June 9, 2025 • 42 mins
Miguel’s Jr Founder Mary Vasquez and her CEO son Javier Vasquez share their family legacy with host Rachel Medina in a deeply personal zoom conversation about their family, their brand, and the success and future of the iconic Southern California restaurant chain.
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Rachel Medina is an Entrepreneur, TEDx Speaker, Christianpreneur, Mommypreneur and an ordinary woman who ditched the C-suite for the SHE-suite by tapping into the new and exciting laptop lifestyle in the SHEconemy, and who built multiple businesses from home, after divorce, as a single mother over 40!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome to another episode of the Rachel Unpack Podcast.
I am your host Rachel Medina andin every episode we talk about
mindset, wealth building and faith for every girlie who is
looking to change and level up her life.
If you want to follow me on social media, you can do so at
Rachel Medina 101 or visit my website rachelmedina.com.
But if you are ready to build a business in a life that you
(00:23):
love, head on over to our new she eox.com site again, she EO
x.com where you are going to find a tribe of like minded
business building dream aspiringgirlies just like you
connecting, learning and growingtogether And a new CEO X
partnership program means we attract the talented,
(00:44):
experienced and successful womenwho are ready to teach you how
they did it so that you can succeed too.
Let's go. Hello everyone, and welcome back
to the Rachel Unpack podcast. I am your host, Rachel Medina,
and in this episode I have an extremely special guest.
Actually, there's A2 Fer becausenot only do I have the amazing
(01:05):
Mary, who helped launch a restaurant chain brand called
Miguel's Junior that we are going to get into, but we have
the very first male guest ever. His name is Javier.
Welcome to both of you. Thank.
You. Well, thank you.
Thank you for that privilege to be the first male on the show.
(01:25):
I appreciate it. Thank you.
He's like, oh Lord, what did I get myself into?
So we're going to get into it, you guys.
This is a very special interviewfor me to do for a few reasons,
but the main one being I personally moved to Corona.
Oh, gosh, like I was 18 years old and when I moved here, one
(01:46):
of the things that I found to beso fascinating was how obsessed
everyone was with these bean andcheese burritos.
And I was like, they're like, we're talking about bean and
cheese burritos. Like, how serious can it be?
Thanks to you, I still carry some extra poundage all these
years later and but it's a brandthat people genuinely love, not
(02:12):
just the food. The people and the community
loves you guys and loves, loves the the brand.
So we're going to really lean into you.
Tell us who was married before you got into the restaurant
business. Who was married?
Well, I was a housewife and thenafter that my husband decided
(02:35):
to, we had, you know, we opened a business and I asked him who's
going to run it? And he told me you are.
I said, why? I want to be surprised because I
have 3, three kids and I believein staying home.
So my my 3 kids and I kind of start crying because I didn't
want to go to work. I was happy home, but I knew
(02:59):
that I have to be there. I have to, I have to watch the
pennies because my husband was, he didn't like money at all.
So I had to see, I had to find out how can I save money to pay
bills, pay employees and pay food.
So I had to be there and I was in charge since the beginning
(03:22):
until my son took over 25 years after.
You married somebody with ambition.
Can you tell us what that was like being married to a man who
had this vision and this goal and was saying let's go for it?
Well, it was, it was interesting.
It was hard, but I knew I had todo it because I knew he was good
(03:47):
with hands and he loved to work in construction, but not good in
money, Hard to handle the money.And I knew because in Mexico I
worked as I was a book giver, soI had the money there and I knew
how business was. So I have a little bit of
experience of handling money also because I love to cook and
(04:10):
I have to, Kim and I create recipes, pigs recipes because a
business get their own recipes. But they were sweet.
So we change everything like I is now.
And we haven't changed nothing. We try to stay, you know, we try
to give our recipes the same. We change a little bit or like
(04:31):
we create new recipes, but but our recipes we try to to be the
same. So people, because people want
for the vine and cheese or the hot sauce and for the chili
Verde Borg and and outdoor recipes are, you know, 50 years
old. And delicious.
I still enjoy them. I interject myself a little bit
(04:52):
here. So my mom's being modest, so
let's. OK, so this is a show about your
podcast about inspiring women todo things correct.
So I think as being the youngestof four, I had opportunity to
see and now grow up in business,is that the inspiration for our
business came from both my parents.
I know my mom does tend to always tell a story about her
(05:13):
being a wanting to be a housewife, which I think that's
in her mind, that's what she wanted to be.
The reality is I don't think sheever been happy with that.
There's no way she could have balanced having four kids, a
restaurant and a husband and doing things if she was just,
you know, she just wanted to stay home.
So I think she underplays her, her efforts to really grow this
(05:33):
business. So, you know, the, the, the
stereotype or you know, I, I always tell my mom she was born
50 years or 50 years too young. I think that she was born today.
It was a different story. And so her ability to grow the
business really came from her and her ambition also.
So she don't face that. But you have two, two people who
(05:53):
are both ambitioned in different, different ways.
So if you look at a restaurant in a restaurant, there's two,
there's two things, correct? There's customer facing and
there's, there's back to the house facing, correct.
So my mom's strength is obviously customer facing.
As we all know, that's, that's inspiration.
My dad was one of the back of the house in the back of the
house that, that was his strength.
So that, that, that combination made them successful.
(06:15):
So each of them had their own success, own own skill set that
mean successful because both of them had no form of education.
My mom dropped down to school. I was talking about school at
6th grade, my dad at 7th grade. So that those, that alone puts
things in perspective, right. And so if you've been at the,
the model of the American dream,they, they are the American
(06:36):
dream in many different ways. And you also have the stereotype
with what's the saying of a gay man is a great woman?
And so that that does exist in this environment.
So and so she won't ever say that out loud because that's,
she's too modest. But as, as her son, I can say
that and tell people that because that's that's, that's
how that's the reality. I think in our culture, it's
(06:58):
difficult as women, Latinas, to speak too highly of ourselves or
make too much of a big deal about our ambitions or what we
accomplished because it could beviewed as, you know, arrogant,
conceited, bragging. There's all of these things that
we carry right within ourselves.And I'm, you know, of a certain
age and I still struggle with that.
So I completely understand, you know, where Mary is coming from
(07:21):
with that. Javier, what was it like?
You described a little bit of what it was, what you've
witnessed, right, with your mom.But a lot of the women
listening, they have children and they're really trying to
figure out how as a woman then pursuing their dreams, how is
this going to impact their children?
Because many times as mothers, there's this guilt factor of
(07:42):
like, are we missing the practices, You know, where we're
winning in one area, we're probably failing in another.
And, and can you just as someonethat was raised by obviously
this amazing, you know, woman and parents, can you share with
us the UPS and the downs of being a child, watching your
parents do this together and your mom specifically?
(08:02):
Sure. So I think growing up in any,
any business, if you incorporateyour kids in a, in a way that is
teaching them to learn the fundamentals of business because
that, that'll help them either as individuals or as if they
want to either work the businessor do something different, but
at least helps them. So for example, my mom mentioned
bookkeeping, so she instilled all of us about bookkeeping and
really she always told us pay, pay your vendors, pay employees,
(08:25):
vendors taxes and then then sameway for yourself.
And that's how you prioritize how you spend money.
And to this day, that's what we do.
We prioritize that. So if you bring those things,
you know how you teach and how you, how you learn, That's,
that's, that's how you, how you inspire your children.
So I know I have to have to havefriends that have diabetes and
they, they incorporate the kids in the diabetes.
That's, that should be, that should be normal.
That's what we've done for the most part.
(08:46):
But growing up, yes, was diabetes out a lot of things
that normal kids have. Yes, I didn't really do it for
the camps or those kind of things, but and I sometimes
struggle with that, of course, but I, you know, my parents want
to make a life. I went to college, all those
things. So if you look at if you look
back, of course you reflect and bring, you know, respected is
different than living in the moment.
Living in the moment as a child and somebody you're like, I want
(09:07):
to go here if I can because everyone's not working or I'm
working because that's where, you know, kids are the best of
cheap labor, credit refused labor.
And so, but the flip side of that, I had the best toys in the
street because I got to pay a dollar an hour.
So, you know, I give and take, right?
So I had cool stuff with that, but you know, he would always
say, if you're going to you're going to play sports, that's
great. You still have to work.
So he so he they balanced it. You know, it's a work ethic too,
(09:28):
probably is a strong work ethic and how how how to work.
So, you know, learning how to work.
It seems like a natural thing, but sometimes as today's world
working as as somewhat somewhat abstract.
So if you look at that and say, you know, growing up, I have I
have the things like going to camp or just those kinds.
Of course not, but I worked in restaurants.
I done a lot of business then. So to this date, it's got so I
can still use literally I grew up in the restaurant business
(09:50):
and I'm going to tell you stories that you know, because
when they open the restaurant, just doing the math, I was a
year, I was a year old when the restaurant was opened.
And so I'm I'm showing how whatever I meant this, but I was
telling you I was a hoops the mistake.
What do you want to call it? Because I said mom, you know,
telling me right now with three kids, I'll be in a restaurant in
July. I'm 73.
I was born, I'm 74. That was a plan.
(10:10):
I don't think so, but she never meant to that.
But that being said, I, you know, she, I have the customer
telling me that they would babysitting me in the bassinet
or the back tape in the back or the same things.
And some of my honest memories were, you know, when I, when I
was growing up back then you canwalk.
Your kids walked anywhere, right?
You know, nothing. I was on say, but he was in
Corona. I, I walked from St.
(10:31):
Edwards to our restaurant on, onoff Lincoln.
You know, it's probably a couplemiles, I guess maybe.
