Episode 202: The Reality Of Running 3 Businesses As a Married Couple | Josh & Liza Shirazi | Revival Cafe + Kitchen, Shirazi Distributing, Morrissey Market
Can you have it all: thriving careers, a strong relationship, a family, and a sense of sanity? Josh and Liza Shirazi are proof that it’s possible. In this episode, Kara sits down with her longtime friends and favorite power couple to talk about how they juggle marriage, parenting, and multiple successful businesses while staying grounded in their values. They open up about navigating entrepreneurship, managing burnout, embracing individual growth, and supporting each other through the rollercoaster of life and leadership. You’ll hear the real story behind Revival Cafe + Kitchen, Shirazi Distributing, and Morrissey Market; plus, the mindset, boundaries, and communication tools that help them keep showing up for their family, their team, and themselves.
If you’re a business owner, parent, or just someone who wants to make life work on your terms, this episode is packed with inspiration and practical takeaways.
“There’s power in being on a team and having someone get you, like I have with my wife. It gives you confidence. Confidence you can then use to empower others.”
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Follow along using the Transcript
Chapters:
00:00 Meet Josh and Liza Shirazi
01:15 How they define being a power couple
03:00 Building businesses while raising a family
07:00 Entrepreneurship lessons from an immigrant upbringing
10:30 What they’ve learned from managing burnout
13:00 Why communication is everything in marriage and business
16:00 Growing in different directions and staying connected
18:20 What success looks like right now
21:00 Getting out of survival mode
25:00 Building teams and making space for each other
30:00 The mental load of parenting as entrepreneurs
35:00 Liza’s integrative health journey
41:00 What they need now and how the community can support
You put your attention to where you need, you're needed most. You're needed everywhere all the time, but like wherever the priority is, and then I think that's happens between the two of us.
It's also, when opportunity's there, like you either take it or you don't. I tend to try and always take it.
That's Josh and Liza Shirazi. I'm Kara Duffy and this is The Powerful Ladies Podcast.
Guys, I'm so excited that you are my guest today on The Powerful Ladies Podcast. I have been trying to get you guys on this podcast together individually. Since day one. So we are beyond episode 200. So it has taken me 200 requests essentially to get you guys here, and you're two of my favorite humans. So please introduce yourselves.
Let's start with Josh and tell us who you are, where you are in the world, and what you're up to.
My name is Josh Shirazi. And I guess in full transparency, Kara, you and I go back a long way. Over 20 years, I think, at this point.
Don't tell anyone. Yes.
Yes. And I am currently in my office in Boston.
And yeah, you've been asking us for a really long time, and I'm sure we'll get into why it's been so difficult to coordinate this, but you did it, but you did it. You did it. And I guess I'm here not only because you asked us, but I definitely have a lot of powerful ladies in my life.
Including the other person on this zoom call my wife Liza. I'm happy to, discuss as much or as little, but I feel like you guys should drive this car.
I think, technically I have you guys on because I often have power couples because I think it's a really interesting dynamic and once in a while I do have powerful gentlemen.
This is an all inclusive podcast. But before we move on to Lizza what are your businesses? You're an entrepreneur, what are your businesses? Oh yeah. And what industry are you in?
I own a food distribution company. That has been what I've done pretty much since I got out of school. And that's been my main focus for a really long time.
Along with that there's some property ownership because we have a warehouse and some other properties in the warehouse that we rent. So there's. That portion of it. And just recently somewhat recently, it's been a few years now myself and another food distributor and some other partners founded a grocery home delivery business in the Boston area as well.
Which is totally new to me. Because it's a different, it's a different style of of business or business plan because where we got some funding for it. And I've learned when you get funding priorities and goals and all that kind of stuff are completely different than when you're just an owner operated family business.
So those are, I think. Those are the three things that I'm doing right now. Liz? Am I forgetting something? That's it, right? I think so. I think that's it.
And it's called, I think that's it. Yeah. Shirazi Distributing, correct.
Shirazi Distributing is, yep. The the main business, if you will Shirazi Holdings owns the property, and Morrissey market is the grocery home delivery business.
Perfect. Okay. So if people wanna support you, they know how to find you. Yes.
Yes.
All right, and then moving on to your better half. Liza, who are you? Where are you and what are you up to?
All right. I am currently in Cambridge, right down the river from Josh pretty much. We do start our end indoor days in same places, but throughout the day we often are in different locations.
Yeah, so I own a handful of cafes in the Boston area and food service provider. We do a lot of catering as well. Started off with. My first cafe, which is how we met in 2008, opened in Harvard Square at Crema Cafe, and Josh was better known as the milkman was making our deliveries, I think, maybe not according to how their business normally operated, but he was making some special visits and we met, and we were married. And so we were in Harvard Square for 10 years and then I, six months prior to Crema closing, opened up another cafe business with a new partner, which is called Revival Cafe and Kitchen, and we're in Alewife, which is Cambridge Davis, Somerville and the Newbury Street in Boston. And then have.
A couple different things in the works that are some other things that are not open to the public. Some private accounts and catering and some new things on the horizon. And personally, I guess it's personally and professionally, I'm just finishing up a certification to be an integrative health coach.
