learning more, deepening her knowledge, testing her products.
Caterina thought she had all the bases covered with her
new business. She was making a name for herself and people
trusted her. She reciprocated that trust. It hurt doubly when
her trust was broken again and history repeated itself. She
likened the pain to divorce. This time, it took some time before
she decided to re-open LaZuli Organics.
Caterina was able to dig in and build on what she had
-
es. She found cleaner and fairly
sourced ingredients. She acquired
more knowledge. She
told me that she looks at every
loss or time she dealt with
devastation as an opportunity
for growth. “You can bury
me, but I’m going to dig back
even harder!” We were sitting
in a cafe and she said that so
emphatically that everyone
turned to look. She laughed
and adjusted her volume.
“I came back even harder. I
want to trust people, but the reality
is that I can’t, and I can’t worry about
someone being offended. I’m not taking any
chances anymore. I’ve got my whole family that I’m
taking care of. My kids look at me... they’ve seen what I’ve
been through... when I was depressed and in bed balling my
eyes out... my kids saw this. My 18 year old just said to me,
‘Mom, I’m so proud of you,’ so it’s even more so now that I
can’t let my kids see me give up after all this time. They are
literally watching me... how I respond and what I do.”
Her perseverance was not an option. She is driven by
the fact that everyone on her mom’s side of the family has
died from cancer. Her mom is the only one left. She is not
only driven by her children, but by the deep desire to educate
people so they can make the right decisions.
Even a small step in the right
direction has an impact. She knew
that this was her purpose.
Today her business is
thriving. LaZuli Organics offers
a wide variety of makeup
and skin care products
that are 100% non-toxic, cruelty
free, fair trade, Paleo,
and gluten free. Everything
is organic botanically based
and formulated with raw
ingredients that are USDA
harvested. Because of what
she has been through, integrity
in the products, and
within her business are the
most important thing to her.
Even with her raw suppliers,
she only works with the best,
some for over 13 years. She emphasized
to me that she guarantees
the integrity of her products by
formulating and manufacturing in house. She feels it is important
to do that because if you outsource, you can’t really
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FLORIDA WOMEN MAGAZINE 813.682.9364 JULY 2019 • 31
/www.amomentwiththeclassics.com