Monica Rothgery is a natural leader. She has trained army soldiers, managed fast-food restaurant teams, built international franchise locations, and wrote a book about it all.
The former KFC Chief Operating Officer’s leadership journey fueled her unique approach to restaurant management and her mission to uplift frontline leaders.
Rothgery’s book, Lessons from the Drive-Thru: Real Life Wisdom for Frontline Leaders, takes readers behind the scenes of her journey. She shares the hard-earned knowledge from her toughest days as a frontline leader.
“I wrote this book for frontline leaders,” Rothgery emphasized. “The ones who think their job is just running the next shift. But they have the power to shape lives—most importantly, the lives of the people they manage.”
Watch now to learn about frontline leadership, the value of good training, and Lessons from the Drive-Thru.
The former KFC Chief Operating Officer’s leadership journey fueled her unique approach to restaurant management and her mission to uplift frontline leaders.
Rothgery’s book, Lessons from the Drive-Thru: Real Life Wisdom for Frontline Leaders, takes readers behind the scenes of her journey. She shares the hard-earned knowledge from her toughest days as a frontline leader.
“I wrote this book for frontline leaders,” Rothgery emphasized. “The ones who think their job is just running the next shift. But they have the power to shape lives—most importantly, the lives of the people they manage.”
Watch now to learn about frontline leadership, the value of good training, and Lessons from the Drive-Thru.
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NewsTranscript
00:00I'd love to know how many managers,
00:03how many restaurants should a manager manage?
00:06Oh, now you're getting into sacred ground.
00:10Okay so-
00:10So.
00:11So.
00:12So.
00:13So.
00:14So.
00:15So.
00:15So.
00:16So.
00:17So.
00:18So.
00:19So.
00:20So.
00:20So.
00:21So.
00:22So.
00:23So.
00:24So.
00:25So.
00:25So.
00:26So.
00:27So.
00:28So.
00:29and in the new creator economy we learn through lessons and stories.
00:33I want to give a special shout out to Toast, our primary technology partner at our barbecue
00:37restaurants for believing in this show, believing in storytelling, giving us the opportunity to
00:42bring you incredible storytellers, incredible leaders in the hospitality space. I am so
00:49excited. Today I have Monica Rothgary. She is the author of Lessons from the Drive-Thru.
00:57She is a speaker and she is a dynamic leader. I met her thanks to Troy Hooper,
01:03who is a former guest of this show. Troy came on this show back from two years ago,
01:09all the way from the National Restaurant Association show, Pepper Lunch Restaurants,
01:14an awesome episode. But Troy, he doesn't give me recommendations very often, but he gave me this
01:21recommendation. We got on a Zoom call and I said, Monica, I cannot wait to get you in front of our
01:27audience. So if you are a restaurant owner, if you are a restaurant leader, this woman, she,
01:34first of all, there's lots of people that write lots of books, but when I read her book, I read
01:40it on a plane to Boston to go see Toast, our customer advisory board. I'm part of the member
01:46there, but I'm going to share a story that I actually haven't even told Monica. So I was
01:50sitting waiting for our plane and I had the book open and a woman next to me, she asked me,
01:58are you in the restaurant business? And I looked at her and I frequently get asked that because I
02:04have a Toast bag. I wear my Cali Barbecue Media gear everywhere I go, but she wasn't asking about
02:09the Cali Barbecue Media gear. She wasn't asking about the backpack that had the Toast logo on it.
02:14She was asking about lessons from the drive-thru. She said, my mother runs, she's a general manager
02:22at a McDonald's and she loved that book and she told me that I had to read that book.
02:28And I'm like, no, I'm like, no way. I'm like, there's no way. I'm like, I'm literally going
02:34to be interviewing Monica coming up for our show for Restaurant Influencer. So that's how I'm going
02:39to set the stage, Monica. Like that's amazing because we haven't even sold that many copies
02:44the book's been out. It'll be six months, October 4th. And I'm like, wow, that's awesome.
02:50Because if it could get in the hands of the people that I wrote it for, which is ultimately
02:54Frontline Leaders, that's like a dream come true. I mean, for me, people say like, why is your book
03:01different than any other leadership book? First of all, it's short. The chapters are short. The
03:06stories are short. The words are short. Not because I don't think restaurant people can't
03:11handle sophisticated concepts in reading, but who wants to, right? It's just more fun to read
03:16short, interesting things. Secondly, most of the leadership books I've read
03:21are written by executives for executives. And this one is written for the Frontline Leader,
03:29not to say that every leader can't get something out of it. I think the lessons apply.
