. The kids trout ponds grew as aswel from 1 small pool to 2 larger pool. The last event we had Approximently 3400 kids fish the ponds over 4 days. Many of the kids have caught their first fish and some come back each year to relive or just have the chance to catch a fish. We also enjoy taking the extra time with the families of special needs children to ensure they catch a fish. To see the purr joy and excitement in the family and knowing that without this event they may never have gotten to exerience this and it really makes us feel good to know we are part of something so special. We strive for the importance of conservation, catch and release. I honestly don’t think I could do this each year with out my beautiful wife and her support. As well the staff and friends at the Pacific Coast Sportfishing show.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Honesty and loyalty. These two attributes have to be held to show what someone is made of. Holding my word and getting things done. Not giving up when things are tough or not going as planned.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
A time when I had to pivot both life and business. Life would be the news that, hey your going to be a daddy! (Smiles all smiles, except the reality of its time to buckle down.) Having childern definitely slowed me down with wild and crazy things, knowing I had my kids depending on me. The next was when the show started getting bigger and corporate sponsors came into play. That was a game changer. When it’s just me and some buddies a couple hundred kids, it was all fun and games. Then when company’s like Berkley fishing and Penn Reels stared working with us by sponsoring the trout ponds it became a major pivot point for our set up and expanding for the show. It went from coordinating with 1 or 2 people to organization of all the moving parts, scheduling, and layouts of the pond areas. We still have a fun time and enjoy watching smiles from the kids fishing and some winning prizes too, from catching tagged fish.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Offishialbusiness.com
- Instagram: Offishial Business
- Facebook: Offishial Business Outdoors
- Twitter: Offishial Business
- Other: Tiktok Offishial Business
Image Credits
Offishial Business, Pacific Coast Sportfishing show