8. Mandy Friend Gigliotti: Scaling Up By Building Multiple Businesses
EPISODE 8
Ever wondered how a former Team Canada lacrosse player turns into a thriving entrepreneur? In Julie's conversation with Mandy Friend Gigliotti, they unpack her fascinating transition from athletics to real estate mogul to being the owner of multiple successful businesses.
Julie and Mandy discuss starting businesses in diverse industries, seeking industry knowledge from those who have done it before, and learning team leadership.
Catch the Conversation
-
Mandy leads The Friend Team, a team in the top 1% of Realtors in the Rochester and Upstate New York regions. Founded on the values of FAITH: Family, Accountability, Integrity, Teamwork and Humility, her team will help over 200 clients, friends and families with over 50 million in sales for 2023. In the business world, Mandy is known for her entrepreneurial spirit as she is also a partner in her husband's chiropractic office, owns a daycare, is in the process of opening and laundromat and runs her coach and training business.
Above all else, she loves to be known as a wife to her husband, Ed as well as a mother to her 5 children. All of her training and coaching is centered around her passion to pursue all the aspirations on her heart without compromising the relationships, people and causes that matter most.
You can connect with Mandy on her website or on Instagram or Facebook.
-
From playing for Team Canada to building a real estate team (00:01:53)
Mandy's experience as a lacrosse player, playing for Team Canada, and making the transition to real estate.
Quarter life crisis, implementing systems, and prioritizing personal growth (00:06:04)
Navigating Mandy's intense schedule, exploring hobbies, and overcoming the feast or famine mindset in real estate.
Starting additional businesses (00:16:09)
Mandy's venture into starting a daycare business and the challenges faced in aligning personal and professional goals.
Leadership, Delegation, and Investing in Personal Growth (00:21:24)
Mandy talks about delegating responsibilities and the process of transitioning from a hands-on role to a leadership position.
Expanding into a New Business (00:32:11)
Mandy explains the decision to expand into a laundromat business, the process of applying previous business learnings to the new venture, and seeking industry knowledge and resources.
Scaling to Seven Figures (00:36:05)
Scaling and growing businesses, exploring the decision to focus on multiple smaller businesses versus deepening investment in one larger venture, and reaching seven figures.
Balancing Work, Family, and Long-Term Business Growth (00:37:57)
Mandy explains how she manages her time between work and family, taking a slow and steady approach to business growth, and creating opportunities for others.
-
Julie Ellis (00:00:04) - Welcome to Figure Eight, where we feature inspiring stories of women entrepreneurs who have grown their businesses to seven and eight figures revenue. If you're in the mix of growing a bigger business, these stories are for you. Join us as we explore where the tough spots are, how to overcome them, and how to prepare yourself for the next portion of the climb. I'm your host, Julie Ellis. I'm an author, entrepreneur, and a growth in leadership coach who co-founded, grew, and exited an eight figure business. This led me to exploring why some women achieve great things, and that led to my book, Big Gorgeous Goals. Let's explore the systems, processes and people that help us grow our businesses to new heights. If you're interested in growing your business, this podcast will help. Now let's get going. Hello and welcome to this episode of the figure eight podcast. Today I'm in conversation with Mandy Friend Gigliotti and Mandy is a realtor leading the friend team, a team in the top 1% of realtors in the Rochester and upstate New York regions.
Julie Ellis (00:01:20) - She also has founded multiple other businesses or has her hands in other businesses. And she embodies the entrepreneurial spirit in a different way., with the multitude of things that she's doing in her life. And she,, has found that, you know, implementing systems and processes has helped her to really grow into the life she wants while also being an entrepreneur. So I'm excited to talk to you today. Welcome, Mandy.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:01:52) - Thanks for having me.
Julie Ellis (00:01:53) - I'm so excited to learn about your journey, and we bonded initially because you're a lacrosse player and I have a lacrosse player in my life, so yeah. Tell us about tell us about that journey to being, you know, a college, college level athlete and where it led you.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:02:11) - Yeah. So it's actually funny because so many people don't know this part of my life. And it was literally the entirety of my life for decades, but so I started just in, in middle school and high school playing lacrosse and just loving it. And I found out in about eighth grade that maybe I was pretty good at this thing and had the opportunity to play for New York State and then started getting recruited.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:02:35) - And my older sister was also a lacrosse player, and she ended up getting a full ride to go to the University of Richmond in Virginia. And I said, okay, well, I just don't want to go there. I mean, I just don't want to follow in my sister's footsteps. And I got a couple offers for different colleges throughout up and down the East Coast. And I ultimately decided on the University of Richmond. And I hated that. I loved it, and it was a wonderful experience because, you know, in college, it's different when you're in high school and you have an older sister, you're always in her footsteps. But when you go into a new college, nobody really knows. And all that freshman class doesn't know. And so the University of Richmond was a beautiful place for us., I was able to be all American and, you know, really lead the team in a way that I think really formed a lot of my leadership skills, in terms of communication and just in terms of discipline as well. So I graduated there and was able to qualify to play for the World Cup for Team Canada. And so I got to play in 2009, the, the summer after I graduated, and then again four years later, I was able to represent Team Canada again in 2013.
