KERRI HARPER HOWIE - Mustard Up That Cheddar Dog - Eating While Broke

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
I'm your host, coleeen Witt, and today we have the
mc Legacies of all mick legacies. I just before I
even introduce this amazingly special guest, I have to let
you guys know that I have tried to get this
interview for at least a year. Not because I've reached

(00:23):
out and actually broke contact to this special guest, is
because I've literally had to stalk research, watch so many interviews,
and I try not to do this, but I am
so impressed with this special guest right here. I've been
telling my whole team and everyone who watches the show knows.
I am absolutely more excited over entrepreneurs than celebrities. Unfortunately,

(00:44):
sorry for my celebrities, but today we have special guests.
Carrie Harper Howie is in the building. And not only
is she, are you the largest McDonald's franchise owner in
the state of California.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
I keep saying that I think you.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Got in the state of California. African American.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yes, yes, yes, she's gonna wear that hat.

Speaker 4 (01:06):
She is twenty one man, twenty one twenty.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
One McDonald's restaurants are owned by Carrie Harper Howie and
her family, her mother and her sister, three minority women.
This was a huge feat in the timing and the
whole structure. But the cool thing about Carrie here is
her story is definitely untraditional. But she has released a

(01:31):
book which led me to her, called The Family Secret.
So if you guys are interested in hearing more, you
can go ahead and look up The Family Secret online Google, Amazon,
you can find it.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
That is how I found her.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
But so we are going to get into The Family
Secret first, starting with the broke dish that y'all had
before you had twenty one McDonald's.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
So what will you have me eat in today?

Speaker 3 (01:57):
Okay?

Speaker 4 (01:58):
So this is a dish that my my sister and
I used to make back in the day eons ago,
and as I shared with you, I don't remember the
last time I made this, so I'm hoping that I
can pull it off. But it was such a that
meal that my sister and I would go to that
we thought was so delicious and so cool. So today
I'm gonna make for you mustardy cheddar hot dogs. And

(02:23):
I asked for this bag these bags of chips because
that was always the side we always had in our house.
We were definitely not making fries. We weren't even baking
frozen fries. We were not doing anything special. But we
always had a backs of variety chips. So we're gonna
do mustardy cheddar hot dogs and chips.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Okay, so that makes sense.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
I threw a ketchup and I said, she must have
forgot some ketchup up in here, but go ahead, it's okay.
So since you had that surprise, I switched out your
hot dogs for turkey hot dogs, just from you know,
the sanity of my stomach.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
So surprise.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
Anyways, go ahead, make your mustard cheese hot dogs. I
was sitting there looking at the recipe and the ingredient said,
maybe she wants elvida, and I said, but.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Usually people they want belvida cheese, say elvida.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
So we want to see what So so take me back, okay,
take me all the way back to life when y'all
you and your sister almost burnt down the house and
these hot dogs.

Speaker 4 (03:46):
So my sister and I were born and raised in Englewood.
My sister still lives in the house that we grew
up in. Y'all ago, Yes, and.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
That's crazy to think twenty one McDonald's later.

Speaker 4 (03:58):
I mean, you know, we take a lot of pride
in living and existing and moving and supporting the communities
where we live. And so you know, if you got
a perfectly good house that works fine and suit your purposes,
there's no real reason for it not to still be
in your family.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
And did you guys own it back then or were
you renting it?

Speaker 4 (04:21):
I literally came home from the hospital to this house
my parents before they became McDonald's franchisees. My dad was
a cop and my mother was a social worker, so
they both had good government jobs. Wow, and they were
able to afford to buy this house on this very
small street in Inglewood, California.

Speaker 1 (04:40):
I'm just curious, and you could share or not share,
but you know Inglewood has gentrified, and is you know,
buying a house over there as impossible.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
I am genuinely.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
Curious how much they bought a house for then and
how much does it work today.

Speaker 4 (04:57):
So when I was growing up, my parent, my mom especially,
was like kids know what kids know, and grown ups
know what grown ups know.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
So I'm gonna be honest and say I honestly.

Speaker 4 (05:08):
And truly never knew what I can tell you, though,
is we have lived there long enough and remodeled, renovated,
change things, et cetera, that we have not completely paid
it off.

Speaker 3 (05:19):
So we have pulled money out.

Speaker 4 (05:20):
Which is the beauty of real estate as an investment,
right is you can use it in over time, you
can allow yourself to reinvest in yourself to beautify the
space that you're in through taking money out of your
house and then paying for that mortgage. So it's not
paid off even forty plus I'll say forty plus years later.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
So that's like basically saying that the house is gorgeous.

Speaker 5 (05:44):
Right.

Speaker 4 (05:45):
We think it is beautiful, it works beautiful, and you know,
quite honestly, my mother has Alzheimer's, and so what that
means is that we have been able to change the
space to create a little mini apartment for her inside
the house, in a place that's familiar to her. Because if,
as you may know, with Alzheimer's patients, for them, everything

(06:10):
familiar is better. So if they can really and truly
be in a place where they know, hey, around this
corner is my bedroom, then that.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
Is very helpful to them.

Speaker 4 (06:19):
That's another reason why I feel especially blessed that we've
held on to the house because we didn't know that
our mom was going to develop Alzheimer's. But I'm so
glad that she's able to be in a space that's
been familiar to her for so long.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
Yeah, and it kind of goes back to the naming
of this episode, is gonna be mc legacy legacy because
you guys definitely like even just saying that you kept
this house shows that you guys value this family culture
that you guys have. Kind of your parents kind of
knew you guys as a whole built so you and

(06:55):
your sister at the time. Are they when you're doing this?
Are they cops? And and would your mom do social worker?

Speaker 3 (07:02):
Social worker?

Speaker 4 (07:04):
So my parents got involved in the early nineteen eighties,
so this would have been even after we had McDonald's.
But as you can imagine, if you're going from a
career where you're used to catching criminals or helping families,
you don't know anything about McDonald's or being your own
business owner or anything like that. So they were a

(07:24):
lot of times away from home. So my sister and
I will be home by ourselves, and we had to
figure out how we were going to eat because unlike
my very coddle children who are left with meals and
all the other.

Speaker 3 (07:35):
Kind of stuff. My mother was like, figure it out,
and we did.

Speaker 4 (07:39):
And so this was one of the things that we
knew that we could cook that would taste good. You know,
we're not as you know, as a restaurant tour I know,
I don't know that we were thinking about this, but
there's no food safety issues, you can, I feel pretty sure,
although I honestly don't remember.

Speaker 3 (07:54):
I think we would have.

Speaker 4 (07:54):
Probably cooked the hot dogs in the microwave. I don't
know that we were necessarily using the stovetop.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
But you know, hey, in here there's no microwaves, so
I like it no microwave, So making it work?

Speaker 2 (08:07):
And how hard was it?

Speaker 1 (08:09):
Do you know at least the history of like what
it took for your parents to get a McDonald's and
how did they stumble upon the opportunity.

Speaker 4 (08:17):
So at the time, my mother's only sister, her name
or she's my auntie Jane, she was and her husband
were a franchisees at the time. They were in the
San Diego market and the and you know, they were
enfranchising even longer than my mom, and so my parents

(08:38):
were like, we have our good government job, so we're
not tripping. And at some point in time, there was
an African American regional manager who at the time was
responsible for finding franchisees well. He as well as McDonald's
as a corporation, they were looking to increase the number
of black franchisees. So when he met my I mean,
you know, my aunt became an approved operator, and I

(09:01):
think he met my mother and thought and proposed the idea.
They were kind of like, huh okay, And so they
both cashed in the retirement at their good government jobs.
And that your eyes just got big because it was
a big deal.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
That's a high risk move.

Speaker 4 (09:17):
That's a very high risk move, right, They cashed in
their retirements and bought their first restaurant. Now, my sister
and I were young girls at the time, so it
was really you know.

Speaker 3 (09:28):
It was a big deal. It was a big risk,
but somehow they had the courage to do it.

Speaker 1 (09:34):
That's a lot did that Now, I don't want to
skip forward, but I'm gonna So did that amount of
pressure play a role in possible separation later on?

Speaker 4 (09:47):
No, So their separation was very specifically around my father
being a gambling addict. And I do talk about this
very openly in my book. My father was a gambler
for years, and while my mom knew that he liked
to go to the racetrack and you know, bid on horses,

(10:10):
she never realized that it had developed into a habit
that he couldn't control. And so, as you can imagine,
you know, this day and age, we are very used
to walking into a bank shoot at this point, right,
we do apple pay or. People weren't using a lot
of credit cards back in the early nineteen eighties.

Speaker 3 (10:28):
They were using a lot of cash.

Speaker 4 (10:30):
And so my father, being a gambling addict, surrounded by cash,
would literally take whole envelopes of money from the register
that should go into the bank, right and being building
McDonald's money.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
Which oh, no, Papa, no, Papa, yes, said yes.

Speaker 4 (10:51):
And so basically he gambled away a lot of money.
It was, I'll say, to put it briefly, it was
a very very large financial infidelity. I'm just gonna put
that there, yeah, okay, yeah, And so my mom was
not able to forgive that. She was not able to

(11:14):
get past the fact that he had, you know, I
think for her, honestly, I don't know if it was
so much like the oh, he's been financially unfaithful to me,
as how could you be so selfish as to ruin
the potentially ruin the lives of your wife, but even

(11:35):
more importantly, your daughters. We've done this, We've taken this
risk so that your daughters could have something more than
we ever thought we could have. And she just could
not get past that, and so she didn't and then
so then she decided to divorce him. Now, as you
can imagine, their Black franchises, this is the mid nineteen nineties,

(11:56):
mid to late nineteen nineties. And how long were they
the franchise at that point, Somewhere in the range of
seven or eight years. I don't know exactly, because I'll
say this, I'm pretty sure I was in sixth grade. Okay,
so somewhere in sixth grade, you're around ten or eleven.
So around the mid to late eighties, they had been
in around seven or so years, six or seven and

(12:17):
they only owned one at.

Speaker 3 (12:18):
The time, or they owned two at the time.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
Yeah, that's high pressure. She's under two, ye.

Speaker 4 (12:22):
Right, you know, so she was, you know, appropriately unable
to forgive that fine.

Speaker 3 (12:28):
So she was prepared to leave him. The issue.

Speaker 4 (12:35):
Is that she was the black woman in the nineteen
eighties with two young daughters, and so she had to
figure out one is McDonald's gonna let me even continue?
Because the way that they all found out was we
were on a vacation. We used to go to Lake
Havasu with a bunch of other cops in their families.