So I'm hoping to fuse my passion for food and wellness and health together into something that I'm not sure what's gonna be in the coming weeks, months, and years.
When for someone who loves food so much and both of you do, right? You met through not just loving food, but having your businesses in your lives fully integrated with food.
You guys are also parents to two amazing kids. You guys have had an interesting food journey because how long have you been gluten-free?
I drastically changed my diet in thousand and 11, so 12 years. Yeah.
And for someone who loves food, how, what was that process of being like, oh, I have to restrict what I'm making, even though I'm making all this amazing food at my restaurants and cafes and, everyone talks about how great it is and you're like, and I can't eat it anymore.
It's challenging, yet not as challenging as I think that I would have expected. I do tr. I try to sample most everything 'cause I like to know what we're putting out there and I am very proud of it. Still even not eating it. I. So it's challenging because I think that it's hard to sell sometimes hard to sell a product that is not necessarily in line with kind of your personal lifestyle.
So that's been the most challenging, but that's how I ended up where I am now. And hope to kinda make some of those shifts. And I, it's. It's easier because it was for health reasons. And just eating certain foods didn't make me feel good. And it was a really empowering journey for me to figure out how to feel my best.
And I'm not tempted quite as much by all of the deliciousness around me. The smells are sometimes often worse than just walking by it every day, but I know how my body reacts to it, so it's not even things that really cross my mind anymore. It's know what foods make. Those are the ones that I crave and I want and some of which that we do sell.
So we've broadened our menu a bit. There are, there's small handful of things that are my go-tos here and hope to be a lot more.
For people who aren't familiar with Boston, I think it's just important to preface that, josh, when you first started this business, and even still like you're supporting so many businesses in the Boston area, you're up at the crack of dawn.
You used to literally do deliveries. Now, of course, you're getting to manage that more and I think that we forget. As a society, like how many entrepreneurs and businesses are making things function every day. Similarly, it's, no small feat to have a business on Newbury Street, like it is the street of Boston.
And so we're not, everyone who's listening, we're not talking till like someone, oh, I have a cute cafe, and it's, hidden somewhere and sometimes we have business. It's no, like you guys are very successful entrepreneurs. And in addition to that. You're a very successful team. Part of why I've been wanting to have you guys on for so long is that you're both entrepreneurs.
You both value family time so much, you're great parents. Was this always in the back of your mind? We go back to 8-year-old, Josh and Liza, were you thinking yes, I'm gonna own my own business. Yes, it's gonna be in food, yes, I'm gonna crush it in life. Were you guys thinking that, I can probably guess for Josh, 'cause I know what we were talking about 20 years ago, most of the time.
Josh, what did 8-year-old do? What did you imagine your life would be like and is it different than today?
First of all, anytime I'm feeling shitty about myself, I'm just gonna listen to the last two minutes of what came outta your mouth because agree. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. I dunno if I agree wholeheartedly with all of it, but success is a relative term, right?
But anyways eight year, so it's it's interesting because 8-year-old me, I always looked at what my father was doing. And at that time he owned a restaurant. And I remember always saying to him, 'cause he was tired and he worked a lot. And it's, it's a grueling job.
And I remember saying to him I'm gonna work in an office all day. I'm not gonna have to do any of that. And and then once I started working in this industry. I did get to a point where I could be in an office for a good portion of the day, and actually I am now and it's the last place I kind of wanna be, it's be careful what you wish for because you might get it.
And but I, 8-year-old me I don't really know. I think where I had my realization, maybe I'm skipping way too far ahead, but where I had my realization is actually when you and I were in school together. I had a lot of internships across many different spectrums. I thought I was gonna be a lawyer at one point, so I worked in a corporate law office and then I worked at the district courthouse and then I thought it was gonna be in finance, though.
I worked in corporate finance, all these internships and I just realized that I knew I couldn't work for anybody else. I didn't really, I didn't know what I wanted to do, but it, that, that was the end result of all of that. And that was my aha moment, which was, there's no way I can never say never.
I, I'm 42, so I could work for somebody else at some point in my life but that was my aha moment. 8-year-old, I don't really know. I was pretty independent. I think for better or worse but. But it wasn't until college and kind of learning what I didn't wanna do, that I had that moment.
And we're so old that we were, I think, the first and second classes that were having, like entrepreneurial MBA programs, like they didn't exist before.
I don't even think that, no, I don't think that was an option for I, the first entrepreneurship class I think was when I was in grad school.
There and then after that I think they came up with the whole program, but it wasn't and the other thing too, I remember thinking and I still wholeheartedly believe that this, I don't know if it's changed, but all of the entrepreneurship stuff was all this big like the next, Amazon or the next Google or the, and it didn't, it, it had nothing to do with, open up a cafe.
Or open up a brick and mortar store and, the small businesses that really do drive everything that, that most people work at or found, or, what I do. No, we didn't, it was a long time ago and we didn't have that educational experience. I'm sure it's there now, but at the time it wasn't.
Liza, what about you? Is 8-year-old you dreaming of cafes and being a mom and having this, power couple relationship?
