In this interview with Mel Robbins, entrepreneur Mike Michalowicz recounts the unconventional path that led to his marriage with Krista. He first saw her briefly at a TGI Friday bar, but their first date didn’t happen until two years later because he was in another relationship and Krista was a single mother. After breaking up, a mutual friend gave Mike Krista’s number, and they arranged a coffee/dinner date. During a later outing, Mike overheard Krista’s friend proclaim, “this is the guy I’m going to marry,” which cemented his certainty that she was his future spouse. Within six weeks of dating, Mike proposed, and they became engaged after a month and a half, later marrying and now celebrating 28 years together. Mike shares his parents’ horrified reaction—especially his mother, who recalled her own eight‑week engagement that lasted over 60 years—and reflects on the speed of their courtship, advising his children not to rush engagement and wishing they had lived together first.
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I heard that you knew you wanted to marry Krista after a very short time dating. Tell us about that. How did you know?
Yeah, so I met Krista through mutual friends. She walked in at a bar. It was TGI Friday, and she was walking by. It's like, damn.
So we were on our first date two years later. So I saw her.
Wait, why? Why two years later?
Because I was. Had a girlfriend, and I was in a relationship, and she was a single mom.
Okay.
So she got pregnant. So then our mutual friends. I broke up with this other person I was dating, and I said, you know, I'm going to make a phone call. And so I called my mutual friend and I said, that girl.
You know, like, I don't know, Mike, but we'll give you her phone number.
And I called her out of the blue.
Out of the blue. I said, I'm this guy that you.
Met at a bar.
And we actually ran into each other, like, two or three more times.
Okay. Okay.
I'm like, so you know my name.
But I was wondering if you want to go out, have a cup of coffee or for dinner. And she's like, yeah, I know who you are. She's like, let's do it. So we go out. Krista dresses in a dress that's up to her chin. It's like.
It's like it was a Victorian era.
Yeah. She's like, you ain't seen nothing, pal. We went out for a dinner, and it was great. We went on a few more dates, and we were six weeks, a month and a half. We go out for a date, and I overhear. She talks. Her friend shows up, who we both know now, but her friend shows up. And I was just about to walk to the bathroom or something, and the friend's like, oh, how's it going? And Chris says. I overhear. Says, this is the guy I'm going to marry.
Get out of here.
To. To Liz.
That's so funny.
Yeah. And I hear it. And then I'm like, this is the woman I want to marry. So I proposed to her. I got back to the table, I said, I like us. I want to get married. This was a month and a half. Engaged after six weeks. Oh, we're married.
Were your parents horrified? Were they like, what? What are you doing, Mike?
So, yeah, so when I told my. They were horrified. Are you crazy? And I said, yes. And then my mom says, we got engaged after eight weeks. So my father and mother got engaged after eight weeks and were married for 65, 60 years or more before My father passed. My wife and I are married 28 years now.
There you go. There you go. When you know, you know. Christopher said the same thing.
He said he know, you know.
Yeah.
But it's funny. We tell our kids, if you plan to get engaged, don't rush it, because we both say we're idiots. We had no idea. What were we doing?
What were we doing?
And there was a lot to figure. There's still more to figure out. But there was a lot to figure out.
That's true.
I think we wish, in retrospect, that we lived together for a period of time.
Yeah. Yeah.
This didn't play out that way.
But you know what? To what end? It worked out exactly.
