We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kristina Perez Thomas. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kristina below.

Hi Kristina, thanks for joining us today. Covid has brought about so many changes – has your business model changed?

I began working on launching Soul Good Coffee in 2018 and the original plan was to open a small brick and mortar in our town. I was working in the hospitality industry for over 15yrs – managing a catering team and planning special events/weddings – but was ready for a change! I’d always wanted to eventually open my own business – specifically a coffee shop – that could promote volunteerism and giving back. Basically a neighborhood cafe where you could get connected with a new non-profit every few months and learn about ways to support them all while getting a cup of coffee/tea! I started looking for spaces throughout 2019 and found a location RIGHT before Covid-19 hit. I immediately paused on signing the lease since none of us knew what a post covid-19 world would look like. Everything was shut down and businesses weren’t even allowed to open at that point. As crushing as it was, I knew I had to go back to the drawing board to reimagine what Soul Good Coffee could be in this new world since we didn’t know how long this pandemic would be around. The idea of a mobile cafe floated around my mind here and there but I was worried about the midwest winters and how I could sustain those super cold, snowy months. After a lot of thought and research, I decided to shift plans and build out a mobile coffee shop – specifically a trailer! I found a builder in Nashville, TN the summer of 2021 and by April 2022, I was open for business!

Kristina, 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?

My name is Kristina Perez Thomas and I’m the owner of Soul Good Coffee, based in Skokie, IL (just a few miles outside of Chicago). I opened Soul Good Coffee in early 2022 but the seed was planted years ago to eventually open my own community cafe space. I’m a daughter of Puerto Rican parents who raised me in a family that encouraged BIG DREAMS – where coffee was always at the center of every gathering. I followed a traditional route after high school – going to college, getting a degree in Hospitality Management and pursuing a career in catering/special event planning. I reached goals I set for myself, worked at places I dreamt of working – but still felt unfulfilled. I knew it was time to chase those big dreams I had buried years before and began working on my business plan in 2018. My desire has always been to create a business that centers people, purpose and community – and what better way to do that than through coffee.

Soul Good Coffee is a mobile cafe experience, serving specialty coffee and unique teas from our custom-built trailer. Our menu is carefully curated to include women owned, family owned and BIPOC owned small business – something that’s been important to me from the beginning. Community is at the core of our business – and one of the main reasons I started Soul Good Coffee was to create a way to make it easy for my neighbors to give back. We partner with a non-profit organization every few months to raise awareness about their mission and create unique ways to give back. We’ve partnered with three different organizations since launching in April 2022 and it’s been incredible watching our customers jump right in and offer their support when opportunities are presented. Our second partnership was with an organization called GirlForward – a community of support dedicated to creating and enhancing opportunities for girls who have been displaced globally by conflict and persecution. Their biggest need this summer was feminine hygiene products so our customers partnered with us in supporting GirlForward – and collectively we donated over 3,000 maxi pads/tampons!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

One of my biggest hesitations with opening a mobile cafe was wondering how we’d endure the brutal Chicago winters – where ice, snow and freezing temps come into play. I knew the trailer wouldn’t be able to operate outdoors during the winter – we had to think about water lines freezing, our equipment getting damaged, generators, etc. This weighed heavy on my mind as summer came to a close and fall was slipping away. I couldn’t imagine closing down for the winter and leaving our team without work for 3-4 months – not to mention, our business was starting to rapidly grow as more people were learning about us. I brainstormed ideas about coffee catering, building an indoor cart to offer for event rentals, locations we could possibly pull the trailer inside for service – but ultimately, I truly wanted our own space for the winter so I could see how a Soul Good Coffee brick and mortar would be received. Once I put it out there, doors began to open and we landed a short term lease for the winter months – in a vacant bar/pub space! There was a LOT of work to be done converting the bar into a cafe space: I had to learn about fire codes and zoning rules, I needed to figure out how best to use the bar flow for our coffee setup, I had to expand our team and so much more. The journey was NOT EASY – but I’m grateful it all worked out and excited for this next chapter for Soul Good.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Using the power of social media has a been instrumental in growing our business and introducing us to a wide audience. As soon as I started working on our business plan, I created our social media accounts. I knew from the beginning that it would be important to build an audience since being mobile requires you to share location updates to your customers daily. I’ve talked to many small business owners that are afraid to start their accounts until they’ve reached a certain level of “success” or until their business is “officially open”. But I think people instantly connected with us because I’ve brought them along our journey from the beginning. The ups, downs, disappointments, successes, etc. so they’re in it with us and invested. By the time we opened, we had a strong group of people super excited to visit us and spread the word about our opening. My advice would be to just be real and authentic – show your audience that there’s a real human (or real people) behind the account. Don’t just show the highlights but show the behind the scenes, share real stories, bring them along your journey with you.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.soulgoodcoffee.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/soulgoodcoffee/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/soulgoodcoffee/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinaperez/

Image Credits
Jeremy Lawson Photography Branding by Nastasia Photography