No, I think that, I think I always wanted to be a mom. I knew that somehow I always loved of babies. But I, not until after college even anticipated being in the restaurant business owning business.
Being an entrepreneur. If I had envisioned what I was doing, it would be, I think when that long ago was probably thinking about being a teacher or a doctor. But yeah. But I was def I was more on the social work path I would say. And I'm hopefully merging back into a little bit of that path slowly, but, i, I do have a passion for that type of work, but, no I'm, I still am surprised sometimes when I wake up every morning that I'm, where I'm, yeah.
And I think what was so fascinating about your first cafe is that you and a best friend started it.
And you were relatively young when you started this cafe.
So how old were you when you opened that cafe and like, how did it work? Were, two girls? We're able to just yeah, we're gonna start a cafe. Cafe in Harvard Square. No big deal. No big deal. The riskiest business on the planet.
That's a great question.
I have to say,
I was thinking about this I don't know when recently, but I was 24 years old at the time, so we were just recently out of college had been trying out a few other.
In the meantime and thinking about what next, what was going to be next, whether it be grad school or maybe some internship abroad. I had a bunch of different internships, and then when we got a little bit more serious about thinking about this option we, I started working in cafes in the Boston area.
But. I feel very privileged to say this because there's a lot of gratitude behind being able to do what we did, and we were very lucky to be in the position we were. But the uni I felt like the universe was bringing this to us and we were very close. There were many times in the timeline. Leading up to opening that, we made firm commitments not to open the cafe because of our relationship. We were so close as friends and we knew that partnerships even at 24, we didn't know anything, but like we knew it could be challenging and so weren't really, weren't willing to risk that, but.
It just kept pounding at the door and we finally was like, we have to do this. The my, my friend's father was in the food industry. He owned a restaurant in Harvard Square, so that's really where the main connection came from and had a relationship with landlords in Harvard Square and was he was asked to open something and he looked to his daughter to be like, oh, what are some good ideas? And said, oh, we should, you should open an independent cafe. We studied primarily, we both went to University of Michigan and we loved studying cafes and just in that busy environment.
And the culture was just wonderful and we traveled abroad together and loved food and we just felt like all communities just. Just needed something like that in Harvard Square. Had a few on the outskirts, but were primarily like in the center of the square, all change chains. And it was just such a unique place, especially with the university and, everything that was going on there that we felt like that was missing.
So when we, so that was suggested and it was finally like why don't YouTube. What and oh, it took a little time, but it then eventually it happened and yeah,
I feel better now knowing that if I hadn't gone to Clark where I met Josh, I would've met you. 'cause Michigan was my second option.
Oh wow. I'm gonna hold, I'm gonna hold back. I'm gonna refrain my comments about that because I know where that will lead. You had a great college experience. I'm sure you would've had a wonderful one at Michigan as well. Yeah,
leave it at that. I just kept thinking like, I could have met, I, happened to meet Josh at Clark and all my other friends, or I could have gone to Michigan and maybe have been married to Tom Brady.
No big deal.
I think there was a little bit of an age gap there, but maybe, I dunno, was it not
him and I so much? No. No. I think he would've been like a senior when I was a freshman. We both would've been college athletes. There were lots of options, but I'm not proud of the choices he's been making lately.
So I think it's all working out my favor.
Yes. I think you, I think that you yeah. Steered away from that
when you guys met. Was part of the attraction that you both had businesses and both understood what it was to be an entrepreneur because, I love you guys as humans and getting to spend time together, but I think what makes it the cherry on top is that we always are nerding out about business things like it doesn.
We're never like, oh, we should stop talking about business. It's oh, let's talk about more ideas and this, it's like the whole thing. I feel like I don't need to withhold all the things running through my head and all the thoughts and how do we fix this and let's talk about it. Like all that's available when I'm hanging out with you guys, which I really appreciate.
Do you guys have to, was that attractive when you guys met and part of the falling in love process, or do you guys now need to be like. Maybe we don't talk about business all the time. Like how has that evolved and how did it, how was it when you guys first met?
I think along those lines it was much more simple than that, which was, she was finally somebody that understood my schedule, which was extraordinarily hard to find.
So I was 27 when we met. So just even dating before that, people would say, you wanna go grab a drink at nine o'clock at night, or something like that. And, my mornings at that time started like between three and three 30 nine o'clock at night was not an option. And when we met, she was doing, I you weren't doing the overnight bake, but you were getting in super early as well. So basically we had the same schedule and we understood that. I remember that for just simply that being it just made getting to know each other, feasible or like understanding we, we had the same appreciation for each other's schedule, I think.
So that for me was a really. Big thing. And then, yeah, when as I got to know lies, you just you it's intelligence, it's entrepreneurship, it's, it that, that period of time, I just remember everything. Like she said with Crema, the universe was pulling them towards it.
I felt like the universe was pulling us towards each other at that time. It was real easy. And yeah. Yeah, just, personality, intelligence desire to, to create, that was a big thing. So yeah.
And just before we move on, I get your answer, Liza. I just wanna preface that it wasn't, you didn't fall in love with her because the schedule worked. You were like, oh, she's awesome. She's beautiful, she's smart, and we actually can hang out because we have the same schedule.
