We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Isabel Apaez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Isabel, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you take vacations? Why or why not?
Growing up, a vacation was always just a “dream”, something we would talk about, and maybe plan.. but mostly wouldn’t happen. I was raised by a hardworking single mama, who allowed me, and encouraged me to dream out loud. My vacation dreams required about several thousand dollars and flights across the Atlantic Ocean lol.. So the downtown River Walk would have to do!lol .. However! Once a year or so we would go on a weekend getaways to the wonderful green ocean of Corpus Chirsti, Texas! About a 2hr-2.5hr drive from San Antonio going South, so if your a S.A. native its sort of mandatory to go at least once in your lifetime! It wasn’t until I was about 12 years old when I took a 2 week road-trip with my grandma, aunts, uncles and cousins to Virginia Beach for a family reunion. That was our main attraction followed by stays in North and South Carolina and U.S. capital Washington D.C.! To this day one of my favorite cities in the U.S.! Once I was a little older, in high-school, I saw my cousins and friends traveling across the country and even abroad! I always asked for post cards from their destinations so I could put them on my “dream” travel board, with great hopes of going to those cities and countries one day!! And at the start of a new year, around the age of 19/20 I was finally able to take myself on some vacations!! It was around that time that I joined an amazing travel club that allowed me to see the country and parts of the world while receiving an income simultaneously . In those first 5 years of my early twenties I went on over 30 vacations!! I found my immense love for Las Vegas, the magical snowy Rocky Mountains, the beautiful blue Caribbean waters and soo much more! Another beautiful and special part of these experiences is that I was able to enjoy them with my loved ones and friends! As the great anonymous writer once said “We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us”.
Isabel, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Born and raised in San Antonio, with great homemade tex-mex food by my texan ranch-raised grandmothers, awesome barbecue, cumbias and Tejano music, I like to identify myself as a Tejana! When I was little, one of the most interesting things to me was how my granparents, father, uncles, and stepfather could commuicate in a language that was soo foreign to me. Spanish. I grew up listening and even dancing to tejano, norteño, and conjunto music, without any idea of what was being sung! It was a great goal and dream of mine to learn and speak this beautiful, fiery language and to be able to communicate with my grandmothers in their first language. Finally after taking some spanish classes in high school, meeting my handsome bilingual boyfriend and his family, the language was finally catching on to me! What helped, or more so forced me (lol) into learning and attaining the language was becoming a part of the Fruteria Chavez family business at the age of 19.
And from that point on, the rest is history! lol
After relocating their first location from West Ave. to Blanco Rd. I was their very first employee, receiving about $7.50 an hour part-time! lol. I really did it to help them (Mr. & Mrs. Chavez) out, because they were the only ones running the shop at that time.
Like any first time business starting out, you may not receive your big profits yet, so once the business started growing a little more and more, my boyfriend Eduardo (their son) was able to help us out a couple of days of the week! Once the business grew even MORE, he was able to quit his full time job serving, and gave his parents the weekends off, leaving he and I to run the business 3-4 days out of the week. Fast forward a quick 5 years later, Eduardo and I were able to run the business ourselves!
All opening hours, inventory, hiring, scheduling, pay roll, etc. We even convinced Mr. Chavez to take on the extra expense of having some of our items in special colored cups & containers. That really made the items even more eye catching & mouth watering! It was a great hit and investment for the business until suddenly a couple years later, all those fancy cups & containers didn’t matter anymore. COVID.
I can imagine the shock and immediate change every business owner had to go through at the beginning, during and even at the end of the 2020 pandemic. Many if not all businesses in the food industry had to close their doors and it was at that time we had to make a decision. Within 12hrs of the “close doors” notice, we had a walk-up window ready for customers to place their orders! It was time to restrategize our way of making orders, set up a to-go station, increase the inventory of straws, to-go trays, napkins, drink carriers, signage, masks, gloves, ETC! And we had to do it fast! We had to be creative and open minded to new ideas on how we would serve our customers. restrategizing and making the extra expenses on certain inventory, gave us the opportunity to think different, work different, and grow different! Since we couldn’t do any more indoor advertising/promotions, Eduardo took on, and took over, our social media platforms. We had to let the people know that FRUTERIA CHAEZ is still here, fighting the good fight with our people and community while working hard to bring smiles to their faces. Now here are post-pandemic, with an incredible increase in numbers! The pandemic brought on so much adversity, but we had to see that adversity, was preparing us for an opportunity, if we chose. And indeed, it was!
In the last year (2022) Eduardo and I started the catering aspect of Fruteria Chavez. It was something on my mind for so long, that i just knew we had to do, and it became such a strong marketing tool. It gave us endless opportunities of networking, and definitely kept us on our toes, especially during Fiesta season! It was the kickoff to our catering events for the rest of the year, and man, personally, all of it kicked my butt!! But of course, if you really know me, we had to sign up for all of it again for this year (2023)!
