In this episode of the M&A Launchpad Podcast, hosts Feras Moussa and Casey Minshew sit down with entrepreneur and investor Mandy McAllister to unpack what business ownership really looks like behind the scenes. Mandy shares how she used small apartment buildings to buy her way out of a W2, why she added a car wash and a motel to her portfolio, and how she manages the very real brain space cost that comes with owning operating businesses.
From constant maintenance at the car wash to guest experience at her Wisconsin lake motel, Mandy breaks down the expectations, challenges, and mindset shifts required to own and grow multiple businesses while still being an engaged mom and community builder. She also talks about Go Abundance Women, building a tribe of high-performing women, and why more women should be in the business acquisition game.
In this podcast episode, we discuss:
- How Mandy transitioned from medical device sales into apartment investing
- Using midsize multifamily as a floor of income to safely leave a W2
- Why the wealthiest people she met owned businesses, not just real estate
- Buying a car wash: constant breakdowns, brain space, and risk-adjusted returns
- How expectations shape your experience of challenges in business ownership
- The motel acquisition story and repositioning it as a lake-town experience
- SOPs, guest communication, and designing memorable peak moments
- Running numbers, worst-case scenarios, and asymmetric risk/reward bets
- The power of community: Go Abundance Women and thinking bigger together
- Why we need more women in acquisitions and how Mandy backs female-led deals
Mandy’s Contact Info:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/themandymcallister
- Website: https://www.mandymcallister.com
Additional Resources
M&A Launchpad Conference:
M&A Launchpad Conference – Upcoming May 2, 2026 in Houston, TX. Get your ticket at https://www.malaunchpad.com and use code LAUNCH for $150 off.
Sponsored by O’Connell Advisory Group
Work with a trusted Quality of Earnings and Financial Diligence partner who focuses solely on business acquisitions. Schedule a discovery call with Patrick of O’Connell Advisory Group—your dynamic Quality of Earnings partner.
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For all M&A Launchpad and podcast inquiries—or to connect with hosts Casey Minshew and Feras Moussa—email info@equity-launchpad.com.
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Transcript
00:00 Hey there, this is Casey with the M&A Launchpad podcast. Put it on your calendar. This is a do not missed
00:07 one-day event. There’s going to be incredible headliners, but really at the end of the day, you’re going to get a
00:12 chance to talk to people that have made acquisitions, learn from some of the challenges that they’ve made because
00:18 this is definitely a challenging process. But more importantly, there’s going to be people there that can help
00:23 you and support you along the way from great vendors, quality of earnings, how to run the due diligence process, and
00:29 how do I get financed, how do I raise capital, how do I structure all of these things. It’s going to be hundreds of
00:35 people that are all focused, like-minded people, and man, everyone that’s come has given us incredible feedback. We
00:41 look forward to seeing you. On today’s episode, we interviewed a friend of ours, Mandy McAllister, where we talked
00:47 about really what it’s like as a woman, right, to go off and kind of start off an apartment, buy your own business, and
00:54 at the same time get involved with a community of women to help you grow, learn, and succeed. And really, you
01:00 know, Mandy is a person that I look up to a lot, right? High energy, very self-aware, and really thoughtful about
01:06 what she’s doing and how she’s doing it. And there’s a lot of valuable pieces to that. So, Casey, what were some of your takeaways? you know, having a, you know,
01:13 being a dad, two daughters, um, and seeing them grow and, you know, finding people like Mandy that’s, you know, and
01:19 for the guys that are listening, if you’re skipping because it’s a female, you’re you’re crazy because all of those things that that they see differently
01:26 are the things that we should be adding into our into what we do to make things scale and grow. And and Mandy has a very
01:33 good way of looking at the way she measures risk. She’s also talking about how she looks at her portfolio, right?
01:40 Using real estate cash flow to invest in businesses, make small bets, improve those because she has a number that she
01:46 wants to hit at a certain time. And and you got to ask yourself why you’re doing this. Why what is it? It can’t just be because you want to make a lot of money.
01:53 You got to have a strategy and a plan. And I think Mandy hit it right on the nose with a lot of those things. And then the challenges and the journey
01:59 she’s been through. It’s great. Yeah. You know, and on this episode, we kind of talk about buying a small apartment. Then we shift into buying a
02:05 car wash and some of the things that that entails and then ultimately buying a motel, right? And some of the things
02:10 to think about as you buy a motel and how do you grow a motel and really kind of then from there, right? Shifting into
02:16 the community aspect. So, lots of information in this one.
