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They could never really make the rent. So what they would do is they would throw these parties where they would invite all these people from work and the people had to pay to go into her apartment, her and Peggy's apartment. She would have some cheap beer and that's how they made money for rent. So they did that every month and it was like, my mom said it was like a ton of fun. Everybody wanted to go. It was body to body and they would just literally fill the bathtub with ice and beer. And that's what they did.
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When I decided to launch my podcast, I immediately knew who I wanted my first guest to be. Michele Mallardi Gay wears many hats. Entrepreneur, founder, philanthropist. Most notably, she's a wife of 20-plus years, mother of three beautiful kids and the co-founder of Limelife by Outkone.
Limelife is a natural skincare and cosmetics company in the direct selling space that accomplished 100 million dollars in sales within the first four years. I have a bit of history with Michele in Limelife. About six, or seven years ago now, Michele hired me to do some consulting and leadership training for her leaders in the sales field. I immediately became enamored with her.
Her vision and the work that she was doing at Limelife and through Limelife. She is the real deal. She cares deeply about making an impact and she values impact over profits time and time again. When she offered me a job a few months later, it was a no brainer. I closed up my coaching business and I joined her team. I believed in her and what she was doing so deeply that I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to say I was in the room when it happened.
The next six years were an absolute wild ride, and we could spend the next 20 podcast episodes unpacking all of it. And we will get to that some other time. But today, I wanted to speak to her not about all of her accomplishments as an entrepreneur, but about leaving a different kind of legacy behind. You see, over the years, I've had the privilege of getting to know not just Michele, but many members of the Mallardi family.
And it was remarkable how consistent they all were. I kept waiting to meet that one cringy uncle or that bratty cousin or just anyone in the family that was somewhat questionable. But I never really found them. I met three generations of the Mallardi family and it was clear that they were all cut from the same cloth. There was a context running through the family that they all operated from. Regardless of their success and their wealth,
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They are all still incredibly hardworking, humble, and kind. So for this interview, I really wanted to explore that with Michele. How does that happen? How do these values get passed down and not watered down through three different generations? How do you leave that kind of legacy behind?
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So welcome to the show, my friend Michele Gay. Hello, Michele. I'm so excited. Like, I literally could not sleep last night. I was just buzzing about all the questions that I wanted to talk to you about. And the truth is we can talk about so many things. You have such a breadth of experience. I mean, we can spend weeks just talking about leadership and mindset. And obviously, you're founding a company.
And I know you're very passionate about financial empowerment for women and so many different ways we can go here. And we'll definitely have you back over and over again as a regular in the show because there's so many things we can talk about. But what's really been fascinating for me is I've had the privilege of hearing a lot of stories about your family and getting to know some of your family over the years when I worked with you at Limelife. And I've always been really present.
Just the idea of legacy with you and your family. Like there's a real legacy being passed down through generations and that collectively, when I look at your family, there's just a breath of work. There's like, there's tangible things that we can point to, but not just that, like the values and the ways that you guys move about the world and the ways that you raise your children. So it's not just like a financial and a business legacy, but also just like a legacy of intentional raising and values. And I guess my first question for you is like, is that something you're present to? Is that even something you're aware of? Or is it just like, like this unconscious thing in your world, in your family? I don't think I'm fully present to it.
I don't, I've heard other people say that to me. I've heard other people sort of like, tell me that, even my good friends. And I don't think I'm fully present to it. There are moments when I'm present to it. Like as a parent, you have these moments where you're like, okay, this is an important moment that this communication, I gotta nail this, right? Like, because this is gonna pass on something that's important. And you're kind of present to those moments.
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But on the day to day, the everyday, like, because I do think it happens without me even understanding it. One of the things one of my friends said to me when she saw me and my sisters together and our kids were younger, so I had everyone over and she was there and she was like, you all parent each other's kids. If you came in here and said, who's the mom of each of these kids, you would have no idea because it's a constant like, good job or don't do that or whatever it is. But it's not.
It's important because that's how you reinforce it. Like my kids will only absorb a certain percentage of what I'm trying to instill in them. But when they hear it from other people, coaches, teachers, and my siblings, and my dad, like it matters. So I don't know that I'm fully present to it, but I have had people tell me that that's something that's unique to my family.
