Meet Ruth Gordon-Martin | Founder & CEO CODDLE

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ruth Gordon-Martin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ruth, how did you come up with the idea for your business?
The idea for CODDLE was started after the birth of my first child and because of my own birth experience. When I was expecting, I read a lot about what to expect during pregnancy. What I didn’t read about was; what to expect after giving birth and how to care for myself during recovery.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
Prior to CODDLE, I have extensive years of experience as a FP&A leader and Business Partner within all aspects of financial planning, finance operations, sales analytics, business development and corporate strategy.

To say was easy is an understatement. Before my career n finance I went to school full time and worked full time. I basically had two jobs for 4 years, with no vacations or time off from school. I wanted to make sure that I finished a four year degree in four years, and I did. Looking back now the first years in Corporate America felt like trial and error. I started at the New York Stock Exchange then left that for a job at a media company. Where I finally felt like I found where I wanted to be and my people within the start-up media, mobile, marketing, technology space.

I’ve always been interested in and passionate about women’s health. I fell in love with it even more because one of the companies I worked for would go regular volunteer work with NY Cares – a nonprofit. One of the volunteers and I hit it off she introduced me to another non profit focused on women’s health and the rest is history

Along with being the founder and CEO of CODDLE I’m also a postpartum doula. I’m still actively practicing and working with moms daily. I have hands-on experience with moms who I support everyday. I am close to and have first hand knowledge of what affects moms and what they are experiencing each day of postpartum. I bring most of what I practice into the brands conversation. What we discuss on social media, blog post etc.

In terms of the company and brand. I’m entering a space dominated by white women. The stories we see and hear about pregnancy, birth and postpartum is mostly from a white mom’s perspective. Black women have stories to share as well. So I’m on a mission to share and amplify our stories especially around postpartum. We’re an inclusive company so I’ll share a wide variety of stories but I’m also want to amplify Black moms and our postpartum stories as well.

With our products we use organic plant based herbs as our main ingredients because plants and herbs are apart of my Black culture. Our ancestors use all of these to care for moms and help them heal. CODDLE’s focus is the same.
And I want to add one last piece here. When we hear the term wellness, we don’t think of black women. Black woman do “self-care”, we do “wellness”.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Ha, I’m a New Yorker so I usually start with timeout New York to see what’s happening in the city. I’m a foodie and a wino so the first spots would be those. For a good steak I love Quality Meats, then I would head to the West Village or Union Square for drinks. It’s summer time now so I’d take her to Freehold in the Park in Union Square.

Inside the Marriott Times Square there’s a revolving restaurant called – The View. That’s one of my favorite spots for perfect views of the city. The revolving floor makes a 360° turn every hour, giving you an ever-changing perspective of this celebrated city. Talk about wine and cheese – its heaven for a cheese lover.

I love people watching or just setting out in the park. Bryant Park is great for that – in the summer there’s movies in the park. So that would be on the list along then walking over to Time Square to the tkts booth. I usually go the day of and a few hours before the Broadway show. Tickets are definitely cheaper and you’re living a little with a spur of the moment show.

More food and wine in Hells Kitchen – a favorite spot is Casellula. Last nut not least is a hop on hop off tour is a quick way to see the city.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
A big shout out goes to my hubby. I hope this doesn’t get to his head. After my birth experience, I had the idea for the business but played around with it a number of times in my head. Then I started putting stuff on paper and of course constantly telling him about the idea , the problem, what’s lacking and what I can do to address it.

He mentioned so many times that it will remain an idea until I actually get started. And after so many times of him saying that. I decided to just get going., from one notebook to three and here we are.

Website: https://www.coddle.co/

Instagram: @coddledotco

Twitter: www.twitter.com/coddledotco

Facebook: www.facebook.com/coddledotco

Image Credits
CODDLE owns the rights to the images