Speaker 3 (12:51):
We were on vacation. They called her and said, your
bills have not been paid.

Speaker 2 (12:59):
Oh heck no, ye see, so he's gambling.

Speaker 4 (13:02):
And if there's one thing any corporation like McDonald's is like,
is gonna not go for They're not going for their
bills not being paid.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
So so just to backtrack for everyone that doesn't know,
can you do like a brief breakdown of McDonald's. I
have an idea that what it is, but definitely not
nearly as much knowledge as you do. So just do
a snapshot so people understand why you guys would be
paying McDonald's bills.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
Yes, so.

Speaker 4 (13:31):
Enfranchising, you have to pay what's called a franchising fee
or a royalty.

Speaker 3 (13:37):
Use this knife before you burn yours.

Speaker 4 (13:40):
Stabbing, thank you, So you have to pay a royalty
in order to be in business, and so we were
they were not paying he was not paying that royalty fee.
All that cash, unfortunately, was going to support his gambling
habit and so and you know, and of course there's
a variety of other bills.

Speaker 3 (14:01):
So we have vendors.

Speaker 4 (14:02):
Some of those vendors might if McDonald's pays the vendors first,
we will pay McDonald's back. Or the vendor is calling
McDonald's saying, hey, we haven't gotten paid for food and
in a certain amount of time, can you go to
your owner operator and find out what's going on, because
we are one of the biggest things that we're specifically
held accountable to as franchisees. It's paying our bills on

(14:22):
time like that is there are franchising standards.

Speaker 3 (14:25):
That's one of them. Pay your bills on time?

Speaker 2 (14:28):
And is this back?

Speaker 1 (14:28):
Did McDonald's have a McDonald's university back then?

Speaker 3 (14:31):
It's called Hamburger University?

Speaker 2 (14:33):
Sorry, yes, I did a little bit of research.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
Come on, all right, I'm a proud graduate of that's HU, right?

Speaker 2 (14:41):
And how many years is hu?

Speaker 3 (14:45):
HU is? A week?

Speaker 5 (14:46):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (14:46):
It's a week? Is it week? Two years?

Speaker 4 (14:50):
It's okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna give you details how
that works out.

Speaker 1 (14:53):
Okay, so wait, wait, backtrack. So your mom is on vacation.

Speaker 3 (14:58):
Mom's on vacation, all of them were all on vacation.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
Okay, she gets a call, she gets the call.

Speaker 4 (15:03):
The call says, you have not been paying your bills,
and she says, holy stuff, holy but Jolie, and she
then you know, I don't think we left the trip,
but I think it because it was kind of like, oh,
surely this cannot be the case, Like, that's not.

Speaker 3 (15:23):
Would you like mustard on ketchup on yours?

Speaker 1 (15:26):
I'm gonna do it the way you do it first, Okay,
I want to live the whole experience.

Speaker 3 (15:29):
Yes, so I don't have enough cheese. I'm gonna great
a little more cheese.

Speaker 4 (15:33):
But so yeah, So then we get back, we realize
that the bills, in fact, she realized, because I didn't
know anything, she realized at the time that in fact,
the bills had not been paid and that McDonald's was
mad about it. And so it becomes a question of, well,
what happens do they just kick the whole family out.
My mom, because she's amazing, was able to convince McDonald's

(16:00):
to let her stay in the business. And that it
was my father who was the gambler who should be
kicked out, and they agreed to that. And so, you know,
people have a lot of things to say about McDonald's,
and everybody has their.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
Own story experience.

Speaker 4 (16:17):
One of my biggest feelings about McDonald's is gratitude for
giving my mother, a single woman at the time, a
chance to prove that she was more than what her
husband had done to her.

Speaker 3 (16:31):
Wow, and so.

Speaker 4 (16:33):
And the reason why that feels so palpable to me
especially is because she did have to take steps to
buy my father out because you know, he.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
Was a co owner, and then she toy that dead too.

Speaker 3 (16:46):
Well, she did not immediately because she couldn't.

Speaker 4 (16:50):
But she Your question is a good one. She had
to get financing to be able, said as low as possible.
She had to get financing to be able to buy
him out and put herself in a position to repay
this debt.

Speaker 1 (17:04):
So she had to even get into even more debt.

Speaker 3 (17:06):
Yes, geez.

Speaker 2 (17:07):
She had to really believe in herself too, right, she.

Speaker 3 (17:10):
I mean, and have the fortitude.

Speaker 4 (17:12):
And as you're grieving your marriage, yea grieving the vision
that you had for your life, you're caring for your
daughters who are so young and basically don't know anything
you know, and so it's at the.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
Time, did you guys see her in any like emotional
distress or was she like a gangster?

Speaker 4 (17:33):
She was an absolute gangster. I'm gonna tell you about
that in a second. But what I want to get
back to your question of the reason why I keep
harping on black single woman is because my mom went
to bank after bank trying to get the financing to
dig herself out of this hole, and bank after bank

(17:55):
after bank said no, they would not give her money.
And in fact, one of them when she walked in
said to her, where is your husband? And she said,
I don't have one, And they were like, there's nothing
we can do for you.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (18:11):
Until one day she walked into the Culver City branch
was even either Culver City or Baldwin Hills branch of Wells.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
Fargo Bank to Wells Fargo, there was.

Speaker 4 (18:22):
A black woman there named Mona Maze, and my mom
laid it all on the line for Mona, and Mona
said okay, and she was able to get my mom
the financing that she need needed to move on by
my dad out get herself right with McDonald's and plan
for a future where she paid off the debt just

(18:43):
like you said.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
Holy cow. So and she had to go through multiple
multiple for that.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
I had read that and I was like I even
called Wells trying to get your contact.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
It was like, girl, you don't get off my phone
with this.

Speaker 1 (18:58):
But it's true, true, And that was in I mean,
no disrespect to the banks, but that was hard time
too as a black black woman, like she wasn't even white.
She was definitely like the opposite of and McDonald's is
almost like a forsurable you know when someone comes up
with a McDonald's loan. I heard those are like yes,
you know, so she had she had to go through

(19:19):
all that into to still fight and press on.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yet she's pretty incredible.

Speaker 3 (19:25):
Yeah, I like that.

Speaker 1 (19:25):
You do rep the fact that she was a single mom.
I just became a single mom and I just wore
them days be hard, you know, especially handling it with grace, right,
you know, because they love to like be out there
like well she was a bitter or whatever, but like
to handle it with grace in a situation where it
was like to be honest, unfair.

Speaker 4 (19:43):
Yeah, and she I can say with total honesty. Never
bad mouthed my dad did. We've only over the years
kind of gotten details out of her about what happened.
She wasn't trying to like harp on anything bad about him.
She was just like, it's me now, and you know,
we're rolling. And so we were lucky at the time

(20:05):
we had a woman. She was our babysitter and babysitter
to Minnie, and so we spent a lot of time
in her house, like you know, at the end of
the day, Like my mom had to really be physically
present in those restaurants a lot. And I think that's
really kind of where learning how to cook.

Speaker 3 (20:22):
Things like this came from.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
Wow, Oh my god, can the camera see that?

Speaker 2 (20:29):
I don't know they can see it. That is crazy.

Speaker 3 (20:33):
That's been a long time.

Speaker 2 (20:35):
Do you feel just sidebar, we have to name we
have to name drop this.

Speaker 1 (20:40):
What was the can you just tell us like thirty
seconds about this chop winning yeah situation.

Speaker 3 (20:46):
Okay, So I was in Washington, d C.

Speaker 4 (20:50):
At this amazing event called the Family Reunion, and there
was a chopped style not chopped, but chopped style competition.
Mister three baskets, three rounds, the whole nine and I
was on a team with four people including my sister
and this other one wonderful woman I was on the
other panel with and then a total stranger, and we won.

Speaker 3 (21:11):
We were the overall Chop champions.

Speaker 1 (21:13):
Yes, and I only had to shout that out because
this is something that I'm definitely I haven't even tried it,
but I'm gonna make it for my daughter.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
Ooh, I'm gonna do thrids. Okay, oh sorry.

Speaker 3 (21:26):
I'll take those, Sorry, Primellion.

Speaker 1 (21:29):
This looks like something my daughter would absolutely love because
she just loves cheese.

Speaker 2 (21:33):
I'll get her spaghetti. And it was just big cannam
with cheese. But this is all gooey. The bread is toasted,
which I do like.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
The Other thing I love about this is she used butter,
and if you know anything about me, I.

Speaker 2 (21:46):
Use a stick of butter like every two days.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
It's really bad. This is why I have fat over
my abs. But this is gooey, cheesy, and you put
the mustard underneath. So I am dying to try it.
I'm gonna let us sit for like two sicks. It's
a little it is hot. It's hot, but before I
take a bite into it, let's go back, so your
mom successfully handles this transaction. You guys have no idea

(22:09):
babysitters are stepping in. Is your father still in the
picture kind of or does he like to a Houdini?

Speaker 3 (22:17):
He pretty much does a Hudini?

Speaker 2 (22:19):
Does that suck?

Speaker 1 (22:20):
I'm sorry that happened to me in my situation. I'm like, why,
because then it's like double the responsibility, right.

Speaker 3 (22:28):
I obviously cannot speak for my father. He is deceased. Now.

Speaker 4 (22:32):
I think he was ashamed, and I think that shame
can be a lot not excusing his absence, but I
think he was just very embarrassed and because not only
did he mess everything up financially for my mother, sister,
and I, but he had borrowed from friends, from family,
like it was a it was an addiction, and so

(22:54):
you know, I don't treat that any differently than a
drug addiction that makes people make really bad decisions. But
I just think he, you know, as they said, my
mom got the friends, my mom got the life, she
got the businesses, she got the kids, she got the
she got everything, and he just kind of, you know,
crawled away into obsoletion. One of I think Nicole and

(23:26):
I Nicole's my sister. One of our shared regrets in
life is that somewhere we lived together after uh she
had already graduated from college. We both went to college
in the Bay Area and we lived together, and we
had reached out to a friend of his and gotten

(23:46):
his phone number, and we had his phone number on
our kid on our kitchen refrigerator, and we were planning
to reach out to him, really just in the spirit
of we're doing great, how are you like? We hadn't
talked spoken him in years, and he died before we
had a chance to reach out to him, and so
I wish that we had reached out to him and

(24:09):
re established that connection. I before I have my first son,
I remember talking to my husband and I was like, Babe,
I don't.

