Mike Malatesta is an entrepreneur, author, investor, and the Founder of Advanced Waste Services. He is the Leader of ERC Midwest, a holding company formed to purchase and grow other businesses that specialize in solving complex waste problems. Mike is also the author of the forthcoming book, Owner Shift: How Getting Selfish Got Me Unstuck, and host of the How’d It Happen Podcast.
Mike is on a mission to help 1,000 entrepreneurs create companies that become worth more than $20 million each. Options rather than obligations drive him, and he hopes to create new opportunities, relationships, and success stories as a result of doing what he loves.
Here’s a Glimpse of What You’ll Hear:
- Mike Malatesta talks about not having previous business experience and founding Advanced Waste Services
- Mike’s experience in the “valley of uncertainty” — and how he came out of it
- How being selfish is valuable in becoming an impactful leader
- The positive shift in Mike’s business after employing selfishness
- Mike’s advice: maintain a go-big mentality
- The How’d It Happen Podcast’s exploration of success stories
In this episode…
Many people have come to a point in their career where they feel like they’ve eclipsed their skillset or begun hating the things they used to love. Mike Malatesta calls this the “valley of uncertainty.” So, how do you avoid getting stuck in this dark place?
Sometimes you need to break to discover a breakthrough. After tragically losing his business partner, Mike found himself in the valley of uncertainty. He had no luck thinking his way out of the situation and decided that his perspective needed to change. Mike concluded that he had the power to turn this bleak situation around and became receptive to the help he needed — something difficult for many entrepreneurs. The most significant factor in pulling himself out of the valley of uncertainty? Mike became selfish.
In this episode of the Top Business Leaders Show, Chad Franzen sits down with entrepreneur, investor, and author Mike Malatesta to talk about overcoming entrepreneurial struggles. Mike discusses how he came out of the valley of uncertainty, shifted his business, and teaches others to think big. Mike also details the entrepreneurial advice in his book, Owner Shift, and shares how you can get a free chapter of the book before it’s released!
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Mike Malatesta on LinkedIn
- Mike Malatesta’s website
- Owner Shift: How Getting Selfish Got Me Unstuck by Mike Malatesta
- Get a free chapter of Owner Shift
- How’d It Happen Podcast
Sponsor for this episode
At Rise25, we’re committed to helping you connect with your Dream 100 referral partners, clients, and strategic partners through our done-for-you podcast solution.
We’re a professional podcast production agency that makes creating a podcast effortless. Since 2009, our proven system has helped thousands of B2B businesses build strong relationships with referral partners, clients, and audiences without doing the hard work.
What do you need to start a podcast?
When you use our proven system, all you need is an idea and a voice. We handle the strategy, production, and distribution – you just need to show up and talk.
The Rise25 podcasting solution is designed to help you build a profitable podcast. This requires a specific strategy, and we’ve got that down pat. We focus on making sure you have a direct path to ROI, which is the most important component. Plus, our podcast production company takes any heavy lifting of production and distribution off your plate.
We make distribution easy.
We’ll distribute each episode across more than 11 unique channels, including iTunes, Spotify, and Google Podcasts. We’ll also create copy for each episode and promote your show across social media.
Co-founders Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran credit podcasting as being the best thing they have ever done for their businesses. Podcasting connected them with the founders/CEOs of P90x, Atari, Einstein Bagels, Mattel, Rx Bars, YPO, EO, Lending Tree, Freshdesk, and many more.
The relationships you form through podcasting run deep. Jeremy and John became business partners through podcasting. They have even gone on family vacations and attended weddings of guests who have been on the podcast.
Podcast production has a lot of moving parts and is a big commitment on our end; we only want to work with people who are committed to their business and to cultivating amazing relationships.
Are you considering launching a podcast to acquire partnerships, clients, and referrals? Would you like to work with a podcast agency that wants you to win?
Contact us now at support@rise25media.com or book a call at rise25.com/bookcall.
Rise25 Co-founders, Dr. Jeremy Weisz and John Corcoran, have been podcasting and advising about podcasting since 2008.
Episode Transcript
Intro 0:04
Welcome to the Top Business Leaders Show powered by Rise25 Media, we feature top founders, executives, and business leaders from all over the world.
