From the bustling lines of a Taco Bell to the strategic helm of KFC, Monica Rothgery's story is as flavorful as the meals her teams have served up. On our latest podcast, we sit down with this luminary of the fast-food world, who shares her ascent to becoming KFC's first woman COO and Yum Brands' inaugural LGBTQ C-suite leader. Her tale is a masterclass in leadership, resilience, and the transformative power of mentorship, weaving through her military background, her frontline fast-food experiences, and her upcoming book, "Lessons from the Drive-Thru."
Candid moments from Monica's career reveal the profound influence of kindness and guidance, as we recount the journey of Khalil, whose career flourished from an act of mentorship, and Caitlin, whose contagious care within her restaurant team left a lasting impression. Their stories illuminate the often-overlooked ripple effect of positive leadership, resonating with anyone who's ever been inspired by a great boss or has sought to create a nurturing work environment themselves.
But it's not just tales of past triumphs; this episode is a rally cry for action. Monica challenges us to recognize and elevate the frontline leaders who shape our everyday experiences, particularly in service-oriented industries. Join us as we explore the crucial role these leaders play, the barriers they face, and how we, as a collective, can foster a culture that emboldens women and budding managers to reach for the stars in their careers. It’s an engaging session filled with insights that promise not just to inspire but to ignite a spark for change in how we support the leaders among us.
https://www.monicarothgery.com/
Go check out all of our episodes on our website: https://womeninthearena.net/
If you are ready to tell your story or want to refer someone, please email me at audra@womeninthearena.net
***Last thing- I'd love to interview the following women:
Maybe you can help me get there****
Thank you all for supporting this show and all of the Women in the Arena!!
From the bustling lines of a Taco Bell to the strategic helm of KFC, Monica Rothgery's story is as flavorful as the meals her teams have served up. On our latest podcast, we sit down with this luminary of the fast-food world, who shares her ascent to becoming KFC's first woman COO and Yum Brands' inaugural LGBTQ C-suite leader. Her tale is a masterclass in leadership, resilience, and the transformative power of mentorship, weaving through her military background, her frontline fast-food experiences, and her upcoming book, "Lessons from the Drive-Thru."
Candid moments from Monica's career reveal the profound influence of kindness and guidance, as we recount the journey of Khalil, whose career flourished from an act of mentorship, and Caitlin, whose contagious care within her restaurant team left a lasting impression. Their stories illuminate the often-overlooked ripple effect of positive leadership, resonating with anyone who's ever been inspired by a great boss or has sought to create a nurturing work environment themselves.
But it's not just tales of past triumphs; this episode is a rally cry for action. Monica challenges us to recognize and elevate the frontline leaders who shape our everyday experiences, particularly in service-oriented industries. Join us as we explore the crucial role these leaders play, the barriers they face, and how we, as a collective, can foster a culture that emboldens women and budding managers to reach for the stars in their careers. It’s an engaging session filled with insights that promise not just to inspire but to ignite a spark for change in how we support the leaders among us.
https://www.monicarothgery.com/
Go check out all of our episodes on our website: https://womeninthearena.net/
If you are ready to tell your story or want to refer someone, please email me at audra@womeninthearena.net
***Last thing- I'd love to interview the following women:
Maybe you can help me get there****
Thank you all for supporting this show and all of the Women in the Arena!!
Welcome and everyone, and thank you so much for joining me again this week. My guest this week is a woman that blazes a trail and leaves a path for others to follow. My guest this week is Monica Roth-Garry, and she has an amazing career. She started her career as a restaurant manager for Taco Bell. Jump forward 30 years later and she became the very first woman to become Chief Operating Officer for KFC in the US. She then also became the very first, very first LGBTQ leader to be promoted to the C-suite at Yum Brands, which is one of the largest restaurant companies in the world. She has used her legacy to recognize leaders, especially the frontline leaders, to acknowledge the greatness in themselves and as well as the teams they lead. She is going to be publishing her book Lessons from the Drive-Thru Real-Life Wisdom for Frontline Leaders, and in her book she uses stories from behind the counter to illustrate the power of the true servant leadership. It is both my pleasure and my honor to introduce to you Monica. Monica, thank you so much for being here and welcome to the show.
