Suhein Beck – ELAJ, LLC

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. I’m thrilled to have this guest on on with me this week. Today. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m so excited that you’re here. So let me introduce you. Uh, and then we’re going to jump right into the meat and potatoes of our conversation today. So having spent 15 years at the highest ranking leadership positions in property management to launching a product to global mass retail, and less than five years from no capital or investors, she can talk about her long trail of mistakes and failures that led her to what she calls baby step successes. Please join me in welcoming an actual modern day Amazon warrior from the ancient tribes of the Circassians from the Caucasus Mountains. A bold thinker and an unstoppable force for change. Suhein Beck, welcome to the show.

Suhein Beck : Thank you so much, Trisha. What a great introduction. Thank you, I appreciate it. You’re welcome.

Trisha Stetzel: I know it always feels really neat when somebody gets your bio in front of you, right? Um, I’m so excited about having you on the show. So tell us more about Suhein and the work that you’re doing right now. And then we’ll get into this discussion around Code of Honor.

Suhein Beck : Okay. Um, my ideal day is having an audience like here with your podcasting audience, um, or a stage of, you know, conference leaders and whatnot and getting them fired up about this one word in the English language that is practically been virtually erased. And this word is used in context and like two occasions and you’re in the I mean, you were in the Navy, so the Navy and the Marines hold this word in high regard. Other than that, in typical society, that word no longer is used. Whereas 50, 60, 70 years ago, this word was constantly on the minds of mothers, women that wanted to get married, men that wanted that word to be associated with them. Right.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah.

Suhein Beck : You know what word I’m talking about. So and I think that’s the reason you invited me, because I know as an ex-Navy, this word resonates with you. Yeah. So go ahead. I’m going to give you this. You introduced the word you so soon?

Trisha Stetzel: I don’t want to mess everything up and come up with the wrong word, but I feel like this word is honor.

Suhein Beck : Yes. I just I still get goosebumps. Like, that’s how important and sacred that word is.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. I and you’re right. You know, as.

Suhein Beck : A Navy, I know this is your podcast. Forgive me, but what does it mean to you as a woman, as ex-military, like in the Navy? Like, what does that word mean to you?

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. There’s so much, I think, brevity around just the word honor. It means many things to me. Um, and making it very simple. Things like do what you say, say what you do. If you tell someone you’re going to do something, then you need to go do it. And if you don’t do it, then you need to stand up, put your big girl pants on and go tell the person that you’re not going to get it done right and make it right. It’s about doing the hard things, and it’s also about taking care of other people. So and I could go on and on and on. It means so much. But those are probably the three things that come to mind right away when I think about the word honor. Do what you say, take care of other people and make right if it’s wrong.

Suhein Beck : I love how your number two is. Take care of other people and I’m going to focus on that, okay? Because we live in the most individualistic society on the planet. America is known and it’s been measured. And believe it or not, statistically speaking, we are 92% identified as the most individualistic. So what does that mean when you say to take care of other people? Huh? Well, you’re taking the individual and putting them back into communal. Right. The concept of honor, conversely, would mean shame. Mhm. So in our society of individualism, how does shame even come into play? It doesn’t. True. Because if you’re not really part of a community, you don’t belong to a church, a synagogue, a temple, a mosque. You don’t have the PTA, the other mothers and dads. If you don’t have the soccer teams, if you don’t have, you know, your you know, I belong to the National Speakers Association. You know, your your other communal connections. Then how will that shame even trigger a response to you that I did something right or wrong. Unless you’re a company and you get a Yelp review. And then there’s the PR team and the lawyers that clean that up because we pay them for.

Suhein Beck : We pay our insurance companies to pay for, you know, errors and omissions. So as soon as we as individuals recognize that we don’t have the quality control mechanisms of society that we used to have, like in my culture, which is a 7000 year old culture. And thank you for recognizing me as a Circassian because I come from the Caucasus. We are an indigenous tribe that inhabited our land for 7000 plus years, continuously uninterrupted. Until the Russian Empire came. We had a 101 year war. They finally exiled and genocided us. In fact, May 21st is our memorial and we have been exiled, amputated from our land for 161 years. So who is a Circassian? Believe it or not, if you look up the word Circassian, if you look up our culture, our heritage, anthropologically speaking, we are known for our code of honor. So imagine having that heritage on your shoulders and taking that into the business world of America. And that is the culture shock of culture shocks. So so that’s the way that I would introduce myself, is that I’m carrying a really, really heavy load. Of this concept culturally, of a code of honor in a society that is so individualistic.