Chad Franzen 0:20
Chad Franzen here Co-host of the Top Business Leaders Show where we feature CEOs, entrepreneurs, and top leaders in the business world. This episode is brought to you by Rise25. We help B2B businesses reach their dream relationships and connect with more clients referrals and strategic partnerships and get ROI through done for you podcasts. If you have a B2B business and want to build a great relationship, there’s no better way than to profile the people and companies you admire on your podcast. To learn more, go to Rise25.com, or email us at support@rise25media.com Mike Malatesta is an entrepreneur who has helped start grow and sell two successful waste management companies. One sold for mid-eight figures, the other fellow nine figures, he is the creator and host of the How’d It Happen Podcast, where he explores stories, lessons, and wins with some of the most fascinating people in the world. Mike is also the author of a new book called Owner Shift: How Getting Selfish Got Me Unstuck. It’s a philosophical memoir that reveals the secret to why so many entrepreneurs get stuck, and how they can shift to get free once again. His mission is to help 1000 entrepreneurs create companies that become worth more than $20 million each, then for them to pass along how they did it, and help at least 10 others do the same thing. Mike, thank you so much for joining me. How are you?
Mike Malatesta 1:41
Ah, Chad, I am great. Thank you so much for having me on the show.
Chad Franzen 1:44
Sure. Hey, Mike, it’s my pleasure to speak with you. So if we could just kind of go way back here in 1992, you started Advanced Waste Services. Tell me a little bit about how and why and how and why that came about.
Mike Malatesta 1:59
Sure I in. So that was in November of 1992. In March of 1992, I was fired from a job that I thought I would be at, you know, for my whole career and maybe become the CEO of this Fortune 500 company. And so I I was rattled a bit. And I didn’t know what to do. And I was very, very fortunate to have worked with a gentleman named Butch Weiss, before I had gotten fired. And Butch was just a really special guy that, but I didn’t know him very well. And when he reached out to me, a month or so after I’d been let go, I was very surprised to hear from him Chad. And I it was like, I never would have expected it. And Butch said to me like, Hey, I don’t know what you know what you’re planning to do. But if you’re wanting to start a business, I’d be really interested in doing that with you. And I thought to myself, wow, you know, like, I’d been really down really, in a bad spot after being fired that after that I’d gotten a job. And I’d worked for 30 days, and I couldn’t get this terrible environment. And I quit that job. And I just just thinking man, I’m a two-time loser in like, a month, you know, or a month and a half. And here comes Butch and he’s, you know, sprinkles me with this little bit of confidence. And I was like, Oh my gosh, that. That’s amazing. So I so I got together with him. And we started talking around his kitchen table. And, you know, we we, we had a few beers while we were doing it. And everything we start, we were telling each other started to sound really smart. And six months later, we had a business up and going.
Chad Franzen 3:50
So it was a waste. It’s a waste management company. What? You know, had you guys worked in that field before?
Mike Malatesta 3:57
Yeah, we were working in the waste business. The waste, you know, like, it’s a really wide business. But we were we were focused on helping manufacturers in particular with wastewater problems. So we were we weren’t picking up trash, but we were picking a water wastewater contaminated wastewater from factories and, and transporting it to water treatment facilities to clean it up and recycle it. So we had some experience, but we had no business experience, Butch, Butch was a farmer most of his life. And, and, and I was, you know, I was working in a company, but it’s a lot different than, you know, being responsible for a company.
Chad Franzen 4:43
Had you ever thought of yourself? I’m guessing the answer was no. But had you ever thought of yourself as an entrepreneur up until that point?
Mike Malatesta 4:50
Well, you know, I’ve thought a lot about that. And I think I think the answer is that when when I was four years old I We lived across the street from a construction company and I would sit outside on the curb in the afternoons in the summer, and I would watch the guys bring their trucks back. And I got really, you know, I was I was very into trucks as a lot of young boys are, but just the whole environment, the noise and the smoke. And the guys, you know, I was just all very impressive to me. And I was looking across the street at this company. It was called Rouse, that was the name of the owner. And I thought, you know, in my head, I thought, I wonder what that what what that is. But I, you know, I’m not going to pretend that I became an entrepreneur for but I think I think there was a seed planted in me while I was sitting on that curb Chad. And when Butch came along, and sort of gave me that confidence, I really feel like it was it’s kind of ironic that he’s got this farming background, but I really feel like he came along and he germinated that long dormancy that had been in me. So did I think I was an entrepreneur, no. But did I have something entrepreneurial in me? I think so.
Chad Franzen 6:07
So you and Butch, you got started. What were kind of one of the early days, like maybe the first year or so?
