Rita From Piper + Enza Shares How They Help Parents Navigate Children's Health Experiences

Stickers on the Mic Podcast

Rita Ho-Bezzola is an entrepreneur based in Los Angeles with an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. After working at a furniture wholesale company, she decided to launch her own ventures, including establishing a raw material export company, creating a home furnishings wholesale and retail brand generating $22M in sales per year, as well as founding a local organic vegetarian eatery. She has extensive experience in international and domestic logistics, supply chain management, total quality management, and product development. As a mother of two, she strives to contribute to the well-being of the next generation in her future endeavors. Like millions of other parents around the world, the Covid pandemic turned Rita's life upside down. She started looking for resources that would support her in guiding her two young daughters through a strange and scary time. She was looking for any tool that could her help frame the conversation or give her the right words to say to make the situation easier for her kids to understand. This search brought with it a realization that for so many families, perhaps those with a sick child or parent, these conversations have to happen all the time. And because kids think about things so differently than we do, the words we use (and don’t use) matter when helping shape their perception. Piper + Enza wants to help kids and their families center on the good when faced with challenges, and to focus on the light as they are moving through the tunnel. The mission at Piper + Enza, a health and happiness company, is to support children and their families with the inevitable bumps and bruises of growing up, shifting the narrative from a place of fear to one of healing, knowledge and celebration. Using books, tools, toys, and resources developed in collaboration with early childhood educators, child life experts, pediatricians, and child psychologists, they want to give families strategies to navigate through the fears and unknowns of growing up and instead, support them in embracing the journey. Listen in to hear how Rita plans for the growth of the brand and other lessons she's picked up in the early days of this business.