We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Paul Clare a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

PAUL, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

There have been several projects in various areas inside and outside of business. It is hard to narrow down one. The one that stands out the most is being able to produce high-quality handmade and fair-trade wave riding products domestically in the USA for 30 years.

PAUL, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started out graduating high school in the 10th grade and moving directly into college, once I achieved 3 years of education there, I quickly got a job with a company that domestically made surf products in the USA that had a large focus on quality and customer service. I fit right into to help build up a large retail account base for them between the years 1991 to 1995.
From there I went out to start my brand
The Cartel Board Company.

After close to 3 decades in business and a total change of lifestyle in a very positive direction after a close call with my health, I took great effort and steps to redefine myself which soon led to rebranding Cartel to the logo we used to represent our brand from the beginning The Wreath Brand. After getting a clean bill of health and getting back into the swing of life in a very positive direction it was time to do the same and keep the best of what the business had accomplished and shed the rest of the past to move forward in a super positive upgraded approach for the upcoming 2025 season. The steps taken were very well received and we pushed it ahead of schedule late this year. My advice is for any business new or old if it feels right change when necessary, without losing the reasons you got started with it in the first place.

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

When you choose the proper treatment of workers and domestically made products with less of a focus on the profit margins you will be tested in every way imaginable. Survival of personal relationships while making mistakes in so many ways with business takes a huge toll on you as a person that only you can hold yourself responsible.

In business and in life building relationships that are based on gratitude for help but not feeling indebted for it is the only way you will truly find peace inside and outside the business world. When you run your own company, both are inevitably going to intermingle, and it is a very challenging way to live your life. The balance of it all can be very over-emotional a lot of the time.

You must take the approach that you cannot negotiate your Errors of the past with those close to you in life and business, but you can work on the future with them if you both want to work on it together anything is possible.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

This question is a tricky one there was one time it came very close to losing it all. The only solution as crazy as this sounds was to be willing to let it all go to save it. We are involved with some bad dealings legally not paying a photographer for the use of a photo we used in a print ad an old partner of mine did not make me aware of when I was purchasing his share of the company in 2000. in about 2007 I became aware of a judgment that had put a lien on the trademark which I Soley owned for about 7 years at that time, so it all came down on me. A $350.00 unpaid bill for the use of that photo was craftily turned into a copyright infringement case where a judgment for $250,000.00 was a fact of law we could not get out of. To understand this is to understand if you ever do business in Puerto Rico, they are a USA territory, and you can be sued there without knowing about it if they obtain a signature in any way like sending flowers to your house to serve you. That was what they did in this case after the first attempt go thrown out as a billing issue. We paid the bill they did not cash the check and then they reentered it as a copyright infringement case. My company then had to hire legal counsel in Puerto Rico. They negotiated a settlement. It took a few years we paid it out, but we had to threaten to just let them have our trademark and file for bankruptcy to get out of the judgment. They settled for a lesser amount when moved on from there getting our trademark re-instated and proceeded badly wounded but still had just enough to rebuild. In retrospect that was probably the time to rebrand the company, file for bankruptcy and stay way on top financially but the ego of the brand name and the desire not to lose the battle of the whole situation was a lesson learned that 16 years later makes rebranding a very rewarding moment in life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.wreathbrand.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wreathbranded/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6FQSogIjdI

Image Credits

Paul Clare