Mike Malatesta 6:16
I was, we were on top of the world. I mean, it was the two of us who knew nothing about what we were doing. But but had, you know, very complementary skill sets. You know, we’re working with trucks and equipment. And Butch was extremely talented with that kind of stuff. And I knew a little bit about sales, and I knew a little bit about invoicing, and I knew a little bit about, you know, a little bit about a lot of stuff that he didn’t. And so we were a great complementary team, to what to one another. The other thing we were, was in addition to having those skill sets, we were like minded we, and we were hard working, we we would we never, we never ever looked at each other and said, Yeah, well you do that? No, you do that. No, you always says like that has to be done. So we would just do it together. And we just we operated like, like a lot of startups do, you know, we he would drive the truck and I would knock on doors and and try to get new sales, and do the billing and do the banking and do all that stuff. And then when we had enough business, I would jump in the truck. And then I would drive until I was driving all the time. And then we’d hire a driver. And then I would go back to selling and we just repeated that for a number of years. That way, but it was so I call that the dream stage of the business. And it was fantastic. I mean, it was a lot of hard work, but we didn’t mind it at all.
Chad Franzen 7:47
So you you are you did all kinds of things. It sounded like you probably worked, you know, a lot of hours per day, but you liked the work that you were doing and the environment that you were in?
Mike Malatesta 7:57
Yeah, I mean, it was it was one of those things where you didn’t know enough not to like it, it was just part of what you had to do.
Chad Franzen 8:03
In your book, Owner Shift: How Getting Selfish Got Me Unstuck, which comes out at the end of November, you talked about what you call the Valley of Uncertainty. What is that? And then at what point did you find yourself in that Valley as you went through this process?
Mike Malatesta 8:20
Yeah, the valley of uncertainty is, is a horrible place where entrepreneurs like me go when they’re broken, and they go there to expire and die. And not literally, it’s a place where I think in my experience, at least a lot of entrepreneurs end up particularly if you’ve made it a certain point in your career, and you’ve had some success in all the things that you you know, all the skill sets that you used, and all the things you loved about the business when you started. You’ve either you’ve either eclipsed your skill set, or you started to hate all the things that used to love, because there’s just too much of it. So that’s the place it’s a it’s a it’s a difficult place for a lot of entrepreneurs to get out of, which is why they a lot of expire when they get there. I want to do expire, I wanted to quit I wanted to get small again, I wanted to go back revert. And I also had this other thing where I was like, I wish somebody would just come along and you know, reach down into this Valley and grab me and pick me up out of here dust me off and show me you know what I should do tell me what I should do and show me the way and when it happened. It happened in near the end of 2003 and and my my partner Butch who gave me the confidence got me started and who was just my rock he he passed away after he was burned terribly in a fire at one of our processing plants and when I when I lost Butch for when we lost Butch it was I just couldn’t believe it, Chad because he was, you know, when it happened to him, you know, I knew it was not good. But I just It never dawned on me that he was like the strongest person I’d ever met, just strengthened positivity just had. And I thought, wow, yeah, normal person. Yeah, but Butch will be fine. And then when I saw him the next day in the hospital, he, he was, you couldn’t I mean, it was it hurt. And then, you know, he’s he ended up paying ended up not making it. And when that happened, I just that’s what, that’s what dropped me into the Valley, and I think got me stuck there for a long time that came on the series of other things that had happened during the first 10 year period of the business and a lot of things that, you know, we had a lot of success. But you know, we had a lot of things that didn’t go well. And some of them were, were tragic, like, like, like, what happened to Butch. And it’s just a lot to it just just, I didn’t have a mechanism for dealing with it, if the mechanism I was using Chad was just, that’s okay, I’ll just, I can get past this, I’ll just work hard, you know, I’ll just do all the things that got me there in the first place. I just thought I could get out of there. And I just, I just couldn’t, I just couldn’t.
Chad Franzen 11:34
Sure, I would imagine. So tell me about ways that you thought that, like, you would have considered yourself to be stuck, like, you know, you, you thought about something you had to do that day, it’s like, I’m stuck, I’m stuck here, or I’m stuck in this in this rut or whatever.
