Suzannah Raff of Cleo+Coco: “Why you need a strong support system to develop resilience”

I think it’s important to have a support system who you can talk things over with to help get clarity; To help you feel sure whether it’s time to give up or time to get stronger and keep moving.

I had the pleasure to interview Suzannah Raff. Suzannah is a New York native and mother of four who is committed to living an authentic life spiritually, physically, and professionally. Over the years, she has earned both a Master’s degree in Business along with a Master’s degree in Social Work. Cleo+Coco was born out of a passion to learn more about toxic ingredients, the negative effect they have on our bodies and the benefits of plant based ingredients to create authentic products that are safe and effective. After years of listening, experimenting, teaching and learning Cleo+Coco’s next generation of natural was born.

Thank you so much for joining us Suzannah! Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you share with us the most interesting story from your career? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘take aways’ you learned from that?

Every day is another lesson. As a founder there are always so many moving pieces that you are juggling. The best thing is to always trust your instinct. It takes time to build your network and make the necessary connections to help your business.

When I first started out I had a manufacturer who said he could make my deodorants. 100 % natural deodorants are a very tricky product to make — they are what’s called a ‘hot pour’ they have to be poured into the containers as soon as the ingredients are melted at very high temperatures or else it will solidify very fast and it’s almost impossible to melt it down again. At least not a stable formula like ours. He tried to manufacture it in 2 steps, he tried to melt down barrels of solidified deodorant. It took us days to melt the barrels and get them to pour into our containers. It was such a fail. The main takeaway here is to always trust your instincts. I knew deep down it would never work that way but I let him go ahead and try and we lost a lot of time and money as a result.

But every business has that type of experience. It makes you want to give up. But you can’t let it get to you. You just take it in stride and know better next time. Just keep pushing forward through the disasters, you’ll never make the same mistakes again.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

We only use quality ingredients that do their job and aim to be completely authentic. There are brands that still hide synthetic or dangerous ingredients in their deck and claim that they are natural. We stand out because of this. The ultimate compliment has been when the gurus of the natural/clean beauty world come by our booth at a shows, look through our ingredient deck, sampled our product and then buy them for themselves and to stock in their own stores.

One of my motivations in developing Cleo+Coco products was to provide products that I felt were safe for my pregnant/nursing self and now my pre-teen children to use. That meant minimizing our exposure to toxic chemicals and hormone-disrupting fragrances, aluminum and talc. It is interesting to note that my maternal grandfather was a chemist and came to New York from Europe as a holocaust survivor and built a very successful spice factory together with his brother. So it seems that formulating is in my blood. Really, it’s in my fingertips and my nose. I can smell a new dish and recreate it from sensing the spices. Same with perfumes. And now I’m able to reformulate natural deodorants into what they should be, Clean+Confident, Conscious and pleasurable without compromise.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

Everyone in this industry is very supportive and helpful. But I am particularly grateful to my husband and family for the financial backing to get Cleo+Coco up and running. As many people are aware, women have a much harder time getting funding for their start-ups than men.

Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of this interview. We would like to explore and flesh out the trait of resilience. How would you define resilience? What do you believe are the characteristics or traits of resilient people?

Never giving up.

Pushing forward.

Not taking things personally.

Learning to pivot,

Accepting feedback and using it for positive change.

Keeping going.

When you think of resilience, which person comes to mind? Can you explain why you chose that person?

I’m a swimmer. So when I’m in the middle of doing my laps, I think of accomplished athletes like Serena Williams and try to channel a tiny bit of her inner strength to get through.

Did you have any experiences growing up that have contributed to building your resiliency? Can you share a story?

I wrote a Master’s Thesis at a very competitive Master’s program. My professors and thesis committee were extremely demanding. It was more like a mini PhD than a Master’s. That was the first time my limits were pushed and pushed. I wrote for days and days only to have them tear it apart and make me write it over again and again. This went on for a year. Each time you hand it in you feel like you’ve given it all you’ve got. Then they make you re-write it. And it keeps getting better and you keep growing and improving and getting better. Building a business is just like that. I remember how much I learned about my abilities and inner strength during that period of my life and I think, I’m doing another PhD now too. Keep pushing those boundaries within yourself. Just keep going.

Resilience is like a muscle that can be strengthened. In your opinion, what are 5 steps that someone can take to become more resilient? Please share a story or an example for each.

1. I think it’s important to have a support system who you can talk things over with to help get clarity; To help you feel sure whether it’s time to give up or time to get stronger and keep moving.

2. It’s important to have balance; Yoga, swimming, hiking, whatever you enjoy the most. Ways to clear your head and get your endorphins going. Everything is always more clear after a good work-out or meditation.

3. Journal your progress. That way you can see how strong you really are and how far you’ve come.

4. Surround yourself through books or in real life, with resilient role models.

5. Learn to dance and pivot and move even if it’s not forward, keep moving.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

We are slowly introducing zero-waste packaging into our products. Our first is our plastic-free zero-waste deodorant bar that comes in a cotton travel friendly bag and a paper board box. Our body powder/dry shampoo is refillable so you only need to buy one container and the rest comes refillable kraft paper container. Plastic is streaming into our oceans at an alarming rate — the equivalent of one dump-truck load per minute. By 2050, some scientists estimate there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. As a leader in the all-natural personal care space, we want to be leaders and educators helping to eliminating plastic from our products and reducing our load on polluting the oceans. We are researching switching our plastic with either container free bars or fibers like bamboo instead.

We are blessed that some very prominent leaders read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them :-)

Just one? Sheryl Sandberg. Love her resilience and brilliance. She is such a role model to all women.

How can our readers follow you on social media?

@cleoandcoconatural

@suzannahraff