In this episode of the Arkansas Inc. Podcast, Geovanni Leiva discusses his company Leiva's Coffee, his journey as an entrepreneur, and why he chooses to do business in the Natural State.

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TRANSCRIPT

GEOVANNI LEIVA: Hello, everyone. My name is Geovanni Leiva. I'm a coffee farmer, the founder and the CEO of Leiva's Coffee.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Welcome to the Arkansas Inc. Podcast. My name is Esperanza Massana Crane. I serve as the director of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Development Division for the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. Our first guest is Geovanni Leiva, owner of Leiva's Coffee. A fourth-generation coffee farmer from Guatemala, Geovanni has transformed his family's decades-long coffee-growing legacy into thriving Arkansas-based business. Leiva's Coffee sources beans directly from family farms in Guatemala and is built on a mission of faith, community, and creating opportunities, both in Arkansas and abroad. Today, the company continues to grow while staying rooted in its commitment to quality, purpose, and giving back. Geovanni, it's so good to see you, and I'm so happy that you're part of the Arkansas Inc. Podcast today.

GEOVANNI LEIVA: Thank you. My pleasure.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Yeah, I had the pleasure of meeting you way back when in 2006, I think.

GEOVANNI LEIVA: Yeah, some time ago. Yes.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Yeah. We actually met at church.

GEOVANNI LEIVA: Yes.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Tell us a little bit about yourself and your business and what Leiva's Coffee is all about.

GEOVANNI LEIVA: Yeah, so it's been it's been fun to reconnect with you and it's a pleasure to be here with you guys. Let me just start with me.  I'm a fourth-generation coffee farmer. I grew up in the industry. Uh my family has had coffee since 1950. So, we grow coffee in Guatemala. And uh usually, 99% of the time when you grow up in the coffee industry, you try to escape the coffee industry. Coffee industry is one of the most upside-down industries out there right now. And, unfortunately, coffee farmers are among the poorest of the Earth, although coffee is one of the most traded commodities in the world. And so, when you grow up in the coffee industry, you want to escape it as quickly as you can. And so, I did. I had the privilege to come to the United States on a private scholarship when I was 18 years old, and I had my parents' life savings of $20, a shoe box of belonging, the clothes on my back, and I didn't know any English whatsoever.  I did that because my family believed that escaping, that I was able to escape the industry, I was able to escape the uh the coffee industry, and that was the best thing that could happen to our family. And so, I did. I got here, and I went to school. I graduated from UALR and Pulaski Tech. I was Pulaski Tech's first international student ever. , I even helped file my own paperwork for my F-1 visa. And uh I graduated, was a computer programmer, and I have finally escaped the coffee industry as a computer programmer. And I loved every bit of that. I think that was a journey that it was amazing to learn English in 8 months, to be to go to school, have to figure out how to go to school, and to learn to be a computer programmer, which is what I really wanted to do.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: That's amazing. Amazing because, you know, I also came here to study with a scholarship, and, of course, back then, there was no internet. Or the internet was just coming up. There were I mean, email was barely used, so I mean, you had to rely a lot on I guess, on your friends and professors. It must have been very, very difficult.

GEOVANNI LEIVA: I cried myself to sleep almost every single night because my family and I are very tight. And in every Hispanic, then, they have a tendency to have a very close community, and I had lived in my house with my parents, my brother, and my sister for so long. And then all of a sudden, I am found in Bryant, Arkansas, in the middle of nowhere, Arkansas, uh by myself with a host family. But I think through that process, I was able to really understand what it takes to when you have a grit and when you have a desire, and when there is a will, there is a way. And so I found myself graduating and then becoming a computer programmer. And, like I said, I love computer programming. I think to this day, uh I find myself programming things that I probably shouldn't be doing because my staff tells me that I spend too much time trying to do things and I'm like, oh, but I love programming. But so I did that, and I literally escaped the industry, and I was so happy. I married my bride, my queen, my beautiful best friend, and we've been married for 25 years. We Wow.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Congratulations. That's awesome.