Monica:I'm blown away. Thank you for that intro and including me with all of the other esteemed women that you've been talking to on this amazing, amazing podcast. I scrolled through all of the shows that you've done and I'm just honored I am absolutely honored to be here and to talk to you and have a chat about being in the arena and what it's like.
Audra:I'm really excited that you're here and, quite honestly, when you and I were first introduced, I was a little bit intimidated because you helped run one of the largest companies in the world. You were there with the C-suite, the corner office, the whole thing, and I was like, oh my gosh I hope she doesn't think I'm a weirdo.
Monica:I don't think you're a weirdo. I think you're amazing because you're giving women a voice, no matter where we are as women. If there's one thing I learned, it's that, no matter where you sit, you have a platform to help other women to model, to showcase, to promote. So we're kindred spirits.
Audra:I would agree. I would agree. I alluded to your career in the beginning of the intro. Can you tell us a little bit about your journey? It was definitely not a straight path. It took twists and turns and some unexpected surprises that were good and some that were bad. So would you tell us a little bit about your amazing career?
Monica:Sure, I was a junior military officer, so I was a second lieutenant in the United States Army. When I had done with my four-year commitment I decided to get out and got recruited by Taco Bell to come and run restaurants for them. It was a pretty hard sell. I was not interested in running restaurants for Taco Bell. I told them I went to college so I wouldn't have to work at Taco Bell. But they were pretty convincing. They told me that team members the people that work at Taco Bell and soldiers, they're the same. You can imagine my surprise when I got to my first restaurant and I found out team members aren't the same. Soldiers, you know Audra, show up in uniform on time and they do what you tell them to do and they know how to do their job. Team members don't necessarily. It's not the same.
Monica:So I struggled as a restaurant manager. It was the hardest job I ever had. It was harder than being in the Army. So just to give you a concept, being a restaurant manager for Taco Bell is harder than being in the Army. And I remember one night I was so discouraged. I just sat in my dining room all by myself, sat on the floor and I was just in tears and I said, if I ever somehow get promoted, I will do everything I can in my career to make life easier for the people that do this work, the people that work on the front lines and the people that lead front line leaders. Somehow I managed to get promoted. I learned some things. I learned about leadership, I learned about people, I learned about myself and thus began a really beautiful journey with young brands.
Monica:I stayed with the same company for 31 years. It was not always easy. I had to really claw and scratch and fight my way to get noticed. I had to say yes to all the hard jobs that no one else wanted. But over time you do a good job, you say yes, you go where they want you to go and good things happen.
Monica:The highlights was when I got to go to Thailand and be the chief operations officer for KFC in Thailand. I was there for five years and that was just a life-changing experience working with the Thai people running KFC there, learning the culture and about myself. And then I got promoted to run the KFC business in the United States, which is one of the most iconic restaurant companies in the country. So privilege and an honor.
Monica:And then COVID happened, so I got to really use all of my management leadership skills that I learned in the Army and in Thailand to get us through crisis. And then in the last year I retired, I sat down and I said what's all the things that bring me joy and make me really fulfilled and what are the things that just suck the energy out of me? I made two lists and I said I want to do this and I don't want to do that, and so I crafted my business around all the things that bring me joy, and the single biggest thing that brings me joy is helping frontline leaders, and so that's what we're doing writing a book and getting on the road to kind of help them out.
Audra:Well, you're being very humble with what you've actually done, because let me dial it back a little bit. Let me bring you back to Taco Bell no-transcript. The majority of them are teenagers. Yeah, there, this is their summer job, their part-time job, their whatever. And a lot of them are put in management positions with no clue, no training. Yeah, they are just thrown out there and I want everybody to imagine, imagine the last time you went through a drive-through. Imagine that experience and imagine the experience for the workers inside that restaurant. They are kids. Yeah, they don't have a clue as what's going on, but they're given this giant responsibility with no training. And why I said that you're being extremely humble is because you saw them. You saw them in a way that probably they hadn't been seen and recognized before, that you dedicated your energies to making sure that you improve their lives. That's a big deal.
Monica:Well, I just believe in it so much. There's 200,000 QSR efforts Like 31 million people work in the hospitality and retail industry in this country and, like you said, most of them are first jobbers, entry level. Last week I was at a workshop in Detroit talking to Taco Bell. Restaurant managers happened to be and assistant managers and I told them you guys have the chance to be first bosses and maybe you never thought about that before, but the people that come in and work for you who've never had a job before will remember you as their first boss.
