KERRI HARPER HOWIE - Mustard Up That Cheddar Dog

Hey, guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke. I'm your host, coleeen Witt, and today we have the mc Legacies of all mick legacies. I just before I even introduce this amazingly special guest, I have to let you guys know that I have tried to get this interview for at least a year. Not because I've reached out and actually broke contact to this special guest, is because I've literally had to stalk research, watch so many interviews, and I try not to do this, but I am

I keep saying that I think you.

Got in the state of California. African American.

Yes, yes, yes, she's gonna wear that hat.

She is twenty one man, twenty one twenty.

One McDonald's restaurants are owned by Carrie Harper Howie and her family, her mother and her sister, three minority women. This was a huge feat in the timing and the whole structure. But the cool thing about Carrie here is her story is definitely untraditional. But she has released a book which led me to her, called The Family Secret. So if you guys are interested in hearing more, you can go ahead and look up The Family Secret online Google, Amazon, you can find it.

That is how I found her.

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

So what will you have me eat in today?

Okay?

So this is a dish that my my sister and I used to make back in the day eons ago, and as I shared with you, I don't remember the last time I made this, so I'm hoping that I can pull it off. But it was such a that meal that my sister and I would go to that we thought was so delicious and so cool. So today I'm gonna make for you mustardy cheddar hot dogs. And I asked for this bag these bags of chips because that was always the side we always had in our house.

Okay, so that makes sense.

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

So surprise.

Anyways, go ahead, make your mustard cheese hot dogs. I was sitting there looking at the recipe and the ingredient said, maybe she wants elvida, and I said, but.

Usually people they want belvida cheese, say elvida.

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

So my sister and I were born and raised in Englewood. My sister still lives in the house that we grew up in. Y'all ago, Yes, and.

That's crazy to think twenty one McDonald's later.

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

And did you guys own it back then or were you renting it?

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

I'm just curious, and you could share or not share, but you know Inglewood has gentrified, and is you know, buying a house over there as impossible.

I am genuinely.

Curious how much they bought a house for then and how much does it work today.

So when I was growing up, my parent, my mom especially, was like kids know what kids know, and grown ups know what grown ups know.

So I'm gonna be honest and say I honestly.

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

So we have pulled money out.

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

So that's like basically saying that the house is gorgeous.

Right.

We think it is beautiful, it works beautiful, and you know, quite honestly, my mother has Alzheimer's, and so what that means is that we have been able to change the space to create a little mini apartment for her inside the house, in a place that's familiar to her. Because if, as you may know, with Alzheimer's patients, for them, everything familiar is better. So if they can really and truly be in a place where they know, hey, around this corner is my bedroom, then that.

Is very helpful to them.

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

Yeah, and it kind of goes back to the naming of this episode, is gonna be mc legacy legacy because you guys definitely like even just saying that you kept this house shows that you guys value this family culture that you guys have. Kind of your parents kind of knew you guys as a whole built so you and your sister at the time. Are they when you're doing this? Are they cops? And and would your mom do social worker?

Social worker?

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

Kind of stuff. My mother was like, figure it out, and we did.

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

I think we would have.

Probably cooked the hot dogs in the microwave. I don't know that we were necessarily using the stovetop.

But you know, hey, in here there's no microwaves, so I like it no microwave, So making it work?

And how hard was it?

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

So at the time, my mother's only sister, her name or she's my auntie Jane, she was and her husband were a franchisees at the time. They were in the San Diego market and the and you know, they were enfranchising even longer than my mom, and so my parents were like, we have our good government job, so we're not tripping. And at some point in time, there was an African American regional manager who at the time was

That's a high risk move.

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

It was a big deal. It was a big risk, but somehow they had the courage to do it.

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

No, So their separation was very specifically around my father being a gambling addict. And I do talk about this very openly in my book. My father was a gambler for years, and while my mom knew that he liked to go to the racetrack and you know, bid on horses, she never realized that it had developed into a habit that he couldn't control. And so, as you can imagine, you know, this day and age, we are very used to walking into a bank shoot at this point, right,

They were using a lot of cash.