GEOVANNI LEIVA: Thank you. Yes. 25 years, 2 boys. Uh I'm living the American dream, man. I'm like I have properties that I bought. I'm flying all over the country, teaching people how to program. But I keep going back to Guatemala, and I keep going to our farm, and I keep going back to the exact same place, exact same way that the farm, the coffee the village was since I left, and nothing had changed. There were no roads, no electricity, no schools, nothing. And I would go back over there and I go, so, like, is this ever going to change? And I remember a moment when my dad said, "Son, this is never going to change. This is never going to change because no one is knows how to do anything else but to grow coffee and sell it the way it is." And that moment was one of the moments that just marked my life.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: So, at what point What a beautiful story to begin with. And what a beautiful story that you continue to write.  so, at what point Leiva's Coffee is born, and how?

GEOVANNI LEIVA: So, Leiva's Coffee was born over the Gulf of Mexico as I was crying back to from a trip, knowing and coming back so frustrated over the fact that there was over 300 uh 3,000 people at that village, and I was the only one that had gotten a chance to change my future. And I just felt so overwhelmed with that thought that I had this thought on the plane, and I still have the napkin. The napkin sits in my desk right now uh in my office where there I read a Chinese proverb that says, "If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a uh day, but if you teach him how to fish, you will teach him uh you will feed him for a lifetime." And it hit me that I had been given a chance to feed myself for a lifetime through education and capitalization. And I remember going, oh my gosh, my family, my village has coffee. What if I could bring coffee to United States and I could share it with my friends? What if I could do that? And that was the birth of it. I wrote that Chinese proverb on a napkin on the United uh plane, and I still have it. And I wrote it, and I said, I'm going to do that. I am going to bring coffee, and I'm going to share it because, first of all, this is what really hit me is, I am coming to America, and I remember my parents and I am and I'm sitting and I'm going, and my mom says, "What are you so excited about?" And I go, "Mom, this is one of the things that I'm the most excited about. And I am going to drink the best coffee in America." And she goes, "Yes. That's right because we always sell the best coffee to United States. So, you're actually going to drink get to drink the best coffee." And I go, "No. I know, I love coffee. I've been drinking coffee since I was 18 months old, apparently." Yeah.  so, I love coffee. And I come here, you guys, and I'm sitting over there, and I'm starting to kind of get uh here in America and I start drinking coffee, and I drink the most burnt, black, absolutely disgusting cup of coffee. And I go, "What in the heck, America? What the heck are you guys doing to coffee? Supposedly, you have the best of our beans, but you guys are burning the heck out of it." So, that was also another thing that I was like, listen, I know what coffee tastes like, and it can be better than this. And you guys are So, that was also when the business kind of got uh started because I saw the need to actually get people to drink the coffee for what is beautiful part of it is.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Yes. Yeah, no. I think anybody that has traveled to Guatemala can testify that you have some of the best coffee in the world. Yes.

GEOVANNI LEIVA: Guatemala is amazing for that.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: So, how did the process start, and what are some of the resources that you used to because I could imagine, you know, importing coffee must be a challenge. And so, how did the operation start? How many was it just you and your wife and and at what point did it start growing? Tell us a little bit about the journey to where Leiva's Coffee is today. Right. Where it is at. Yeah.

GEOVANNI LEIVA: So, 19 years ago was so I started with  small grinder and a and a 5 pound bag that my dad sent me over FedEx. We I think we paid like $50 a pound to bring it over. And so, what I did is I got little Ziploc bags, and I will grind the coffee, and I will just pass it, say, hey, can you try this? Can you try that? And that was kind of that everybody started going, where can I get more? This is amazing. I've never actually tasted coffee that I actually can drink black. And so, I was like, my point. This is where we're going. This is what we're going to do. So, first of all, though,  4 generations of coffee farmer, none of us have ever seen this side of the business. So, I have no idea what roasting looks like. I have no idea what espressos look like. I have no idea about any of that. So, first is how do you roast coffee? How do you even get it here? So, the idea started with let's do that. We started bringing roasted coffee. That kind of didn't work out because of the freshness of coffee.  coffee, again, is one of the most beautiful food elements in the entire food chain. There's over 400 flavors uh that can be traced to coffee. So, the moment you roast coffee, it starts deteriorating. So, I was like, I don't want to do that. I wanted to roast it here. So,  so I started with that thought, and then I did this through a friend of mine who had a roaster. So, I was like, I would bring the green, I would roast it, and I would just continue to do this. Now, I'm a very hard-headed guy, and I am  God really wanted me to do this. But I didn't want to lose my programming job uh-huh because I was making really good money.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Where were you working at the time?