Monica:Everybody remembers their first boss and so you have the opportunity to shape their entire work experience by what happens in their first job. You could teach them, build confidence, teach them about what it's like to be on a team, to be goal oriented, to be dependent on and they just looked at me and I don't think they ever really really understood that they have the power to do good and change lives, and they also have the power to create chaos and really mess with people's lives. Which will they choose? That was my challenge to them. So, when you think about that many people and that many lives that these leaders, who sadly don't get enough training themselves, there's a lot of work to do and I feel like we could shape the entire workforce if we get frontline leaders leading with a servant mindset and heart led leadership.
Audra:Can you imagine what the impact would be? I mean 31 million people. Yeah, there may be some people that are listening, that are in some sort of drive through every single day, right, whether it be for their coffee, for their lunch. Their kids are screaming in the background because they're starving and you just need to get them a snack and you're like I give up, I'm not cooking tonight because I'm over it. There are some people that are in a drive through every single day for some way, shape or form. At least there's someone in a drive through. We're probably in some sort of drive through at least once a week. The impact of those 31 million people? The impact if you can help shape their perspective and change their point of view. What's the ripple effect for the people that they interact with in the drive through?
Monica:Or at the counter right, or at the place where you get your oil change, the hotel, the retail, hospitality. Think about how many times we interact with frontline workers and we get disappointed because they don't pay attention, they don't listen, they don't seem to care. Well, my premise is that we have to care about them, meaning their leaders, their supervisors, their coaches have to care about them and invest in them before they're ever going to care about the customers.
Audra:What did you do? That was different.
Monica:I know.
Audra:I'm asking you to give me your secret sauce.
Monica:Yeah, no, I mean, it's a good question. It's a really good question because I don't know that what I did was different. But I will tell you some of the principles that I always adhere to. One was that no matter where I went in the company or how high I went in the company, I always remembered that the restaurants is where the rubber hits the road. We don't sell any product anywhere in the offices. The only time we interface with the customer and actually make money in our business is in those units, in those stores, in those restaurants. And so to always stay connected to that and to make sure that we keep that top of mind that those are the people that make money for the rest of us to have a salary that was probably one really key thing and to stay close to it and close to them and understand what their needs are. I always tried to make sure that we did whatever we could to remove barriers for them to do well.
Monica:A lot of times, when I was in more senior roles, we would put these restaurants in a predicament where they had to pick. Do I take care of the customer or do I take care of the business? Do I monitor my food cost, or do I give the customer enough cheese on their taco? And so we put these young, young people in decision-making positions where they have to make trade-offs. Don't do that. Don't make it hard for them to be successful. Make it easy.
Monica:That's probably the second thing, and then the third one is something that I just really learned at young brands throughout my career, and that's the power of recognition and appreciation. When I went to Thailand, I was like I wonder if these concepts of appreciation and recognition and wanting to be just seen and heard transcend culture. Or is that American thing? And it didn't take long for me to realize that it doesn't matter what country you're from, what culture you're in. People want to be seen and heard and appreciated for what they do, and so those would probably be three things that I like to think that I held on to throughout my career.
Audra:Well, that's good news to hear that it's universal, that people just want to be seen and heard, regardless of what part of the world or the country that you're in, regardless of your background. I mean that's very comforting to know that, underneath it all, we're very, very similar. That's right. That's right.
Monica:Yeah.
Audra:So you invested a lot. What's that I was going to say? You invested a lot into these young teams and I know that you influenced a lot of lives. What was the very first interaction that you had with a young person that you were like oh, I think I'm on to something.
Monica:His name was Khalil and he I write about this in my book, lessons from the Drive-Thru. He was a high school student working for me and when my kids came in at four o'clock or so it was this big rush of energy. You know, I suppose it's like that when kids come home from school. It's like book bags and lunch boxes and just rush of energy that invades the restaurant. And I love it because it's fun, right, it disrupts the day and they are like asking me where am I working and who's closing and what happened to my name tag. You know, there's all this energy, but I could tell Khalil was not having it one day. I'm like what's going on with you? And his brother, who also worked with me, wales, said oh, he's nervous because he has an algebra test. And I'm like is that true? And he's like you know, there's no way I'm going to pass. And I'm like, well, why don't after your shift, why don't we go in the dining room and I'll see? You know, maybe I can help you? And like seven heads went and then go. You know algebra, guys. I went to college. I actually took physics, I majored in biology. Yeah, I know algebra. So, you know, after work.