Speaker 3 (24:19):
Like, what do dads do? I feel like I don't
really know what dads do.

Speaker 4 (24:23):
And you know, I mean he was definitely around until early,
you know, middle elementary, sixth or seventh grade, but I
didn't never I certainly never got a chance to develop
a relationship with him as a teen, as a college student,
as an adult, all those things.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
And I think we both wish that we had. So
he never like touched base again. No and then how
did your mom like she just did she? What story
did she come up with to make you, guys palette it?

Speaker 4 (24:54):
So I think the worst or not, I almost say
the worst, but probably one of them, the most difficult
pieces of it that we never talked about it. There
was no acknowledgement that we should have feelings about the
fact that my parents were divorcing.

Speaker 3 (25:11):
I talked about this in the.

Speaker 2 (25:12):
Book so like it wasn't even like but there was.

Speaker 3 (25:15):
Let me tell you exactly how it happened.

Speaker 4 (25:17):
Yeah, we came home from wherever school, the babysitters wherever,
and my mom said, your dad and I are getting divorced.
And we said, so that means that I think. I said,
so Dad's not going to live here anymore, and she
said no, And then I started crying for a few minutes,

(25:40):
and then my sister started crying, and then my mom
started crying, and then we all stopped crying.

Speaker 3 (25:48):
And we literally never spoke of it ever again.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
Now we're there.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
But I can't imagine you There was something you said
earlier in our interview that kind of makes sense. Why
maybe you guys, but I don't look at my.

Speaker 2 (26:02):
Little daughter, she's three.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
She goes through phase of missing her dad, and she's
like very expressive, like I miss daddy or whatever whatever.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
It's really kind of sad. H it's actually sad.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
No, No, I try to make like I just do
I miss too. But it was your space because earlier
in the interview you said my mom was the type
that this is adult conversation or a kid. Do you
feel like you didn't feel comfortable enough to say, hey,
I miss my dad, where is he or where are
you having those conversations?

Speaker 2 (26:33):
She was like adult kid.

Speaker 4 (26:36):
So I've had enough therapy to know that I didn't
know how to verbalize that I missed my dad. And
also I think my for whatever, and this is gonna
sound crazy, my mom would not have been a person

(26:57):
that I would have gone to to express the feelings
she was not. And and I said, she is wonderful
in many ways, but emotionally available, she is not. So
we we didn't live in a household where we were
hugging and kissing. It wasn't abusive, but it wasn't affectionate,
either verbally or physically.

Speaker 3 (27:18):
You know, And so it wasn't you know.

Speaker 4 (27:20):
I never went to my mom like, oh, this guy
just broke my heart or you know, oh, I'm going
shopping for a prom dress.

Speaker 3 (27:27):
My mom wasn't a part of that.

Speaker 2 (27:28):
Was just wasn't that person.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
Oh, so it was like that was the that was
that was our householder, that was your household culture, that
was our household culture. That's that's I could only imagine
how difficult that would be because, yeah, I mean just
because I'm just a new mom and I see my
daughter very much.

Speaker 2 (27:46):
Expressive, like oh my bady, I saw fly so much.
My goodness, girlfriend.

Speaker 1 (27:54):
But but it makes sense if culturally in this household.
You know, I grew up in a house where my
mom didn't hug us, so like that was just the
norm I longed for. So now this poor child is
a hugger, cuddler, and I love you, right, but I
get it. So it doesn't sound crazy. It just sounds
like it's unfortunate that you guys had to experience that.

Speaker 4 (28:16):
Yeah, And like I said, I've been lucky enough to
have enough therapy. I think the biggest impact for us.
And I talk about this very I think rationally because
in my in my experience, I've really had to learn
how to connect with feelings because I.

Speaker 2 (28:34):
Never you are you grew up disassociated.

Speaker 3 (28:37):
Very disassociated from feeling like we never you know.

Speaker 4 (28:41):
So last night my youngest son is being baptized at
the end of this month. We had a conversation with
the pastor and his wife of that church and they said, Cyrus,
how are you feeling? And he said nervous, but I
feel okay, And they were like, glad that you were
able to My kids have lots of emotional language. My
mom wasn't acknowledging that I was sad or angry or fearful.

(29:04):
We never, we didn't have conversations around emotional language, and
she certainly didn't express those things to us. So you said,
you asked me, how did she handle it? She didn't
know how to handle it any other way than a jeep.
She put her head down. She's like, I'm about to
save this whole situation. I'm taking care of my daughters.

Speaker 2 (29:23):
Did you ever see her crime in that moment.

Speaker 4 (29:26):
Where she said the divorce, the divorce? But other than that, no,
did you?

Speaker 2 (29:32):
Did you and your sister have those I have a
twin sister.

Speaker 3 (29:38):
Exciting to those of us who don't have twins, it's
so cooling.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
It's all exciting. If you look alike.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
But did you and your sister talk about those emotions
at all or at the time where you just so disassociated,
you didn't know what those feelings, how to identify those feelings.

Speaker 4 (29:56):
Over time, yes, we've grown up to start having those
convers but we weren't like little girls in the room
because we shared a room for a long time, but
we were not little girls in the room saying you know, oh,
I wish that mom, you wish that mom would.

Speaker 3 (30:11):
Hug you, or we didn't know, or I miss it. It
was just or no, geez, that's a lot. I don't know,
and it sounds.

Speaker 4 (30:20):
Crazy to say out loud, but that I can't be anything.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
I don't think it sounds crazy. I think there's people
out there that can relate. And I'm glad you're open
enough and you've done enough work to say it, because
people go through this, even in twenty twenty four. I mean,
mental health is still brand new to the world. But
it's just crazy to think about the family legacy and
still see these pockets of.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
What's the word like.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
Passed on little demons, you know, kind of I don't
know the word that I would use, but generational.

Speaker 4 (30:56):
I mean, a part of it is trauma. And the
reason why I say trauma, excuse me. I one time
asked my mom, you know what, and this was I was,
this was relatively advanced in her journey with Alzheimer's, but
she was at this time much more kind of aware,
and she's aware and alert, but she definitely her illness

(31:19):
continues to increase, right, And so I asked her, you know,
I forget the exact question, but something along the lines of,
you know, what was your life like when you were young,
or like how did you what did you when your
brothers and sisters you were or how do you feel
like the emotional things were happening in your household? And
her response to me was, you know, when my brothers

(31:43):
and sisters left the house, I was not even sure
that they would come home safely because we lived in
New Orleans in the nineteen forties and fifties, and your
family members sometimes would just disappear, So we weren't developing connections.
We could afford to be hyper emotionally connected. And that really,

(32:06):
I was like, A, this makes a lot of sense
to me because I can look at my mother and
all of her siblings and see they are wonderful and
loving people. But my generation, me and our cousins, we
are so much more effusively real, you know, emotional when

(32:27):
it comes to connecting with each other than all of
my mom and her parents. I don't know how we've
all kind of gotten out of started to break that cycle,
but it's so clear to me where it starts, and
that this is really a part of the African American
systemic racist experience, that we carry that, and.

Speaker 3 (32:48):
We you and I we're moms.

Speaker 4 (32:50):
You know, my kids are older than yours, but we're
moms raising the same generation of kids, and our kids
will have a very different experience. I don't know if
you've had therapy, but I have, my husband has, and
so we now know how important it is when I
make a mistake, I apologize to my kids, and.

Speaker 2 (33:08):
That's me right, yes, And.

Speaker 1 (33:12):
I think also people need to remember apology is the
best way to end the argument. They're all gonna be
arguing mad all day. An apology will reset it to
you know, it's the best hidden secret accountability. Same thing
I did it, I'm sorry, won't happen again, or I'll
try to do better, I can't do better, or whatever.

Speaker 2 (33:29):
But accountability and apology is probably.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
The easiest way to end nagging drama, arguing everything, and people.

Speaker 4 (33:38):
Like for what?

Speaker 1 (33:40):
But I am curious and this is a sidebar, and
we got to go back to your story because I.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
Want to hear about it.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
But as a mom, I feel like what makes me
resilient and probably makes you and your sister resilient, I'm
gonna use the word resilient and your mother resilient is
probably the hardship that you had to go through. When
I look at my teeny bopper and I heard you

(34:05):
say coddle to your kid. You came from your mouth. Okay,
I don't know your kid, but do you feel like
and I'm definitely afraid of this is I want my
daughter to have this resilience, this like.

Speaker 2 (34:20):
Grit, right? But maybe girl? I mean, she already showing
signs of coddled.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
You know, she has the best or whatever, And I
take pride in it because we come from nothing. But
are you fearful that the coddling will take away that resilience?
Is it possible to love and create that grit of resilience?

Speaker 2 (34:43):
Is it even possible?

Speaker 4 (34:45):
So here's because I think about this often and even
you know. So my husband and I were moving and
we were like, should we stay here in this slightly
grittier community or do we move to this slightly more
upscale community.

Speaker 3 (35:02):
What do we want our kids to experience? What is
it going to mean?

Speaker 1 (35:06):
You know?

Speaker 4 (35:06):
So I say, that's one example of all the different
ways that I think about and I worry about how
my kids, especially my boys. I have two black boys
that I'm raising. What does it look like? And so
the way that I resolve this issue for me is
one I do try to make sure that I build

(35:28):
in moments of shall we say, the need for resilience
in our household. So our boys they you know, they
start with chores and maybe ten is a little bit late.
So don't yell at me if ten it is too late.
They start with chores at ten, laundry, trash, all that
stuff that they're responsible for that they have to be
willing to earn.

Speaker 5 (35:48):
Right.

Speaker 3 (35:49):
Also, try to build in some amount of like financial accountability,
so they do get an allowance, they're not out allowed
to spend outside of it unless they get money. Like
for a birthday has an Apple watch. He bought it
with his own birthday money.

Speaker 4 (36:03):
I'm not buying you an Apple Watch because you don't
need one, and I'm not spending that much money on
a device for a kid. You got the birthday money,
you have at it, you go for it. But I'm
not doing that, and so we do. I do try
to make sure I draw some financial boundary so they
don't just think, oh, whatever it is, I can get
it and it's all good.

Speaker 3 (36:23):
But at the end of the day, my kids as
was I.