GEOVANNI LEIVA: It was it's called Tromatic Technology. No. No, they no longer exist. Uh-huh. And I remember my wife tell at this point, we have 2 boys. Uh-huh. We have our 2 boys already. And I remember my wife going, "Hey, I really like our house, and I really like how much you get paid." And I'm like, "I do too." Yes. So, she was like, "I legit kind of do the whole thing."  so, I did it out of my laundry room. Then I did it out of my kitchen, and it was just started kind of like just sharing with people like really why we wanted to do this was 2 parts. One is this, we really want to showcase what coffee can be. But 2, we really want to be able to to vertically integrate the system so that the funds that get done in here trickle down correctly to the people in a must uh easier and a frictionless less way to them. And not only that, but that we can help them with the needs that we actually see. Uh-huh. And the needs that actually are going to change their lives. And so, that was where it started, and then it has evolved. Now, it's been 19 years to where we are today, and I couldn't even like I oh I've only been doing it full time, because, again, I'm a hard-headed guy. I only been doing it for about 7 to 8 years full time,  and so, the rest of the time was just done as a passion and as a thing that I wanted to do because I really love my my other job, and that's kind of how where we are today.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Well, and I think that is the challenge for any entrepreneur when they're doing the “sidepreneurship,” and then at what point do you leave your job and and and go into the entrepreneurial side? And I think you've handled it very well. So, for those that may not be too familiar with Leiva's Coffee and how much it has grown and the and the beautiful facility that you have, you know, on Highway 10, can you can you tell, you know, how many employees you have, how much you produce? Because, I mean, Leiva's Coffee is everywhere now, you know?

GEOVANNI LEIVA: Thank you. Yes. So, we have  so we, thankfully, through this process So, the way everything has happened You asked me earlier, and I don't think I answered it fully. As an entrepreneur, so there's 2 things that I've learned from being in the business, and again, from doing this the hard way. Uh-huh. The way I did business and the way I did Leiva's is probably the hardest way to possibly have done it, but it was the only option that I had being a un- known person in this country. And the beautiful part about United States that I love is that in United States, you have the ability to become whatever you want to become, positive or negative. You can either positively become whatever you want, the resources are here, or you can negatively become whatever you want to do because the resources are there. Right. It's a it's just a fertile ground. And so, because I didn't know anything, because I didn't know anyone, I would walk into a place and they'd be like, "Who? What? I don't even pronounce your last name." Yeah. What is Leiva? Leiva? Luvu? What? Yeah, Leiva's, why would I want to do business with you? Uh-huh. Or I would walk to I walk into a bank and he was like, "Bro, we have zero history of you. You don't exist, like, you have no credit, like, we can't give you anything." So, I did it all with my own money. So, I started with my own money. And I started just doing it. So, finally, about, well, yeah, 4 or 5 years ago, this  is he's an angel. This family's an angel. They came to me, and they say, "Geo, we see what you are doing. We love what you're doing. How can we help you?" And I said, "Really, what I need is I need someone to back me financially to achieve my dreams." And so, that's what this family has done for me. And he has patted me on the back, he has picked me up, he has pushed me. Not only that, he has really allowed me to have the financial So, today, Leiva's, where we are, is we have a 5,000 square feet of brand new facility, state-of-the-art. We're the only third facility in the entire state to be the certified organic. Wow. Which is a huge thing, uh to get that. We are the only second facility that has a CR35 IR12, which is a state-of-the-art roaster.  it is it allows us to do uh anywhere between 6,000 to 10,000 pounds of coffee. My goal today is to move a million pounds of coffee in a year so that I can eradicate poverty and I can end poverty in 3 generations. Not only today's generation, the one coming and the next one. Because I think in order to create impact, you have to do things uh in a way that creates legacy for you and that is not just something. The common word among all the coffee farmers today, because I go and travel all this, is they want consistency. Consistency of a buyer, consistency of a product. We as a conser want consistency. So, today, we help over 1500 families in Guatemala, and we help people in 3 different origins , and I've been able to My goal as a company, my vision for this company is to be able to do this across every coffee region of the world. Because there every coffee region of the world has a family just like my family, a village just like my village that is uh just eagerly waiting for a way to directly trade with someone. And I have to create that hub where I can gain a gather them and then we can expose them to the to the market. The problem I have today is I don't have access to the market, and it's really hard to get to one person at a time. And so, what we the challenge that we see ourselves is, how do we translate this message into a message that an end consumer can actually understand and trust because this whole time, they've just been told lies or white little lies about things that matters in the coffee industry, but the impact hasn't really been shown.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Yes. So, for those that are listening, contact Leiva's Coffee for corporate coffee for your office building, for, you know, for your family, and support this business because I think the beauty of your business is not only are you supporting families in in Guatemala, but you're also growing jobs in the state. How many people do you employ currently?