And so I'm guessing it wasn't something that your parents were intentional about passing down to you in the same way. Like it was probably organic as well there. My mom was very intentional, I think. I think she really was. Both of my parents growing up super, super poor, really going through a lot of struggles. I mean, their story is quite incredible. And I think that shaped them.
But, for both of them, I think the thing that is really remarkable about my parents, for both of them, they both had a moment before they met each other where they made a decision that this was not the life that they were going to live. They made like individually separate from each other. I'm not living this life. I'm doing something bigger, better, more extraordinary. Like what's the game plan? What do I need to do? And grit got, they just did it.
So I think that was really important to them. I also think that they had a very strong faith, each of them separately and then together. And the values, the core values they got from that were important. So, you know, going to church and raising us Catholic was like a really, really big deal. Like that was like, my parents were pretty flexible. That was a no.
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You did not miss Mass on Sunday. That was not going to happen ever, ever. So I think that was two aspects of their life that were passed on to us. How, let's go a little bit into their story. I know we can probably write a book. I think your dad has written a book. But how did your parents meet and how did, you know, they start to build their business together? Yeah.
And then how did you guys get involved? Like, just give me some of that background. Yeah. So my mother was the middle child of three girls and grew up in Florida, rural Florida. It's developed now around the Stewart area. And she, my grandfather owned a bar and unfortunately was definitely an alcoholic. And she sort of had to work at a young age in this bar around all these alcoholic men. So.
I think there is some story there that she never really shared with us, but that was really challenging for her. Just crazy things happened to her when she was younger. Her mother died young. That was really devastating for my mother, for sure, because now she's left with this man that she loved but had his own challenges. And so she was given the opportunity in Florida.
As a high school student, if you're the top in your class, you get to go to Florida State or University of Florida. I can't even remember. It's the Seminoles. I don't remember which one it is. Someone's going to crack me on this podcast, but you get to go there for free. The internet will let you know. Yeah, the internet will tell us. You get to go there for free. She worked really, really hard. Her and her best friend, Peeper, were the two top in the class. This is a remarkable moment for my mother, but Peeper actually, by a margin, got a higher GPA than my mother.
So she was one and my mom was two. But Peeper's family had money. So she declined the scholarship and gave it to my mother. That was life-changing for my mom. My mom then went to college, but as many people who are really poor and go to college, even on a scholarship, there's challenges being in college. Clothing, food, resources, books, none of that is really easily available to you if you don't have any money.
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And so my mom actually would go eat at the church and like soup kitchens in college. And then when she graduated college, she decided she was going to move to New York and she was going to get a job in New York. She wound up saving some money after college in Florida until she could do that. And then she worked at NBC and she was in the accounting department as a secretary in NBC. My father was in the pyrotechnics department at NBC. And that's where they met.
So my father has a whole nother story, but he met my mother by walking up to her and saying to her, here's a list of the guys that you cannot date at NBC. They're not good guys. That's how he introduced himself to her. Interesting strategy. Yes. My mom had no interest in dating anyone. She was very driven on, I'm going to, I need to pay the rent. I need to do this. So she...
had found a roommate, I don't know how she found her, but she wound up being a very important person in my life, my aunt Peggy. She lived with her and they could never really make the rent. So what they would do is they would throw these parties where they would invite all these people from work and the people had to pay to go into her apartment, her and Peggy's apartment, and she would have some cheap beer. And that's how they made money for rent. What? Yeah.
So they did that every month. And it was like, my mom said it was like a ton of fun. Everybody wanted to go. It was body to body. And they would just literally fill the bathtub with ice and beer. And that's what they did. Yeah, I'm sure people were smoking like crazy. I'm sure it was just like a cloud of smoke back then. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm like. She worked really, really hard at her job. And she was absolutely stunning. Just absolutely stunning. So.
She has this story about this young performer who just had come on one of the late night shows and he was rehearsing that afternoon and he saw her and he went up to her and he asked her out to see if they could have coffee after he performed at the late night show. And she said, no, thank you. And I asked her why she said no. And she said, I thought the way that he was dancing was really gross and I thought he was too provocative.
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And it was Elvis.
