Craveworthy Interview with Maria Rivera of Smalls Holdings, LLC about lessons learned from Disney, tech enablement for brand communication, and the importance of leaders being connected.
Key Takeaways
Maria Rivera, CEO of Smalls Holdings LLC and Smalls Sliders career is a testament to her exceptional ability to disrupt, transform, and build brands. With a resume that includes senior executive roles at The Walt Disney Company, Darden Restaurants, TGI Friday's, Logan’s Roadhouse, and Krispy Kreme Inc., Rivera has honed her expertise in brand transformation and growth.
At the end of 2022, she took on her current role, embarking on a new journey to create a national brand and a winning team from the ground up.
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Eternal Lessons from Disney
Maria highlights the crucial lesson she learned from her time working at Walt Disney of understanding the underlying factors of a transaction, emphasizing the significance of data-driven and personalized customer interactions. Drawing from her time at Disney, she stresses the importance of asking the right questions to effectively cultivate a brand.
Tech Enablement for Brand Communication
According to Maria Rivera, to effectively communicate and encourage purchases, businesses need robust digital and technology experiences within their locations, coupled with a strong brand presence on social media. This requires significant effort to align digital experiences and technology with the brand voice across all channels.
Leaders Must Be Connected
Maria stresses the importance of empathy in leadership, particularly in challenging times. She believes that leading with hands out, not hands up, and being open to learning are crucial for successful leadership. She acknowledges that she doesn't know everything and values the experience of learning continuously.
Maria Rivera built her career from dishwasher to CEO.
Maria’s journey is characterized by her passion for innovation and her strategic vision. Her move to Smalls was driven by the potential she saw to push forward with a fresh, yet simple, perspective and her inspiration to disrupt the space through a different lens.
"I learned quickly in my career that I have a knack for disrupting, transforming and building brands," Maria Rivera says on the Craveworthy podcast hosted by Gregg Majewski.
Smalls Sliders Franchising Opportunities
Founded in 2019 by Brandon Landry, with former NFL quarterback Drew Brees as an initial investor, Smalls Sliders has quickly become one of the fastest-growing quick-service restaurant (QSR) brands in the country, with nearly 240 units opened or under development.
The brand’s success is driven by its simple yet disruptive approach to delivering both drive-thru and walk-up experiences, utilizing a unique modular construction design that offers real estate flexibility and rapid development. Smalls Sliders is deeply committed to community service, embodying the ethos of “celebrating life’s small things.” With Rivera on board since 2022, innovation and disruption are at the forefront, transforming the QSR experience and fostering unique interactions between team members and customers.
Prior to her role at Smalls, Rivera leveraged her deep industry experience in enterprise strategy, transformation, operations, and development to grow omnichannel companies swiftly and comprehensively. Her approach to strategy revolves around collaboration across functions, executives, investors, and boards, aiming to align a company’s purpose, mission, and goals with the people who support it.
Customer-Centric Leadership
A crucial lesson Rivera learned from her time at Walt Disney was the importance of understanding the underlying factors of a transaction. Her focus on customer service is deeply rooted in her Disney experience, where she developed a data-driven, personalized approach to customer interactions.
"I'm a brand architect, and that would not have happened without having the education and the preparation I had through seven, eight years there. " Rivera reflects. "I don't think I would be able to have the breadth and how deep we can go in asking pertinent questions about all sorts of things that have to do with cultivating a brand if it wasn't for my years there (at Disney).”
Embracing Digital Transformation
Rivera emphasizes the necessity of robust digital and technology experiences within business locations to effectively communicate and encourage purchases. Furthermore, she highlights the importance of a strong brand presence on social media, which requires significant effort to align digital experiences and technology with the brand voice across all channels.
"There is this whole set of digital and technology experiences that you need to have in the four walls of your location so you can communicate and you can leverage the opportunity for consumers to buy from your brand in a very specific way," she explains.
Empathetic and Connected Leadership
Having that technology within the four walls speaks to the connection required from owners and business leaders in an ever-changing customer landscape. Rivera stresses the importance of empathy in leadership, particularly in challenging times. She believes in leading with hands out, not hands up, and being open to learning continuously.
"Leaders today have to be very much connected to their field organization and to their teams and have to be on listening mode," she advises. "We all want to do it the right way and we want to be 100% successful five years from now, but we have to be very open minded to be able to get to that aspiration."
Passion for Inclusive Teams and Customer Focus
Above all, Rivera is passionate about building and developing inclusive teams and fostering a culture of collaboration and deep customer focus, like she is at Smalls. She believes that the most successful companies are those that nurture the nuances between high-achieving and high-performing.
"I know that I've been successful when I build authentic relationships with people and empower them to grow beyond just business results," she states.
“If you want to make it in this space, then being authentic to who you are goes a long way.”
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About Maria Rivera
Maria Rivera is an accomplished executive known for her ability to disrupt, transform, and build brands. With a career that spans senior executive roles at The Walt Disney Company, Darden Restaurants, TGI Friday's, Logan’s Roadhouse, and Krispy Kreme Inc., Rivera’s strategic vision and leadership have consistently driven significant growth and innovation. At the end of 2022, she became the Chief Executive Officer at Smalls Holding, LLC and Smalls Sliders Franchising.
In her first year as CEO at Smalls, Rivera has built and led a talented foundational team that achieved remarkable results, including a 132% year-over-year sales increase, over 8 billion PR media impressions, the launch of 3PD, loyalty rewards, and a reimagined brand, as well as the opening or development of over 250 locations in eight new states.
Rivera’s unique perspective is shaped by her extensive experience in delivering profitable growth, turnaround, and cultural transformations of both mature and emerging brands. Her success is marked by building authentic relationships and empowering individuals to grow beyond just business results.
About Gregg Majewski
Gregg Majewski has a vast amount of experience as a corporate executive in the restaurant industry. As the former CEO of Jimmy John’s, he played a major role in expanding the franchise from 33 to 300+ stores in just 5 years by surrounding the company’s marketing strategy around the innovative approach of delivering sandwiches and being “freaky fast”. Majewski has worked to develop restaurant concepts over the last two plus decades, before starting Craveworthy Brands in 2023, which currently includes a growing portfolio of restaurant brands.
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