GEOVANNI LEIVA: So, we employ , and there's 2 sides of the business, so we employ in one probably about 50 to 60 people, and then the other side, we have about 15 people. And uh so, uh today, it's really it's so funny you ask me that because this morning I wake up in the mornings, and I have this moment where I read and do this. And one of the things that hit me today was there is about 100 people, 100 families, that depend on whether or not I get up today. Wow. And I better get my tail out of here, and I better get to work today because today is a busy day. Today, I got meetings from this until I have no until 7:00 PM, I think. But that's what drives me. Drives me is the sense that there's 100-something families here in Arkansas, but there is 1500 families in Guatemala, and that that's what the weight of being a business owner feels like. And in an emotional, spiritual, and physical way, it weighs so many angles of your life that if you're not prep for that kind of stuff , I don't think preparation really, there is no preparation for this. You just got to dive into it, man, and you just got to dive in.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: But but I think also your story you have been prepared for this. You know? I mean, I think you've gone through so much that has allowed you to carry all this I mean, responsibility. And I think that's such a beautiful thing. You you are correct. You have a lot of people that depend on you, but you're doing such amazing work, and and we have no doubt that you will continue growing the success. On that note, and, you know, part of the reason we're doing this podcast is because we want to feature entrepreneurs. You know, you are the storytellers and and truly the stars of the show, of the economy in the state of Arkansas. And you're the ones that make the wheels turn.

GEOVANNI LEIVA: Uh-huh.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: So, tell us a little bit about your experience in the state and how the state has been favorable for your business.  obviously, you know, you came here.  but yeah, if you can share a little bit about just the community overall, the perhaps the, you know, business partners or or any resources that you might have been able to find to find for growing your small business, being an entrepreneur, that can help others.

GEOVANNI LEIVA: You know , I think learning uh about what's available to, that's a big that that's been a a huge asset uh to to us because I don't think that's really well-known to, still. So, for me, I'm still very kind of new to that because I've done it all, again, elbow grease, every dollar goes back into it kind of deal. , again, that's the hardest possible way to do this. Uh knowing what I know about what's available in the state and how the state has helped. Now, I do know this, I travel throughout the entire country  doing my programming job and doing this. I would say there's no better place to live and have business than in Arkansas. I will say that 100% sure because the ability to do business in this place, to be able to be so centrally located, uh so one of the biggest uh assets that I have in the in the business is, I import coffee. , right? So, we import coffee, and now we're I think last year we moved 2 and a half containers of coffee. So, we move them into Arkansas, and now, strategically, I can hit California, I can hit Ohio, I can hit Chicago, I can hit Louisiana. So, Arkansas being so strategically helps a whole lot from that.  also, the ability to be able to really connect with an individual. You know, because it's so much easier to do business here because I get people from all over the world at my location over there by Pinnacle because so many people that visit Pinnacle, and they come over there and they're like, "I have no idea this beautiful space existed here." Why? Because I can build something much better and much uh at a greater scale here because the ability to uh create get those funds that make it possible here. And so, that's why I love Arkansas. I love the people, I love the culture, I love the the lakes, the beauty of itself, and I love the ability that from here, I'm one flight away from the world. I'm literally one flight away from the world.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: That's terrific. And I did not give you those talking points on the central location, so it's wonderful. Well, Geovanni, it has been such a pleasure and an honor to have you on our podcast today. Uh just to close, we would we would really love your thoughts on why Arkansas makes sense for you as a business. Oh, that’s a long answer. But why Arkansas? First of all, Arkansas is one of the most gorgeous places I've ever uh visited.  now, yeah, there's places all over the world, all over the United States that are beautiful, but Arkansas, it's culture, it's home-based,  the ability to really  be in nature. I think that's one of my favorite parts about it. I do hate pollen, I will say that, because pollen hates me and I hate it. Yeah. But I love that. I love the ability that you that we can be big, but we can be small, that we there's no traffic. My goodness, that's a huge one. And then the ability to be able to really connect with an individual. You know, because it's so much easier to do business here because I get people from all over the world at my location over there by Pinnacle because so many people that visit Pinnacle, and they come over there and they're like, "I have no idea this beautiful space existed here." Why? Because I can build something much better and much uh at a greater scale here because the ability to uh create get those funds that make it possible here. And so, that's why I love Arkansas. I love the people, I love the culture, I love the the  the lakes, the beauty of itself, and I love the ability that from here, I'm one flight away from the world. I'm literally one flight away from the world. Fascinating. Fascinating. Thank you for sharing that experience. Geovanni, so you talked earlier about in on that napkin how important it was for you, and I love the whole concept of writing things in napkins because most the most brilliant ideas and the most successful businesses truthfully are born on a napkin. So, I better get on a napkin here and uh soon. , but so talk to us about how you have been able to create that impact that you wrote on the napkin and the importance of education  for your business.