Julie Ellis (00:03:42) - That's so exciting. And so that 2013 time, though, you had already started your business at that time.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:03:51) - Yep. So I graduated in 2009 and I was working at a gym selling gym memberships and loving the sales side and learning a lot about business and learning a lot about conversion rates and appointment setting and really scripting and something that I guess I thought was so simple, but realized that, you know, that learning was really immeasurable in terms of, how it how I was able to implement it in my business. I got into real estate in 2010, and at that time, you know, I was 22 years old. I had never really owned a home. I didn't even know what real estate was.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:04:23) - I truly felt called to real estate, but for no reason. Besides, that sounds fun. I don't have to answer to anyone. I don't have a boss, and I can work as much as I want or as little as I want, because I think that was the challenge for me at the 9 to 5 world is it wasn't necessarily 9 to 5, but I'm like, okay, I did all my work and I'm doing awesome and I'm hitting all these metrics. Can I go watch my sister, you know, can I go, you know, out to dinner? Or why do I have to miss this? And so I really wanted that flexibility. And it's fun, you know, when you,, realize that instead of having one boss, when you start to have a bunch of clients, you realize you now have 20 bosses, and so you can go to that game, you can go to those things for an hour, but every other hour you're going to be working. So that was a learning curve.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:05:07) - But essentially 2013 was where I was taking, you know, this business that I had been growing because of all of these skills and because of my discipline, but I completely lacked boundaries. There was a lot of ego. There was a lot of caring what other people thought. I, I just wanted people to know how good I was. I wanted people to know that there here was this 23, 24 year old girl that was selling more real estate than everybody else. And I made it a lot about me. I made it a lot about competition. And it really was satisfying when people started to recognize me saying, who is this young girl? And I, I loved it. And then I was looking down the barrel of 2013, and I was training for the next World Cup, and I was a quote unquote, washed up 24 year old. So I had to. I was training three times a week, two hours a day, on top of running my business, which was about 7 million in volume at that time.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:06:04) - , I was typically working about 100 hours a week, and that was just, I don't know if it, you know, now that I know what I know, there was a lot of busy work. There was a lot of, you know, you kept yourself busy, but not necessarily productive. But I was always, always on, my I, the World Cup was 30 days long, about about 21 days ish., but my husband at the time was opening up his chiropractic office, and at that point he was making $0 because he had just graduated. And so our income was what we were living off of. And so I really couldn't just say, hey, clients, I won't see you for 21 days, and so I started a team. So that's when I moved to my current brokerage, which is Keller Williams, and I moved to Keller Williams to start this team. So I had that switch going on my husband's business. We bought a building so that we could renovate the first floor in the second floor so he could work on the first floor, and we'd live over top of it.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:06:55) - And then my older sister was having a baby. My younger sister was winning the national championship at USC that year. So I'm trying to travel, trying to be everywhere for everyone. And then after the World Cup, two weeks later, I got married. So we had our wedding, and so it was this chaos of a year that I loved because it was exciting. It was fun. I had so much energy and it was great until I stopped. So I got home from the World Cup and and I got home from my wedding, and I didn't even take a honeymoon. I was like, I don't, we don't have time for honeymoon. So literally we got married on a Saturday and I went back to work on a Monday., and it was this realization that I got back. And after all of those things, I should have been happier. I should have felt proud. I should have had more. I shouldn't have felt so empty inside. And I kept thinking that all of these metrics and all of these, these next level things that I was going to hit, all of these accomplishments would heal that would heal this emptiness.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:07:57) - Instead of realizing that once I got there, nothing changed. And that's really when I hit what I affectionately call my quarter life crisis. And that quarter life crisis really laid the foundation for where I am today, where I was ready to leave real estate. I was ready to be done and say, this isn't the industry for me, but I truly felt I was saved and called to say, lean into your team. If you're learning this. There's other people that need to learn this to how can you, you know, pave this pathway for other people to learn how to grow in their real estate careers, grow in business, but do so with boundaries and do so with authenticity and do so without kind of losing who you are. And so that's really been my journey.
Julie Ellis (00:08:38) - I think real estate can be hard too, though, because there's a like, you can have a feast and famine mindset, right? So you have to work that much because you have to take advantage of all the opportunities, because tomorrow there might not be opportunities.
