We recently connected with Mario Ranieri and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Mario , thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?
My family! I grew up in East New York Brooklyn, living in a 2 family home surrounded by my grandparents, aunts and uncles & my mother. We didn’t come from much, so it wasn’t easy making a living. Everyone had to contribute…
I remember my grandfather waking up everyday at 5am to get ready and make Maizena (cornstarch porridge) for everyone in the house. He was the first one at bat to take on the day and everyone else followed as I went to school.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I’ve spent the last 20+ years in the retail / clothing industry, working on all sides of the business.
I had the chance to work for some great people and companies. Spent a lot of my personal time focused on assignments, while competing in the retail/wholesale landscape. I sometimes describe the last 5 years as a time where I slowly took my blinders off. In some ways I was forced to… but in other ways, it was just a matter of time.
Covid changed everything for me and forced me to turn a non-profit hat project into a brand, while turning the sum of my experiences into a consulting agency.
I currently own a sales agency/consulting company called “M. LIVE” which represents my own clothing company “LIVE LIVE”. We donate 5% of our income to Mental Health support through NAMI, while representing other brands that need representation. I also specialized in Retail projects where I help streamline & optimize Retail organizations to strengthen their overall footprint in the market. After a few projects I found myself supporting a brand called Billy Reid. It was refreshing working with a brand & a brand rooted in the right things…this led to a permanent position streamlining the retail business and supporting crossfunctional operations.
It’s funny whenever someone asks me, “what do you do?” I’m a fan of business and this industry. I just enjoy being part of the solution. I’ll leave it at that!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
• How it all works! You have to be a student of the business and curious. The more you take the time to understand the big picture, the more you can impact the small and vice versa!
• Work Ethic!
You have to be willing to do the work. You can’t have it all yesterday & you need to be patient. The work isn’t just “working”, it’s learning & developing. The best understanding comes from when you put in the work first hand. That’s how you learn to teach others and bring more value to any situation!
• Integrity!
To be trusted and trust the people around you is everything. Don’t trade that for anything…
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
There’s a lot of work that goes into everything I do and I take it all seriously.
You’re going to find people who project their, fears, feelings or opinions on you & you can’t let it get to you. Most people only see a fragment of what you bring to the table and place you in a box they picked out for you. It’s a challenge to overcome & it mostly comes from the people you know. Especially when you’re reaching for things people can’t see or comprehend for you. Try not to let it slow you down…because right around the corner is the next believer, opportunity and/or path forward!
Contact Info:
- Website: Livelivesupply.com
- Instagram: Livelivesupply