And I would walk, I would leave school, walk to the restaurant,
do my homework because I want toimagine, make sure I did my
homework. And then I would help the
restaurant, you know, do things in the restaurant or mess
around, whatever. And then she would pick me up
after after, after she left in the other restaurant on the
(10:51):
street. And then we'll go home.
But yeah, so do I do I did, I did.
We miss out a lot of family and beds at an all families app, of
course. But after being in business 50
years, we're still valuing business.
As soon as you're still involved.
And most families at this point aren't, you know, they'll
they'll talk to each other. Sometimes they'll only be alone.
But leave the most part, you getalong for the most part.
And we're still, we're still active actively involved in this
business to this day against, you know, 5050 years next year.
(11:13):
Mary, what point did you say I think I'm ready to expand.
You have kids and you have a little baby.
What happened in your mind that you said?
I think we're ready for a new location.
The reason that we are we grow and I start the second business
gets done. People told me all the time your
food is good, but the first place it was by the freeway and
(11:35):
we didn't have good sales. We didn't have enough money to
pay our bills and I told my husband we should look for
another place because they love our food but the place is not
good. So he told me you're crazy.
We don't make money here and this is what believe me, the
food is good. So trust me, that's the only
reason we open Miguel Junior to to be in a better location.
(11:59):
That was that was our main pointto to because people asked me to
tell me the food is good. But it's hard to find this
place. People get lost and get mad and
better done. That's that's the main reason we
are we, we open the second place.
And that's the one on 6th Street, right?
The one that is still there, theLincoln and.
And the 6th. So let's think about this this
(12:20):
timetable again. Miguel's in 973.
I was born 974 Miguel's in 975 SDo you think my mom would have
been a normal housewife with four kids in tow now and pushing
for the location let's you know.That's why I'm wanting that's
why I'm wanting to like unlike step into her mind in that time
period, because there's women that we deal with in CEO that
(12:43):
they feel overwhelmed because they have one baby and they're
like, but I just had a baby. How am I going to do this?
So you marry having three plus little Javier and then you're
like, let's do another one. Can you talk about for you, your
husband, right, has this sort ofidea, this ambition with you and
you open a restaurant and that'slike a sit down, like a dine in,
(13:05):
I think, right? They call it.
And that's great. Location's not great, but the
food is great. You're the food.
And so then you say, let's open another one and it has a drive
through. And then I know obviously all
these years later how the story turned out, but that location is
excellent. What happens between a wife and
a husband, with him maybe feeling like.
(13:30):
Oh, I had this idea, but then mywife made this push and it's
working out better. The reason I, I pushed him
because I was 24, I was in the restaurant and I knew we have a
good brother and I knew we have a bad location.
So I wanted to give it a try again because my food was good.
And I know it was going to be very, very hard for both of us.
(13:52):
But but I told him, you know, wehave to do it and we're going to
try and maybe if it doesn't workor work, at least we're trying.
So I have a little color and so the the woman, the landlord who
you know, our famous customer ofours and she was also a woman.
I think that that helped also and that that that encouraged
her to help my mom open the second restaurant.
(14:12):
OK, ladies, we talk about so we're blue in the face and CEO
about the power of collaborationand how there's a fear to help
one another because everybody feels like they're competing and
nobody wants to help the next woman because they're afraid
that that woman's going to do better than them.
This is a perfect example of younever know who you're going to
bless when you pour into others and you pour into someone else.
(14:34):
With that being said, how do youkeep these recipes a secret?
It's not easy because a lot of people ask me, how do you do it?
How do you do this? And then I just tell them you
have to be consistent with your food, with your bread, and have
faith in your work. You know, you have to put love.
One thing is to cook and anotherthing is to put love.
(14:54):
Yes, my grandmother used to say the chili is going to be very,
very spicy today because I knew she was mad at grandpa.
I knew when I tasted, I love chili.
I put chili on everything. And I'm like, grandma was
grandpa. What did you do to grandma
because it'd be so spicy. And so that energy, it does
translate into something very delicious and wonderful and
beautiful. So Mary, how as a mom with these
(15:19):
kids now and Javier being the youngest, how in the world were
you able to figure out which kids should be leading the
company, who should do what? It's tough as a mom.
It's tough as a parent to have to make these decisions with the
business dynamic because the children could be entitled.
They could feel like, well, I was, I'm born second or I'm good
(15:41):
at this. I should be doing that.
As a mom, how do you do that? How do you make that choice to
say who gets to do what? So I'm a favorite, of course,
Natalie. Every single kid, yeah.
That's a question sometimes too.I know they always think that
he's my favorite and I said no, I don't get favors.
(16:01):
I know I love every single one the same.
And well, you know what? I believe that they see us
working hard and they see us like we work as a family.
Like if they need to, if they need money for something, they
knew that they can have it. But I also teach them how to
save money. Like when we start building our
(16:22):
home, we, we didn't have that big persons or other people had,
because I would just to mention this is for the house.
We get to save money for the house.
So they knew, they knew that, that and then they, they saw us
working very hard. And I think that makes them
realize that that business, if we get sick, they have to learn
how to do it because it's not easy just to, to, to jump from
(16:45):
from here to there and then to have the skills.
And they had the skills since they were child.
They were children and they, they knew we, we have confidence
with them. Like Javier, Michael wanted to
work since he's one was 9. And then my husband said, no,
wait, wait, don't worry. When you start working, you
never stop. And every single one work, you
know, but we never push them. We never force them.
(17:09):
They always work. They knew that they have to
work. So they, they start working.
Yeah. Yeah, Javier for you from your
end of it, right, being the favorite golden child, what how
is that dynamic with your siblings though?
And then if you, I'm thinking now, right, if you have all
these years in and and the business is what it is, how do
you, because I believe you were CEO at some point or you still
(17:31):
are, I don't know what. Yes.
And how, how is that? How do you get to then say
you're the youngest, but guess what, You're going to run the
show? What's that like?
A few things So when I was in college, I was my my father
apparently went to USC and on USCI went to the I graduated the
entrepreneur program, an entrepreneur program.
I used Mcgalos as a business business plan and my professors
(17:51):
at the time were not happy because it wasn't my idea.
It wasn't my, you know, entrepreneur plan is
entrepreneur program was creating an idea, you know, fan
and I, I told my professors, look, I appreciate that, but
honestly, I'm gained free advicefrom professionals to how to
grow a business. That's actually I can actually
do after I graduate versus other, other, you know,
students. They have these ideas and, you
(18:11):
know, they, they, they, these ideas or they scoop the cool and
they grew on few different things.
And so I took the opportunity toutilize the gals at that
business plan. And I, I utilized that business
plan almost for 10 years after Igraduated.
And I used that plan to, to, to formalize the business, to grow
the business and to obtain financing.
So that was that. That's how I became the CEO of
the company where my other, my other siblings sibles were just
(18:32):
they had different interest in business, but they're just
different levels of interest. So that's how, that's how, how,
how I came about. Now, of course, being youngsters
4, there's advantage disadvantage.
So this disadvantage is, is you know, it's, it's typical
sometimes because, and then their age is also a certain age
gap because, you know, my, my next sister Lovely is 6 years
older than 8:00 and 9:00. So it's a, that's a, there's the
(18:52):
two things youngsters age certain age gap.
So for example, my sister Sylviawas next enough.
She always gave me a hard time because she would have to
babysit me because she was next enough.
So my mom would say, if you wantto go out and hang out with your
friends, you got your older brother, you.
And so I, I kind of grew up fastin that way.
And I grew up with, I grew with older kids all the time.
So my, my, my children level was, was a little different than
other kids my age. So that was helpful.
(19:13):
Then growing up and going to school, my skill set was a
little different than my siblings because we had
different interests. You know, my strengths are
different than what their strengths are.
So for example, Sylvia, my sister, she overseas all the
main development and rescue development company because she,
that's, that's her strength. You know, that's her, that's
what she has to do. So each of us have found our own
strengths and we consider that we compliment each other that
way. If you put us all one restaurant
together, I don't think you'd besuccessful as a company.
(19:36):
I think because we have division, division of
responsibilities and areas of scope responsibilities that
makes us, that makes us successful.
And and now that my dad's biggest fear was he knew that we
couldn't get along in one restaurant.
That's the all the aids of this can naturally and some extent
our parents separate themselves too, with different, different
restaurants and different, different concepts.
So in some ways that that's how it could work.
(19:57):
Division of responsibilities andair responsibilities.
But that's how we get along now.It doesn't make it awkward
sometimes, you know, when I'm the youngest and I'm with my, my
extended family and like, well, you're the youngest.
I understand. And you know, it's just odd
because you're absolutely right.Traditionally the Latin culture,
the oldest 1st and the time goesno matter.
And so, and then my dad wanted to do something different
because he experienced in his family other other relatives who
(20:19):
had restaurants or business and that, that they get to this
naturally, it's the oldest and that it failed.
So my dad said I want to have you become president now while
I'm alive. And then things don't go well,
we can make changes because sometimes, as you know, some in
Latin cultures, the business inherent to old automatically
and that didn't that didn't exactly happen here.
So that that that that that's, that's how tradition and that
(20:41):
that's how it matched. But and, and the the family
environment or the holidays, yes, it makes it difficult,
especially if I have a differentconversation with my siblings or
brothers, sisters and the next day is Thanksgiving.
It's like, hey, by the way, you know, this happened yesterday,
by the way, you know that. And I know my mom doesn't get
some, you know, tries her best to maintain all that, but that's
part of the hardest part. So I've learned as over the
(21:01):
years as a couple of things, if you haven't had a different
conversation, have it away from the holiday as much as possible.