Julie Ellis (00:08:52) - And and so you tell yourself the story that it will be okay. But I mean, 100 hour weeks is just not sustainable for any human for a long period of time.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:09:03) - Yes, yes, 100%. And and I think that's where the where I started to recognize that I needed systems, not from a sense of is this enough? You know, not from a sense of I need to produce more, but from the sense of when is enough, enough. Mandy, if you do A, B, and C, then you can stop. You can. You have done enough and as as this high drive, disciplined person, I'm always like, I can do more, I can do more. And it's like, of course you can do more, but what's the cost? And once I faced the cost head on, I was able to get more serious about,, you know, listening to myself in the future saying, hey, you really can stop.
Julie Ellis (00:09:44) - Sometimes I think, too, there's like a mind shift of like, doing more doesn't mean you have to be the one to do it right.
Julie Ellis (00:09:53) - Like the idea that you talked about, about where you went to build a team. Like you can do more by leveraging other people and bringing them to the table. It doesn't have to mean that you're grinding it out or you're putting in more hours, 100%.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:10:08) - And and if anything, I think that's where as 20 when I was 24 years old, 25, and I was hiring someone for the first time, I had no idea what to do. I was paying someone a salary that like, you know, you start off paying them, you know, maybe 30 grand, 40 grand. And that was terrifying to me. I don't know how to hire someone, I don't know, what do I fire? How do I pay them? I don't even know where my next checks can come from. And so those insecurities came from a lack of education as well. And that's where the brokerage that I'm with now really said, here's how you hire, here's what you get to do in terms of, you know, different profiles and here's what the personality profile should look like.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:10:49) - And then also here's what your, you know, your job description and then here's how you would compensate them. And just taking these kind of bigger things, that all fell really overwhelming to me. That made me want to freeze, to then just take it step by step and say, how do you bring people into your world so that you can stay at those higher level producing activities, which was a really hard thing. You know, when you're you're younger and you really don't have that kind of experience.
Julie Ellis (00:11:14) - Yeah. And I think it is like having that kind of, sort of, safety net around you is really important because, yeah, often, you know, you end up managing people and nobody's actually ever taught how to do it or, you know, and everyone knows they've had bad managers and good ones. And, you know, I think it is that piece of. Yeah. How do you then and then how do you delegate, how do you decide what you're going to let go of, and how do you make sure that it gets done the way that it needs to be done?
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:11:44) - Right.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:11:44) - And, and with when you're doing that, it's actually you have to spend that time, you know, that time that you don't have. Right? Because you're drowning. You have to actually spend extra time writing down and systematizing what you actually do. And it's as simple as when we're first greeting a client, we're saying their name. When we are first texting them, we're using emojis. If it's a celebratory, we are using exclamation marks. If it's a divorce situation, it's a very calm tone. And how do I how do I download my brain? And these systems that have just grown from representing 100 clients and learning what works and what doesn't work, to then put that to paper so that we can train someone else. And that's this, you know, time investment that feels like you just don't have it in you. That is so worthwhile.
Julie Ellis (00:12:31) - Right? Yeah. So after you sort of had your quarter life crisis and ended up in a, you know, taking stock kind of mode, what changed for you after that?
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:12:43) - Well, I would say that once I started to grow my team, I actually went into a deeper the quarter life crisis was several months.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:12:53) - And as I started doing this, it was I was downloading, I was taking stock of everything in all of my systems, but I also all of a sudden had this time, like I had so much time because I had someone working, you know, 20 hours a week for me from an operational standpoint. But then I also had another agent that came on and was supporting me that I didn't know what to do with my time. And I see that with my husband as well as he's kind of navigating different levels of his businesses. All of a sudden you have this free time and you don't know what to do with yourself because you no longer have hobbies, you no longer have interests, you don't know what you like. And so I had an amazing therapist and an amazing business coach. I literally had all the help I could possibly get, and I started writing down like ten things that I thought I might like to do. So I was like, maybe I like to do yoga. And so I did yoga and I was like, I mean, it's fine, but like, I don't like dying every day, like, no, thanks.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:13:51) - And then I was like, well, maybe I like because I was a big athlete. And so I, I liked working out. But anyone who's a high level athlete maybe can resonate with this is when I'm not dying from working out. It's not a workout. And so I had to almost start to say, well, maybe I just go for a walk, maybe I go for a slow jog, maybe I go on the elliptical for 30 minutes, like I almost needed to create. Like I started to play the guitar, like I was just trying. I'm terrible at the guitar. We have a lot of stories about how bad I am at it, but like, I was trying everything to start to say, what am I passionate about? Who is Mandy? Right? Like I had someone who say, I know who Mandy Friend is and she has this, you know, personality and this profile and everyone knows who Mandy Friend is, but like, who's Mandy? And I was like, I don't know.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:14:39) - And so that journey, while what I would have loved to do in that moment, was hop right back into the business. Fire everybody. I can just take care of it because I'm not good at leadership. I don't know what to do with myself. I'd rather be working. Honestly. It's easier. But when you draw that line in the sand, my coach always says sometimes you have to add before you subtract. And I didn't add, you know. So in other phases of my business we'll talk about it. But I had other businesses that I started so that I could subtract myself from certain areas. But in this instance I, I didn't add before I subtracted and I just took all this stuff off my plate, and it was very hard for me to not fall into those old habits. So that was kind of the next season was me starting to identify what rest is, identify what fuels me, identify what my team needs, and starting to really step into being a human as well as a businesswoman.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:15:30) - And that was that. When being a wife and all that, that was hard..
