Kind: captions
Language: en
one time i was teaching a an mba class
and i remember one of the students said
mr montana you know all my professors
have degrees
where did you get yours and remember i'm
from the hood so i i don't have a
problem
with confrontation right so i walked up
to him and i just said
uh university of cucamonga
no such cool right it's just my hometown
and he said
where's that at and i said private
school never mind you couldn't get in
and i walked away and
all the other students were like you
know how that goes right
he says okay i'll give you that but the
truth is all my
professors have phds and then i'd had it
by this time turner i said look i've got
a phd
i've been poor hungry and determined
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hey everybody welcome to another episode
of impact theory i am here with somebody
that i think is going to blow your mind
the one the only
richard montagnes welcome to the show
thank you a pleasure to be here with you
dude so good to have you your story is
insane your new book flamin hot
uh is it may be my all-time
favorite success story it is so amazing
the
number of obstacles that you've had to
overcome uh to get where you are today
and just the
sheer breadth of your career is really
awe-inspiring and i would love to just
start at the beginning man what's
what's the background why is the book
called flamin hot like walk us through
that extraordinary narrative well thank
you you know i appreciate that you read
it and you
you understood it you know because
people uh
find out everything that i went through
the first thing they
they say is you know why did you why'd
you stay there so long
it's hard to explain to people you know
that's what pioneers do
they map out new territories and they
come back and they bring
settlers so that was one of the reasons
i stayed because i knew that i was a
pioneer
i was doing something new that a lot of
people didn't understand
and give people a tiny bit of context so
they understand what you mean by pioneer
so you
your family two generations picking
grapes
you guys are basically in a work camp
and whole family's picking grapes you're
sort of the first one that's going to
have a career beyond that go to pepsico
get a job as a janitor
and end up just to give people like the
punchline so they see how powerful this
is
you end up as an executive from janitor
to exec and it's it's really a pretty
radical story
so all right so now backing up to being
a pioneer when did you begin to
see yourself as a pioneer was that right
from the jump or was that something that
occurred later
i i right from the very beginning now i
i didn't know what a pioneer was
but i look back on my my childhood even
at the child i was a pioneer because
you're right
where we grew up with a small town
called gwastie california
it was a fine a farm uh migrant labor
camp everybody picked grapes
uh about two 000 families lived there my
grandpa
my my dad my mom my aunts my everybody
pick grapes and
we would pick grapes of the family for
one reason
because we got paid by the box so the
more a family
went the more they made you know it
wasn't it wasn't by the hour in those
days and uh so so it wasn't i wasn't
picking full-time
you know maybe on the weekends or maybe
in the summer when or you know well
there was no school whatever
and uh it wasn't uh it wasn't as bad as
as some of the other migrant uh
communities
because the the guy who built this the
city
uh gwastie segundo
he was an italian that came from italy
yeah he migrated himself so he built he
built this uh
he built housing for us he built the
church and he built the school
so yeah it was bad at first but then you
know as he was building it and building
it it got a little better
and you know that's where i started up
there with you know 10 children i'm the
second oldest
um so you know we were we were really
poor but it was i tell people it was a
fun kind of poor
what made it fun i've heard you say that
and there's something super um
beautiful about why you say that it was
fun why
what made it fun yeah because the first
thing is you know there was a lot of a
lot of children and we had no toys
and we had no bikes so i remember one
time we found uh one of the plow
tractors you know they they changed the
tire and they threw the tires off so
uh we would get inside the tire
and roll each other you know like a
ferris wheel down
down the vineyard so it was it was you
know stuff like that you had to make up
your own imagination we made our own uh
we made our own
you know go carts and things like that
and and then the the
the rooms were like a more like a motel
there was no kitchen there was no
bathroom just for one room
and it was a community kitchen like a
big restaurant there was big stoves
and it was refrigerated so every morning
i had breakfast with you know
eight ten twelve families you know and
and
for dinner i was the same thing so the
community is just like i
sense to see that again a community
where everybody
you know one grandma here ran out of
whatever eggs and the other grandma
would be right here
you had your own refrigerator and you
had your name on it and no
and nobody stole from each other it was
just like you know
everybody made sure everybody had enough
to eat so that's what i'm saying
it was kind of it was just so fun i
didn't know i was poor we just you know
there was a there was an old an old
reservoir tank that they would uh
fill it up for the water in the uh
the vineyards and we used to go swimming
in there you know and the owner never
said anything because you know he knew
he he was like
you know these are my kids so that's why
my dad and my grandfather
were were very thankful you know for the
start that
uh you know that family gave us
yeah that's one of the things about your
story that i am so in love with
is you know the the sort of classic
american dream is that my kids will do
better than