Monica:I sat out with Khalil. We worked on quadratic equations for the next several nights and he, he, he actually did pass his test. And when I was working on the book I wondered, like I wonder what he remembers from that. So I looked him up on LinkedIn and he's a very successful leader in the industry. He was running up to 40 or 50 restaurants at one point for other organizations.
Monica:I could tell from his LinkedIn posts that he was a heart led leader. So I messaged him like hey, remember me? Of course he did, because everyone remembers their first boss. What do you remember? And, audra, he had the kindest things to say about Johnny, the assistant manager, and how we me and how we took care of him and helped them, and how he came to this country. He didn't speak English, he didn't have any skills, and because of that experience he was able to build a career in the industry to support him and his family. That was the first time and I was like this feels really good. This feels better than making sure that I hit all my profit and sales goals. That's important. This feels really, really good. That began, probably, my venture into this mission.
Audra:Can you share with us another story? I mean, I know you have hundreds of them and I know I'm asking you to pick your favorite child.
Monica:No, I can tell you another one. I was working on my book up in Indianapolis and whenever I work on my book I get hungry for Taco Bell. Crunch Rep Supreme is the best of Taco Bell in one bite. Do you have a favorite Taco Bell?
Audra:item. Yeah, I do, and it's probably the most overlooked menu item.
Monica:No, bean burritos are okay, Agra it is?
Audra:It's a bean and cheese burrito.
Monica:I knew it was a bean burrito. I knew it.
Audra:With the extra sauce. I need extra sauce because it's the closest to believe it or not. It's the closest to authentic Mexican beans, because I'm half Hispanic and my grandmother would make a pot of beans every week and it's the closest to her refried beans. That's why I love it.
Monica:I love that that's awesome and don't be ashamed of that. There was nothing wrong with a very good bean burrito. So I was driving back. I pulled off the road in a small town in Indianapolis, walked in the restaurant, ordered my Crunch Rep Supreme set down. Now one of my favorite hobbies is sitting in the dining room and watching to see what's going on, because it's kind of like a whole theater act unfolding, and two tables down from me was the restaurant manager. I said, hey, are you the manager? She said yeah. I said, oh, I was a restaurant manager. I'm writing a book about it. And I'm pretty sure she thought I was crazy and I said I'd love to talk to you and she said, all right, weird person. So I started to ask her about her restaurant and she could tell by my question. She goes you really do know what you're talking about. I was like, yeah, I was the COO of KFC last year. And then she goes wait what? You were the COO of KFC? I said, yeah, I retired but now I'm writing a book.
Monica:We went on to talk for about an hour. Her name's Caitlin and while I watched her interact with her team, I saw something really amazing. They would come up to her and they would be like, hey, caitlin, what should I do? And she would tell them what to do and then she would say, thank you, I love you. And while we were talking, she got a phone call and I could hear her side of it. She's like, yeah, ok, don't worry about it. No, we'll see you when you get here. Ok, thank you, I love you. And I was like you really take care of and love your people, and she shared with me my philosophy that you've got to take care of them. By the time I got home, caitlin had found me on LinkedIn and said meeting me was the most exciting thing that had ever happened in her career. She went on to be an editor for my book and has provided me feedback to make sure that it still resonates with the managers of today.
Monica:So, yeah, that would be another great example. And I don't know, like Audrey, you're asking me about people I impacted, but they just they impacted me just as much. I get just as much out of just the joy of interacting with these amazing leaders that often are overlooked by society. By late night. Comedians want to make fun of somebody. They're flipping burgers. We're connect the drive through. In fact, these leaders lead our kids. They lead first jobbers. I just think they're super special. They're front line heroes and I appreciate them.
Audra:Well, you've made quite an impact on these front line leaders and that had, like I alluded to before, that has a ripple effect. Do you have a story that you observed of watching one of your front line leaders interact with somebody, either at the counter or in the drive through, and you went? I am so proud of you. I know there's probably lots of them, because fast food restaurants is an interesting place.
