This week on Ask Brien, we have Josh from Wild Zora on the show. Josh has been an entrepreneur across 18 businesses, and has a wide variety of experience and advice for our listeners. He and his wife, Zora, have 3 different businesses that connect in with one another, Wild Zora, Fully Healthy, and Drink Cusa. Josh talks with us about what led them to create these businesses, what it’s like working with his spouse, and the long term plans for the direction of their companies. Tune in to hear his advice with running a family business along with their expansion plans. 

IN THIS EPISODE:

• [7:27] Josh gives us his background.
• [9:09] What was the most important attribute Josh found to create the most success along his 18 different businesses?
• [11:14] What are the different businesses Josh and his wife currently run?
• [16:22] Which of their 3 businesses is the most difficult?
• [17:57] What part of marketing works best with e-commerce?
• [22:38] How did they get to the place of creating these businesses?
• [26:25] What is it like working with your spouse?
• [33:13] What does Josh think about what Legal Stepz provides?
• [34:57] How do Josh and his wife separate business and their relationship?
• [37:31] Do they plan to get their children involved as the business evolves? 
• [38:30] How will they expand their business/plan their exit strategy?
• [40:50] What was the worst thing that ever happened to Josh regarding exiting a business?

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• You have to constantly be in motion when running your own business, day after day keep swinging. Be able to adapt and change as the market/world/technology changes.
• Working with your spouse can have its challenges, but Josh and Zora have found that by working in separate parts of the business, they are able to keep their marriage strong while also having a business they are passionate about.
• Josh and Zora are a great example of seeing a gap in their life and finding a way to fulfill that gap by creating a business. This can lead to being more passionate about your business and feeling like you are serving a purpose. 

BIO:

Growing up in the Czech Republic meant growing up with a close connection to food for young Zora. This wasn’t just because at the time there was little-to-no access to processed and pre-packaged foods, but also because Zora is the granddaughter of farmers! Both her maternal and paternal grandparents lived on farms complete with abundant gardens and small livestock as they were easy to keep. She and her brother spent many summers working hard harvesting the orchards, weeding the gardens, and mucking behind the animals.

When it was time to learn to cook, Zora was taught to walk out to the garden, gather the ingredients needed for your meal and begin prepping. There was no concept of running to the store to grab something quickly, it was all home-made, start to finish. This way of living has stuck with Zora and it’s what helped inspire our very first products: the BBQ Beef, Parmesan Beef, and the Chili Beef bar.

In 2012, Zora, Josh, their son Adrian and daughter Abby landed in Fort Collins after 10 years of living abroad in incredible places like Czech Republic, Poland, and Cambridge. It wasn’t until they arrived in Fort Collins, CO that they were introduced to American “healthy snacks” for their long family hikes.

Zora quickly realized that these bars were all low protein, high sugar and she wanted something better for her and her family and soon she started making the infamous Meat & Veggie Bars. In 2015 Zora introduced the bars to the public at the farmers market near her house and the rest is history…

LINKS MENTIONED:

Wild Zora

Email: info@wildzora.com 

FullyHealthy

Drink Cusa

FlatIron Food Factory

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