we did and when you first get the
opportunity to go
apply um at i think at the time it was
free to lay i don't know if it was owned
by pepsi at that time or not but um
and you go and you get the job and then
they give you a pretty
key piece of advice that ends up setting
you up
when you got the job as the janitor what
did they tell you
well you know that was an experience in
itself it was it was
a dream come true because i you know
after uh
uh you know picking grapes i
i worked at a car wash and i was a
gardener i was pretty much working full
time
when i was 10 12 years old
i even had a fake birth certificate that
my mom got me
saying that i was 18 years old so i
could work the car washing
one day my neighbor says hey they're
hiring at frito lane this is exactly
what i thought i said oh my god frito
lay
and it was owned by pets i thought if i
could get a job at frito-lay
i could change the legacy for the
montenegs family i can go from the
fields and to the factories
and people like it's a factory job no no
it's an opportunity to change my legacy
they have benefits you know i i went
from
two dollars an hour to 450 an hour
double the pay with you know with
benefits you know i could start my
family i was just so excited
you know and at the time to barely read
and write it was true you know i don't
have any school but yet you know
i i need to remind people i didn't stay
there i
educated myself um so anyways uh
my wife actually filled out the
application for me
and i and i took it back the next day
and i was really nervous
because the the manager looked at the
application and he looked at me kind of
funny like
questioning me to go did you fill this
out and i
was scared i said yes and he goes you
have nice handwriting
you know i haven't taken judy's credit
ever since i thought
i got the job it says you're hired
you're the janitor can you start tonight
i said absolutely
so it was it's interesting that the
plant uh the frito-lay plant
was maybe about a quarter of a mile away
from uh
the labor camp and in those days
frito-lay used to build plants out of
nowhere
and that's where gwasti was you know
it's kind of like industrial
built around it um it's not the same
anymore so
i was able to you know catch my my
grandfather and my dad and my
grandfather said something to me that
uh i i say it's the reason i'm
successful and i love to
tell young people this you know we've
spoken at at harvard notre dame some of
the top schools in the country and
i always say this and he asked me what
are you going to do i said uh
i'm the janitor i have to mop the floors
he looked at me and he said when you mop
that floor you make sure that it shines
so when people see it they know that a
mountain is mopped it
and my dad said listen to your grandpa
you know i actually took that on
and this is what i tell people and you
know maybe some people will get it in
somewhat i said
as much as i love the compensation the
promotions frito-lay hot cheetos pepsi
the truth is it was never about them
it was always about my last name
you know it was always about that you
know and
i'm mopping the best i could and i saw
that i was having an
influence and people say how can you
have an influence when you're just a
janitor
and i told people there's no such thing
as just a janitor when you believe in
your heart you're going to be the best
no such thing as a waiter a bus driver
and what was happening was my job was to
clean the bathrooms
the lunchroom and all the uh managers
offices before they came in in the
morning so the workers would go into the
bathroom and the bathroom was spotless
it smelled good and they'd come out with
a smile like hey
who who cleaned that and then they go
into the lunch room and it was you know
spotless you know you know i wasn't
complaining like throw your own trash i
was just cleaning and smell
good and then in the morning the
managers were you know opening up their
offices and saying wow who
my office is spotless who you know who
did this and everybody pointed
to that janitor and said richard
montenez
and that's when i learned that at a very
young age that i had an
influence i could influence people
without saying one word
by my work ethics i i influenced i put a
smile on their face and never even said
anything
and then i realized too you know some of
these quotes quote
that are ancient exactly that they're
ancient somebody said
you get promoted by who you know i said
that's not true you get promoted by
who knows you you can say you know the
ceo or the manager all you want but they
don't and that's what was happening
as a janitor people were knowing who i
was just because of my work ethics i
hadn't even spoken a word yet
one of the coolest things about your
story to me is that two weeks after you
get the job even though you're doing a
good job
they go to fire you and one why did they
go to fire you
and then how did you turn it around
because that that this to me is where
you go from like a cool story
to like whoa this guy really has another
gear
that broke me uh
you know two weeks my that time manager
called me up
you know the probation period was was
was uh
it was actually 30 days and 15 days had
gone by and he said
i got to let you go yeah i can't tell
i mean i didn't even have a hard time
talking about it because it was so long
ago but what it did to me
i was just totally devastated like you
know i
i blew the only shot that i would
somebody like myself
because you have to understand you know
people say you don't make right choices
when you're in the hood
or ain't too many good choices coming to
the hood you know i
i don't frown on anybody who's from that
area because that's where i come from
you know i come from the ghetto
my leadership is from the hood so i just
thought
man it ain't gonna come again and i blew
it
you know so i begged him like man you
know please you know let me
let me you know what did i do then he
said well