Speaker4: It’s my life.

Suhein Beck : I can’t sing. Sorry. Can you sing that song? Do you like. Do you know it?

Trisha Stetzel: I know, I know which song you’re talking about. Yeah. Maybe we could play that.

Suhein Beck : Congrats that you picked up. Even on the tone. On the tune.

Speaker4: It’s my life.

Suhein Beck : That is the mantra. So boo hoo. If you don’t like what I’m doing. Cry me a river. Well, me as a Circassian, I can’t do that. We are restricted to what’s called a degree, which is a very, very strict code of honor. And it is infused in us as children to the point where the opposite word means shame. So we’re constantly vacillating between honoring Not just our who we are as individuals, our direct family and our ancestors. Seven generations back, we are required to know who our lineage is seven generations because we have to keep them in mind how honorable they were, what sacrifices they made, how were they known to society? And then we’re sandwiched because we’re constantly thinking, how will this reflect on our legacy and our children and our next generations and seven generations forward? Because what’s honorable today may not have been honorable then, or may it be honorable in seven generations forward. So so imagine that level of constant vacillation between yourself and making decisions. And I’ll give you a prime example. When I started my manufacturing company for my skincare, my family’s skincare, which my grandfather was a doctor, he created it for wound care. I was blown away. And I only started this like 14 or 15 years ago.

Suhein Beck : I’m thinking, because, you know, we grew up with this constant, like America products are the best. You know, we’ll do anything. We’ll go to the black market to take American products. And I was born in Syria, which the US sanctions just got lifted days ago. I’ve never, ever, ever remembered being able to buy American products except on the black market or smuggled through Lebanon. We fought for American products. Any appliance, any clothing, shampoo, toothpaste, bear medicine for aspirin. We fought for American products. Little did we know. And this is the thing I do believe America had honor in manufacturing, where Hoover’s, you know, frigidaires those appliances lasted a lifetime. But when we came into a temporary generation of individualism of I don’t care, the warranty will cover it. And if it doesn’t, boohoo buy another one. Yeah. So. So then the reality, my reality of discovering America came when I was a manufacturer, when I found out. And I’m looking and I’m searching and I’m like, okay, I just figured out how to manufacture my grandfather’s skincare product. Now I’m going to put the ingredients on the label in the exact, precise measurements. Who’s going to check the health and safety? Fda? Wow.

Suhein Beck : Whoa! Hello. Knock knock knock knock knock knock knock. There was nobody. My mind was. And I’m like. Wait, what? So all of my cosmetics, all of my moisturizer, all my personal care products. Trisha. All my personal care products from Johnson and Johnson baby shampoo. Those dyes are no more tears, but the baby’s crying. What? What? Oh my God. All these years. Where the hell is the honor? That’s when I had an identity crisis. That, like. Okay, wait. So I’m claiming all of my products are 100% natural. Who’s going to verify that? My vitamin E, which is so expensive, I get it imported from Europe, not from China. Who’s going to verify that that is because it’s a whole lot cheaper. If I say vitamin E, natural vitamin E, but it’s not. The synthetic grade is one fourth the price. And that’s when I knew that all the products out there that say vitamin E. And then I started freaking out and I was like, I’m not buying American products anymore because there are no regulation industries like the standards, the industries, the quality control, there ain’t none. There’s no Inspector 13 I don’t I don’t think you’re old enough.

Trisha Stetzel: I oh, I know about Inspector 13 I had things.

Suhein Beck : What brand?

Trisha Stetzel: Well, I don’t remember, but I know that there was an underwear. Oh, it was fruit of the loom. I was like, it’s some piece of clothing. Fruit of the loom. I’m old enough. Come on.