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

Which oh, no, Papa, no, Papa, yes, said yes.

And so basically he gambled away a lot of money. It was, I'll say, to put it briefly, it was a very very large financial infidelity. I'm just gonna put that there, yeah, okay, yeah, And so my mom was not able to forgive that. She was not able to get past the fact that he had, you know, I think for her, honestly, I don't know if it was so much like the oh, he's been financially unfaithful to me, as how could you be so selfish as to ruin the potentially ruin the lives of your wife, but even

The time, or they owned two at the time.

Yeah, that's high pressure. She's under two, ye.

Right, you know, so she was, you know, appropriately unable to forgive that fine.

So she was prepared to leave him. The issue.

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

We were on vacation. They called her and said, your bills have not been paid.

Oh heck no, ye see, so he's gambling.

And if there's one thing any corporation like McDonald's is like, is gonna not go for They're not going for their bills not being paid.

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

Yes, so.

Enfranchising, you have to pay what's called a franchising fee or a royalty.

Use this knife before you burn yours.

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

So we have vendors.

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

That's one of them. Pay your bills on time?

And is this back?

Did McDonald's have a McDonald's university back then?

It's called Hamburger University?

Sorry, yes, I did a little bit of research.

Come on, all right, I'm a proud graduate of that's HU, right?

And how many years is hu?

HU is? A week?

Oh?

It's a week? Is it week? Two years?

It's okay, I'm gonna I'm gonna give you details how that works out.

Okay, so wait, wait, backtrack. So your mom is on vacation.

Mom's on vacation, all of them were all on vacation.

Okay, she gets a call, she gets the call.

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

Would you like mustard on ketchup on yours?

I'm gonna do it the way you do it first, Okay, I want to live the whole experience.

Yes, so I don't have enough cheese. I'm gonna great a little more cheese.

But so yeah, So then we get back, we realize that the bills, in fact, she realized, because I didn't know anything, she realized at the time that in fact, the bills had not been paid and that McDonald's was mad about it. And so it becomes a question of, well, what happens do they just kick the whole family out. My mom, because she's amazing, was able to convince McDonald's to let her stay in the business. And that it was my father who was the gambler who should be

Own story experience.

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

Wow, and so.

And the reason why that feels so palpable to me especially is because she did have to take steps to buy my father out because you know, he.

Was a co owner, and then she toy that dead too.

Well, she did not immediately because she couldn't.

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

So she had to even get into even more debt.

Yes, geez.

She had to really believe in herself too, right, she.

I mean, and have the fortitude.

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

Time, did you guys see her in any like emotional distress or was she like a gangster?

She was an absolute gangster. I'm gonna tell you about that in a second. But what I want to get back to your question of the reason why I keep harping on black single woman is because my mom went to bank after bank trying to get the financing to dig herself out of this hole, and bank after bank after bank said no, they would not give her money. And in fact, one of them when she walked in

Wow.

Until one day she walked into the Culver City branch was even either Culver City or Baldwin Hills branch of Wells.

Fargo Bank to Wells Fargo, there was.

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

Holy cow. So and she had to go through multiple multiple for that.

I had read that and I was like I even called Wells trying to get your contact.

It was like, girl, you don't get off my phone with this.

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

Yet she's pretty incredible.

Yeah, I like that.

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

Yeah, and she I can say with total honesty. Never bad mouthed my dad did. We've only over the years kind of gotten details out of her about what happened. She wasn't trying to like harp on anything bad about him. She was just like, it's me now, and you know, we're rolling. And so we were lucky at the time we had a woman. She was our babysitter and babysitter to Minnie, and so we spent a lot of time in her house, like you know, at the end of the day, Like my mom had to really be physically

Things like this came from.

Wow, Oh my god, can the camera see that?

I don't know they can see it. That is crazy.

That's been a long time.

Do you feel just sidebar, we have to name we have to name drop this.

What was the can you just tell us like thirty seconds about this chop winning yeah situation.