you know you don't show any initiative
i didn't know what the word meant and
here's what he was saying
is uh he told me to mop this
this this and i did it so fast and so
good
that i was finishing too early so i
didn't know what to do
so guess what i did is i mopped it again
so i just i just kept cleaning the same
stuff within those eight hours
knowing that i'd done it in four hours
but listen to this no one had ever done
it in four hours
so he said you showed no initiative and
i was
i didn't know what that meant so i went
and i begged him i said just give me two
more weeks i will be the most
initiative person you ever see please
please and
and you know it's part of my destiny he
said okay
you got two weeks so i went home and
judy's been my teacher my inspiration
you know
i said judy i almost got fired she said
what happened and
i said he said i didn't have any
initiative and i said what is that
and then she began to explain to me and
it it hurt
i mean it hurt inside and it hurts so
much that it took me over the edge
i'm never going to hear that word again
no one ever going to say that richard
has no initiative so
i thought he'd quit why didn't you get
angry and say what does this guy know
like so many people their response is at
that point they're like you know f this
guy maddie
because i didn't have any other choices
you know i i
knew where i where i was at at that time
i knew
there was racial discrimination
everywhere you know not to point any
fingers but you know that that was the
70s you know
we just came out of the 60s so i didn't
have a whole lot of choices you know i
quit school i didn't have a high school
diploma
you know i just saw that you know i was
i'm a visionary
you know and the problem with being a
visionary is we're five to ten years
ahead of everyone else you got to have
patience
let everybody else catch up so i knew
you know i wasn't going to get mad i was
hurt and broken because
it was the truth it was the truth i
didn't have any initiative
and that's why i teach young people
sometimes when somebody tells you the
truth
you've got to learn not to be offended
and use that because it is the truth
even there's a scripture in the bible
that paul even wrote that i love
he said am i your enemy because i tell
you the truth
you know and today people can't take
that well i'm quitting i'm getting the
hell out of here you know he can't talk
to me like that
you know sometimes i say you know don't
get abused
but hang in there you know
build something and that's how i felt
like i didn't have one i wanted that job
real bad
i wasn't going to quit just because you
know it was true i didn't have any
initiative
so he didn't lie to me he wasn't picking
on me
he probably one of the best things that
anybody could ever said to me
so how did you end up responding well uh
i
turned it around you know i i did my job
in four hours and i was on there there
was a wall that separated production
from the offices and the lunchrooms
because in production there was you know
quality control you couldn't go in there
unless you had hair nets and you know
protective equipment so what i did is i
borrowed some protective equipment i
went in there and i started hanging out
with the operators
the people that were running the lines
and i started taking their trash outside
and then if they want this is cool this
is the truth i don't know you know
people will like it but if they wanted a
cigarette break
you know to go outside and smoke you
know this is 70 right you know everybody
smokes
uh so i would say well just show me what
to do you know you'll just be gone for
five minutes and they're like uh i don't
know
like come on just i'm i'm a mechanic you
know and i really am
you know and so they would teach me you
know uh
how to watch the line and they would go
outside
you know and i'd do that for a couple of
weeks and so so the other managers were
were telling my manager like hey uh the
guy on your crew that mops in the night
man hey i
just want to thank you for letting him
take my trash out my guys helped him and
they were like what who did that you
know and he was like
like okay he was like no one had ever
done that you know you heard the old
statement that's not my job
after he told after he told me that i i
never said i said i'm employed here that
is my job
you know that is my job and
and little by little i learned how to
run the the dorito lines
you know how to and it is like being a
pilot it's not
you know people say you just make chips
oh no no no man it's like you got to go
to pilot school to learn how to make
doritos and potato chips and fritos
believe me it takes a couple years to be
a master
like it is just so extraordinary the way
that you
think and the fact you had to go learn
the word initiative
and then we're like okay cool yeah i got
it boom and then i have the chills ah
it's such a cool story yeah well that's
all you know it happened
is i learned all the equipment you know
even
i'm proud you know many years later my
ceo said you know you're the only person
in the company
who can peel the potato put it in a bag
load the truck
make a marketing strategy and sell it in
the store no one else can do that
and that separated me as an executive
because then you know that
because we knew what the front line was
going through
we knew what uh what down time was like
hey we got to get that going on we knew
what safety was we knew all you know all
that stuff you know and
it gave me an advantage so i learned all
the equipment and then one day
you know one day
one the operators
one of the operators didn't come in so
that meant that
what they would do they would double up
the
two shifts to cover the one ship for
four hours so that meant the
the guy on graveyard that was my ship
he was going to have to stay until 11 in
the morning
and the guy on swing shift was gonna
have to come in four hours early then do
his eight hours so it was you know 12
hour
