June 24, 2025 • 37 mins
I met John Clapham or "JC" in Raglan, New Zealand last year when I walked into his shop hoping they weren’t yet closing and said while huffing from my brisk walk, “What time do you close?”
He responded with a smile, “depends on whose asking…LOL."
And from there, we ended up chatting for about half an hour.
I left thinking, I want to hear more of this guy’s story.
JC didn’t go to college and worked his way up from tagging surf leashes in a retail shop to becoming CEO of Volcom Australia. He is the co-founder of the Raglan Surf Emporium, is a partner of Raglan Roast Coffee - which now has eleven locations across New Zealand - owns a gas station, holds major real estate investments, and continues to consult and build new ventures.
In today’s episode, we only scratch the surface of JC’s journey.
But wow - what an inspiration.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to how I Built my Small Business.
I'm Anne McGinty, your host.
Today's guest is John Clapham,or JC, and I met him in Raglan,
new Zealand, last year when Iwalked into his shop hoping they
weren't yet closing and said,while huffing from my brisk walk
what time do you close?
He responded with a smiledepends on who's asking and from
(00:30):
there we ended up chatting forabout half an hour.
I left thinking I want to hearmore of this guy's story.
Jc didn't go to college andworked his way up from tagging
surf leashes in a retail shop tobecoming CEO of Volcom
Australia, new Zealand.
He is the co-founder of theRaglan Surf Emporium, is a
(00:53):
partner of Raglan Roast Coffee,which now has 11 locations
across New Zealand, owns a gasstation, holds major real estate
investments and continues toconsult and build new ventures.
In today's episode, we onlyscratch the surface of JC's
journey, but wow, what aninspiration.
(01:15):
If you've been tuning in, youknow this show isn't about
selling anything.
It's about sharing meaningfulstories and learning along the
way.
If how I built my smallbusiness has brought you any
insight, inspiration or evenjust a spark of curiosity, there
(01:36):
are a few simple ways you cansupport the journey.
Follow the show, share yourfavorite episode with a friend
or leave a quick review.
Each one truly helps me growthis show.
Thank you, let's get started.
Can you start out by giving usa bit of your backstory on what
(02:00):
you were doing before youstarted the Raglan Surf Emporium
?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, so 91, I was living in New Zealand well,
obviously originally from NewZealand and I had a mate in
Australia that offered me a jobworking in surf retail in Aloha
Surf, manly in 91.
And I'd actually just split upwith my girlfriend of the time
so I was like, yep, let's go.
So I went.
He offered me a job on a Mondayand I think I was in australia
(02:30):
the following monday andexpected to have a bit of a
holiday, but just he put mestraight upstairs pricing leg
ropes and it all went from there.
So jumped into the surf retailfor a couple of years and then
met a few people through thatand actually met the guy, wes
fab, who had gone to america.
He had the distributions forburden and it also found this
new brand called Volcom.
So he came back and asked if Iwas interested in getting
involved with him in that and Iwas like, yep, no worries.
(02:51):
So I was working five days aweek in the surf shop and then
on the two days off we'd go outand try and make clothing.
We had this new brand calledVolcom.
Everyone didn't really knowwhat it was and we just sort of
learned as we went along.
You know, we were the firstdistributor or licensee outside
of America.
The US dollar was super strongback then.
So you know we imported somecaps and then we started
(03:13):
manufacturing in Australia Againdidn't really know what we were
doing.
So we had some friends thatwere patent makers.
They made patents for us.
We'd go buy the fabric, take itto the cutters, they'd cut it,
take it to the makers that makeit.
Then we'd go to the dye house,we'd go get the buttons put on,
we'd get them pressed and thenbring them back home, put all
the labels on and then, you know, we'd also be selling it,
(03:35):
shipping it out and then chasingup the accounts and following
up getting paid in 60 to 90 days.
It was really interesting times.
You know, like I said before,we just learned on the fly and
everyone that we worked with youknow they could see that.
You know we jumped in the deepend and we're trying to swim to
the other side and just reallyhelped us.
It was really exciting.
(03:55):
It was, you know, learning onyour feet.
Neither of us had much to dowith apparel in the past.
I'd been a sponsored surferback in the day, so I kind of
knew from a marketing side ofthings, what surfers and skaters
and snowboarders wanted.
And then, yeah, so we just wentfrom there, you know, made a
lot of mistakes on the way.
Our house had our two bedrooms,which were our warehouse.
There was boxes in the hallway.
(04:16):
The lounge room was our teamroom.
So we had the likes of Terry AHarkinson, bruce Ines, andy Ines
even though he wasn't ridingfor us, dustin Dolan all guys
like that staying in our house.
We had all our patterns in ourkitchen.
Our actual warehouse also wasunder our kitchen table.
So the first time we signed upAussie Ride, I remember giving
(04:36):
him product from underneath ourkitchen table.
And then we had a small officeas well.
We had another guy that wasliving with us.
That was a really good chef.
So, you know, I think my taxreturn for that first year was
$5,000.
Yeah, we just lived, you know,we lived and breathed it and we
made all our own point of saleout the back in the garage and,
(04:57):
yeah, it was amazing times, itwas really cool.
And then we finally got awarehouse and then we started
employing some local kids thatwill, you know, were working in
the warehouse, or athletes, teamriders that ended up working in
our marketing department, thelikes of Joel Spillane, you know
, peanut Teddy Nassif came andworked in our warehouse and went
into sales.
(05:18):
Just young guys that believedin the dream that we believed in
and I think anyone that said no, we just wanted to prove them
wrong and we just kept going.
So we just continuously hiredmore and more people and then
built up the business, continuedto build our athletes, grow the
business, and then the USbrought it back in 2011 and I
moved back home.
(05:38):
So it was shy of 20 years ofbeing in Australia then.
So, yeah, came home and youknow, just sort of reset.
You know, selling the businesswas really, really hard.
The due diligence you had to dowas insane.
We had the license forAustralia and New Zealand and we
sold that back to the US in2011.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Wow, what an incredible journey.
So when you got back to NewZealand, when did you decide to
open the Raglan Surf Emporium?
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Well, yeah, we came back in 2011 and didn't really
have.
You know, it was just a reset,bring the kids back to New
Zealand.
And we've been buying propertysince 2000 in Raglan with one of
my mentors and good friends,tony Bruce.
He actually was a shareholderin Volcom.
So when I came back, I actually, within the first couple of
(06:29):
months, bought into the brandRaglan Roast, so I bought a
shareholding in that and thenTony had a surf shop called Gag
and we had our offices forVolcom in Raglan and all our
samples and any returns oranything like that would go into
the store and it was just morelike a Volcom outlet store.
So Melissa, my wife and I tookthat store on in 2012 and
(06:52):
basically jumped in there, gaveit a good cleanup and, yeah, the
rest is history.
Mel, really, she runs thatstore.
She does an amazing job.
She's built that business up toCorsair store.
The Raglan Surf Emporium is abig part of our business and
Raglan's a destination.
So you know that was a greatopportunity for us to get into
(07:13):
something a little bit easierthan wholesale.
And in saying that, you knowyou've got to give it your all.
You've got to give it 110%.
It's a big part of our life now.
So we jumped in there again,had a lot of knowledge from
running businesses back inAustralia and having 70 staff,
so it was a little bit easy tocome back into that and run one
(07:33):
store, one shop front.
We did a collab with Rip Curland opened a Rip Curl store in
Raglan.
For a couple of years we had alittle outlet store as well, but
we've now concentrated just onthe Raglan Surf Emporium store.
I think an important part of oursurf emporium was building a
good surf team and we built alot of young surf team riders
that have done really well andactually a big part that I
(07:56):
concentrated on was life aftersurfing or what are you going to
do after you've finishedcompeting.