Speaker 4 (36:28):
Because I went to a private school from seventh through
really out my whole life, but an elite private school
from seventh through twelfth grade, my kids are going to
have a similar experience and their peers parents have the
privilege to not think about these things, and yet their
kids grow up with a level of accountability and resilience

(36:50):
in some way, shape or form, because they do go
on to.

Speaker 3 (36:52):
Do things right.

Speaker 4 (36:53):
They go on to be professionals and have careers and
go to college and be responsible. So I feel like
I'm probably just raising a child that may be more
similarly situated to some of their peers.

Speaker 3 (37:04):
Not completely, because trust.

Speaker 4 (37:06):
Me, we were doing our first sleepover at a friend's
house and I'm driving there, like, hey, you see this neighborhood.
This ain't our neighborhood. You see, you see their house,
and how that we don't live like that. So don't
go in there touching. Look in feel you have a
different life than a lot of these kids. But they
perhaps get to experience more of the creature comforts than

(37:28):
you and I did. But they're still they're gonna see
things and they're going to know that they're different. One
because of the color of their skin. And two, I
don't know how you're living, but I'm not living like
the people where I took my son to this house.

Speaker 3 (37:41):
Okay, okay, And so.

Speaker 4 (37:43):
You know, I think that that you know, you get
there are moments in time where your kids are going
to have to They're gonna they are they're regardless, They're
gonna have to navigate these situations in a variety of
different ways, and that's going to build resilience in ways
that I think you're not giving yourself or your child

(38:04):
credit for it.

Speaker 1 (38:05):
And I hope so, I mean, three years old, I'm
getting lectures from the friends saying, oh, come on, man,
you you about to create a monster. All right, let's
take a bite of this. I didn't want the cheese
to get this cold. But let's try it.

Speaker 5 (38:18):
Okay, I'll been play too much better on the first one.

Speaker 3 (38:34):
I'm not giving you credit yet.

Speaker 2 (38:36):
I'm not giving you credit.

Speaker 4 (38:38):
Well, you complain about these turkey hot dogs, but they
are good.

Speaker 5 (38:43):
I want to get the mustard and the cheese together.

Speaker 3 (38:47):
I'm the lie.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
This is great, but I want more of the you know,
I'm happy.

Speaker 3 (38:57):
It's great.

Speaker 1 (38:59):
I could see why you didn't do to touch it.
It's the mustard and cheese. Wow, that's good for you listeners.
I'm sorry, hold on, it was good.

Speaker 4 (39:17):
I don't know if I gave you my list of
ingredients you want me to give you while you're taking
your sip?

Speaker 3 (39:22):
Yeah, go ahead, all right. So we kind of.

Speaker 4 (39:24):
Talked about it as we went along. But your simple
ingredients are gonna be hot dogs. If you're a vegan,
I guess you could do vegan dogs, or you can
do we have some turkey dogs and we have some
classic dogs here. I prefer a block of sadared cheese
that you great. I'm not gonna lie. When we were
growing up, we had pre shredded cheese, but I prefer
freshly grated cheese. So I asked for a block of cheese,

(39:46):
regular old frenches, yellow mustard, and a hot dog bun
of your choice.

Speaker 3 (39:51):
Those are really all for ingredients, but.

Speaker 1 (39:55):
I want to highlight that she toasted the bread in
butter both sides.

Speaker 2 (40:01):
Okay, that makes a huge world of a difference.

Speaker 1 (40:03):
So you're out there in your cabinets at home pulling
out some cold ass bread and put some cheese on it.
It's not gonna work. She put the mustard directly on
the hot dog. Then she put the shredded cheddar on top,
re put it in the pan, heated it up so
it melts it over the mustard.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
Brilliantly done. I feel like a celebrity chef. I mean,
what do you call it? The person that judges them?

Speaker 1 (40:31):
Back to your story, let's go back to the legacy.
Sorry to sidetrack with the parents and you think I'm
still in the new mom trying to figure out ray
and Jesus, I don't raise a monster. But back to
your mom's story. Your dad's been gone for a while.

(40:52):
Your mom, I'm assuming, pays off the debts, gets some
good graces. How many restaurants does she have at this point?

Speaker 3 (41:00):
Excuse me?

Speaker 4 (41:03):
So mom eventually had an opportunity that was presented to
her to buy, to sell her to high volume in
slightly more la I'm sorry, in slightly wider areas Clover
City adjacent and then about a mile or so away
on what was then Rodeo and Los Librea, sell those

(41:26):
to higher volume restaurants and buy restaurants in Compton and
Lynnwood area.

Speaker 3 (41:31):
And she decided to do that. So in nineteen ninety five.

Speaker 4 (41:35):
Why was she encouraged to do that she was offered
the opportunity to because first of all, it's a little
bit easier at times to run an organization with larger
with a larger number of restaurants. These current times were
in very, very challenging for a variety of reasons. We
are able to survive as an organization and float literally

(41:57):
float sinking a little bit because it's such hard times
because of the size of our organization. When you're a
smaller number of restaurants operator, it's difficult you can't spread
the losses out as wide and so and also for Mom,
you know, it was important to her that she demonstrate
to anybody out there that a restaurant in a predominantly

(42:20):
black and brown community can be as successful successfully want
as successfully run, as profitable and as reputable as a
restaurant in you know, in an area that's Culver City adjacent.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
But I'm just curious, why was why was it important
for them to say give up these two.

Speaker 4 (42:37):
For for those two because that was the finances of
the deal. Those two restaurants were worth about the same
as these other five.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
Oh it was two for five?

Speaker 3 (42:49):
Correct?

Speaker 2 (42:49):
Oh okay, okay, that's that's okay, that's where I got lost.

Speaker 3 (42:53):
Sorry, No, what's going on? I'm sorry, and I may
have missmoken. I'm sorry. So she's so too for five?

Speaker 1 (43:00):
Yes, Oh, well go ahead, mama, be it be.

Speaker 3 (43:04):
A boss.

Speaker 2 (43:05):
That sounds like a good deal. Okay, so she did.

Speaker 4 (43:07):
Okay, so from there, so from there she steadily grew.
Now I was very happy. I knew since the tenth
grade I wanted to be a lawyer. I didn't have
any interest in the businesses.

Speaker 1 (43:16):
And like when she came home and said, you got
to do a ship? Did you ever have to do
a ship to McDonald's.

Speaker 4 (43:21):
She never required us to work in the restaurant. I
did choose to work there the summer between tenth and
eleventh grade, and I was apparently pretty slow and you know,
kind of a mess. But you know, I did it.
I wanted to earn some extra cash, and so I did.
But she never even asked us to come in and
take over the business. She was very much like, I

(43:42):
got this and I'm cool and if you're ever interested, sure,
But she never pushed us. And that's a big part
of what I talk about in my book, which is
important for family businesses. If you want to really establish
something that you want to transfer to another generation or
even just another family member, it's got to be that
person's choice. It can't be compulsion, or you just end

(44:03):
up building resentment. They feel like they have lost opportunities,
they haven't gotten out of their system what their true
passions were, and then they're coming to join the family
business by choice because they want to.

Speaker 3 (44:13):
It's not an act of desperation. For example, now.

Speaker 1 (44:16):
With your case, since you did try out a job
at McDonald's where you like, oh, hells to the know exactly, lawyer,
it is, yes, And I was like, this is not.

Speaker 4 (44:27):
For me, Like I knew early on, McDonald's was not
from me, or I believed obviously, And I also had
a passion for I knew that I would be a
good lawyer, Like that's what I really wanted to do
in my heart. So I did, and I was successful

(44:53):
at it, and I loved it. I really really enjoyed
being a lawyer. And so for me, you know. And
so I say that to say, I'm having my you know,
going to law school, having my legal career. Mom is
steadily growing. So by the time I fast forward to
twenty thirteen, my son Caleb is one. I had moved

(45:16):
home from the Bay Area to be with my now husband.
We you know, had this We actually I moved, of
course before I had the baby. So I'm closer to
my sister and we always have been very close. I
see my mom and my sister in this business. I'm
going to some of like their were their holiday party.

Speaker 2 (45:33):
So your sister did choose to go directly into McDonald's.

Speaker 4 (45:37):
Now, she also had a ten plus year career in
social work.

Speaker 1 (45:41):
Oh so she went to mama's old Yes okay, okay, yes, okay, okay.

Speaker 3 (45:46):
So she she did.

Speaker 4 (45:48):
She graduated from her master's program in ninety four and
then didn't join mom until two thousand and three.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
Okay, And did both you guys join at the same time.

Speaker 3 (45:57):
No, two thousand and three and twenty thirteen, ten years.

Speaker 1 (45:59):
Old day, So did did your sister start planning little
seeds of come joy?

Speaker 4 (46:06):
Well kind of, And it was leave it to a
big sister, right she was, you know, and I'm observing,
like there's no substitute for seeing Well, first of all,
any person's ever been in the family business, but McDonald's,
especially you would be. I would be around them, and
that's all they want to talk about is McDonald's and
this employee in this meeting and this election. And I

(46:27):
was like, all you guys ever do talk about is
talk about McDonald's driving me crazy?

Speaker 3 (46:32):
But Thanksgiving and talking about McDonald's over the turkey? Can
we just eat the turkey?

Speaker 1 (46:39):
And they ever beef at all? Like then it's over McDonald's.

Speaker 4 (46:44):
No, No, I know, sorry, but I know that would
have been an exciting story.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
But well, knowing your family, y'all wasn't talking about emotions anywhere.

Speaker 4 (46:53):
We weren't and I mean, trust me, what we weren't.
There's no beef with Patricia, Like you don't beef with her?

Speaker 2 (47:00):
Oh that's you.

Speaker 3 (47:01):
You, yes, you roll with what Patricia is doing or
you hit the road you know, so it wasn't no
room for Beethan.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
So how many McDonald's did your sister and your mother before.

Speaker 2 (47:13):
You before thirteen thirteen? Now the ad twenty one? Right?

Speaker 3 (47:18):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (47:18):
Wow? Okay, so so you joined the squad? Now are
they receptive to you or are they like.

Speaker 1 (47:26):
Girlfriend, we don't tell you what it's done, and if
you don't listen, we told you.

Speaker 4 (47:31):
So, I mean, that's like the best question, right, because
they welcomed me, and I was like, great, here's all
the things that we need to do now that I'm here.
I'm an employment lawyer expert, so this is what we
need to do. And they were an employment law that's
a big deal.

Speaker 2 (47:51):
That's actually great.

Speaker 3 (47:52):
It was.

Speaker 2 (47:53):
It was a great asset to the scene, the biggest asset.