I know, isn't that hysterical? No! Yeah, she said no to Elvis. She said no to Elvis. Oh my God! Probably the only woman in history. I'm sure he was, well, it was when he was really starting to get started, but you know, handsome guy. Like what? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, but again, my mother, no interest really in getting together with a guy really focused
herself and trying to get herself a place where she was proud of her career. Her legacy. Yeah. Her legacy. My father, even after they dated, my father proposed to her multiple, multiple times. So she just had this idea in her head like, no, this is... Now we were told that story over and over and over again as kids with different variations and different life lessons.
It was pretty remarkable because that was not something people were doing back then. Like my mother, she lived a very different life than you would have guessed as someone who was raised Catholic and- Yeah. I feel like people of that generation also don't talk a lot about their stuff.
Yes, she did not. You know what I mean? And it sounds like she really let you guys see the stuff that she had to go through in order to get here, right? Yeah. And I think it was more my dad prompting it, but there was definitely deeper stuff that we've never, ever known. We found out as adults, young adults, that my mother was hospitalized in college for a bit of time for a panic attack or an anxiety attack. Now we don't know what that really was.
That was the most my dad got out of her, but my sister told me that she approached the subject with my mom at one point. And I think at that point, my mom had hit a low for anyone who lives in poverty at that level. You oftentimes can hit this wall where you just go, I'm never gonna make it. And I think that's what happened with my mother is she said, this is it, I'm stuck in this life. And it created such an anxiety for her that she actually like collapsed. Yeah.
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And I think she was in somewhat of a comatose state at that time. So the stories that come out, that bubble up over time, are often triumphant. But the truth of the matter is it was really difficult, I think, for my mother on many levels. Is that the primary way you think your parents started to pass down their value? Was storytelling a big part of it, or was it more intentional? Oh yeah. And like, let me teach you a lesson right now.
Our family dinners were all seven of us, stories, stories. Like that's how we grew up. For most kids, it bums me out now for new generations because it's like you eat dinner and then everyone retreats to their phone or their device or their TV or whatever. We, when I grew up, there was not a lot of programming on. My TV was like a turn-dial TV.
And so it was more entertaining to just sit with your siblings and your parents and crack jokes. My parents, my parents are hilarious. They're very funny. So it was always very easy. And there was always shenanigans at the dinner table and we're a very loud family. And if you have a story, you got to get it out and you got to get it out quick and say it loud. But in that, there was always conversations that led to that kind of.
core values that were being passed on. And then we always had guests at our house, like my Aunt Peggy, like I was saying, or someone, they would always come to our house for dinner. I can't really remember weekends where we didn't have some sort of entourage of cousins and distance cousins and they just were always at our house. So the storytelling went on forever and ever and ever. So let's jump ahead now.
I want to get into the transition of how your parents now started to become entrepreneurs and where you guys were and how old were you in this scenario? Yeah. So it actually happened before they had kids. My parents had a really hard time conceiving children. And that was really difficult for them, I think. That was like their dream, right? My mom's dream was to be a mom.
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That was what she wanted more than anything, but actually allowed them to have some time, like talk about God's plan, like that allowed them to have some time. So what happened was my father got laid off from NBC. There were layoffs and my father got laid off, but my mother was still working there. And there's a whole story behind it, but basically she was the reason they were afloat.
He was trying to figure out his next move and he was trying to get a salary job. My mother just said, no, we're not doing this. We're not working for another company where you can get fired whenever they feel like it or whatever. I'm going to keep working and you're going to find something that's something you can own. That's what he did. He had actually been working.
It took him 10 years to get through college. He went to night school at Hofstra while he was working NBC. He was also going to Coney Island on weekends and asking the mechanics there what they needed. And he would go to a hardware store around the city and Queens and he would get what they needed and bring it back to them and he would charge them 10% more. So he had that as like a side hustle.
So he started working with one of the hardware stores that he used to go to for parts. And that individual ultimately hired him as a salesperson and then he ultimately bought that business from that gentleman. So that's how it started, was in theatrical hardware. Got it. My father, that business was sort of splinting into two at the time that my dad was a salesperson there.
there was a product called Boat Life and it was for boats. It was like shellac and cleaning products and all of that for boats. The owners were really excited about this Boat Life brand, right? That's what they thought was their like flame and yawn. My father was the salesman going up and down the Northeast selling Boat Life and other hardware products.
