We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amelia Martin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amelia below.
Amelia, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
On a beach in Haiti.
Ever since I was a kid I was in love with the natural world. I loved to watch nature documentaries, go to the woods in my backyard everyday, and go swimming. I always wanted to be a surfer and got the chance to go in high school when a friend brought me. From then I fell in love with it and would go every week with her as soon as I got my license and the money to buy a board. Surfing made my love for the outdoors stronger and brought me closer to the ocean.
When I was a senior in high school, well into surfing, my friend offered for me to go on a trip to Haiti with her. I had never been so I was excited to join, but most excited for the last day- when we were promised a trip to the beach. The beach was my favorite place, so when I stepped off the bus onto a pile of trash, it was shattering.
I am privileged enough to have only experienced mass pollution through photos up until that point. Everyone else got off the bus like it was fine and normal- because it was there. You couldn’t take your shoes off because of the trash hiding in the sand. Some kids wanted to go swimming but weren’t such strong swimmers. I volunteered to go with them and thought maybe being in the water again would make me feel better.
It felt like there was seaweed all around you and you would sink into the sand, but it was all trash hugging your body. It was sickening and terrifying to see my favorite place polluted but the worst part was, when I took a closer look at the trash, it wasn’t anyone on this island’s fault, it was ours. This was our trash that the water carried over for someone else to deal with. I stood on the beach and I knew I needed to do something.
When I got back to Connecticut months went by and everyday I thought about that experience. I had the idea I was going to make a surfboard out of trash. I thought that if I could clean the trash out of the ocean and make it into a surfboard, I could make a tool to give back for people to use to learn to love the ocean and grow closer to it, just like surfing had done for me. My first semester at college I got to work with a professor on it and quickly discovered it was not the best idea. I would have to melt the trash to get it to the shape I want (making air pollution), one board could never be replicated because of the different trash mixed in, and when the surfboard broke it would go right back into the cycle of landfills and pollution. While that project didn’t work out, I now had a year of research on all things plastic, solid waste pollution, and waste management under my belt and I also taught myself how to make surfboards. I fell in love with making surfboards, so much so, I decided I wanted that to be my career after college.
Not long into working in my garage, I started getting a cough and getting itchy. I wore full protective equipment but it turns out the styrofoam dust coming off of the surfboard cores (blanks) I was shaping is toxic. Not only that, I learned how terrible surfboards are for the environment and how I was directly contributing to the pollution problem I was trying so hard to fix. I wasn’t going to stop making surfboards, but I also wasn’t going to continue hurting myself and the environment. I applied for a grant through UConn and received $2,000 in undergrad research to figure out how to make a surfboard core out of biomaterials. Mycelium (mushroom) was the first and really only material I could try as an undergrad with no workspace and limited funds and it worked (kinda)! But it was promising enough where I would spend the next 3 years doing research and development to make this alternative styrofoam dream a reality.
Right now, my business Mud Rat is still in that R&D phase and we get closer everyday to having a prototype. I realized on the beach that my purpose in life is finding ways to improve solid waste and marine debris pollution. After spending some time in the surf industry, I see how much work needs to be done, and being in this space solving these issues through biomaterials and sustainability is exactly where I want to stay. After the success of Mud Rat (and after grad school) I plan to continue working in the surf industry on new ways to improve and change what we do for the better. A dream of mine would also be getting able to work on projects focused on bettering the recycling system, researching and mitigating plastic pollution, and being able to work with communities in urgent need of solid waste management.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Right now I am a full time grad student getting my degree in plant science with a focus on plant health, and I am also the CEO and founder of Mud Rat. I am getting my masters degree at University of Connecticut and plan to graduate in May of 2025. As soon as I graduate, I will be able to work full time on developing Mud Rat and can begin some new ideas on sustainability projects I have for my company!
Working on Mud Rat while being a full time thesis based student can be a lot sometimes. I have some weeks where I need to completely focus on one over the other, and most weeks, when I have a nice 50/50 of the two. While my degree isn’t exactly in my passion area of waste management and sustainability, I am learning how to design and carry out experiments which actually helps me a lot on my business side and when coming up with new projects. I have also developed a respect and new vision for agriculture and am looking forward to combining the two in the future.
On Mud Rat’s side, I have been lucky enough to have support from mentors and fellow entrepreneur friends from University of Connecticut, a network in New Haven Connecticut, and support from Mystic Seaport Museum. Not to mention all the people who follow and support from afar through our social medias.
Mud Rat is in our research and development phase making constant progress on our first prototype. Right now, we are looking to raise capital to bring us from this research phase into our prototyping phase. We are going after grants but are also looking for potential investors. Mud Rat is for shapers by shapers and we pride ourselves on creating a strong community around our shared goals to make a difference in our industry. We value community and honesty and love to share update posts on our how our research is going online through our blog on our website (mudratsurf.com). We also share exclusive and more timely updates through our newsletter if you would like to sign up on our website!
We are getting excited about what’s to come and love to share it with our followers- if you would like to join the club and follow our journey, feel free to reach out on social media! @mudratsurf
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The three most important things I have learned so far are: how to fail, how to be taken seriously, and how not to burnout.
I have learned A LOT since I started this whole journey but by far, these are the three things that have helped me push through the worst days.
How to fail:
Ever since I was little, I tried to be the best at everything. If I wasn’t good at something, I would quit because I thought I would embarrass myself if I kept going. I managed this when it came to mandatory tasks, like a class, by acting like I wasn’t trying. Because I could play it off that I’m not the best because I’m not trying- because I decided for myself I wasn’t going to be the best (if that makes sense). Well things got harder when it came to something I am fully passionate about, Mud Rat. I had to do my best, I wanted to do my best, because I love my business so much. But as my business started growing so did my fear of failure. I had anxiety around doing small tasks that would benefit my business. I hated opening emails, whether good, or bad, for fear that if I kept getting more publicity- that there would be more people to see me fail if this didn’t work out.