Suhein Beck : You are my age. So you do remember. Um. So, Inspector 13. She was a cute little old lady I remember. Where is my inspector? 13 and verify that I as a manufacturer. What I’m claiming really is because I want to show off. I’m getting the best ingredients. I know my suppliers. I look them in the eyes directly. I know who they are. I know who they’re. They’re their soil, how their soil is. Like. I ask those questions. I know my honey supplier. I know avocado honey. So that was mind blowing. So for me, this concept of carrying my culture into America, into the business world, was this tug of war between conscious and profitability and conscious and profitability. And there’s like no one else that cares as long as I don’t have any adverse reactions. I had my product. 000. Okay, okay. So then I was like, okay, where do I get my product tested? For reactions. Allergic reactions. Uh. There’s nobody. Wait, what? So I had my product I independently went and invested in, like, this is very expensive to get an independent clinic, to get 100 participants, to study them, to question them, and then to apply the product onto their skin for a period of time. Check for adverse reactions, document that and provide that information to me. Give me a rough number. How much do you think that would cost?

Trisha Stetzel: Oh gosh. You said it’s very expensive. It’s probably tens of thousands of dollars, so I don’t. You’re right. Yeah. Okay. 100 participants are paid, and then you have to pay the scientist or the person who’s running the study. Like I could imagine what a production that would be. As an independent owner. Independent man. Right.

Suhein Beck : Trish? I started out of a street fair in Palm Springs, California. Palm Springs desert. I was pitching a tent at 430 in the morning in order for me to introduce my product. And the thing is, is that I made, I don’t know, like 250 something dollars my first weekend. I worked that street fair nonstop, almost ten years. Well, from October 1st through Memorial Day. That’s the season. Yeah, they’re all in the summer because it’s too hot in the desert. Um, customers started coming back to me and they’re saying, like, you know what’s in this product? You know, it’s working on my eczema. Do you have steroids in here. Swear to God, I did not know what the hell they were talking about. Steroids. And I’m like. You mean like. Like Arnold Schwarzenegger?

Trisha Stetzel: Like I’m gonna get big muscles. Why would I.

Suhein Beck : Have, like, anabolic steroids in a skincare product? I was that naive to not know that they were talking about topical steroids, hydrocortisone, corticosteroids. I did not know any of this. So apparently other products and manufacturers sneak steroids into their products for that instant results. Because steroids are magic.

Trisha Stetzel: And the long term effect is not just. Yes.

Suhein Beck : So so take that. Five years later, I actually wrote a book called Topical Steroid Side Effects, and it was a number one bestseller. And the foreword was written by the top dermatologist on the planet dealing with this issue. And so go from someone who’s completely naive, to the point where I did enough research that I could write a nonfiction medical book, and it ranked like number two in dermatology. Like, it’s kind of ridiculous. But anyway, I started from zero not knowing anything about manufacturing quality control standards and whatnot. And I am happy to say, and this is not a pitch, this is not a sales pitch. This is for your audience to think about the tough decisions of honor versus culture in America and business, and how capitalistic it is that something needs to change.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah.

Suhein Beck : You know, so yeah, my product did really well. The customers kept coming back. And then I ended up going global and licensing, and I was in like every Walmart, every bed Bath and Beyond nationwide. Like it went that well. But why? It was because I cared to look my suppliers in the eyes? Who are you? And it was the same Circassian concept. Like. Who’s your grandfather? And what did he do? And you know, how long have you had this land and how long have you been farming and what kind of, you know, la la.

Speaker5: La la la la la. Do you use.

Suhein Beck : Like, that level of, you know, I need to know who your lineage is. I need to know. Are you honorable?

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. So tell me what. What advice do you have for people who are listening today that they don’t have the same background as you, right? They’re they’re not an actual modern day Amazon. Right? But someone who grew up here, who’s very used to the, uh, nonuse of the word honor or being honorable. What advice or tips would you give to those people to start infusing that behavior and even the word into their business or everyday life?

Suhein Beck : Short of getting a tattoo and I, I, I.

Speaker5: Tattoos.

Suhein Beck : Um, you know, everybody does a mission statement. Everyone does, you know, their their vision statement, mission statements, their mantra. Okay. So for example, my mantra on every single jar, every marketing is let the healing begin. What is my focus? My focus is healing, I trademarked that. So what is my focus? What is my promise? My promise is my focus is on your healing in that is my code of honor. I am not a successful business person. But I have a legacy. There are mothers that were able to sleep because this product helped their baby sleep through the night without itching and scratching to bleeding. That’s enough for me. So I hope to die an honorable death. I hope that when people remember me and I’m going to get emotional. They will say the word honor. And that will bring the seven generations back and the seven generations forward. I am sandwiched between 7 and 7, and every one back forward will remember Sue Hanback as having been honorable and trustworthy. That this product brought honor to the name. So for the audience and for everyone else, that concept. So whatever your your industry. So you are a real estate agent. When you represent both clients, think about it. It’s a double commission. Are you really going to be able to represent the buyer and the seller their best interests. Are you going to just hide behind your fiduciary responsibility and say, I am a fiduciary? I am a real estate broker. I get it. But like, come on, who who who are you.

