Roshan Roghani-Ishaq on motherhood, gratitude and success
By Liza Long
Roshan Roghani-Ishaq is living proof that women who work hard can have it all. As the vice president of one of Idaho’s most successful companies, Roghani-Ishaq has been instrumental in developing Camille Beckmann’s new “Every Day Collection,” using clean ingredients to promote natural skin health and beauty. Founded in 1986 by Roghani-Ishaq’s mother, for whom the company is named, Camille Beckmann manufactures its popular beauty products in a certified green factory near Highway 16 in Eagle, Idaho and ships them to independent retailers around the world.
Adjacent to the factory, the Versailles-inspired elegant Chateau des Fleurs events center was completed in 2016, too late to host Roghani-Ishaq’s wedding to Danish Ishaq, but it has welcomed many beautiful brides from around Idaho since. The couple welcomed their first child in January 2017.
Roghani-Ishaq took a few minutes out of her day to talk about her life, work and how she views success.
EM: What is a typical day like for you?
RR: It’s changed a lot since I became a mother. To me, a successful day is waking up with gratitude, spending time with my family and knowing that my few major tasks and fewer minor tasks are completed when I go to sleep. If I let myself get bogged down by work, it doesn’t allow me to live my life in a state of gratitude and presence. I want to wake up with that intention each day and know that I will complete the things that I am responsible for before I go to sleep. I have to be realistic about what I can accomplish. Having a child has helped me to focus on what I need to do. The rest of my time can be for family and service, both to myself and my growth and to the growth of the world around me.
EM: What do you do at Camille Beckmann?
RR: I manage operations and make sure that our team can solve our problems together. I work with the sales team to partner with our independent retailers who carry our products across the U.S. But design is my favorite part of my job. I love thinking up new things and bridging the natural spectrum of beauty. I’d like all women to have access to high-quality products, not just a select group. Really, I view myself as a mother of the household. I’m a mother to my son at home, and I’m also a mother at work, for products, for customers and for our team. I have gratitude for my work. I see my role as being about nurturing instead of competition and angst.
EM: How do you balance work and motherhood?
RR: Letting go of the word “busy” and replacing it with the idea of intention has been important. My intention is to present for my son and for my husband. My intention is to be present when I am at work, and to let go of it when I come home. Letting go of constant stress and being intentional has been important. A business teaches you something every day, and so does a child. I’m accepting of my own humanity. I am here to make mistakes. I can recognize my mistakes and ignorance and learn from them.
EM: What challenges have you faced in your career and how have you overcome them?
RR: I face challenges every day in my work, and a few major challenges each year. It’s very easy to overcome things when you have faith and use challenges as an opportunity for growth. For example, the biggest stress I faced last year was our decision to host the Idaho Freedom Foundation’s controversial guest speaker [in August 2017]. The whole experience was quite eye opening for me. When you align with values instead of a particular party, you sometimes find yourself in the middle of things.
For me, it’s important for everyone to speak their piece and do what they feel is right, but we must also, above all, be loving and kind to one another. We have so much angst and separation in our society right now. This experience taught me that unity is not necessarily achieved by all of us thinking the same thing. Unity means having compassion for everyone; it means not fearing each other.
EM: What’s your personal definition of success?
RR: It has changed a lot over my life. Now, my personal definition of success is to live in gratitude, abundance, love, unity and to learn from every experience that comes my way. Abundance is such a broad concept, but it is so necessary to explain success.
EM: Do you have any special holiday traditions that you celebrate this time of year?
RR: We have a multi-faith household: Mormon, Christian, Muslim, with some Buddhist elements thrown in. Ramadan, Christmas and Thanksgiving are our three big holidays. We will be at the Chateau des Fleurs this Thanksgiving, which is an amazing new tradition in an amazing space. We are also looking forward to fun projects with our charitable foundation that will help our community.
