{"id":321,"date":"2025-09-10T01:57:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T01:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lindsay.kobkob.org\/?p=321"},"modified":"2025-09-10T01:57:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T01:57:18","slug":"45626","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lindsay.kobkob.org\/?p=321","title":{"rendered":"How a Life-Changing Retreat Led to a Sicilian-Inspired Business on Wheels"},"content":{"rendered":"

How a Life-Changing Retreat Led to a Sicilian-Inspired Business on Wheels<\/h3>\n
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It started with a meditation retreat. Traci Randolph and her husband, Jason, were looking for a meaningful way to spend their 25th wedding anniversary. They’d worked to fit it into their busy schedules and planned a weeklong stay in Cancun. A former salon owner turned Realtor, Traci had been someone who craved certainty, always needing to know what was coming next.<\/p>\n

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“I always had to have a plan for everything,” Traci remembers. “I was uncomfortable in the unknown.”<\/p>\n

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But while attending a meditation retreat with Dr. Joe Dispenza<\/a>, something clicked, and she realized she needed to make a change and embrace the uncertainty of life.<\/p>\n

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She didn’t know what she wanted, but, for the first time, she found comfort in that question mark. She pondered possibilities, and what resonated most with her was a strong desire to create something that would connect with people.<\/p>\n

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“I love real estate, and I’ll continue to do that, but having a connection with people is just different,” says Traci. Exploring her new mindset, she returned to regular meditation, visualizing a future where she could bring people together through joy and food.<\/p>\n

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Traci found a fully restored coffee cart on its way from Italy. She purchased the vintage 1959 Lambretta and named her “Angela” after her grandmother, who inspired her to cook. She went on to name her business Fiore Della Vita<\/a>, meaning Flower of Life. Her logo is a powerful symbol in mediation, symbolizing creation, just like the offerings she plans to share.<\/p>\n

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Serving the Greater Phoenix area since late 2024, the Italy-inspired food and beverage business is available for special events and weddings. This year promises even more opportunities. It’s full speed ahead into uncharted territory for their little truck, and Traci is comfortable taking the ride.<\/p>\n

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We chatted about Traci’s background and how it inspired her, the signs that directed her, the challenges she faced, the rewards she’s reaped, and more.<\/p>\n

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\"Traci-Randolph-First-Communion-with-grandmother.jpg\"\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Traci-Randolph-First-Communion-with-grandmother.jpg\"<\/figure>\n

Traci Randolph’s grandmother, Angela, inspired her.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Tell us about your grandmother and your connection to Sicily.<\/h2>\n

My maternal great-grandparents were from Ragusa. They came through Ellis Island, so my grandmother was raised in New York. My mom was born there, and so was I before we moved to Arizona.<\/p>\n

When my grandparents divorced, my grandma came to live with us\u2014it was just my mom and I because my parents had divorced\u2014so I spent a lot of time with her. I even called her Mom probably more often than I called my own mother Mom.<\/p>\n

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She greatly influenced me, spent a lot of time with me, and even got to know my friends. My husband and I were dating then, so she was even a part of his life.<\/p>\n

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She passed away when my youngest was two, and I felt it when she was gone. I was grateful I had her when I did\u2014the culture, food, and just having that safe space in the kitchen with her. My love language is absolutely food, and she’s definitely a big part of that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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After your retreat, what led to your business launch?<\/h2>\n

I went to a yoga class, and the owner of the yoga studio\u2014knowing really nothing about me\u2014said, “You need to open a coffee shop.” I kind of chuckled and thought, How does she know?<\/p>\n

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I explored opening a space but realized that it would be a hundred hours a week for six months. And I thought, Maybe that’s not what it looks like right now. I felt like I needed to speak to my heart and my inspiration.<\/p>\n

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Somebody introduced me to the idea of doing a coffee cart for events. I wanted it to be very cohesive with Italian tradition.<\/p>\n

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I went to a happy hour with a few friends. One is an event planner. We got to talking, and I said, “This is what I’m exploring. Would you have clients that would be interested in something like this?” And she said, “You have to do this.”<\/p>\n

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I went home and told my husband. Then, I Googled “Italian coffee cart.” Up comes this image of a Lambretta, and on the windshield, it says, “Congrats, Traci!” And it’s spelled with an “i,” like my name’s spelling, which is extremely rare.<\/p>\n

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I was just getting sign after sign after sign.<\/p>\n

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I went to my husband’s office, and my daughter pointed to the car in front of us. On the license plate, it said, “Coffee.” And I said, “I need to find a truck.”<\/p>\n

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I had looked at different trucks from Italy. There’s one called an Ape from the Vespa brand, and they’re really cute, but I’m seeing them recreated a lot\u2014even China is recreating them.<\/p>\n