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02:36 to protect your investment and ensure that you’re stepping into a profitable business on day one. Patrick of Okonnell
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02:48 focused on business acquisitions. Your niche is his niche. And over the past decade, Patrick’s helped more than 200
02:54 buyers like yourself successfully purchase and operate enduring, profitable businesses. In fact,
02:59 Patrick’s helped some listeners of this show. So, if you’re buying, looking for help with the quality of earnings,
03:04 financial due diligence, network capital, and more, head to okonelladvisor.com or just click the link in the show
03:10 notes. Hey, Mandy, welcome to the show. Hi, I’m super excited to be here, guys. Long time coming.
03:16 I know it’s taken us way too long. We’ve known Mandy for six years, and probably should have had her on the podcast sooner, but here we are. So, Mandy, tell
03:24 us a little bit about yourself. Well, I uh spent the bulk of my career in medical device sales and started
03:29 buying apartment buildings, which Ferris, that’s how you and I became friends. I I let a meet up in Chicago and you guys were down in Houston. And
03:37 then uh when I bought enough apartment buildings, I didn’t need that W2 anymore. So, in 21, I was able to leave
03:44 my W2 largely because of the bravery I found by being part of an organization
03:49 called Go Abundance Women. I I saw other people living big and doing these brave
03:54 entrepreneurial things and I knew I wanted to do it too. And then actually a couple of years into that, you know,
03:60 quote unquote retirement, I saw that the richest people in Go Bundance were the
04:05 people who had a business interest. So I leaned into buying businesses that had a
04:10 heavy real estate lean uh because that’s the language that I spoke and ended up buying a car wash and a motel in
04:17 addition to the apartments. And that’s kind of how I ran into you guys with M&A Launchpad. So, um, I have found some
04:25 success in the business stuff and a lot of success in the apartment stuff and really leaning into making the the motel
04:32 is what has the bulk of my attention in business right now. All right. So, you you basically did it
04:37 on speedrun. We can call it a wrap on the show. No, I’m kidding. Right. So, there’s a lot to unpack in that. So, let’s just maybe go through the
04:42 different steps. Right. So, you started with apartments. What did you like about apartments? What did you not like
04:48 apartments before you decided that hey I want to get into you know businesses?
04:53 So when it comes to like I I like safety. I like things to be boring when it comes to my money. And when I you
04:60 know I I did a masters in behavioral economics and the the idea of Maslo’s
05:05 hierarchy of needs says that you can live every day of your life and never own a Bitcoin but you can’t live a
05:10 single day none of the eight billion people on the planet can live a single day without shelter. So the shest bet in
05:16 the whole world is to buy something that you get to pay off that someone will want to live in. So that kind of
05:22 provided me what I call a floor of income that pays me every single month forever. So now I don’t ever have to be
05:28 thirsty to go do a deal uh in business, in real estate, in anything because I
05:33 know my my stuff is provided for. I get to live the life that I want. However, once that floor of income is provided,
05:40 then you want to figure out how how to to grow in terms of lifestyle, in terms of experience, in terms of all of the
05:45 things, right? And when I saw, you know, the the richest people, how how they were doing it, there was always a
05:51 business interest. And actually part of that epiphany came Casey from one of your talks at an early M&A launchpad.
05:58 That graphic that you show that talks about the different strata of what your net net worth is and and what it’s
06:04 comprised of and the you know if you want to go 10 million or above you you really need a business interest. So
06:11 that’s why I started buying businesses. Got it. So So it sounds like really the problem with apartments it’s easy to to
06:17 get some but it’s hard to really scale that without significant capital, right? I mean, that’s really what it boils down
06:22 to, right? Versus with a business that low less capital can go much further, right? I like to tell people in
06:29 apartments, you know, you’re buying an apartment, let’s say it’s a five cap. Well, that five cap converted to
06:34 business multiples is, you know, actually convert the other way around. We’re buying it at a five cap, but if
06:40 you’re buying a business at a 4x, that’s a 25 cap, right? So, there’s a 5x difference in terms of how far your
06:47 money will go for each dollar. except you have very little to no collateral in
06:53 most of your acquisitions, right? Unless you are buying the real estate, which we’ll talk about kind of the your mentality around buying the companies
06:59 with real estate backed. Um and and so you you’re trading risk, right? Because the business also can go
07:05 to complete zero. I’m not saying apartment can’t, but you still have the collateral. No, and apartments will never go to zero, right? You know, it’s there’s
07:12 always some intrinsic value. Yeah. So, those are those trades, but you’re right, the cap I mean, you can make a lot more money in a business. And
07:18 I also think the business provides a lot of other things inside of the business that you can’t necessarily do in other
07:24 investment vehicles when it comes to, you know, using cash value whole life insurance to give yourself keyman to add
07:31 all these other vehicles into your business um that that that you can create some leverage off of. So, it’s
07:36 it’s it’s it’s that business journey, you know, allows for some other things um that help create that wealth.