Speaker5: Fooling, fool?

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah.

Suhein Beck : So again. Now imagine, conversely, you’re a real estate agent and you say I’m going to represent the seller. I have a buyer. This is tough. And you disclose to both and you say, you know, whatever. I’ve literally turned down one. I’ve gotten so much more multiple business as a result. Like, literally that person later wanted me to create their investment portfolio of properties. That was a test. And I am I’m looking you in the eyes on camera. And I’m telling you, this person would write me checks. Not even seeing properties. And they’re like Suhan. You decide. Here’s the down payment for whatever you want. Go buy. Oh my God. Wow. And it was because I turned down being a dual agent in the state of California. It wasn’t allowed. And then it became allowed. They knew. But the lobby is stronger. So on the perfume industry, you know, the perfume industry is not required to disclose anything about their ingredients. That’s why you can’t find ingredients in your perfumes. They’re one of the most powerful lobbies. So again, for the audience to answer your question, it’s personal. It’s unwritten. It’s you No one can dictate this. No one can. But think about it this way as seven generations back, seven generations forward, like a Caucasian Amazon. I would be honored if your audience remembers that. That would be amazing, because.

Speaker5: Oh.

Trisha Stetzel: And I think that they will write, uh, coming from such a special place. And, man, uh, I know you’re not going to believe me, but we’re already at the back end of our conversation today. And I thought when we began, I told you earlier, we’re probably going to have to have you back for a second episode of Suhan so that we can have more conversation. My mind is completely blown. Um, I, I do a lot of study in the health and wellness space. It’s a big area for me, uh, of discovery over the last 20 years. And when you told me that the, um, ingredients in cosmetics are not regulated and there’s no Inspector 13, like, my mind was blown. And now we’re going to talk about perfume. And they don’t even put ingredients on their bottles. And I’m just blown away. So I would not just want to have you back to talk about those things, but you’re such a great leader, such an honorable woman, and I can only imagine the type of work you do in your business and probably mentoring other businesses around this honorable culture. And I’d love for you to come back and talk about that with me. Would you do that? Okay. I would love that. So, Susan, if people want to connect with you because I know that they do, you’re a plethora of knowledge. Like you have so much and you’re such a neat human being and such a big heart. If they want to connect with you right away, how can they find you?

Suhein Beck : You see, I get so emotional. I mean, it’s real.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh, it’s all real. For those of you who are not watching the video, you need to go to my YouTube channel and watch the video. This is all real. And and Susan grabbed a tissue for her nose before we started. And now she needs it for her eyes. Oh, and I hope it wasn’t me that made you cry. I.

Suhein Beck : That’s okay.

Trisha Stetzel: We have this really cool connection, and I want you to come back and talk to me some more about it. Yeah.

Suhein Beck : Yes. Suhan calm. And it’s s u h e n. We didn’t know it was I before e when we got off the boat.

Trisha Stetzel: I love this, you have been such a joy to have on today. I, I just, I could just sit here and listen to you go on and on about this, this honor and the seven generations before and the seven generations that will come after you. And that will sit with me for the rest of my life. So thank you for sharing.

Suhein Beck : Thank you. Look, I’m trying to launch my speaking career and my speaking campaign to corporate and whatever. And so if anyone out there is listening and needs a speaker for corporate, in-house or conferences, that is what I’m looking to, because I want the larger audience. And I feel this. And I’ve already done the business. I’ve already done all that. Like I’m not here to sell, but I do want to share.

Trisha Stetzel: So yeah, share and educate and bring your energy and your emotion to the room. And I think that that is so special. Not everyone can do that. And you’re going to light them up. I have no doubt. I’m very excited. Thank you for being on the show with me today. That’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in the conversation that Suhaan and I had, please share it with a fellow entrepreneur, a veteran or a leader in Houston who’s ready to grow or even to your broader audiences. Remember to follow, rate, and review the show. It helps us reach more bold business minds like yours. Your business, your leadership, and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. Stay tuned, stay inspired, and keep building the business and life you deserve.