Speaker 3 (47:56):
Yeah, you are walking in there like, oh guess what? No,
So first on day one, like everybody else, I started
on fries. Everybody else day.

Speaker 2 (48:05):
One, the attorney. So I started on fries.

Speaker 4 (48:09):
I was a senior director at twenty for our finis.
I had responsibility for half of the United States.

Speaker 3 (48:15):
Okay, on Friday and then on Monday, I was working
the fries.

Speaker 2 (48:21):
I'm sorry, I can I say this? Well, why we gotta.

Speaker 3 (48:24):
Do you like that?

Speaker 2 (48:25):
Why they had to do you like?

Speaker 1 (48:26):
Is that?

Speaker 2 (48:27):
Like? Do you think that's a black people think? Do
you think what they did was right?

Speaker 3 (48:30):
Do you?

Speaker 2 (48:31):
Because it's hilarious.

Speaker 4 (48:32):
Let me tell you why it matters and why I
would not have done it any differently because it was
literally fries.

Speaker 3 (48:38):
I went through all the stations.

Speaker 4 (48:40):
If I am, because everybody knew when I came in
that I was on the track to become an owner operator.
But if I I can't come in and tell you
how to work fries if I've never worked fries and
sucked at it and then had to take a few
weeks to get good at it. Same thing for the
cashier window, same thing for the kitchen.

Speaker 2 (49:01):
But they were really put you through all that.

Speaker 3 (49:03):
I I got there at four in the morning and
did prep. You DoD have no attitude. I worked over night. No,
I did all the things.

Speaker 2 (49:10):
No cursing out, no hang ups. Come on, now, what
could I say?

Speaker 3 (49:14):
I don't know nothing.

Speaker 2 (49:15):
But you worked there when you was a.

Speaker 3 (49:17):
Teenager, like fifteen years before that.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
Can me tell you something?

Speaker 1 (49:21):
Okay, sidebar, Okay, guys, I worked at McDonald's was my
first job. Okay, that job is hard, Okay, French fries,
the burgers, the little cheese, the egg that comes out
of the carton, all that shit was hard. I burned
myself on the thing, flat oven thing. The cashier job

(49:43):
was hard. There was not one position in McDonald's that
was not hard. By the time I was done with McDonald's,
I was permanently banned because I was a prankster, had
a big.

Speaker 2 (49:52):
Mouth that I couldn't even order food.

Speaker 1 (49:55):
When I was done, I still am ashamed to pull
up in that McDonald's. But and a half, do you
do you like that? Because you know, if you did
it in high school, that job was hard. They sent
you back to concentration camp of h E.

Speaker 2 (50:09):
L L on fries. At your level, that's dope of
you to like.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
Take it as a badge of honor and brag about
the fact that you had to start at the French fries.

Speaker 3 (50:24):
First of all, can I pause to say, do you
know that you were one and eight? One and eight
of all Americans have worked at McDonald's And I am.

Speaker 2 (50:35):
Going, oh, by the way, Neo has two.

Speaker 4 (50:37):
Yeah, lots of people have Jeff Bezos, Amazon or McDonald's.

Speaker 2 (50:43):
Damn, you sound like a McDonald's commercial.

Speaker 1 (50:45):
Oh, by the way, guys, we are not going to
end the interview without me talking about the apps and
all that, because I want to get to know when
when I go, I'm gonna get this. Don't let me
close out without talking about these apps that are saving
people a lot of money. Oh, I want to know
from your perspective how it feels. Yes, but for the
uh going back, So you work in the fries, your

(51:07):
sister and walking by.

Speaker 2 (51:08):
You doing snickers jokes, nothing.

Speaker 3 (51:10):
No, she stayed out of there because we knew that.
So I didn't want people. I didn't want it to me.
I didn't want people to think I was getting special
treatment because who respects that?

Speaker 2 (51:22):
Who respects the boss's kid?

Speaker 3 (51:25):
Who get.

Speaker 2 (51:28):
Of course they did. They knew.

Speaker 3 (51:30):
How could they not.

Speaker 4 (51:32):
Because the general manager is like, oh shit, I got
to train the boss's daughter like so you know. But she,
I will give her credit. She kept it real. She
told me when I was like, you're slow or you're extra.

Speaker 3 (51:45):
Like you look girls get together.

Speaker 4 (51:48):
I love her. She is now one of our key areas.
She's been promoted since then. She's amazing. Okay, yeah, so okay,
you sound.

Speaker 1 (51:58):
Like a good good So I told the most hated
job at McDonald's because I got to hear something negative.

Speaker 2 (52:05):
What's the job you hate.

Speaker 3 (52:06):
The most, the hardest.

Speaker 4 (52:09):
The hardest job to me at McDonald's is working second
land of drive through because you are taking orders in
your headset and you're making all of the drinks for
the drive through.

Speaker 2 (52:22):
Oh yeah, I've seen that the other day.

Speaker 4 (52:24):
That was crazy, So imagine and what I didn't realize
until I.

Speaker 3 (52:28):
Had to do it breakfast time.

Speaker 4 (52:31):
So your drive through was full of people, A large coffee,
three sugars, one cream, do you want it on the side?

Speaker 3 (52:38):
Okay?

Speaker 4 (52:39):
Uh, medium coffee, no sugar, no cream, iced coffee, frapp it,
all that stuff while you're taking orders and making sure
it is It is so complex now hard Damn.

Speaker 1 (52:54):
I should have wrote down some of mcdonald'sques. I had
some good ones too, but McDonald's the one that got sued.
I hate to do this to you who got sued
for the hot coffee years. This was like, wait, McDonald's
McDonald's right, But is McDonald's.

Speaker 4 (53:09):
If there's a lawsuitent in fast suit, it' McDonald's Because
we're the biggest, we're the target.

Speaker 1 (53:13):
And then I will never forget that. I was a
little kid, and I said, that's the dumbest lawsuit. I
haven't talking about it. It's too hot, But.

Speaker 2 (53:23):
Is it?

Speaker 1 (53:24):
What is your most profitable I know, I'm sorry bar
in the hell out of this, but I'm gonna do it.
What's the most profitable item at McDonald's soda?

Speaker 3 (53:34):
I knew it.

Speaker 2 (53:34):
I told, let me just.

Speaker 1 (53:35):
Tell you something, nothing, nothing more. Okay, I am Jewish
and j maake. I'm gonna repeat it a hundred times over.

Speaker 2 (53:42):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (53:43):
Nothing bothers me more than people that are sucky at finance.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
I had friends. I got rich friends, stupid rich like yo, yo,
can you hear me on that side of the house.

Speaker 1 (53:55):
Then I got my broke friends. I'll show you the
difference instantly. Okay, I'll be on the phone with my
rich friends. They talking about taking over the world. You
know whatever, my broke friends, what you're doing? Can I
get a large sprite for four dollars fifty cents?

Speaker 2 (54:13):
Are you in your car? You would go to the
seven eleven ralfs? What do we even talk?

Speaker 1 (54:19):
You were spending four or five dollars on a soda?
I mean, don't discriminate on what I did earlier with
you with the or chattle, okay, because we needed ice
for our situation, so I paid seven dollars for two cups.

Speaker 2 (54:35):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (54:35):
If you wasn't with me, girl would have been like,
can I get a little plastic cup with the ice?

Speaker 2 (54:40):
Okay? Just know your presence earned that seven dollars. Okay,
But it baffles me that soda.

Speaker 1 (54:49):
I thought it was your coffee that was the most
proffee is up there too, okay, okay. And then since
we hear at it, okay, uh. The when you go
on the app, they have the dollar forty nine line fries,
which by the way, is Jesus on wheels, okay, because
I mean we all know if you eat beef, it's
the big mac in my opinion, But it's the French

(55:11):
fries all day. I don't know what kind of crack
you put in the salt.

Speaker 3 (55:14):
None, no crack.

Speaker 2 (55:15):
Oh sorry, goshould have even said that.

Speaker 3 (55:17):
Sorry, no cracking the fries.

Speaker 2 (55:22):
No cracking the fries. Sorry. The fries is so damn good.
I don't know. It's the size, the shape.

Speaker 3 (55:27):
Even when you.

Speaker 2 (55:27):
Try to buy the imitation frozen fries at the store, they.

Speaker 1 (55:30):
Still don't come out as good. As McDonald fries. But
when I use that app, it gives it to me
for a dollar forty nine. Does it annoy you if
you have a customer that only pulls into the window
they use the app for the dollar forty nine fries?

Speaker 4 (55:44):
No, you know why because you keep coming back for
the dollar forty nine fries. And sometimes you're not just
gonna get those fries. Sometimes you're gonna have your baby
with you and she's gonna be like, Mommy, can I
get a Happy Meal or whatever it is? So no,
for all the deals, the best deals are in the app.

Speaker 1 (56:03):
The best deals are in the app, and I actually
wanted to do at some point I started, so I
think McDonald's was the first one someone put me onto it.
But I do try not. I purposely the financial savvy
and me tries not to spend out of the dollar
forty nine. But then recently, I don't know when, but
y'all started saying two dollars off the Happy Meal because
I really buy the fries for her.

Speaker 2 (56:24):
I'm like, they got me.

Speaker 1 (56:26):
But I try not to drink sweet beverage, so I
try to avoid it. But I will admit it's always
the dollar forty nine fries. But my daughter never eats
the nuggets, never eats anything else. So now every once
in a while, when I'm trying to force her there,
I will do the happy meal and enjoy a high

(56:47):
Sea Orange. And by the way, you guys added the
high Sea Orange with the vanilla and Da Da da flavors.
But I did want to say, back in the day
when I used to do the drinks at McDonald's, they
didn't pre measure them. So is it really that hard
when the second person taking the order and they push
a button in and like circle, Come on, you know
what I'm talking about.

Speaker 2 (57:05):
Those little machines.

Speaker 1 (57:06):
They pre you push a button, they put the ice in,
and they put the drink in. At least that's what
they tell me when I put too much ice.

Speaker 3 (57:11):
Man.

Speaker 4 (57:12):
Yeah, but that's just the that's just the cold. That's
just soft drinks. We have a lot of different drinks
that we sell. We do Frappe's, we do or We
would also do the mcflurries, which is not a drink,
but shakes. We do coffee, we do ice coffee, we

(57:32):
do tea, we do orange juice. Like, there's a lot
of different drinks there. That machine, Yes, it's helpful, but
even all the other the drinks are a machine assisted.
But when you've got a rush hour and you're going
and going, and then you have three people in the
car that are all ordering coffee, and all the coffees
are different.

