Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Brent Blossom. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Brent, 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?

Helm & Oar was more than a good idea for me. It all started as a dream. A dream to build a brand that offered what the world most desperately needed: Hope.

I was lucky enough to spend my early 20’s traveling the world as a humanitarian aid. I’ve served in 11 countries and saw unreal beauty that you’d have to see to believe. But I also encountered the worlds most devastated regions with people dying of starvation, poor sanitation, violence and disease every single minute.

The lesson I learned was this:

Hopelessness is the worlds most devastating pandemic, but beauty, perspective and meaning was the cure.

To some, this may sound crazy and to others, just cheesy – but I truly believe that surrounding yourself with beauty is one of the best ways to combat hopelessness and depression. To wake up and see something on your wall that inspires you to ‘cease the day’ can be a powerful daily reminder that this incredible life is still worth living, exploring and beholding.

So that was the “Big Idea” around Helm & Oar.

The execution of this idea was more difficult that I could have ever imagined. At the time, I was an executive Creative Director for a marketing agency here in Orange County. I was a single dad, trying to be the best parent I could be while also sitting on the edge of my seat, wanting so badly to build something that provided my daughter and I with freedom to spend more time together and travel the world.

So in February of 2022, I started Helm & Oar LLC and opened a company bank account with $200. I came in burning with a passion to create a great company but had absolutely on clue on how. How should my website convey my product value and competitive advantages? Who would print, frame and ship my products? How much do things cost? How do I price? How do I build effective advertising campaigns in this super competitive industry? What kind of profit-margin is even possible given the high cost of goods and competitive pricing I’m seeing left and right?

I knew nothing on day 1. Well… nothing outside of what I pictured “arriving” would feel like – so i thought.

So as you could imagine, I stumbled into this trying desperately to answer (usually the hard way) every single one of those questions. I went through 7 different suppliers, all of which were terrible and costed me a small fortune and a great deal of my time and energy until I found the best supplier in the country to produce our products. I burned over $60,000 trying to figure out what ads and which audiences DON’T convert on facebook and instagram. I sent out the ugliest emails known to existence and upset numorous customers due to poor production, shipping and handling.

For the first 6 months of business, my only hope and tool for survival was to be INSANELY kind to our customers and take radical ownership of our mistakes as a new company. My first line of 80% of my customer email replies started off something like this…

“I am SO SORRY this happened! This is unacceptable and we are going to make this right for you, I promise…”

I learned that taking responsibility and empathizing with our customers can cover a multitude of sins. We still lost some customers but most were floored by that approach and were willing to work with us and allow us to build trust with them again, again and again.

Throughout this journey, the learning-curve was painful but necessary. I learned so many lessons that have paid dividends and I wouldn’t trade that for the world.

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

I was an Executive Creative Director for a large marketing firm in Laguna Beach, CA when I launched Helm & Oar. I was a candle buring at both ends and I knew that after 13 years in the business, my time was coming to an end. I had accomplished all that I had set out to as a CD from appearing on national TV shows and working with some of the largest brands on the planet like Facebook, Red Bull, Disney, Vitamin Shoppe, etc.

I was sitting at a cafe looking for new business ideas and I stumbled across an article by Shopify on “The 10 most profitable products to sell on Shopify” and ready-to-hang digital art was among them. As an artist myself, and someone who LOVES interior design, this was extremely intriguing to me to say the least. The idea of starting an art gallery began to consume my mind.

I started the gallery with about 100 stock images that I heavily edited to make “wall worthy” pieces and very quickly, other artists on Instagram took notice of me and asked to be a part of my gallery and platform. After a short time, Helm & Oar grew to host the incredible works of over 15 artists from all around the world.

We sell stunning works of art that come framed and ready to hang from photographers all over the world.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Helm & Oar holds a great reputation among artists, customers and even competitors largely because we have chosen to stay authentic to who we are and what we offer. I’ll give an example of a true story that took place just a few months into business. I received a DM from an artist who lived in Italy and was a prominent artist with the largest competitor in our space. She was furious to say the least. She told me that we stole one of her images and are now selling it on our website. She was referring to an image that one of our photographers took during his travels in Italy. The image was very similar to hers but certainly was not stolen. The image was of an ancient statue with the ocean in the background, an image that could’ve been and had been taken by thousands of tourists that took notice of it. However, knowing that she wouldn’t have been able to hold a candle in court, I still apologized profusely and took the image down from our site immediately.

Why? Because there are countless opportunities to take stunning images elsewhere and I knew that if I entered the space by frustrating artists and not empathizing with their hard work and subsequent point of view, word would get around and this company would fall flat on its face.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I grew up in a very poor home. I was one of five children born in a small barn in Cheribusco, Indiana. Nothing was easy as a kid. Over the course of my life, my perspective on hard work has stood the test of time. To this day, as cocky as it sounds, I have yet to find someone willing to work harder than me for what they want in this life. Nothing comes free, and there is no such thing as luck. A Windfall only happens to those who have gotten off their butts and positioned themselves underneath that tree with arms and hands wide open to receive.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.helmandoar.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/helmandoar/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/helmandoar/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/helm-oar/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@helmandoar