And then we try our best not to shop.
I have, I call, we have no shop talk policy and our families
work together and we try our best.
But that also buys my mom because she's also has a
tendency to talk shop all the time also.
I hear you on that on the shop talk because I'm feeling
(21:24):
miserably in that area, but I'm,but I'm working on it and I just
have my one, but I, I am definitely working on it.
Can we let's get into some dynamics of the business itself.
You mentioned building the business in such a way that you
learned through your entrepreneurial program at USC,
which I'm like can't see me on camera, but you mentioned about
building it or structuring it ina way to get financing.
(21:46):
Can you guys share what that looked like?
Because in the Latino culture and I think as women.
So I'm gonna kind of split this up.
But like Mary, you said your husband wasn't as great with the
money. And I remember my mom and dad
having some issues with that. There was always these
conversations about what he was doing with the money.
So I personally grew up and ended up building this amazing
business and started seeing these dollar signs in my bank
(22:08):
account. And I personally got scared
because I understood, I don't know money like I understood
like I'm supposed to put the money somewhere to grow.
I don't know where to do that. So can you talk to us about the,
the money moves and are they scary?
What do they, what do they look like?
What should we know about that? Sure.
So a couple things. So I think the fundamentals, my
my mom found the fundamentals about bookkeeping, right?
(22:29):
That's very fundamentals. But I just checks the balances,
balance your accounts and then the thumbnails.
So then my dad always mentioned what you said.
But if I'm making that money that can't make my check, but
you know, that's fine. And that's all, that's all fine.
If you want to maintain a small business, but you want to scale,
you have to scale at such a ratethat you can like bring on debt
(22:49):
and grow your business up. Debt can be controversial.
Some people don't like it, some people do.
So, you know, growing up in a growing, growing school and
those like you talk about financing those kind of things.
And what I learned is that financing comes different ways.
And if you're a small business, which we were at some point, is
the, the, there's a lot of agencies and government programs
that are designed to help peoplegrow their business will be more
risk or low risk. And there, there there's a,
(23:11):
there's a treasure of information.
If you know that, that, that, that right there.
And that's what we did. That's how we grow our business.
We went to, to Small Business Administration and they helped
us grow our business, But that's, that's their function.
You know, our government is how small business owners, I can't
remember what percentage small business owners in the USI think
that 6% of all businesses in theUS are small business owners.
I think under 50 employees are appropriate.
Some some standing number. And that's how you start it.
(23:32):
I think that's education is where it starts and
understanding how, how the kind of risk you have.
So my, my parents weren't, weren't risk, they didn't like
the risk I was taking because I was, they thought I was growing
too fast and too much, too much debt.
And to some extent that they were right.
I, I wasn't balancing someone reporting correctly.
But now we're, we've gone past that and we, and, and the risk
you take is if you don't do anything correct and that's,
(23:54):
that's that. And then the optioning cost and
the branding, those kind of things.
So if you are going to grow yourbusiness and brand it, then
branding is done in such a way where it takes some financial
investment. So, for example, my parents
weren't went big on marketing because they felt marketing was
their food. The food is way to the marketed
business. And you're right, it's just a
model that's correct. Last word to today.
It's more about, you know, brandversus the food, especially in
(24:15):
social media, you know, those those that drives things.
So for example, my mom, my mom now is a social media star.
Every time we put her on our social media handles, it's it's
the highest liked reviewed and that equates to sales, those
kind of things. But to do that, it takes an
investment. I have AI, have a full time
marketing person, social media person to, to manage that for us
and do those things. That's an investment.
(24:36):
We made an investment to that person a year ago and it took us
a year to get that, that to see our growth.
So for example, I'm now participating in junior
achievements. It's an organization designed to
teach my actual leadership kids.And that's why so I had to learn
how I want to pay it back and almost teach the same skill my
mom taught me in bookkeeping, but to another level, to the, to
the tier of, of financing and stuff like that.
(24:58):
So I, I tell people that spas for small business owners.
That's why the best opportunity for any small business to grow.
At what point would you say thatpeople should consider that
option? Is it after you've had some
level of financial security in your first step, It should it be
right from the beginning with you guys?
Was it like to do the third location?
At what point does someone then consider taking on like
(25:20):
leveraging that like that? So when I went, so I graduated
college, we, we were, we had to move our restaurant and we had
some financial, we had the city and it's the Caltrans and those
things. And I needed financing to open a
new restaurant. And I didn't have the quiet
experience I did now. And I literally went to every
bank in Corona to ask for money and I got rejected by every bank
(25:41):
in Corona almost. And I learned that the hard way
that I said, how do I think differently to push differently?
And that's how I found out with the SBA and those kind of
things. I did research and I found out
what helped us is that we already had six restaurants.
So that's why we had six. So when my parents signed me
gals, I call it your aunts and uncles, that's where you borrow
my in front of 1st and they invested in you.
(26:02):
And my parents did that for manyyears, family, family loans,
personal loans. I, I think my dad mortgage his
house every, every time, every mortgage house a million times,
all those things. And then what's that go dad,
what this is all good. But once we're, we can scale now
we can go to different ways. And he can understand the
transition from using individuals to go into a lender
or to an SBA. But to make that transition, you
have to be professional enough to present a doc, a business
(26:24):
plan. So that's my business on helping
me grow a business. And I had a plan ready and I, I
identified it for the, for that,for that audience.
And that's why I told professorsin the USC is that I use this
plan to, to pray in many years to help grow the business.
And then once you get past that scale, then you, you, once you
get to the system, you learn andgrow your business that way.
But it's, it's, it's a lot of work.
It's not easy. And, and I think that the
(26:45):
thumbnails, understanding the business, understanding
financials, help help grow the business and help anyone grow,
grow what they're trying to do, because otherwise you just
borrow money from your actual uncles.
And that's hard. That's a hard thing to do.
Especially facing them in the holidays, right?
It's like, what for you, Maria, knowing you're beginning as a
housewife or being from Mexico and like working so hard with
your kids? What did you feel?
(27:07):
Was it excitement? Was it fear?
Was it no big deal? What?
What was your thought when you saw that for the first time?
My husband and I did not. It's not that we did not
believe, but that we weren't prepared to get loans from the
bank. We did it by ourselves from the
money we have saved. We open the restaurant and then
(27:27):
we have more money saved and then we open another restaurant.
And at the beginning, it was hard for us to save money for
taxes and the government needs the money.
That's what I told my son. You can save money for the
government. And one time we got a bill that
we didn't have the money to borrow money for the taxes.
So since that day I told my husband I'm going to open a
checking account just for taxes and don't ask me money for that
(27:47):
because that's only for taxes. So sometimes he need money.
I said no, I don't get money, said you are the rain check has
money, said that's not for use for the government.
So just you know, like I said, we never get done.
We just invest the money in another restaurant, in another
restaurant. I think that that is a wonderful
way those of you that are listening, if you have a little
(28:08):
hidden fear of whether it's imposter syndrome or fear of
success or you are looking at this number and you're like,
what am I supposed to do with this?
And there's so many thoughts. I, I love what Mary is saying.
It's like, don't think about like that.
Just keep putting 1 foot in front of the other.
I love what you're saying is like, don't overthink it.
It's like it's, it's there. You got to move it around.
You got to put some for taxes. You got to pay people you got to
and grow it, right. Use a percentage to grow it and
(28:30):
just look at it like that because I know a lot of people
get nervous about the money and I don't know why we're like
that. Women love nice things and I
think we love it when like a mangives it to I don't know how to
like really say I think that's like a little bit.
I've never had that experience of somebody taking care of me
like that, but I've had friends that have married very well and
and they're just like, but I think when it comes to their
(28:51):
business are freaked out. They're like, I don't know what
to do I. Think that.
I think yourself or your audience needs to understand or
think about. It's called an entry strategy.
I think a lot of small business owners will think that and they
don't plan for that. And so meaning that what do you
want? And that's, you know, we started
business, my parents started business, they started business.
They were just trying to survive, correct?
They got to scale. And then then, then you think
(29:11):
about next step, next step they think about.
And then it has to be what's your empty strategy main
business because you don't plan for that.
Sometimes it doesn't. All the hard work can go away
quickly. And so just keep just the
audience. Is that something small?
You know, once you get to a certain size, then how do you
start planning for your exit? Yes, absolutely.
What do you do when then you have people in your world, your
(29:35):
family, they see you in a certain way, You know, you're
just trying to make payroll and you got marketing fees and you
know, the business is very expensive to run.
Like as I did, Like I said, thatwasn't my money.
I understood that. What do you do though, when the
family recognizes, oh, they're rich, Like they're this, you
know, and they come knocking forloans and they come asking
(29:57):
because this is something that women have come to me and
they're like, how? Like, what do you do?
Like how do you say, do you say no?
So can you share with us how you've been able to manage that
part? Or if people do they not have,
did they not come to you and askyou for money?
Like did they ask you? Because I think we've all had
some interesting experiences with this.
Well, you know what, they see that I work hard, they see that
(30:20):
I work hard with my kids and I send them to school and all
that. So I don't think we never, never
have extra, extra money to even though there are people that,
that we were rich. I just didn't answer because no
matter what, people don't believe you.
So I just did my own life and concentrate on my business, my
kids and forget about all those things.
(30:42):
I help people, I have people when they need it, and then I
always did then I and I still do, but but I just don't, you
know, like I don't want them to see me like I'm the owner from
the girls. I want them to see me as just
just a lady. It's.
All No, no, they don't want. I don't.
I don't like when people looks at me.
