Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Okruhlik.
Hi Michael, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Growing up in a small town, my Saturday afternoons included several episodes of fishing shows on TV. Looking back, I distinctly remember Mark Sosan’s Saltwater Journal on fishing in Florida and the Bahamas. After watching those shows, I remember feeling so inspired and creative. Our small tackle shop didn’t have a lot of products to choose from. I would see the same items over and over again. Only having access to this small tackle shop with limited selections, these shows opened my eyes to “the next best Lure”. One day, I saw an ad to receive a Bass Pro Shops mail order catalog for free. My parents called the listed number and soon I had a new pastime. Thumbing through the pages of the BPS Catalog which was at least an inch thick. I would look through this catalog repeatedly and even had the opportunity to order a few items from it. As my love for the outdoors and fishing grew, I started looking for different things. For every cast and missed opportunities, my desire for something different, something better, something to increase my chances of landing a big fish grew bigger and bigger. Every night before I went to bed, I would think of different ways to fish the next day. I kept a journal of the ponds and types of fish I caught. More importantly, I kept a mental note of the fish that got away and used that challenge keep trying every day. As I grew older, I took all those cemented memories and invaluable lessons to do better. Not just in fishing but in every day life.
I didn’t know it then but I was lucky enough to live in a small Texas town. Our biggest and only shopping center was on Main Street. We had one hunting and fishing shop and they knew me by my name. I wondered aisle by aisle and looked at everything they carried. As my fishing days grew in numbers, I started to ask and look for something more.
I contribute my love for saltwater fishing to my Uncle Leroy. He loved fishing and took me to the Texas coast often. This was my 1st experience fishing from a boat in saltwater. As a child, I was always outside. Riding my bike to a stock pond or creek was a great way for me to spend the day. I was always fascinated by catching a fish on a lure and would often make my own or modify one I purchased or borrowed from my grandfather’s tackle box. I remember watching fish eat dragonflies off the water’s surface. If I could only make a lure look like a dragonfly. Well, I did just that, but I don’t recall ever catching a fish on it, but I didn’t give up on my pursuit to catch a fish on a lure I created!
From a young age to now, fishing has always been a big part of my life. With decades of life lessons, both personally and professionally, I’ve learned that my drive and determination to offer something better to the fishing world would make a difference. One day, while talking about lure ideas with a friend he made a comment that hit me. He said, “why don’t you do it already and stop talking about it”, in an encouraging manner of course. I thought about this for several weeks, did some research, and ask another friend who was a drafter if he would draw my lures design in Solid Works, and he said yes! This was the start of my lure business.
Now that I had a drawing to work with, my dad, who is a machinist by trade was about to get to work making our 1st mold. The mold process is very expensive and I didn’t want to invest too much money into this dream which I had no idea if it would work. My wife and I were starting our family and that is where I needed to focus my finances. Fortunately, between my Father and my friend I had the opportunity to give this dream a shot for the mere cost of material. My Dads friend wrote the program and my Dad made the 1st prototype mold. This lure needed a few modifications and after a few more weeks we had a working lure that produced on the water, catching fish as I expected it would and in ways other lures could not. Next, we had to find a manufacturer to produce our lures and learn how to make a production mold that would work on their equipment. I located a company and my Dad and I took a road trip across several states to meet with them. We meet with the owner for a few hours, getting pointers, and looking over a production mold. Now we had a glimpse of what we needed to do.
My Dad would work on these aluminum lure molds late into the night after his day job ended and on the weekends. He worked many hours being cautious to not damage the mold and the more work and hours he put into it the more stressful it became. Damaging a mold could mean starting over from scratch. After a few years of mold making, we now had a small business. My Dad made our first two production molds for our Controlled Descent Lures™ and we decided to reach out to a professional mold maker for our Knockin Tail Lures™ molds, all 3 of them.
We are a small family business with big dreams and an ever-bigger work ethic. We spend many late nights after our day jobs have ended and our two boys have gone to bed. Packaging, fulfilling orders, marketing, managing inventory, the list goes on and on. From our parents packaging to our boys labeling, we all play an important part and do our best to grow the business and strive to get to the place where we can hire employees and become business owners and not business operators.