07:43 The way that I tend to look at it is I’ve got a a heavy engine for cash flow that I take that that cash flow to put
07:50 it in the bucket that is safe and forever. And, you know, my husband retires in 11 years. I got 11 years of
07:56 hustle left in me. So, I need to make the heavy churn of cash flow as much as possible so that we can, you know, be in
08:03 the sunset all the time in a cabin in Tennessee, you know. So, that’s where you’re calling in from,
08:09 right? Yeah. Right. No, I’m suburbs of Chicago right now. Uhhuh. Got it. But it is amazing in that
08:15 in in your mind, you know, and that’s kind of what got me into the whole game was, you know, I read cash flow quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki and, you know, really
08:22 looking at W2 income to self-employment income, which I spent a lot of time in my life as you start to build these
08:28 businesses, you really you’re really kind of self-employed for a very long time, but you’re still trading your time for money. But if you want to get over
08:35 to that other side of the quadrant, right, you’ve got to buy you got to be either a business owner or an investor. The ultimate goal is to be a full-time
08:41 investor, right? That means that you’ve got plenty of cash rolling in. So you can just you don’t have to do all the
08:47 leg work we do. You can invest, you know, that’s the beauty of it, you know. That’s what most of our passive investors are looking for, right? Being
08:52 able to deploy their capital. Yeah. So that’s kind of that’s what drove me into the game was to to think
08:57 about how Kiasaki talks about getting those different quadrants and uh you know the business one is I think a very
09:04 challenging quadrant. That’s why the the the upside and the rewards can be so significant
09:10 because of the risk that we’re trading. Yeah. And and brain space, you know, I I I talk a lot
09:17 about, you know, the way I do things. I don’t really take outside capital. I kind of all do it with my own capital or
09:23 with partners in their capital and the the brain space associated with uh
09:28 having a car wash. Yes. It’s uh you know we we make I don’t know probably $70,000
09:34 at the end of the day for 150 in it was a very little bet but 70 you know 50%
09:40 cash on cash is incredible but the level of brain space guys like that that is not a requirement of my apartments so I
09:47 I think that is a real kind of missed piece when people want to try to figure out what’s better for me real estate or
09:53 a business you you got to factor in the brain space piece oh brain space and I mean even in the real estate side people don’t understand
09:59 risk adjusted returns. So there’s risk adjusted returns, there’s time adjusted returns, there’s brain space adjusted
10:04 returns. You know, you have to weigh them all in and it’s not just about the raw number at the end of the day. Um,
10:09 but I think to maybe kind of tie it all together, so you did the apartment side,
10:14 then you joined Go Abundance Women and as part of that, you know, you started to see that, hey, some of the
10:20 most successful women were people that had their own businesses and, you know, that allowed you to
10:27 really start to kind of just be around people that help you make that mind shift to, as Casey mentioned, get to the other quadrant, which is, okay, you
10:33 know, I want to be in this other quadrant where maybe I’m trading time for a business, right? and ultimately
10:38 maybe to grow to where I can be an investor where I’m just trading time for money, right? Or sorry, trading money for money essentially is what you’re
10:45 doing, right? And so maybe give some examples of people that you met in the group that just helped you get that
10:50 inspiration and and ultimately how did you make the jump to what that actually meant? Did it mean buying your own
10:55 business? Did it mean starting your own business? Because a lot of people tend to think it’s about starting a business.