03:33And then the third thing is, this is not a look at me and my amazing career. And if you do what
03:40I did, you too can be the chief operating officer. No, no, no, no, no. This is every mistake I ever
03:46made, all of the bad shifts and late nights and moments that I just wanted to quit and did,
03:57only to come back the next day. But with the reflection of experience, right? And the
04:04things that those hard shifts, those painful lessons, when team members disappoint you,
04:11those eye-opening moments when you suddenly realize that you're not as great as you think
04:16you are, or as smart as you think you are, and how they stayed with me throughout my career.
04:22So I got to ask you though, what was your favorite chapter?
04:26We'll get to my favorite chapter. I'm going to ask you, I'm going to read a quick couple of
04:32sentences and I'd like you to share with our audience what they mean. But it says,
04:40being a restaurant general manager was the hardest job I ever had, way harder than being in the army.
04:46It was so hard that I quit every day in my head, but I always came back the next day.
04:53I never cried in the army, but I cried at Taco Bell.
04:57Yeah. Wow. That almost makes me cry right now. That 26-year-old person was struggling for sure.
05:06Yeah. Tell me about that 26-year-old person.
05:13She had gotten some of the best training you can get on the planet for leadership training.
05:18Getting trained by the US Army to become an officer in the United States Army is some of
05:24the best training there is. And I'm grateful for that. I'm proud to have served as a young
05:32lieutenant. I learned a lot. And I thought when I went into running a restaurant, I had a leg up,
05:41I would be in pretty good shape. And what I quickly learned, and by quickly, I mean the
05:47first two weeks, is that while team members and soldiers are similar in many ways, soldiers
05:57get a lot more training. They get weeks and weeks and weeks of basic training, which teaches them
06:03how to behave like a soldier, how to wear their uniform, how to compose themselves,
06:09how to be on time and comply with a set of standards. And then they learn how to do their
06:17job after that. Team members walk into our restaurants often, not always, but often,
06:23it's the first job they've ever had. And maybe they get a few hours thrown on the computer
06:30to learn to be nice to each other at work and to be safe and wash your hands.
06:36And then they're thrown to customers and thrown on the production line. And they're not prepared.
06:43I can't imagine they would feel confident. And so, just starting with that premise that they
06:48don't get what they need to be successful. And then for me to come in and demand and expect
06:53that they behave at the same level as soldiers was a false premise. And then when I told soldiers
07:01they had to do something, they kind of had to do it or bad things would happen. If I told a team
07:06or bad things would happen, if I told a team member they had to do something,
07:12they could just leave. And sometimes they did. And so, what I learned is
07:18I had to inspire folks at a much, much deeper level than I could have ever imagined. I had
07:26to care about them as people, as individuals, not as team members, but as individuals before
07:33they would ever begin to care about me, the restaurant, or my customers. So, yeah,
07:40I had to learn some really hard lessons. And those were some hard days. I don't know why I didn't quit
07:46though. I really don't. I think back, I'm like, man, why did you keep... I think there was part
07:51of me that was like, I got to figure this out. Yeah.
07:55I'm curious about that part because I think the more that I do this show, the longer that I run
08:01the restaurant, the more that I realize there's this hospitality DNA in us, and us meaning you,
08:08the listener, you, the viewer. The reason that why we're all connected is that we just don't quit
08:15as hard as it is. And we've all been there. You can't be in this business and not have those days
08:21where you try so hard to give everything you have to everyone else when you realize you have nothing
08:29in the tank. Yeah. Yeah. And even, I think the difference was when I was a frontline leader,
08:38I didn't know how to handle those days. And what I think I learned over time, Sean, is that
08:47you live to fight another day. There's going to be another shift tomorrow.
