Exploring Life & Business with Caleb Quashen of Caleb B Quashen International

Today we’d like to introduce you to Caleb Quashen.

Hi Caleb, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Well, it is quite a story so lets see how I can best paint the picture in a summed up version!

Being in gems and jewelry is such a unique industry, there are a lot of layers to it and growing in such an industry can be a complicated, confusing process that my company and I traverse daily. Most of the gem and jewelry trade, the gem trade especially, is a very generational industry. Businesses are passed down, inventories are inherited, networks are provided, etc. Being born and raised in Los Angeles, starting a loose gemstone business from scratch in your 20’s to become a first generation gem dealer from LA is just not something that commonly exists, due to the aforementioned nature of the trade.

Never in a million years did I think I would be here, doing what I am doing but sometimes a plan bigger than our own exists and it is our duty on this journey of life to steward that plan once we arrive.

Little did I know that my life pre gem dealer was preparing me to be that steward of this greater plan. I was born in Van Nuys and lived your normal childhood in the 90’s; pogs, yoyos, nickelodeon, are you afraid of the dark, cassette tapes, man I remember it all. Somewhere around 1995 I was gifted a small collection of geodes, amethyst clusters and agate slices by an aunt and uncle after expressing interest. In the same time period I was allowed to get a piece of fluorite from the LA Zoo as a souvenir, I truly believed I was rich after receiving them and these were definitely the initial “seeds” planted.

As a young child, I always felt very sensitive, hyper aware of others/their energy and kind of an omnipresent feeling of being inadequate from a young age. Being so dang sensitive my whole life often felt like a burden but later when entering this industry it would become a blessing, one to be used to develop equitable relationships in our business.

Childhood went on but took a turn when I was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 8. After losing my hair, missing the 3rd grade, living in UCLA for a year on and off and my whole body composition changing, this was a lot to cope with as a little boy. This experience sort of exploited the insecurities and sensitivities I already felt, making them more tangible when it was all in my head before.

I went in to remission, life went on, I did my best to fit in and wear a smile but quietly I was changed. I carried this certain feeling of inadequacy for years that grew stronger in to my teen years. While I had already experimented prior, the summer going in to 10th grade I was more heavily introduced to drugs and alcohol. This is when I really discovered that I could ingest a substance that would temporarily evaporate the psychological and emotional weight I secretly, almost unknowingly carried around. At this time, it lead to me being hooked.

Over the coming year, addiction would begin to take over my life, stripping away my high school experience, friends, passions and inevitably, me. Treatment centers became a normal place of reprieve for me and eventually I was expelled from school during my senior year. My habits and a relationship took me to Viva Las Vegas where I tried to change my life around but could not.

While old friends were graduating and going off to universities, I was learning some [hard] life lessons of my own. Eventually I made it back to LA where my addiction spiraled worse and worse, it is no joke when an addiction graduates from mental to physical. Somehow I managed to get a high school diploma a year late from an independent study program. Life was pretty glum for some time while I chased “fun” accruing my bumps and bruises.

Toward the end of 2009 desperation became willingness and I asked for help rather than having it forced upon me. I entered treatment, once again, but on my own will. I was not exactly ready yet but I was close. I struggled a bit more, getting myself kicked out of treatment and back on the streets of Hollywood. A couple months later I sought help again and ended up in treatment in Bakersfield, CA. Bakersfield may as well of been a different country for this Southern Californian mess, it was precisely the culture shock and change of demographic I needed.

I detoxed and struggled a bit to fully surrender but my willingness to keep wrestling with my addiction was fizzling away. Oh, I met a girl in treatment early on in Bakersfield too (if you’re reading this and early in recovery, do not do that lol, it usually ends bad but this one has a happy ending (read on)) In spring of 2010 I finally started putting together real sobriety time, healing and changing. I took deep looks within, approached the unhealthy coping mechanisms and dissected what caused me to feel how I felt and act how I did.

