We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Troy Stokes. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Troy below.

Troy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

Going from idea to execution can be quite a daunting and long process. To be perfectly honest, I am still constantly in cycles of ideation and execution, trying to deliver up the perfect “secret sauce” for success. I started my business officially when a lot of businesses were battling the risk and uncertainty of Covid. For many, it was a very tough environment, but for me the Covid environment brought with it one of the largest opportunities and resources, which I had not had in quite some time; that resource was TIME. Time to think, time to focus, time to really understand and give myself a chance to chase some dreams that had taken a back seat to my highly demanding day job. That idea was to make a living fishing! I’d been fishing for as long as I can remember and had significant success in competitive tournaments for many years, so it wasn’t so much the idea of catching fish, but how do you line up enough sponsorships, the business case that proves out the means to an end. Sure one may think that you can just go out and win every tournament, which you could! BUT that’s not likely to come to fruition, so it’s really the other side of the game, with social media and YouTubers showing us a new way to garner followers and make hay even when we’re not on the lake. Now, in hindsight and telling you that, it seems obvious that my social media presence should be much larger and significant than it is, but sometimes sticking to what you know at first is the best first step. So, my first two years on the Major League Pro Circuit I did just that, I focused on executing the fishing side and wanted to first determine if I could compete on that level, after all, no one really wants to take last place every tournament and have to explain that on your YouTube channel :) haha. Well funny thing is, in my first professional tournament ever, I dang near did take last place, as I recall I was 2nd to last! WOW, worst tournament finish ever in my career. Luckily, as any business owner knows perseverance is a must and I was able to bounce back quickly earning my first paycheck in the very next tour event. Those first two years I learned a lot and as much as you need to stick to your plan, being open minded is also key to executing. So now I am looking forward to my third year on the tour, I know the idea of catching fish, being good enough to compete at the professional level is a go, so the next iteration is to compete on the social media side of things, to truly unlock the full potential of this business plan and create a sustainable path to making a full time career of this once dream. There’s a ton coming in the pipeline, some of which I can’t let out of the can just yet, but let’s just say that one of the biggest keys to going from idea to execution is just that, keep making ideas, keep executing, don’t be afraid to lose, keep pushing forward and if you aren’t sure give it a try and then try again.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Troy Stokes, a professional bass fisherman. You can find my social media accounts using the tag @TroyStokesFishing I was born and raised in Lansing, MI and am currently 33. This will be my 3rd year on the Major League Fishing Tackle Warehouse tour, but I started fishing when I was around 6 years old. There was a panfish division that my Dad and I fished together and won team of the year, which really put that passion for competition in my blood at an early age. From there, we fished many local tournaments and had quite a bit of success, so much so that for one summer in high school my only job was to fish as many tournaments as I could to fund some summer fun! I attended Central Michigan University and in 2009 founded Collegiate Bass Fishing at CMU, which is a collegiate bass fishing team that competes against other university fishing teams across the nation and I’m very proud that it is still going strong. Fire Up Chips! I graduated college and immediately took a full time position working for Boeing in the Defense, Space, and Security division out of Southern California. Over the following 10 years I worked in various positions related to Lean and Operations Efficiency. Somehow I’ve wandered all over the US from SoCal; Charleston, SC; St. Louis, MO; all the way back to Michigan. On top of my professional fishing business, I am also employed by Lineage Logistics, the largest cold chain warehouse provider in the world as a Program Manager for what is known as The Warehouse of the Future. Lineage has been a very large supporter of my professional fishing career, so much so that my Phoenix boat is wrapped with a giant Lineage shield on the side! The next chapter in my book is quickly approaching and I’m so thankful for all of the great mentors, supporters, fans, and friends that I will meet along the way. Take a look at my social media today, but make sure to follow as I’m gearing up create hundreds of videos, reels, Tik Toks, podcasts, and fishing TV shows in the next 52 weeks! It’s time to level up.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

Professional fishing has a rather high barrier to entry. That may seem counterintuitive, but once you add up the boat, truck, rods, reels, tackle, entry fees, and operating costs, we’re talking a small fortune. Not to mention, you need the time to compete, which is minimally 6 weeks of time, but more realistically 12-16 weeks to give it the proper effort. So the question of funding is double sided as you need a good enough cash flow to support 60K+ in recurring expenditures and also the initial capital to buy the equipment. The best way to achieve this is by working hard on a business plan that highlights your marketing potential to prospective partners. There’s something about a companies logo flying over the water in a 100K boat that is appealing to businesses and clients alike. It’s something different than going out to a golf outing, which most typically is the marketing tool. So, for me, I was able to get the initial funding via a lot of personal saving, a lot of investing, and some great partners such as Lineage Logistics who provided the time, which is sometimes the most important.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

I would be remiss to not highlight a little bit more regarding my investing side business. I met a few very critical mentors in my early 20’s when I moved to Southern California who helped me understand the basics of what investing looked like, how to trade, and most importantly, not to be greedy. I really never created any sizeable wealth for the first 10 years that I invested, but I was very intrigued in how capital markets worked and how they are globally connected and intertwined. It wasn’t until I put all of my experiences together from my business career, evaluating P&L’s, reducing waste and optimizing processes, that I really started to put together the pieces to create a quantitative model for my investment theses. Similar to the fishing business, all travel was effectively stopped for my day job, which again allowed me some time to really be at home, to research businesses and markets. This is the timeframe in which I started to really identify and execute against market abnormalities in valuation. To be clear, this isn’t the meme stocks, these are just good old fashioned value equity positions. Probably my most important milestone and the validation that I hadn’t just rode the coattails of a red hot bull market was 2022, where the major US indices were down approximately 30%, but I was still able to secure a positive triple digit percentage return. I technically still consider this a side business, but if all goes well, it very likely will be the key to all my businesses to come!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: TroyStokesFishing
• Facebook: troy.stokes.186
• Linkedin: troy-stokes-04523729
• Youtube: TroyStokesFishing
• Other: Tik Tok: TroyStokesFishing

Image Credits
Jody White, Rob Matsuura, Sean Ostruszka