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He understood that even though these guys were very excited about it, he could see what was happening with the customers and through the vendors. And he wasn't as excited about it. And so he kept telling them, you got to focus on the core hardware business. It's a better business. And that's when they said, well, why don't you take that? We're going to take Boat Life and will. And as my father said, he tried to explain to them that he was getting the pie and they were getting the crust, but they were very sure of themselves. So my father took the, what he calls the pie and they took the crust and actually he was right. Like time told that in fact he was right. And he also knew that without a strong salesperson, i.e. him, it was going to be very hard for them to keep the company growing. So that was, that actually, that lesson came in very important for me as building Limelife is the actual importance of a salesperson.
He has a famous thing that you guys like that we throw around a limelight. Sell like hell. And you know, that kept him going. In times, a salesperson, it's a game to them a lot of the times, but sometimes you don't want to play the game. You have like a moment where you're like, I don't feel like playing the game right now. And sell like hell was definitely his motivator. Like this is it. We're going to sell like hell forever and ever and ever until we get to a place where we feel proud of what we've accomplished and we can retire.
Yeah. Now, when did Alcone come into the picture? So then that... Hold on. If your mother is still working, when did your mom come into the business? My mother worked until my sister was born. And I think my mother worked a little bit after. And then my dad was doing well enough selling these products that they were able to move. So we and then eventually they moved to a tiny little house in Massapequa Park.
It was like 1600 square feet. And all seven of us lived in that house when I was little. We didn't move till I was four. And then we moved into a bigger house. But the, I think when I was eight years old, my parents bought Alcone. And it was a great thing for my older siblings. My sister's 10 years older than me and my brother's nine years older than me. And they were both graduating from college around the same time.
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And my parents were like, okay, listen, we're going to buy this other company, this makeup company. And my dad got an amazing deal from the guy who started it, Alvin Cohen. He had no children who wanted this. He wanted to retire. He needed to do something with it. And he really loved my dad. My dad and him were actually in this networking group, which I thought was really cute, like my father would go to this networking group and, and like to figure out how to expand his businesses. And Alvin Cohen was one of the guys there. So he really liked my dad. They had a great friendship and he said, buy this from me. And my dad's going, no, I got five kids. I've got, I see. And finally he said, I'm going to make you an offer you cannot refuse. So my dad took it. My dad had to run Alcon for a little bit until my siblings graduated. But then he said to my older sister, Mary, which company do you want? The hardware one or Alcon? And she said, I want the hardware one.
and my brother took Alcon. So that was how they sort of, but they both worked, well, my sister worked at both companies, but really the hardware one was her baby. Yeah. And one of the stories that I really love about your family is that, I mean, at that point, your older siblings were old enough that they could make it their careers, but when you guys, the younger ones, and I feel like in a lot of your kids were raised working in the business as well. And I mean, I've seen your kids packing at the warehouse. I've seen, and working at events and helping out. Like it's really been, we all work here. We all really like, hard work is definitely one of the values that is just threaded to the story that I feel like you guys, even though, let's be honest, you guys have made it to life where you're pretty comfortable, right? You're set up, but the kids are still part of the story and they still work in the story.
Yeah. And I think it's very important that a couple of things that my parents said over and over again. Number one is they said to us, we're taking our bank account to zero before we die. We'll not leave you with a dime. And that was super, super important to, I think, our upbringing. But then the other thing they did, which was really interesting is they were both on a small
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And my dad after that tried to figure out what would happen if both of us died to the businesses, so he's very into like capital gains tax and trying, he is, he does not want to pay taxes, my father. He's going to investigate everything. It is his life's mission to pay as little taxes as possible. But he, as he was figuring this out, they ultimately made the decision that
The taxes sparked the conversation, but they made the decision to give the entire company to the kids. So all five of us took a 20% share in both companies. I was young. I mean, I was like 16. And I remember the first time I was made aware of that. It wasn't until I was working, I had my first job, I went to get a car. And
I didn't know it, but I had a checking account of the dividends that were put in this checking account for me. I was like, what are you talking about? I have this checking account. My dad said, well, you've been an owner of the company and we've put the dividends in this checking account, but I really didn't want you to know about it. I was able to put a down payment on my car with this checking account, which was super cool. At that point, I had already hustled my way through college and knew.
