We recently connected with Tara Craven and have shared our conversation below.

Tara, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

I’m a mom of two little boys and I’ve grown up in Southern California. If you’re not familiar with the area, it has a strong Spanish influence, from the Spanish colonial architecture of San Clemente, to the historic landmark Mission in San Juan Capistrano, most of the street names are Spanish words and you’re likely to find a good Mexican restaurant in every shopping center. I wanted the name of my company to harness the influence of where I surf, where I grew up, my role as a Mother, and my appreciation for Mother Earth. When I think of the role of a Mother, I think of a compassionate, supporter and educator. I named my company Madre because Madre is the Spanish word for Mother. My product, eco surf wax, aims to show Mother Earth some compassion by being less harmful to the environment, it supports Mother Earth by being sustainable, and educates surfers of a way to be mindful in their consumption.

Tara, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My first job was as a life guard at Wild Rivers, then I started studying medical assisting and interned at our local trauma center in the radiology department at age 17. I study radiology and started working as a X-ray Tech shortly after high school and eventually dropped taking X-rays for assisting in skin cancer removal surgeries for a Dermatologist. When I became pregnant with my second son in 2018, my husband and I decided it would be best for me to leave my career, and become a full time stay at home mom. When I was 7 months pregnant my former employer called and asked if I’d be willing to help them at any capacity I was capable of. So, they created a special job for me to work in the office after hours, a few hours a week, processing tissue pathology, informing patients of their results and scheduling surgeries. It was a really sweet gig. A couple months after having my son, I went back to helping the office part time, after hours, for a few hours a week. I loved it. I felt valued at the office, felt good to contribute financially to my growing family, and it gave me a little break from being a mom. Then 2020 happened. Unfortunately, since I was the only part time person at the office, and they had to cut back on the amount of patients they were seeing every day. They had to let me go in order to offer the full time staff as many hours as they could. I understood, but simultaneously felt heart broken to lose my job. Not to mention, the pandemic impacted my husbands work and made our finances slim. I felt lost and without purpose for a bit. I fell back on Nutrition Coaching since I had a background in it, and was able to help a handful of one-on-one clients. But, I still felt down. My boys weren’t able to go to preschool/daycare at the time because of lock downs, so we spent our time walking the neighborhood and beach picking up trash. I felt like picking up trash was one way we could “be the difference we wish to see” in a world that felt out of our control. My boys loved doing it, and it even inspired some people in our neighborhood to do it too. I went surfing one day, noticed I needed some surf wax on my board, and wondered if floral surf was was a “thing.” To my surprise only 1 person was selling it, and it was an expensive designer product. As I started to dig a little deeper, I learned that roughly 90% of surf wax is made by about 3 companies, and they all use paraffin as their main ingredient. Paraffin is a petroleum byproduct. The process of producing this byproduct involves burning crude oil. It’s the very process that is held responsible as the #1 human made carbon emission and cause of air pollution. It was right then, when I learned this, that I decided I wanted to create something better. I told my husband, “I want to create a business selling floral eco surf wax. I wanted to buy some for my board and realized it doesn’t exist, so I want to create it.” He’s super supportive, and told me it was a great idea and I should pursue it. I got to work right away, and created a sustainable floral surf wax made from organic apricot tree sap, clay, coconut oil, and scented with organic plumeria essential oil. I choose plumeria because it’s the “tree of life.” I truly believe when we know better, we choose better. Every one of us has the ability to influence change with each small decision we make, and I believe even a small change from cheap paraffin based wax to eco sustainable plant based wax has the ability to heal this planet. Are you familiar with the butterfly effect? The idea is that if you go back in time, and make even a small change, it could have major consequences in the future. But, I think people forget that even the small choices you make today have the ability to have a major impact on the future. Switching to eco surf wax is such a small change. It’s not much more expensive, it works just as well as the brands we’re familiar with and has the ability to cause a butterfly effect of positive change for our planet and within the surfing industry to seek sustainability.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When I first started building my business I seeked advice from other entrepreneurs. I joined multiple Facebook groups and asked for feedback about my idea. Unfortunately, a lot of the feedback was negative. Most people told me surfers don’t care about sustainability, they only care about price and most surfers get wax for free, you’ll have to give away so much to even build your brand, and bottom line it’s just not profitable. I felt defeated before I even started, but I really felt God put this desire in my heart for a reason, regardless of profitability, so I persisted. I don’t have a background in sales, so when I first started reaching out to local surf shops I really struggled with imposter syndrome. Most of the time I got no response from them, but on the rare occasion that I did, they said they simply didn’t have room for my product, and that they could get the other surf waxes for cheaper. Price was more valuable than sustainability to them. I found it really odd to be honest. So many people who love and value the outdoors, the ocean and all its creatures, so many that worry about global warming, and yet, think a couple extra dollars for sustainable wax was “too much.” I just figured they weren’t my target audience, and persisted. Instead of continuing to feel constantly defeated with rejection, I decided to just surf. After all, I created this business because I love surfing. Every time I was in the line up, I made it a point to talk to someone new, and if they asked “what do you do for work?” Then I’d share my passion for eco surf wax with them. I built my brand one person at a time, direct to consumer. As I did that, I also connected with eco friendly brands and companies on Instagram. Eventually I got into 8 shops between Tijuana and Costa Mesa, and it’s still growing. The feedback I get from customers is heart warming, and honestly brings me to tears. It feels good to chase contribution to this planet as opposed to just another dollar, and the consumers that get that, give me hope.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Before I started my eco surf wax business I was doing virtual nutrition/accountability coaching. I had hired a business coach to help me and she taught me a few valuable skills for building an online presence. First, you want to think about your customer, who they follow and what they tag. This way you can find the right people to connect with. Since I love surfing, this was easy. For me, I followed individual surfers, I found people who tagged local surf breaks near me, and used hashtags related to surfing. Next, you want to connect with these individuals. I’d go through and like photos/videos they posted that I liked, and send them a message. If someone followed me, I’d follow them back. It’s all about connection. Not just building a “following.” I try to connect with local shops selling eco products, local board shapers, and boutique surf shops. I’m genuinely interested in getting to know people, because I might see them out in the line up, I might see them at a local event, and it’s wonderful to get to know people from different walks of life.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.madresurf.com
• Instagram: @madre.surf