And all our older team ridersnow are all either qualified
builders, electricians, one's anurse, my son's third year at
law and we've got another one ofour team riders down at uni and
otago.
So they're all doing reallywell and I think that's super
(08:17):
important that the surf industryhas shrunken, especially for
athletes, and and the moneyavailable and the prize money in
New Zealand, let alone inAustralia as well, it's getting
really tight.
Money for athletes is shrinking.
They might make a couple ofhundred grand.
Some of them are probably on 50or 60, to be honest, it's
(08:41):
definitely shrunk compared tothe money we were paying our
athletes back in the 90s and theearly 2000s.
You've got to be the best of thebest to really be able to
achieve your goals and be ableto afford all the Challenger
Series and stuff like that toactually get onto the CT.
You know there's a real strongsurfing community.
There's a super strong skatecommunity.
There's some amazing athleteshere.
There's no two ways about it.
It's just the funding or themarketing dollars is just
(09:05):
non-existent.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Yeah.
So going back to the RaglanSurf Emporium, what is it like
running that business?
Is it seasonal?
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yeah, it's very seasonal, that's sort of October
until March, april, and thenyou'd batten down the hatches
and get through winter.
You come Christmas, boxing Day,you go from 5,000 to 30,000
people for two weeks.
I think that's when you were inthe store.
Melissa is running thatbusiness on a day-to-day and
she's running it like a Swisswatch.
It's well fine-tuned.
(09:36):
My strengths are probably theproduct side, obviously, coming
from Volcom and building productfrom scratch.
So we're constantly updatingour branding of our surf
emporium product and adding newcategories.
In all the time we have built areally good team and each day
you want everyone to get up andgo.
Hey, yeah, I'm excited to go towork, not I've got to go to
work.
So we try to build a reallygood vibe within the store.
(09:58):
And I think the most importantthing that we've, you know,
learned especially working inaust Australia, it was customer
service and that's second tonone and we pride ourselves on
that and you know all our staffhave got amazing customer
service.
So that does really help in thewhole scheme of the Raglan Surf
Emporium brand.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
I've noticed this in New Zealand in general, just in
comparison to America and thisis not to knock any of my
American friends who ownbusinesses here but the customer
service in New Zealand just itfeels amazing, I don't know what
to call it like more authentic.
It feels like you'll walk intoa store and chances of the owner
being in the store is actuallyquite high.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Yeah, totally.
I think that's super important.
Back in the day there used tobe a sports store on every
corner of every town and nowthere's just big branded surf
stores like Rebel or Nike andstuff like that.
And it's the same with the surfindustry the mums and pop
stores are getting gobbled up bythe majors.
And it's the same with the surfindustry the mums and pop
stores are getting gobbled up bythe majors and that's going to
happen.
There's a lot of stores thatguys have started and their kids
(10:58):
aren't even interested intaking them over and running
them, so they're either gettingbought out or they're shutting
down.
Unless you're in there and youown it, there's no buy-in
sometimes and some people are insome of those stores just to
get paid.
It's a job and we're trying tomake, especially in our store.
It's a career and I thinkthat's super important.
(11:19):
And then that's buy-in and thenthat that gives you better
customer service.
I just enjoy talking to peopleas well, the amount of finding
out, especially if you hear anaccent hey, where you from?
What are you up to?
And nine times out of ten, ifthey're from Hawaii or
California, I'll know someone.
Or from Australia, especiallyin the surf industry.
We all know someone as a friendor we've worked with them.
(11:39):
So it's totally different fromrunning a $30 million company
coming back down to a retailstore nine to five selling
blocks of wax and t-shirts andI've got other projects on, but
that's a fun one just to get inand talk to people and find out
what's going on.
90% of the people that walkthrough that door are on holiday
, so they're excited, they'reall pumped up and they want to
(11:59):
have a chat and all our staff ishey, you know, go around and
get a coffee at Raglan Roast andpeople are looking at you going
.
Man, I've just walked into yourstore and now telling me to
leave it.
But they go around, have thatcoffee and guarantee it.
You know, nine times out of ten, ten times out of ten, they'll
come back and go.
That's the best coffee I'veever had and I'll go right, go,
grab one, take it back to thewife, give her the coffee.
It's going to be the bestcoffee ever and you're going to
(12:21):
be allowed to go surfing everyday, you know, just generally
welcoming everyone and having agood time and talking to them.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
And I'm not in the store that much but, like when I
am, just try to talk to as manypeople as possible and see
what's going on.
And you know we certainly didthat when I walked in, when you
were working running Volcom inAustralia.
What do you think you learnedthe most from that that you were
able to take over into runningthis?
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Most of all was having a good team around you,
and I think Richard Wolcott, oneof the founders of Volcom, told
me you know, surround yourselfwith good people, people that
are going to be better than youare and you're going to learn
from them.
At one stage we had a CFO fromthe Tofen Group in Eastern
Europe.
The business he was working forwe had turned over a billion
dollars.
We had an ex-sales manager fromBillabong.
(13:09):
You know, I just had reallygood people around me and I just
learned so much from them.
And then, the best part of allis when we did sell out to the
USA, Dougal Walker came in who'sex-Billabong guy and I got to
spend six months in a transitionperiod with him when he took
over as CEO of Volcom Australiaand the stuff I learned off him
(13:30):
was second to none and he wasamazing and he taught me so, so
much, even though I was on myway out.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
What did he teach you ?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Just about business and you know just how to look at
things and pumped my tyres up abit as well and said I'd done a
great job.
And you need to hear that.
You want to hear praise fromother people of what you're
doing and sometimes it's hardwhen you know you're at the top
or you're at the CEO.
Back when I was there, you werecompeting against everyone.
You're competing against theHurleys and the Billabongs and
the Quicksilvers and the RipCurls and Dougal.
(14:01):
Yeah, it was a great six monthswith them.
So taking that and coming to theSurf Emporium was just about
the product.
It was about customer service,which we'd seen from a sales
point of view.
You know we dealt with some ofthe smartest retailers in
australia.
You know chris athos had ownsuffixion I had.
You know I was really close tohim and he taught me a lot.
(14:23):
And then even working in alohasurf with tim hanrahan and just
his customer service ofwelcoming people in and just
basically making them feel athome and being excited to be in
the store.
So it was really, yeah, justthe customer service and then
just knowing the product that weneeded to put into our store
and definitely for the RaglanSerf Emporium brand to create
(14:45):
that from scratch and build thatup to what it is.
And you know, you travel aroundthe world and you see the
t-shirts on people and you'relike, wow, that's really
exciting.
And nine times out of tenyou've touched that T-shirt.
You've actually had to tag itor whatever.
So that brought back earlymemories of Vulcan, when we had
our warehouse within our unitand you know we'd touch the
(15:06):
product from start to finish andthen it would go out.
So that's always been somethingthat we've already really
enjoyed and it was just comingback and resetting and being a
single store door versus runninga $30 million plus company is
day and night.
But there is a lot of thingsthat are similar, just on a
smaller scale.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Do you miss the Volcom days?
Speaker 2 (15:29):
I miss the Volcom days.
I miss, yeah, just thecamaraderie and the team.
I was lucky enough and beenlucky enough to go and consult
with the Mad Hooies in thoughtsand energy that you used to have
back in the day, so that wasgreat and, yeah, I definitely do
(15:56):
miss it, but we've got it.
Like I said, we've got a greatteam now in the surf emporium
and, yeah, it's just on asmaller scale now that you know.
Now it's about different things, you know, like family and the
boys are growing up now butthey've become good mates,
they've gone from you, you know,our sons, to become good
friends, which is superimportant.