Julie Ellis (00:15:34) - Yeah. And that that businesswoman was not the only definition of Mandy. Yes, exactly. Yeah. I think that's a big one because I think, you know when you're chasing big, big goals it's easy to lose yourself in a single minded pursuit.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:15:51) - Exactly, exactly exactly.
Julie Ellis (00:15:55) - That's really interesting. So so starting other businesses. Yeah. So that's one of the things that you've done. And I think it's really interesting because the businesses you've started are very different from your real estate practice.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:16:09) - Yes, yes. So that next kind of season for us. So I had mentioned my husband's a chiropractor. So he had his chiropractic business that was growing. And again, I think that's also a challenge. During that time my husband was growing his business, I was growing my business. And when we didn't have systems for our marriage, you know, like you as you if you have two entrepreneurial spirited people, were both going to be passionate about what we're doing.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:16:32) - And if we're not aligning with each other, it's a challenge. And so as we started to say, okay, how do we not be two ships passing in the night and I only want to talk about my business. You only want to talk about your business. How can we work together and take your strengths, Mandy, and then yours, my husband's and your strengths. And how do we mesh them together? And so, as he was growing his business, he bought we bought a new building. And next to that building was a daycare. And I was like, perfect. Because at that point I had a oh my gosh, do you know that I toured, okay, so I had a home birth. I'm very a unique person. So I birthed my child in the afternoon, and then the next morning he's like, hon, I found the best building for us that we should buy. And I was like, all right, could we give me like a day? And he's like, I don't know, like it might sell underneath.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:17:15) - I was like, let's go. So literally within 24 hours of birthing a human, we were touring this property. Because if that gives you any indication of my husband and he's like, we got to go. And I was like, okay, let's do it. So we toured this property with literally a one day old and, we saw that there was a daycare right next to it. And so by the time we closed and all of that, you know, she was about seven months old, maybe six months old. And I said, let's, this would be perfect. And so I brought her to this daycare. It was fine, but I walked in and I felt like God was telling me it needs to stay a daycare. And I was like, that's weird. What does this mean? And so I told my husband, he's like, I don't know, that's weird. So in the next time I go and every time I'm going in, I'm just getting this like pressure, like, Mandy, this needs to stay daycare.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:18:01) - And I'm like, oh, fine. So my husband's like, please stop talking to me about this. You need to go talk to the director. So I talked to the director. She says it's going to stay a daycare and we're not closing down. It's been here for 25 years. I've been here for 14 years. If anything, I'll take it over. I said wonderful, awesome. Okay, God. Quit it. Two weeks later, we get the call. Don't bring your child on Monday because we are closing the center down and everyone's panicking, trying to find childcare. And I'm panicking because now I need to buy a daycare and it different. It made no sense. Everyone's like, I don't get it. But because my husband and I had been talking about, he's like, what does this mean? He was like, we have to buy this daycare. Like, of course we do. And, you know, we thought it was great because, you know, we knew we wanted more kids and we thought it'd be very efficient.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:18:48) - And so we, because, I mean, that's the logic. Like, it doesn't totally make sense. I'm like, daycare is expensive. So even if we break even and get free childcare, like, go team, like, we had very low standards for it. And so we ended up I bought two books on Amazon about how to run a daycare business. One of my past clients in real estate used to work at a franchise here locally and was like, I really don't like the corporate ness, but I would love to do, you know, family friendly center. I said, great, I'm not gonna be able to micromanage you because I got too much going on, she said, sounds great. And we opened that in May of 2017, when our second son was born, our second child, our son was born. It was opened in May. And he started, you know, in September, October ish. And so we have since expanded, we have 110 children and between 110 and 100, 120 children at our facility.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:19:40) - , and it you know, we had recently expanded. So it's growing and it's really a beautiful way to,, you know, not only are we employing a lot of young women, we do have a couple of men there, but it just seems like a really, you know, it's a great opportunity for us to empower a lot of people and just. I love babies, so it's wonderful.