08:51And although this shift was a train wreck, or we failed our audit, or the customers just,
08:58we ran out of product, or the customers had a terrible experience because three people didn't
09:03show up. Tomorrow, the sun will shine and you go at it all again, trying to learn from what you did
09:11wrong the day before so that the next day could be a little bit better. It's kind of the ultimate
09:16test of like, I love sports and it's kind of like sports. Like sometimes you win and sometimes you
09:21lose. And when you lose, you just dust yourself off. You get stronger, you get better, and you
09:28move on, right? You get resilience. And that was something I like had to learn. I couldn't
09:35keep taking it on the chin, like getting knocked down, taking it so personally when
09:40sometimes just stuff happens. The heated cabinet goes out, the hot water goes out,
09:46the power goes out, stuff happens and then resilience and grit. It's like, how do we
09:55deal with it? We just move on. And then yeah, like this constant, almost game, how can I provide
10:03the best customer service? How can I create the best environment for my team members so that they
10:08just love working here and show up for me even when they don't want to? But yeah, we do. We show
10:16up, right? We just keep fighting. We keep doing what we do because we love it. Do not skip this
10:22ad. This is important information. I unboxed Toast, our point of sale at our barbecue restaurants,
10:29and now here I am interviewing Shaquille O'Neal on the biggest stages. We want to hear your Toast
10:36story. If you use Toast in your restaurant, send me a message at Sean P. Walcheff on Instagram,
10:44S-H-A-W-N-P-W-A-L-C-H-E-F. We want to hear your Toast story. If you're thinking about switching
10:51to Toast, we would love to help you. Please send us a message so that we can share your Toast story today.
11:00When you decided to write this book, I mean, one of the things my media mentor, he talks to
11:07me all the time in Hammer's Home, it's lessons, it's stories, it's stories, it's lessons, it's lessons,
11:14it's stories. And I think one of the things that impressed me the most about the book was that
11:21a lot of people will write a book and then tell their whole life story and try to condense
11:27however old they are into all those lessons. You were very specific about the time in your life
11:35where you wanted to really illustrate stories that happened to you from the drive-thru.
11:42Yeah.
11:42Specifically from 1992 to 1996, you narrowed in on that part of your career because you've had
11:50an illustrious career, especially when you look at where you went and all the things that you
11:55accomplished with KFC and International and all of these amazing things that you were able to do.
12:01You brought us right back to the pain points, but you amplified those pain points. Can you
12:09bring me through the writing process of like, did somebody coach you to do that?
12:14Yeah. Oh, wow.
12:15How did you do that?
12:16This is something no one has asked me. Good for you. Because it is about storytelling,
12:22right? And which is why I loved your show. I couldn't wait to get to end and talk to you
12:27because I do believe storytelling can change the world, right? And it's the oldest, one of the
12:32oldest forms of oral tradition and that stories have been passed on through, and storytelling,
12:40the morals of life and tradition is passed down through story.
12:47The bottom line is no one wants to read an autobiography unless you're in fifth grade
12:53and you're reading about Abraham Lincoln, right? So rather what we enjoy is memoir.
13:01The genre is memoir. And memoir is a point in time in your life that you talk about.
13:09When I went to summer camp, right? It's the six weeks at summer camp or
13:14really good memoir writers can write about a 24-hour period and that's a whole book.
13:23So for me, I did start out trying to write a different book and then I quickly realized that
13:30the stories I really wanted to tell were from that time period. Why? Because I really want
13:37frontline leaders to know, restaurant managers to know that they have so much more power than
13:43they think they do. They are so much more important to this country and this planet
13:48than just running the next shift or running that restaurant. They touch lives. Most importantly,
13:54the team members. I don't work with frontline leaders. You don't work directly. No owner
14:01or restaurateur works with frontline team members. The frontline leaders do. They're
14:07the only first bosses, right? I'll never be a first boss. Anybody I hire today is going to
14:13have decades of experience. But the person, that kid, that young person who walks into
14:19that restaurant for the first time and replies for a job, that person, their first boss will
14:24shape what they think about work for the rest of their career, for the rest of their work life.
14:30That's so much power and so much opportunity for our frontline leaders to be heroes,
14:37just like coaches and teachers to make a difference. My dream is to empower them,
14:42to lift them up and help them realize you're not just the butt of late night comedy.
14:50You're not the bottom rung of the food chain in careers. Being a restaurant manager is
14:59as noble profession as any profession. Now, that sounds crazy to someone who doesn't work
15:04in our industry, but I sure hope I can get that word out there.