But I couldn't find out any of that stuff unless our schedules worked. That's what I, that was the point of that.
Yes. I'm just I know that you are more romantic than our schedules work, so I'm just giving you that space to correct this. Thank in the podcast. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah.
I don't take offense. Don't offense to that, and I, hopefully you won't take offense to what I'm gonna say either, because I really wasn't thinking at that point in time.
We, I was like, deep into just like figuring out what the hell I was doing because I was 24 with no business experience and just opened a cafe in Harvard Square and people liked it and were coming and it was busy and so wasn't really sleeping. So I think it, it was.
There that he got it. Like he understood that, my, he may not have been the priority and he was just gonna show up and be around. So now things would naturally happen. But my mind was that happens
when you have kids too, by the way. What you don't become the priority and you just naturally have to be around.
But it's very similar. But looking back on it, yes, like he did understand and there's many aspects. Early in our relationship that I remember very fondly and I felt so badly. But, I remember one night, I, we were leaving the cafe and, it was like 1130 at night and I think I was gonna be back there at 5:00 AM and Josh came and, he brought beer and helped us close.
And first of all, our staff was like why is a milkman here? Why is he coming and bringing this beer? But was, graciously giving us a ride home. I don't even, we weren't together at this point. I think that, it was just becoming obvious about, of the intentions of these visits. And everyone was saying, he's interested.
I'm like, yeah no. He's just a vendor. But at that point, at that night, maybe it became clear. But his car broke down at 1130 at night and the back of on Church Street behind Crema. And he called us a cab and just sent us home to go to bed and. I felt so bad, but I was so tired that I was almost in tears that like, we went home and went to bed and he got it.
Like he knew that like we needed to get up and do the same thing again tomorrow and that we, that was like a romantic act. Yeah.
I just think being gotten is the really romantic piece, right? Like when someone gets you. That to me anyway, that's it's such a relief oh my gosh, I don't need to explain this stuff.
I don't need, we can talk shorthand. You just get it. This is amazing and so for someone to get your situation and then to also get you on top of that, that's love right there.
Yeah. And now in terms of business and talking business, I think depending on where I speak, I can speak for myself, where my head is at.
Sometimes I'm like, I don't wanna hear anything. I can't talk about work day at all. I don't wanna talk about business at all. I can't hear anything. I can't take anything else in when I'm a little bit like overwhelmed or oversaturated and other times, yeah, we talk a lot about, what we're working on and what's going on.
It could be weeks though that I don't hear, I don't even know what's going on. Morrisey. Sometimes I'm like. Still going, what are you guys doing? So it comes and goes depending on the stress of the rest of our lives. And, we also have two other, beings at home that take up a lot of air airtime as well.
Three. Technically we
don't get yes. Three. Yeah, three. Technically we don't actually talk that much anymore.
Is that the real secret to this relationship? Maybe Like we don't actually have conversations. Maybe,
potentially. Yeah.
So then that makes me ask you guys, like, how do you make it work?
You both have very busy schedules. You both have schedules that are unique to other. Families, you don't have necessarily weekends off, right? You can 'cause of how you're able to control your schedule. But if something goes wrong or something happens, like it really is a 24 7 commitment to be thinking about how do you make your businesses, your relationship, your family, the kids.
How does that work? Or do you guys have crazy schedules and planners? Do you have help? Do you, how are you making life work?
Whenever we figure it out, we'll come back on the podcast and let you know,
but that is where like the common understanding does come into play. So I was talking to somebody recently and it's like there's really never an area.
It's like you put your attention to where you need, you're needed most. You're needed everywhere all the time, but like wherever the priority is. And then I think that happens between the two of us where it's if we talk through our schedule, it's okay who has what meetings at this time?
And in terms of figuring out who's dropping off the kids. And at this point we do have a little bit of help. Not substantial, we're just we're just juggling ourselves. And it's been even more challenge, I shouldn't say more challenging. It's been more entertaining lately with COVID and sicknesses and all that fun stuff.
But I think that's where that kind of like common understanding of just like how we work and what it means to be an entrepreneur. And that's just been ingrained in now in our relationship for so long that the talking there is necessary
when you guys think about the word powerful.
What does it mean to you? Similarly, when you hear the word ladies, what does that mean to you? And does it shift? Like when you think about powerful ladies, powerful men, does it change the connotation of what power can be? I
could talk for an hour about this, go for it, but I'll try to summarize it in less than that.
But, so the word power to me has changed a lot over, I would say, the last, I don't know, three months. And I think that we've been doing some trainings here at work and I've been diving a little bit into myself more too in that. I think power used to be very, in my mind, very critical.
Like I thought of power as, people who were controlling and people who took power away from others and just held it all themselves. And I'm not sure where that. I think there's a lot of that in our society. But I think I've been able to recently find how we all hold our own power.
And how you utilize that power and how you utilize that to, help others like gain their power and use their power in the ways in which that they can. And so that's been something that I've been exploring a lot because it's interesting when you think about definitions and identities, and I've been thinking about my identity is.
