We recently connected with Judith Gonzalez Reyes and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Judith thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. The more we talk about good leadership the more we think good leadership practices will spread and so we’d love for you to tell us a story about the best boss you’ve had and what they were like or what they did that was so great?
My previous General Manager Evonne was a great leader, trainer, mentor and now a great friend. She was my boss at a coffee shop I previously worked at. She got to know me so well and understood the person I was, not just as an employee. She had so much patience with me as I was not a morning person before I became a mother, so I was a little rough walking into my 4-5am shift. I remember she would give me a few minutes to drink coffee and “wake up” before she allowed me to interact with customers. I have always considered myself a hard worker but I can admit my customer service was not always great. She taught me how to interact with customers in a friendly matter, listen to customers and how to respond. Her upselling tips are being used in my truck until this day. I’ve never told her but while I am working often in the coffee truck I often hear her voice in my head. “Judy, smile!” “Judy! I love you girl but you can’t look like you hate it here”. I also remember operating skills that I still use today. She always made sure I was having a good day and would do whatever it took to make it happen. This mainly consisted of buying me pizza, breakfast sandwiches or Hot Cheetos haha. She taught me that no matter how great our products are, it is our customer service and interaction that make returning customers a “regular”. I stopped working with her about 6 years ago and until this day we are in contact. She has witnessed ASU graduation, my wedding, my baby shower and other accomplishments throughout the past 8 years. I was fortunate enough to have her attend Holy Frap’s one year anniversary this past May. She will forever hold a special place in my heart and will always be someone who pushed me to be my best at what I love to do which is now owning and operating my own Coffee truck!
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Judith Gonzalez Reyes, I come from Mexican Native parents and have 4 siblings. My mom stayed at home but she did her best to help make some kind of income to help my father out. Seeing my parents’ go getter attitude influenced me to want to work as hard as I could to make money and be successful. My business grew from an interest in specialty coffee to a church festival where people gave me the confidence to make my passion into a business. I started offering only fraps at our local church fall festival and then later added energy drinks including plant based, cold brew, lemonade and refreshers inspired by traditional mexican drinks.
I know that I am in business thanks to the love and support from our customers. If they don’t like me, if they don’t support me, then I am no one and I no longer have a business. I take importance in the satisfaction of each one of our customers. I know not everyone will like our drinks, and that is ok, everyone is open to their own opinion and has their own taste, but those who come and try our drinks are giving us the opportunity to satisfy their craving and I do whatever modifications or customizations they ask for so that their drink is exactly what they want and like. As a previous customer from a big coffee chain, I started noticing as the years went by that they seemed like they were taking their customers for granted, the quality in their beverages was decreasing as well as their customer service. I always told myself I would never be that person. I will make sure each customer walks away happy and I encourage honest reviews and/or suggestions to make our drinks better because we are here to serve YOU!
What I am most proud of is seeing how much my hard work and drinks speak for themselves. Word of mouth is what is currently keeping me busy. Almost daily, I receive a message requesting our truck to show up at an event or location because they had us somewhere else or because other people referred us to them. The most current occurrence was last week, when ASU contacted us to cater one of their events. The student who contacted me was contacting me because she had one of our drinks last year at another ASU location. This showed me much appreciation plus reminded me what I always tell my employees, be nice to everyone, make sure everyone is happy with their drinks because you never know who will be our future clients.
Despite what people may assume or think when seeing the Holy Frap Truck. Holy Frap is a small business which consists primarily of me, the owner and operator. I am responsible for every aspect of the business you can think of from inventory to planning, social media, responding to messages, emails, quote requests, to name a few. When we have a big or busy event, I hire a cashier to help me out but overall, it’s a one man(woman) show. My 3 year old (CEO) is my partner, she is with me 95% of the time when I am setting up and working from home and I am grateful for being able to spend this time with my daughter, but also grateful she is witnessing her mom living her dream. She understands so many things when it comes to the business that it is impressive, and I am proud of that. I want her to understand that nothing comes easy in life. She understands that “Momma” has to put in all this work to make some money. I think it is so cute because she will give me flavor combinations that she thinks I need to add to my menu so my next thing next year is to add a “CEO Menu” for kids with her flavor combinations she is suggesting. Some sound pretty yummy!!! Overall, I am looking forward to growing our business and doing whatever it takes to get there.
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
I became a Full-time Math Teacher in Spring of 2018. I was enjoying it. It was great to teach Math because it did not feel like work to me. I was a natural in Math and being a private tutor previously, I knew I enjoyed teaching math. Everything was going well and the consistent paycheck and benefits made it a lot better. I became pregnant in 2019 and was in maternity leave starting January 2020. When I went back to work after my leave, it was March 2020, one week before Spring Break, Spring break comes and we receive notice that school campus was going to be closed due to Covid. During this time, my sister convinced me to offer Frap Deliveries since most people were not leaving their house. This was going great, our sales were increasing as well as our clientele. Unfortunately, once the schools opened back up, I had to go back into work. In 2022, there were some changes at work and I was no longer happy. That is when I decided my side hustle would now turn into my full time business. I tried to do both, but soon I realized I wouldn’t be successful working a full-time job and trying to start my business. Once I quit my teaching job, I was able to focus 100% into my business.
How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?
Social media, personal phone numbers. Building a relationship overall is what helps. Our clients love our drinks! our Loyal customers/clients schedule us months in advance because they know that we will get booked if they don’t we have about 4 clients who hire us once a month and has us scheduled 5 months in advance. These are the people who give me hope and let me know what we are doing is working.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/holyfrap_az/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HolyFrapAZ/