Meet Michael Stello

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Michael Stello. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Michael below.

Michael, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

When I started my business it was never something I planned out to do. It was a side objective to my main interest at the time which was touring with my band. This was right around the 2008 crisis so I used screen printing to offset gas prices so I could continue to tour. After time I realized that I could make up my own schedule if I did it on a more full time basis that would allow me to continue to tour throughout my life.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I started the business in 2012 carrying the momentum I had from touring for years. Luckily, I hired really good employees that have helped me create something in a small town I consider very special. I come from a family where my great grandparents moved from Italy and most of my family on that side ended up in small business for themselves. My father was a CPA for 30 years and I worked for him growing up off and on. Unknowing to me growing up with one of the best assets I could have had. I never went to college after high school. Now over a decade into business Ive come to realize and appreciate having so many hard working driven people around me in my immediate family that would later set the pace for ML to be what it has become.

It’s hard to tell you how much my business means to me because when you start something with $700 and it grows to the size of 15 people who depend on it to live. The appreciation for the work coming in and the employees that make it happen day in and day out is something truly hard to speak into works how much it means to me.

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?

Im not someone that views myself as having any skills or qualities that stand out from others but I’m very grateful for my patience and vision of where I see my projects or businesses and with that vision I know I can figure out what is in-between where I’m at now and where I’m going moving forward. The area that most impacted me is having the general understanding of finances and being surrounded my small business of different kinds growing up.

I think if I had to give any advice to someone starting out a business it would be a saying that my grandpa told me time after time when we talked about my hardships in business..

Plan your work.
Work your plan.

I also highly suggest deep diving as a hobby into understanding money and the inner workings of loans, debt and the tax system. The bigger a business gets the faster it can go in the wrong direction. Understanding finances gives you the advantage that most people in America don’t educate themselves on.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

Let me give you a few

Traction
Profit first
Rich Dad Poor Dad
The intelligent investor
Dopamine Nation

All of these books have helped shaped certain perspectives I have but the combination of a few have really made a huge difference in my approach to business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mlscreenprinting.com
• Instagram: ML Screenprinting
• Facebook: https://Facebook.com/mlscreenprinting

Image Credits

all of those were sell taken by staff.