Working on my health freakingknees, I've had two hip
(16:17):
resurfaces and then I sort ofhad a tear on my meniscus so
lots of saunas and ice baths andstretching and I've actually
just got involved with a local,johnny Rickard.
His dojo is called the Refineryand he does a lot of training
there.
So I've been doing sometraining with him and actually
helping him on the size, withhis business and making sure
(16:38):
that you know he's got a goodbusiness plan and we're actually
coming together and doing thecollab and working with a lot of
our athletes.
So that's super exciting aswell, and I've really enjoyed
that.
So, yeah, it's definitely adifferent stage in our lives
right now.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Yeah, it's the same for us.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
We've been focusing on health and wellness and
fitness and just staying healthyWell yeah, staying healthy,
eating healthy, not drinking asmany beers as you meant to, not
that you meant to, that I havebeen, yeah, but that wellness is
a big, it's massive.
You know it wasn't there when Iwas running Volcom.
It was if you had issues, youkept it to yourselves.
So it's unreal.
You know it wasn't there when Iwas running vulcan, it was if
you had issues, you kept it toyourselves.
So it's it's unreal to seeeveryone's coming out and and
(17:17):
talking about mental health andtrying to fix it.
And that's something thatjohnny and I have touched on in
the refinery.
And again, you know, workingwith our athletes and making
sure that there's life aftersurfing.
They can still be the best outthere in the points and sit in
the lineup at Marmibay.
But it's also an important ofwhat are you going to do if you
don't make it in competitivesurfing.
(17:38):
You know how long can youafford it?
That's the hardest thing is allthat travel and competing and
entry fees and accommodation andcar hire and stuff like that
and those marketing dollars aredefinitely shrinking.
There's no two ways about it.
We're all aware of it.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
There is that mental side that you mentioned.
It's sort of similar to someonewho is trying to become a
famous musician or like make itbig in Hollywood.
And they hit these incrediblemilestones, like what Billy made
it to the Olympics.
I think I saw a post on hisInstagram and he was talking
about the letdown after theOlympics, like how mental it got
(18:17):
.
Oh, definitely.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
You got 20 minutes, catch the two best waves, or
sometimes even 15 minutes, andthat ocean.
You've got to be in sync withit.
There's so many differentthings going on.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
So many variables.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
So many variables and some of the best get knocked
out in the first round and someof the not so best can make it
to the final.
Sometimes it's pretty crazy.
It's a really hard sport andagain, with the refinery, we've
done a Ledge of the Ledge, whichis a contest that's running up
until the end of August wherewe're basically the best barrel.
At Manu Bay.
We're giving away $2,000 formen's, $2,000 for women's and
(18:54):
then $1,000 for under-20s, andit's free to enter.
All you've got to do is getyour video of you in that barrel
and post it to our Instagramaccounts and there's $5,000 in
prize money.
Plus we're giving $250 perfilmer that films the video of
the barrel.
So again, that's something justtrying to give back and
(19:20):
hopefully that money is going tohelp the kids that do win those
contests go and compete inother contests.
That's been really good for usto give back there and that way
as well, and free.
So you know the kids are outthere.
There's a surf academy here inRaglan and I had one of the
teachers the other day.
It's like man, when we dodrills now half the kids just
sit out the back waiting for awave to get barreled on.
Sorry, it was pretty classicwhen they said that.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
But that's a pretty cool competition that you set up
.
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Chrissy Malone, our surf team manager, came up with
it.
We were talking about we needto have a barrel comp at the
ledge and there was a contestlast year that ran and leading
up to it was pumping, there wasinsane waves and all the local
kids were looking really good.
Day of the contest it was overthe weekend, I think.
The first couple of days wasquite small and a lot of the
kids that we thought local kidsfrom here that were going to get
(20:02):
through and be in the finalsgot knocked out and then the
swell jacked up to what wouldhave been perfect for them but
they were already out of thecomp.
So we came up, you know, afterthat went.
Hey, you know, like you talkedabout that barrel contest, why
don't we run it over a period oftime?
This is its second year now.
We ran it last year but we onlyran it for a couple of months.
This year we're running it forfive to six months.
Another mate of mine, stewie,came up with the name Ledge of
(20:25):
the Ledge and we just went fromthere Calling on my contacts in
Australia.
We've got Tommy Carroll, ronnieand Vaughan Blakey that are
commentators on the WSL, mattBenrose, who is the
international team manager forVolcom and Chrissie Malone.
They're all judges and that'sjust calling in a favour on
friends.
So, yeah, we've run itgrassroots and kept it pretty
(20:47):
low key, but we want to continueto grow that and make it bigger
and bigger.
And I think the most importantthing, it's free.
Anyone can enter.
Hopefully the kids that do wincan then use that to help them
compete in contests or at leastgo on a surf trip to Bali that
you know, money that they neverhad before.
So that's the concept behindthat.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Who is doing all of the designs that you guys have?
Because I'm pretty sure that myfamily walked out with at least
a sweatshirt or a t-shirt each,because your designs are quite
cool.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Yeah, again, we've got a number of artists that
work with us local guys.
We've got Anaru, who's anex-TNC graphic artist.
He's done a lot of stuff for usthere.
Jamie Brown, who is anex-Vulcan graphic artist.
He did that original logo thatyou're wearing there.
And then we've got, you know, atown one.
We just build it as we go alongand just depends on what artist
(21:40):
is available.
You know, when we're travellingaround the world, if we're
going snowboarding or we'regoing to Hawaii, we definitely
look for inspiration withinthose areas there especially.
You know, I've just been toAustralia last week, so going
through all the retail andsussing out what's going on, and
, you know, front embroideredprints or stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
There's a lot of trends that you can follow as
well with your brand and that'sa nice little perk to be able to
turn a leisure trip into abusiness trip.
So you've been in the surfskateindustry for so long.
Do you see any gaps in themarketplace?
Speaker 2 (22:15):
I think there's great opportunity for the smaller
brands now, and I think gone arethe big days of two $300
million companies, I thinkcompanies sitting just under
that 20 mil mark.
There's a lot of opportunity.
You can be profitable.
You can go to bed at night andsleep, you know.
I think that's the mostimportant thing.
There's nothing worse thangoing oh my God, are we going to
pull this off?
You know, I've been there, donethat and it's not good.
(22:37):
It's not good for your mentalhealth, like we spoke about
before.
The big guys are sortingthemselves out right now with
Billabong, volcom, you know, allbeing under the same umbrella.
I think they've got some MadHuys, small brands like that.
There's a lot of opportunity inthe marketplace right now.
(22:58):
Online is definitely the way tostart a brand right now, versus
bricks and mortar.
But there is opportunity outthere and I think a lot of the
retailers want some fresh andnew alongside of the majors that
build the industry.
There wouldn't be an industrywithout them, so we need them.
But there is opportunity fornew brands, definitely.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
You mentioned sleepless nights, yep.
What have been the hardestmoments in business.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
The hardest moments in business is probably that
recession in 2008 when we had tolay off 20-plus staff in a day.
You know, we just had to makecuts to make the business
survive and that was the hardestday for me, definitely, you
know, again, the company waslike family, the staff were like
(23:45):
family.
It was really hard to leteveryone go and then some harder
than others sales were goingdown.
We had to be profitable.
That was definitely, you know,something I probably wouldn't
wish on.
My worst enemy got through itin the end, but I was lucky with
Mel Mel being super strong andwe just had we had a young
family.
She was like look, I'll lookafter the boys, you just deal
(24:05):
with this and just fight andscratch our way through it and
got it back up to be profitableagain and sold the license back
to the USA and came back home.