I always managed to do my tasks, but the anxiety and fear that surrounded them was massive. I got imposter syndrome and no longer liked to call myself a CEO, and I didn’t like talking about my business unless someone else mentioned it first. It was taking a toll on me and I knew I had to figure this out if I ever want to become the strong, successful CEO I know I am.
It was a long process to get out of the scared mindset but how I did it was by thinking of something even more frightening- Mud Rat coming to an end. I love what I do so much so I would rather fail 100 times at this with the whole world watching me than to give it up and have to live without it. That mindset set the pace to overcome this obstacle, but also becoming friends with fear. I came to terms with the fact it is not embarrassing to fail, but it IS embarrassing to give up before you give it your all. Failure became a friend. For every failed experiment, I learned 3 ways of how to do something new. You can’t grow without experiencing the hard, uncomfortable emotions, and now whenever I do, I feel kind of nice knowing everything is a learning experience and while it may not be pleasant right now- it will help me grow in the future.
How to be taken seriously:
I am a 23 year old woman CEO… sometimes when I go to business events, I like to count the ratio of female to male attendees- it’s usually a large gap. I think first and foremost it is important to say, there will always be people ready to belittle you, these are just the tips I learned in order to decrease that number. I think being taken seriously is a sign of respect, and while EVERYONE deserves respect regardless, that just isn’t the reality for a lot of business owners going against the traditional players. These are some things I learned about presenting myself that have served me, and might help some other people.
Stay true to what you do: I have a niche business, I know I can make more money if I made mycelium packaging, yes I heard it many times before. Am I going to do that? Nope. This is something I communicate at all of my pitch competitions when asked by judges why I make surfboards. Does that turn away potential investors? Sure, but it has also given me a tight knit community around surfing and it shows I am serious about what I do and I have a direction for what I am doing.
Be authentic: I used to try to sound so technical in my pitch presentations because I was usually competing with tech companies. I would carry myself and act as they did, when in my industry, it is unnecessary. I was uncomfortable because I wasn’t being myself and people noticed. As soon as I started dressing in my normal clothes (not business cas), speaking in my lingo, and acting like the dirty outdoor person I am at heart- people approached me more. I wasn’t being a false version of me, I am exactly what Mud Rat is, I am who you would expect to be running this company.
Know your worth: To the similar tune of staying true to you, learning how to say no is sometimes more valuable than saying yes. When I started, I said yes to every opportunity that came my way, all the way up to an accelerator program that wanted to take equity from me without giving any funding in return. It honestly took a couple weeks after being accepted to pull out of the program (luckily I didn’t sign anything yet) and after that, I got a few people saying from outside and inside the program how they were proud of the decision and respected the serious leader I was becoming. I knew my time, energy, and the equity of my company is worth much more than saying I was a part of something else just for the sake of it. I have since only said no to one other smaller opportunity but gaining the skill to say no to people and other businesses has proved to be valuable.
How not to burnout:
I am a full time student and CEO. I also have a full social life, go on trips, participate in hobbies, manage to exercise, and have personal no work days. It sounds like a lot and miraculously I haven’t burnt out yet (knock on wood). I usually say, when asked how I am alive, that it works because Mud Rat doesn’t feel like work. I genuinely enjoy doing it so I have no problem coming home from school and sitting down to work on my business. I have learned, while loving what I do professionally plays a HUGE role in maintaining a stable mental state- that is not how I remain healthy. I am a person who loves having a schedule, but I haven’t had the same day twice in a very long time. Everyday I have different places to go and different tasks to accomplish, so having a schedule, which was my old means of having balance, was out of the question.
What I do now, which sounded scary to me at first, is I work when I feel like it. And I think this only works for me because I am someone who enjoys being busy and working, but I will explain. This last year I took priority in understanding how my body and mood works. I have some days where I want to sleep all day, some days where all I want to do are creative tasks, and some days where I am aggressively motivated. Of course I have an insane google calendar which I love with all of my due dates but by working with my calendar and a weekly to-do list of tasks, I found that listening to what my body wants to do each day helps me effectively complete everything while still paying attention to my needs. If I am tired maybe I will only do easy tasks that day then take a nap. If I have energy, I will bust out experiments in my lab then go to the gym. I make sure I make time every week to see friends, get movement everyday, and do hobbies on my lazy days.
Of course I am able to have the luxury of working like this because of my flexible schedule, but in short, my advice for not burning out is- you can’t produce good work if YOU are not doing good. Good work begins with you, making sure you are happy and healthy is the first step in getting anything done and it will sustain you for longer than trying to girl boss yourself to death.
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
Ever since I was a child my parents have been supportive of what ever endeavor I chose for myself. I remember when I was like 5 I asked my mom if she would be happy with any job I got in the future, she said it doesn’t matter what I do as long as I am happy doing it.
That carried through into a lot of the decisions I made. I never chose a path that I was not happy with to make my parents proud, because they already were. They never pushed anything on me and let me figure things out for myself. They remain extremely supportive of me and love to hear updates from the things I do.
I see some people who are pushed into living for their parents, making their parents dreams come true rather than their own. You can tell when a person is truly passionate about something and when they are not. I honestly can’t imagine living my life having not been allowed to choose the paths I wanted. I think one of the most valuable things you can give a child is support and I will always be grateful to mine for letting me have that.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mudratsurf.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mudratsurf/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mud-rat/
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