(31:03):
I said, oh, you're the owner andthe girls.
I just smile. I don't say anything.
Yeah. So, so I think there's a couple
of things. So my, my parents are always run
opportunities for everyone and then everyone's emails again.
So they have lent money to theirfriends and family and
unfortunately, so that hasn't worked out.
And we've run opportunities for some of our family to work with
us and our business and they come work for us.
(31:24):
And they say, well, that's, that's too much work because
it's a, it's a hard industry to cross to you.
And recently or people have asked me, would you, would you
ask about loans or how is that? I asked them a few things.
I said, OK, look, I'll help you for a couple conditions.
I need a business plan. I need to, I need you to read a
book called Why Vision Value andtell me why you want to do this.
(31:45):
If you do those two things, thenI'll consider helping you out.
If you don't do those two things, then I can't help you
out because otherwise it's just a conversation and it's it's
wasting my time and your time, OK?
What was the other book again? Why does Simon Cynic?
Why vision value? Cynosynic.
Yeah, and it's a it's a book. And then it tells you and gives
you exercise. Does it do the read the book, do
the exercise, write to this planand then we'll talk about how to
(32:07):
move forward. And unfortunately, unfortunately
depends every time I do that, they, they, they might, they'll,
that they'll come through because otherwise it's just a
loan to a friend and that's not working out either.
That's not that's not beneficialfor myself or the person.
You know, I'm on social media and people see all these things
and it's not what it seems you guys like.
If you look at that like it's all wonderful and it's all a
(32:27):
blessing, but it but not all of it equals commas and zeros right
in my bank account. But to be Mrs. Claus and yet I
have had people that are not my family that are barely my
friend. Maybe I met through business of
how reach out and literally say,can I, can you send me $30,000?
Can can you put, you know, 400,000 into this?
So you're going to have people that don't have any sort of
(32:51):
limits or boundaries. And one of the things that has
helped me is I've had to say, Rachel, you're very helpful and
you're kind, but you can't help somebody more than they're
willing to help themselves. And so I think that exercise
have you had that you're describing is a test of like how
far, how much are they willing to do to help themselves before
you essentially put in on that? I'm going to bring something up
(33:14):
and sensitive because you and I have some we could share this.
There's a lot of women that theystart a business or they don't
start or they start, but life happens.
A difficult thing in their life happens and they let it all go.
They can't go to work, they can't get out of bed.
You lost your husband not that long ago.
(33:35):
I lost my son, my oldest son. And how did you get up out of
bed anyways? And keep going and keep smiling
and being a superstar that you are.
Well, it was. It was very hard for a year.
It's taken. I didn't want to, I didn't want
to be I want to be sincere. I want to smile because
(33:56):
sometimes when you, when you were in the public, you always
get to smile. So I stay home.
Well, until my car told me, go on, you can smile and it's not
easy, but you have to, you have to go forward.
And that's, that's the way I didit.
Stay home and joy, my car told me to say.
(34:17):
And then I start little by little and I still don't do a
lot of things that I was I was doing with my husband because
it's not the same. So that and you ladies know my
story. There were times where I would
be backstage or in an interview or working and like the tier,
I'm just like, I don't want to even be here right now, let
(34:39):
alone doing my, I do my makeup every day.
And it's like how how can I do my makeup when I'm like crying?
And I still have those moments where I'm very closed off and
it's been five years for me closed off.
And it's not fair to me and it'snot fair probably to my son
because he's like, mom, you got to live.
And I just things are not the same.
(35:00):
And, and so I understand Javier,what has been the highs and the
lows and your journey carrying the torch for your family with
this legacy brand that is Miguel's?
Well, I think the lows, obviously, you know, leading a
business during a pandemic was pretty difficult.
(35:21):
It was a tough time for us, I think the whole country and an
individual. So I think for us is being
committed. You know, when that, that in
March 2020, you know, of course,the week, I think March 17th or
something like that, you know, Ithought we're going to lose a
business. I, you know, I thought we're
done. I literally thought we're,
we're, we're, we're done. You know, the, the, the, the,
(35:42):
the risk for you with debt is you have debt, right?
You got to pay, you still got topay your debt and still I'll pay
your rents. And how, how am I going to pay
my debt in rents? And it was with no, no really
good answer in place. I would have to literally
liquidate and, and, and lay out all my employees.
Of course, things changed and, but guiding the company through
(36:02):
that time period, and it was a tough time period for all of us.
It was the amount of and then having to deal with my father's
illness and towards the end of his life was kind of a very
difficult time for us and for meas a leader, because I not know
I have to leave the company, butI have to also manage to my dad,
my dad's, you know, the end of his life.
So then how do you utilize that to broader business and this to
inspire. So, you know, I, I use that to
(36:25):
inspire now saying as a, as a, as an organization, the leaders
that work from the gals, if we can survive COVID and those two
because we don't have anything for the most part, it's
difficult, but we can. So that this the, the, the
Grinch and, and toughness and the bill of pivot has, has
ingrained by a lot of our leaders of organizations.
Same thing we expect upon that. So in case it's not as bad as
(36:47):
it's at and the highs is obviously, you know, we're,
we're, I think we're benefiting from all the things we did right
in 20/20/21 and 2024 because we held up prices.
We didn't layoff, we didn't layoff, we didn't layoff anyone.
We did have some, unfortunately,some countries throughout that,
throughout that, you know, COVIDthrough COVID losses, those kind
of things. But now if you look at all those
things, how do you, I think those are things that you, that
(37:09):
inspire your team with your teamto grow.
And, and then they then the especially the ones that have
been with you since they're, youknow, for 10 or 15 years.
We we say we're a family business and and some say is it,
you know, do you fire your family?
Not really, you know, so you always work team now and those
kind of things. But I think that older employees
or older teen members have been the wrong time.
(37:30):
They see the evolution of company.
You feel the the admiration and the love in the room.
I love it, Mary, what is the thing that you are the most
proud of yourself for in this whole thing?
Everything. I'm very proud of you.
He works hard. He.
Oh, see. You are.
(37:51):
The favorite? Well, I can say that I'm, I'm
very, very happy that the business is going on.
My husband, my son is running the business very well.
I yes, I am very, very happy that a God makes me very healthy
and I think that's a gift and isthe best because I am very
(38:16):
healthy and I still feel strong and I have my downs.
But you know this is not true. What is your favorite item on
the menu? Yeah, everything.
Everything that I love, I love. The poor potato burrito is my
(38:37):
favorite. Like when I have lunch sometimes
and I do that and I'm to honor my husband because he was his
favorite too, even though he he invent this burrito that is very
famous now the garbage. Oh yeah.
When he when he told me the name, I said garbage people
think they're going to like it. He said yeah, because I tell
them that I get everything, but I have extra and I make a makeup
(39:00):
that's going to make them feel worse.
No, he's very famous. The garbage burrito.
Have you had? What are you most proud of your
parents for? And what are you most proud of
yourself for? So I think that they, they, they
toss the fundamentals of a, the fundamentals of business,
correct. I don't grow business, I don't
really care. So it's, it's easy to, if I sat
(39:24):
here, especially during the pandemic, I could easily laid
off half a workforce and then financially fair off.
I am today. But we do that.
So I think that's the understanding of the care for
the team and really also the guess, you know, how to make
sure that we're doing things correctly, service standards,
those kind of things and how to continue continuous improvement.
We can't be flat or stagnant. So my bowls, for example, always
many innovation. And that's in our, well, that's
(39:46):
in our, you know, especially my gals, you know, bowls.
So that's those kind of things. And I think that my
relationship, my mom is, is twofold.
Obviously she's my mom, but she's also, you know, we're
working on recipe developments. So to this day, she's still
developing recipes from the galsand I may not be or may not like
something. And we have our conversations
about it and she says, no, but no, mom, that's not good enough.
(40:07):
And even people on my team say, wow, you tell your mom, no, go
on. So I know you can do better than
that. I always say, I know you have
something generated, push yourself.
You can do better than what you have now.
And so she always tends to get alittle frustrated, but she
performs, produces or makes a difference and it's different.
One problem myself is really just understanding who I am as a
leader and understanding that I,it's not, I was getting a
(40:30):
chance. I'm not, I own this.
I just happened to be in charge of it for this moment of time.
And then that moment of time, we'll transition to someone else
at some point because it's, it'scontinuous movement.
And if I believe that I'm that and I'll be all for this
organization, then Miguel will not survive.
I have to believe that I'm just gonna give me a gift and don't
give me this point in time. But really, at the end of the
day, that I will transfer this to someone else.
(40:50):
And I have to grasp that what the next person is, is set them
up for success and make sure that there's that there's team
members that have worked for us for 10-15 years, that they too
never lie on us as a family, as an organization, because that
that's, that we impact their families and they want to be in
a situation where they're and they're growing with with us
also. So I looked at those and it's
continuous movement on the spectrum.
(41:12):
Mary, before we go, what messagedo you have for women that are
afraid to take the first step forward into starting a business
and pursuit pursuing their dreams?
Well, I just want to tell them that if they want something,
they get worse and be consistentand move on.
Because it's not easy to run a business and it's, it's better
(41:37):
for you to go, you know, to go with your friends.
But you, you have to make a commitment with the business.
You have to always look for yourbusiness cards and then your
friends and work hard. Yeah.
Did you want to say a message tothe ladies before we we sign off
here? I signed a check about 60% of
our at least your team is female.
(41:58):
So it's unusual for organization, professional
organization. So, and also a piece of advice
is you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable.
That's now that's what I talked a long time ago.
If you're uncomfortable, that's,that's OK, that's OK.