11:01 Yeah. I I there were we do these things called pods. So, uh, a small group of
11:07 four to seven women that meet weekly and all of the women that were in my pod that met weekly, you know, they were
11:13 business owners and you know, I was kind of knuck, you know, scratching and clawing to get up to to a $3 million net
11:20 worth and they were well into the 40s and 50s. So it just it felt very clear that if I just focus how I spent my time
11:27 and my attention on one big thing then you know if that was my ultimate goal then then that’s how I’m I’m going to
11:33 end up getting there right so um when it came to like a choice to invest in in a
11:40 business you know uh because I then got to serve in leadership at goundance I became introduced to Walker Dyel who um
11:48 you know he wrote what I call the Bible uh my gateway drug to buying businesses,
11:54 uh, buy then build. And the idea is just, it makes so much sense. You know, both my parents were entrepreneurs. My
11:59 dad, the farmer, had this forever existing business that continues to exist. And my mom had a startup that
12:05 that didn’t really make it, you know. So, I saw firsthand in my childhood that
12:10 buying something that existed will continue to grow. And a startup is where, you know, things can fizzle out
12:16 pretty quickly. So, I wanted to do something that was heavy real estate because I wanted to keep that real estate professional status and and
12:23 continue to be involved in the depreciation stuff and having the bulk of my time spent in real estate. So, so
12:30 that is why it was a motel or a car wash. Yeah. And the other thing about the car wash, right? I mean, it shouldn’t take,
12:37 you know, once it’s up and it’s operational a team, right? Is it like one of those fully operational ones that
12:44 someone can just drive through and pay or does it take people? I mean, how does that business kind of flow into?
12:50 And and tell us also what we don’t know about car washes that we should know. So, when I was under contract to buy the
12:56 car wash, I had a call with Walker and uh was so excited to tell him a friend
13:02 who, you know, talked me into buying a business that I’m under contract to buy a business. And I tell him, “I’m under
13:07 contract for a car wash.” And he goes, “Oh, I never own a car wash.” I’m like, “Oh, man.
13:13 Say more. Say more.” Right? So, he said, ‘You know, something’s always broken at a car wash. I’d never own one. And I’m
13:19 like, okay. Well, uh, we did go through with it obviously, but it kind of, you know, helped me with a reframe that it’s
13:25 not some five alarm fire when something’s broken at the car wash because my expectation is something is
13:30 always broken. Uh we have a seven bay selfserve car wash that um you know if
13:36 something is broken if if a if a hose gets ripped off then you know we put a cone in front of it and we have a
13:42 relationship with vendors that that can fix that type of thing. Um and we have uh some college athletes that work for
13:49 us uh college baseball players that come in and change the uh trash out and and rinse off the the quarters and things
13:56 like that. So it is largely most days I don’t think about it but you know when there are problems the day after um my
14:04 my wedding you know someone ran into a wall with their duly pickup truck so we left the brunch that we were at my
14:11 husband and I knew business owners newly remarried right to go to you know deal with the the broken wall that we were
14:18 worried about structural uh you know abilities right so um there’s there are
14:24 it’s it’s significantly larger in terms of brain space like we were talking about.
14:29 Yeah. But you know, one of the things kind of like when you think about due diligence on on certain type of assets
14:34 that you’re going to buy, you know, so we hear a lot from investors or buyers that say, “Hey, I’m agnostic.” Okay,
14:42 that is one of the the terms and we laugh about it because, you know, everybody has an opinion. Is is being somebody that’s agnostic a good thing?
14:48 You know, are investors? No. So, one of the things, you know, being buyers of a manufacturing company is you’re you have
14:56 to know that like a car wash, like anything that has assets that help you
15:02 generate income, you’re going to typically have breakdowns all the time. And so, like my first six, eight months
15:09 being at H&M, I felt every time, hey, the machine’s down. This is down. I just
15:14 it like would make my stomach hurt. And I remember the seller looking at me like, what? like it’s all the time. Like
15:21 something is broken every second of the day. It’s not a big deal. And I and getting through that kind of part,
15:27 right? So like in your due diligence, you know, when you make your next acquisition, we’ll talk about your uh your your motel or hotel or Holiday Inn,
15:35 whichever one it is, whatever it is. Uh but but you kind of
15:40 you you learn from your next acquisition, right? you start to go, “Hey, these were things I should have
15:45 done, or man, I’m not sure I like this.” For me, I really enjoy it. I I love the
15:51 fact that if you get a really good solid maintenance team and a really good person that instead of just fixing the
15:56 rebuilding, well, man, you’re now putting your your your assets in a better place than when you bought them.
16:01 Um, but again, it it takes that like, oh my god, things are breaking all the time. But also, you know, the it’s just
16:09 like in apartment buildings, you need the scale to be able to afford the team. You know, that if I wanted to go buy six
16:16 more of these, then I could totally afford the right people to be handling the things so that I can buy back that
16:22 brain space. But what what I found and another thing that I’ve observed from Goance Women and our, you know, brother
16:27 side too, that those people who go to those nine figure net worths, they do one thing really, really well. So I I
16:35 became a beginner when I bought a car wash. I became a beginner when I bought a motel. I I I I need to my plan is to
16:42 really specialize in a better way and not force myself to become a beginner and put, you know, efforts in the same
16:50 direction so I can grow further faster. Yeah. Because you got 11 years. I mean, you got to knock this out like 10,000
16:55 hours. Like you got to get your 10,000 hours like as soon as possible, right? So from the car wash, you then take a
17:02 leap, right? You say, “Hey, I found a it’s is it a motel?”