I did have one more relapse in the beginning of 2012 that fully brought me to me knees, leading to the faith I have and bringing me precisely to where I am today; my sobriety date is April 22nd, 2012. That girl I met, she and I were still together during this journey and when I relapsed she was my “Why” to come back and start doing the right things again. I found me again, the real me. I found faith, I became a child all over again, I let myself laugh, I let myself learn, I let myself hurt without reverting to old ways. I sort of experienced childhood, coming of age and adulthood in light speed those first few years of recovery.

I have had many different jobs throughout the years but ended up working my way up in the fitness industry at this time. I managed a couple different gyms before landing as a General Manager for Golds Gym of Southern California. After a couple of years there, capping out and then being asked if I could change my wedding date because “we have a sale that day”, I knew my time there was done. I had been through way too much in my life to wake up that unhappy each day so without a plan, I listened to my intuition and left Golds Gym in 2015.

That being said, while at Golds, remember that girl I met in Bakersfield? Her name is Kristen and we got engaged which revealed the DTLA diamond district to me in a deeper level. I had been a few other times so in ways, my interest was already piqued but this fast tracked it. When shopping for an engagement ring and making her another custom ring, I was really fascinated by the process; the stones, the potential, the history, the art… I learned of a Rose Cut at this time and began doing all sorts of my own research which lead me to eBay (This is another unadvisable action, if you want legitimate, high quality gemstones, eBay is NOT your best bet). Of course you can treasure hunt and find good deals or special things but this is a gamble so know your risk tolerance.

Anyway, I purchased a few rustic fancy color opaque rose cut diamonds from a vendor in good ol’ Surat, India. I was ingesting as much information and knowledge as I could each day about gemstones, where they come from, how they are formed, the trade, diamond tenders, ethics and more. I received the diamonds a few weeks later and loved them, they were set aside to make something for Kristen later on.

After leaving Golds I decompressed for a moment while trying to figure out what to do. I did not know where I would end up but promised myself that I would never work for someone else ever again. I started real estate courses and began seeking abandoned properties, estate sales, thrift stores and craigslist as I was interested in anything old world, oddities and antiques. I started sourcing and selling things like taxidermy, architectural salvage items and rusty industrial treasures. I’d frame old prints from books as wall art and scour beaches around Malibu for deceased animals that I could macerate the bones (soak and clean them) to make unique displays with. It sounds creepy, I know, but it allows appreciation of life even after death.We had next to no money at this time, were newlyweds and I was technically unemployed. Daily was a creative hustle to figure out what I could find and what I could sell to help pay the bills.

Everyone close to me thought I was crazy and needed to find “a real job” but the oddities and antiques actually started to gain some traction. Still, pressure of no steady income was still real. I ended up making a Craigslist post for those rustic rose cut diamonds I had where they got a lot of interest, eventually selling for a fair profit. I realized there was something to it and sought out more of these stones instead of it being a one time thing. I kept learning, sometimes hard lessons, all about gems, diamonds and jewelry. As I made additional purchases, I started using craigslist, etsy and instagram as platforms to network and create a brand image.

Gems soon gained more steam than the antiques and oddities had so I shifted my focus fully on to making something out of nothing with gemstones. I closed the books on entering real estate and went all in on gems. I remember how terrified I was to make my first $1,000 purchase on some uniquely included rose cut diamonds. Sometimes, it is overcoming that internal voice of fear or worry that we have by having faith in our purpose and our abilities that enables our victories. We are our own greatest assets, we need to have confidence in our capabilities.

Early on in my gem journey, I realized that very few stones unearthed actually made it to market as gems for jewelry. If only 3-5% of mined stones made it to market, I was committed to understanding where the other 95-97% ended up. In seeking to understand, I also realized a lot of artisanal miners are not getting paid fairly or for their full efforts to unearth the stones as standard procedure has often been that buyers select only the highest quality stones, leaving most behind.

