Ep. 024 – Emerald Water Anglers – Dave McCoy
This week’s guest is Dave McCoy, owner of Emerald Water Anglers. Headquartered out of their premier fly-fishing retail shop in West Seattle, Dave and his staff offer high-quality and knowledgable fly-fishing guides, are passionate about fishing, preservation and they really know the water and fishing around the Northwest.
Topics & Ideas Discussed in This Episode:
- Dave is involved in many aspects of the fly-fishing industry – He is a true entrepreneur: with a photography business, writer, traveler, fishing guide, social media manager for his shop and Patagonia Fly Fish (as well as a “Patagonia Ambassador“), and helps develop products for companies he believes in.
- Seattle is a pretty small city for being a big city.
- The fly-fishing community is pretty tight – Dave’s friend (and my dad) Tim Harris’ fly-fishing site
- Their biggest challenge when first starting business – moving from CO, to WA and being new to the area… he had to go from just knowing trout in one mt. lake to having to know so many different fish species and hundreds of bodies of water.
- Their biggest challenge now – local retail spaces having to compete with online retailers | resource management pressures in WA State | Getting in front of a lot of fly-anglers, who are older and not necessarily online and so have never heard of their store.
- Steelhead (the WA State fish) are endangered in a lot of the local rivers, creating closures of some great rivers.
- Just launched new woman’s fly-fishing guide program – Welcome Karli Roland (official announcement on Facebook)
- What set’s them apart from other in their industry – Super selective in hiring… leading to unbeatable customer service, superior staff with extensive knowledge and experience.
- Their greatest strength – “great salesman”… focuses on the relationship and what the customer needs and what’s best for them vs. pushing for “closing the sale”.
- They wish they had the habit of… – not always saying what comes to his mind; having a better filter.
- They are passionate about – educating fellow fly-fishers about the current state of the states fishers and resources and incoming them on what they can do to be good steward of our fisheries.
- The best advice they have ever received – “Jump in with both feet and give 100% of yourself to it, unconditionally”
- A personal habit that contribute to their success – A sense of humor
- Parting Guidance from our guest – “If you make a lot of money and your unhappy, change it”. Figure out something you really want to do and through yourself at it… you only have one life to live, so life it!
Episode Links & Resources:
- www.emeraldwateranglers.com
- Business Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/EmeraldWaterAnglers
- Business Twitter Page: https://twitter.com/EmrldWtrAnglers
- Get involved in local organizations that work to preserve our fisheries and be a good steward of the resources.
- www.pugetsoundkeeper.org – Working to keep Puget Sound waters clean & watchdog for superfund sites.
- www.wildsteelheadcoalition.org – Working specifically on policy for managing our state fish, the wild Steelhead.
- www.wildfishconservancy.org – Help facilitate courts making judgments in favor of good and sustainable policies as well as do a good deal of science to backup why they take the stances they do in court.
- www.tu.org – Does great work on habitat restoration in entire region.
- www.wildsalmon.org – Working hard in regaining Salmon populations.
- Jim Collins book – Good To Great
- Skate The Fly Podcast (Dave McCoy & Dylan Rose video podcast on Vimeo)
- The Tim Ferris Podcast – “Drunk Dialing – Ladies Night” episode
- Favorite podcast(s) – Anchored Podcast with April Vokey – Not just entertaining but also informative, as she asks the right question of the more informed and involved people in the industry.
- Book recommendation – “Let My People Go Surfing – The Education of a Reluctant Businessman” by Yvon Chouinard (By the Founder of Patagonia and how it came to be.)
- Learn more about Christian, other projects he’s working on and his business at: www.Sea-Town.com
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Tags: Seattle, West Seattle, Sea Town, Sea-Town, Business, Entrepreneur, Community, Neighborhood, Small Businesses, Local, Christian Harris, Fly Fishing, Angeler, Casting, Emeral Water Anglers, Patagonia, Photography, Karli Roland, Fishing, Rivers, Dave McCoy