With these several, fast years of experience Eduardo and I took on another roll of business, a great mile-stone in our career. We opened up our very own Fruteria Chavez in February (2022)! We could finally recognize ourselves as true business owners, after years of learning, experience, trial and error, even some blood, sweat, and tears. Opening day was such an incredible achievement of all our hard work, patience, determination and prayers! We began hosting our own events and created a great relationship with the directors of a local elementary school. So far we’ve hosted, a “back to school” and a “trunk or treat event!” We both love giving back to our community and we intend to impact and make a difference here, to blossom where we’re planted. Its been an incredible year!
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Oh wow, um yes! Wow I think I have one story for all three lol!
COVID.
Before 2020, I was a part of an awesome, kick -ass, if i may say lol, network marketing company that sold travel memberships. I became a representative of that company, meaning I received commissions, bonuses, weekly pay, of x amount of memberships sold. All while traveling the world and receiving phenomenal personal development seminars by the leaders of the company. I’m talking 6 & 7 figure leaders okay. They make that type of money by the company, and only by the company. It was honestly a complete dream come true. A no-brainer, who doesn’t wanna make money and travel the world at the same time!? am i right! As if it was too good to be true… then covid happened.
My entire world had changed that year. For those good five years of being a part of that company, I had developed such high dreams and hopes for myself, for my family, for my future. It all seemed so very promising. Once I started doing presentations for live audiences, thats when I really felt like I had started my career. I did presentations in packed out restaurants, houses, starbucks, bars, lounges, even in the parking lot, standing outside someones car! I just wanted everyone to see what I saw, I wanted them to believe like I did. Even in themselves. It was an opportunity for everyone. I even went ahead and considered myself doing this full-time and still did my part-time at the Fruteria. I knew this company was it for me!!
My very first time being a part of a “non traditional ” business. You’re your own boss., make your own hours, you make your own checks, you can work this thing whenever and wherever you want. It’s no “brick and mortar business” like the Fruteria. At the fruteria i had a boss, i had a schedule, a pay-day, coworkers, etc. The idea of thriving in a “non traditional” business was enticing. No one ever saw this company ever going down, ever. So in 2020, once i saw all of these businesses starting to close their doors, big mall-chain stores, clothing stores, “brick and mortars” i thought yup! Its not always safe to have a “traditional business” look whats happening! Little did I know… the “nontraditional business” I loved so much was no where near safe either..
Airlines, Cruiselines, resorts, cities, countries, everything that ever depended on toursism and travel, was going down, and it went down fast. No one was traveling, anywhere… Suddenly all the dreams and goals I had, I thought, you know, now they’re not going to be happening anymore, i thought it wasn’t going to be possible… what am I gonna do?
Fruteria Chavez was, is, my saving grace. It was a pivotal moment in my life where I was essentially, starting over, with no end result in mind. I was just gonna start putting more time, energy, and myself into this business now, full-time and see where it takes me… It has grown me, shown me, and taught me show much.. the fruteria I started at and now my own fruteria and the mlm company, all together have made me the business woman that I am today.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
When youre in the position to manage a team, its important for you to understand the people youre managing. You have to know their strengths, their weaknesses, and especially how to speak to them. Their strengths in areas where you can trust them to do alone and it be done correctly. Their weaknesses in areas where they can improve, theres always a reason of why theyre not getting it. Depending on the severity, have them focus on that area every single day for a week. If they dont get it by then, something wrong! lol I put an emphasis on “how to speak” to them, because you have to communicate to each one, a little or a lot different than the other. Study the “4 colors”. I learned this in the mlm, for me personally, it changed the game on how i hear and see people ive known and all the people i meet.
Every single one of us has a dominating color. Red, Blue, Yellow or Green. Each color has a different meaning. Now to not take up too much of your time, I’ll try and keep the explanation simple.
Red = driven, assertive, knows what they want and gets it done. no heissitation
Blue = fun, friendly, maybe always late to something, loudest one, life of the party (at 20 years old, i was bleeding blue lol)
Yellow = nurturing, a little sensitive, huggers, motherly, kind, sweet
Green = analytical, planner, systems, processes, has to know a all the way to z and why (at 20 I lacked all the green lol)
I go back to this every time because being a person of position, you have to know how to speak to people and how to be effective. How to create the best results, for each individual, as a team, and as a business. We speak to change behavior, but not everyone will change the same way. For example, i cant redirect a Red person they way i would a Yellow (the red would take off laughing at me) and vice versa (the yellow may take off crying). Its so important! Our goal is to change behavior, if we redirect the same to everybody, not everybody is going to change.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: instagram.com/isablesslife
- Facebook: facebook.com/isabelapaez
Image Credits
Eduardo Chavez Isabel Apaez Cristian Chavez