15:08When you look at the stories that you chose, you're very intentional about the stories that
15:13you chose. Which story were you most worried about telling? Because you told a lot of truth
15:22and you're talking about Taco Bell, a brand that is beloved by you, beloved by the entire globe.
15:29But I think that's probably for me, the truths that you told endeared me more to the stories
15:37because of how you made those conscious decisions to say the things that you did.
15:43My goal was to make sure that the brand always looked good because Taco Bell and all the
15:51companies I've worked for have been very good to me. Were they perfect? No. At the time I was 26,
15:56did I think they were stupid and didn't know what they were doing and the stuff that came
16:00down from corporate wasn't good? Yeah, but I was naive and sometimes I was right though.
16:08The most difficult story to tell, there were some raw stories that talk about people.
16:18And I tried to tell those stories in such a way that made it about me and not about the team
16:25members. The team members were showing up as themselves, just like all of us, flawed, imperfect,
16:34products of our environment and experience we have. And how I interacted with them as a leader,
16:43whether I lifted them up or not, whether I helped them discover what they could be and who they
16:49could be, that's about me. And that's what I really tried to focus on the book. Now,
16:55there may be some people in that book who read it and go, 1997, Chicago. They could figure out
17:02who they are, but I wouldn't want to harm anyone. That's why I tried to keep it focused on myself.
17:11There were other stories I was very excited to tell. One is about a shift manager who I helped
17:17with. He was a team member at the time. And I talk about he was failing algebra and
17:25through a series of events, it turned out I could help him pass algebra. And so I messaged this guy.
17:32Now he hasn't heard from me in, I don't know, 20 years. His name's Khalil. And I'm like,
17:36hey, remember me? He's like, yeah, I remember you. I quote you all the time. I think about
17:40the days back in Chicago all the time and how you and Johnny, my assistant, how you took care of us
17:46and how you developed. I came here from another country. I couldn't speak that good of an English.
17:51And now I graduated. I have a degree in computer science. I run 10 restaurants. I was manager of
17:59the year for this other company. I was so proud of him. And he remembered the story the way I
18:06remembered. So I knew I could tell it. Of course, I asked him, I'm going to tell this story in a
18:10book. And he's like, as long as I can have a copy. So yeah, it was fun to look back and reconnect
18:17with a lot of the folks that I worked with from that window of time when I started my career in
18:24the restaurants. So now you do a lot of consulting for big restaurant groups, restaurant chains. Is
18:31that correct? Big, small. Big, small, doesn't matter. No, it really doesn't. And I do a lot
18:37of keynotes and workshops. Yeah. When you're meeting with these large restaurant groups,
18:45I'd love to know how many managers, how many restaurants should a manager manage?
18:52Oh, now you're getting into sacred ground. Okay. So when I was a restaurant manager,
19:00and you know, this kid, you read the book, they were piloting this program called
19:04Organization of the Future. Oof. And we called it goof. Because what they were trying to do was
19:12have one manager run four Taco Bells. And they had different models. And I think I got up to
19:19running four with a partner with another person. And then I was running two and it was a disaster.
19:26It was terrible. All I was doing was fighting fires. The team was frustrated because they
19:31needed a leader on site. I was frustrated. And eventually the company wisely abandoned that
19:36program. But that experience very young in my career taught me and for the rest of my career,
19:41I always never let this change. Every restaurant needs a leader. So if you're going to call it a
19:49restaurant general manager or restaurant manager, but every restaurant, one restaurant needs a
19:55leader, someone who is in charge of the people, someone who's in charge of the standards, someone
19:59who's in charge of the guest experience, and someone who basically ultimately is in charge
20:03of growing that business like it's their own. So the answer to your question is one.
20:11What do you think? I mean, what do you think? Well, we just had a conversation before we started
20:15this podcast. And you know, Cali barbecue, we just opened up on the Navy exchange, technically,
20:20our second location, we have two locations at the stadium, but those are run by the stadium
20:25operations. So this is the first time in 16 years that we're hiring another, a new general manager.
20:33And it was a wake up call to me and to Eric, my general manager of understanding,
20:42as an organization, we've gotten to a place where we need leadership at both locations.
