The Family Business Experience
Jul 13, 2026 · 59 min · 10 segments
In this episode of the Family Business Experience, we sit down with Mike Malley, third‑generation leader of Malley’s Chocolates, a 90‑plus‑year icon in Northeast Ohio. Mike shares the origin story…
Zach WildHostBecause as you gentlemen know, there's a lot of family businesses that are wildly successful, but sometimes you talk to them and some of them are like, I haven't talked to my sister and brother in 20 years.
And I can confidently say that I don't think any of my siblings feel any of that kind of angst.
Now, they may have disagreed with some of my decisions, but we still have a very successful business and a real successful outcome from that.
But my parents were adamant, like, do not let the business come between you because it's going to happen.
So this board comes up with this idea, want to bring you on as an interim CEO.
Were you part of that discussion or did you just get a call, an email one day and they were like, hey, we have an idea? That's a great, great question.
And I could have continued on there and probably enjoyed my role as the ad sales director.
And I'm sharing this with you to kind of set how the conversation went with them.
So I met with one of the board members and was just kind of sharing with him, I feel like I'm at a professional career impasse.
Because as you gentlemen know, there's a lot of family businesses that are wildly successful, but sometimes you talk to them and some of them are like, I haven't talked to my sister and brother in 20 years.
And I can confidently say that I don't think any of my siblings feel any of that kind of angst.
Now, they may have disagreed with some of my decisions, but we still have a very successful business and a real successful outcome from that.
But my parents were adamant, like, do not let the business come between you because it's going to happen.
So this board comes up with this idea, want to bring you on as an interim CEO.
Were you part of that discussion or did you just get a call, an email one day and they were like, hey, we have an idea? That's a great, great question.
And I could have continued on there and probably enjoyed my role as the ad sales director.
And I'm sharing this with you to kind of set how the conversation went with them.
So I met with one of the board members and was just kind of sharing with him, I feel like I'm at a professional career impasse.
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