A few years back we did this fun interview with Sue at the businessinfoguide website. She just sent it to me as we didnt do social media much back in the day and I thought I would post it here....enjoy! What does your company do? CelebriDucks is the original creator of the first ever celebrity rubber ducks of the greatest icons of film, music, athletics, and history. We have produced CelebriDucks for the NBA, Major League Baseball, the NHL, NASCAR, NCAA collegiate mascots and also famous people such as Elvis Presley, Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe, Barack Obama, The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, James Dean, KISS, James Brown, The Blues Brothers, Mr. T, Shakespeare, and the world’s first ever 100% recycled “Green” duck. To date we have created over 200 different CelebriDucks and have pioneered a whole new collectible. Was there a specific turning point when you realized your business was moving to the next level? Yes, when the Philadelphia 76ers called and asked us to do an Allan Iverson duck. When it hit, we were all over national TV with the Yankees and other teams and companies calling us. I had to sell off my animation company and we became all ducks! What processes or procedures have you implemented that have helped grow your company? Everybody has equal say. We rule by consensus and listen to everyone’s point of view. I may own the whole company, but my employees would never know it! What is most rewarding about running your business? I love the creative, fun, playful aspect of it. Having a cool creative business is regenerative emotionally and inspires me daily. What challenges have you faced and how have you overcome them? A lady came to us from Australia wanting us to create ducks for the Australian Rugby Union. To make a long story short, we ended up taking too small a deposit plus allowing her to visit our factory. Big mistake. She was effectively trying to go behind our back and damage our relationships overseas. Plus she kind of pulled a blackmail stunt in that if we didn’t release the goods, she was not going to pay for them. It was very dramatic and and an amazing story. But in the end I learned a lot of good lessons. In fact, I do a lot of interviews in the media and I always tell every budding entrepreneur I meet that they should always know that you are never without options. Or to put it another way….so goes your mind goes the reality in front of you. I’m not talking psycho-babble mumbo jumbo. It’s just the way the universe is structured and it’s workings are as tangible as touching a table. It’s easy to think that when things aren’t working out the way you hoped that you can feel trapped. Believe in that and that’s pretty much the way things will unfold. But if you can see every misfortune or difficult moment as nothing more than another moment ripe with potential and realize that you always have something you can do. I don’t know why they don’t teach that in business school because to me it is at the heart of every successful business venture that had to overcome adversity. In the end, we left that factory and began to work with better people than we ever could have hoped for. It was quite amazing and I learned a lot of valuable lessons in terms of trusting people and in not letting myself feel trapped as I described above so that we could move on and become even that much more successful. If you were starting over today, what would you do differently? I think I would start with more A list licenses, and better factories. But you know you only learn what you don’t know when you start doing what it is at first that you do know. So we learned and grew. What advice do you have for other business owners? Keep your overhead low. Never stifle creativity. Surround yourself with people better than yourself. Always listen to everyone’s point of view. Build your brand, not your ego. It’s not about you and your name. It’s about your brand and how people emotionally relate to it. Have fun…life is too short… Please list any favorite books, tools or resources (software, website, etc.) you would recommend for others: The Inside Scoop – Ben and Jerry Pour Your Heart Into It – Howard Schultz Milton Hershey – One of a Kind – Castner What is something that people might be surprised to learn about you? I’m working on a music album. Is there anything else you would like to add? In the end, the key to happiness in any business to to recognize that no business is ultimately going to fulfill you..no amount of money will do that. So to really enjoy your business, it’s important to have a greater point of view relative to life altogether. Life, business is short…love, compassion, helping others, spirituality in whatever works for you…these have to a part of any human life to make the business part of life that more meaningful.
Posted on: Sat, 09 Nov 2013 23:21:35 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015