20:48And that is a big wake up call for trying to burn the candle on both ends of understanding
20:55there's certain things that are getting neglected. Our team, our customers, our processes,
21:01our procedures, when we're trying to do too many jobs at once. That's right. That's right. And
21:07congratulations. And our expansion is exciting. And it's a sign of a healthy growing company. So
21:13you know, hats off to you and Cali barbecue. That's super fantastic. I still can't wait to
21:17get down to San Diego and try some. But yeah, I mean, that that new restaurant, especially a new
21:24restaurant needs a leader. And my advice to you is keep an eye on that restaurant, right?
21:29You know, because especially if you're, if you're tenured guy can spend a little bit of time there
21:34with the new guy, because that first team you hire is going to go through their,
21:39their iterations of turnover and figuring it out, you know, adapting to all of the new environment,
21:46the new customers, the new menu. And that takes time. That takes time. Are you opening with a
21:51limited menu? We did a hundred percent. You did. Okay. Oh yeah. Brilliant. That's my,
21:56that's some of my best advice is like slow roll. You're open, open with a limited menu and and
22:03give a lot of love and time and labor allowance to your team so they can get a really healthy,
22:10good start and not alienate customers in the first six months. They'll get into the groove
22:16and managing your labor percentages as they get more experienced. But yeah. And then you can
22:21broaden the menu, right. Over time, but you start out, you know, I see so many restaurants. No,
22:26we got to start out with a full menu. I'm like, all you're doing is setting your people up for
22:30success and your customers up for a less than awesome experience. But thank you. I would love
22:37to hear a story. I know it's in the book, but it's so important to the entire ecosystem of
22:45restaurants is this relationship between operations and marketing. Marketing has a
22:53great idea, but marketing's not actually boots on the ground executing said great idea to drive
23:00sales. So yeah, they're the 30 tacos and a free Rocky and bull T-shirt story. I am. And then I'm
23:08going to, it's literally like, it's, it's me, you know, the founder, the I'm the one with the
23:14marketing ideas. And then I go to Eric, my general manager, who's now the chief marketing.
23:18And he's like, we can't execute on that, but it's like, and it happens in every restaurant, right?
23:23Every restaurant has these types of dichotomies where you're trying to figure out what's the
23:28healthy balance and how do you execute, but please share the 30 taco story.
23:33Okay. So what you're talking about is the night that I realized I still had to put the point of
23:38purchase material up for the next day to huge refrigerator sized boxes. It's 2 AM. I'm tired.
23:45I'm cold. I'm wet because I had mopped and I still have to put up all this POP. We can talk later
23:51about why I saved that for the last minute. Not good delegation or did it Rocky and Bullwinkle
23:58big merchandise, right? That's right. That's right. So to win a free T-shirt.
24:02Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There was a part of it where you had a punch card and the customer,
24:08if they bought 30 tacos, they'd win a free shirt. So at the drive-through,
24:11you know, I'll take a 20 pack of tacos. You're like 20 times. And there was a big standee,
24:20big, huge, for those of you who don't know what Rocky and Bullwinkle was, it was a, it was a,
24:23it was a cartoon from like the eighties, seventies and eighties. And Bullwinkle was a big moose.
24:29And so there was a seven foot standee of the moose with, with Rocky, the little flying squirrel.
24:35And I could not get this thing to stand up. And by the end of the night, I was so frustrated and
24:40so angry at marketing for thinking like, this was a good idea. Who thought this was a good idea?
24:45This ridiculous standee, this punch card with 30, you know, punches to get a free T-shirt,
24:52no room to store the T-shirts. And the moral of that story, you know, for me, it was about
24:59delegation and about not, you know, saving things for the last minute. But looking back on that as
25:05an executive, what it taught me was you got to have stuff that restaurants can operate,
25:12that they can execute. And not just one restaurant, one time, but for me at my old
25:18company at KFC, that was 4,000 restaurants across the country. And not just one day, every day,
25:24seven days a week, and not just one shift, but three shifts, morning, afternoon, dinner, and late
25:30night. And if they can't do that consistently, you're not fair to the team and the customers.
25:36So as an executive on a team with a marketing, you know, with a marketing person, a CMO,
25:42I tried to make friends and be like, okay, you and I are partners on this.
25:47And I'm going to help you get something that it can be successful because like in Thailand,
25:52they wanted to put parsley on every bowl, rice bowl, that was a dish, we had rice bowls and rice,
25:59chicken, some sauce, and veggies. And they wanted us to put a piece of parsley on each one. I'm like,
26:03guys, we're a fast food restaurant. The key word there that differentiates us is fast.