I am an entrepreneur and I'm an employer, and I'm people's bosses, but like my vision of me and my persona is so different than, I think so many other people and making sense of what, how I identify with those labels. And it was almost a sense of discomfort at times because I felt like there was this divide and I'm, I think I'm coming in more to my own of kind of.
Understanding how I can really utilize that in a really positive way. Because you're not gonna change how other people see you, but you can change how you feel and live and breathe in your own power. So much more on that. But that's power. The word power has taken on a lot new meaning and shifting over the last few months for me and I'm exploring it a lot for myself and then also those who we employ too.
So it's exciting. Yeah.
Yeah. Josh, how about you? Do you feel powerful? What does it mean to you?
I think I feel powerful in certain context, right? In certain situations and other others. I but I. Going back to our children, there are certain times where I not only feel, I know I am completely powerless where they just, they're parenting is challenging.
It's very challenging. Although with that being said I think, going back to Liza and I and how. Do we talk? Do I, I think when there are challenges, especially with children or even other things when there's power in being a team, right? And being on the same page and and having, somebody get you and you get them.
So I think there's a lot of power in that. I think it, it gives confidence. I think so. I, I. I think a lot of power comes from that. And then, but again, in different context. I think along the lines of what Liza said I think, power feeling powerful is an internal thing. I don't think of being powerful as the literal meaning of, how much can I pick up? I think it's internally how strong do I feel with myself And and, I think there's power in, there's power in empowering others as well.
I think there's power in feeling good about yourself and when you empower others, I think you feel good or I feel good about myself. I do think, going back to the first question, does powerful and lady or ladies, does that have a different connotation? I think it does, and this is, I understand this is coming from a male's perspective but I can be more difficult for.
Women to feel powerful. Because I think I think they just have a more challenging go of it in certain situations. And again, I think power comes with confidence, or confidence comes with power, however you wanna look at it. So when it's more challenging to do something and you're you've got more speed bumps ahead of your confidence can take a hit. So it's more difficult to feel powerful, I think. But I as I, and like I said earlier, I have quite a few powerful ladies in my life. So I've seen them do that. And it's good to see.
It's nice to see. Yeah, and I've got we've got a very powerful little girl at home as well, which yeah, as long as we can harness that in the right way, get her to adulthood. Yeah. So she can use that power for the positive.
I think it's so interesting when you see entrepreneurs like clustering, right?
Your sister's an entrepreneur, your dad was, you both are like, a lot of people in your friend group are at least from those that I know. So do you feel like you're sur you're organically around other entrepreneurs? Are you seeking it out? Because you guys are so interesting to me as an entrepreneurial couple and entrepreneurs individually because you are in like the humblest entrepreneurs.
I know like you were teasing yourself and I saw you last, Josh, that you were mad that the store by your house clothes 'cause you couldn't buy your like 10 t-shirts at once that you wear every day. Or the 10 polos that you wear every day. 'cause you're very much like you, you're both a very relaxed.
Just humans in general and you really bring that, I think, into your business. And there's a calmness about the two of you that I don't see in a lot of other entrepreneurs, and it may all be 'cause you're exhausted, so I'll put that out there. But there's a calmness to how you approach things where it's like a Yep.
Things happen and Yep. It's crazy and yep. We'll figure it out. Is, are you aware of having that perspective and like being that those people or is that something that you are working more towards?
It sounds like we put on a pretty good show for you last time you were at our house.
It's almost there's no other choice, right?
Like there are other choices, but those aren't, I don't think as are sustainable, right? Yeah. It's if you live in this kind of chaotic environment and like how can you continue doing what you're doing if you're always living in chaos and just that energy. So I feel like.
Of course there's choice, but it's that's the way in which we get by and I think, I do think, going back to what you said about we are surrounded by a lot of entrepreneurs and I think a lot of it is interesting about the supportive networks around, and I think about. I think that it's a lot tied to confidence.
And confidence in yourselves or in really in yourself, but then also in your team of support around you. I never, both my, myself and my brother are entrepreneurs and my dad is now because he has own private practice. But I would never would've assumed assumed that I was an entrepreneur thought that I would do something and both of my parents were always like, surprised that we both were like, how did this happen? And I attribute a lot to kind of them putting their confidence in us so that we really believed that we could make this stuff happen and that we weren't doubting ourselves so much. And 'cause a lot of it is just believing in yourself that you can do it because.
If you have that passion, really you can, any, you can do it. You just make it happen. And I don't mean to simplify it in that way, but I think a lot of it really just stems from that place of confidence. And I think that we have a lot of people either around us or in our supportive circles that are engulfed by confidence, who can put confidence in them or feel it just within themselves.
You brought us I think.
Oh, ahead.
I was just say very quickly, one difference I think between Liz and I is that so my dad is an entrepreneur, my, my mom as well. But my dad's an immigrant and he's got a, that strong immigrant mentality, and not just him, but my aunts, my uncles, my cousins and it was there, there was a, a.
There was a seed planted early that it's always better to work for yourself. And I think it's that immigrant mentality. So I always had that in my head that, if I could, I would, I think and I didn't. And just even when I was in college like I, we had said earlier I did all these internships, so it wasn't like something, oh, I'm going to do, but then.