14 hour day and this guy had been
doing you know the whole week and he was
kind of tired
because this guy was off for a few days
and and i remember i begged the uh
the supervisor i said let let me have
those you know four hours of overtime
wow that would be you know we'd be going
to disneyland
that weekend you know and so i said let
me let me uh let me run the machine you
know
and they're like you're crazy what's the
matter you're not an operator no no i've
you know reuben's been showing me you
know when he goes on breaks i'm i'm
giving him a break and what
yeah and and i and at the time i was
writing everything down
i i did terrible in school
but putting and being put into my mind
right yeah yeah right but being in my
realm all that was it made me
as though i was brilliant i could i
could solve math problems
by saying well you know we need thirty
thousand pounds of corn
you know 20 000 gallons of oil i need uh
you know six people to pack you know
that right i was able to
calculate where it was very efficient
where we were making money
so i i begged them to you know let me do
it and
sure enough you know i i did it and by
this time i had i had been tweaking
stuff to
you know see all this out and um
that day the next day the the the main
boss of production
said uh who ran you know line number one
and doritos because uh that eight hours
you set a record for most pounds
produced
and they told me they said what a
janitor
said use them any time i didn't have
that official job but i was
you know i was filling in for vacations
i was doing more of that than i was
you know mocking they could get anybody
to mop you know
and then uh i really started uh tweaking
things and writing things down because
when i started there
they told you how to uh how to make a
dorito
okay and then i started saying well you
know
how do you make the best doritos
possible so i was tweaking things and i
was writing things
it's like a laboratory i was writing
things down like a pilot would
and i said you know i presented it to my
i took it home to judy
and judy wrote it up like a presentation
and i gave it to one of the supervisors
and he said you know again you did this
i said yeah
and he shared it with the production man
who shared it with the plant manager and
next thing you know they're using
those specs for the whole plant and
later on it grew into the
into the into the nation you know but
the only thing that i that i'd like to
tell young people
is this is make sure that you write your
history down
because no one will recording that
because
of who it was coming from because i
wasn't an engineer i wasn't a phd
you know research and development person
so a lot of that history um was never
celebrated the way it should
should have been so i'm teaching young
people i made it that's why i wrote the
book
you know i wanted people to know the
true story uh
how i overcame certain things but not to
make the same
mistakes i made get yours so that's why
i said
you know young people say well i i want
to i want a career just like yours mr
montana said no time out i never had a
career i had a calling
you know the stuff that i went through i
don't want you to go through it
you know but you know i'm telling peop
you know them now
you know write down your history make
sure
you know because the people say it's not
too many people will understand this
you know we're always told that it's
about the team
and yes but sometimes it's about you
you know don't don't pass the ball you
know michael jordan would never been
michael jordan if you would have
continued to pass the ball kobe bryant
my hero
i'm taking the shot so i learned you
know what
the ball's in my court i'm not going to
pass it i'm going to take the shot so i
tell young people don't pass that ball
take the shot and then they say this too
you know i'm an old corporate guy okay i
got years of you know in the boardroom
and all that it's just i
i'm looking back now and something we're
incorrect you know
i need i'm trying to change the culture
i change the culture in corporate
america once i'm trying to change it
again
you know so i'm saying you know there's
an old quote i don't know if it was
winston churchill somebody famous said
you'd be surprised at how much you can
get done
when no one gets the credit and i'd
quote that like wow that's so true but
then i said you know what
that ain't true somebody's gonna get the
credit
and it's probably gonna be your boss you
know it's a really interesting concept
though so
um and look you leveraged it and you're
you're
right to say you know for people to
be really shrewd about how they play the
game but the way that you played it
is also quite brilliant in the sense
that what i'm always trying to convey to
people is
if you're indispensable and somebody's
stealing your ideas
they still know they're stealing your
ideas so you still have leverage
and the fact that you were able to keep
climbing
obviously you you know learned how to
use your leverage extraordinarily well
but i want to go back to this idea of i
didn't have a career i had a calling
talk to me about your phd
okay well you know i actually you know
earned my phd is one time i was teaching
a
an mba class at a real pers
prestigious universe i can't give you
the name because you know i don't think
they want
anybody to know that one of their
teachers doesn't have a high school
diploma
but we were teaching and uh i remember
one of the students said because i would
say i don't care what room you're in
it's always somebody in that room can
try to steal your destiny your job is to
be ready not to allow it
so he said mr montana you know all my
professors have degrees
uh where did you get yours and remember
i'm from the hood so i
i don't have a problem with
confrontation right so i walked up to
him
and i just said uh university of
cucamonga
no such cool right it's just my hometown
and he said uh
where's that at and i said private
