Spotlight Series: Interview with Vie Reyes
“Maintain (the tree’s) balance and symmetry. Remove dried (dead) twigs and cut suckers (water sprouts). Let the sun shine through.” — Vie Reyes
In this interview, the CEO of Bote Central Vie Reyes shares with us her biggest inspirations and how she stands her ground against the challenges she faces.
Introduce yourself and your current role/startup
I am Vie Reyes, the chief executive officer of Bote Central, our family social enterprise. My husband and I founded it in 2002.
Where are you from?
I am from a middle-class Filipino family of six siblings, with an economics degree from the University of the Philippines Diliman. Married for 39 years, I have five children and three3 grandchildren.
Who are your biggest inspirations?
My children are my biggest inspiration and my husband keeps me going in the right direction. When I was a new mother and wife, I thought I was prepared for it, but I still made many mistakes, even the ones I knew to avoid. My journey has been about learning from those mistakes, finding my strength and giving everything I have to my family.
When I was younger, I had no dreams beyond having a happy and easy-going life. When I first met Basil, who would later become my husband-to-be, he had many dreams and ambitions that he wanted to achieve. It made me realize that the world was so much larger than what I had experienced up to that point, and I wanted to help him reach his goals.
Life is not just about me being happy and free, but also about spreading joy to other people. We then became a couple and started hacking our way through to our dreams.
What lessons have you learned as a (female) founder/leader/entrepreneur?
You don’t usually get it on the first try. Nor do you always get what you want all the time. But that shouldn’t stop you from continuously pursuing what you are passionate about. Also, one should never lose balance and focus on, being a mother and wife too, all at the same time.
What are some of the challenges you have encountered thus far?
Having an unconventional business model in the coffee industry and advocating for farmers’ empowerment is a continuous challenge, especially when we are also on the same playing field as other businesses in the industry that have different sustainability beliefs and strategies.
What is the greatest risk you have undertaken?
The greatest risk I have undertaken is to make a stand; be different, and not follow what is popular, because I choose to be right rather than to be ‘in’.
Share with us a story or an example of when you chose to be right and made a stand. What happened? How did it affect you? Did anything change?
The first time I attended a coffee industry meeting of the Department of Agriculture back in 2008, the whole whiteboard was filled with improvement plans centred around a big multinational company. There was no mention at all of any other coffee farmers in the market. During those meetings, Basil and I would get into shouting matches with the industry leaders.
In the years following, we advocated for smaller businesses to be part of the government agenda. It was a constant push and pull, heart-wrenching, hair-raising ordeal,s in having to fight back against the government and corporate power plays. We decided to focus on grassroots-level work, although we are still very committed to lobbying for farmer-first policies so that businesses like ours are represented and continue to be included.
Attending these government meetings gives me the advantage of being in the loop and having access to certain information. It has helped me find my voice, which is bold and sometimes brutally frank even to people in higher positions. I have gotten accustomed to speaking my mind. I now know how to communicate with different people, be it in a corporate setting or in rural communities. Although, I feel most like myself when I am with people living amongst the mountains and the oceans.
I do feel responsible for the smallholder coffee farmers and small entrepreneurs that I have faithfully represented and acted on their behalf. I know I ignited something. But I am hoping that a lot more people will follow and continue it.
Final words of wisdom?
The most recent I have acquired is about growing and nurturing a coffee tree.
Maintain (the tree’s) balance and symmetry
Remove dried (dead) twigs and cut suckers (water sprouts)
Let the sun shine through
Vie’s interview is also available on our Instagram page. You can view more photos of Vie and her farmers!