Okay, So I was in Washington, d C.

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

We were the overall Chop champions.

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

Ooh, I'm gonna do thrids. Okay, oh sorry.

I'll take those, Sorry, Primellion.

This looks like something my daughter would absolutely love because she just loves cheese.

I'll get her spaghetti. And it was just big cannam with cheese. But this is all gooey. The bread is toasted, which I do like.

The Other thing I love about this is she used butter, and if you know anything about me, I.

Use a stick of butter like every two days.

It's really bad. This is why I have fat over my abs. But this is gooey, cheesy, and you put the mustard underneath. So I am dying to try it. I'm gonna let us sit for like two sicks. It's a little it is hot. It's hot, but before I take a bite into it, let's go back, so your mom successfully handles this transaction. You guys have no idea babysitters are stepping in. Is your father still in the picture kind of or does he like to a Houdini?

He pretty much does a Hudini?

Does that suck?

I'm sorry that happened to me in my situation. I'm like, why, because then it's like double the responsibility, right.

I obviously cannot speak for my father. He is deceased. Now.

I think he was ashamed, and I think that shame can be a lot not excusing his absence, but I think he was just very embarrassed and because not only did he mess everything up financially for my mother, sister, and I, but he had borrowed from friends, from family, like it was a it was an addiction, and so you know, I don't treat that any differently than a

Like, what do dads do? I feel like I don't really know what dads do.

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

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

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

I talked about this in the.

Book so like it wasn't even like but there was.

Let me tell you exactly how it happened.

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

And we literally never spoke of it ever again.

Now we're there.

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

Little daughter, she's three.

She goes through phase of missing her dad, and she's like very expressive, like I miss daddy or whatever whatever.

It's really kind of sad. H it's actually sad.

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

She was like adult kid.

So I've had enough therapy to know that I didn't know how to verbalize that I missed my dad. And also I think my for whatever, and this is gonna sound crazy, my mom would not have been a person that I would have gone to to express the feelings she was not. And and I said, she is wonderful in many ways, but emotionally available, she is not. So we we didn't live in a household where we were hugging and kissing. It wasn't abusive, but it wasn't affectionate, either verbally or physically.

You know, And so it wasn't you know.

I never went to my mom like, oh, this guy just broke my heart or you know, oh, I'm going shopping for a prom dress.

My mom wasn't a part of that.

Was just wasn't that person.

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

Expressive, like oh my bady, I saw fly so much. My goodness, girlfriend.

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

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

Never you are you grew up disassociated.

Very disassociated from feeling like we never you know.

So last night my youngest son is being baptized at the end of this month. We had a conversation with the pastor and his wife of that church and they said, Cyrus, how are you feeling? And he said nervous, but I feel okay, And they were like, glad that you were able to My kids have lots of emotional language. My mom wasn't acknowledging that I was sad or angry or fearful. We never, we didn't have conversations around emotional language, and

Did you ever see her crime in that moment.

Where she said the divorce, the divorce? But other than that, no, did you?

Did you and your sister have those I have a twin sister.

Exciting to those of us who don't have twins, it's so cooling.

It's all exciting. If you look alike.

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

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

Hug you, or we didn't know, or I miss it. It was just or no, geez, that's a lot. I don't know, and it sounds.

Crazy to say out loud, but that I can't be anything.

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

What's the word like.

Passed on little demons, you know, kind of I don't know the word that I would use, but generational.

I mean, a part of it is trauma. And the

We you and I we're moms.

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

That's me right, yes, And.

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

But accountability and apology is probably.

The easiest way to end nagging drama, arguing everything, and people.

Like for what?

But I am curious and this is a sidebar, and we got to go back to your story because I.

Want to hear about it.

But as a mom, I feel like what makes me resilient and probably makes you and your sister resilient, I'm gonna use the word resilient and your mother resilient is probably the hardship that you had to go through. When I look at my teeny bopper and I heard you say coddle to your kid. You came from your mouth. Okay, I don't know your kid, but do you feel like and I'm definitely afraid of this is I want my daughter to have this resilience, this like.