It is not like I came in to this industry with a bunch of capital, every purchase I made was potentially a bill my wife and I could not pay. That, along with my past, having an appreciation for the obscure and caring deeply about integrity and equitable relationships concreted a vision for what I wanted to create early on. It became my goal to source the missing 95-97% not just the 3-5%. Not only because it was more affordable at the time but because I wanted to pay homage to miraculous creation, to uniqueness, to turbulent journeys and to those that work so hard to bring the rough stones to light.

I started sourcing and cutting stones with unusual colors and internal characteristics, not hiding imperfections but showcasing and honoring them. I realized most consumers and even tons of designers only worked with, sourced or even knew about things like colorless diamonds, blue sapphires and purple tanzanites. I made it my duty to bring unique stones to market; salt and pepper diamonds, unusual shapes and cuts, unheated multi color mermaid hue tanzanites, multi color sapphires that boasted truly rare traits all while balancing earthy, ethical and luxurious. This caught on and I was seemingly able to educate our growing audience while also providing a fresh perspective on gems. You see, there is this narrative that was so often regurgitated in the gem and jewelry trade, a narrative that often kept gems and jewelry myopic, center stones anti climactic and a narrow controlled supply chain.

I feel the last ten years this little business that I started and continue to grow may not have started the actual movement of making gems and jewelry expressions of art again and of having a transparent approach to business but has definitely been responsible for speeding it up. . Everyone once rejected unique, rejected inclusions, rejected things that were different but the tides have changed and we work with thousands of designers globally that embrace truly one of a kind perfectly, imperfect center stones to design around. While our reach and capabilities have grown we are true to how we started by representing earth, by representing the underdogs, by representing that just like every person, every stone has a place and a purpose.

We have been around for 11 years now working as both B2B and direct to consumer as the worlds leading source for ethically sourced obscure stones and fine jewels. You can still find classic, high end diamonds and royal blue sapphires with us but truly one of a kind stones boasting abstract characteristics that are literally one of a kind, is where we find the most excitement. We work direct with mines, miners and tenders around the world, have cutting in house as well as overseas lapidaries and offer a tailored experience in to the world of mine to market gemstones.

Oh and that seller on eBay from Surat that I purchased those very first two rose cut diamonds from, he is a very close friend of mine now, we see each other regularly and I have been partnered with his family for ten years for manufacturing of many of our diamonds. We are doing our best here to be good stewards of this opportunity we have been blessed with. We now have a small team here, two kids and a myriad of incredible people around the world that work for or with us that benefit from what we have created here. The appreciation we have for your support goes beyond words, it is remarkable that we have managed to do this and so many people vibe with us, appreciating these unique treasures the way we do. Thank you, truly.

“Times of discomfort are opportunities for growth.”

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Smooth? Not at all but I believe there is no losing, only learning. They say, “the only thing guaranteed in business is problems.” growing and scaling is something we constantly are trying to learn to navigate as trust around high value items and infrastructure makes hiring and role designation complicated.

As you know, we’re big fans of Caleb B Quashen International. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
We are a world leading supplier of earths most unique diamonds and colored gemstones.

We are a direct mine to market loose gemstone company specializing in truly one of a kind pieces; we believe that just like all people, all stones have a place and a purpose.

CBQ INT is known for our fresh, earth and ethics centric, rugged x refined take on gemstones.

I am incredibly proud of the fact that we ensure ethics go beyond our sourcing but also translate in to how we price. A lot of companies will talk about ethical or responsible sourcing yet use it as a sales tool to increase their profit margins, not keep them ethical. Additionally, it is my belief that the more profit that is made, the more we should give back.

Our ethos should not only be in harmony with our business but even with our personal lives. When we mention ethics here, it is not merely marketing or empty words used to make sales; kindness, transparency and being a light in this world is who we aspire to be as people daily, not only a brand image.

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I tend to get emotionally attached to almost every stone that crosses my desk. Seriously though, daily I geek out of these precious little pebbles.

However, I have a healthy respect for the fact that we are conduits for these little treasures and it is an honor to get them to their makers or forever homes.

It is so rewarding to know that stones we brought in to wearable existence are now out in the wild being cherished by others.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.calebbquashen.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/calebbquashen