journalism and earned their degrees from the University of Florida. After graduating from college, Yvonne produced and edited videos for Telemundo while Yvette became a reporter for WSVN 7News in Miami. Yvette later went on to create a public relations firm of her own, and Yvonne spent 10 years as a video editor. She was constantly working, but like many entrepreneurs, she reached the point where working for herself was becoming increasingly more appealing. The Rodriguez sisters got into the cigar business in 2013, though their product didn’t launch until a year later. Getting into cigars was more than just another business opportunity for the sisters. Cigars had long been a part of their family and their culture. Cigars figured prominently within their history, and they’d heard stories from their parents and their grandparents about cigars. Each sister had her own experience that eventually led them into the world of cigars. Yvette traveled frequently to countries like Costa Rica, Honduras and Nicaragua. During one of her trips to Nicaragua, she met a fellow Cuban who lived in Miami but also owned his own factory. The idea of starting a cigar business, however, came from Yvonne. She was just leaving the corporate world while Yvette was working in public relations and helping businesses grow through coverage and media attention, a job she loved and says she was “killing it” in. Both sisters smoked cigars and would frequently hang out in cigar stores. That’s when a lightbulb went off in Yvonne’s head: Maybe her next big career move had been right in front of them all along. “I was looking within and asking myself, ‘What has my life been so far?’ A cigar had always been in my life. We claim Cuban kids are born with a cigar, domino, and cup of rum or coffee in their hand. That is how we grew up. I was looking within to what I know, something more inherent to me.” That’s when Yvonne presented the idea and opportunity to her sister. She had thought out this idea to the point where she knew everything from the name of the company to how many cigar lines it should have and what its blends should be like. “She calls me one day and is like, ‘Listen, I think that we should make a cigar brand,” Yvette explains. “And the name should be Tres Lindas Cubanas Cigars. Tres Lindas Cubanas is an old Cuban song that we love. It’s a very old Cuban song from my grandmother’s time. We were forcefed it growing up. Basically, ‘Tres Lindas Cubanas’ means ‘three pretty Cuban girls.’ We know that Cubans come in all different complexions and that every Cuban woman is gorgeous. Every woman in the world is gorgeous, but you know, Cubans get a little bit of extra salt,” she says with a laugh. “We took that on as a celebration of every skin tone—every skin tone from the darker skin tone to the lighter skin tone—and each of the cigars we make is special in its own way, and no one is better than the other one.” Before the company was officially launched, Yvonne already knew what the three blends would be and what would make each one different from the others. La Negrita would be the Maduro, La Mulata would be the Habano, and La Clarita would be the Connecticut blend. When presented with the idea, Yvette began to examine it from a public relations point of view. Her biggest questions upfront were: How would they get this cigar brand the attention it needed? How would or could they get it in front of the media? How would she pitch it to them? Through her public relations background, she had gotten press coverage for some of the most obscure businesses, so she was confident that with the right angle, she would be able to get Tres Lindas Cubanas the attention it needed. Another challenge they faced was a problem that many other startups also have. They knew there was a lot that could be done marketing-wise to raise awareness for their new cigar brand, but they didn’t have the money to pull off these ideas. When they launched, there weren’t that many options in terms of advertising. This was before blogs and social media, and the only way to advertise and promote a tobacco product was running an ad in a magazine, an option that didn’t make financial sense to the Rodriguez sisters in the early days of their business. “We started on the low [end] as far as budget, and we did not want investors because that would have just created another situation, and I wasn’t in the mood,” Yvonne explains. “As far as trade media, it costs a lot and it’s a huge investment.” “You had to have an ad—there weren’t a lot of blogs or anything like that,” Yvette adds. “I said, ‘No, we’ve got to go through this route. I know what works.’ Instead of us presenting [the cigars] to them, we’re sharing the story. If they’re interested in the story, they’ll share the story also.” Doing a quick Google search of Tres Lindas Cubanas Cigars will reveal some of the expected cigar reviews but also many images of Yvonne and Yvette and different takes on their story. Presenting their personal story first and using it as a vehicle to drive interest to their cigars has worked for them and their business. Knowing that money is key to any business, the last thing either of them wanted to do was spend money on something that wasn’t going to have a greater long-term impact. “Paid advertising costs money,” says Yvonne. “I mean, it’s cool, but we didn’t have the money, and we weren’t risking it from the beginning. A business is a business, and the first five years are very difficult. A lot of businesses don’t last, and I wasn’t going to go broke doing it.” Yvette adds, “This was a side business at the start. Basically, this one was for us. It’s a project we were already doing anyway. We were going to cigar shops, we were building relationships and creating this business. At the end of the day I asked my sister, ‘Why cigars?’ She was like, ‘Because it’s cool! Cigars are cool!” Left to right: Yvette and Yvonne both pursued careers in journalism and communication before creating their own cigar brand. 66 TOBACCO BUSINESS | NOVEMBER / DECEMBER | 22
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