You may ask why do I do this? My passion is fishing, and catching fish on lures I created is very fulfilling, but greater than that is seeing my boys and others enjoy the sport because of something I created gives me great satisfaction. Helping someone learn the sport, which is a great sport for kids, warms my heart. While my high school friends were getting in trouble on Saturday nights, I was driving home from my fishing hole. It is a great option for kids to take their mind of devices today and get them outdoors. This sport has shaped who I am.
Now back to the fishing shows and Mark Sosan. A few years after we officially started our business, My Coast Outdoors, I was given the opportunity to write monthly articles for Coastal Angler Magazine, which I have been doing for several years now. One month my editor emailed our topic of the month and he had copied all of his authors on the email string. There was a half dozen of us on the email, and one was non other than Mark Sosan! (Referenced earlier) I couldn’t believe it. I was writing for the same magazine and had the same editor as a man I watched on TV over 30 years ago. Not wanting to encroach on his privacy, but I had to send him a short email and he graciously replied. It is amazing how some things come full circle. I have also fished a lot of the waters I watched him explore on his show over the years. As a child, these were the destinations I never imagined I would be able to visit and fish. Now if I could top it off and go from scanning the pages of the BPS Catalog to getting my lures on the shelf at Bass Pro Shops or any other large retailers! Completing that circle would be the icing on the cake!
With a very heavy heart, my Dad passed away the summer of 2021. I would not be sitting here writing this if it was not for his business help, love, and teaching me all he could until the day he passed.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
We released Knockin Tail Lures™ in March of 2020. We were fortunate to have our initial trade show the week before events started to get cancelled and everything started shutting down due to the pandemic. We purchased a lot of inventory and had big plans to branch out into the retail space but unfortunately, they were closing. Uncertain of what was to come retailers were hesitant to invest in a new product. As weeks past, more people started fishing. Not only current anglers, but many new anglers as well, and our online sales began to grow. Our product was widely accepted into the market and we were extremely busy. We had a new innovative product that worked and our outlook was promising. We decided to expand and increase from our original 6 colors to 20. We were very excited to place this order. At this point, we had been in business for 4 years with our Controlled Descent Lures™ and were accustom to a four-week lead-time on our orders. We have a professional manufacture produce our design here in the USA. Thinking our lead-time was 4 weeks we placed the new order accordingly. Now the next phase of the pandemic issues arrived. Increased lead-time! It increased from 4 to 14 weeks! This was detrimental to our sales. As we were gaining popularity in the fishing industry, we were faced with dwindling inventory. At one point we only had 2 of our 6 colors available to sell, and unfortunately, those 2 colors were not very popular. This was heartbreaking. We had a high demand for our product, but could not fulfill any orders. Finally, new inventory arrived, our customers loved our new colors, we picked up new retailers, and the new pandemic wall dropped in front of us. Now our packaging was scheduled to arrive on time, but was held up in the port! Due to the pandemic containers were slow to be unloaded and we were at another crossroads trying to work through another unforeseen obstacle. Without product bags we could not sell to our retailers, but we found a way to utilize alternate packaging for online orders until our standard bags were released from port. Now that were realizing all of these delays it required us to carry more inventory that we would typically. At this point we had grown to over 60 retailers and didn’t want to let them down by stock outs. This extra inventory is not good financially because we had to pay high interest as we overextended our cashflow. This was not how we typically run our business, but felt it was best option at the moment. If our retailers could not count on us, they might give up our shelf space to someone who had merchandise. Unfortunately, we did lose our first major chain store to this exact scenario when the order of new colors kept getting pushed out! It was heartbreaking. We had a great product make it a major market retailers’ shelf, and didn’t have product to complete the rest of the order. Finally, things began to run smooth for a short time, we paid off everything and had positive cashflow. We evaluated our inventory, worked on our growth forecast, and placed an order thinking we had the same 14-week lead-time. I placed the order with a little cushion and as I type this letter our lead-time jumped to at least 6 months and our manufactures said he can’t find employees to work! Just when we thought we had the pandemic hurdles identified we hit another. I am sad to say all indicators point to stocking out on some colors before the next shipment arrives, but we will find a way to push through.
