Meet Clare Elaine

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Clare Elaine. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Clare, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?

I often say, I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, as I am prone to entrepreneurial wanderlust. However, over the past several years, in my current business, I have definitely found my purpose. What has really helped nail it down for me, is having the experience to know what I DON’T want to do. Another mantra has been, just because I can do it, doesn’t mean I have to do it.

I knew I no longer wanted to be in charge of large amounts of staff and I didn’t want customer service burnout. So, I started baking small batch pretzels and selling them at pop-ups around town. I’ve always been in the food and drink business, but once I realized I could bake, a whole new world opened up for me. Sure, it was a world in which I would be waking up at 3am, but that kind of grows on you. Since the pretzel inception, I have twisted together a great local following, which afforded me to build a little bake shop where I sell via online, wholesale and a few hours a day for walk-ins.

Making the same product everyday seemed counterintuitive to my creative chef brain, but the challenges of production, growing and promoting keep me engaged. The biggest challenge for me is to remember to keep it small! There are a lot of outside voices telling me I should expand, keep longer hours etc. Doing so, would bring me right back to the things I no longer wanted to do with my career.

Purpose is passion for me, and I am so passionate about what I do. As hard as it is to continually sustain a food business, I smile every morning when I walk into my adorable clean bakery and know I get to play with dough all by myself for the next few hours.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

Wooden Petal Bake Shop, located in beautiful Sonoma County, is a twisted little bake shop specializing in gourmet pretzels, sandwiches, and other delights. Everything is baked fresh each morning by me, and if things go well, we tend to sell out around noon.

I love to collaborate with other local vendors, makers and can often be found passing out pretzels at events around town.

My favorite thing to hear is that this is such a unique business, I hope to keep that spirit for many years to come!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

What I do now, is within the skill set of what I have been doing professionally for most of my life. So, when I’m feeling imposter syndrome, I remind myself, no one knows this business better than me!

I am a hard worker, probably overly obsessed with my business, and hate to say it, but you have to be fully committed.

Be fearless, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

How would you describe your ideal client?

My ideal client is someone who trusts my skills and concept and allows me to take care of their needs. And of course, any guest /customer that makes even the smallest effort to absorb the information to enable our transaction to run smoothly. As business owners, we put so much time into perfecting the art of the transaction, via signage, website, emails, scheduling etc. When guests take note, and things flow just as we imagined …. now that’s the sweet spot!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://woodenpetal.com
• Instagram: @woodenpetal
• Facebook: @woodenpetal