26:10We don't need garnish.
26:11We don't need garnish. Oh, but Kunmonika, it's very good. It makes a very nice presentation.
26:18I'm like, yes, it does, but it won't happen. And so this was my formula, and I'll share it with
26:25you guys because I think it works really well. And it's this formula of three greens. I didn't
26:30invent it, but I'm going to repeat it. Three greens. If you're going to roll out a new initiative,
26:35whether that's a new product, a new marketing campaign, a new process, a new piece of equipment,
26:39it needs to have three greens. Green light, first of all, for the customer, right? Of course,
26:45you wouldn't do it if it didn't. Although sometimes we do things that aren't green for
26:49the customers, like make the cup strength less in the cup strength. So the cup gets kind of,
26:55you know, melts after you go through the drive-thru or not have good straws that work. I
27:00mean, we have to do things that are smart for the customer. Two, it's got to be green for the
27:05franchisee, green for the business. The franchisee has to be able to make money. So you can't have
27:11the most expensive cut of meat or 15 new ingredients for one product, you know, or
27:17labor that's going to, you know, make the profit margin on that particular item too low. And then
27:24the third one is it has to be green for the team member. The team member has to have a fighting
27:29chance to be successful every time. And you assess that by surveying the team member during
27:37the market testing phase, when you test your new product or your new process or your new
27:42piece of packaging. And the team members and the managers will tell you if it doesn't work.
27:46We prevented so many mistakes because we had a really robust system of asking. Three greens,
27:52green for the customer, green for the franchisee, and green for the team members.
27:55And you're going to have a good launch of whatever new product or campaign you want to launch.
28:01When you got promoted for your overseas position for KFC.
28:07Yeah. Oh my God.
28:10What kind of fear did you have?
28:11Oh, so we're in Thailand. My wife and I moved to Bangkok. Ultimately, I was to become the head of
28:20HR. About six weeks in, the general manager of the business unit, we had probably 400 KFCs there
28:28in Thailand. And with a charge to build one a week for four straight years. When I left,
28:35we were almost at 900. They're over 1,000 there. I think they're at 1,200 now.
28:40So it was a rampant development in a very, very operationally challenging environment.
28:47Let me say that out of 140 countries that KFC is, Thailand was 140.
28:53Wow.
28:54So the general manager came to me and she said,
28:56I know we brought you to be this, but I really need a COO. So how about if you become head of
29:04operations? And I was like, that's a terrible idea. And in my head, I'm like, what? First of
29:10all, I don't know how to make chicken. I'm not a fried chicken person. It's an art. It's beautiful.
29:15If you know what you're doing, I didn't. I was a taco and pizza person. I'd been out of operations
29:21for a good 15 years. I'd been in HR. And third, I didn't speak Thai. And the reports
29:29weren't in English. And the team members and restaurant managers didn't speak English.
29:33So how on earth? Yeah, I was panicked. I was terrified. The only thing that I had to
29:38kind of console myself was it was 140 out of 140.
29:44Even if I brought it up, 20 countries, there would be a remarked improvement. It was terrifying.
29:53Yeah. But what I told myself when I told the organization why I took the job was
29:59for the last 15 years, I've been in HR telling operators, you should do this and you should do
30:04that. And so, okay, I'm going to see if I can do it. And the other thing I wanted to test,
30:10Sean, was the idea of story, the idea of appreciation, the idea of recognition,
30:16does it transcend culture? I mean, I kind of thought it did, or does it transcend Western
30:27culture? Can I go to a Southeast Asian country and introduce ideas like that and rally a team
30:37around appreciation and recognition and powerful success as a team?
30:47That was kind of the social science experiment behind it. Yeah, those were the things that
30:53terrified me. Do you remember once you started that experiment, what the feedback was? Was it
31:00foreign? Was it something that they yearned for? No, because they have a fear-based culture that's
31:08very hierarchical and risk-averse. So I sat in front of my region coaches, each one of them has
31:1650 restaurants. I said, all right, guys, let's talk about what we're going to work on next year.
31:20We're going to put together our plan for next year. What do you think? And I rephrased it because
31:29sometimes, you know, maybe my English was too complicated. I used a different word.
31:34And finally, the one guy in the room goes, that's your job.
31:39It's your job to figure out what we're going to do.