We’ve been impressed with My Coast Outdoors, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
At My Coast Outdoors, we specialize in designing unique fishing lures that offer our customers features they can’t get in other products, and give them an advantage on the water. I established the company in 2016 when we launched our Controlled Descent Lures™ series in two styles of lures. I have always been one to make, design, or modify items that I needed to make my life easier. Even as a child, I would make my own fishing lures. That is exactly what I did when I invented Controlled Descent Lures™ & Knockin Tail Lures™. We are best know for our Knockin Tail Lures™ which we launched in March of 2020, and I am extremely proud of this design. Its acceptance in the industry shows as we have grown from only a few retailers to 78 spread across 10 states in less than 2 years. Since debuting our 4″ size, we have expanded and now offer a 3.25″ and a 5″ version. As the name indicates, there is a rattle in the tail and it produces a fish attracting sound when retrieved. No other lures have this feature. I would also like to point out that our 5″ version has a larger louder rattle. I knew that having a rattle built into the tail would be a great enhancement to a soft plastic swimbait, and I could not find one anywhere in the fishing industry. Many fishermen insert glass rattles into their soft plastic lures. This adds additional step to fishing preparation and cause some issues. For one, you have a higher chance of deforming the lure causing it not to perform as designed, weaken the lure causing it to not be as durable, and the hassle of having to do it yourself. When a rattle is installed into the body of the lure, which is where all aftermarket inserted rattles must go, the angler has to twitch the lure to activate the rattle, but with it built into the tail as in Knockin Tail Lures™ it has a constant rattle making it a more effective lure. As long as the lure is moving, it will rattle…on a steady retrieve and even on the fall! No other soft plastic lure can do this.
Knockin Tail Lures™ best attribute is that all of these benefits are already in the lure! The customer doesn’t have to buy a lure, then a rattle, remember to insert the rattle, and hope they don’t mess up the lure in the process. Today’s customers want items that are ready to go and we deliver that in a unique one-of-a-kind product that gives the customer an advantage over using other soft plastic swimbaits! All of our products are proudly made in the USA!
How do you define success?
I define success as the ability to raise a healthy family, and teach my boys everything they need to know. Owning a business gives them learning opportunities that they may not learn or learn at a lot older age and further into their careers. I learn new things often and in one way or another, when the time is right, I pass that knowledge onto them. When it comes to success in my business, it is passion driven. I didn’t start the company to make money, I started it to offer others a product that would help them enjoy their hobby a little more. Obviously, we need profit to continue to offer our customers a quality product, but my satisfaction is not derived from the sales. The moments where I feel I have succeeded in this business is with direct positive interaction with my customers. Several great examples occurred at the Houston Fishing Show last March. The overwhelming joy I felt when customers walked up to my booth and ask if my boys were coming, they are 8 and 11. Listening to them reminisce about how helpful my boys were at previous shows and giving examples of how my children help them. That is success to me! On the product side hearing the stories of how they caught their personnel best catch or in one amazing recollection a customer caught 3 personnel best on the exact same lure. Knowing that someone enjoys what you created is the most flattering form of success from a product developer’s perspective. That’s why I do what I do. I have many more ideas swimming around in my head and I can’t wait to release them.
Pricing:
- $6.49 4″ Knockin Tail Lures 6 Per Pack
- $6.49 3.25″ Knockin Tail Lures 6 Per Pack
- $6.99 5″ Knockin Tail Lures 6 Per Pack
- $12.99 KTL Heads 7 Per Pack
- $13.99 KTL Heads Painted 7 Per Pack
Contact Info:
- Email: Info@MyCoastOutdoors.com
- Website: www.MyCoastOutdoors.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mycoastoutdoors/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/knockintaillures
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZGGWyBkHyO3OBVhAnM7zEw