I sort of what I wanted to do and what I wanted to be. So it was a good time to like, it was good to withhold that from me, I think, for sure. How do you think, I guess, what did you think, what did you learn from that experience? How do you think it would have been different? I mean, you'll never know, but. Yeah, I think the first thing I learned from it was how incredibly generous my parents were.
I mean, I think that was like one of the most generous things. And I often see families really struggle with passing things down to their kids because it comes with lots of other ancillary problems or reactions or consequences. But I thought that was incredibly generous of my parents. It also fortified my siblings and I because now we all were shareholders, equal shareholders in this business.
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And I also thought it was kind of cool. And this may seem like odd for me to say now, but you have to put yourself back in the time, in that time. I thought it was super cool that my parents did not give my brother more than us. Because that would have been something that would have been pretty standard back then. And they didn't do that. Yeah, especially since they were in the business working at that time, right? Yeah.
And then the other thing I think it did is it allowed us to see that all that work we did as teenagers and when we had to go in the warehouse and it was really for us in the end. But here's the bad side of that. The bad side of that was that there was an expectation that all of us were going to work there. That was very important to my mother, not so much to my dad, but to my mother. So at that point, Mary and Vincent had worked there. My two.
older, oldest siblings. And then my older sister, Morat had worked at Alcone. She was a pro makeup artist, so she would do jobs. But when she wasn't working, she was working at Alcone. Um, her, you know, the siblings, the spouses of them started to come in. So then here's me the fourth, and I'm a microbiology major. And I went into Teach for America right out of college. My mother was like, what are you doing?
Like you need to start working. And I was like, I don't want to do that at all. And that really shocked my mom. Like this was, and she was mad at me. Like you can ask my siblings, like there was like, when my mother's mad at you, she doesn't talk to you. And like, I was iced out for a long time. She allowed me to do Teach for America, hoping that when I was done with my two-year commitment, I would come back.
and want to be part of this. And I didn't, I had other dreams, I had other things I wanted to do. But eventually? Well, they ultimately got me back when I was 40. Yeah, I mean, and that was kind of the ironic piece of this was that I think I lived with that guilt for a little bit. And after my mom passed away and they asked me to come back, it was like, oh, this is my mother coming.
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the ghost of my mother forcing me to do this. She will win in the end. She will not. Like, this is her unfinished business on earth. But at that point, I felt like I had checked off a lot of things that I wanted to do with my life. I had felt like I had gotten my shot to explore other things. And
I obviously cared very much about this. And I also wanted to take the pressure off my oldest sister who I thought had given really everything she had to the businesses. Super committed, so. So you wanted to do your part. I did, I did. What would you say, I mean, it's so fascinating. I've gotten the honor and pleasure of knowing you pretty well over the last five years, so it's fascinating.
hearing so many of these stories and seeing so many of, so much of who you are woven in these stories, so much of your values and how you operate in the world. And one of the things that I think is always, I've always respected about you is you're the hardest working person in the room. Like even when you had a team, even when you had a, you never asked anything of anyone that you weren't putting in yourself.
you really believe in, you put in the sweat equity just as much as the people that work for you. And I think because of that, people really respected you and love working for you. And, but I see it here. I see where that came from. I see where the seeds got planted. So other than hard work, what would you say were some of the other lessons or values that you learned from your parents? Yeah.
So definitely hard work. Thank you for saying that. That's something that we really take a lot of pride in. And what I had to learn actually is how do you work hard but also keep your life in balance? How do you work hard but also have a life outside of work? Yeah. So that was a challenge for me that LimeLife and working with you and all the other people really helped me sort of figure that out a little bit more balanced. But I always say balance is an illusion. It comes and it goes.
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So I think that it's hard to talk about yourself. Do you know what I mean? Like, it's like, well, I'm this. I would say the thing I authentically feel that I've had other people tell me that they see is number one, generosity. My mother and my father are two of the most generous people I've ever had the honor and privilege of knowing. I mean, my mother, is was just extraordinary in that way. And I think there's a difference between giving and sharing. I learned this from a minister one time. She made this distinction. I thought it was so incredible. And what she was saying is sometimes she would go into a food bank and they would play this game called who could find the most over expired, like the oldest can of food.