So, yeah, that's the hardestthing is any business budget.
You've got to do your budgetand you've got to do it on the
worst-case scenario.
You've got to have all thosewhat-ifs.
When I was consulting for theMad Whois and Stacey, it was
looking at everything and a lotof people are blue sky oh, we're
(24:29):
going to get 20% growth andda-da-da-da-da and you've got to
go.
Well, what if?
Budget for the worst-casescenario and everything else is
cream the numbers don't lieConstantly going back to your
budgets and looking at them,updating them, working on cash
flows and stuff like that, andthat there will help you enjoy
business a bit more like that,and that there will help you
(24:50):
enjoy business a bit more ifyou're just like, oh no, I'm
gonna kill this, this is gonnabe unreal, we're on, you're
gonna be up against the wallbefore you know it.
So I think, yeah, that's superimportant is knowing your
numbers, budgeting worst casescenario and then everything
else is cream on top of that.
And then you know you can goback and readjust them every
quarter or every month if youwant.
But you've seen people do itand sometimes it does, but nine
(25:10):
times out of 10, it won't.
And you just got to be reallyprepared for the worst case
scenario and then just work fromthere.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Yeah, prepared and also know when to cut your
losses.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Oh, that's a hard one Cutting your losses.
But what if?
What if we keep going?
It's just, it's going to turn.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
What other advice would you give to young people
today?
Speaker 2 (25:36):
especially aspiring entrepreneurs.
You know schooling nowadays istotally different and I think
you know if kids aren't into it,get out but go and do an
apprenticeship.
You know surrounding yourselfwith the right people, having a
clear idea of what you want todo and setting out and doing
that and making sure that you'reenjoying it along the way.
I think you know if you'regoing to build a company and
(25:56):
you've got people coming in, youwant them to want to work for
you and go to war for you andstand next to you and believe in
you and follow you and I thinkthat's a super important thing
is being a good listener andleading your team in the right
direction.
You surround yourself withpeople that are going to
strengthen your weaknesses.
Like I said before, a CFO, likeI, knew marketing and we knew
(26:20):
product, but we know we've gotgood CFO and we've got a good
sales manager and goodproduction people and so they're
just strengthening what youalready know.
Don't ever think that you knowyou know everything and everyone
should be listening to you.
Like, be open-minded and bringpeople in that are going to
challenge you and make you stepup to the plate.
I think that's the mostimportant thing in business is
(26:42):
having good people that aregoing to challenge you on a
day-to-day basis and bring thebest out of you challenge you on
a day-to-day basis and bringthe best out of you.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
So, looking back at your career and just the last 20
odd years or so, what is itthat you're the most proud of,
like what is success to you?
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Um, success to me is, you know, I didn't have a
degree, I didn't go touniversity and just giving a
chance and proving ourselvesthat we could do it and that we
built this brand and we builtall these people.
We gave people jobs andopportunities that are now in
the surf industry and otherareas, started up their own
brands, just having a go andbeing able to bring along a lot
(27:20):
of people with us that haveremained in the surf industry,
as bad as it sounds.
Meeting my wife in the surfindustry was really exciting and
she was the Burton brandmanager for 10 years, so that's
how we met.
To still work with her today.
That in itself, you know, to bemarried to someone and be in a
business partner with them isreal challenging.
And then you know, lifetimefriends is a big thing for me as
(27:43):
well, and a lot of those guysthat I have worked with in the
past were still good friends,and a lot of them guys that I
have worked with in the pastwe're still good friends, and a
lot of them it's just you pickup where you left off.
You know it was just likeyesterday.
You might see them for a coupleof years and it's just back and
as simple as they are, that'sthe things that sort of mean the
most to me.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
Yeah, I too feel like that's all that really matters,
and I feel like some peopleunderstand that earlier than
others.
I definitely didn't feel thatway in my twenties.
So just as a final question ifyou could go back and talk with
yourself when you were in yourearly twenties, what would you
say?
Speaker 2 (28:20):
What are you doing?
Just believe in yourself.
Look everyone in the eye, speakto everyone, say you, did you,
say hello and just from abusiness point of view, the
numbers don't lie.
Just, you know, be looking atthose budgets.
You've got to look at theworst-case scenario and then
everything after that is creamand probably slow down a bit
more and enjoy it.
(28:41):
You know there's no finish line.
It's just.
You know it's a marathon, not arace, and I feel a lot of
people are racing to getsomewhere but they never get
there.
If I could have my time again,spend more time with my family
and, you know, enjoy them more,instead of just going to work
the whole time and just doingthis for them and then we now
(29:02):
sit here.
You know they're 20 and 23 andthey're off doing their own
things, but I'm good friendswith them.
So, yeah, probably the mostimportant thing would be like
remember to breathe, like enjoywhat you're doing, but also
spend more time with the familyand take it all in.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
JC, it's been so good to catch up again and to see
you.
I hope to see you again whenwe're in New Zealand next.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Yeah, or vice versa.
When we're over there, we'llcome and see you, I hope to see
you again when we're in NewZealand next yeah, or vice versa
when?
Speaker 1 (29:34):
we're over there, we'll come and see you.
Yeah, please, yeah.
Today's key takeaways whenopportunity presents, jump at it
and give it 110%.
A willingness to learn andadapt is often more valuable
than formal credentials.
Sometimes the next big thingisn't happening in your backyard
(29:55):
.
Look outside your industry andoutside your country.
What's trending in a surf shopin Australia might spark an idea
for your cafe in California.
If you happen to discover a newbrand or idea, there could be
opportunity.
Stay curious about how othersare innovating and broaden your
(30:16):
perspective.
You never know who you may meetwhen you put yourself in places
where you interact with peopleon a daily basis.
Look people in the eye, begenuine and build lasting
relationships with people youinteract with throughout your
career and life.
These relationships can lead tofurther opportunities or
(30:36):
collaborations, but, mostimportantly, to lifelong
friendships.
Surround yourself with peoplewho are going to strengthen your
weaknesses and challenge youand bring the best out of you.
Lean on your network, yourmentors and team to help fill in
the knowledge gaps along theway.
Great leaders don't have all theanswers, but they can build
(30:59):
teams that do.
Being a good leader meanshaving a team that wants to work
for you and that believes inyou.
Be a good listener and pump upothers' tires along the way.
Create a culture where peopleare excited to come to work, not
feeling like they have to go towork.
Ideally, you want buy-in fromyour team, not for them to just
(31:22):
look at what they're doingbecause it's a job just to get
paid, but if you approach yourteam from the mindset of trying
to make it a career for them,you're more likely to get buy-in
.
And if your team is excited togo to work, it will show in
their customer service, andcustomer service is so important
(31:43):
.
After the call, jc mentionedhow, on a recent trip to
Australia, he walked into a surfshop and one staff member was
looking at videos on YouTube andanother was behind the register
looking down.
Nobody greeted him, which wasshocking to him.
On a customer service level,you have to make your customers
feel at home.
It's often the little thingsthe eye contact, conversation,
(32:07):
asking questions that convertsomeone from a browser into a
loyal customer.
Community engagement can drivebrand growth.
A creative youth competitionwith a fun prize isn't just
marketing, it's culture building.
Tie it to social media, involvelocal judges and let your brand
become a meaningful part ofyour community.
(32:30):
Know your numbers.
The numbers don't lie.
Always understand your cashflow, profit and loss and worst
case scenario.
Anything above that worst casescenario is cream.
But make sure to work out thosewhat-ifs.
Believe in yourself.
If school isn't for you, that'sokay, but that means you've got
(32:52):
to start working and learningin the real world.
And lastly, slow down a bitmore and enjoy the journey.