Julie Ellis (00:19:57) - You can go in and snuggle them all you want.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:20:01) - I literally feel like a grandma when I walk in, how I can, like, kiss them, and then they start to cry. Or they need a diaper change and I'm like, here you go. Yeah.
Julie Ellis (00:20:09) - It's time for me to leave now. Yes.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:20:12) - Oh, gosh, look at the time..
Julie Ellis (00:20:14) - So interesting. So how long did it take you? What was the gap between sort of closing on Monday and, and May of 2017 when you were able to open?
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:20:25) - Let's think, so, I was on it was in August that it closed, and then we bought the property. We closed on the property on Thanksgiving. And then from that November, we opened it the following May. Right.
Julie Ellis (00:20:38) - Because then it's licenses and approvals and all of the hoops. Right.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:20:44) - And we did a lot of things. I mean, it was a dilapidated building. So we really had we did new windows, you know, we did a lot of construction in it as well to have it be really nice and fresh for the new the new children.
Julie Ellis (00:20:55) - Oh, that's so good. And so here you are. You know, running, owning a daycare but not being so involved in the day to day running of it. And how were you able to sort of take the learnings that you had from building and systematizing the real estate business, being involved with your husband's business, and now here you have a daycare. How are you able to sort of extrapolate the things you were learning and apply them to different businesses?
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:21:24) - Yeah. So, once I got into, once I started working on the or getting the daycare up and running, my son was also being born and that was the or I was I was growing him.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:21:35) - I started to look down the line and I said, listen, I don't think I can represent clients anymore. I and it was one of those really important times, I think, in my, in my business journey where I was walking, I'll never forget it. I was walking into my office and I looked at my phone and I realized I forgot to present a counteroffer to my seller. Now, I didn't forget it was an hour later, right? Like no one knew. It wasn't like I waited days. But the moment that I realized it wasn't top of mind for me was the moment that I realized someone else could probably do this better. And and when you have a pivotal role, like someone that is representing the sellers in your real estate team, it's literally like one of the biggest roles you have. Because I was fine giving up buyers, right? So I started by having another agent represent our buyers. And then but listings meant that I was completely out of production, so I was no longer representing clients.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:22:33) - And that's where in that moment I said I actually might because you kind of have this ego. No one can do it better than me. And as I had my my sister is actually a buyer's agent. And I had a conversation with her and I said, would you? And I looked at her risk profile and I could see her tendencies that she would be a phenomenal, phenomenal seller's agent listing agent, we also call it. And she said, yeah, let's do it. And so I had her shadow me for about three months. And then one day there was someone who rescheduled and she said, hey, I, I said, okay, let's figure out how we can reschedule it. And she said, hey, how about I just do it? Like I was like, right.
Julie Ellis (00:23:12) - You're ready.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:23:13) - You're ready. It was this moment where she respected that. She had that training and she needed that training, but also that she could take it from there. And that year. So I had sold about 10 million on my own, just representing sellers.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:23:25) - And that year she hit 10 million by herself. And so she was and then has since grown it. She was ready and the team was ready. And so that mindset of I there, while I think that there are these higher level things, and I know that as I level up and grow, there are certain things that I need to hold on to in my business that there are also places and people that are ready to step into that, and that it's almost this balance of you are important, but you're not that important to start to kind of check that ego at the door to say, I know you think you're really good at it and you are, but if you continue to stay in this role, you're not going to be able to free yourself up for that role that you actually the team in the business actually needs you to be in. And so with that, there was a dip in our income, you know, in terms of top line, I had agents on my team making more than the team was making, and it was about a year, maybe a year and a half where in that that was part of why I was doing what I was doing.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:24:20) - Say, I know that there's going to be this dip, but I'm looking long term and I'm looking to say, okay, as I grow them and the business will, it will catch up and we will turn that corner. But I'm actually not that important. But in the way of I am important is Mandy. Only you can cast this vision. Only you can work on this culture and only you can strategize. And I had to step into to that higher level. And so I think that's really where as I started doing that, when I was looking at the daycare, in the beginning, I was not micromanaging because I'm a terrible micromanager. I literally I could try to micromanage and I'm terrible at it, but I was able to have that confidence that I needed her to fail. I read the book multipliers as I was learning a lot about my business, a lot about business in my leadership growth, because for me, there were so many things that I was this I wasn't I didn't want them to get hurt.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:25:12) - I didn't want them to learn the hard way. I wanted to just sweep them up and say, oh, I'll save you from that problem. But this idea of the mid-sized waves that she always talks, that she talks about in that book was there. Sometimes you don't want that big wave that's going to take him out to sea, and you don't want that little wave that won't teach him anything. What are those midsize ways that you maybe see come in and you step back and say, you can handle this, and it's going to teach them more than if I were to continue to step in and step in. And so I was able to use my experience in real estate as I was leading my daycare team is to say, hey, I'm going to come in, I'm going to support you, but there's going to come a point where this is yours and you can figure this out. And if there are these midsize waves to really sometimes sit on my hands and be like, don't message them or don't call.