17:07 It’s roughly the same time I bought the the car wash in the motel because I knew I wanted a business and I made two
17:12 little bets. Roughly the same time. So, how most people wouldn’t do that?
17:18 No, of course not. But she’s got 11 years, man. Why would I do that? Ferris, have you known me to to do things?
17:25 Knowing you, I’m not surprised. I would have probably done the same thing to be honest, but that’s also why we’re not most people.
17:30 So tell us about the motel journey. Right. So the car wash you’ve got the concerns there. Things break all the
17:37 time but you then adapt to that. How does a motel how’s it different? Yeah. So I mean I I speak small
17:44 apartment buildings like my whole sticktick in apartment buildings is the the midsize multi the call it 15 units
17:51 to about 50 units. That’s really kind of how I bought my way out of my W2. So, I gave a presentation preaching the gospel
17:58 of midsize multis to somebody and uh a guy asked for a follow-up call after he saw um on MLS an 18 room motel uh you
18:08 know an hour 45 minutes outside of Minneapolis St. Paul. He’s like I want to reposition this into apartments and
18:14 you know it’s 300 square feet. It’s a super rural town but like right next to a lake and Wisconsin lake culture guys
18:21 if you don’t know it they they drink right? So, you know, they need a chance, a place to stay. So, it need like it
18:27 made more sense to make it stay short-term rentals rather than apartments because the population like
18:33 5x’s over the summer. A lot of money comes in from Minneapolis into this little town called Boston Lake. And so,
18:38 I talked him into keeping it like that, but he, you know, a lot of things happened and I am now, you know, the
18:43 owner. He decided not to move forward and I bought out a partner. Uh the the difference there is, you know, you can
18:51 find a short-term rental um host co-host property manager uh that it’s a lot more
18:57 expensive than a uh long-term rental. You you’ll pay roughly eight or 10% for a midsize multi uh if it’s a long-term
19:04 rental per month of of topline revenue to that property manager, but you’re going to pay 20 plus percent if it’s
19:10 short-term rentals. And it is the expectation of communication for a like
19:16 an Airbnb or a VBO is very different than if you’re going to a motel that
19:21 looks like it might have someone on site. So the growing pains with the management, you know, I I had a partner
19:28 that that’s what she does. Uh she just lived a thousand miles away and her play
19:33 just didn’t translate at all. and we ended up with lots of really terrible reviews and I was able to buy her out
19:39 last summer and reposition and now we’re we’re thriving just took property
19:45 management inhouse and it’s it’s all systems it’s all setting the expectation it’s all SOP and make things repeatable
19:52 that I know from my other business stuff in my past lives right so it’s you know it’s that that business is shining
19:59 because of you know the things that I I know that I’m good at the providing connection I I’ve also decided that the
20:06 the straight line of all of the things that I do, Go and Swim is connection. Our events that we get to do together,
20:12 that’s people connecting, right? Like where you live your life, that is building a connection with your family.
20:17 This uh lumberjill lodge is connection for girls trips. The car wash does not fit into that. It’s one of these things
20:23 is not like the other. So that is why we’re divesting that and really focusing in on uh the motel for now.
