Women In Wellness: Celestia Howe of Cofo Provisions On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Worry less. Someone once told me that worrying is like a rocking chair. It will give you something to do but it won’t get you anywhere. There’s so much to worry about these days, I think about all that I do have control over and you’ll have better luck with lifestyle tweak #4.
As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Celestia Howe of Cofo Provisions.
Celestia Howe is the Founder and Chief Community Officer of Cofo Provisions in Colorado.As an avid athlete and mom, Celestia created Cofo Provisions Marine Collagen to keep her feeling strong and energized. Celestia is committed to clean, environmentally-conscious collagen that helps others stay active and feel good inside.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your backstory with us?
I was working long hours at a tech company, competing in mountain bike races, taking care of my young daughter and I was physically exhausted all the time. I couldn’t have the usual bars and gels since I had been diagnosed with Celiac disease. That’s when I discovered that collagen could be a gut-friendly alternative to provide me with more energy and protein while also helping repair and renew my muscles and joints.
Collagen seemed like a perfectly nutrient-dense alternative. Only I had no idea where the collagen was coming from. I started to do some research and found that most of the collagen was from the hides of cows and pigs. Suddenly the easy to digest alternative made my stomach turn. I also found that most collagen was not sustainably sourced, which I knew was important to me and others. I decided that I was going to start a company that took into consideration where the collagen was coming from. I chose to work with Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) approved fisheries and use only organic, environmentally friendly ingredients.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
I had a life-changing moment during 2020 that further cemented my dedication to clean, real food. During the COVID lockdowns, I wasn’t sure if Cofo Provisions could make it as a company. I had a wonderful partner, Dan, who encouraged me to keep going. He believed in Cofo and my mission. However, in the summer of 2020, he developed a rare neurological condition caused by toxicity in bovine meat. He fought as hard as he could but unfortunately passed away later that fall. As devastated as I was, I knew now that I needed to find the highest quality collagen without toxins if I were to continue forward. No one should worry about ingesting toxins in their food.
After Dan died, I created D’s Trees and Greens which gives a percentage of Cofo sales to local nonprofits committed to helping provide low-income families with affordable organic foods. The big lesson I learned that year was that life is fragile and I no longer treated Cofo Provisions as just a company but as a community.
Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Cofo Provisions officially started as a marine collagen, MCT protein mix. MCT was hot and we were chasing that trend. We created single-serve packaging in what we thought were easy to sell boxes. Only no one knew what to do with them. Was it a supplement? Was it food? How do I use it? Our messaging was to jump on the MCT keto trend and hope everyone would know what to do. Kind of like Moira from Schitt’s Creek telling David to just fold the cheese in. We weren’t 100% behind our product, and it showed.
Consumers will stick with a trend, but they won’t stick with your product necessarily. I needed to get back to the root of why I started Cofo in the first place. I decided that I wasn’t going to go for what’s hot, but for what I believed in and that was becoming a sustainably sourced, wild USA marine collagen company providing the highest quality marine collagen on the market. The community and consumers will stick by your product when they know that your values align. Authenticity was key. We had to get back to what we believed in.
Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
I want to increase physical and emotional well-being through clean, sustainably-sourced collagen. When we are outside doing the things we love, surrounded by our friends and nature, we feel abundant. I want Cofo collagen to help our joints, bones and gut stay healthy so people can enjoy the outside, connect with their communities and live vibrant lives no matter their age.
I also want to build awareness toward how our food choices impact Earths’ natural resources. Nourishing your body clean food that has a low environmental footprint and is sustainably-sourced not only helps you feel better, it helps create a healthier Earth for us to live in. This intrinsic connection between Earth and our food defines our values and our commitment to clean, sustainable and bioethical collagen.
Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.
1. Start the morning with a daily intention that answers the question, What is right for me — right now? Sometimes the answer is a focus on self-care, an introspective hike in the woods, taking time to just sit in quiet or focusing on fun. This simple practice helps me live the day aligned in higher energy and balance.
2. Get outside and move around. I know it’s not easy for everyone, but you can get outside and walk around even in a big city. It not only clears my mind, but it makes me grateful to be in the world.
3. Drink a green juice mid-morning or early afternoon. In the morning I make a green juice to take to work. Instead of going out for lunch or eating a carb-heavy bar, this is my go-to habit. I blend oat keifer, spinach, parsley, celery, ginger, turmeric, 2 tbsp of Cofo collagen and water and put it in a Glass Jar. There is no formal ‘recipe’ I just add and blend! Since there is collagen protein, it keeps me going until I get back home.
4. Sleep. As we get older, sleep doesn’t always come easy. I like to set a bedtime for myself, just like I did with my daughter. This way, I have a goal to get into bed at a certain time without any electronics nearby and start to wind down.
5. Worry less. Someone once told me that worrying is like a rocking chair. It will give you something to do but it won’t get you anywhere. There’s so much to worry about these days, I think about all that I do have control over and you’ll have better luck with lifestyle tweak #4.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Our tagline is “Be Outside Feel Good Inside”. What that means to me is by putting good clean food into your body, you start to feel good inside. Being outside only elevates that feeling. I would love more than anything to create a community based around the outdoors and access to clean, real food. My mental health is directly impacted by what I eat. When I eat poorly, I feel low. Our focus should be back to the basics; enjoying the world outside while ensuring that our food is from the cleanest sources possible.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
1. Success doesn’t happen overnight. I know this seems obvious, it’s exciting to start something you’re passionate about, but it’s also essential to have patience, grit and an intense belief in your purpose.
2. Just because you think your product is amazing doesn’t mean everyone will automatically agree. Collagen is something people love or have no idea what you’re talking about. Educating our community about the benefits of marine collagen became a top priority for us.
3. People kind of suck. The truth is when you’re just starting out people will try to take advantage of you because they know you need them to grow your business. You’re the little fry. Do your research on any company you choose to work with and that means learning and observing how they treat their customers and if they actually deliver. If you can account for this, you’ll be more innovative, leaner and save money in the long run. The happiest day of Cofo was when I fired our bully commercial kitchen and moved to a bigger FDA-certified manufacturing outfit.
4. Being the little fish in a big pond means making sacrifices and having the resilience to be okay with mistakes. Don’t let the mistake linger, fix it, learn from it, move on.
5. Hire people based on their work ethic, not their resume. When you’re in startup mode, it’s all hands-on deck, so you may have a worker that is less qualified on paper, but willing to learn and jump in wherever they are needed.
Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
I would have to say it’s a mashup between sustainability and environmental changes, which ultimately affects mental health. Cofo is dedicated to working with vendors who are sustainably sourced and bioethical. We partner with Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) approved fisheries working to make our ocean healthier for future generations. This isn’t always easy, but if we didn’t hold to our values, we would be giving up what makes Cofo authentic.
What is the best way our readers can follow you online?
Find us on Instagram @cofoprovisions and our website Cofoprovisions.com. I would encourage your readers to go to our website and sign up for our monthly newsletter that provides recipes and articles about how marine collagen can help your overall health and wellness.
Thank you for these fantastic insights!
Women In Wellness: Celestia Howe of Cofo Provisions On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.