Once I realized that I wasn't fit to work for anybody else, it was oh, this makes sense. It goes back to maybe that, maybe when the seed was planted earlier. So there, there was always a seed of it's always better to work for yourself. I don't know if that's true or not.
I'm just saying that was the mentality of my aunts, my uncles, my cousins, my dad. So I had that for sure.
And there's a lot of people who come to me to help with their business and they're so distracted by all the noise. There's so much advice out there right now of how to run your business and what you should do and what you could do, and are you 10 xing?
Are a hundred xing? There's all this noise. How is how it occurs to me in the business space right now? And you mentioned something earlier, Josh, about that often entrepreneurship is talked about in these like big mega tech kind of side of the world when the majority of small businesses, the majority of entrepreneurs are not in that space.
It's like everyday functioning things that, society needs and are on a much more, manageable might not be the right word, but it's, you don't need. 50 employees, a hundred employees, you don't need this like big mega business to be an entrepreneur. How do you guys keep coming back to what I call the lemonade stands, like the basics of business and not get distracted by all that stuff?
Is it just the velocity at which things are moving? You don't have a choice? Or do you really intentionally try to just keep it as simple as possible and focus on the essentials of cashflow and is it working and are customers happy?
Can I jump in quickly, Liz, or do you wanna No, go for it. Yeah so I've actually got two perspectives on that.
One is the razzi distributing side of things. And, somebody else in our industry said this to me a while ago, and it's so true. It's, we sell crayons. Basically the customer tells us how many in which color. We bring them to them. And we charge them a price higher than what we paid for 'em.
Obviously it's much more intricate than that. But that, when it comes down to it, that's just what it is. And this is a small company. There's only 22 of us, I think, including myself. So you know how the company does right? Is. It's directly related to our personal pockets, right? So you have to ignore the noise and just say, okay what works and what doesn't?
And this is simple, right? We, we buy something and then we resell it. That's really all we do. So from that perspective, it is pretty simple. It's. Buy it cheap, sell it more, so I can always kind of fall back on that to a certain extent here on the Morrissey market side because we do have some capital behind us.
We raised some money. The goals are different, right? So the goals are revenue, so that you can raise again. So it's spend raise spend raise. And the goal is to continually get higher valuations, right? So that the people who invested in you are getting higher returns, whether it's real or on paper, right?
So it is that 10 x, that a hundred x that, right? Now. I'm seeing it from a little bit from afar because once, once we got the company up and running, we hired a CEO and and he's been a part of a few venture backed companies in the past, so he's taken it and run. So I'm just watching I get to look under the hood whenever I want.
I'm not doing it myself, and it's really just eyeopening and interesting for me. It's actually been really mentally stimulating and invigorating. But it's not what I'm used to. So I am seeing it from both ends for sure.
Yeah, I think a lot of it is pretty, pretty simple, if you can call it that.
But I think there's elements that, I think one aspect of our business and obvious, and of course for the last couple years is just being really agile. And it's similar to what Josh was saying is what are people looking for? Where? Where's the market? You try something, people like it, and then you run with it.
Or you try something and it doesn't work great and you try something else and you just needing to be able to flexible and figure out what works and what is gonna be profitable for you. And then the combination of that and letting you know the market, I guess dictate a little bit about how you grow, but also then once you do feel something really passionate about, and then putting, putting yourself behind it and really, pushing it and putting it out there and then letting it go and seeing what happens.
And I think another piece of it too that, I've. I've thought a lot about is just. Just the relationship, like the authenticity in the, in, in our business and growing those relationships internally and externally. And I think a lot of things have come our way just naturally in our networks by whether it be just customers that are coming in here, on a daily basis and they, some somehow come across a certain opportunity or, a nearby business that is now building out a kitchen and they want us, do have food in their office and so they are recommending us.
So it's just continuously if you're, I feel like if you're doing things in a very genuine way and also at being agile and seeing, what people are interested in, what people are liking, like that is, to me, breaking it down in the simplest forms, like those are pretty simplistic things to do.
Although they're not in practice necessarily simple because Yeah. We're humans and a lot of things are challenging,
We really get down to the essence of a business. The simple things are the ones that are often the hardest to do consistently and just, maintain everywhere.
Yeah. Not even just in business, just in life like this. Yeah.
We ask everyone who's on the podcast where they put themselves in the powerful 80 scale. If zero is average everyday human, and 10 is the most powerful person possible, where would you put yourself on that scale today and on average?
Oh, God, wait. Zero is what
average, everyday human, and 10 is the most powerful person you can imagine.
I think I'm a 12.
Excellent. Two. All right. Now I think we know why the relationship works a 12 and a two.
So I was obviously joking about the 12, but I would strongly disagree with my wife's assessment and this isn't to get brownie points, but I would say much, much higher up in the eight to 10 range I would put utilize at, but.
Thank you. When you say average I'm like, yeah we're average humans. Like you think about our day to day, like it's just the same as most everybody else that we see, we're dropping our kids off like every, I just think we're one of, I don't wanna say we're one of many 'cause we're all unique and I, I do think that we again, I think we all have our power, but in relation to like others, it's hard to put yourself up against that.
