We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Gianna Capobianco a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Gianna, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?
My father, since I was born was working in the hospitality industry and owned many successful restaurants on the East coast. Not only have I truly been raised surrounded by the hospitality industry, but I’ve been raised behind the scenes watching the do’s and don’ts, as well as all the necessary work behind the scenes in order to be a successful business owner. My dad also instilled a work driven mentality in me when I was a very young girl. At 13 years old he made me start working at one of his restaurants, Ninos Trattoria in Waterbury Connecticut, just learning how to roll silverware because he did not want me to grow up with a lazy mentality, skating by life. While this sounds very cut throat, him and my mother also paired it with constant words of love and encouragement, always making sure I knew I could go whatever path I desired in life and they would support me one hundred percent.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Gianna Capobianco, I’m 25 years old and I was born and raised in Middlebury Connecticut. Our Co-Owner Alexa D’Elia, whose 23 years old and also locally born and raised in Watertown Connecticut, also happens to be my cousin. We’ve been extremely close since we we’re children, and both have always shared very similar interests. The way we came up with the idea of Viva Vino Mobile Bar was fairly simple actually. We both agreed that we want to be our own bosses, and we want to create something that both we can be proud of, but also something that can honor our family heritage and where they come from. Our family migrated from a small town in Italy, located in the province of Salerno around 50/60 years ago, and accents from their life in Italy has been engraved into our everyday lives. It’s something that has been so special to all of us; Alexa and I thought it would be really special to incorporate that into a business so we could share that magic with everyone else. That is how we came up with the idea of an Amalfi Coast themed bar because between the drinks, the details, the aroma we desire to create, we want our customers to feel as if they are being transported to Italy when booking with us. We offer both drink and food packages for our customers, but we like to leave it as open as possible for our clients to create the perfect package for their event. When booking a party, wedding, corporate event, etc the last thing you want to worry about is how much providing enough alcohol and food for your guests, as well as making sure they’re happy with the selections and that is what we are here for. We supply our clients with all the booze, food, cups, napkins, ice, straws, entertainment, carefully curated drinks and clean up, so our clients can focus on their guests and we can focus on making it an event they will never forget! We also provide mocktails, sodas and juices for those clients who may be underage or sober, so they can experience the magic as well! As a family run business, we want to make sure our clients feel like they’re a part of our family when they hire us, so that they can feel comfortable coming to us with anything.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
My advice for managing a team and maintaining a high morale is fairly simple actually. First and foremost, it is important you build your team of people you can wholeheartedly trust, because without trust you truly do not have anything. It’s important that you can have confidence and trust in your team to not only handle aspects of your business, but also just to show up on time and do the work that you are paying them for, because if you are constantly watching over them like a hawk, that ends up being counterproductive and you’re using valuable time that could be going into the business and customer experience instead. The second thing i find to be the most important is how you treat your team. At the end of the day, treat people the way you want to be treated, and remember everybody is doing their best just trying to survive in this world. There is absolutely no reason or excuse to treat anyone like they are beneath you or poorly in general. Your team is the second closest thing you have to family, they are spending their days putting time and effort into helping you make your business the best it can be, and that should be rewarded with positive affirmations, and acknowledgement for the work their putting in. When you constantly talk about the bad, and never give praise for the good, that is how you knock down someones confidence as well as slowly kill their motivation. If there’s an issue or a complaint, it’s important to address it in a way that is constructive and productive, not in a degrading way because that is key.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
With a business like ours, word of mouth is very important in order for us to thrive and continue building a good reputation. With a brick and mortar type business, it’s a little bit easier to build your reputation on your own without the help of reviews and credibility, but as a caterer that is what can make or break you. After working an event, we always encourage both the person who hired us directly, as well as guests at the event to leave a review and recommend us to their friends if they enjoyed our services. Our business is very personal, and in a lot of cases, our clientele are hiring us to come to their backyard, which you would not want to hire someone with absolutely no credibility to do. Social media is also everything in today’s day and age and that’s not just for the mobile bar industry, that is for all businesses as a whole. Your social media presence can encourage a lot of new potential clients to try you out if you are matching the vibe they’re looking for, so being active on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, etc has proved to be very beneficial in the growing of our reputation.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://vivavinomobilebar.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vivavino.mobilebar?igsh=ZzF6MWJ6OHNoYzZt&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Viva-Vino-Mobile-Bar/61557855905311/?mibextid=LQQJ4d&rdid=tfJHHD82KP7PEL0g&share_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.facebook.com%252Fshare%252F95QA48Vmesg35Vr8%252F%253Fmibextid%253DLQQJ4d
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@viva.vino.mobile?_t=8nUlh2BO1fz&_r=1
https://www.theknot.com/marketplace/viva-vino-mobile-bar-watertown-ct-2086923
https://www.weddingwire.com/biz/viva-vino-mobile-bar/f24f4f896091b443.html