Speaker 1 (57:53):
So what's your biggest pet peep from a customer? Since
you've got to wear all hats, Well, what are your
your if you don't know it? But what does like
your staff come back as your biggest pet peeve?

Speaker 3 (58:03):
Being disrespectful to our people and putting them down.

Speaker 1 (58:07):
At the at what area do they do that all
the I'll tell him saying like how do they do that?
Like they give me a big big mag and throw
some extra frizen, be like a me.

Speaker 2 (58:18):
To how people to handle your food?

Speaker 3 (58:20):
People?

Speaker 4 (58:21):
Right, one would think, okay, let me tell you now.
You know, I've gone to good school. I'm a very
educated woman. I have lots of experience. Right when I
was in the restaurants one day somebody came in. I
knew that he was lying about in order that he's
supposedly had placed. He wanted a refund, and I said, no,
I'm sorry, sir, you know I can't give you this refund.

(58:43):
And he said, you're so stupid, that's why you work
at McDonald's.

Speaker 3 (58:46):
Anyway.

Speaker 1 (58:47):
Did you hit him with, yeah, that's why I'm on
twenty one of these bitches. No, that would have been me.
I would have been on one.

Speaker 2 (58:54):
Okay, did you I roll? Because you knew it?

Speaker 3 (58:57):
Did you?

Speaker 2 (58:58):
He was like, you have no idea?

Speaker 3 (59:02):
You have no idea.

Speaker 4 (59:03):
I just smiled and said, thank you, sir, have a
nice day because I have enough education and I'm not stupid.

Speaker 3 (59:09):
I do that.

Speaker 1 (59:10):
You handled it like that. I know that was your
your secret inner confidence, like.

Speaker 3 (59:17):
Right, okay, okay, So and people, you know what, you
would be shocked. What angers people.

Speaker 4 (59:27):
They that they can't be heard through the headset and
so they so our people may say, I'm sorry, can
you repeat that?

Speaker 3 (59:33):
I already said it, you know, you know, and people
and I mean.

Speaker 1 (59:38):
Not just like you have like a McDonald's just that
sounds sorry, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (59:44):
Why are we doing this to McDonald's.

Speaker 3 (59:46):
I want it so nice.

Speaker 2 (59:49):
I want to hear more.

Speaker 4 (59:49):
You know, Let's say our people are human, we make
a mistake on in order. Usually, Let's say we gave
them strawberry jelly instead of grape jelly.

Speaker 3 (59:58):
You know, I didn't want this f jam. They'll come,
they'll throw it at people.

Speaker 4 (01:00:02):
I mean, people get mad about what I consider very
small things.

Speaker 3 (01:00:10):
Do we want to get it right every time? Yes,
we always want to be perfect.

Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
That's kind of saying.

Speaker 4 (01:00:16):
It's really unfortunate like that people feel and they feel
like they can just say.

Speaker 3 (01:00:21):
And do anything to our people.

Speaker 1 (01:00:22):
So how do I deal with it when like saying,
employees having a rough day and then someone comes in
and just a complete obnoxious because you know, we all
don't wake up with butterflies overhead, But like what if
a staf's having a rough time and then this sends
them over?

Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
What do you How do you guys handle those situations?

Speaker 4 (01:00:41):
Depends on how they handle it, So we our position
is you definitely have the right to have feelings.

Speaker 3 (01:00:48):
If you need to go in the walk in.

Speaker 4 (01:00:51):
Refrigerator and scream and be mad and yell, you're welcome
to do that, but you can't at the same time
disrespect a customer back. That's not what we're able to do.
We can't allow you to do that, but you can
remove yourself from the situation. We can remove the customer
from the restaurant. We'll call the police if we need to.

(01:01:11):
So we're certainly not like, go out there and subject
yourself to insanity. Walk away, call a manager, get support,
go to the back. Don't engage, Yeah, because it's the
engagement that will get you in trouble. Remove yourself, get
yourself and whomever else into a you know, a safe
or quiet or just a removed space, and then, you know,

(01:01:33):
let the manager handle it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:35):
When I worked at McDonald's, I used to steal the
chicken nuggets.

Speaker 2 (01:01:45):
I don't know why I confess that. I'll confess it
because I want to know Carrie.

Speaker 1 (01:01:51):
I have to know you and McDonald's. It's late got
a little hungry in you. What you take it to
eat from McDonald's.

Speaker 3 (01:02:03):
Secretly nothing. You cannot steal the food. I mean, like, okay, okay,
you want to if you want to restate the question.

Speaker 1 (01:02:15):
By the way, don't judge me, everybody. I was poured
growing up teenagers. Come on, now, a chicken nugget here
and there. It wasn't like I was stealing a ten piece,
you know, but you know you cooking them. You may
want to sample the goods. So so let me say this,
what's your favorite item?

Speaker 4 (01:02:31):
I was going to go back to your declaration that
the Big Mac is the best burger. The Double cheeseburger
head to head every time. The double cheeseburger, it's the
two patties and the two slices of cheese that take
it to.

Speaker 2 (01:02:48):
The next Do you ever add the Big Mac sauster with?

Speaker 3 (01:02:50):
Though, Oh it's the ketchup and mustard, delicious mustard. You
even brought the ketchup? You know what?

Speaker 1 (01:02:57):
As I got older, You're right, the double cheeseburger is hidden.
But I've never I don't think ever ordered the double
cheeseburd without the Big maxauce.

Speaker 3 (01:03:05):
Okay, that's fair. Big people do love that. I have people.

Speaker 4 (01:03:08):
I have a friend of mine, a dear friend of mine,
and as a Christmas give one time, I gave him
a container of Big Max sauce.

Speaker 2 (01:03:15):
You can I be on that list? Can I please
be on that list?

Speaker 1 (01:03:21):
Hey?

Speaker 4 (01:03:21):
And you know what I didn't do. I did not
sneak it out. I actually paid for it.

Speaker 2 (01:03:25):
You could buy it in containers.

Speaker 4 (01:03:26):
No, I mean I can because I can say, hey,
charge me for this, and oh you know, but if
you you know, okay, now that I know, just make
sure you watch your I feel bad and men and
this stuff to you, It's like I feel like.

Speaker 2 (01:03:40):
Sickly, but you know, like a sick feeling is like
this is good and bad. I get to say this.

Speaker 4 (01:03:46):
I'm enjoying this. Mech professional, Okay, it's lovely.

Speaker 1 (01:03:52):
Stuff that irritates me about fast food. I mean, this
is the only thing that makes me irritated at fast
food is hey, can I have an extra barbecue sauce,
big maxim whatever sauce and little container.

Speaker 2 (01:04:08):
I ain't gonna lie.

Speaker 1 (01:04:09):
It takes a lot to give me irritating, but I
usually pay for everything with card. Everything like now that
they have the phone on the wallet and the key
on the wallet on the phone, yes, forget it. Even
though it takes forever to open your car with a
little app, I'll stand out there for that minute if
it means I don't have to carry a bag or
a Purson wallet. But I will pay for everything with

(01:04:32):
a card. And nothing irritates me more than you want
an extra ranch twenty five cents? Why why did they
have to put that rule to McDonald's has that rule right?

Speaker 4 (01:04:45):
I'm gonna be honest to say, we very specifically don't
do that in our restaurant.

Speaker 1 (01:04:48):
Oh twenty one McDonald's. Right there, you just set yourself apart.
Twenty one McDonald's in California. Do not charge you to
twenty five cent feet. I'm telling you right now, you
just gained the whole fan base because I know there's
other people that can really relate to that sit Do

(01:05:10):
you know what I'm talking about?

Speaker 3 (01:05:11):
No, we don't. I mean, now, let me be honest.
If you come in and you ask for ten, fifteen,
twenty sauces, I'm not rolling with that, yeah right, because
we do have costs that there is an actual cost
associated with that cup of sauce. But if you're like, hey,
can I get an extra ranch? Are people not charging
for that?

Speaker 2 (01:05:28):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:05:29):
They should not be. And so if you do get charged,
call me or call my office.

Speaker 2 (01:05:36):
Call her office.

Speaker 1 (01:05:37):
She's trackable now because she got a book. Yall, she
got a book, The Family Seeker out.

Speaker 2 (01:05:43):
Check it out.

Speaker 1 (01:05:43):
I want to check it out.

Speaker 3 (01:05:46):
One last.

Speaker 1 (01:05:47):
Let me see whom I had so many good ones
I do. I try not to eat out a lot
of fast food. Just another sidebar. I don't know if
this happens to you at the grocery store and it
irritates me too, You guys get to check out and
they be like, how many bags you want?

Speaker 3 (01:06:02):
Does it not?

Speaker 2 (01:06:03):
Does it irritate at least you?

Speaker 4 (01:06:06):
It is frustrating and oftentimes in outrage, I'll just say no,
and then I'll hobble out.

Speaker 1 (01:06:15):
I'm glad to hear you say that twenty one McDonald's
that she will hobble out.

Speaker 3 (01:06:18):
That for I will hobble. I'm pretty sure I just
did a target yesterday.

Speaker 2 (01:06:24):
I thought you were gonna say I always carry my bag.

Speaker 3 (01:06:27):
No, I mean I.

Speaker 4 (01:06:27):
Try to carry my but who can remember. I can't
remember that, So I've hobbled. My husband's always like, get
a bag, and I'm like, I'm not getting the bag.
But I will tell you it's government regulation. That is an.

Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
Attorney, that's the attorney in her is gonna be good.

Speaker 1 (01:06:46):
Guys, you better go out there and get it, because, uh,
because it ain't nothing. So now you're you all you since
joining on, you've.

Speaker 2 (01:06:54):
Added what is that?

Speaker 3 (01:06:57):
Seven?

Speaker 2 (01:06:57):
Six seven?

Speaker 1 (01:06:59):
What's thirteen? Those twenty one minus thirteen eighty eight? Yes,
eight more McDonald's been added to the to the legacy.

Speaker 2 (01:07:09):
How does that feel?

Speaker 5 (01:07:10):
Do you?

Speaker 2 (01:07:11):
How does it feel?

Speaker 5 (01:07:14):
You know?

Speaker 3 (01:07:14):
What's I mean?