Mike Malatesta 11:49
Yeah, I was kind of, I was kind of like a functioning stuck person, meaning you, it would be hard for you to tell if you were around me or outside of me that I was having the problems that I was having, because I was very private about those problems. And I was embarrassed by those problems. I did not want people to know that I didn’t have my act together that I didn’t know exactly what I should be doing. But the reality was, we had started this business, we had this 10 year run now I lose my partner it, you know, amongst other things that had happened, I was very, I had been, I had been treating the business like it was still a startup, like it was a little baby that needed my attention all the time. And that was actually you know, it was where it used to make me happy now it was making me resentful. And I. Yeah, so I so what ended up dawning on me, was that, okay? All these things happened, I can’t change any of them, have to look at it a little differently. We’re, like, not who’s to blame for this. But what did I do? Then? What I did Chad was I, I designed a system that was perfectly suited to put me exactly where I was. This is where I should be, because this is what I designed. This is where I designed myself to end up. And I’m not saying I could have predicted all the things that happened. But I just set up something that was perfect for putting a person like me, where where I ended up and then yeah.
Chad Franzen 13:48
I would think that that’s pretty common for entrepreneurs. You know, I’ve I’m not an entrepreneur, but from what, from what I can tell just by talking to them, you have a passion, you have an idea, and you work and work and work and work and work and do everything you can to make it good. And then once maybe like you said, you’re 11 years down the road, and you just don’t know any other way. Any other way to go about it. Have you found that that’s common for entrepreneurs?
Mike Malatesta 14:14
Yeah, very common. I’d what I what I found is less common is that you’re willing to admit that to yourself. You know, some other people have asked me Well, why do you have to Why do entrepreneurs have to break before they’re willing to listen to, you know, a message about a way to breakthrough? And I said, Well, I don’t know the answer to that. I’m sure there are some people who don’t have to, but I think the majority of us always think that we can, you know, work or figure or think our way out of something until we realize that we can’t and we’re not really open to the message until you know, we’re, we’re broke or we’re in that Valley, we’re just we’re just not open to the message and so I’m trying you know, to to Get people to think about being aware of these things sooner and acting on them sooner. Because if I had acted on on these things sooner, I don’t think I feel like I may not have broken the way I did. I feel like I may. And ultimately, if I was aware, I could react and change, things get help. Just another thing entrepreneurs don’t often like to do is get help, get help. And I really do feel Chad had I done that I’d be much, much further along, in my own success, or the companies that I’ve owned success and, you know, everything would be bigger, my whole impact on everything would be bigger if I had learned earlier, but as I mentioned, a lot of us aren’t open to the message until we’re really in a tough spot. And that was certainly me. So I don’t regret not having made changes quicker. Just, that’s just the way it is. But I am very, very happy that I was able to get the see a path and get myself out of there and get into the breakthrough stage where where every entrepreneur should be.
Chad Franzen 16:13
So you were in the kind of this Valley of Uncertainty. And you’re you’re not necessarily somebody who at the time at least, wants to seek help. How did you realize that there were things that you could do that could be changed, and get you out of this Valley?
Mike Malatesta 16:27
Well, as I mentioned, you know, when it when it became clear to me that I had designed this thing to put me where I am, it also became clear to me that I could design something to put me somewhere else. Now I didn’t know exactly how to do that. But accepting that sort of intellectually, was a big boost for me. Also, my, my I was I was complaining to my to another one of my partners about you know, all the, all the unfairness of, you know, what was happening and in the business, what happened to Butch what it was, you know, how I was feeling all this. And he was like, it was on a Saturday, I remember it pretty clearly. We’re on the phone, he was his office was in another state, and we were talking. And he’s like, you know, he’s just sound like you’re just complaining, he’s like, you’re in charge of this thing. You know, if you want something different, do something different. You know, he so he wasn’t accepting what I was trying to sell that day. And that, and then a number of other things got me. Yeah, I just I just I just opened me up to Yeah, okay. So I can design, I can design something that’s different than what I have here. Great. Now he’s telling me I have permission to do that, right? What? This is nobody’s fault. There’s nobody to complain to. There’s no, there’s nobody to blame. And then I started to get involved in some programs, like Strategic Coach, for example, helped me begin to see that there was a different way to be an entrepreneur, and got me on the path where I started designing this future, that I could make my property that I could own, and I could create and share with everyone.
Chad Franzen 18:20
So as you were kind of transitioning toward that path, that you kind of, you still kind of had to figure out exactly what you were doing wrong. In your book, you discuss four fallacies and your thought process. As a leader or a founder, what kinds of things do you think that you were doing that may have contributed to landing in the Valley of Uncertainty?