So people were giving food to these food banks, but they were giving away these cans that were so expired. Like the food bank had to throw them out, right? And you get this sense that you're giving, right? Like, so it's like, people think that they're being generous because they're like, oh, I'm dropping off this food at a food bank and all of a sudden they give themselves a gold star, right? But...
But sharing is more than that. It's really giving of yourself and your heart. But here's the thing I think my mom, why my parents did this so well. They give of themselves and their heart without judgment. And I think that is why they're extraordinary at sharing, not just giving, but sharing.
because my mother would go, she for many years before she passed away, every single day she fed homeless people. But she didn't just go in and drop off. Like her job when she first went and volunteered was to go to the grocery stores, find the day old bread, get the day old bread from the grocery stores and bring them to the place, Trocare House is where she worked, where then people would come in and they would get some food from the Trocare House.
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And my mom started doing that, but she didn't like doing that. It wasn't like, let me pick this up and drop off. And a lot of people in this world would actually be like, oh, look, I'm so great. I'm working at the Trocar House. I drop off the day old bread. No, my mom went in there and she sat with every single person and she heard their story and she hugged them and she held their hand. She knew their names. So she was incredibly sharing of
her heart and her love without judgment, ever, never with judgment. So that was, I think that was huge. Yeah, I'm so glad you were able to get into that a little deeper because when you said generosity, the first thing I thought about was, yes, but not financial, not like things that you have because I feel that you and your family,
are very generous with your respect, with your spirit, the way that everybody has a seat at your table. There's a certain way that you guys interact with everyone is equals. And in the presence of that, you feel contributed to, you feel poured into. So, and I see now where it came from with the way that your mom was with everyone. Yeah. It was beautiful. Yeah.
I mean, both my parents are extraordinary that way. And I just think we live in a world, I mean, I really have been able to see this progress and evolve in a really interesting way because we live in a world where...
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I think people want to feel good that they're helping, but there's so much judgment behind everything that they do. And that sounds judgy of me to say, right? Like, but that's just an observation that I have made in my time. And I make that observation because I want to check myself in that. Yeah.
So generosity, any other? I think generosity is my big one. And I think along that same lines is sacrifice, which I don't think I'm as great at, but it's a core value that I strive for and I see it in other people. And I'm so, like it inspires me so much. And that really does come from more of a religious piece. Like sacrifice for me is sort of something I gained.
through religion. And it's funny, you talk about like, when did our parents talk about these core values? But we did have to go to church every Sunday. And we did sit in our Cadillac. We had a Bimini beige Cadillac, which was actually light pink. And back in that time, when you try to fit seven people into a Cadillac, it's people are sitting on the floor. There's no seatbelt. Maria and I, my little sister and I each had at the footwell on the floor. So we had to sit on the floor and my other siblings were sitting on the bench seat, but you're pretty packed in that car. And so when mom asks you a question, okay, girls, what did you learn from the gospel today? Or what was this? Like what, you have conversations about it. And of course, when teenagers were rolling our eyes, like, this is so dumb, really. You made us go and now we have to talk about it. And I would say to parents, like, just get past the eye rolls and the...
because they're listening, they are, right? Just even asking the question, if no one answers it, it makes someone start to think about it in a different way. So I think that's something I got from that. And sacrifice was a common topic in that light pink Cadillac. My sense of humor and my father always approached every challenge, everything that was stressful with a sense of humor. He's always like, I was just with him.
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on Monday two days ago, just laughing, laughing. He's just constantly laughing. He's 91 and he has so many reasons to complain, so many things that he could complain about, but he doesn't. He plays tennis every day. He thinks everything is hysterical. He does not allow anything that would make someone anxious even land on him.
That's not something I'm great at, but it's something I aspire to with him is just using a sense of humor to just remember that life is not a lot of things that I would get anxious about are just not that big a deal. Now there's big problems in the world, but oftentimes we let these things consume us that are in perspective, not huge problems, right? Yeah.