Speaker 4 (01:07:15):
That's such a good question, because when I joined the
family business, my mom and my sister were already rock stars.
They were very successful, and so for me, a lot
of it was like where do I add value here?
And I did feel very lucky that I was able
to bring employment law skills. But now that we've expanded
now to twenty one, I take I feel like I'm

(01:07:39):
more able to take ownership in this growth.

Speaker 3 (01:07:43):
I was a part of those decisions.

Speaker 4 (01:07:45):
The fact that we felt comfortable growing is because we
felt able as a sister partnership to take this on.

Speaker 3 (01:07:53):
We've now built a team.

Speaker 4 (01:07:54):
We are the doo that the director of operations that
my mother had has retired, Nicole and I hired our.

Speaker 3 (01:08:02):
New Do you know what does that mean?

Speaker 4 (01:08:04):
Director of operations? So that is the person in our organization.
He's the only person who reports directly to us. He
is responding right into my next question. Yes, sorry, it
was a day in the life of y'all. And and
when you do the splits, I hate to do this to.

Speaker 1 (01:08:19):
You, is it like, well, you kind of just answered
that question indirectly with the director of operations, But did
you guys do like you run this set and I
run this set? Or did it be like I'm good
in this era, I'm good in this era, and I'm
good and then we manage all together.

Speaker 3 (01:08:36):
The latter.

Speaker 4 (01:08:37):
Sometimes I forget which restaurants Nicole owns and which ones
I own, But we do own them all separately, one
hundred percent each. So I own one hundred percent of
the interest in all of my restaurants and she owns
one hundred percent of the interest in her restaurants.

Speaker 3 (01:08:52):
And then what your mom, Well, my mom is retired.

Speaker 2 (01:08:55):
So did you guys split the ones that she one
hundred percent?

Speaker 3 (01:08:58):
We did?

Speaker 1 (01:08:59):
I love that you said the best line of all
of this, the jay Z of all lines, the best
line I heard of all this shit. Just now, Sorry
for cursing.

Speaker 2 (01:09:11):
I respect you so much.

Speaker 1 (01:09:13):
Is I forget which restaurants I own? I can't even
remember which one she own? We be forgetting all the time.

Speaker 2 (01:09:36):
That's the best. Do you know that's a boss line
right there?

Speaker 1 (01:09:39):
You could wear that I forget which restaurants I own
should be on a shirt.

Speaker 3 (01:09:45):
That's how connected we are. We are one organization.

Speaker 2 (01:09:49):
Either that or that's just how boss you are.

Speaker 3 (01:09:53):
I'll take that too.

Speaker 1 (01:09:54):
No, that is a good testament to how connected you
are so like if you are you able to pop
into each other's store all the time. So what's a
day in the life of you without being, you.

Speaker 3 (01:10:06):
Know, an asshole? There is no typical day.

Speaker 4 (01:10:09):
But what I will say is we spend Our goal
is to create situations where the people in our restaurants
are so successful they don't need for us to be there.
If I am working Fries, literally something has gone catastrophically wrong, right,
So for us, most of my working days are going

(01:10:32):
to be in the office. We have an office HQ
and Carson.

Speaker 2 (01:10:37):
Is it like your own officers? Like McDonald's And I'm
trying to.

Speaker 3 (01:10:40):
Know it's just us.

Speaker 4 (01:10:41):
The front of it says way because we've gone through
a lot of changes.

Speaker 3 (01:10:45):
Williams.

Speaker 4 (01:10:46):
My sister's first married name was Narrow Harper Howie Wig Enterprises.
That's the name of our building, and we occupy the
front half of it. We're actually building out the second half.
I'm creating what I hope will be a gallery space
for my mother.

Speaker 3 (01:11:00):
There's artwork that used to be in the home she owned.

Speaker 4 (01:11:02):
It's not valuable, but it's meaningful to our family, and
so I'm trying to transform that space to be something beautiful.
So most of my days I spend in my office
where we do have an administrative team, and where we
have a training room and then a conference room where
we'll do you know, meetings of depending on the size
of the meeting. And we also so the way that

(01:11:23):
McDonald's is set up is that there are a lot
of local, regional, and national leadership opportunities. So we have
groups of leadership bodies, and between Nicole and I were
both on in leadership on a multiple of those groups. So,
for example, Nicole is the vice chair of our Field

(01:11:47):
Alignment Council, so that may take her to Las Vegas
or some to have a meeting to go to go
through to decide whatever that group's area of responsibility is.
I'm also all in the Field Alignment unseil in a
different role, but she does that. I'm the I'm the
president of our local Black McDonald's Owners Association, our local chapter.

Speaker 1 (01:12:07):
I almost cost you that way, Okay, Yeah, I knew
some people that could have bumped into you that way.

Speaker 3 (01:12:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:12:12):
So I might be working with one of our advertising
agencies to put together an event for Black History mother
for you know, supporting a local community organization doing a
PR activation in an African American consumer market restaurant. So
we're both in a lot of leadership. So I pretty

(01:12:34):
much travel about two weeks out of the month to
different meetings. A lot of our meetings are in Chicago,
which is where McDonald's headquarters is. But I'm not going
to a meeting that another organization. I'm in a McDonald's organization.
They're having a board meetings. I'm on the board in
in Alabama because i have another meeting the following week,

(01:12:56):
and I'm like, I got I can't be away from
my family for two straight weeks.

Speaker 2 (01:12:59):
Yeah, when you're gone for a week, it's like the
whole week.

Speaker 4 (01:13:02):
It will typically be Tuesday to Thursday depending. Yeah, so
I'm usually you know, Monday, Friday, I'm usually home and
weekends of course, but you'll usually be anywhere from two
to three days.

Speaker 1 (01:13:13):
What is the worst hat or you've ever worn as
a McDonald's.

Speaker 3 (01:13:19):
Everything, the worst hat? Okay, I'll say this.

Speaker 4 (01:13:25):
I can't I won't go into any specific details, but
I'll say there are moments in time when I'm in
meetings and not because I'm black or because I'm a woman,
but because of the nature of the relationships enfranchising where
I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:13:41):
Feel like my opinions are having an impact.

Speaker 4 (01:13:46):
So I was on a team that met pretty regularly
and we were supposed to be deciding things as it
related to our restaurants, and I felt very frustrated because
I didn't feel like I was being impactful and that
the thing that I had to say, which I felt
were pretty right, were valued and being taken into consideration.
I was on that team for probably about two years,

(01:14:08):
and then I had to get off that team because
I can't be in any space.

Speaker 3 (01:14:12):
I get that I have to be there.

Speaker 4 (01:14:13):
I'm into paying my dues or as you can see,
I believe paying my dues, listening and learning, but at
a certain point, I'm transferring from learning to contributing, and
I need to be an actual contributor. And I know
that I have good thoughts and ideas, and if they're
not being received consistently, not all of them, but consistently
those ideas are not being received or listened to, I

(01:14:36):
have to get out of that space. So that's probably
been my most difficult McDonald's experience.

Speaker 1 (01:14:41):
When you explain to McDonald's situation, it almost feels like
because when I think of a McDonald's franchisee owner, I think, okay,
you well, I know McDonald's headquarters owns like the land.

Speaker 4 (01:14:53):
Right most of the time, well, the vast majority of
Sometimes they lease spaces.

Speaker 1 (01:14:58):
Oh okay, okay, they'll you're about to say we own
some of the property.

Speaker 3 (01:15:02):
No, that would be amazing.

Speaker 4 (01:15:05):
Not quite No, we're specifically not allowed to do that.

Speaker 1 (01:15:09):
But when you talk about you being on this National
Black and she's on this field, I'm yes, I'm not
gonna get perfect where you're going. It's a little confusing
me because it seems like McDonald's has like you guys
are the franchise owner and then you guys, are you
guys encouraged to take on these additional responsibilities or is

(01:15:31):
it is it like you build up points or is
it like you own this restaurant so now you are
you have to pick your slot commitment like some of
you guys have all these little extra legs.

Speaker 4 (01:15:41):
I'll be honest and say we honestly see it as
an opportunity because what it does is, first of all,
on a lot of this So let's take the NBM away.
So what National Black McDonald's Owners Association, Sorry, it's an
advocacy group, which means that when you're meeting first of all,
when you're meeting with them, you're connecting with other black franchisees.

(01:16:04):
I consider that to be an opportunity because we are yes, right,
So that's an opportunity. If you're in leadership, then you
have a say in the running of that organization, so
you can say, hey, this is happening to us franchises
in California.

Speaker 3 (01:16:17):
We need your help in this way.

Speaker 4 (01:16:19):
National Leadership of NBM away.

Speaker 3 (01:16:23):
National Black McDonald's Owners Association.

Speaker 4 (01:16:26):
Sorry, I'll try to say that, it's just hard to
say the full time.

Speaker 2 (01:16:29):
Well, I was just wondering.

Speaker 1 (01:16:30):
So you report on the local level to the to
the national level, and then they go to the correct
So the chairs of all of the diversity groups.

Speaker 4 (01:16:39):
There's adversity groups for all of the you know, Black Asian,
Hispanic pride.

Speaker 3 (01:16:44):
White people have women like I can't. I can't, I
don't know how to.

Speaker 4 (01:16:58):
Okay, So this is let me go back to what
I what what what we are McDonald's. We we Let
me say I work with a number of wonderful white
colleagues in a variety of different ways.

Speaker 3 (01:17:11):
Yeah, okay, it's okay.

Speaker 4 (01:17:15):
So all of those individuals who lead our national organizations,
they have they are part of a larger leadership group
that meets with McDonald's leadership.

Speaker 2 (01:17:27):
Okay, So it's.

Speaker 3 (01:17:28):
Kind of like a voice.

Speaker 4 (01:17:29):
And so we call ourselves three legs of the stool, franchisees,
the corporation, and our vendors. Without all three of us,
we can't survive if one of those legs is jacked up.

Speaker 3 (01:17:39):
COVID, the supply chain got all jacked up. We had
to figure out how to the franchise, suppliers, franchises and
the corporation.

Speaker 2 (01:17:47):
The suppliers what suppliers mean like vendors.

Speaker 3 (01:17:50):
Basically, we just suppliers and.

Speaker 2 (01:17:51):
Our suppliers, the.

Speaker 3 (01:17:54):
Suppliers, franchisees, corporation.

Speaker 2 (01:17:56):
Corporation is McDonald franchises, got.

Speaker 3 (01:17:59):
It, Yes, So we all have to work together.