Mike Malatesta 18:41
Oh, well, so I thought I could do everything by myself. For example, I, I, like I didn’t need help getting help was, was a weakness. To me, getting help or needing help or asking for help was a weakness. And I didn’t want that to be a part of me, for example, another was that I was in I was too I was embarrassed about what I didn’t know. Right? It sounds ridiculous. But I think it’s common. I was embarrassed about what I didn’t know. And so I, I didn’t want to put myself in situations where I didn’t have the answer. So those are a couple of things that that were just just belief systems that I had had that I had, that were just wrong. They were just, you know, keeping me stuck. They were they were part of the men that the system that I designed the thinking behind the system I designed to get me into the Valley in the first place. So I just had to I had to change those things.
Chad Franzen 19:46
The title of your book talks about how you, you got selfish. What do you mean by that?
Mike Malatesta 19:53
Yeah, so thanks for asking. Selfish is, you know, it’s a it’s a it’s got a horrible connotation to Nobody wants to be called selfish. Nobody wants that label assigned to them. But I think it’s appropriate for me because I feel like during that, during what I call the dream and the grind, and maybe even the broke stage of the four stages of the entrepreneurial journey, a lot of us and this definitely me, I was kind of the person who thought I was living the selfless leader life. Meaning I was always available, I was always there to, you know, fix a problem, I was always, I always wanted to be the person that helped other people before I helped myself or put everybody else first. And you know, it kind of, I think that kind of fed my ego and maybe also made me feel like kind of the hero of the day, but and maybe, maybe it made other people feel good to Chad. But what it didn’t do was allow me, I wasn’t spending any time doing the job that I’m supposed to be doing. I’m supposed to be leading this organization, I’m supposed to be creating a vision for the future, I’m supposed to be marching us towards something bigger and better. And I was just, I was just doing, putting everything else first I was avoiding my job. And so when I use the terms, becoming selfish, I had to, I had to figure out, you know, I mentioned this prior, you know, creating a future that was my property, I had to figure out what I wanted that future to be look like how I was going to actually buy it, you know, pay for it and own it. And once I was able to do that, I was then able, at least I think I was then able to become selfless again, because I had this, you know, I took the time to be selfish to figure this stuff out. And also what I needed to do, that was different than what I had been doing in order to get there. But then, once I had that I could, you know, I could communicate that to people, I could rally people around that I could give them the autonomy to do things that needed to be done to get there and I could, I could change the role that I had, I didn’t have to be the hero, the hero wasn’t going to get this done. Me being the hero was not going to get this done. And it allowed me to be a selfless leader again, but in a different sort of way where I wasn’t solving everyone’s problems. I was encouraging everybody I was I was leading, I was leading instead of I don’t know, doing.
Chad Franzen 22:44
Sure. Did you? When you just sit when you decided to make these changes? Did you think about those things as as selfish at the time, like, Okay, I need to get more selfish?
Mike Malatesta 22:55
No. I didn’t. But I wish I did. Because I think I would have done a better job with it. So that revelation came later. Like, when I looked back on it, I go, ah, that’s what happened. I got selfish about what I needed to be working on, so that I could be more effective, and then ultimately be selfless, again, because I do want to be selfless. But I just don’t think you can go through life, putting everybody else first if if your responsibility as an entrepreneur, for example, is to build, you know, the biggest thing you can build, I just don’t think you can do it.
Chad Franzen 23:35
What are some ways or some things that you did to get more selfish? And how did it help?
Mike Malatesta 23:42
Well, for one of the view, from a tactical perspective, hiring an assistant was huge. For me, something I resisted for a long, long time, even though people have been telling me that it’s a good idea to have assistant I thought no, goes against all my belief systems, you know, I don’t need somebody to do work for me, I I certainly don’t want to be seen as a person who thinks they’re important, you know, or, or above everybody else. And I had all this, all those kinds of thoughts going on in my head Chad. And what I was, what I was missing was that if I had somebody to help me, do all of the things that that were getting in the way of me doing the things that I was supposed to be doing, that I would be so much more impactful, and so much more, you know, my mind would be free my time would be free or more free. My ability to think would be more free and I could really use what I have. What’s unique to me that maybe we didn’t have other people in the organization who had the skill sets that were unique to me to work on the things that are unique to me. And you know, the irony is, once I once I did decided that, that, you know that that Robin was going to join my team. I was still very nervous, like, but you know, with all these things about what people would think. And the reality, maybe as a little, maybe a little blow to my ego Chad was that once people discovered that she could get them what they needed, that’s really all they wanted, they didn’t want me, they only wanted me because I told them, they have to come to me. And once she was able to convince them that, you know, dealing with her would be probably a much better experience and faster and just and get, you know, what they wanted, which is, that’s really what they wanted. That’s what they wanted. It was it was a little humbling, but it was, was also perfect.