31:43I said, okay, okay, fair. The reason you have to bring an American to your country
31:50to figure out and run operations is because none of you can do it.
31:54And so I'm going to teach whoever wants to learn. I'm going to have a meeting next week,
31:58and if you want to figure out how to do strategy, how to put together a plan to take us from 140 to
32:04number one, come to the meeting. Out of the eight, only two came.
32:07Wow.
32:08So that's what, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But one of the ones that came,
32:12she's a COO over there right now. Really?
32:15Yeah, for one of the franchisees. Yeah.
32:18No way. She was in that first meeting?
32:20She was in the first meeting, Kun Kuang. She was so special to me. I do have another chapter of
32:26my book that got caught about this. It's about Kun Kuang and how Kuang believed in what I was
32:34selling and how we change performance and how we build more momentum and how we focus on just one
32:39thing and start to get a series of wins and then build on that to ultimately step change how we're
32:46operating overall. Yeah, she's done really great. I'm so proud of her. I hope she hears this someday.
32:51She will. We'll send it to her for sure.
32:54Yeah, Kun Kuang.
32:57What's next?
33:00Well, my book is six months old, Lessons from the Drive-Thru, and I'm on a mission to get it in as
33:06many hands of frontline leaders and all leaders as I can because I think it's a fun book and I think
33:12the messages are important, even for people not in the industry. It's really interesting. I've had
33:17people come up to me and say two things. One, I had no idea how hard it is to be a fast food
33:22restaurant manager, how much you care about what's happening, how much stress there is.
33:30When I'm sitting in the drive-thru now, I have a whole totally different appreciation
33:34as a customer for what's going on in there. That makes me happy, that empathy that they
33:41could have for our teams back there who are probably doing the best they can.
33:46That makes me happy. And then they say, I also learned a lot about leadership because it does
33:52transcend the industry. Working on a second book, starting a second book about unlocking the
34:00potential in each person because so often in organizations, the biggest problem I see in
34:07organizations is everybody does the job of the person underneath them. And if you can get everybody
34:14doing their role, you unlock growth, especially with frontline leader. They're so busy running
34:20shifts and they're not really focused on growth. They're not really focused on
34:26customer retention, ticket average, turn, speed, all the things that are going to make your business
34:33grow. So that's going to be the second book. Just trying to help organizations, franchise
34:40organizations, restaurant companies, any company retail service that has frontline leaders,
34:46leverage their folks and ultimately just empower those folks that work on the frontline that
34:54make us all successful. That's what's nice.
34:57If you had a message to every general manager in the entire world that runs a restaurant,
35:05what message would you give them? Yeah, it would be this. You are so special.
35:10Your job and your opportunity is so much bigger than you believe. You change lives. You change
35:17your family's lives, change your customers' lives. You change your team members' lives.
35:22And so my challenge to you is pick your head up, stop looking at your clipboard or your to-do list
35:30and start to step into the fullness of what is the possibility of your role,
35:34your true role. You're a coach, you're a teacher, you're a pillar in your community.
35:38And so it is all there for you to step into your purpose. And however I can help you, I will.
35:45Amazing. If you guys are listening to this, if you're watching this,
35:50we want to hear your story. We want to learn about your restaurant. You can join our community.
35:54We have a digital hospitality community that meets every Wednesday, every Friday on LinkedIn.
35:59So you can follow Cali BBQ Media every Wednesday, every Friday, 10 AM Pacific time, 1 PM Eastern
36:05time, 6 PM London time, wherever you are in the world. It's a live show. You can meet our
36:10community. We would love for you guys to join us and to be a part of that. Monica, I'm going to ask
36:17you a couple questions about your storytelling. So your personal tech stack. So we believe that
36:25every person has the magic of the internet, the magic to connect with people all over the globe.
36:32Are you an iPhone user or an Android user? iPhone.
36:35iPhone. All the way.
36:37What version? 15. The big one.
36:41Do you prefer phone calls or text messages? Text messages.
36:47Text messages. Do you leave? Although I'm learning the power of phone calls again,
36:51to be honest with you. I have a coach, a business coach. Her name's Amy Rudy. Shout out to Amy.
36:57Uh, picking up the phone is a lost art and I'm starting to rediscover it.
37:02It is an amazing art. Audio is amazing. Uh, do you leave voicemails?
