Effective Saturday, July 3, Lavarski Smith will be the newly minted director of Coca-Cola in the Florida Keys. He’s a homegrown, true-blood, Middle Keys local, married to the same. Together they have three children and live on Duck Key. Here’s a little more about the mover and shaker popping up on local boards (Community Foundation of the Florida Keys) and local clubs (Rotary Club of Marathon), who is deeply invested in the Keys, his work and his family.
People always ask me, “What’s your first name?” When I say, “Lavarski,” they are very confused because it sounds like a Polish last name. My mom had a friend with a similar name, but I don’t have any Polish blood. But it’s the kind of situation that breaks the ice. It’s unique.
I remember the smell of Sue Moore Elementary when we moved to the Keys from Miami when I was 5 years old. It just smelled like fresh breakfast. At that time, my family pooled everything they had and moved to the Keys. Both my mother and father worked at Hawks Cay Resort for more than 30 years. I remember driving the golf cart and hanging out in the entertainment room for employees. It was a different lifestyle. I look back now and realize how different my life would have been if we had never moved.
My wife, Sopheap, taught me how to swim when we were both in the 6th grade. As our grade-level graduation celebration, we went to the Cabana Club on Key Colony Beach. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I jumped in. I guess I thought I could walk across the bottom of the pool. Sopheap (pronounced “Sopea”) taught me how to swim that day. We went through phases from there — hating each other on and off, to dating in high school. We’ve been married 13 years and have three children. The last baby, my princess, was a Christmas present. Without my wife, I would be lost. She is the strongest person I know.
I sold perfume out of the trunk of my car at hotels at 3 a.m. in Miami, while going to college during the day. Then I sold cars, things like that. I would commute on the weekends to visit Sopheap, who was working at Publix since she was 14 years old and going to College of the Florida Keys. (She is now a manager at the new Islamorada Publix.) I thought to myself, “I got to figure something out.” Within six months, I was living in the Keys and working two jobs. Eventually, I got a route that provided organic goods to Winn-Dixie and Publix. When Coke was hiring employees for merchandising, I made the switch. I worked for three years before I had the first promotion to account specialist. Then I moved up to sales manager and then district manager. Now, as district director, I oversee all the sales on the local level and if customers have a problem, I solve it. I am also part of community outreach — coordinating big events like the distribution of our product at Fantasy Fest or the Seafood Festival, plus managing employees and the warehouse on Big Pine Key.
I am working at 1 a.m. But I have learned to schedule my emails so that they send in the morning. Our gross product sales in the Keys is about $13 million per year — nothing compared to Orlando’s $100 million a year, but our sales are more profitable. We have less grocery business and more hotel and restaurant business.
Our young people need help with mental health. There are steps to take to get better and be better. I had a rough patch with anxiety and I want to talk about it to help the younger generation. They are dealing with a lot — relationships, COVID-19, etc. But I am worried about our younger generation. They think they can get famous on YouTube and make a career out of it. I wish they could understand my father’s generation.
My dad, 76 years old, still works by choice. He always told me, “If you have two legs, use ’em for what they are meant to be used.” What he said rubbed off on me. I still have two legs and so I work. Now, I tell my son, “This is what Pops told me.”
I feel better when I am organized and have a plan. I have a five-year plan and a 10-year plan. I don’t know what situation I am going to be in when the date comes, but I can always adapt.
Miami Heat all the way. I’ve always been a basketball fan, but now I’m getting into golf. They say it’s a great way to beat stress. Old, young … the sport is all about thinking, your mental approach to strategy.
“Mrs. Doubtfire,” I know every word of that movie by heart. I am introducing my kids to the movies that were popular in my youth, usually a retread of what’s out there now. I also love music — rap, country, even Spanish music. They say, why do you listen to Spanish music, you can’t even understand the words. I don’t care.
I don’t “do” city very well. I live in the Keys because of the culture. I don’t like malls or traffic or the aggressive lifestyle that’s so busy and so fast.
My success? Work ethic is a part of it, but so is competition. If you’re a hard worker in the Keys, you are going to succeed. In Miami, you would have 10 or 12 people going for the same job, but we have bigger staffing challenges here.
I am a dad first. I’ll be changing diapers or rocking them to sleep or watching movies with them. They keep me going. When I have free time, I spend it with them.