Chad Franzen 25:44
When you decided to kind of change your, your behavior or your your attitude toward doing everything. What was the initial reaction of maybe some of your employees or your colleagues?
Mike Malatesta 25:55
Well, I think for some that had worked with me front in the dream and the grind stage very closely. It was a little difficult, there was some difficulty there, but but she was so good at helping them as an extension of me, like making them feel really great. And getting them what they wanted that it was, it was, I feel, I don’t remember it as being a long term issue, it was just a getting used to issue. So I don’t I didn’t lose any anybody over it. And as I said it was it actually made it. So this is gonna sound weird, but it actually made it I think, for all of us more consequential our relationship together. So when we, rather than we get together all the time to talk about stuff that, you know, we maybe wasn’t moving the needle on the business. Now, when we got together, it was everybody knew is like, Okay, we’re gonna move the needle today, because that’s where we that’s, that’s the kind of issue we’ve got in front of us.
Chad Franzen 27:01
I was just gonna ask, so once you once you got selfish, how did that kind of change the trajectory or the culture of the culture of the company?
Mike Malatesta 27:11
Well, it changed the trajectory, for sure. And I, you know, every entrepreneur says, I got a great culture, and I really hope that our culture improved quite a bit. And I think it did. And I think and, and the reason I think it did is because the leadership, we actually established the leadership team, and everything didn’t roll up to me, like it had for all those years. But we also had in the leadership team came up with, you know, all of the, the majority of the tactics and but you know, that we were going to use to execute the strategy, and they were also responsible for making sure that, you know, the people on their team believed in, in our mission. So I think there was a lot more touching of people and a lot more value shared with everybody on the team than there was before the way I was doing it. I mean, I’ve feel like I valued everybody, but I certainly did. 150 or 170? I don’t know, yeah, I wasn’t touching everybody all the time. So I feel like I feel like having the leadership team in place, and then have giving them the autonomy and the responsibility for, you know, maintaining and building the culture, I think was very helpful.
Chad Franzen 28:24
And then it changed the trajectory as well.
Mike Malatesta 28:28
Yeah, I mean, it changes trajectory. Amazingly, for for a number of reasons. One, a strong team strong teams always do better than them weak teams, but two, like me, my sort of what was unique about me, I was able to, to, to help us, you know, find and, and, and source some really nice acquisitions that helped us expand our geographic footprint and other capabilities. And I wouldn’t have I, I probably wouldn’t have done that or have the time to do that if I hadn’t made some of the changes. So those are some of the breakthroughs that came as a result of, of really, as a result of getting selfish.
Chad Franzen 29:10
Why do you feel like it’s important to share that story about getting selfish and how that helped you as an entrepreneur?
Mike Malatesta 29:18
Because I don’t think it’s I don’t think it’s something that’s that. I don’t think it’s something that gets shared enough. I think by by using the word selfish, it gets people’s attention because I want to get their attention to what I actually want to see or what actually worked as movement for me and I think my work is moving. For them. I you know, there’s so much there’s so much talk about servant leadership and everybody wants to be a servant leader and who wouldn’t want to be because it’s, it’s, you know, it comes across as like the Holy Grail but I feel I really do feel like you can’t be a servant leader. You’re selfish leader, you can, otherwise you just burn yourself out with selflessness. And so that’s why so that’s why that’s why I think selfishness is a is an appropriate word to be using
Chad Franzen 30:14
when you decided to become selfish, what were what did you come up with kind of some daily selfish rituals that you found to be important and helped you?