school never mind you couldn't get in
and i walked away and there all the
other students were like you know how
that goes right
he says okay i'll give you that but the
truth is all my
professors have phds and that i had had
about this time turn around i said look
i've got a phd
i've been poor hungry and determined
you know and that's how i earned my phd
off the streets you know so
um but then i realized you know as
things were happening in my career as
you said you know i found a way
and here's here's how i did it you know
people say you know i'm trying to
influence
and i said that's true and but i
realized this i made it specific
i'm not trying to influence everyone
only the right ones
who are the right ones those who come
into your life that can help you and you
can help them
so i recognize that i mean it was this
was before you know
tony robbins and all that stuff i was
just doing it because
i knew that i had a calling so i was
leveraging
uh some of the manager that i saw where
we're different we're visionaries to
help me learn
you know the computer to help me learn
this and they were they were so happy to
to be able to teach because you know
this this is during when
corporate america is in command and
control
and what is the command in control it's
well exactly that i command i control i
didn't hire you to think
how do you do what i tell you to do so
these new these new generation of
managers coming out of college in the
80s
were a different breed they wanted to
teach you know they weren't uh
you know from the old school where you
know it was it was humanity so
when somebody like me would come up to a
person
teach me how to use the computer they'd
like yeah absolutely so that's what i'm
saying i didn't have to influence
everyone only the right ones and i
concentrated on who were the right ones
in my life
and the other thing that i never did and
i teach this
i never let anybody know what i was
thinking i was smiling all the time
even when i was upset you know because
they would hold it against you
so it's just like never let them know
what you're thinking you know if they
give you a dirty job
smile you know whatever that and that's
what i did and it worked for me
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all right guys
if you need this one please give it a
shot take care and be
legendary yeah it's
it is so amazing the way that you
never let anybody slow you down stop you
no matter what obstacle they put in your
way
so this idea of command and control you
get this new ceo he comes in
he plays a video for you guys and he
says i want you all to act like owners
now it's a speech i've given myself a
bazillion times
it's a speech i was once on the
receiving end and
when i heard it it changed everything
for me
and i was always startled that it didn't
seem to change
anything for other people what did you
hear
and then what did you do because that
moment really becomes sort of the
pivotal moment in your trajectory
life life-changing and again it was a
video because
that was the communication there was no
email it was either a fact
or somebody sent out a video but i i say
this too and i need to say this that you
know
i'm a firm believer in revelations
and people say what if what's a
revelation a revelation is something
that was always there but it's been
revealed or unveiled to you
you know revelations are always there
they should be unveiled
to you so when
mr enrico came on and he said hey i want
you to act like an owner
i got a revelation and here's the beauty
of revelations what do they do
they lead to revolutions one revelation
will lead to a revolution and that's
exactly what happened i got a revelation
that led to a revolution in my life and
what was that
act like an order now every everyone in
there didn't take it seriously
but again you know i'm trying to tell
them did you just hear what he said this
is the ceo
inviting us you know so i looked at it
like this
when am i going to get an opportunity to
act like a c ceo what am i gonna
you know i'm a janitor with no education
you know during a time when we're trying
to get diverse it's just you know my
skin color just
blows it away you know it tells you a
mile away who i am
so what am i to get another opportunity
so i tried to convince and i gave up
and i tell people sometimes you just got
to let go and just break ranks i've been
breaking ranks my whole life
you know so i went home and i told judy
hey the ceo said you know hey company's
in trouble
uh we're losing market share and he
wants us all to act like an owner
because he can't do it by himself
and she said great act like an owner and
i said okay well i didn't know what that
meant
you know so uh right next to the plant
was the uh the sales office i just
randomly went up to a salesman
and i said hey uh will you teach me your
job i said i'll go with you
i'll load up the truck i'll do the work
you don't have to pay me i'll come on my
on on my day off he looked at me like
man you can come on your vacation free
labor
so he said meet me at five o'clock in
the morning
so my first day off came and uh
you know he taught me how to how to
write up an order
and he taught me how to uh fill up the
truck so that we could maximize the
space
and then when we went to the stores he
taught me how to maximize
the time in the store so we can get you
know you want to do as many stores as
possible
then about this third store i was
racking it
i i just took a glance
and there it was what what was it it was
a revelation what's a revelation
something that was always there but been
revealed
unveiled to you i saw and i looked at
him
he couldn't see it you know why he
couldn't see it because he was an expert
been doing that job for 15 years so i
tell people don't become such an
expert that you can't see things anymore
the people that work for me and say
don't bring me ideas everyone can see
tap into the unseen and together let's
pull it out into the scene and make it a