I wanted something more authentic, more chic. My dad was a car salesman for 40 years, so I have a Cadillac. I wanted something a little bit higher-end and rare. And then I found the Lambretta.<\/p>\n

A dealership out of San Francisco was advertising it on Facebook. I contacted them. They called me a few days later and said, “It’s available and on its way from Italy. We can transport it to you if you want it.”<\/p>\n

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So, all the numbers lined up the way I wanted them to.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"Traci-Randolph-with-grandmother.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\"Traci-Randolph-with-grandmother.jpg\"<\/figure>\n

A young Traci poses with her grandmother.<\/span><\/p>\n

How does the truck reflect your Sicilian heritage and grandmother’s legacy?<\/h2>\n

One thing that was important was that because she was so petite, we wanted to have something really small and compact. I could have gone with a horse trailer. A lot of people are buying horse trailers. They’re easy to find and inexpensive to modify.<\/p>\n

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But as I said, I wanted it to be more cohesive and feel Italian.<\/p>\n

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My grandmother would’ve really loved the cute little compact car and riding around in it. It definitely speaks to who she was. There’s the sleekness. And she was just funny, too. The truck is comedic in how small it is and how it runs around. It’s cute.<\/p>\n

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It’s a lot more work than doing the horse trailer. But I wanted it to be more elegant\u2014something people would want to have in front of their homes.<\/p>\n

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\"Angela-daytime.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\"Angela-daytime.jpg\"<\/figure>\n

“Angela” parked and ready for business<\/span><\/p>\n

You plan to start serving food. Tell us about that.<\/h2>\n

I’m getting licensed to do the catering. I want to do more appetizers. I’m not looking to really do full-catered dinners. I have other resources: people who will do the full dinner part of it, and my daughter will be doing charcuterie and grazing boards. She’s absolutely amazing in that. But we’ll do arancini<\/a><\/em>, pizzelle<\/em><\/a>, and biscotti.<\/p>\n

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The one thing that my grandma made before she passed away was stuffed squid. That was a big thing for us because it’s labor-intensive.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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When I have made that, people go crazy. I had New Year’s Eve here, and I made it. So we could probably do that in smaller bites.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"Setting-up-for-bridal-expo.JPG\"<\/p>\n

\"Setting-up-for-bridal-expo.JPG\"<\/figure>\n

Traci sets “Angela” up for a bridal expo appearance.<\/span><\/p>\n

How do you tailor your offerings to fit different themes?<\/h2>\n

We are having one party for a Persian couple, who want beverage taps. And so we’re going to do cold brew on one tap and espresso on another tap, and then for the other one, we’ll probably do a Pellegrino base. There are different Persian drinks that we will create with that.<\/p>\n

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These are going to be non-alcoholic just because of the location of the truck for the venue, but we can also do espresso martinis and cater those to different flairs.<\/p>\n

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I am excited because my creative abilities will be able to come out. We’re even scheduling a tasting where we will come up with some ideas and have them pick one or two.<\/p>\n

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I did have somebody ask, “What if I wanted four taps?” I asked, “When’s your wedding?” They said it was in 2026, and I said, “I think we might be able to get that done.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

What challenges have you faced?<\/h2>\n

The biggest thing is the permitting. Just getting everything dusted. I’ve had contractors help me, but one of the things that I take pride in is that I’ve been doing a lot of the build-out myself. So, taking the time to do it myself has been a learning curve because I’ve never done anything like that before.<\/p>\n

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There’s an amazing Facebook group of coffee entrepreneurs, and it’s a great resource. I’ve learned a lot from that. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Angela-lights.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\"Angela-lights.jpg\"<\/figure>\n

“Angela”\u00a0prepared for a magical night<\/span><\/p>\n

What experience do you hope to share?<\/h2>\n

It’s really about bringing people together and having it be fun. Even at the expos, seeing people smile and come up and say, “Oh my gosh, it’s so cute!” Even just the conversation piece was really what I wanted, something that people would want in the background, along with the food and all that is also just extra.<\/p>\n

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It’s really nice when you can bring joy like that to people. That was the biggest thing I really meditated on: being in that environment where people are happy and celebrating something, and you’re just being able to be part of that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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If you enjoyed this article, consider\u00a0subscribing to my newsletter<\/a>\u00a0for more content and updates!<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How a Life-Changing Retreat Led to a Sicilian-Inspired Business on Wheels It started with a meditation retreat. Traci Randolph and her husband, Jason, were looking for a meaningful way to spend their 25th wedding anniversary. They’d worked to fit it into their busy schedules and planned a weeklong stay in Cancun. A former salon owner […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindsay.kobkob.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindsay.kobkob.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindsay.kobkob.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindsay.kobkob.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lindsay.kobkob.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lindsay.kobkob.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindsay.kobkob.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lindsay.kobkob.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}