Monica:It is. It's a little microcosm of society right Between the team members that are all interacting with each other, and you've got multi generations in there. You've got young people, but you also have all the way up to people who have left the workforce and then returned because they just want to work a few hours. And then you have customers Everything from, as you alluded, to the busy mom to the tradesman who only has 30 minutes for lunch and everything in between. Plenty of people came through the drive through late at night after having enjoyed their evening out. That always presented some interesting challenges too.
Monica:I had one shift manager that I promoted who never imagined herself as much, and it was just really rewarding to watch her grow. And at first, when I even asked her, she was like I can't do that. I'm like why don't we just start with just a few little things that you could do in addition to just your normal team member job? And over time she got more confident. It's so common Women need to know they can do something before they believe they can do the job. And so over time I remember when we promoted her shift manager, she was so proud and I'm sure that that was the start of a career for her, and that happened over and over again, and those were the moments that I cherished the most when a restaurant manager finally decides to become a district manager and leave the safety and security of their place and go out and help other managers become better as a district manager. I mean, there were so many of them, I can't even remember specific ones right now, but that's just the most rewarding feeling.
Audra:And you said the safety of a restaurant into a district, and that sort of gave me some angst. So tell me, what is that leap like? These are things that I've never. Until you and I met, I'd never even considered these things, because you kind of just do these automatic things. And then, as you were explaining these to me, I was like, oh, my goodness, this is the raising of a generation. Yes, that's exactly right.
Monica:You said that so well, I'm going to write that down because I like it.
Monica:It's exactly right raising of a generation of workers. So once you get kind of in your restaurant and you get your team and your management team, it's your show. You know what's going to happen, it's unpredictably predictable and they're your team. Then you get asked to become a district manager or an area coach and you're in charge of six or seven managers and helping them be self-sufficient. And that's scary to a lot of the managers it feels like I don't know if I can do that. Here's an interesting statistic In my business and in all the businesses I've worked in, the restaurant managers are 50% women, 55% women, 45% men.
Monica:So more women run fast food restaurants than men and they do a great job. They do amazing, not surprising, not shocked. At the next level it drops to 25% women, 75% men and at the next level it's 10 and 90. Here's the worst part about that we're almost 100% internal promote oh my gosh, right. So you start pretty much at parity and in two levels you're at 90, 10. Where do all those women go? Why don't they get promoted?
Monica:Some of it, audra, is like. Another message that I just try and get out is women. We have to say yes. So many times I ask why are you still a rush? I ask Caitlin, the manager I was telling you about, why are you still an area coach, yet You've been in the top of your organization. Why aren't you going to the next level? Well, I don't know, maybe in a couple of years?
Monica:Often I get the answer well, I have kids, and this is where we need moms who are in these roles and successful, to role model for these younger leaders, that you can have kids and have bigger roles. The opposite is almost impossible to think about, like, oh, if you can't have kids, the only thing you could do is run a restaurant, which is, as I already said, the hardest job in the company. Some of it is just getting these women confident enough and brave enough to say yes when they're asked, because, unfortunately, when they're asked one time and if they don't jump at it and say give an enthusiastic yeah, put me in, they won't get asked again, where often male coaches will be like yeah, I asked them if they wanted to be promoted, to get more responsibility, and they said no, and so they don't get asked again, even though that might have been years ago. So the first thing I tell women is we got to step up, we got to be brave enough to step into what's possible to even up that 50-50 at the next level right.
Audra:I don't think that this is just in the restaurant industry. I think that this probably happens in many industries. You're right. I think you're right. How do we fix this? How do we help this, help, encourage that maybe it's not right for you today, but that doesn't mean a year from now, two years from now, five years from now it's not Maybe. I mean life changes, your situation changes, children grow up. How do we encourage and change this dynamic?
Monica:Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, I think representation matters and I probably didn't really embrace that until I met these two high school kids. So I got asked to speak on a panel for a trade high school in East LA, which is a pretty rough. It's a pretty rough place. So all these kids were going to a trade school for hospitality and retail and the panel was to show them that there's careers that they can aspire to. And there was a lot of professionals from like Marriott and Sodexo and Pepsi, and then Lil' Ol' Me from Taco Bell.