That's you'll have to be comfortable all the.
Time and that is it. And if you're in Southern
California, look up Miguel's junior.
(42:19):
It's amazing. Wait.
Well, thank you again. I appreciate it.
No problem. Thank you, Mary.
You're welcome.
Welcome to another episode of the Rachel Unpack Podcast.
I am your host Rachel Medina andin every episode we talk about
mindset, wealth building and faith for every girlie who is
looking to change and level up her life.
If you want to follow me on social media, you can do so at
Rachel Medina 101 or visit my website rachelmedina.com.
But if you are ready to build a business in a life that you
(00:23):
love, head on over to our new she eox.com site again, she EO
x.com where you are going to find a tribe of like minded
business building dream aspiringgirlies just like you
connecting, learning and growingtogether And a new CEO X
partnership program means we attract the talented,
(00:44):
experienced and successful womenwho are ready to teach you how
they did it so that you can succeed too.
Let's go. Hello everyone, and welcome back
to the Rachel Unpack podcast. I am your host, Rachel Medina,
and in this episode I have an extremely special guest.
Actually, there's A2 Fer becausenot only do I have the amazing
(01:05):
Mary, who helped launch a restaurant chain brand called
Miguel's Junior that we are going to get into, but we have
the very first male guest ever. His name is Javier.
Welcome to both of you. Thank.
You. Well, thank you.
Thank you for that privilege to be the first male on the show.
(01:25):
I appreciate it. Thank you.
He's like, oh Lord, what did I get myself into?
So we're going to get into it, you guys.
This is a very special interviewfor me to do for a few reasons,
but the main one being I personally moved to Corona.
Oh, gosh, like I was 18 years old and when I moved here, one
(01:46):
of the things that I found to beso fascinating was how obsessed
everyone was with these bean andcheese burritos.
And I was like, they're like, we're talking about bean and
cheese burritos. Like, how serious can it be?
Thanks to you, I still carry some extra poundage all these
years later and but it's a brandthat people genuinely love, not
(02:12):
just the food. The people and the community
loves you guys and loves, loves the the brand.
So we're going to really lean into you.
Tell us who was married before you got into the restaurant
business. Who was married?
Well, I was a housewife and thenafter that my husband decided
(02:35):
to, we had, you know, we opened a business and I asked him who's
going to run it? And he told me you are.
I said, why? I want to be surprised because I
have 3, three kids and I believein staying home.
So my my 3 kids and I kind of start crying because I didn't
want to go to work. I was happy home, but I knew
(02:59):
that I have to be there. I have to, I have to watch the
pennies because my husband was, he didn't like money at all.
So I had to see, I had to find out how can I save money to pay
bills, pay employees and pay food.
So I had to be there and I was in charge since the beginning
(03:22):
until my son took over 25 years after.
You married somebody with ambition.
Can you tell us what that was like being married to a man who
had this vision and this goal and was saying let's go for it?
Well, it was, it was interesting.
It was hard, but I knew I had todo it because I knew he was good
(03:47):
with hands and he loved to work in construction, but not good in
money, Hard to handle the money.And I knew because in Mexico I
worked as I was a book giver, soI had the money there and I knew
how business was. So I have a little bit of
experience of handling money also because I love to cook and
(04:10):
I have to, Kim and I create recipes, pigs recipes because a
business get their own recipes. But they were sweet.
So we change everything like I is now.
And we haven't changed nothing. We try to stay, you know, we try
to give our recipes the same. We change a little bit or like
(04:31):
we create new recipes, but but our recipes we try to to be the
same. So people, because people want
for the vine and cheese or the hot sauce and for the chili
Verde Borg and and outdoor recipes are, you know, 50 years
old. And delicious.
I still enjoy them. I interject myself a little bit
(04:52):
here. So my mom's being modest, so
let's. OK, so this is a show about your
podcast about inspiring women todo things correct.
So I think as being the youngestof four, I had opportunity to
see and now grow up in business,is that the inspiration for our
business came from both my parents.
I know my mom does tend to always tell a story about her
(05:13):
being a wanting to be a housewife, which I think that's
in her mind, that's what she wanted to be.
The reality is I don't think sheever been happy with that.
There's no way she could have balanced having four kids, a
restaurant and a husband and doing things if she was just,
you know, she just wanted to stay home.
So I think she underplays her, her efforts to really grow this
(05:33):
business. So, you know, the, the, the
stereotype or you know, I, I always tell my mom she was born
50 years or 50 years too young. I think that she was born today.
It was a different story. And so her ability to grow the
business really came from her and her ambition also.
So she don't face that. But you have two, two people who
(05:53):
are both ambitioned in different, different ways.
So if you look at a restaurant in a restaurant, there's two,
there's two things, correct? There's customer facing and
there's, there's back to the house facing, correct.
So my mom's strength is obviously customer facing.
As we all know, that's, that's inspiration.
My dad was one of the back of the house in the back of the
house that, that was his strength.
So that, that, that combination made them successful.
(06:15):
So each of them had their own success, own own skill set that
mean successful because both of them had no form of education.
My mom dropped down to school. I was talking about school at
6th grade, my dad at 7th grade. So that those, that alone puts
things in perspective, right. And so if you've been at the,
the model of the American dream,they, they are the American
(06:36):
dream in many different ways. And you also have the stereotype
with what's the saying of a gay man is a great woman?
And so that that does exist in this environment.
So and so she won't ever say that out loud because that's,
she's too modest. But as, as her son, I can say
that and tell people that because that's that's, that's
how that's the reality. I think in our culture, it's
(06:58):
difficult as women, Latinas, to speak too highly of ourselves or
make too much of a big deal about our ambitions or what we
accomplished because it could beviewed as, you know, arrogant,
conceited, bragging. There's all of these things that
we carry right within ourselves.And I'm, you know, of a certain
age and I still struggle with that.
So I completely understand, you know, where Mary is coming from
(07:21):
with that. Javier, what was it like?
You described a little bit of what it was, what you've
witnessed, right, with your mom.But a lot of the women
listening, they have children and they're really trying to
figure out how as a woman then pursuing their dreams, how is
this going to impact their children?
Because many times as mothers, there's this guilt factor of
(07:42):
like, are we missing the practices, You know, where we're
winning in one area, we're probably failing in another.
And, and can you just as someonethat was raised by obviously
this amazing, you know, woman and parents, can you share with
us the UPS and the downs of being a child, watching your
parents do this together and your mom specifically?
(08:02):
Sure. So I think growing up in any,
any business, if you incorporateyour kids in a, in a way that is
teaching them to learn the fundamentals of business because
that, that'll help them either as individuals or as if they
want to either work the businessor do something different, but
at least helps them. So for example, my mom mentioned
bookkeeping, so she instilled all of us about bookkeeping and
really she always told us pay, pay your vendors, pay employees,
(08:25):
vendors taxes and then then sameway for yourself.
And that's how you prioritize how you spend money.
And to this day, that's what we do.
We prioritize that. So if you bring those things,
you know how you teach and how you, how you learn, That's,
that's, that's how you, how you inspire your children.
So I know I have to have to havefriends that have diabetes and
they, they incorporate the kids in the diabetes.
That's, that should be, that should be normal.
That's what we've done for the most part.
(08:46):
But growing up, yes, was diabetes out a lot of things
that normal kids have. Yes, I didn't really do it for
the camps or those kind of things, but and I sometimes
struggle with that, of course, but I, you know, my parents want
to make a life. I went to college, all those
things. So if you look at if you look
back, of course you reflect and bring, you know, respected is
different than living in the moment.
Living in the moment as a child and somebody you're like, I want
(09:07):
to go here if I can because everyone's not working or I'm
working because that's where, you know, kids are the best of
cheap labor, credit refused labor.
And so, but the flip side of that, I had the best toys in the
street because I got to pay a dollar an hour.
So, you know, I give and take, right?
So I had cool stuff with that, but you know, he would always
say, if you're going to you're going to play sports, that's
great. You still have to work.
So he so he they balanced it. You know, it's a work ethic too,
(09:28):
probably is a strong work ethic and how how how to work.
So, you know, learning how to work.
It seems like a natural thing, but sometimes as today's world
working as as somewhat somewhat abstract.
So if you look at that and say, you know, growing up, I have I
have the things like going to camp or just those kinds.
Of course not, but I worked in restaurants.
I done a lot of business then. So to this date, it's got so I
can still use literally I grew up in the restaurant business
(09:50):
and I'm going to tell you stories that you know, because
when they open the restaurant, just doing the math, I was a
year, I was a year old when the restaurant was opened.
And so I'm I'm showing how whatever I meant this, but I was
telling you I was a hoops the mistake.
What do you want to call it? Because I said mom, you know,
telling me right now with three kids, I'll be in a restaurant in
July. I'm 73.
I was born, I'm 74. That was a plan.
(10:10):
I don't think so, but she never meant to that.
But that being said, I, you know, she, I have the customer
telling me that they would babysitting me in the bassinet
or the back tape in the back or the same things.
And some of my honest memories were, you know, when I, when I
was growing up back then you canwalk.
Your kids walked anywhere, right?
You know, nothing. I was on say, but he was in
Corona. I, I walked from St.
(10:31):
Edwards to our restaurant on, onoff Lincoln.
You know, it's probably a couplemiles, I guess maybe.
And I would walk, I would leave school, walk to the restaurant,
do my homework because I want toimagine, make sure I did my
homework. And then I would help the
restaurant, you know, do things in the restaurant or mess
around, whatever. And then she would pick me up
after after, after she left in the other restaurant on the
(10:51):
street. And then we'll go home.
