🌟 Solangie Gil – ENTJ, SDG 12 & 17

💻 Connect:
🔗 LinkedIn: Solangie Gil
💌 Email

Solangie brings purpose, precision, and a chef’s reverence for ingredients to everything she builds. Born in Colombia and now parenting and working in New Zealand, she blends an ENTJ - commander-style - drive with a deep respect for food, people, and process. Solangie sees sustainability as practical, daily decisions rather than slogans.

🌱 THE STARTING POINT: “I wanted my Colombian café.”

Solangie trained as a chef in Colombia. She moved to New Zealand after finishing her cooking course, and learned English working in kitchens. She wrote plans for a Colombian café for years, studied management, business, marketing and graphic design to prepare. Together with her husband (also a chef) , she started her project - which grew from market stalls into a proper café. They ran the café between 2014 and 2022, and Solangie describes closing it as “closing a chapter” - to fully focus on her two little girls.

💡 PERSONALITY & SHIFT

Solangie identifies with the commander/ ENTJ profile. She now recognises the flipside of that strength: a tendency to push ahead without always pausing for people’s vulnerability.

Because of this, she had to built a different leadership approach inside the business. She emphasises “acknowledging staff, listening and small gestures” to reduce burnout and turnover. Mentors played a big role in shaping how she led; she names people who modelled responsibility and craft for her.

Colombian Café (2014–2022):

• The café showcased family recipes such as her grandmother’s cooking. They served Colombian organic coffee, Latin American treats and focused on organic ingredients. Solangie intentionally used a corn-based bread (arepa/aripa) instead of wheat products.

  “I didn’t want to serve just bread; I wanted to honour my grandmother’s recipes and bring food that carried culture and respect for the product.”

  Respect for product & reduced waste:

• Solangie trained staff (including her Chilean-born husband) rather than hiring “superstars”. She taught them about coffee farming and the labour behind each cup. Throwing away milk or carelessly wasting ingredients was a no-no. She implemented internal planning and processes so the kitchen used ingredients more efficiently.

  “One cup of coffee here is five dollars — but in Colombia that’s the equivalent of what a farmer earns in a whole day, like my grandparents used to.”

  Operations & culture:

• Solangie emphasised a calm, respectful front-of-house culture (no swearing, respect for the product). She created a housekeeping document for staff describing how to care for food and which behaviour standards she expects.

  Community & teaching:

• Café Colombia provided a community space for Latin American artists. They also hosted free marketing classes at night to help people start businesses). Solangie describes these activities as “food for the soul” and part of why the café mattered to people.

  A conscious closure:

• When the café closed she saw it as a completed chapter, a place that made real impact and relationships, and she remains open to future opportunities.
  

🧘 INNER WORK

Solangie’s spiritual life is central. She grew up in Catholic faith and studied the Bible deeply. For her, spirituality is a personal relationship that grounds how she leads and cares for people. Practical tip? Using prayer with her husband to step out of ego-driven arguments. Her faith and values function as a filter for projects, keeping her focused on service rather than trend-driven choices.

📚 ROOTS & INFLUENCE

Family stories and her grandmother’s farm and cooking are core to Solangie’s identity. She spent childhood mornings helping on the farm with milking, harvesting, making corn bread... Those early experiences shaped her respect for ingredients and seasonal food. Her upbringing links directly to her sustainability practices in the café.

⚡ DAY-TO-DAY HABITS

Solangie describes herself currently as a full-time mum whose “biggest project” is raising her children. To be fully present, she carves out personal time each day. For example, an hour of exercise or study, or time to rest is a non-negotiable to remain able to serve her family well. She checks email periodically and sets boundaries around phone calls.

🤝 WHO SHE WANTS TO MEET / WORK WITH

Solangie is looking for collaborators who bring complementary skills, honesty and mutual respect. She values mentorship, partnerships that respecting other's beliefs, and transparency in projects. She’s open to opportunities that combine community, craft and ethical production.

📘 Glossary of Terms (as used in the interview)

• Arepa / aripa: the corn-based bread Solangie served instead of wheat bread

• Housekeeping: the document Solangie used to manage expectations - such as respecting ingredients

• SDG #12 & #17 : the café’s focus on responsible production/ consumption and partnership with community and artists