GEOVANNI LEIVA: And you know, this is a whole I want to make sure that everybody understands this is a is a whole team, right? I just happen to be the voice of what we've done as a whole team. So, there is a list of people that have been that have helped me get to where we are. But one of the biggest thing is that the way that I the way that the poverty ended in my life, because I was doomed for poverty. If you grow up in the industry, you're doomed for poverty. Like, you are doom for That's just how it happens for generations to happen. Because there's no opportunities. People are poor in other countries of the world because in other parts of the world, and here too, and it's really because you just go down the street and you can see this happen. It's because of lack of opportunities, or lack of knowledge of opportunities. Right. Agree. Lack of knowledge. Right? So, because of that, education was really what got me. Education, I knew that education was the path to which I could get to where I wasn't at. And so education, that's why school was so critical for me. And then after that is capitalization by getting a job where I can execute on my skills. Right. And that happened to be program. So, for us, education is critical. So, what we decided as a family is that what we needed to do, there was no schools. And coffee industries are so remote and poor, Mhm. that there's no schools. And so, we thought that schools was My sister had a dream of having a school. So, Long Way is the non-profit that we help, that she started with her friend, so that we can found schools in the coffee farming communities around the around the world. And so, our old bedroom turned into a school. So, Karina's, my sister, Minor, is my brother, and I have sat around and said, "Why don't we just turn our bedroom, we don't use our bedrooms anymore in our at the farmhouse, how do we just have?" So, instead of kids having to drive to walk 2 and a half hours to go to a governmental school, they walk 20 minutes because our house is so centrally located in the village. Wonderful. 20 minutes, and then there was always a teacher. Yes. On the other place, there were no teachers. So, education, we accessed education through COVID. Our kids were 4, 5 reading levels below the standard before COVID, because we were a private school and we were uh through Zoom, we were able to continue education. While the school system in Guatemala closed for almost 2 years, Wow. now our kids are 3 or 4 reading grade level levels above everyone else. Because we were able to do that. So, now we started a second school. And then there's a second school now, and then that's the goal. So, it's Long Way, the one that does all of this for us. And what we do is every coffee sale that we do, we donate percentages of the profit directly so that they can continue to do that. Because we want to turn coffee into education.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: Yes. Yes, love it. So, one more reason for or all of our listeners to contact you or to to shop and buy Leiva's Coffee, it's terrific. It's wonderful coffee. Uh-huh. And much success to you and your family and everything that you're doing.  thank you, Geovanni, for joining us. Thank you so much.

GEOVANNI LEIVA: Thank you. My pleasure. My pleasure, always.

ESPERANZA MASSANA CRANE: You've been listening to the Arkansas Inc. Podcast. I'm Esperanza Massana Crane, director of the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Development Division for the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. You can subscribe to the Arkansas Inc. Podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. For more information about the Arkansas Economic Development Commission and to sign up for the AEDC monthly newsletter, visit arkansasedc.com and connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, X, and YouTube. As always, thanks for listening.