reality
so what did i see i saw people buying
spices
i saw people buying bags of chilis and
then i looked at our products and
remember this is a long time ago
i could send you a picture i have one
original picture it was uh
lays ruffles
fritos lays ruffles
fritos everybody over there is buying
chilis and i look
we don't have any spices
that's a revelation it was always there
but it was revealed to me so i went home
excited and i told judy judy's that road
dog that partner that
she'll line up with me wherever we got
to go
and i said i got it i said she's a great
cook
i said we're going to put your salsa on
a chip and she said great
let's do it which chip like i don't know
i really didn't know
so on fridays on the weekends we would
go
shopping at the neighborhood grocery
store and we would go there because i
didn't have a bank account
i didn't know how to write checks or
anything like that so he would
he would cash our checks and let her buy
groceries that's why i love neighborhood
stores you know that's you know they
helped each other
you know things like that so you know
we'd buy he knew us you know and
cash my check and buy our groceries and
uh friday saturday and sunday there was
a young man
his wife and two kids he was a street
food vendor and he'd be selling elotes
corn on the cob and for a buck he would
put
whatever you want mayonnaise butter
chili lime
lemon cheese however you he had
everything
and he used to inspire me because i i'd
look at him
and he'd be standing so proud you know
nobody ever told him he was a street
vendor
he acted as though he had a five-star
restaurant
he was a visionary he was an
entrepreneur and that inspired me i saw
that you know he'd be like
wow check him out he he really thinks
this is a business
and it was you know so i grabbed two one
for me and my
oldest son and you know took a bite
and then i took a second bite revelation
what's that something that was always
there i looked and i go
oh my god that looks like a cheeto
and i said something that i believe
every entrepreneur
leader great inventor says at one time
in their life
and that is what if
what if i put chili on this cheeto
what if i go to that meeting what if i
do try to launch off
a new company what if so i went and told
you that said i got it judy
we're going to put your songs on on
cheetos and she's like okay go do it um
you know go to the plant and bring some
cheetos with no cheese
you know just plain so i remember i got
a trash bag
and i filled it with cheetos and you
know i put it over my shoulder and i
walked out the plant and you know
people know me by by now you know and
they're kind of like you know
richard you are so ghetto
and i tell people you know what i'm
ghetto but i am ghetto rich
you know so we get home and after you
know free tries we get it right
and she takes some to her work she's
working at target warehouse at the time
and you know by the way uh the target
ceo brian cornell is a good friend of
mine
um used to be part of the pepsico family
and
just a wonderful leader and so
they liked it and i took some to frito
they liked it so everybody was saying
tell richard to call the ceo
so judy said you have to call the ceo
now remember command and control vice
president don't call the ceo
a president does and at the time we were
we were in every country that the
government would allow us
so there was a you know there was a
president of frito-lay in russia
president uh
uh of pepsi in china you know mexico
you know wherever right so you know
there might have been a couple hundred
presidents they would call the ceo not a
vice president so
you know i i went and i found the uh
corporate directory because there was no
email every company had a little phone
book
you know i'm sure they still have it i'd
look and you could find whoever you
wanted
anywhere so of course first one was ceo
so i went into the the office where all
the
secretaries were at and i picked the
main one
you know the head and i said can i use
your phone and she started yelling at me
she said no you know this is not for
private use because after all what would
the janitor
be using it for right company time you
know so i said no i
i'm going to call the ceo
her attitude switched and i found out
later that she had an audience
because she in her mind i was going to
get fired on the spot and she never saw
that
that's terrible she's like hey
look at richard he's calling the ceo oh
my god
it's going to explode you know and uh
so i called him you know i was really
nervous and
his executive admin
answered she was just that she was an
executive admin
she was a visionary and uh
the conversation went like this i said
hi i'm richard montenes can i talk to
the ceo and she said well i don't
recognize the name what area do you run
i said i work in california so okay
you're the president of california
i said no i work in southern california
so okay you're the vice president sudden
kind of i said no i work in the planter
are you the vice president of operations
no i really work inside inside
and she said are you the director no
you're the plant manager what are you
asking the janitor
and i began to tell her i saw this video
and you know and said act like an owner
and i'm just like
well she said um
hang on richard i love how she said that
hang on richard
let me see if i can hunt him down and
this is where i say it you don't have to
influence
everyone only the right ones she was one
of the right ones
because when mr enrico got on the line
he was pumped up i didn't do that
she did that i'll always be thankful
to patty she did that like i i don't
know the conversation she must have been
saying
you got this janitor on here with this
idea you need to pick this phone up
you said act like an owner guess what
you got an owner
yeah so it's like we found out later we
needed each other
he needed me as much as i needed him you
know and
so he got on the phone he's pumped up