Mike Malatesta 30:24
I would say when I when I when I first so I’ve gotten better at this, you know, I’ve gotten better to the point where, you know, that outpaces the book, but But certainly, you know, working with with Robin as my assistant was you tremendous in creating, giving me the opportunity to to have habits, right to have daily habits that promoted where I wanted to go instead of daily reactions to things that were happening all around me now I can never, you know, I’m not going to suggest that I could, you know, get rid of every reactionary thing that that happens in a business, but you sure can minimize them. And I start to I started, when people weren’t coming to me anymore, Chad, it was kind of a bummer at the beginning. Cuz I was kind of like, what, you know, my no longer important or anything, but it’s so freeing, ultimately, because I got to work on the stuff that I wanted to work on with, with very much fewer interruptions, or distractions, or whatever. And I think that’s the power. That’s the power. I’m not I, I would never suggest that. Here’s the secret, you know, you get selfish and then you turn this on, you just switch this switch and all No, but if you if you’re always thinking about that, what should I be doing in order to do the job, I’m here to do as an entrepreneur at least and you know, you have the freedom and autonomy to make the changes you want. So you should do them.
Chad Franzen 31:53
So your your waste treatment, recycling and disposal companies generated a great deal of revenue while you were there and then sold for Fantastic amounts. Yeah, beyond kind of that shift toward you thinking about what you want? Do you have any other overarching pieces of advice for entrepreneurs?
Mike Malatesta 32:14
Well, I say maintain a go-big mentality all the time. So every entrepreneurs, most entrepreneurs get into this. Because they have this idea. That’s a big idea. And that’s the dream stage, right? And then, and then you get into the grind stage. And that idea, this big idea starts to get whittled down and become smaller, because you become smaller. And I want to encourage all entrepreneurs to think big, and I want to help them with with strategies and tactics, and thinking that keeps them thinking big, and creating a future that’s as big as they can possibly create.
Chad Franzen 32:55
Tell me about The How’d That Happen Podcast?
Mike Malatesta 32:59
Yeah, so thanks for asking The How’d That Happen Podcast is, is when I started in 2018, and I just, I got, I got very curious about the podcasts that I was listening to at the time. And I, they were like, so I feel like I’ve been designing since 2004. So I’ve been sort of designing a custom school for myself, as I was trying to get out of the valley, you know, I was like, Okay, what do I need to know, here? What do I need to know here? And I started to, you know, get in front of people and the information that really gave me the education that I needed. And so when I started listening to podcasts, I thought, Oh, this is just an extension of my school. It’s just a great extension of education that’s available to me whenever I want it, and I can find whatever I’m looking for, and it just really interested me and I thought to myself, well I this is something that I can do. And I can make it my mission to you know, really explore stories of success. People with with with the goal of inspiring and activating more greatness and everyone that’s listening. So I just right, it’s just, it’s phenomenal, phenomenal people on the on the show, like I’m sure you do on your show. And we get really deep on you know, not just how it happened, but why it matters. And ultimately, what I love is that the stories about people who’ve had this great success, everybody looks at them in the present and thinks they’ve been on top of the mountain their whole lives and it’s just not true. They nobody starts on the top of the mountain right or hardly anybody starts on the top of the mountain. And we talk about you know how they actually did get started when they were just The normal person just like me, or you or anybody listening, and I want to, you know, that’s where I think the the greatness becomes inspired. I can’t, you know, I can’t inspire you, if there’s, if I if I feel like I’ll never be you. That’s not, to me, that’s not inspiring. It’s intimidating. And I want to get people back to where they were, like me, for example, or like any listener and and grab something there that says, Yeah, you were just like me at one point and look where you are. And I can be there too. And here’s so you activate something in me and I take an action that I wouldn’t have otherwise taken.
Chad Franzen 35:34
Sure. That’s great. How can people find out more information about your book, your podcast, your book comes out at the end of November, your book, your podcasts, anything else you have going on?
Mike Malatesta 35:45
Yeah, the book comes out November 30. It’ll be available on Amazon or on my website, or anywhere you buy books on it on November 30th, you can get a free chapter of my book before that by going to my website at Mike Malatesta, MikeMalatesta.com and going to the book tab, and there’s a free chapter of the foreword and a free chapter there. And then I’m active on LinkedIn if you want to connect with me there. Mike Malatesta is where you’ll find me and I do spend some time on LinkedIn. So happy to connect with anyone there. Well,
Chad Franzen 36:23
hey, it’s been a great pleasure to speak with you today, Mike, and you’ve got some great stories. I’m sure the book will be quite interesting for everybody to check out. And I really appreciate your time.
Mike Malatesta 36:33
Thank you so much. Yeah, my pleasure. Thanks for having me on. Chad.
Chad Franzen 36:36
Thank you so long, everybody.
Outro 36:38
Thanks for listening to the Top Business Leaders Show powered by Rise25. Visit rise25.com to check out more episodes of the show and to learn more about how you can start your own podcast.