That's
Yeah. And I and also in, or maybe
I'll put everybody at a 10, so I'll be a 10.
Go ahead. And in our world, right? Like in our circle that we live in, I think you're extremely powerful, right? But if you say. Like you said we get up we try and eat breakfast, get our kids to school, we go to work, we come home, we, rinse and repeat.
So that is pretty average, right? That's what people do. So I don't know,
but I do think, part of what. I admire about you guys is yes. All of us are living a very similar day to day. And even if you go to the poorest parts of the world, they're doing the same thing. They're waking up, they're eating food, they're, the schedule's the same.
Like we do have this very cyclical approach no matter where we are in the world. And. Economically as humans, but I think that it's a lot about the choices of intentionality that the two of you have made, right? There's these micro choices you've made about family dinners or like where you live or where you put your kids to school, or how you spend your time and just choosing what matters to you.
I think that you guys have done a really great job of prioritizing what matters to you guys individually and as a family and. You've deleted a lot of the other stuff. There's a lot of things that were, you're not listing off that you do or spend your time doing. That I think is really interesting.
I don't think I saw a TV on the entire time I was staying at your house. Maybe an iPad, but like never tv, right? There's lots of cooking, lots of food. There's you I think that you guys have to give yourselves a little bit more credit for, really creating an extraordinary life through the simple things that you've chosen.
That feels amazing. I feel like this is a great place for me to go on with the rest of my day.
I feel pretty
good right now.
So we
should do this for office because this is nice.
Amazing. So last two questions. One is, what do you guys need? And you don't need to know how to make it happen.
But if you could wish for anything where you small or big, this is a powerful community. So what do you need in right now in 2023? And then as you're answering that question, if you could tell everyone where they can find and follow you or your businesses. That would be great.
The first thing comes to mind, this is something again that I've also been thinking about a lot over the last probably four years, is just community and strength of community.
And I think that we all need it in the lives that we're living as with technology and with the pandemic and with all of the other influences we have in our life. It seems like people are like moving away from that. Like communal aspect of living. So I would, I feel like I need more of that and would love to have more of that in my life.
And I'm trying to do that. And you can find you can find, my business is revival cafe and kitchen com and we're on ins. Instagram is Revival, cafe and Kitchen. You, there's no use in following me personally. It's pretty pathetic. I don't really post much. So that's. Yeah, I'm at Liza at revival at cafe kitchen com for email perfect.
All right, Josh, so you, what do you need for right now? Or 2023, or what would you love to have more of?
Time, right? Can, if we can make a 28 hour day, something like that. But I think I think what I need it is time, but I just need to. I think prioritize things a little bit.
More strategically yeah, to allow for time. And also to to make time for certain things that are easy not to do. That's a big thing. So that's not really something I can ask for from anybody else. But something just like internally that I have to do.
Even. Something like this, right? It's embarrassing that it's taken 200 plus episodes for us to actually make the time to do this. Just even dinner with friends or, stuff that we kinda lost over the pandemic, I think. It's become routine not to do them anymore.
So it's almost like getting back in the routine of doing those types of things.
Yeah.
So that's what I need and that's what I would like to do.
And when you say, we'll say happens things, when you say those things, are you talking about like spending time with friends or traveling more or, like investing in yourself?
Yeah. Yeah. So spending time with friends and even just Liz and I going out to dinner and stuff that because of the pandemic weren't options. Yeah. So you just, you get into the routine even though we're coming o out on the other side of it or whatever that means, I don't know.
Yeah. Living with it. But now they're options again. But we haven't done 'em in so long. We've started to again, but you get what I'm saying? Yes. Just really being deliberate about those things. And, yeah, I think I, I think that's definitely what I need.
Yeah. No I, yeah.
It's a, I think it's always a challenge. It's why I've made, in the past couple of years, my commitment has always been, I'm gonna build out my calendar first. The trips I want the, like I, I booked out already, like a once a month recurring girls brunch at my house. It's on the calendar. I sent them a calendar invite.
'cause that's how I live my life,
right? Yeah. But
like it's booked and like I'm now booking my trips and I'm putting all that in before I figure out how much room there is for every, the business side at least. Because Sure. It's a balance. I make my wishlist and then we find compromises. But like the, I think the biggest thing I've gotten out of the past couple of years is I have to put what fills my soul in first and that way I at least know that. I'm not making a job for myself that I'm gonna resent and I get to have more of that balance. So you don't wanna feel like you're on a
hamster wheel either, that's the other thing. Yeah.
No, yes. You and I both built our own businesses that, because working for someone else didn't make sense.
But we also didn't like wanna just recreate being a slave to another job like especially for me, like freedom is so important of
Does this business work for me? And you'll appreciate this post that I have. If it's not fun, I'm not doing it. Yeah. And so I keep putting that up and, I, that's why I have a coach also.
I had talked to her yesterday and we were looking at my schedule. I'm like, oh, it's been like, I've been shot outta a cannon this year. It's crazy. Like the velocity of stuff is exciting and I'm not used to it. 'cause of how time has shifted the past couple of years, right?
