Today we’d like to introduce you to Stanley Rameau.
Stanley, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
The journey to understanding my full potential started at a parent teacher conference in high school. My older sister, Rachel accompanied me to the meeting in place of my parents. As anyone who’ve been in these situations, you understand that you are simply there to sit back and listen as they talk about you. This time around, the conversation between my teacher and sister was a repetitive discussion both claiming “Stanley has so much potential if he decided to put his full effort into it”. My family has always been both my biggest support system and motivators. Knowing I always had the support of my family I decided to explore the idea of what it meant to reach your full potential by putting every ounce of effort into something. Doing just enough to get by no longer sufficed.
As a teenager, I spent a lot of my afternoons with my father. He was my example of a renaissance man. Everyday he would encourage me with my piano lessons, practicing drawing, carpentry sessions around our apartment but I never followed through with any of it. My mother and sister encouraged me when it came to my education and was blessed to graduate from Bentley University with a Marketing degree. After I received my degree, I realized there was no industry after college I was sold or had my heart set on.
In 2012, I went into business with my sister-in-law Joelle and her mother Yolette and we built I Am Kreyol, an award winning fashion brand based out of Boston. As a Partner of the brand, it became the one thing I’ve ever put my heart and soul into. Being an entrepreneur, has taught me that something you believe in can’t progress if you don’t consistently put your all into it. And it still stands true today. Despite the progressive success with I Am Kreyol I felt like I could do more.
In the winter of 2016, my father passed away from Multiple Myeloma. It’s something that will be an everyday healing process for me but my father was a man who constantly tapped into his creative talents, pushed me to be my best self and in his worst of times dealing with his cancer, he continued to do what he loved despite his condition. The strength he showed during his worst times challenged me to tap into the full potential that I’ve been avoiding all these years. And this year I plan to launch Paul Rameau, a fashion brand that envisions others stepping out of their space of fear to take risk and tap into their fullest potential. The hope is to lead you to live your best life. It will be a fashion brand with an assemble of styles that represent my father’s classic influence and wardrobe essentials with my modern, functional street wear expressions. The same way Paul Rameau fashion brand encourages others to live out their renaissance, I will be searching to live out mine.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Smooth is definitely not a word I would use but that’s not a bad thing. Especially if you’re on the road to be a successful entrepreneur, there is no short cuts or easy roads. Coming out of business school there’s an expectation that you should be able to hit the ground running but actually being in the trenches, failing and telling yourself to get back up is what developed the resilience nature I have now.
I’m not naturally a patient individual. I want results as soon as I put the effort in but this journey has humbled me in ways I didn’t think were possible. Most importantly, you have to be consistent, everyday, every month, year after year if you want to see your dreams come to fruition. Sometimes you have to accept that an action you set out today might pay dividends a year from now. You just have to keep planting your seeds until something great comes from it.
Please tell us about I Am Kreyol & Paul Rameau.
Currently, I am one of three Partners/Owners of I Am Kreyol, a woman’s high fashion brand that represents all women: their Freedom, Resilience and Strength. We empower through beautiful designs that makes one feel unique, like a piece of art and through economic stability & sustainability for artisans in our homeland of Haiti.
We believe that we are our sister’s keeper and that through garment production, we can provide opportunity and exposure for skilled women workers to be able to live the life they desire. As a brand we’ve accomplished some cool things such as winning Best of Boston for the Improper Bostonian in 2016 and Boston Magazine in 2017. We showcased our Lotus collection during London Fashion Week and was featured in Teen Vogue as One of the Top Haitian designers to look out for. Although we have accomplished quite a few things during our time. I am always in awe and deeply humbled when I or a member of the team is approached by individuals who share how inspiring we have been during their own entrepreneurial journey. I always try my best to lead and inspire others by my actions. And this is excites me the most about being an entrepreneur.
Paul Rameau is fashion brand that will aim to encourage others to take risk, tap into their fullest potential and live out their best life; “Live Your Renaissance”. It will be an assemble of styles that represents my father’s classic influence and wardrobe essentials with my modern, functional, street wear expressions.
Paul Rameau passed away due to Multiple Myeloma, a cancer that is formed in a type of white blood cell. It was the strength he showed during his worst of times that spoke to the man he was. Paul Rameau uses a burgundy paint swatch to remind others they have the control to paint out the life they desire to live and to also show support to patients and families who have also been affected by Multiple Myeloma.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
That’s hard to say. Everything happens the way God intended it to. I try to remember that it’s not my timing that’s important but his is. I do wish that I could go back a few years with the experience and knowledge I have now but I think that’s cheating haha.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://iamkreyol.com
- Email: info@iamkreyol.com
- Instagram: @iamkreyol
Image Credit:
Anthony Adamick
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