like and then he says something that
just shook my world he said i'll be
there in two weeks i want to hear
so i'm like wow hung up the phone and
i'm floating i did it he's coming to see
me
by this time protocol goes into action
right
you know they called the president the
president called the senior vice
president
calls the area vice president called the
director called the plan manager
conversation was all the same who let
the janitor call the ceo
who's this richard guy so by the time
the plant manager got it he was on fire
now keep in mind
this is during a time when managers
could
cuss workers out okay you know you can
see that in the old movies and stuff
like that but that was the reality
you're not going to get away with it
today
but in those days it was normal
so he came and he cuts me out and says
who do you think you are you realize
what you've done
everybody's coming you know he's always
telling me now i got to paint the place
because everybody's going to see it and
then he said he walks where he goes
you're doing a presentation
my heart sunk i said i'm doing a
presentation
i've never even done homework you know
so
i go home and again judy could see that
i was uh
disappointed and she said
um what's the matter i said i'm going to
get fired
and she said why and i said because you
told me to call the ceo
now i'm in trouble that typical
leadership of a woman
she says this calm down
it's not that bad we're gonna go to the
library and check out a book on
marketing
you know with no google we had to work
but i've always been amazed
at the leadership of a woman because of
my grandma my mom and my wife
that you know i consider it to be the
best
you know my leadership is because of the
leadership of a woman
you know and judy calmed me down when i
was panicking
and she took me to the library we found
a book
and we literally copied uh three
paragraphs of something that just
sounded good
you know i didn't know that the truth
that i mean of course i know what
marketing is i don't think anybody
better than me
but i didn't know what it was i wrote it
down and
and i i don't know if you can see this
but just just for your own eye but i
have some of the
original bags that are wow that i
created
you know that's so cool
did you make the logos yourself yeah i
drew all these uh
this is why your story is so nuts like
the number of people that complain that
they're not getting where they want to
go in life
but you go get the the
unseasoned cheeto take it home
create your own seasoning
create your own bags your own logos when
to try and get you fed to the wolves
they tell you you have to do the
presentation you go get a book on
marketing
from the library and put together a
marketing presentation i mean this is
great this
this is like in in a one person's life
exactly what i want for everybody
to figure out that at the end of the day
booze don't block dunks you said you
love kobe bryant that's
his famous quote i love that quote so
much that you can get so good at
something that people can't stop you
and they try oh well they
ultimately can't absolutely so you know
uh
that was the these were the
presentations that i used
during their and and you know any any
sixth grader could have done them um you
know so it's hard for
an intellectual you know executive to
come down to sixth grade level but a lot
of times there's a lot of imagination
at the sixth grade level and the things
that you could you know if you could
think like a child again
without being afraid but i didn't know
any better this is just what i was you
know i was just going to go for it
so we made we made a hundred bags like
this
you know and uh i went i went to the
goodwill and i bought me a suit
that day came you know we we put this on
transparencies
you know put my tie on we made 100 bags
i mean you couldn't tell
that it wasn't going to the market you
know it was that's how good it was a
little bit of an artist not much
enough and and again all the tricks that
i
used you know was by watching people
the survival tactics that i did i was
like how did you do this man i was i was
cutting
pictures out and you know like third
grade all over again you know
and but but as as an executive as an
adult
and what i used to do before this when
i'd get off work i'd i'd put on my old
suit
and i'd go into a you know a makeshift
office at home
and i would practice being an executive
and my wife would never say anything
she's like yep
someday and i would i would i have
pictures i'd literally be drawing things
and writing strategy you know i couldn't
even spell strategy and you know
writing it out and well here comes a day
and i'm walking out the door and
i've got to say this part because it's
the leadership of a woman there's three
things that judy did in my life and
these are three things that
you know i speak all over the world that
i will always concentrate on doing in
three
she inspired me she encouraged me she
reminded me
the word inspires it comes from the
greeks and simply means to
breathe life into someone
to encourage someone comes from the
greeks also it means to place courage in
somebody deep as being that they stand
up
and they're never the same again the
last thing she did
was she reminded me so she inspired me
by saying
i don't know anybody smarter than you
i'm like what
i don't know anybody smarter than you
then she she encouraged me and she said
you're the most courageous person i know
and then she reminded me she said
don't forget what your grandpa told you
don't forget who you are
i walked out with the inspired encourage
and reminded and i'd used that
with my team then i realized man when
somebody's inspired encouraged and
reminded of their value
they'll conquer the world so i got to
the plant
and uh sure enough anybody who was
anybody was there you had to be there
you know it's like the president coming
in right so every everybody's got a
senior vice president chief marketing