There is no finish line.
It's a marathon, not a race.
People seem to be racingsomewhere, but there isn't a
finish line.
Spend more time with yourfamily, if you can, and remember
(33:13):
to breathe and enjoy whatyou're doing.
That's it for today.
I release episodes once a week,so come back and check it out.
Have a great day.
Welcome to how I Built my Small Business.
I'm Anne McGinty, your host.
Today's guest is John Clapham,or JC, and I met him in Raglan,
new Zealand, last year when Iwalked into his shop hoping they
weren't yet closing and said,while huffing from my brisk walk
what time do you close?
He responded with a smiledepends on who's asking and from
(00:30):
there we ended up chatting forabout half an hour.
I left thinking I want to hearmore of this guy's story.
Jc didn't go to college andworked his way up from tagging
surf leashes in a retail shop tobecoming CEO of Volcom
Australia, new Zealand.
He is the co-founder of theRaglan Surf Emporium, is a
(00:53):
partner of Raglan Roast Coffee,which now has 11 locations
across New Zealand, owns a gasstation, holds major real estate
investments and continues toconsult and build new ventures.
In today's episode, we onlyscratch the surface of JC's
journey, but wow, what aninspiration.
(01:15):
If you've been tuning in, youknow this show isn't about
selling anything.
It's about sharing meaningfulstories and learning along the
way.
If how I built my smallbusiness has brought you any
insight, inspiration or evenjust a spark of curiosity, there
(01:36):
are a few simple ways you cansupport the journey.
Follow the show, share yourfavorite episode with a friend
or leave a quick review.
Each one truly helps me growthis show.
Thank you, let's get started.
Can you start out by giving usa bit of your backstory on what
(02:00):
you were doing before youstarted the Raglan Surf Emporium
?
Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, so 91, I was living in New Zealand well,
obviously originally from NewZealand and I had a mate in
Australia that offered me a jobworking in surf retail in Aloha
Surf, manly in 91.
And I'd actually just split upwith my girlfriend of the time
so I was like, yep, let's go.
So I went.
He offered me a job on a Mondayand I think I was in australia
(02:30):
the following monday andexpected to have a bit of a
holiday, but just he put mestraight upstairs pricing leg
ropes and it all went from there.
So jumped into the surf retailfor a couple of years and then
met a few people through thatand actually met the guy, wes
fab, who had gone to america.
He had the distributions forburden and it also found this
new brand called Volcom.
So he came back and asked if Iwas interested in getting
involved with him in that and Iwas like, yep, no worries.
(02:51):
So I was working five days aweek in the surf shop and then
on the two days off we'd go outand try and make clothing.
We had this new brand calledVolcom.
Everyone didn't really knowwhat it was and we just sort of
learned as we went along.
You know, we were the firstdistributor or licensee outside
of America.
The US dollar was super strongback then.
So you know we imported somecaps and then we started
(03:13):
manufacturing in Australia Againdidn't really know what we were
doing.
So we had some friends thatwere patent makers.
They made patents for us.
We'd go buy the fabric, take itto the cutters, they'd cut it,
take it to the makers that makeit.
Then we'd go to the dye house,we'd go get the buttons put on,
we'd get them pressed and thenbring them back home, put all
the labels on and then, you know, we'd also be selling it,
(03:35):
shipping it out and then chasingup the accounts and following
up getting paid in 60 to 90 days.
It was really interesting times.
You know, like I said before,we just learned on the fly and
everyone that we worked with youknow they could see that.
You know we jumped in the deepend and we're trying to swim to
the other side and just reallyhelped us.
It was really exciting.
(03:55):
It was, you know, learning onyour feet.
Neither of us had much to dowith apparel in the past.
I'd been a sponsored surferback in the day, so I kind of
knew from a marketing side ofthings, what surfers and skaters
and snowboarders wanted.
And then, yeah, so we just wentfrom there, you know, made a
lot of mistakes on the way.
Our house had our two bedrooms,which were our warehouse.
There was boxes in the hallway.
(04:16):
The lounge room was our teamroom.
So we had the likes of Terry AHarkinson, bruce Ines, andy Ines
even though he wasn't ridingfor us, dustin Dolan all guys
like that staying in our house.
We had all our patterns in ourkitchen.
Our actual warehouse also wasunder our kitchen table.
So the first time we signed upAussie Ride, I remember giving
(04:36):
him product from underneath ourkitchen table.
And then we had a small officeas well.
We had another guy that wasliving with us.
That was a really good chef.
So, you know, I think my taxreturn for that first year was
$5,000.
Yeah, we just lived, you know,we lived and breathed it and we
made all our own point of saleout the back in the garage and,
(04:57):
yeah, it was amazing times, itwas really cool.
And then we finally got awarehouse and then we started
employing some local kids thatwill, you know, were working in
the warehouse, or athletes, teamriders that ended up working in
our marketing department, thelikes of Joel Spillane, you know
, peanut Teddy Nassif came andworked in our warehouse and went
into sales.
(05:18):
Just young guys that believedin the dream that we believed in
and I think anyone that said no, we just wanted to prove them
wrong and we just kept going.
So we just continuously hiredmore and more people and then
built up the business, continuedto build our athletes, grow the
business, and then the USbrought it back in 2011 and I
moved back home.
(05:38):
So it was shy of 20 years ofbeing in Australia then.
So, yeah, came home and youknow, just sort of reset.
You know, selling the businesswas really, really hard.
The due diligence you had to dowas insane.
We had the license forAustralia and New Zealand and we
sold that back to the US in2011.
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Wow, what an incredible journey.
So when you got back to NewZealand, when did you decide to
open the Raglan Surf Emporium?
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Well, yeah, we came back in 2011 and didn't really
have.
You know, it was just a reset,bring the kids back to New
Zealand.
And we've been buying propertysince 2000 in Raglan with one of
my mentors and good friends,tony Bruce.
He actually was a shareholderin Volcom.
So when I came back, I actually, within the first couple of
(06:29):
months, bought into the brandRaglan Roast, so I bought a
shareholding in that and thenTony had a surf shop called Gag
and we had our offices forVolcom in Raglan and all our
samples and any returns oranything like that would go into
the store and it was just morelike a Volcom outlet store.
So Melissa, my wife and I tookthat store on in 2012 and
(06:52):
basically jumped in there, gaveit a good cleanup and, yeah, the
rest is history.
Mel, really, she runs thatstore.
She does an amazing job.
She's built that business up toCorsair store.
The Raglan Surf Emporium is abig part of our business and
Raglan's a destination.
So you know that was a greatopportunity for us to get into
(07:13):
something a little bit easierthan wholesale.
And in saying that, you knowyou've got to give it your all.
You've got to give it 110%.
It's a big part of our life now.
So we jumped in there again,had a lot of knowledge from
running businesses back inAustralia and having 70 staff,
so it was a little bit easy tocome back into that and run one
(07:33):
store, one shop front.
We did a collab with Rip Curland opened a Rip Curl store in
Raglan.
For a couple of years we had alittle outlet store as well, but
we've now concentrated just onthe Raglan Surf Emporium store.
I think an important part of oursurf emporium was building a
good surf team and we built alot of young surf team riders
that have done really well andactually a big part that I
(07:56):
concentrated on was life aftersurfing or what are you going to
do after you've finishedcompeting.
And all our older team ridersnow are all either qualified
builders, electricians, one's anurse, my son's third year at
law and we've got another one ofour team riders down at uni and
otago.
So they're all doing reallywell and I think that's super
(08:17):
important that the surf industryhas shrunken, especially for
athletes, and and the moneyavailable and the prize money in
New Zealand, let alone inAustralia as well, it's getting
really tight.