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taken as your own and modified. Like I thought you mentioned your religion and being a Catholic and I'm wondering how has that relationship changed or how have any of the values that you were taught changed and evolved over the years as well? Yeah. I mean, my journey with religion is definitely an interesting one, right? Like, so I have a deep respect for how I was raised and the commitment.
So that was important and I'm glad I did that, but I have chosen not to actually extend that to my children, which is kind of interesting. And there's definitely a reason, many reasons behind that. But when I was 16, we went on a religious retreat. Now my parents had gone on this retreat before.
But they decided that they wanted to take us. So we went to Yugoslavia and there was a small city in Yugoslavia called Medjugorje. And that was a place where children were, the story of Medjugorje is that children were climbing this mountain top and the Virgin Mary appeared to them.
And that every day at a certain time, six o'clock at night, she would appear to them and give them sort of lessons. And within some of those lessons were bigger like secrets. That's not important. What's important is it became a Mecca of many different religions.
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So when I showed up at Medjugorje and we stayed with a host family, it was my older sister, doing life elsewhere. They were much older in their late 20s. It was a very interesting thing because I think what happened there is perhaps my mom wanted me to be fortified in my Catholicism there, but what I actually saw was a real universal love between many different religions. I mean, there were any religion you can think of, you saw it represented there.
the church bells would chime, everyone fell to their knees and sang Ave Maria. So whether you believe the story of what happened or not, that was never my question. My question in religion was never like, is this true or not? That wasn't ever something I cared about. What I cared about was what are the things that are being taught and do I agree with these values, these core values that I'm being taught?
Does it make sense to me when I plug it into the world? And that moment made so much sense to me. Like if God is truly like this universal energy and entity that is the source of love, this moment makes sense to me. And it didn't matter that this guy next to me is a Hasidic Jew or this person next to me is a Muslim woman, we're all on our knees sharing in this moment. And I thought that was really extraordinary.
And then there was the moment where you can like go and talk to the visionaries and ask questions. And I'll never forget it. Someone said, what's the only true religion? Right? And I'm like, oh my God, this is it. I'm 16. I'm going to find the answer to the world. What is the true religion? And she said, this was our intention was never for you to delineate religion. It was never the intention. And in fact, it's been one of the most heartbreaking things to see.
And she's really trying to communicate like what Mary's answer was like, but you know, the core of what you should be doing every single day is loving every single person right next to you left and right. Now fast forward to the world we live in now. Is that how people operate? The answer is an absolute hard no. And for me, it's such a departure from from.
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what I learned at 16. And in that moment, I was so fortified. This is the answer I've wanted. And now when you get that answer, because I studied the Bible then after that for four years, everything clicks in a totally different way. If you want to see the Bible from the perspective of not loving everyone, you'll find
You'll find passages and evidence in there to fortify that position. But for me, I had the gift of getting this moment and then everything in my world clicked into place in a different way. So I saw the story of Jesus and, and that everything in a totally different way. Beautiful. So now your mom.
You've gotten this amazing legacy from your parents. You've gotten these amazing stories, these amazing, not just the business we talked about, but all these just values.
What do you, I guess there's two ways we can look at. I don't think the question is, what are you trying to pass down? Cause I feel like you're already mentioned that it's a little unconscious for you, that you're just trying to, you know, but what do you want to leave your kids with? I guess the question, like, what are you intentionally trying to pass down to them? I mean, they're already young adults now, right? Like they're- My oldest is 21 and the other one is 19. So-
I mean, working hard has always been the thing. Working hard has been just the core, core piece of this. And so my girls are incredibly hard workers. They are grinders. My son, he is, but he's a schmoozer. He's got a different way about it. He's got different superpowers. That doesn't mean he's not a hard worker.
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But like, for example, I took him to the warehouse maybe a couple of years ago. We were behind on Amaze boxes, right? So I took him to the warehouse to pack boxes with me. And
Looking back on that experience, I was so proud of him because there was all these women there. They were from Africa. They would sing when we were working and it was really kind of cool. And he started learning the songs with them. At the end of the day, we were there for one day and I'm head down trying to pack these boxes and he's packing the boxes, but I'm probably like double. I'm doing two for every one of his.