Speaker 4 (01:18:02):
So we're organized as as franchise the organizations, and then
we always have corporate counterparts pardon me, that we work
with in order to try to figure out issues in
the system because we own ninety five percent of the restaurants,
so we know the field better than anybody else. The
corporation has, you know, over they're the franchise or so

(01:18:24):
they have ultimate deciding power and a lot of different things.
So we have to work together to make sure that
everybody's goals and objectives are being met.

Speaker 1 (01:18:33):
I can tell why McDonald's is successful off this conversation.
It's very well structured. It sounds very sound, very systematic.
Shout outs to McDonald's.

Speaker 2 (01:18:44):
My actual.

Speaker 1 (01:18:47):
You guys are my favorite fast food plays, the French
fries and the fact that you serve code because I
hate any I think it's burgerting one of them sell
PEPSI and I don't know, can Spider like the best? Yeah,
you guys may very well. Yes, don't tell trainers or
anybody that works out with me.

Speaker 2 (01:19:06):
I have to ask this.

Speaker 1 (01:19:07):
I'm sorry, jar, I know we're over. The next question
I had was out of you're in the franchise business.
Have you looked at other franchises? I know Chick fil
A has like a lottery system. Did you hear about that?

Speaker 3 (01:19:19):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:19:20):
So I heard through the grapevine that to own a
Chick fil A it's ten thousand dollars. They do splits
and it's a lottery. You work in there and you
enter the lottery. So the one on Hollywood. I remember the.

Speaker 2 (01:19:31):
Guy that won that one.

Speaker 1 (01:19:32):
He was like twenty seven at the time, So did
you You don't know about that.

Speaker 3 (01:19:37):
The only thing I honestly know.

Speaker 4 (01:19:39):
I do know that their price point to entry is
lower than if you're a what's called a registered applicant
for McDonald's. I also know that a part of that
is because their profit sharing model is different, although I
don't know the details of THEIRS. I had a friend
who applied to be a chick franchise e and it

(01:20:02):
didn't work out for her, so I didn't I thought
that it was just a similar application process. I've never
known anything about a lottery or anything.

Speaker 3 (01:20:09):
So I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:20:09):
Yeah, I heard it's like you have to work in there.
You enter the lottery from like being an employee, and
then once you're pets then you.

Speaker 2 (01:20:19):
Have to follow the steps or whatever.

Speaker 1 (01:20:21):
But it is They definitely have a back end that's
a little different on the profit splits, but initial going
is lower, but it is for you have to work
in there. For someone sitting at home, a McDonald's fan
could be a McDonald's employee. I want you to tell us, ooh, girlfriend,
how we cannot just get to well, we got to

(01:20:42):
get to we want to get to twenty one.

Speaker 3 (01:20:44):
We got to surpass you.

Speaker 1 (01:20:45):
Okay, but how do we get to our first one?
For anyone out there listening, what advice would you give
realistically on what their chances are and what they'd have
to do to get their hat in the.

Speaker 4 (01:20:57):
Race, The first step is to make sure that you
are financially.

Speaker 3 (01:21:03):
Clean. Is your credit good check? Do you have a
history of saving?

Speaker 2 (01:21:10):
Yes?

Speaker 4 (01:21:11):
Do you have a pretty success substantial liquid amount of
savings at your disposal?

Speaker 1 (01:21:20):
I mean I have a house equity equity? Okay, got
like a lot of equity. Okay, that's great. Okay, start there.
That's number one.

Speaker 3 (01:21:31):
Two. Are you as an individual cool?

Speaker 4 (01:21:35):
Are you clean? Do you have a criminal record? Do
you have you know, any sort of like degree history.
Do you have a college degree at AA, A BA
or whatever? You don't have to, but all that stuff
helps because your next step is going to be the
thout the application.

Speaker 2 (01:21:51):
But don't you have how do you get into You
don't have to work at.

Speaker 1 (01:21:54):
McDonald's, not before you apply? No, what about Hamburger University?
How does that work?

Speaker 4 (01:22:00):
You get to Hamburg University when you're ready to become
a general manager.

Speaker 3 (01:22:03):
It's our general manager training class.

Speaker 1 (01:22:06):
But if you say you say you have a girl,
you got me excited.

Speaker 5 (01:22:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:22:10):
But wait, okay, so I got like a Okay, I
got an a y like.

Speaker 1 (01:22:13):
Oh, I'm hella good with money. I'm kind of cheap,
but ran businesses. No college degree. I have some liquid cash,
but I ain't gonna lie. I have a lot of
money and equity because I pay off my house way
too fast.

Speaker 2 (01:22:27):
What else did you say I need it?

Speaker 3 (01:22:31):
Criminal record?

Speaker 1 (01:22:31):
No criminal record except for stealing like nuggets when I
was sixteen, But ain never been.

Speaker 3 (01:22:36):
A record, So that's no record.

Speaker 1 (01:22:40):
You're honest that I have a lot of integrity. Yeah,
I admit to my you miss doings.

Speaker 2 (01:22:47):
Clearly.

Speaker 1 (01:22:48):
I stole candy. I'm gonna say it. I stole candy
for me and my siblings. Okay, I admitted to it
because I.

Speaker 2 (01:22:56):
Got caught and I didn't snitch on my siblings. My
parents did, I swear to God.

Speaker 1 (01:23:03):
Jamaican mother, Jewish father. Who's afraid of the Jamaican mother.

Speaker 2 (01:23:07):
She said, take her butt to the police. They took
me to police station, They took me to the store.
I had to apologize.

Speaker 1 (01:23:13):
Then I had to go to the police tell them
my mom misfortunate for three candy bars. And I'll tell
you right now, my siblings listen, there was a reesis.
It was a butterfinger, and I think like a TwixT. Okay,
I have three siblings, one for each of us did
not snitch and not got punished, and it was humiliating.

Speaker 2 (01:23:31):
And I promise you I ain't never stole since. Wow,
that's crazy, right, So you know what I'm saying. You
think we're gonna do that to Zaryan Caleb?

Speaker 3 (01:23:40):
No?

Speaker 2 (01:23:40):
No, okay, anyways, thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (01:23:43):
But before we close out, I want for everyone that's
listening to this interview or the Family Secret is out?
What can they learn from The Family Secret? Says the
Business and Franchise Owners Guide to Building Generational Wealth? What
can we learn from this book? Just a snapshot?

Speaker 2 (01:24:01):
Difranctly sure, some.

Speaker 4 (01:24:03):
Major takeaways are going to be figuring out what your
thrive factors are. That's a phrase that I kind of
coin to help you figure out where your passion and
your purpose intersect. Before you can enter a family business,
you need to figure out what that is and then
assess whether or not your family business can meet your
personal thrive factors. You're also going to learn a lot
about how to build and expand a business, whether it's

(01:24:27):
a family business or not. You're going to learn about
a lot about succession planning, which includes both passing it
on to another family member or passing it on to
someone outside.

Speaker 3 (01:24:36):
Of your family.

Speaker 4 (01:24:37):
And you're also going to get some information, really truthfully
about what it means to put your family first. One
of my favorite chapters in the book is chapter eighteen,
which is called The House Always Wins. And in that chapter,
I talk about what it means to make sure that
no matter what, at the end of the day, your
family and your family relationships come first, and I talk
about how you can make sure that you do that.

(01:24:58):
So that's kind of a brief snapshot of the family secrets.
And at the very end there's a bit of a
checklist and you can decide do I want to get
involved in a family business. Do I want to create
a family business? Do I want to take over a
family business. I give you some tips and thoughts about
what you can consider as you're making that determination.

Speaker 1 (01:25:18):
And this book looks like more than like even if
you're like I love business books, but one of the chapters,
I said, like, be an expert on the competition. I think, yeah,
like this just sounds like a really all the way
around great business book.

Speaker 4 (01:25:32):
And I will tell you the feedback that I get
most often is I loved the family stories that you told,
because all in here is background history and quite honestly
inspiration relating to my mom's story, relating to my sister
and I how we kind of came in. And then
I also interviewed several other family businesses to find out

(01:25:55):
their secretcy success because it's not just our secret, but
there are things that are common to businesses that anyone
can really take into account.

Speaker 3 (01:26:04):
So people love the story. There's a lot of story.

Speaker 1 (01:26:06):
Look at this, it says, know when the only solution
is vulnerable communication. This book sounds amazing just looking at
the chapters. And right now you can read it, but
very soon it will be on audio for all your
audio listeners. I am super grateful. I promise you you
could read text between my group chats. I was over

(01:26:31):
the hill when I found out I was gonna get
this interview. I've been bragging to everybody in name Mama
about this interview. So I am thankful for your vulnerability.
I'm also thankful that you fend me.

Speaker 2 (01:26:45):
I'm thankful to know that if eating Wall Broke don't
work out, you know, you never know.

Speaker 1 (01:26:51):
I may trying to, you know, go to Hamburger University,
staying to Broklyn. But no, thank you so much for everything,
every minute of you, and I promise you like you
are just incredible, Like we are soul sisters on another level.
And by the way, if you guys see me sweating
back here, I found out our AC went out.

Speaker 2 (01:27:13):
A little backstory.

Speaker 1 (01:27:14):
Our AC went out, and I called your publicist and
I said, oh my god, it's eighty five degrees in here.
She cancels, I totally understand. I will be devastated. Do
you think she if she cancels, But she probably's gonna
cancel because anybody would cancel.

Speaker 2 (01:27:30):
You know, and she, you know, Carrie didn't cancel. She didn't.

Speaker 1 (01:27:35):
She showed up, told my producer, it's gonna suck for
you today because you know, I don't think we have
enough time to go buy fans. But everyone's you know,
I just want you to know that, like no matter
how big someone is or out of reach or or
what have you, you know they're still human and they
understand the mission.

Speaker 2 (01:27:52):
And I really appreciate that you came out.

Speaker 4 (01:27:54):
I'm so grateful to have been here today, to have
been able to share with you. You're so authentic and
you've been so welcoming and kind and sharing stories with
me like your real life, and I appreciate that. I
am truly over the moon and I'm so grateful.

Speaker 1 (01:28:14):
Thank you, and hopefully we go see you at every
other podcast on The Black Effect.

Speaker 2 (01:28:18):
All Right, peace out, y'all, Thanks for tuning in. Bye

(01:28:41):
for more Eating while Broke from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect,
visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.

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KERRI HARPER HOWIE - Mustard Up That Cheddar Dog

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Coline Witt

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}KERRI HARPER HOWIE - Mustard Up That Cheddar Dog