Julie Ellis (00:25:54) - Them or don't talk to them about it.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:25:57) - Exactly. And my husband notices that in the chiropractic world as well, is that there's there's this next level leadership. And when I got out of production, that was really the time for me where I recognized my leadership. I was I was masking my leadership skills or my lack of leadership skills by my production. I was so good at producing and I was so good at sales. Oh, I'm just too busy. And then once you get out of production and your leadership skills are all you got, and you realize you're not where you need to be, it was a very hard and humbling season, but one that was that really was, you know, exponential in terms of growth of all of our businesses was to start to really see myself as a leader in just a leader. Right.
Julie Ellis (00:26:39) - I think that's a really interesting transition, because you think of yourself as a leader all the way as you're going, but to be able to have that moment where you step back and realize that you haven't scaled your leadership up, the way you've scaled your business up is really revealing and difficult.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:26:58) - Completely and difficult. You know, I think what is more like, you don't see who's swimming naked until the tide goes out, you know, and it's like we we can cover it up and we can think we're great leaders. But once you don't have anything else that, you know, shows you're a great leader, it's, you know, it's. And I think, again, that's where a lot of people just get back into production or get back into sales. But, but, but knowing, of course, you're not a good leader. You've been busy. Like, you know, I think sometimes we expect that because we've scaled our business to so much that we are a good leader. It's like, no, you're not. What a beautiful opportunity. And you shouldn't expect to be a leader. And that's why when I see people that have been in business for 20, 30 years, I'm ever more impressed because I know the experiences that they've had. Because you can't you can't fake your way there.
Julie Ellis (00:27:43) - No, no. And it is interesting. It's like that growth edge leadership like it is always you're always evolving it. And it has to grow with you as your you grow into more senior positions, long term positions, complexity, all the different parts. Yes. And I think it's easy to not think about it as something that is valuable to invest your time in.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:28:07) - Oh so good, right?
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:28:10) - I actually had a schedule because I didn't know what to do with myself again. And now this time it was good because I added before I subtracted. So I had the daycare that kept me busy, but in some capacity. I literally had in my calendar go to Panera and read sit by a fire and read for an hour because at that point I had two young kids and so I didn't. If it's, you know, people are like, oh, I read before I go to bed. Well, yes, I do that even though I have five kids. But like, it's different now. Like I have that time before bed.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:28:39) - But in that season, if I didn't time block it in the middle of my day, it wasn't going to get done. And I started to say like, whoa, this is actually very valuable. And I wasn't into podcast so, so much yet at that time. But I've since gotten very much into them. And, you know, just the way you consume it, you know, I can do it while I'm walking. I can do it while I'm running. But, you know, for a while there, reading a book really felt if you're just sitting reading a book, how's that valuable? So yes, completely.
Julie Ellis (00:29:05) - Yeah. It is one of those interesting things where different people have different sort of ways. But I agree with you in the if you don't like last of all, my a good friend of mine had a business book club and we met every week. And the great part of that was like, I actually finished the book because, you know, I knew that every week we were going to talk about one chapter.
Julie Ellis (00:29:28) - I only had to read one chapter. And it was just a really good way of and also having the dialogue about like, did you try the techniques that, you know, and we did the book Limitless by Jim Kwik, which is really interesting to read. And so there was a lot of practicing that would happen as you were working your way through. And so it was a really good way of doing it that gave that structure. You know, because I've read half of about a thousand business books at this point in my life, so.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:29:55) - Well, and I think when you start to, you know, you read a book and then all of a sudden you implement it and it works. You're like, wait, people have done this before me. Why am I trying to be on an island? And it almost like you're even talking about community. You know, in real life, I almost feel a sense of community in terms of other business leaders where what I'm feeling, I'm not alone. And that's why I love this podcast that you're doing, because it helps all of us really realize, you know, we're all facing this.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:30:24) - And a lot of times when you are a leader of a company, you look around and I heard someone say, I looked around and I realized every single one of my friends was someone that was on my payroll. And if you don't have friends that you can actually talk to and dig into and say, okay, you're struggling, can we talk about that? You can be more real and you can have that sense of community, and you could also learn and say, wow, this is actually this is the best investment. This is the best thing I could do with my time. I literally if you told me today, go lock yourself in a room for eight hours, I'd be like, my team will never be better because of this. You know, it's it's that kind of growth in those conferences that we go to., they're the most important things we need to be doing as leaders, I feel.