Monica:So the panel's over and I'm getting my stuff ready to go, and these two students were walking towards me. I'll identify them as young women. One had a mohawk, pink mohawk, rest of her head was completely shaved and it was like a spike. It went like this and she was covered in tattoos. And the other one had like I didn't even know that many things could be pierced, and so they're making their way towards me and they get close and the one with a pink mohawk leans forward and says, hey, until we met you, we didn't know that people like us could get the big jobs. Now I didn't have a pink mohawk, I don't have tattoos.
Monica:And yet those kids recognized that a gay person and I didn't tell them I was gay could have an executive or a managerial level job in a big corporation. And in that moment I was like it's not okay to just sit back and do a good job. I have to be a voice. It's a privilege, it's almost a duty, it's a calling. I have to be a voice, a vocal voice, so that kids like that can realize that there's opportunities. So I think job one is for women who have made it through to stand up and be role models, be mentors, be vocal, be visible, so that other women or minorities or members of the LGBTQ community can see what's possible and that they're not limited by the color of their skin or their gender or how they identify or who they love. That's probably the first thing we have to do.
Audra:So, as I alluded to before, see each other for all of our similarities rather than our differences. And as I introduced you in the beginning, you blazed a trail and left a path for others to follow. How can we help you in that path? We want to help you and invest in these kids and invest in each other, because I think that's also important is investing in each other. I've said many times that other women are not my greatest competition. They are my greatest asset. We were just trained differently and it's retraining of a mindset. So how do we help you and help each other in this endeavor of blazing a trail and leaving a path behind us to follow?
Monica:I love that. I mean and that's why this podcast is so important truly because you're giving a voice to people like me to help get my message out. And it's different than the doctor you had last two weeks ago who talked about Ayurvedic's, and the lady that last week who talked about creating sacred space in your home. I mean, there's a space for everyone. There's not a lack mentality. Each of us has something unique that we have to bring to the table, unique that we have to offer so that we can make this world the place we want it to be. So I think for me, what I need mostly is for the word to get out for frontline leaders to become aware of my message in the book. The book is written for them. It's really for anyone in leadership, but it's to them.
Monica:There's a lot of books written by executives A lot. Just go on Amazon. There's a lot, but I can't really find very many at all that are written for the frontline leader. So the first thing is to get my book in their hands and then I need to get my message out to the executives and to the leaders to help educate and empower these frontline leaders to realize the potential that they have. So I'm looking for speaking opportunities, I'm looking for chances to get in front of these leaders and their bosses, the executives, so that we can start to really make an impact, we can start to reach them. Yeah, and I think the other thing is just celebrating what other women do, and I hate. There's nothing I hate more than when another woman can't support another woman. It's the worst. That's such a lack mentality. So I want to find I mean, you've raised a really good question I want to find a way to celebrate and champion all women, whether they're in my industry or outside of my industry, so that we can continue to push, to pull each other up.
Audra:Well, I met a woman two weeks ago and she said something to me so profound that it has stayed with me, and she said here's an example of how we should act. She said we may not like each other. There may be two individuals, two individual women that may not get along. But she said to me she would be damned if she let my children starve.
Monica:Right.
Audra:That has haunted me and stayed with me and I thought that's how we need to be. We may not you're not gonna like everybody, Not everybody's gonna like you. There's gonna be differences that you just maybe aren't you're not comfortable with. That's okay, but that doesn't mean that their children or get to starve or they get less opportunity than you do, Right? Yeah, I wanted to share that with you because you're doing the same thing, yeah it's profound and I do believe that that's true In that situation.
Monica:I don't believe another woman would let another woman's children starve Like I believe. That's how we are wired. I have to. That's what gives me hope, right, all the noise around us right now, it's just a distraction at the end of the day. Just like my team members, you know, everyone wants to be seen and heard and appreciated, valued, recognized and whatever we can do to lift each other up.
Audra:Well, I'm gonna challenge the audience right now, because, even though we're talking about your frontline leaders in your industry, which happens to be fast casual restaurants, yeah, but there's frontline leaders everywhere. Think about the new college graduates coming out of undergrad that don't have a clue and because they have a degree, they've been made a manager. They have no idea, right?
Monica:Exactly.
Audra:Think about the desk clerks at hotels, all the various hotels. Think about all of the interactions that you all have every single day with these very young frontline leaders and consider what can I do to make their experience better? And therefore, somewhere along the way, my experience will be better too. So I'm challenging the audience to think about that. That's awesome. And help Monica in her quest, because obviously her quest is not for selfish reasons. She's literally trying to change the environment for all of us. It just happens to start in the drive-thru.
