How I Changed Careers

“This job is so much fun, I look forward to Mondays!”

Craig Wole, President
CelebriDucks

What was your previous career?
I was the largest publisher in the country of advertising/animation artwork from television commercials having created the first ever animation art lines for Coca-Cola, Budweiser, M&M/Mars, Pillsbury, etc.

What was an average day like?
I would spend a lot of time going over designs with our artists and our printers for our new releases and also overseeing the accounts that would carry our lines.

What is your new career?
I make celebrity rubber ducks of the greatest icons of film, music, history, and athletics having created over 200 ducks and pioneered a whole new collectible.  We also have produced them for the NBA, Major League Baseball, the NHL, NASCAR, and NCAA College Mascots.

What is an average day like?
Just a lot of fun.  We’re always working on new projects doing custom work for professional sports teams or large companies.  Plus we’re always negotiating new deals to bring in new and unique characters into our line.

Why change?
I loved the animation business I was involved with.  But at the end of the day, I didn’t create the Coke Bears or the Bud Frogs, etc.  I think its common that many entrepreneurs want to create their own brand, their own characters and that’s the creative force that drives so many of us.

How did you make the leap?
Well, it was a bit scary.  I mean we had this whole other business and now we’re going to just be making ducks!….But I always intuited from day one that the concept was unique enough and given time would definitely find it’s market.

How did you fund your business?
Since the animation side of the business had done quite well, I had all the money to fund it without looking for outside capital.

Sillies thing about your former occupation?
It was amazing sometimes when we would be asked to make the silliest changes to our designs that actually made the final product less marketable!  Fortunately this did not happen often as people began to trust our expertise in how to do this process and in knowing what people wanted.

Misconceptions about what you do now?
A common question I always get is:  “You just make ducks?…you can make a living doing this?”…well, yeah!…if you make some of the finest ducks in the world and are the only ones in your niche producing them for celebrities, collegiate mascots, Fortune 500 companies, etc.,  you can easily become a millionaire doing it.

How do you stay motivated?
This job is so much fun, I look forward to Mondays!  We’re always working on a very fun and exciting project, always coming up with new products, and people are always contacting us to see what we can do for them.  I work with a great team of people who are bright and creative and together we have so much fun, it’s no problem whatsoever staying motivated.

Blues Brothers

How do you deal with jealousy?
If you’re wasting time being jealous, it means your stuck in feeling trapped.  Once you recognize that you have the means to create your own destiny that everything becomes an opportunity, not an obstacle.   Rather than wasting time being jealous, find a way to create something different or better!

How have you dealt with failure as an entrepreneur?
Failure has created all my success. When I didn’t land the rights to market the Simpson’s artwork, I detoured into commercial animation art which no-one was doing.  When one of the first factories we were working with began to act unethically and they, with a shady client, took us for over $15,000, it led to us finding a new factory with some of the best people possible who we work with to this day.  It never would have happened without that misfortune.  Misfortune creates opportunities….never forget that.  I’ll give you another amazing story about that:
One day we contacted Hershey about doing a Hershey Kiss rubber duck.  It was so cute.  This little yellow duck popping out of foil and holding Hershey Kisses.  Everyone there loved it, the head of licensing, the buyer for all the Hershey stores in Hershey, Times Square, Chicago, etc.  It seemed like a home run.  At the last minute, the brand manager for Kisses didn’t give his final approval.  Seems he didn’t quite understand the rubber duck concept.  It just seemed so bizarre as everyone really loved it.  Anyway,  I interpreted all of this as a sign that rather than accept defeat, we should instead do our own chocolate themed rubber duck and our own line of chocolates….thus Cocoa Canard was born.  Canard is French for duck!

So we then we developed this line of hand-crafted real Belgian duck chocolates to go with it.  We designed the box of the duck and chocolate to look like a French chocolate shop.  And we came up with the idea that people could send Canard Grams to people they love of a gift of the Cocoa Canard rubber duck, the chocolates, and personalized note.  We contracted out with another warehouse in the Midwest so we could ship chocolate in a reasonable amount of time to most areas of the country.  You can see the program at www.CocoaCanard.com.

And then we thought, hey, wouldn’t it be cool if people could do the same concept, but at the same time do something that was environmentally really unique.  Thus Green Grams was born, a program to send the first ever totally recycled “green” duck along with a personalized note and our new green soap to anyone anywhere.  Oddly, all of a sudden based on Hershey not moving forward, we had a whole new division of our company which has been more fun than you can imagine.  We found this lady, Grandma Howes, in Kentucky who made these fantastic hand-made soaps.  She agreed (after a lot of gentle persuasion!) to make a green bar for us for our Canard Vert soap.  What she does is so unique as the soap has a wonderful effect on any type of skin type and the smell is amazing.   You can see all that at www.GreenGram.net.  We also plan to extend the green line over time and are even starting a new division to do Green Regattas to put an ecological twist on the traditional rubbery ducky races.  So you see, you just never know…which is why I say every failure is an opportunity.

James Brown

What would you say to those who believe they need a formal education to change careers?
Well, I was an English Religion Major in College.  I never took a business course in my life.  I can hardly read a profit and loss statement.  When you feel a passion for doing something, trust me, you’ll draw in the people around you to provide the expertise for areas you are weak in.  But bottom line, your passion and energy will drive the business more than having a traditional business background.  I always say that you should read the stories of the people who created such amazing brands like Milton Hershey, Ben & Jerry, etc….it was their vision that made it all work!

If you could share 1 brief nugget of wisdom, what would it be?
You are never without options.  Never forget that.  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…then the energy gets freed up…things happen, orders arrive, people call, etc…so never let your mind go into a space where you feel trapped.  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.

Any resources or links that you think would be helpful to others looking to change careers?
You know someone did an interview with me and I think when this book comes out it will be of tremendous use to people.  The working title right now is How to Make a Million in your PJ’s…hopefully out in 2010.  Apart from that I say read the stories of the individuals who had to overcome tremendous difficulties and failures to create their brands.  The only business books I read are stories…stories about people…their hopes and dreams and how they made them a reality against all odds.  Read enough books like that and you’ll feel you can do anything.

How can we learn more about your business?
People are always welcome to contact us by writing to info@celebriducks.com.  They can visit our website at www.CelebriDucks.com and also our new sites I mentioned such as www.CocoaCanard.com and www.GreenGram.net.   Our phone number is 415-456-3452.  Who knows, maybe our next custom duck we do will be for one of your readers!