We were lucky to catch up with Ghiovanna Dennis recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ghiovanna, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

My mom came to the United States from the Dominican Republic when she was 14 years old. She was a single mother, and from the time I was little she always taught me to dream big. One of the things she said to me constantly was, “The sky’s the limit.” Nothing ever felt impossible in our house because she truly believed I could do anything I set my mind to.

What’s special is that her support was never passive. Whether it was a business idea, a creative project, or even my childhood dream of becoming an actress, she never laughed it off or told me it was unrealistic. She treated my dreams like they were real possibilities, and that kind of belief gives a kid a lot of courage.

At the same time, she’s also my toughest critic. She has always been incredibly honest with me. If something wasn’t good enough, she told me. If I could do better, she said so. That honesty taught me not to take feedback personally and to always keep improving.

Because of her, I grew up believing two things at the same time: that I could do anything, and that I had to work to do it well. That combination has shaped how I approach life and entrepreneurship. I’m not afraid to dream big ideas, but I’m also willing to hear the truth and refine them until they’re better.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m an entrepreneur, hairstylist, and community builder. I’m the owner of Coterie Lounge & Cafe, a neighborhood café and gathering space designed around connection, creativity, and intimate celebrations. Before opening the café, I built my career in the beauty industry as the owner of Bounce Salon, where I specialize in curly hair and helping people embrace and care for their natural texture.

In many ways, the café grew out of the same philosophy that shaped my salon. I’ve always been less interested in transactions and more interested in creating spaces where people feel seen, welcomed, and part of something. Coffee is almost the bait, but the real purpose is community. I wanted to build a space where people could gather, celebrate, learn, and connect.

At Coterie Lounge & Cafe, we host intimate celebrations like birthdays, baby showers, and bridal showers, but we also create community-centered experiences like Mama Needs Coffee mornings, workshops for entrepreneurs, creative gatherings, and family-friendly events like drag queen story hour. The goal is to create a place that feels warm and personal, more like someone’s living room than a traditional venue.

What I believe sets my work apart is that I focus deeply on experience and relationships. Whether someone is sitting in my salon chair or attending an event at the café, my goal is that they leave feeling better than when they arrived. I want people to feel inspired, supported, and connected to the people around them.

What I’m most proud of is the community that has grown around these spaces. The people who walk through the doors don’t just come once and disappear. They bring friends, celebrate milestones here, collaborate with each other, and help shape what the space becomes. It feels less like running a business and more like building something meaningful together.

The biggest thing I want people to know about my work is that everything I create is rooted in community. Whether it’s through hair, coffee, or gatherings, my goal is always the same: to build spaces where people can show up as themselves and feel like they belong.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When I was opening the café, my life changed in a way I never expected. At the time, I had been married for eight years, and my partner and I had spent about six months preparing to open our first brick and mortar business together. We were building what felt like a shared dream. I had never opened a café before, so I was following the lead of our investor and my partner, who had previously run a food truck. My background was in social media and marketing, so my role was going to be building the brand and bringing people through the doors once we opened.

Two weeks before opening, my partner told me they were leaving. Not just the business, but our marriage as well.

Suddenly I had to pivot in the middle of the biggest heartbreak of my life. I went from thinking I had a team and a partner to realizing I was about to run a brand new brick and mortar completely on my own. At the same time, I became a single mom again and a solo entrepreneur overnight.

There wasn’t really time to pause or fall apart because the doors still had to open. I had to step into roles I had never imagined for myself. I learned operations, finances, logistics, and all the day to day responsibilities of running the café. It forced me to grow quickly and trust my instincts in ways I never had before.

Two years later, I’m proud to say the business is thriving. That experience taught me resilience in a very real way. I learned how to wear many different hats, how to keep moving forward even when things feel uncertain, and most importantly, how to trust myself. What felt like the hardest moment of my life ended up becoming the moment that showed me exactly what I was capable of.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

One lesson I had to unlearn was the idea that I needed to rely on someone else to lead or validate my decisions in business.

For a long time, I believed that the people with more experience were the ones who should be making the important calls. When I was preparing to open the café, I leaned heavily on others who had done it before. I trusted their direction because I assumed they knew more than I did. My role, in my mind, was to support the vision through marketing, community building, and bringing people through the doors.

When my partner left just two weeks before we opened, that belief was suddenly challenged. I no longer had anyone to defer to. Every decision, big or small, became my responsibility overnight. At first it was terrifying because I felt like I didn’t have all the answers.

But what I discovered in that process was that I actually had strong instincts and a deep understanding of the community I was trying to serve. Once I stopped waiting for someone else to lead, I began trusting my own judgment more. Some decisions worked, some didn’t, but each one helped me grow more confident in my ability to run the business.

The lesson I had to unlearn was that leadership had to come from someone else. What I learned instead is that sometimes you don’t realize you’re capable of leading until life leaves you no other choice. And once you step into it, you start to see that the answers were often within you the whole time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.coteriecafe.com
• Instagram: @coterieloungecafe
• Facebook: @Coterieloungecafe
• Yelp: Coterie Lounge & Cafe

Image Credits

Brandon Frimming