Money for athletes is shrinking.
They might make a couple ofhundred grand.
Some of them are probably on 50or 60, to be honest, it's
(08:41):
definitely shrunk compared tothe money we were paying our
athletes back in the 90s and theearly 2000s.
You've got to be the best of thebest to really be able to
achieve your goals and be ableto afford all the Challenger
Series and stuff like that toactually get onto the CT.
You know there's a real strongsurfing community.
There's a super strong skatecommunity.
There's some amazing athleteshere.
There's no two ways about it.
It's just the funding or themarketing dollars is just
(09:05):
non-existent.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Yeah.
So going back to the RaglanSurf Emporium, what is it like
running that business?
Is it seasonal?
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yeah, it's very seasonal, that's sort of October
until March, april, and thenyou'd batten down the hatches
and get through winter.
You come Christmas, boxing Day,you go from 5,000 to 30,000
people for two weeks.
I think that's when you were inthe store.
Melissa is running thatbusiness on a day-to-day and
she's running it like a Swisswatch.
It's well fine-tuned.
(09:36):
My strengths are probably theproduct side, obviously, coming
from Volcom and building productfrom scratch.
So we're constantly updatingour branding of our surf
emporium product and adding newcategories.
In all the time we have built areally good team and each day
you want everyone to get up andgo.
Hey, yeah, I'm excited to go towork, not I've got to go to
work.
So we try to build a reallygood vibe within the store.
(09:58):
And I think the most importantthing that we've, you know,
learned especially working inaust Australia, it was customer
service and that's second tonone and we pride ourselves on
that and you know all our staffhave got amazing customer
service.
So that does really help in thewhole scheme of the Raglan Surf
Emporium brand.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
I've noticed this in New Zealand in general, just in
comparison to America and thisis not to knock any of my
American friends who ownbusinesses here but the customer
service in New Zealand just itfeels amazing, I don't know what
to call it like more authentic.
It feels like you'll walk intoa store and chances of the owner
being in the store is actuallyquite high.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Yeah, totally.
I think that's super important.
Back in the day there used tobe a sports store on every
corner of every town and nowthere's just big branded surf
stores like Rebel or Nike andstuff like that.
And it's the same with the surfindustry the mums and pop
stores are getting gobbled up bythe majors.
And it's the same with the surfindustry the mums and pop
stores are getting gobbled up bythe majors and that's going to
happen.
There's a lot of stores thatguys have started and their kids
(10:58):
aren't even interested intaking them over and running
them, so they're either gettingbought out or they're shutting
down.
Unless you're in there and youown it, there's no buy-in
sometimes and some people are insome of those stores just to
get paid.
It's a job and we're trying tomake, especially in our store.
It's a career and I thinkthat's super important.
(11:19):
And then that's buy-in and thenthat that gives you better
customer service.
I just enjoy talking to peopleas well, the amount of finding
out, especially if you hear anaccent hey, where you from?
What are you up to?
And nine times out of ten, ifthey're from Hawaii or
California, I'll know someone.
Or from Australia, especiallyin the surf industry.
We all know someone as a friendor we've worked with them.
(11:39):
So it's totally different fromrunning a $30 million company
coming back down to a retailstore nine to five selling
blocks of wax and t-shirts andI've got other projects on, but
that's a fun one just to get inand talk to people and find out
what's going on.
90% of the people that walkthrough that door are on holiday
, so they're excited, they'reall pumped up and they want to
(11:59):
have a chat and all our staff ishey, you know, go around and
get a coffee at Raglan Roast andpeople are looking at you going
.
Man, I've just walked into yourstore and now telling me to
leave it.
But they go around, have thatcoffee and guarantee it.
You know, nine times out of ten, ten times out of ten, they'll
come back and go.
That's the best coffee I'veever had and I'll go right, go,
grab one, take it back to thewife, give her the coffee.
It's going to be the bestcoffee ever and you're going to
(12:21):
be allowed to go surfing everyday, you know, just generally
welcoming everyone and having agood time and talking to them.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
And I'm not in the store that much but, like when I
am, just try to talk to as manypeople as possible and see
what's going on.
And you know we certainly didthat when I walked in, when you
were working running Volcom inAustralia.
What do you think you learnedthe most from that that you were
able to take over into runningthis?
Speaker 2 (12:49):
Most of all was having a good team around you,
and I think Richard Wolcott, oneof the founders of Volcom, told
me you know, surround yourselfwith good people, people that
are going to be better than youare and you're going to learn
from them.
At one stage we had a CFO fromthe Tofen Group in Eastern
Europe.
The business he was working forwe had turned over a billion
dollars.
We had an ex-sales manager fromBillabong.
(13:09):
You know, I just had reallygood people around me and I just
learned so much from them.
And then, the best part of allis when we did sell out to the
USA, Dougal Walker came in who'sex-Billabong guy and I got to
spend six months in a transitionperiod with him when he took
over as CEO of Volcom Australiaand the stuff I learned off him
(13:30):
was second to none and he wasamazing and he taught me so, so
much, even though I was on myway out.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
What did he teach you ?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Just about business and you know just how to look at
things and pumped my tyres up abit as well and said I'd done a
great job.
And you need to hear that.
You want to hear praise fromother people of what you're
doing and sometimes it's hardwhen you know you're at the top
or you're at the CEO.
Back when I was there, you werecompeting against everyone.
You're competing against theHurleys and the Billabongs and
the Quicksilvers and the RipCurls and Dougal.
(14:01):
Yeah, it was a great six monthswith them.
So taking that and coming to theSurf Emporium was just about
the product.
It was about customer service,which we'd seen from a sales
point of view.
You know we dealt with some ofthe smartest retailers in
australia.
You know chris athos had ownsuffixion I had.
You know I was really close tohim and he taught me a lot.
(14:23):
And then even working in alohasurf with tim hanrahan and just
his customer service ofwelcoming people in and just
basically making them feel athome and being excited to be in
the store.
So it was really, yeah, justthe customer service and then
just knowing the product that weneeded to put into our store
and definitely for the RaglanSerf Emporium brand to create
(14:45):
that from scratch and build thatup to what it is.
And you know, you travel aroundthe world and you see the
t-shirts on people and you'relike, wow, that's really
exciting.
And nine times out of tenyou've touched that T-shirt.
You've actually had to tag itor whatever.
So that brought back earlymemories of Vulcan, when we had
our warehouse within our unitand you know we'd touch the
(15:06):
product from start to finish andthen it would go out.
So that's always been somethingthat we've already really
enjoyed and it was just comingback and resetting and being a
single store door versus runninga $30 million plus company is
day and night.
But there is a lot of thingsthat are similar, just on a
smaller scale.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Do you miss the Volcom days?
Speaker 2 (15:29):
I miss the Volcom days.
I miss, yeah, just thecamaraderie and the team.
I was lucky enough and beenlucky enough to go and consult
with the Mad Hooies in thoughtsand energy that you used to have
back in the day, so that wasgreat and, yeah, I definitely do
(15:56):
miss it, but we've got it.
Like I said, we've got a greatteam now in the surf emporium
and, yeah, it's just on asmaller scale now that you know.
Now it's about different things, you know, like family and the
boys are growing up now butthey've become good mates,
they've gone from you, you know,our sons, to become good
friends, which is superimportant.
Working on my health freakingknees, I've had two hip
(16:17):
resurfaces and then I sort ofhad a tear on my meniscus so
lots of saunas and ice baths andstretching and I've actually
just got involved with a local,johnny Rickard.
His dojo is called the Refineryand he does a lot of training
there.