But he's talking to them and he's learning about them. At the end of the day, he knew songs from Africa, he knew words in their native language, and he hugged every single one of them goodbye. And then the next morning when we came back, he hugged them all hello, they continued on their thing. He was working at his 75% speed, which was annoying me to death, but I had to step back and go.
It's not that he's not working hard. He's working and he's seeing people and he's doing it in a way that is something I should be super proud of. So yeah, he was great that day. But yeah, I think working hard, but again, seeing people, respecting people, being kind to people, sacrificing in that way where you're doing it without judgment. Those are all things that I see in my children that I think.
And I don't think they necessarily learn them from me totally. Like my siblings are all part of that upbringing. My father, who they've had a lot of time with, is part of that upbringing. So my father-in-law, it's like, they just have great people in their life that have all reinforced that lesson. Yeah. It's definitely, and you're, it's something that you're aware of when you're watching from the outside in that there's a collective. Yes. And...
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I've made this joke to you and Madison a few times. I keep waiting for one of you guys to be in the ****. I keep waiting to... Is everyone in your family great? We usually have a jerk. There's always that like, Uncle so and so, oh, they're coming to Thanksgiving, oh. But everyone in your family is just great. And they always know me by name. They always like, when they speak to me. It's obvious that they've heard stories and I always felt so welcome. It's obscene from the oldest to the youngest. So it's definitely a collective context, I'm going to say, that you guys all operate under. But it makes sense when you've had these larger than life parents that just were such pillars and just had such beautiful rich histories and stories and generosity and intention. So it's been an honor and a pleasure being part of your family in that way and getting to know them and watching your kids grow up and seeing everything that you guys continue to create to this day. Well, you've been a huge impact in my life, Gary. I hope you know that. I mean, I have often said like, there's very few people who have been able to cut through what I needed to hear.
Like give it to me like in one sentence to snap me out of something or to just shift my mindset into a much more positive sage thinking place. And you have been that for me like to the point where I'm like, oh gosh, that was actually brilliant. And I think when it comes to giving feedback and to really owning your life and to taking personal responsibility, because feedback is a huge part of taking personal responsibility, you have to be open to the really hard truths that someone might sling at you. And I think you and I have been blessed to have such a relationship where there's no apology. You can sling it to me and I can sling it to you and we don't even, I would never walk away from that conversation and go, God, Gary, what a jerk that he said that to me. I'm always like, that was freaking brilliant what he just said to me. So.
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That's a rare gift in life. So I feel really lucky to have that with you. And even though we don't work together, Gary, you're still going to be that person for me, my Yoda who just cuts through it and just tells me like it is. But for now, you don't have to do that because I'm just retired and just going for long walks and petting my dog. So not much to do. It won't be long. I'm sure you'll get into something soon.
You're going to create something, I'm sure. Trying my hardest to just relax and it is impossible. Take your time. All right, friend. Well, this was a lovely conversation. Thank you so much for giving us some access to your background and your history and your parents. Beautiful, beautiful story. We will definitely have you back on the show plenty of times because there are so many things that we can talk about.
But it's just an honor. Thank you for being the first guest, the first guest on the podcast. I would love to come back. This was really fun. Good, good, good. All right, my love, thank you so much. Bye. The legacy of the Mallardi family seems to have happened so organically that it's almost hard to break down how it actually happened. But from what I can see, there were some key distinctions at play. Number one.
Organically does not mean it wasn't intentional. Michele's parents had done the work of creating a clear vision for themselves and their children. They knew the end game and had a clear set of values that they were gonna live into in order to achieve them. You can hear from their stories that they both had a real sense of ownership over their lives and what they were willing to do in order to achieve their goals. Number two, once they became parents,
Instead of teaching their children through long parental lectures, rules, and discipline, they instilled those values through a great deal of laughter, storytelling around the dinner table, and leading by example. Lastly, rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands dirty was nurtured and modeled in each generation. This is something that often comes out of necessity in family businesses, but the minority family kept this up even when their success no longer required it.
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Their legacy will continue to live on for many more years to come. Not because of the financial success of their businesses, but because of the principles and values upon which they were built on. They are a true American success story, and I personally feel really privileged to have gotten to spend the last five years with them. Thanks for listening to this episode of The Ownership Game with your host, Gary Montalvo.
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