Michelle Talarico didn’t set out to build one of Colorado Springs’ most beloved catering brands. She and Kathy bought a tiny delicatessen in 1989 for $4,000, brought a bag of flour and a pan to the closing, and decided failure simply wasn’t on the menu.

In this episode, Michelle joins Re and Brian to talk about the early days of Picnic Basket Catering Collective, the strange blessing of not being able to finance bad ideas, and the advice that helped keep the business alive: spend intentionally, save consistently, and dance as fast as you can.

This conversation winds through all the good stuff that makes entrepreneurship both ridiculous and sacred: lucky money socks, haunted offices, list-making rituals, calendar wars, working with your spouse, empty-nest grief, business identity, and the brutal fear that comes when everything you’ve built feels fragile.

Michelle also shares the COVID moment that nearly cracked her open: watching $800,000 in business disappear from the books, promising her team they would not be abandoned, then finding hope in curbside casseroles, box lunches, and a community that showed up when it mattered.

It’s funny. It’s tender. It’s honest. It’s a reminder that business owners are often just leaves in the wind, holding on by one tiny stem, still choosing to feed people, serve people, and build something that matters.

Listen in for a conversation about legacy, resilience, community, and what it really takes to keep showing up after 37 years in business.

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