Francesca Cloros

Physically, where are you right now? Are you at home, on holiday, in the office or elsewhere else?

I’m currently at home, with Apollo (my 15mth old) having his lunchtime sleep upstairs. A moment for me with a tea, incense, some work, and some silence.

How does your current environment inform your creative process and what is inspiring you right now?

My home has always been a space for self-expression, for safety, for comfort, for community, a place to take pride in. My partner and I have always thrown ourselves into curating the 360 ‘feel’ of our home which extends beyond just the furniture. It’s also the music, the cooking, the smell, the open-door policy, it’s the conversations and energy.

I am my most relaxed and most creative when all is in its place at home and the symphony of all these elements are at play.

Your environment has a direct effect on inspiration, motivation, sense of peace. My business, Rocco House, at its core understands the power of place. We work with hotels to help them understand and introduce the perfect recipe of elements needed to inspire presence. When done right, you have created your own stamp of ambiance. Unseen but entirely felt it is a perfect curation of elements that make guests feel like they have nowhere to be but exactly where they are and want to return time and time again.

For every good idea there are many more we reject. Do you ever salvage ideas that didn’t come to fruition at a later stage or do you just move on?

Absolutely! I find a recurring thought or idea that continues to rear its head – is doing so for a reason and needs to be explored.

What have been some personal milestones that you have achieved outside the expectation or perceived expectation of others? 

One of the most personal milestones to date, yet one I am eager to share to inspire other Mothers and Fathers to be.

My partner and I changed course with our birth plan from giving birth at a private hospital with an obstetrician, to a home birth with a private midwife. Sadly, home births are still incorrectly perceived as dangerous and unsupported.

All mothers will feel safest and strongest to birth in different settings. This was where we felt the safest and most confident to bring Apollo into this world. It is a mother’s rite of passage throughout her pregnancy to find this space and place where they feel their most powerful.

What have been some of your most profound personal challenges and have they ever informed your creative process or interrupted it?

It was one of my most difficult decisions to make leaving my post as the Raes Collection Group General Manager. A property and brand I deeply love and am so proud of to this day, however on the other side was the birth of my son, a deeper connected family, and the birth of my business Rocco House.

I took a leap of faith to start Rocco House whilst I was 3 months pregnant (brewing in mind for a long time prior to this!) – Rocco House has allowed me to stay within an industry that I adore, challenge myself professionally, whilst also give me the freedom to be a Mum and business founder at the same time.

Raes on Wategos - photography by Madeline Johnson

If you analysed the most important factors in your success, what would say these have been?

Focus on the people of the business first, then the business. 

Particularly for hotel operators – and this might sound controversial, but I believe in it immensely - Its not about inspiring your guests first. Build your hotel around inspiring your team. Inspiring your guests is then a beautiful, organic flow on from this that will then feel genuine and authentic. Culture is king!

What are your personal and creative rituals, if any?

Cold swims

(An attempted!) daily meditation or breathwork

Screen free at least 1hr before bed

Where do you go to find creative refuge?

Travel! Naturally I am inspired by different places and accommodation spaces, but I also find that time away from your business allows you to see things on a more macro level. It allows you to work on the business, not in the business. Getting out of the weeds and the day to day of your work can be hard, but it is oh so necessary to see things from a wider lense.

Poolside at Raes on Wategos - photography by Madeline Johnson

If you could go back in time and begin again without knowing what you do now, would you?

Absolutely not. There’s a master plan at work – I’m just here for the ride.

What piece of wisdom currently resonates with you and how does it inform your approach to life right now?

My approach to life used to be very much that the faster you move, the more you are achieving, the more productive you are. 

It took a global pandemic for me to really slow down and smell the proverbial roses. There is so much more you can truly see when you slow down. Clarity, focus, purpose have all been a gift of this slowness.