20:30 So yeah, I think you’re probably the same thing, but I I’m curious. So okay so you take so so the motel right never
20:37 done doing it before it’s a different you know it has a lot to do with taking care of people and making it an
20:43 experience so what did you do right it wasn’t working and now you’re making it work was it I know it’s standard
20:49 operating procedures but what did you do there’s got to be some cosmetics and brand some things that you did to make it fun
20:55 so um back to my geekhood of being a behavioral economist there’s these
21:00 authors that I love Chip and Dan Heath their brothers, behavioral economists. They uh wrote a book called uh Thinking
21:06 in Moments. And one of the stories they talk about is a is a motel in LA. I think I’m going to totally butcher this
21:12 story, but it’s a good point that, you know, it has the best reviews of any LA area hotel. Um not because they’re
21:20 better than the Ritz, better than the Waldorf Histori, but what you do is you pick up a red phone and it’ll say, uh uh
21:26 popsicle hotline, how may I help you? And you can tell them that I would like three grapes and an orange, please. and
21:32 they will come out with a tray and make it this incredible experience. Right? So the thing that people remember in
21:38 moments in experiences that’s what we’re selling a clean room and an experience at the motel. People be remember the
21:44 beginning they remember the end and they remember the peak. So if you screw up the beginning and they can’t get into
21:50 their room which was a thing that was happening in past management we’ve already lost them. Right? If you screw up the end that you know somebody you
21:56 know barges in on them that’s also terrible right? And then, you know, how do we the question I continue to ask my
22:04 team and I hired a guy to live on site who is, you know, strangely enough, former corporate Walmart.com guy who
22:10 wants a fun retirement job. So, that’s kind of the perfect fit. Um, but you
22:16 know, how do I make it an experience? and these Instagrammable moments of, you know, a little swing with Lumberjill
22:22 Lodge above you. Uh, you know, uh, we cleaned out the, uh, shed in the back
22:28 that we’re going to host women’s, um, things at, like we’re going to, I’m bringing Go Abundance Women there to do
22:34 a summit where we business plan and we talk about the things in our our lives that we want to move forward. So, um,
22:40 really nurturing the stuff and doubling down on the places that, um, build that
22:46 experience, build that connection. That’s what’s working. And so, for people just listening, I
22:52 mean, can you maybe walk through some of the numbers of that, right? How how how should people look at that as a business, right? Maybe what you get it
22:58 for, how do you put the stack together, and, you know, how profitable or not profitable is it?
23:04 Well, I mentioned little bets, right? So, the the motel itself had um a lot of
23:10 damage. So, of the 18 rooms, only like 10 of them were usable when I acquired
23:15 it. Um I I only paid $326,000 for it, but it needed a lot of love. I
23:22 have over the course of the last couple years put in probably about $200,000 or
23:27 so. Um you know, because it’s commercial real estate, it’s worth, you know, a multiple of of how much money it makes.
23:35 um over the summer. It’s a very, you know, seasonal business because it’s a lake in Wisconsin and nobody wants to go
23:43 by the lake when it’s uh you know, you can’t uh ice fish, but it’s it’s still too cold. Um over the summer months, we
23:51 we cash flowed after debt service and everything. Uh $20,000 a couple months.
23:56 So, you know, that is what occupancy do you need to be at? Uh well, when I acquired it, let me tell
24:02 this story two ways. So, when I acquired it, that $327,000, like I I like to
24:07 think in worst case scenario. How do I not lose this property? What’s the worst thing that could happen? And can I meet
24:13 whatever bar to keep that work worst case scenario from happening? I needed like a a 7% occupancy to break even,
24:21 right? And I figured over the course of the year, I can pull off a 7% occupancy. Well, you know, we are very good at
24:28 filling up over the weekend and the weekend is roughly 30% of the week. So,
24:34 over our peak season, we we kind of top out right now at around um 3540%.
24:40 But, you know, if if we hit that 3540%, we’re cash flowing about 20 grand.
24:45 Nice. That is awesome. So, let me do this real quick. I kind of want to talk about mindset because, you know, you talk
24:52 about your community, you talk about a lot of these things and the people around you that help you make that decision. I would say for our listeners,
24:59 um, I I would say many of them have not taken a leap. They’ve not said, “Hey, I’m going to go do take these risks,
25:05 right?” You know, and and they’re significant risk no matter what size. So, how does how does talk about
25:12 community, but also talk a little bit about your mindset. How did you get to a position to where you could go, hey, you
25:17 know what? I’m going to take these risks. What like what are those things that you did? Uh I know you started with multif family but still you had to take
25:23 a risk. Yeah. I you know for me I’m I’m super pragmatic. I’m super you know let’s
25:29 let’s figure out that worst case scenario and figure out how to not make that happen. So actually in the real
25:34 estate stuff I I had you know a sales number that was not possible because I knocked it out of the park the year
25:40 before and my boss was pressuring me to do stuff that I knew was not okay. And I I was having a panic attack in a a
25:45 parking garage at a hospital. And I I was a brand new single mom. I had just gotten divorced. So I I thought I was
25:52 going to am I going to have to entertain doing the stuff that I know is wrong, right? You know, and then I realized, oh my god, I have $3,000 coming in from
25:59 cash flow from from my apartment buildings, I’m not going to die. Oh my god, if I just pay attention to that
26:04 that number, if that’s the thing I put my time on, then I’m going to be able to do whatever I want. So whatever risk I’m
26:11 taking, it’s not really a risk when I can figure out the math of it. So I
26:16 think the, you know, really figuring out worst case scenario and putting truth to the problem, whenever you got a problem,
26:22 the best way to solve that problem is to put more truth to the problem. And there’s nothing more true than numbers.
