We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tootie Harris a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Tootie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think it takes to be successful?

It definitely takes faith,A great attitude and consistency to be successful in my eyes.As long as you continue to provide great customer service it will give people a reason to come back time and time again for that excellent service.By great attitude I mean you have to wake up each morning with the this is my day attitude.I control my day I control how it’s going to go and I have faith that from this day forward it’s going to be the best day of my life.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m tootie and My husband and I started Papa G’ Freeze shop in 2020.We started off as being what we call a “Candy lady”A candy lady is a neighborhood house where kids even adults come to get all the snacks you can think of.While selling snacks it was something about our Frozen Cups”Flips” as we call them in Orlando,Fl.The lines around our house started to get longer and longer to the point the neighbors started to wonder what was going on on the 3rd floor of our apartment.We started to take our frozen cups to different Pop up shops in our city because the traffic was too much for our House.Shortly after My husband and I had to think fast because our business had taken off.We decided that a food trailer was the perfect option for us.We went to my parents with the idea and they sponsored our trailer.While in the process of the finishing touches I lost my hero.My father “Papa G”He loved our products.Along with my husband they would set up each and every event.If you saw us he was right there setting up and praying over each event that it be a success.We then knew that we had to dedicate the business to him and Name it Papa G’s Freeze Shop.Their is also a picture of him on the front of the trailer wrapped into it.Although he did not get to see the finished product I know that he is smiling down on us.We provide all types of flavors and options for our family”Customers”.We have Some for our babies and we also have larger sizes for the Adult flip lovers.Although Our products are sweet we had a request to do a Low sugar option for diabetics.We got into our creative mode and made something for Not so sweet lovers. Our desire is for everyone to have a chance to try Papa G’s Freeze Shop.Our texture of our frozen cups sets us apart.We took a childhood favorite and put our own spin on it.While some flips you have to flip over you can actually eat ours from the top if you’d like.Recently in May 2023 A World known Food critic Keith Lee came to visit our Food truck.He gave us a very High Rating.After his review of our treats our business Sky Rocketed.We we’re busy before with our locals but once he came and put his review all over social media we got super busy and had People from all over wanting to come try Papa G’s.We want everyone to know that you will always come to Papa G’s freeze Shop and get great customer service.We try to treat everyone that walks up to our window like family and make everyone feel welcome.Even when we are slammed we make it our business to greet everyone with a smile.We can’t wait to see you’ll one day and give you a nice sweet treat to cool you down.

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

Awww man.When I first lost my father my best friend it was sudden it was very unexpected and at a time we were very busy.We could have easily shut down and shut the world out but we decided to turn our pain into purpose.Our customers don’t know this but they gave us the reason to keep going.We would get messages saying “I know that y’all are grieving but do you’ll have anything for us?”While grieving it gave us the reason to keep going.We even had customers that would bring cards,Food etc and leave it at our door.After a couple days we Opened back up and begin to work past our pain.

How did you build your audience on social media?

We built our audience on social media by being ourselves.Keeping our business at the top of the feed by posting daily.My advice to anyone on social media would be to never stop posting your products or work.Don’t be discouraged by not getting a bunch of likes or comments.Everyone doesn’t react to your post but that doesn’t mean that they don’t see it.Repurpose your content.If you’re having a slow day,week or month still make a post.We have to believe that our business will be a Multi Million dollar company and you never know who may come across your business.Don’t give up on your dream.Some one somewhere is inspired by you.                     

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Papa G’s Freeze Shop
• Facebook: Papa G’s Freeze shop
• TikTok: PapaGsfreezeshop

Image Credits
Photographer Aniyah Ross