Julie Ellis (00:31:06) - Yeah. And I think there's a time in the entrepreneurial journey where you shift from like the early, really small team solves problems like almost at a table together, no matter what level they're at and how it is.
Julie Ellis (00:31:19) - But then there's this point in your leadership journey where you, you kind of need to come looking like you have it all together, or at least like you, you know, have made some decisions that are going to, you know, direct the company or direct business in a certain way. And like that shift is a hard shift, I think, because it feels lonely. And so then you have to build a different team of people around you, whether they're like advisors, mentors, you know, joining, joining a roundtable or a mastermind or something like that. But you have to find a different way.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:31:53) - 100%. And I think that the quicker you realize that and the quicker you get into relationship with other business minded, growing, you know, community members, whether it be in person or whether it be virtually,, is is invaluable.
Julie Ellis (00:32:07) - And so here you are now, starting another business.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:32:11) - Oh, yes. So,. Okay, when we expanded our daycare, we expanded it into my husband's old practice.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:32:20) - Remember the one that I went to with a one day old? So we I kicked him out. Say the daycare is growing. I need you to move. I'm just kidding. He had the idea, too. And so we kicked him out and we bought another building. And that building was about 7000ft². And, you know, the closing date was March 2020. So that was a joyous time in our lives. But we ended up deciding to continue through with the whole renovation. And so we bought that building, he his practice is about 4000, 4200ft² in the front. And then we had about 2800ft² in the back that we just didn't know what we were going to use it for. And we had a couple different ideas. And really, you know, during Covid we played there and we just had there was some use for it. But finally we're like, we should probably do something with it. And so, last year we decided and thanks to Instagram, I mean, they just give you some great ideas.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:33:09) - My husband and I are like, okay, we have a lot of service based, you know, industry or businesses right now. What if we got something that was a little less employee heavy or, you know, something where we didn't have as many, you know, as many team members, if you will, how can we make it scalable? And so we decided to do a laundromat. And so we have been, you know, doing what I do. Of course I bought books, I'm listening to podcasts, and we're doing it. So we're hoping, with probably in the beginning of the second quarter, maybe middle or second quarter, we'll have a laundromat open, which is the coolest.
Julie Ellis (00:33:42) - And exciting.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:33:43) - Weirdest portfolio. Like when. Oh yeah. So I own a real estate company, a chiropractic office, a daycare, and a laundromat. Like, it's just. But it's like, of course, like that makes so much sense. But it doesn't really.
Julie Ellis (00:33:58) - Well, now, though, it will be interesting once again to take what you've learned from all the businesses you've already established and to apply it to the next business.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:34:07) - 100%. And I think just in terms of so I have done several renovations, obviously with all of these buildings. So we have a lot of understanding, okay, how can I how can I build this out now so that we can grow? How can we build it out now. So we have other different sources of revenue. We're already talking about employee handbooks and systems on training. And also I already recognize I probably need to be connected with other laundromat laundromat owners. So I'm in Facebook groups learning from other people, asking questions to say, why am I recreating the wheel? You guys have all done it. You're doing it way better than me. How can I steal your ten years of experience and I can take it all right now? And I think that humility, but that awareness that, like, it doesn't make you special. If you figure it out on your own, it actually makes you not so smart. And I had to learn it that way, that there's so many resources available in any industry you think about doing that you can that can literally save you so much failure. So yeah, we're we're excited about it.
Julie Ellis (00:35:05) - And there's sort of more resources than ever to find people in that industry. You can talk about Facebook groups and like all of the different ways that you can, you know, search the internet for resources is really overwhelming, but also incredibly useful.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:35:22) - Yes. No, you're right, you're right. When I first got into it, I found about 4 or 5 Facebook groups and I joined them all. And once I got in, I kind of see I was looking through the ones that might look the best for me. And then I found my favorite two. And now I'm in those, you know, so and I'm staying plugged in and I'm, you know, snapshotting pictures and sending them to my contractor like, oh, I like the way they did this wash and fold, you know. So it's there are so many resources that are for free. Yeah.
Julie Ellis (00:35:46) - Yes, yes. And it's true. Why why reinvent the wheel when it's working perfectly well and somebody else has navigated lots of problems, then you can learn from them.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:35:56) - Exactly. If it saves me one night's sleep, worth it.
Julie Ellis (00:36:01) - Says the mom of five. Yeah.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:36:04) - So true.