So I've been doing sometraining with him and actually
helping him on the size, withhis business and making sure
(16:38):
that you know he's got a goodbusiness plan and we're actually
coming together and doing thecollab and working with a lot of
our athletes.
So that's super exciting aswell, and I've really enjoyed
that.
So, yeah, it's definitely adifferent stage in our lives
right now.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
Yeah, it's the same for us.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
We've been focusing on health and wellness and
fitness and just staying healthyWell yeah, staying healthy,
eating healthy, not drinking asmany beers as you meant to, not
that you meant to, that I havebeen, yeah, but that wellness is
a big, it's massive.
You know it wasn't there when Iwas running Volcom.
It was if you had issues, youkept it to yourselves.
So it's unreal.
You know it wasn't there when Iwas running vulcan, it was if
you had issues, you kept it toyourselves.
So it's it's unreal to seeeveryone's coming out and and
(17:17):
talking about mental health andtrying to fix it.
And that's something thatjohnny and I have touched on in
the refinery.
And again, you know, workingwith our athletes and making
sure that there's life aftersurfing.
They can still be the best outthere in the points and sit in
the lineup at Marmibay.
But it's also an important ofwhat are you going to do if you
don't make it in competitivesurfing.
(17:38):
You know how long can youafford it?
That's the hardest thing is allthat travel and competing and
entry fees and accommodation andcar hire and stuff like that
and those marketing dollars aredefinitely shrinking.
There's no two ways about it.
We're all aware of it.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
There is that mental side that you mentioned.
It's sort of similar to someonewho is trying to become a
famous musician or like make itbig in Hollywood.
And they hit these incrediblemilestones, like what Billy made
it to the Olympics.
I think I saw a post on hisInstagram and he was talking
about the letdown after theOlympics, like how mental it got
(18:17):
.
Oh, definitely.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
You got 20 minutes, catch the two best waves, or
sometimes even 15 minutes, andthat ocean.
You've got to be in sync withit.
There's so many differentthings going on.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
So many variables.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
So many variables and some of the best get knocked
out in the first round and someof the not so best can make it
to the final.
Sometimes it's pretty crazy.
It's a really hard sport andagain, with the refinery, we've
done a Ledge of the Ledge, whichis a contest that's running up
until the end of August wherewe're basically the best barrel.
At Manu Bay.
We're giving away $2,000 formen's, $2,000 for women's and
(18:54):
then $1,000 for under-20s, andit's free to enter.
All you've got to do is getyour video of you in that barrel
and post it to our Instagramaccounts and there's $5,000 in
prize money.
Plus we're giving $250 perfilmer that films the video of
the barrel.
So again, that's something justtrying to give back and
(19:20):
hopefully that money is going tohelp the kids that do win those
contests go and compete inother contests.
That's been really good for usto give back there and that way
as well, and free.
So you know the kids are outthere.
There's a surf academy here inRaglan and I had one of the
teachers the other day.
It's like man, when we dodrills now half the kids just
sit out the back waiting for awave to get barreled on.
Sorry, it was pretty classicwhen they said that.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
But that's a pretty cool competition that you set up
.
Yeah, it is.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
Chrissy Malone, our surf team manager, came up with
it.
We were talking about we needto have a barrel comp at the
ledge and there was a contestlast year that ran and leading
up to it was pumping, there wasinsane waves and all the local
kids were looking really good.
Day of the contest it was overthe weekend, I think.
The first couple of days wasquite small and a lot of the
kids that we thought local kidsfrom here that were going to get
(20:02):
through and be in the finalsgot knocked out and then the
swell jacked up to what wouldhave been perfect for them but
they were already out of thecomp.
So we came up, you know, afterthat went.
Hey, you know, like you talkedabout that barrel contest, why
don't we run it over a period oftime?
This is its second year now.
We ran it last year but we onlyran it for a couple of months.
This year we're running it forfive to six months.
Another mate of mine, stewie,came up with the name Ledge of
(20:25):
the Ledge and we just went fromthere Calling on my contacts in
Australia.
We've got Tommy Carroll, ronnieand Vaughan Blakey that are
commentators on the WSL, mattBenrose, who is the
international team manager forVolcom and Chrissie Malone.
They're all judges and that'sjust calling in a favour on
friends.
So, yeah, we've run itgrassroots and kept it pretty
(20:47):
low key, but we want to continueto grow that and make it bigger
and bigger.
And I think the most importantthing, it's free.
Anyone can enter.
Hopefully the kids that do wincan then use that to help them
compete in contests or at leastgo on a surf trip to Bali that
you know, money that they neverhad before.
So that's the concept behindthat.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Who is doing all of the designs that you guys have?
Because I'm pretty sure that myfamily walked out with at least
a sweatshirt or a t-shirt each,because your designs are quite
cool.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Yeah, again, we've got a number of artists that
work with us local guys.
We've got Anaru, who's anex-TNC graphic artist.
He's done a lot of stuff for usthere.
Jamie Brown, who is anex-Vulcan graphic artist.
He did that original logo thatyou're wearing there.
And then we've got, you know, atown one.
We just build it as we go alongand just depends on what artist
(21:40):
is available.
You know, when we're travellingaround the world, if we're
going snowboarding or we'regoing to Hawaii, we definitely
look for inspiration withinthose areas there especially.
You know, I've just been toAustralia last week, so going
through all the retail andsussing out what's going on, and
, you know, front embroideredprints or stuff like that.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
There's a lot of trends that you can follow as
well with your brand and that'sa nice little perk to be able to
turn a leisure trip into abusiness trip.
So you've been in the surfskateindustry for so long.
Do you see any gaps in themarketplace?
Speaker 2 (22:15):
I think there's great opportunity for the smaller
brands now, and I think gone arethe big days of two $300
million companies, I thinkcompanies sitting just under
that 20 mil mark.
There's a lot of opportunity.
You can be profitable.
You can go to bed at night andsleep, you know.
I think that's the mostimportant thing.
There's nothing worse thangoing oh my God, are we going to
pull this off?
You know, I've been there, donethat and it's not good.
(22:37):
It's not good for your mentalhealth, like we spoke about
before.
The big guys are sortingthemselves out right now with
Billabong, volcom, you know, allbeing under the same umbrella.
I think they've got some MadHuys, small brands like that.
There's a lot of opportunity inthe marketplace right now.
(22:58):
Online is definitely the way tostart a brand right now, versus
bricks and mortar.
But there is opportunity outthere and I think a lot of the
retailers want some fresh andnew alongside of the majors that
build the industry.
There wouldn't be an industrywithout them, so we need them.
But there is opportunity fornew brands, definitely.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
You mentioned sleepless nights, yep.
What have been the hardestmoments in business.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
The hardest moments in business is probably that
recession in 2008 when we had tolay off 20-plus staff in a day.
You know, we just had to makecuts to make the business
survive and that was the hardestday for me, definitely, you
know, again, the company waslike family, the staff were like
(23:45):
family.
It was really hard to leteveryone go and then some harder
than others sales were goingdown.
We had to be profitable.
That was definitely, you know,something I probably wouldn't
wish on.
My worst enemy got through itin the end, but I was lucky with
Mel Mel being super strong andwe just had we had a young
family.
She was like look, I'll lookafter the boys, you just deal
(24:05):
with this and just fight andscratch our way through it and
got it back up to be profitableagain and sold the license back
to the USA and came back home.
So, yeah, that's the hardestthing is any business budget.
You've got to do your budgetand you've got to do it on the
worst-case scenario.
You've got to have all thosewhat-ifs.
When I was consulting for theMad Whois and Stacey, it was
looking at everything and a lotof people are blue sky oh, we're
(24:29):
going to get 20% growth andda-da-da-da-da and you've got to
go.