26:27 So, if you can just figure out what reserves are going to make you feel whole, are going to make you feel safe,
26:33 what um what income you’re going to need to make happen, uh in order to feel like
26:38 you can move to the next level, so that risk feels um you know that an asymmetric riskreward, that’s really
26:45 what I go for. I I bet a penny to make $10 in every case in what I do. So I I
26:51 think for me it’s you know um the mindset reframe is how do you reposition
26:57 the thing that’s to to in a different true way that’s going to serve you. So
27:02 the the figuring out of the worst case scenario is something that really helped me.
27:08 And so then but maybe tie that to, you know, who did you feel like just being around helped you accomplish that? And
27:14 you know, and I know we’ve mentioned Go Abundance Woman a few times, right? And what’s your kind of involvement there, right? And what are the what’s the mission and the goal there? So, um, I
27:21 joined as a member, uh, the minute that I learned that there was a women’s division, I joined as a member. And then after a couple years that I had bought
27:27 my way out of my W2, I had the opportunity to start serving in leadership and acquired the rights to to
27:33 operate that. So, with partners, I operate Go Abundance Women. We are the tribe of healthy, wealthy, generous
27:39 women who choose to lead epic lives. We we you know, once you get money to a certain point, you realize it’s about so
27:46 much more than that. like are are you living your uh relationships in a way that feel totally connected? Are you
27:52 giving back in a way that really fulfills you? And where do you want to set your goals? If the the goal that
27:58 would f fuel your uh life best is something health right now, let’s focus on that. But also playing the business
28:04 game. You know, we we talk a lot about trying to scale our businesses without sacrifice. I want a ninef figureure
28:11 business, but I also want to be the mom that goes on field trips with my kids, right? And I I think that a thing that’s
28:17 been missing in a lot of business stuff, you you know as well as I do that, you know, um not not as many women yet at
28:24 these uh types of events as I I hope for. You guys do an incredible job at
28:29 courting the women to come to them and women aren’t taking the chance because, you know, that’s that’s food out of my
28:35 you know, why would I do that? That’s food out of my kid’s mouth. Well, you the thing that we do really well is, you
28:41 know, we we exemplify that you got to show your kids that mom’s dreams are
28:46 worth it, right? So, being shoulder-to-shoulder with people who are scaling these huge businesses and going
28:52 on field trips with their kids, like that is the thing. How how do you do that? Not it must be nice. Show me how.
28:59 Give me a high five. Let’s do the next one together. Oh, I love it because I I’ll tell you here at, you know, at Equity Launchpad,
29:06 you know, we have a partners program, but we’re going to be announcing more about it next year, but we’ve brought, you know, operating partners on. We’ve
29:13 made some acquisitions. We’ve we’re learning kind of the template of how we do it. My vision, I I cannot wait till
29:19 we find that right female that wants to do what we do and run a business with us. Um, you know, I have daughters, I
29:25 have uh, you know, I have an older sister and, uh, I look at us all, you know, very much the same. Now, we
29:31 shouldn’t be playing the same sports. However, we we I see everything else very equal in these things and it’s
29:37 going to be very exciting, you know, to to have that. And I think go abundance could be one of those things that helps us maybe identify and find the right
29:44 people. Um it’s it’s it’s great. It’s the community that we’re building. Yeah. You know,
29:49 and there’s a lot of truth to Fraser, the average of the five people you spend the most around, right? And being around people helps you think bigger, figure
29:56 out similar problems, figure out how to take, you know, leaprog what you’re doing. And I mean, heck, a lot of what
30:01 we the reason we put on the conference is so we can be around other like-minded people. Every conference we put on,
30:07 every conference we attend, we pick up something new, right? And it’s about, you know, not thinking that you’re a
30:12 lone wolf, but instead really figuring out, hey, how do we go accomplish something bigger or better together? And so I totally, you know, big fan, excited
30:19 to see kind of where Go Abundance Women starts to go because again, there’s a it’s a it’s a clear lack or a clear gap,
30:25 right, in the in the space. And how do you get more people aware that, hey, these things can be done and here’s how
30:30 you go through it. Right? So, I love it. I I and I’m looking to put my money where my mouth is, right? Like, we
30:36 know that women are better investors. Like, there’s studies that exist that
30:42 show that because women don’t take big swings from the jump and they make sure that they’ve made that metered choices
30:49 that their performance on average is better. So I I back femaleled things,
30:55 femaleled companies, femaleled syndicators. So you know um I you know I
31:01 love doing business with my guys and I want to empower more women to take the chance on themselves.