But yeah, so do I do I did, I did.
We miss out a lot of family and beds at an all families app, of
course. But after being in business 50
years, we're still valuing business.
As soon as you're still involved.
And most families at this point aren't, you know, they'll
they'll talk to each other. Sometimes they'll only be alone.
But leave the most part, you getalong for the most part.
And we're still, we're still active actively involved in this
business to this day against, you know, 5050 years next year.
(11:13):
Mary, what point did you say I think I'm ready to expand.
You have kids and you have a little baby.
What happened in your mind that you said?
I think we're ready for a new location.
The reason that we are we grow and I start the second business
gets done. People told me all the time your
food is good, but the first place it was by the freeway and
(11:35):
we didn't have good sales. We didn't have enough money to
pay our bills and I told my husband we should look for
another place because they love our food but the place is not
good. So he told me you're crazy.
We don't make money here and this is what believe me, the
food is good. So trust me, that's the only
reason we open Miguel Junior to to be in a better location.
(11:59):
That was that was our main pointto to because people asked me to
tell me the food is good. But it's hard to find this
place. People get lost and get mad and
better done. That's that's the main reason we
are we, we open the second place.
And that's the one on 6th Street, right?
The one that is still there, theLincoln and.
And the 6th. So let's think about this this
(12:20):
timetable again. Miguel's in 973.
I was born 974 Miguel's in 975 SDo you think my mom would have
been a normal housewife with four kids in tow now and pushing
for the location let's you know.That's why I'm wanting that's
why I'm wanting to like unlike step into her mind in that time
period, because there's women that we deal with in CEO that
(12:43):
they feel overwhelmed because they have one baby and they're
like, but I just had a baby. How am I going to do this?
So you marry having three plus little Javier and then you're
like, let's do another one. Can you talk about for you, your
husband, right, has this sort ofidea, this ambition with you and
you open a restaurant and that'slike a sit down, like a dine in,
(13:05):
I think, right? They call it.
And that's great. Location's not great, but the
food is great. You're the food.
And so then you say, let's open another one and it has a drive
through. And then I know obviously all
these years later how the story turned out, but that location is
excellent. What happens between a wife and
a husband, with him maybe feeling like.
(13:30):
Oh, I had this idea, but then mywife made this push and it's
working out better. The reason I, I pushed him
because I was 24, I was in the restaurant and I knew we have a
good brother and I knew we have a bad location.
So I wanted to give it a try again because my food was good.
And I know it was going to be very, very hard for both of us.
(13:52):
But but I told him, you know, wehave to do it and we're going to
try and maybe if it doesn't workor work, at least we're trying.
So I have a little color and so the the woman, the landlord who
you know, our famous customer ofours and she was also a woman.
I think that that helped also and that that that encouraged
her to help my mom open the second restaurant.
(14:12):
OK, ladies, we talk about so we're blue in the face and CEO
about the power of collaborationand how there's a fear to help
one another because everybody feels like they're competing and
nobody wants to help the next woman because they're afraid
that that woman's going to do better than them.
This is a perfect example of younever know who you're going to
bless when you pour into others and you pour into someone else.
(14:34):
With that being said, how do youkeep these recipes a secret?
It's not easy because a lot of people ask me, how do you do it?
How do you do this? And then I just tell them you
have to be consistent with your food, with your bread, and have
faith in your work. You know, you have to put love.
One thing is to cook and anotherthing is to put love.
(14:54):
Yes, my grandmother used to say the chili is going to be very,
very spicy today because I knew she was mad at grandpa.
I knew when I tasted, I love chili.
I put chili on everything. And I'm like, grandma was
grandpa. What did you do to grandma
because it'd be so spicy. And so that energy, it does
translate into something very delicious and wonderful and
beautiful. So Mary, how as a mom with these
(15:19):
kids now and Javier being the youngest, how in the world were
you able to figure out which kids should be leading the
company, who should do what? It's tough as a mom.
It's tough as a parent to have to make these decisions with the
business dynamic because the children could be entitled.
They could feel like, well, I was, I'm born second or I'm good
(15:41):
at this. I should be doing that.
As a mom, how do you do that? How do you make that choice to
say who gets to do what? So I'm a favorite, of course,
Natalie. Every single kid, yeah.
That's a question sometimes too.I know they always think that
he's my favorite and I said no, I don't get favors.
(16:01):
I know I love every single one the same.
And well, you know what? I believe that they see us
working hard and they see us like we work as a family.
Like if they need to, if they need money for something, they
knew that they can have it. But I also teach them how to
save money. Like when we start building our
(16:22):
home, we, we didn't have that big persons or other people had,
because I would just to mention this is for the house.
We get to save money for the house.
So they knew, they knew that, that and then they, they saw us
working very hard. And I think that makes them
realize that that business, if we get sick, they have to learn
how to do it because it's not easy just to, to, to jump from
(16:45):
from here to there and then to have the skills.
And they had the skills since they were child.
They were children and they, they knew we, we have confidence
with them. Like Javier, Michael wanted to
work since he's one was 9. And then my husband said, no,
wait, wait, don't worry. When you start working, you
never stop. And every single one work, you
know, but we never push them. We never force them.
(17:09):
They always work. They knew that they have to
work. So they, they start working.
Yeah. Yeah, Javier for you from your
end of it, right, being the favorite golden child, what how
is that dynamic with your siblings though?
And then if you, I'm thinking now, right, if you have all
these years in and and the business is what it is, how do
you, because I believe you were CEO at some point or you still
(17:31):
are, I don't know what. Yes.
And how, how is that? How do you get to then say
you're the youngest, but guess what, You're going to run the
show? What's that like?
A few things So when I was in college, I was my my father
apparently went to USC and on USCI went to the I graduated the
entrepreneur program, an entrepreneur program.
I used Mcgalos as a business business plan and my professors
(17:51):
at the time were not happy because it wasn't my idea.
It wasn't my, you know, entrepreneur plan is
entrepreneur program was creating an idea, you know, fan
and I, I told my professors, look, I appreciate that, but
honestly, I'm gained free advicefrom professionals to how to
grow a business. That's actually I can actually
do after I graduate versus other, other, you know,
students. They have these ideas and, you
(18:11):
know, they, they, they, these ideas or they scoop the cool and
they grew on few different things.
And so I took the opportunity toutilize the gals at that
business plan. And I, I utilized that business
plan almost for 10 years after Igraduated.
And I used that plan to, to, to formalize the business, to grow
the business and to obtain financing.
So that was that. That's how I became the CEO of
the company where my other, my other siblings sibles were just
(18:32):
they had different interest in business, but they're just
different levels of interest. So that's how, that's how, how,
how I came about. Now, of course, being youngsters
4, there's advantage disadvantage.
So this disadvantage is, is you know, it's, it's typical
sometimes because, and then their age is also a certain age
gap because, you know, my, my next sister Lovely is 6 years
older than 8:00 and 9:00. So it's a, that's a, there's the
(18:52):
two things youngsters age certain age gap.
So for example, my sister Sylviawas next enough.
She always gave me a hard time because she would have to
babysit me because she was next enough.
So my mom would say, if you wantto go out and hang out with your
friends, you got your older brother, you.
And so I, I kind of grew up fastin that way.
And I grew up with, I grew with older kids all the time.
So my, my, my children level was, was a little different than
other kids my age. So that was helpful.
(19:13):
Then growing up and going to school, my skill set was a
little different than my siblings because we had
different interests. You know, my strengths are
different than what their strengths are.
So for example, Sylvia, my sister, she overseas all the
main development and rescue development company because she,
that's, that's her strength. You know, that's her, that's
what she has to do. So each of us have found our own
strengths and we consider that we compliment each other that
way. If you put us all one restaurant
together, I don't think you'd besuccessful as a company.
(19:36):
I think because we have division, division of
responsibilities and areas of scope responsibilities that
makes us, that makes us successful.
And and now that my dad's biggest fear was he knew that we
couldn't get along in one restaurant.
That's the all the aids of this can naturally and some extent
our parents separate themselves too, with different, different
restaurants and different, different concepts.
So in some ways that that's how it could work.
(19:57):
Division of responsibilities andair responsibilities.
But that's how we get along now.It doesn't make it awkward
sometimes, you know, when I'm the youngest and I'm with my, my
extended family and like, well, you're the youngest.
I understand. And you know, it's just odd
because you're absolutely right.Traditionally the Latin culture,
the oldest 1st and the time goesno matter.
And so, and then my dad wanted to do something different
because he experienced in his family other other relatives who
(20:19):
had restaurants or business and that, that they get to this
naturally, it's the oldest and that it failed.
So my dad said I want to have you become president now while
I'm alive. And then things don't go well,
we can make changes because sometimes, as you know, some in
Latin cultures, the business inherent to old automatically
and that didn't that didn't exactly happen here.
So that that that that that's, that's how tradition and that
(20:41):
that's how it matched. But and, and the the family
environment or the holidays, yes, it makes it difficult,
especially if I have a differentconversation with my siblings or
brothers, sisters and the next day is Thanksgiving.
It's like, hey, by the way, you know, this happened yesterday,
by the way, you know that. And I know my mom doesn't get
some, you know, tries her best to maintain all that, but that's
part of the hardest part. So I've learned as over the
(21:01):
years as a couple of things, if you haven't had a different
conversation, have it away from the holiday as much as possible.
And then we try our best not to shop.
I have, I call, we have no shop talk policy and our families
work together and we try our best.
But that also buys my mom because she's also has a
tendency to talk shop all the time also.