37:07Uh, I'm starting to, yes. You're starting?
37:09More. Yeah.
37:10How many emails do you get a day? Not that many. Not that many. Maybe 10 or 15.
37:17Really? Yeah.
37:19Well, you know, I'm not working actively in a running a restaurant company. Now ask me when
37:24I was running a restaurant company, when you were running a restaurant company, fair question,
37:28maybe 50 or 60, which is shockingly low. And the reason is because I did pick up the phone.
37:35So if a franchisee had a problem and sent me a nasty email or a great email, but most often they
37:41were complaining about something. I didn't reply in an email. I did pick up the phone. I'm like,
37:45let's talk about this. And that 10 minute phone conversation probably saved 15, 15 emails.
37:50Same thing with a vendor. Um, I managed my emails very well because I think it can be a time suck.
37:56And it also, it's just a shitty way to, it's a shitty way to communicate. It's not real. You
38:01know, you can't get tone. You can't get my, you can't sense my empathy or compassion or whether
38:06I'm upset at you. Uh, let's just have a phone call or a zoom call, like, you know, and talk
38:12like people and chances are we could solve any problem in 10 minutes versus 20 emails back and
38:17forth. Do you use Google maps ways or Apple maps? Uh, I'm a Google map person. Yeah. Google map. Uh,
38:25do you listen to music on your iPhone and what platform do you listen to music? Spotify. Yes.
38:30Spotify. Um, let's see. Favorite social media app. LinkedIn. LinkedIn. Um,
38:40do you prefer photos or videos? Uh, I like to look at videos, but I'm more for my own content is
38:48more photos. However, LinkedIn is doing a beta, um, test on videos. And, uh, I'm, I'm kind of
38:54excited about this. So I might, I might dip my toe in the video. Uh, you will. Okay. I will. I will.
39:00You will. You're a storyteller. We need video. We need more video. I think so. I think so. I'll
39:05take any coaching. Yes, a hundred percent. Um, and, and finally, I would love to know
39:13what you have a favorite quote, a favorite mantra, something that, um,
39:22wow. Favorite mantra.
39:30Huh? That's a good one. You got me on that one.
39:36What would somebody say? Monica always says this.
39:39Always says, yeah, that's a good one. Um, you got this.
39:43Yeah. Like believe in yourself, believe in yourself the way I believe in you.
39:47And, uh, yeah, that would, that would, that would be what I hope they would say.
39:52Yeah. That's amazing.
39:53I like your reframing of it too. It was easier to answer that.
39:56And, uh, where can people buy the book?
39:59The book is available on Amazon or, um, Goodreads pretty much anywhere you buy your online books.
40:05Um, lessons from the drive-through real life wisdom for, um, real life wisdom for frontline
40:12leaders. And, uh, there's a pretty cool QR code in the front that you can download a discussion
40:17guide. So if you want to use it with your team, maybe a chapter a week, have them read the story,
40:22which will take like 10 minutes. And then it creates the discussion guide helps formulate
40:28the conversation about what they learned and how they could apply it. Um, and you've,
40:33you want to talk to me more, you can reach me at Monica Roth, Gary.com.
40:36I'm all about, you know, getting the word out.
40:40Amazing. And if you guys want to reach me, you know, it's at Sean P Welcheff, S H a W N P W
40:46A L C H E F. I am weirdly available. We appreciate you for listening as always stay curious,
40:54get involved, and don't be afraid to ask for help. We'll catch you guys next week.
40:57Thank you so much, Monica.
40:58Thanks, Sean. Love it.
41:00Thank you for listening to restaurant influencers. If you want to get in touch with me,
41:06I am weirdly available at Sean P Welcheff S H a W N P W A L C H E F Cali barbecue media
41:15has other shows. You can check out digital hospitality. We've been doing that show
41:20since 2017. We also just launched a show season two family style on YouTube with toast.
41:27And if you are a restaurant brand or a hospitality brand, and you're looking to launch your own show,
41:32Cali barbecue media can help you. Recently, we just launched room for seconds with Greg Majewski.
41:39It is an incredible insight into leadership, into hospitality, into enterprise restaurants
41:46and franchise franchisee relationships. Take a look at room for seconds. And if you're ready
41:52to start a show, reach out to us be the show.media. We can't wait to work with you.