Yeah. Yeah.
And she's is there anything on your calendar that you don't love?
And I'm like, you know what? No. Like I'm excited about like everything that's on it. She's okay, I don't have any more questions, then keep going. I was like, okay, good. I get, I got a pass to be a little like swirly right now because I think we judge ourselves so much about it, but. It feels good.
Yeah.
That's awesome. That's pretty cool that you looked at your calendar and you're like, yeah, I like everything on there.
Yeah. That doesn't happen every week.
But even I, we all get spun out about are we hitting the monthly sales goal? Is cashflow gonna work?
And I was already having that the first week of the year, last week. And then on Friday I just had all these calls with these amazing clients and people who I adore getting to spend my time with, let alone having them pay me to talk about all the stuff that we do and the projects we work on. And I was like, this is a great day.
I have great projects, I have great clients. It's all gonna be fine. And it was just a refreshing reset.
Yeah. Yeah, it's good to have those realizations once in a while.
Yeah. And I think also. Balancing the drive and the growth.
I think that's something you might share.
So that's challenging, right? That's that's what, that's because, yeah. So I come across that a lot is, I get bored, right? Yeah. So then I push, and then when I push, I get really busy and maybe a little overwhelmed and whatever, and then I get bored and, and that, that can happen a lot too.
I tend it's also, when opportunity's there, like you either take it or you don't. I tend to try and always take it, so it can come in clusters, right? Yeah. And then it comes in clusters and it's oh my God, I don't even, I don't have time to blink. Yeah. But yeah that's the it's the.
It's a double-edged sword being that way.
So for everybody that wants to follow you, support you, your businesses, where can they find you? How can they connect
with you? I am extraordinarily regionalized, right? And unless you own a restaurant or cafe or small market in the Boston area, I'm not sure Razzi distributing is gonna do much for you.
But razzi distributing.com, if you wanna take a look, it's a pretty outdated website, which is on my to-do list. But I would encourage people Morrisey market because if we're not. Near you now. Hopefully we will be. That's the idea at some point in time. And and there's it's a really cool concept, and there's a much stronger marketing campaign behind it and social media and all that other stuff, so morrisey market.com.
Okay. Amazing. Again, thank you so much for being a Yes to me, to my life, to this podcast and yeah, just for being friends for a 20 something plus amount of time.
'cause we have, it's
been a long time.
Had a lot of fun and cause a lot of trouble, and we'll put it in public record that if anybody wants to take me down, they can just call you.
Vice versa, right?
Yes.
Yeah. That's a mutually assured destruction.
Yes. Yeah. But I encourage everyone to use our friendship for for more power and goodness and, yeah, just make, just, I want people to hear your lies story because it's just do it like it's right there. Do it. If you think you wanna start a business or a cafe or who knows what, whatever floats your boat. People are doing it every day. With two, two entrepreneurial couples, two kids, a dog, the house, the family, like it doesn't stop, but you can you can have as close to it all as possible if you choose it.
Yeah. You can it's a lifestyle though, right? I think I, I don't wanna jump down a rabbit hole, but I think that. People want the end result.
Yes.
Sometimes. And don't realize what it takes to get from point A to point B.
Yeah. And once they get in that journey, they're like. Forget it. I'm out.
You guys are crazy. I'm not doing this.
Yeah. But I enjoy it. I like the journey.
Yeah.
That's part of it. That's definitely part of it.
Yeah. Amazing. Anyways, thank you so much for being a Yes.
I, again, admire what you guys are up to. I'm glad you finally found time for me and I'm excited to get my butt back to Boston so we can hang out again. Us too. Evie
ask you all the time. Yeah, I was gonna say, so is Evie, and I'm sorry it's
taken us so long to do this. It's, it is, it's like. Scheduling out an hour and a half of your time.
Oh it feels impossible, but you just gotta, I think that the, I think the key was to make us schedule it out like two months ahead of time so we couldn't even think about what's gonna be happening. 'cause if I did this last week there No. No chance that
exactly. It was great to see you. Yes. Hopeful to see you in person next time.
Yeah. Thank you. I'll talk to you soon and I will let you know once Boston is scheduled,
please.
All the links to connect with Josh and Liza and their businesses are in our show notes@thepowerfulladies.com. If you aren't already, please subscribe to this podcast wherever you are listening, and for bonus points, please leave us a rating and review. It is so critical for us to get in front of more amazing listeners like you.
Come join us on Instagram at Powerful Ladies, and if you're looking to connect directly with me, visit kara duffy.com or Kara Duffy on Instagram. I'll be back next week with a brand new episode. Until then, I hope you're taking on being powerful in your life. Go be awesome and up to something you love.
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Information for Shiraz Distributing
Information for Revival Cafe & Kitchen
Instagram: @revivalcafeandkitchen
Website: revivalcafeandkitchen.com
LinkedIn: revival-cafe-kitchen
Facebook: Revivalcafeandkitchen
TikTok: @revivalcafeandkitchen
Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
Audio Engineering & Editing by Jordan Duffy
Production by Amanda Kass
Graphic design by Anna Olinova
Music by Joakim Karud