Monica:That's right Just happens to start in the drive-thru. I love that. That's great and you're so right. The people that we interact with every day you don't interact with the CEO, absolutely not. You interact with the person who makes your coffee or your sandwich or changes your oil or a million other things at the drug store. Yeah, those people deserve to have great coaches and bosses and have great experiences at work, and that will result in great experiences when we go out and do our things.
Audra:A couple of things I want to ask you, as the audience has been listening and they want more information. They just want to talk to you. They want to know how to access you. Where would they find you?
Monica:My website is monicarothgiricom. My book is Lessons from the Drive-Thru. It's due to be out in March of 2023. So you'll be able to find that on Amazon. I would love to hear from people, and you can always find me on LinkedIn, too. That's a great place to connect, and I love hearing people's stories. I love hearing people's adventures. I love hearing people what's their favorite food at Taco Bell. I also love hearing what's their first boss story? I've been collecting a lot of great first boss. What's your first? Who is your first boss?
Audra:Oh, my first boss was a woman. Her name was Eva Borey. She was an Olympic swimmer and I did. She had a pool and she had a swim school and I used her pool. I was doing an event because I was trying to earn my Girl Scout Gold Award and you have to do one thing to for that benefits the community. It's your last step in getting your Gold Award. I was a competitor swimmer and I was like, okay, this makes sense, I'll use her pool and put on a safety class for the younger kids, for the brownies, that kind of thing, yeah. And she just stood back and watched and at the end of it I said thank you for letting me use your pool. And she says do you want a job? I went what she says do you want a job? I'm so impressed with you. You need to be teaching kids. You need to be teaching more kids.
Audra:I worked for her for four years every summer and as I got better at it, I got to teach the private clients and my most difficult student that I ever had was a 40 year old cardiologist. Here I am I need you to picture this. Here I am I'm 19. I'm bopping around in my 82 Volkswagen Rabbit and I drive up to their extraordinary house and here I come bopping in in my speedo and it's an opulent house and here is this man, terrified to swim in his pool, and I was like, okay, let's go.
Audra:And so I taught him how to swim and it was then when I realized that's when I started to get the inkling that were kind of all the same, regardless of his paycheck, clearly in his abilities and his schooling, he still needed me to teach him how to swim. There you go, and I will never forget her for allowing me to do that, empowering me, letting me run it. I was on the show and she trusted me so much that she let me watch her house while they were gone traveling. She's like you want to stay at the house? I'll stock the refrigerator?
Monica:I'm like, okay, I will never forget her, I will never, ever forget her, and you can imagine the confidence that she built in you, the trust that she empowered you. You grew to believe in yourself because your first boss believed in you. I just I think these first boss stories are powerful and really interesting, and I just want I want people to enter the workforce today to be able to look back 20 years from now, 30 years from now, and have a great first boss story, like you. I got my gold award too, by the way.
Audra:Awesome. See, there's something about it. There's something about it. We kind of all find each other. This is my favorite part of the show, and I know you're like, oh God, what is she going to say? My favorite part of the show is when I get to step back from the mic and give you an intimate moment directly with the audience, without me interrupting. So the mic is yours.
Monica:I would just say the next time you go through a drive-through or you get service at a hotel or in a restaurant or in a retail store, just remember that that young person probably hasn't had much training and probably doesn't really. They don't know how to take care of you, maybe if you're not getting the service you want. And then to all the frontline leaders out there most importantly, always my parting message is you have the power to change lives. You are frontline heroes. You are as important as teachers and coaches and maybe even more important in creating safe space for first jobbers to come in, learn what it means to be on a team, build their confidence, self-esteem and perhaps shape their entire lives.
Audra:I can attest that your first boss can change the trajectory of your entire world. I will make sure all of your contact information is in the show notes. The book is coming out. Everybody be on the lookout for it. I will make sure that I announce when it finally is published. Make sure everybody goes and reads it. And, Monica, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate your time and spending a little bit of your wisdom with us.
Monica:Oh, thank you, it was a blast. I think you're really special and I totally love what you're doing. I think it's amazing.
Audra:Thank you, I appreciate that and I appreciate all of you for listening and we'll see you again next time.