Julie Ellis (00:36:05) - So one of the questions that we talked about,, before when we chatted is, you know, the is it worth getting to eight figures? So here you have all these, all these businesses that are all in the sevens and doing really well. And now starting a fourth, and so, you know, if you have something and this is where I do think it'll be really interesting with the laundromat to see, like coming out of service and going into something that's a little bit different, you know, can you can you replicate again and can you keep going? And so do you keep having. And I realize seven figures isn't baby businesses, but you know what I mean. Like all these sort of babies that you get to a certain level level and then continue to run well and so you can keep creating more businesses, or do you dig deep on something and decide to grow it bigger?
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:36:57) - Yes.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:36:57) - And I and that is the question that I, in this season of my life and feeling like I, you know, eight figures was something I wasn't even in conversation like to. These seven figures was like the end all, be all. And then what happened? Like like, oh my gosh, you got there. And what's what was beautiful is as I started to reach seven figures in all of my businesses, I remember my first six figure year and I thought that was going to be it, that as I have grown these businesses, I knew the moment I hit six seven figures. Top line like who cares? Like it was great, but I wasn't putting all of this. Once I get there, my life will be better. Everything will be better. It's I knew that it wasn't. It was very anticlimactic. And I think that reality is where this eight figure mark to me is. Well, what's the purpose of that? What will it get me? And so I have so I have two biological babies and two that were adopted out of foster care, and then another one that's currently in foster care.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:37:57) - And so running a household of seven, it's something eight and under. It's a lot in we homeschool our our two oldest right now. And then next year our little one of our girls will be homeschooled. But you know there's a lot of home and time there that is just so fruitful for me and for them that I really only have so many hours in my week. Not only I choose to work a certain hours of week because that is the perfect amount for me. That gives me this like you know, Mandy business Mandy side, but then also fuels me for my personal side and to say, listen, I'm going to jam pack as much as I can into those hours. And if I make it to eight and if it if that's where the business growth happens, that's wonderful. But it's also nothing that I'm willing to sacrifice that family time for. And I think it's hard as a, you know, high, Enneagram three achiever kind of person who is like next, next, next, next, next to be able to say, okay, I am doing this laundromat because it's not going to be time consuming.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:38:59) - I mean, it's going to be in some capacity, but it's my time, you know, and and it's cool because my husband and I are doing it to, you know, more. So together with the daycare, I really was like the leader of it. Whereas my husband is starting to take more of this, and us being able to do it together makes it feel a lot less. It's aligning more with we're spending more time together, you know, we're not working in these kind of different worlds. And so as I'm thinking about eight figure, it is a place that, you know, I'm 36. I think we'll we'll get there. But having but if we don't that's fine. But also having this kind of slow and steady Mandy that you'll get there. You you take care of your people. You bring the right people in, you encourage, you motivate, you inspire. And as you just continuously grow, they're going to grow. You're going to create more opportunities for them. And that's almost a byproduct of, you know, of the work that we're doing day in and day out.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:39:51) - And,, again, like you're saying, wondering if the daycare or, the laundromat actually might be the most scalable of all of these things that we can replicate and duplicate consistently. Right?
Julie Ellis (00:40:04) - Oh, it'll be an interesting journey. One thing's for sure, it's never dull, is it?
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:40:08) - Never, never. So my word for the year is peaceful. And I told my friends that and they laughed in my face. They're like, what do you mean? Your word is peaceful? Like, look at your life. But I will say it is peaceful. I think when you keep perspective and when you have gone to as much therapy as I've gone to you, really, you really start to see like, hey, why? Why do we have to think that peace is the boots are all put away and the snow pants are organized in the oven, or the your mittens are clipped together like, that's not peaceful. We can have peace in the chaos. And I love that perspective that. Yes, it's chaotic. Yes, but but it's kind of par for the course for me. And honestly, I've had no chaos in my life and it was kind of boring and I felt like there was more. So it's a it's a peaceful chaos. I always.
Julie Ellis (00:41:00) - Say, that's so great. Good. Well, thank you so much for coming on to the pod today and sharing your story., I think it's really fascinating what you're doing with all of your businesses, and I look forward to following your journey.
Mandy Friend Gigliotti (00:41:13) - Oh, thank you so much for having me.
Julie Ellis (00:41:20) - I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please remember to hit subscribe on your favorite podcast platform. So you won't miss any episodes. Figure Eight isn't just a podcast, it's a way of seeing the big, gorgeous goals of women entrepreneurs coming to life. If you're interested in learning more, you can find my book, Big Gorgeous Goals on Amazon anywhere you might live. For more about my growth and leadership training programs, visit www.julieellis.ca to see how we might work together.
Julie Ellis (00:41:56) - Read my blog or sign up to get your free diagnostic. Are you ready for growth? Once again. That's julieellis.ca. When we work together, we all win. See you again soon for another episode of Figure Eight.