officer chief financial
everybody was there you know even even
executives from a 500 mile radius needed
to be there
one of the biggest meetings of the year
and i walked in
and everybody's mad you know and uh
they're letting me know that they're mad
you know the the thing was to let me
produce
my own presentation and hang myself you
know and stop what
mr enrique was trying to accomplish but
they're wondering why did he bring us
the small little town in gwastie
california
to hear an uneducated latino talk to me
about marketing
talk to me about building new products
when
i have 300 food scientists that work for
me
you know so i had the stairs and you
know and
that whole thing and so i got up there
nervous and then it's the first time i
ever did a presentation i remember doing
the tr i don't know if you've ever done
transparency
if you're not an expert they they will
make you look ridiculous so i put it on
there and it was upside down like oh man
turn it around it's still upside down i
finally got it i was so happy
and i started doing the presentation and
guess what
i had their attention you know i even i
even had
one of the original ilottes that i had
bought the night before
and kept it in a bag and i said this
this is a
uh i told him this is a a meal
i found a way to take this meal and turn
it into a snack
never been done before you know and they
were like wow so i had them just
speaking from my heart you know no big
words or whatever
and then uh one of the marketing
executives the vice president
raised up his hand and i intentionally
this is the truth i intentionally
turned around and looked the other way
because i thought you know judy didn't
get me ready for questions
she just said do this do that and you
know he's like
well i got a question i said i'm sorry
sir
we don't have time for questions and he
said it's just as simple you know i
didn't realize you don't say that to
executives right i mean
that's you know he had never done that
so we don't have time for questions
let's go home now you know and he said
that's just a simple one so i just uh
i thought about it and then uh i said
okay sir
you know instead i'm really nervous you
know
[Music]
he said well how much mark is sharing
talking about
almost fainted the first thing i thought
market share we haven't read that
chapter yet
what the heck did you talking about so
there was a door that i thought you know
what i'm just gonna run out that door
after all i shouldn't even be up here
anyways you know that's it you know i'm
i'm done you know i
i made a fool of myself you know so my
entire life
you know i'm going to continue to look
ridiculous i just
i was really done but then something
happened then
it's inside of me that i tell young
people you know
it's as scared as i was there's a
there was something inside of me that
was greater than the fear that was
outside of me
so let's let let's go to the 60s to my
childhood because many
times i say sometimes in order to find
your future you got to revisit your past
well my english was really bad so the in
those days they brought in after school
reading programs
two traders one trader for spanish
next trader for english so every
tuesday uh listen to me every tuesday
i got into the line i was told to get
into was it my choice i said that's your
line you belong in this line well
what do you think i did in the third
grade
is i broke ranks
and i got in the english speaking line
where everybody just so happened to be
white
the two teachers were two beautiful
blondes
and as dark as i am i'm thinking man can
they tell i'm not white
you know and my friends were over there
saying ricardo that's loco you're in the
wrong line you're gonna get in trouble
come back but there was something inside
that trailer
that i wanted and i looked at my friends
and i said this
they have cookies inside i'm gonna get
us some cookies
so i got closer and closer and scared
remember i'm really scared i'm not
exaggerating
those two white ladies greeted me
and filled my pockets with cookies
now when people hear that story they say
what's the moral of that story there's
two parts and it goes along with the end
of my
story here is um
there's a cookie that's been baked for
everyone
young people need to understand this the
cookie didn't bake for you
your job is to get out of that line they
told you to get into and get into the
cookie line
the line is your choice how dare we tell
a young person that's your line that's
your line
get into the line get up get out of the
poverty line get into the prosperity
line get out of the
job line get into the career life
uneducated educated
every child should know it is their
choice no one should ever say
that's why i teach parents
never let a test score determine
which line your child should be in
because i flunked every single test
you know but yet i came out here so
that's the first part
the last part is what i say this is the
antidote
to fear i i know that you have it you
know and some people don't have it when
you get this you'll never be afraid
again
so what is the antidote to fear why did
i break ranks as scared as i was
i was hungry hunger is the antidote to
fear
when you're hungry to start a new
business fear will leave
when you're hungry to oh you know run
for a political office fear of leave
so back to that question as scared as i
was how much market share scared as i
was i was hungry
i was hungry for more in my life i was
hungry for something different so
i got a hold of myself and i remember
the the racks
how big they were you know and i said i
got it marcus here and i
most ridiculous thing you can imagine i
stuck my hands out to the sides of the
racks and i said
the switch market share
and i could hear the executive you know
kind of gasping
like oh did he just say market share
but my ceo was a visionary
and he stood up and he addressed his
team and he said ladies and gentlemen
do you realize that richard j