I hear you on that on the shop talk because I'm feeling
(21:24):
miserably in that area, but I'm,but I'm working on it and I just
have my one, but I, I am definitely working on it.
Can we let's get into some dynamics of the business itself.
You mentioned building the business in such a way that you
learned through your entrepreneurial program at USC,
which I'm like can't see me on camera, but you mentioned about
building it or structuring it ina way to get financing.
(21:46):
Can you guys share what that looked like?
Because in the Latino culture and I think as women.
So I'm gonna kind of split this up.
But like Mary, you said your husband wasn't as great with the
money. And I remember my mom and dad
having some issues with that. There was always these
conversations about what he was doing with the money.
So I personally grew up and ended up building this amazing
business and started seeing these dollar signs in my bank
(22:08):
account. And I personally got scared
because I understood, I don't know money like I understood
like I'm supposed to put the money somewhere to grow.
I don't know where to do that. So can you talk to us about the,
the money moves and are they scary?
What do they, what do they look like?
What should we know about that? Sure.
So a couple things. So I think the fundamentals, my
my mom found the fundamentals about bookkeeping, right?
(22:29):
That's very fundamentals. But I just checks the balances,
balance your accounts and then the thumbnails.
So then my dad always mentioned what you said.
But if I'm making that money that can't make my check, but
you know, that's fine. And that's all, that's all fine.
If you want to maintain a small business, but you want to scale,
you have to scale at such a ratethat you can like bring on debt
(22:49):
and grow your business up. Debt can be controversial.
Some people don't like it, some people do.
So, you know, growing up in a growing, growing school and
those like you talk about financing those kind of things.
And what I learned is that financing comes different ways.
And if you're a small business, which we were at some point, is
the, the, there's a lot of agencies and government programs
that are designed to help peoplegrow their business will be more
risk or low risk. And there, there there's a,
(23:11):
there's a treasure of information.
If you know that, that, that, that right there.
And that's what we did. That's how we grow our business.
We went to, to Small Business Administration and they helped
us grow our business, But that's, that's their function.
You know, our government is how small business owners, I can't
remember what percentage small business owners in the USI think
that 6% of all businesses in theUS are small business owners.
I think under 50 employees are appropriate.
Some some standing number. And that's how you start it.
(23:32):
I think that's education is where it starts and
understanding how, how the kind of risk you have.
So my, my parents weren't, weren't risk, they didn't like
the risk I was taking because I was, they thought I was growing
too fast and too much, too much debt.
And to some extent that they were right.
I, I wasn't balancing someone reporting correctly.
But now we're, we've gone past that and we, and, and the risk
you take is if you don't do anything correct and that's,
(23:54):
that's that. And then the optioning cost and
the branding, those kind of things.
So if you are going to grow yourbusiness and brand it, then
branding is done in such a way where it takes some financial
investment. So, for example, my parents
weren't went big on marketing because they felt marketing was
their food. The food is way to the marketed
business. And you're right, it's just a
model that's correct. Last word to today.
It's more about, you know, brandversus the food, especially in
(24:15):
social media, you know, those those that drives things.
So for example, my mom, my mom now is a social media star.
Every time we put her on our social media handles, it's it's
the highest liked reviewed and that equates to sales, those
kind of things. But to do that, it takes an
investment. I have AI, have a full time
marketing person, social media person to, to manage that for us
and do those things. That's an investment.
(24:36):
We made an investment to that person a year ago and it took us
a year to get that, that to see our growth.
So for example, I'm now participating in junior
achievements. It's an organization designed to
teach my actual leadership kids.And that's why so I had to learn
how I want to pay it back and almost teach the same skill my
mom taught me in bookkeeping, but to another level, to the, to
the tier of, of financing and stuff like that.
(24:58):
So I, I tell people that spas for small business owners.
That's why the best opportunity for any small business to grow.
At what point would you say thatpeople should consider that
option? Is it after you've had some
level of financial security in your first step, It should it be
right from the beginning with you guys?
Was it like to do the third location?
At what point does someone then consider taking on like
(25:20):
leveraging that like that? So when I went, so I graduated
college, we, we were, we had to move our restaurant and we had
some financial, we had the city and it's the Caltrans and those
things. And I needed financing to open a
new restaurant. And I didn't have the quiet
experience I did now. And I literally went to every
bank in Corona to ask for money and I got rejected by every bank
(25:41):
in Corona almost. And I learned that the hard way
that I said, how do I think differently to push differently?
And that's how I found out with the SBA and those kind of
things. I did research and I found out
what helped us is that we already had six restaurants.
So that's why we had six. So when my parents signed me
gals, I call it your aunts and uncles, that's where you borrow
my in front of 1st and they invested in you.
(26:02):
And my parents did that for manyyears, family, family loans,
personal loans. I, I think my dad mortgage his
house every, every time, every mortgage house a million times,
all those things. And then what's that go dad,
what this is all good. But once we're, we can scale now
we can go to different ways. And he can understand the
transition from using individuals to go into a lender
or to an SBA. But to make that transition, you
have to be professional enough to present a doc, a business
(26:24):
plan. So that's my business on helping
me grow a business. And I had a plan ready and I, I
identified it for the, for that,for that audience.
And that's why I told professorsin the USC is that I use this
plan to, to pray in many years to help grow the business.
And then once you get past that scale, then you, you, once you
get to the system, you learn andgrow your business that way.
But it's, it's, it's a lot of work.
It's not easy. And, and I think that the
(26:45):
thumbnails, understanding the business, understanding
financials, help help grow the business and help anyone grow,
grow what they're trying to do, because otherwise you just
borrow money from your actual uncles.
And that's hard. That's a hard thing to do.
Especially facing them in the holidays, right?
It's like, what for you, Maria, knowing you're beginning as a
housewife or being from Mexico and like working so hard with
your kids? What did you feel?
(27:07):
Was it excitement? Was it fear?
Was it no big deal? What?
What was your thought when you saw that for the first time?
My husband and I did not. It's not that we did not
believe, but that we weren't prepared to get loans from the
bank. We did it by ourselves from the
money we have saved. We open the restaurant and then
(27:27):
we have more money saved and then we open another restaurant.
And at the beginning, it was hard for us to save money for
taxes and the government needs the money.
That's what I told my son. You can save money for the
government. And one time we got a bill that
we didn't have the money to borrow money for the taxes.
So since that day I told my husband I'm going to open a
checking account just for taxes and don't ask me money for that
(27:47):
because that's only for taxes. So sometimes he need money.
I said no, I don't get money, said you are the rain check has
money, said that's not for use for the government.
So just you know, like I said, we never get done.
We just invest the money in another restaurant, in another
restaurant. I think that that is a wonderful
way those of you that are listening, if you have a little
(28:08):
hidden fear of whether it's imposter syndrome or fear of
success or you are looking at this number and you're like,
what am I supposed to do with this?
And there's so many thoughts. I, I love what Mary is saying.
It's like, don't think about like that.
Just keep putting 1 foot in front of the other.
I love what you're saying is like, don't overthink it.
It's like it's, it's there. You got to move it around.
You got to put some for taxes. You got to pay people you got to
and grow it, right. Use a percentage to grow it and
(28:30):
just look at it like that because I know a lot of people
get nervous about the money and I don't know why we're like
that. Women love nice things and I
think we love it when like a mangives it to I don't know how to
like really say I think that's like a little bit.
I've never had that experience of somebody taking care of me
like that, but I've had friends that have married very well and
and they're just like, but I think when it comes to their
(28:51):
business are freaked out. They're like, I don't know what
to do I. Think that.
I think yourself or your audience needs to understand or
think about. It's called an entry strategy.
I think a lot of small business owners will think that and they
don't plan for that. And so meaning that what do you
want? And that's, you know, we started
business, my parents started business, they started business.
They were just trying to survive, correct?
They got to scale. And then then, then you think
(29:11):
about next step, next step they think about.
And then it has to be what's your empty strategy main
business because you don't plan for that.
Sometimes it doesn't. All the hard work can go away
quickly. And so just keep just the
audience. Is that something small?
You know, once you get to a certain size, then how do you
start planning for your exit? Yes, absolutely.
What do you do when then you have people in your world, your
(29:35):
family, they see you in a certain way, You know, you're
just trying to make payroll and you got marketing fees and you
know, the business is very expensive to run.
Like as I did, Like I said, thatwasn't my money.
I understood that. What do you do though, when the
family recognizes, oh, they're rich, Like they're this, you
know, and they come knocking forloans and they come asking
(29:57):
because this is something that women have come to me and
they're like, how? Like, what do you do?
Like how do you say, do you say no?
So can you share with us how you've been able to manage that
part? Or if people do they not have,
did they not come to you and askyou for money?
Like did they ask you? Because I think we've all had
some interesting experiences with this.
Well, you know what, they see that I work hard, they see that
(30:20):
I work hard with my kids and I send them to school and all
that. So I don't think we never, never
have extra, extra money to even though there are people that,
that we were rich. I just didn't answer because no
matter what, people don't believe you.
So I just did my own life and concentrate on my business, my
kids and forget about all those things.
(30:42):
I help people, I have people when they need it, and then I
always did then I and I still do, but but I just don't, you
know, like I don't want them to see me like I'm the owner from
the girls. I want them to see me as just
just a lady. It's.
All No, no, they don't want. I don't.
I don't like when people looks at me.
(31:03):
I said, oh, you're the owner andthe girls.
I just smile. I don't say anything.
Yeah. So, so I think there's a couple
of things. So my, my parents are always run
opportunities for everyone and then everyone's emails again.
So they have lent money to theirfriends and family and
unfortunately, so that hasn't worked out.