31:07 It’s powerful. My my wife literally when I made my solo acquisition in 2019, she said, “I don’t even need to look at the
31:13 deal. I don’t feel like you should sign the paperwork.” And uh I was like, “You don’t know like what?” Like now I’m
31:19 like, “Hey babe, what do you feel? how do you feel? Like what do you think? You know, it’s like, you know, there’s a little bit of
31:25 that women’s intuition that’s just different than some of us guys. And so I think that helps lead as well to find
31:31 the right opportunities. Yeah, I agree. All right. And so with that said, we’ll go ahead and shift into
31:36 our rocket round where we ask our guests the same three questions. First question, Mandy. Oh, you say
31:42 something, Casey? No, you got it. Take it. What do you like to do in your free time? Oh, my free time. I mean, the three
31:48 children that I keep alive, we we do all of the sports. Right now, we are heavy football. My husband’s a high school
31:53 football coach. So, it’s uh football for the boys, football for the husband, and singing for the the daughter.
32:01 Yeah. And you told me this stat, and I didn’t realize it, and maybe I don’t and you still don’t even believe it, right? How many other coaches are on the team?
32:09 Uh well the the junior the whatever the junior warriors they had like 11 or 12
32:15 coaches for these little guys. It was bonkers. No. So you guys are doing some intense uh
32:21 coaching there. Yes. I mean I guess you didn’t play football. You’re in Texas. Shouldn’t you know this?
32:26 I should. That’s why like I’m gonna go pay attention next time. It’s a big part. Is enormous.
32:33 All right. So what is your most memorable moment in your business journey? Uh, more than likely the the two months
32:41 into acquisition, just getting newly remarried to my husband and business partner in the car wash, dropping
32:47 everything in the middle of the brunch to to go uh help fix the wall and make sure we were structurally sound at the
32:53 car wash. That that’ll teach you, you know, um what ownership really can mean.
32:60 All the benefits. No, that’s the thing, you know, people don’t realize with any business, you’re always on call, period. that just the
33:07 buck ends up stopping, you know, at some point in time with the ownership. So, and then last question, favorite tool or
33:13 resource, and you can’t say Go Abundance Women. Um, so a a thing that’s kind of been all
33:20 the hotness in Go Abundance that I’m really leaning into, too, is not just using like an AI tool for um asking
33:29 questions or write me this document or whatever. really turning that into an agent that setting things up so that
33:36 okay whenever I’m whenever I get um Airbnb uh reviews like this now agent
33:43 tool will respond as if it’s lumberjill in a different way every single time that now no employee has to touch that
33:50 Mandy doesn’t have to touch that a lot of that um lift is completely handled because of the AI agent
33:58 nice beautiful and AI is is I was listening to a podcast on the way in. I mean,
34:03 there’s just so many ways that we’re learning to use it that can really advance things. And just something as
34:08 simple as that, that’s pretty incredible. Oh, agreed. And Mandy, how can people get a hold of you? And again, we’re
34:14 going to put all this in the show notes for people, including a link to go abundance. Love it. Uh, everything that I do is on
34:19 mandy mallister.com. All of my socials are the Mandy Mallister. And actually, we’re doing a
34:25 women’s wealth symposium in Dallas. So, if anybody’s in Texas, I’ll make sure that I get you that link, too. Over
34:31 International Women’s Day. Yeah. What’s the date for that? Uh, it’s International Women’s Day. So,
34:37 the 7th will be the symposium and then the next day we’re actually doing a pitch event where we want to turn a
34:42 bunch of women into business investors. All right. Awesome. And we’ll put a
34:47 Yeah, that’s awesome. Well, Manny, thank you for spending so much time with us today. Really appreciate it and uh
34:53 excited to continue to hear you about your journey. Likewise. I love you guys. Seriously, what you’re doing is so necessary and so huge and I
35:00 I’m so grateful to get to be a part of it. Thank you. Thank you, Mandy. Appreciate it.
35:07 Thank you for listening to the M&A Launchpad podcast. If you’ve enjoyed today’s podcast and would like to support us, please leave us a rating and
35:13 a review after you listen. I’m Casey Menchu and I look forward to talking with you next week.