Well, what if?
Budget for the worst-casescenario and everything else is
cream the numbers don't lieConstantly going back to your
budgets and looking at them,updating them, working on cash
flows and stuff like that, andthat there will help you enjoy
business a bit more like that,and that there will help you
(24:50):
enjoy business a bit more ifyou're just like, oh no, I'm
gonna kill this, this is gonnabe unreal, we're on, you're
gonna be up against the wallbefore you know it.
So I think, yeah, that's superimportant is knowing your
numbers, budgeting worst casescenario and then everything
else is cream on top of that.
And then you know you can goback and readjust them every
quarter or every month if youwant.
But you've seen people do itand sometimes it does, but nine
(25:10):
times out of 10, it won't.
And you just got to be reallyprepared for the worst case
scenario and then just work fromthere.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Yeah, prepared and also know when to cut your
losses.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Oh, that's a hard one Cutting your losses.
But what if?
What if we keep going?
It's just, it's going to turn.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
What other advice would you give to young people
today?
Speaker 2 (25:36):
especially aspiring entrepreneurs.
You know schooling nowadays istotally different and I think
you know if kids aren't into it,get out but go and do an
apprenticeship.
You know surrounding yourselfwith the right people, having a
clear idea of what you want todo and setting out and doing
that and making sure that you'reenjoying it along the way.
I think you know if you'regoing to build a company and
(25:56):
you've got people coming in, youwant them to want to work for
you and go to war for you andstand next to you and believe in
you and follow you and I thinkthat's a super important thing
is being a good listener andleading your team in the right
direction.
You surround yourself withpeople that are going to
strengthen your weaknesses.
Like I said before, a CFO, likeI, knew marketing and we knew
(26:20):
product, but we know we've gotgood CFO and we've got a good
sales manager and goodproduction people and so they're
just strengthening what youalready know.
Don't ever think that you knowyou know everything and everyone
should be listening to you.
Like, be open-minded and bringpeople in that are going to
challenge you and make you stepup to the plate.
I think that's the mostimportant thing in business is
(26:42):
having good people that aregoing to challenge you on a
day-to-day basis and bring thebest out of you challenge you on
a day-to-day basis and bringthe best out of you.
Speaker 1 (26:51):
So, looking back at your career and just the last 20
odd years or so, what is itthat you're the most proud of,
like what is success to you?
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Um, success to me is, you know, I didn't have a
degree, I didn't go touniversity and just giving a
chance and proving ourselvesthat we could do it and that we
built this brand and we builtall these people.
We gave people jobs andopportunities that are now in
the surf industry and otherareas, started up their own
brands, just having a go andbeing able to bring along a lot
(27:20):
of people with us that haveremained in the surf industry,
as bad as it sounds.
Meeting my wife in the surfindustry was really exciting and
she was the Burton brandmanager for 10 years, so that's
how we met.
To still work with her today.
That in itself, you know, to bemarried to someone and be in a
business partner with them isreal challenging.
And then you know, lifetimefriends is a big thing for me as
(27:43):
well, and a lot of those guysthat I have worked with in the
past were still good friends,and a lot of them guys that I
have worked with in the pastwe're still good friends, and a
lot of them it's just you pickup where you left off.
You know it was just likeyesterday.
You might see them for a coupleof years and it's just back and
as simple as they are, that'sthe things that sort of mean the
most to me.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
Yeah, I too feel like that's all that really matters,
and I feel like some peopleunderstand that earlier than
others.
I definitely didn't feel thatway in my twenties.
So just as a final question ifyou could go back and talk with
yourself when you were in yourearly twenties, what would you
say?
Speaker 2 (28:20):
What are you doing?
Just believe in yourself.
Look everyone in the eye, speakto everyone, say you, did you,
say hello and just from abusiness point of view, the
numbers don't lie.
Just, you know, be looking atthose budgets.
You've got to look at theworst-case scenario and then
everything after that is creamand probably slow down a bit
more and enjoy it.
(28:41):
You know there's no finish line.
It's just.
You know it's a marathon, not arace, and I feel a lot of
people are racing to getsomewhere but they never get
there.
If I could have my time again,spend more time with my family
and, you know, enjoy them more,instead of just going to work
the whole time and just doingthis for them and then we now
(29:02):
sit here.
You know they're 20 and 23 andthey're off doing their own
things, but I'm good friendswith them.
So, yeah, probably the mostimportant thing would be like
remember to breathe, like enjoywhat you're doing, but also
spend more time with the familyand take it all in.
Speaker 1 (29:20):
JC, it's been so good to catch up again and to see
you.
I hope to see you again whenwe're in New Zealand next.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Yeah, or vice versa.
When we're over there, we'llcome and see you, I hope to see
you again when we're in NewZealand next yeah, or vice versa
when?
Speaker 1 (29:34):
we're over there, we'll come and see you.
Yeah, please, yeah.
Today's key takeaways whenopportunity presents, jump at it
and give it 110%.
A willingness to learn andadapt is often more valuable
than formal credentials.
Sometimes the next big thingisn't happening in your backyard
(29:55):
.
Look outside your industry andoutside your country.
What's trending in a surf shopin Australia might spark an idea
for your cafe in California.
If you happen to discover a newbrand or idea, there could be
opportunity.
Stay curious about how othersare innovating and broaden your
(30:16):
perspective.
You never know who you may meetwhen you put yourself in places
where you interact with peopleon a daily basis.
Look people in the eye, begenuine and build lasting
relationships with people youinteract with throughout your
career and life.
These relationships can lead tofurther opportunities or
(30:36):
collaborations, but, mostimportantly, to lifelong
friendships.
Surround yourself with peoplewho are going to strengthen your
weaknesses and challenge youand bring the best out of you.
Lean on your network, yourmentors and team to help fill in
the knowledge gaps along theway.
Great leaders don't have all theanswers, but they can build
(30:59):
teams that do.
Being a good leader meanshaving a team that wants to work
for you and that believes inyou.
Be a good listener and pump upothers' tires along the way.
Create a culture where peopleare excited to come to work, not
feeling like they have to go towork.
Ideally, you want buy-in fromyour team, not for them to just
(31:22):
look at what they're doingbecause it's a job just to get
paid, but if you approach yourteam from the mindset of trying
to make it a career for them,you're more likely to get buy-in
.
And if your team is excited togo to work, it will show in
their customer service, andcustomer service is so important
(31:43):
.
After the call, jc mentionedhow, on a recent trip to
Australia, he walked into a surfshop and one staff member was
looking at videos on YouTube andanother was behind the register
looking down.
Nobody greeted him, which wasshocking to him.
On a customer service level,you have to make your customers
feel at home.
It's often the little thingsthe eye contact, conversation,
(32:07):
asking questions that convertsomeone from a browser into a
loyal customer.
Community engagement can drivebrand growth.
A creative youth competitionwith a fun prize isn't just
marketing, it's culture building.
Tie it to social media, involvelocal judges and let your brand
become a meaningful part ofyour community.
(32:30):
Know your numbers.
The numbers don't lie.
Always understand your cashflow, profit and loss and worst
case scenario.
Anything above that worst casescenario is cream.
But make sure to work out thosewhat-ifs.
Believe in yourself.
If school isn't for you, that'sokay, but that means you've got
(32:52):
to start working and learningin the real world.
And lastly, slow down a bitmore and enjoy the journey.
There is no finish line.
It's a marathon, not a race.
People seem to be racingsomewhere, but there isn't a
finish line.
Spend more time with yourfamily, if you can, and remember
(33:13):
to breathe and enjoy whatyou're doing.
That's it for today.
I release episodes once a week,so come back and check it out.
Have a great day.
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