And we've run opportunities for some of our family to work with
us and our business and they come work for us.
(31:24):
And they say, well, that's, that's too much work because
it's a, it's a hard industry to cross to you.
And recently or people have asked me, would you, would you
ask about loans or how is that? I asked them a few things.
I said, OK, look, I'll help you for a couple conditions.
I need a business plan. I need to, I need you to read a
book called Why Vision Value andtell me why you want to do this.
(31:45):
If you do those two things, thenI'll consider helping you out.
If you don't do those two things, then I can't help you
out because otherwise it's just a conversation and it's it's
wasting my time and your time, OK?
What was the other book again? Why does Simon Cynic?
Why vision value? Cynosynic.
Yeah, and it's a it's a book. And then it tells you and gives
you exercise. Does it do the read the book, do
the exercise, write to this planand then we'll talk about how to
(32:07):
move forward. And unfortunately, unfortunately
depends every time I do that, they, they, they might, they'll,
that they'll come through because otherwise it's just a
loan to a friend and that's not working out either.
That's not that's not beneficialfor myself or the person.
You know, I'm on social media and people see all these things
and it's not what it seems you guys like.
If you look at that like it's all wonderful and it's all a
(32:27):
blessing, but it but not all of it equals commas and zeros right
in my bank account. But to be Mrs. Claus and yet I
have had people that are not my family that are barely my
friend. Maybe I met through business of
how reach out and literally say,can I, can you send me $30,000?
Can can you put, you know, 400,000 into this?
So you're going to have people that don't have any sort of
(32:51):
limits or boundaries. And one of the things that has
helped me is I've had to say, Rachel, you're very helpful and
you're kind, but you can't help somebody more than they're
willing to help themselves. And so I think that exercise
have you had that you're describing is a test of like how
far, how much are they willing to do to help themselves before
you essentially put in on that? I'm going to bring something up
(33:14):
and sensitive because you and I have some we could share this.
There's a lot of women that theystart a business or they don't
start or they start, but life happens.
A difficult thing in their life happens and they let it all go.
They can't go to work, they can't get out of bed.
You lost your husband not that long ago.
(33:35):
I lost my son, my oldest son. And how did you get up out of
bed anyways? And keep going and keep smiling
and being a superstar that you are.
Well, it was. It was very hard for a year.
It's taken. I didn't want to, I didn't want
to be I want to be sincere. I want to smile because
(33:56):
sometimes when you, when you were in the public, you always
get to smile. So I stay home.
Well, until my car told me, go on, you can smile and it's not
easy, but you have to, you have to go forward.
And that's, that's the way I didit.
Stay home and joy, my car told me to say.
(34:17):
And then I start little by little and I still don't do a
lot of things that I was I was doing with my husband because
it's not the same. So that and you ladies know my
story. There were times where I would
be backstage or in an interview or working and like the tier,
I'm just like, I don't want to even be here right now, let
(34:39):
alone doing my, I do my makeup every day.
And it's like how how can I do my makeup when I'm like crying?
And I still have those moments where I'm very closed off and
it's been five years for me closed off.
And it's not fair to me and it'snot fair probably to my son
because he's like, mom, you got to live.
And I just things are not the same.
(35:00):
And, and so I understand Javier,what has been the highs and the
lows and your journey carrying the torch for your family with
this legacy brand that is Miguel's?
Well, I think the lows, obviously, you know, leading a
business during a pandemic was pretty difficult.
(35:21):
It was a tough time for us, I think the whole country and an
individual. So I think for us is being
committed. You know, when that, that in
March 2020, you know, of course,the week, I think March 17th or
something like that, you know, Ithought we're going to lose a
business. I, you know, I thought we're
done. I literally thought we're,
we're, we're, we're done. You know, the, the, the, the,
(35:42):
the risk for you with debt is you have debt, right?
You got to pay, you still got topay your debt and still I'll pay
your rents. And how, how am I going to pay
my debt in rents? And it was with no, no really
good answer in place. I would have to literally
liquidate and, and, and lay out all my employees.
Of course, things changed and, but guiding the company through
(36:02):
that time period, and it was a tough time period for all of us.
It was the amount of and then having to deal with my father's
illness and towards the end of his life was kind of a very
difficult time for us and for meas a leader, because I not know
I have to leave the company, butI have to also manage to my dad,
my dad's, you know, the end of his life.
So then how do you utilize that to broader business and this to
inspire. So, you know, I, I use that to
(36:25):
inspire now saying as a, as a, as an organization, the leaders
that work from the gals, if we can survive COVID and those two
because we don't have anything for the most part, it's
difficult, but we can. So that this the, the, the
Grinch and, and toughness and the bill of pivot has, has
ingrained by a lot of our leaders of organizations.
Same thing we expect upon that. So in case it's not as bad as
(36:47):
it's at and the highs is obviously, you know, we're,
we're, I think we're benefiting from all the things we did right
in 20/20/21 and 2024 because we held up prices.
We didn't layoff, we didn't layoff, we didn't layoff anyone.
We did have some, unfortunately,some countries throughout that,
throughout that, you know, COVIDthrough COVID losses, those kind
of things. But now if you look at all those
things, how do you, I think those are things that you, that
(37:09):
inspire your team with your teamto grow.
And, and then they then the especially the ones that have
been with you since they're, youknow, for 10 or 15 years.
We we say we're a family business and and some say is it,
you know, do you fire your family?
Not really, you know, so you always work team now and those
kind of things. But I think that older employees
or older teen members have been the wrong time.
(37:30):
They see the evolution of company.
You feel the the admiration and the love in the room.
I love it, Mary, what is the thing that you are the most
proud of yourself for in this whole thing?
Everything. I'm very proud of you.
He works hard. He.
Oh, see. You are.
(37:51):
The favorite? Well, I can say that I'm, I'm
very, very happy that the business is going on.
My husband, my son is running the business very well.
I yes, I am very, very happy that a God makes me very healthy
and I think that's a gift and isthe best because I am very
(38:16):
healthy and I still feel strong and I have my downs.
But you know this is not true. What is your favorite item on
the menu? Yeah, everything.
Everything that I love, I love. The poor potato burrito is my
(38:37):
favorite. Like when I have lunch sometimes
and I do that and I'm to honor my husband because he was his
favorite too, even though he he invent this burrito that is very
famous now the garbage. Oh yeah.
When he when he told me the name, I said garbage people
think they're going to like it. He said yeah, because I tell
them that I get everything, but I have extra and I make a makeup
(39:00):
that's going to make them feel worse.
No, he's very famous. The garbage burrito.
Have you had? What are you most proud of your
parents for? And what are you most proud of
yourself for? So I think that they, they, they
toss the fundamentals of a, the fundamentals of business,
correct. I don't grow business, I don't
really care. So it's, it's easy to, if I sat
(39:24):
here, especially during the pandemic, I could easily laid
off half a workforce and then financially fair off.
I am today. But we do that.
So I think that's the understanding of the care for
the team and really also the guess, you know, how to make
sure that we're doing things correctly, service standards,
those kind of things and how to continue continuous improvement.
We can't be flat or stagnant. So my bowls, for example, always
many innovation. And that's in our, well, that's
(39:46):
in our, you know, especially my gals, you know, bowls.
So that's those kind of things. And I think that my
relationship, my mom is, is twofold.
Obviously she's my mom, but she's also, you know, we're
working on recipe developments. So to this day, she's still
developing recipes from the galsand I may not be or may not like
something. And we have our conversations
about it and she says, no, but no, mom, that's not good enough.
(40:07):
And even people on my team say, wow, you tell your mom, no, go
on. So I know you can do better than
that. I always say, I know you have
something generated, push yourself.
You can do better than what you have now.
And so she always tends to get alittle frustrated, but she
performs, produces or makes a difference and it's different.
One problem myself is really just understanding who I am as a
leader and understanding that I,it's not, I was getting a
(40:30):
chance. I'm not, I own this.
I just happened to be in charge of it for this moment of time.
And then that moment of time, we'll transition to someone else
at some point because it's, it'scontinuous movement.
And if I believe that I'm that and I'll be all for this
organization, then Miguel will not survive.
I have to believe that I'm just gonna give me a gift and don't
give me this point in time. But really, at the end of the
day, that I will transfer this to someone else.
(40:50):
And I have to grasp that what the next person is, is set them
up for success and make sure that there's that there's team
members that have worked for us for 10-15 years, that they too
never lie on us as a family, as an organization, because that
that's, that we impact their families and they want to be in
a situation where they're and they're growing with with us
also. So I looked at those and it's
continuous movement on the spectrum.
(41:12):
Mary, before we go, what messagedo you have for women that are
afraid to take the first step forward into starting a business
and pursuit pursuing their dreams?
Well, I just want to tell them that if they want something,
they get worse and be consistentand move on.
Because it's not easy to run a business and it's, it's better
(41:37):
for you to go, you know, to go with your friends.
But you, you have to make a commitment with the business.
You have to always look for yourbusiness cards and then your
friends and work hard. Yeah.
Did you want to say a message tothe ladies before we we sign off
here? I signed a check about 60% of
our at least your team is female.
(41:58):
So it's unusual for organization, professional
organization. So, and also a piece of advice
is you have to be comfortable being uncomfortable.
That's now that's what I talked a long time ago.
If you're uncomfortable, that's,that's OK, that's OK.
That's you'll have to be comfortable all the.
Time and that is it. And if you're in Southern
California, look up Miguel's junior.
(42:19):
It's amazing. Wait.
Well, thank you again. I appreciate it.
No problem. Thank you, Mary.
You're welcome.
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