Grit, right? But maybe girl? I mean, she already showing signs of coddled.

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

Is it even possible?

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

What do we want our kids to experience? What is it going to mean?

You know?

So I say, that's one example of all the different ways that I think about and I worry about how my kids, especially my boys. I have two black boys that I'm raising. What does it look like? And so the way that I resolve this issue for me is one I do try to make sure that I build in moments of shall we say, the need for resilience in our household. So our boys they you know, they start with chores and maybe ten is a little bit late. So don't yell at me if ten it is too late.

Right.

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

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

But at the end of the day, my kids as was I.

Because I went to a private school from seventh through really out my whole life, but an elite private school from seventh through twelfth grade, my kids are going to have a similar experience and their peers parents have the privilege to not think about these things, and yet their kids grow up with a level of accountability and resilience in some way, shape or form, because they do go on to.

Do things right.

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

Not completely, because trust.

Me, we were doing our first sleepover at a friend's house and I'm driving there, like, hey, you see this neighborhood. This ain't our neighborhood. You see, you see their house, and how that we don't live like that. So don't go in there touching. Look in feel you have a different life than a lot of these kids. But they perhaps get to experience more of the creature comforts than you and I did. But they're still they're gonna see things and they're going to know that they're different. One

Okay, okay, And so.

You know, I think that that you know, you get there are moments in time where your kids are going to have to They're gonna they are they're regardless, They're gonna have to navigate these situations in a variety of different ways, and that's going to build resilience in ways that I think you're not giving yourself or your child credit for it.

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

Okay, I'll been play too much better on the first one.

I'm not giving you credit yet.

I'm not giving you credit.

Well, you complain about these turkey hot dogs, but they are good.

I want to get the mustard and the cheese together.

I'm the lie.

This is great, but I want more of the you know, I'm happy.

It's great.

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

I don't know if I gave you my list of ingredients you want me to give you while you're taking your sip?

Yeah, go ahead, all right. So we kind of.

Talked about it as we went along. But your simple ingredients are gonna be hot dogs. If you're a vegan, I guess you could do vegan dogs, or you can do we have some turkey dogs and we have some classic dogs here. I prefer a block of sadared cheese that you great. I'm not gonna lie. When we were growing up, we had pre shredded cheese, but I prefer freshly grated cheese. So I asked for a block of cheese, regular old frenches, yellow mustard, and a hot dog bun of your choice.

Those are really all for ingredients, but.

I want to highlight that she toasted the bread in butter both sides.

Okay, that makes a huge world of a difference.

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

Brilliantly done. I feel like a celebrity chef. I mean, what do you call it? The person that judges them?

Back to your story, let's go back to the legacy. Sorry to sidetrack with the parents and you think I'm still in the new mom trying to figure out ray and Jesus, I don't raise a monster. But back to your mom's story. Your dad's been gone for a while. Your mom, I'm assuming, pays off the debts, gets some good graces. How many restaurants does she have at this point?

Excuse me?

So mom eventually had an opportunity that was presented to her to buy, to sell her to high volume in slightly more la I'm sorry, in slightly wider areas Clover City adjacent and then about a mile or so away on what was then Rodeo and Los Librea, sell those to higher volume restaurants and buy restaurants in Compton and Lynnwood area.

And she decided to do that. So in nineteen ninety five.

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

But I'm just curious, why was why was it important for them to say give up these two.

For for those two because that was the finances of the deal. Those two restaurants were worth about the same as these other five.

Oh it was two for five?

Correct?

Oh okay, okay, that's that's okay, that's where I got lost.

Sorry, No, what's going on? I'm sorry, and I may have missmoken. I'm sorry. So she's so too for five?

Yes, Oh, well go ahead, mama, be it be.

A boss.

That sounds like a good deal. Okay, so she did.

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

And like when she came home and said, you got to do a ship? Did you ever have to do a ship to McDonald's.

She never required us to work in the restaurant. I did choose to work there the summer between tenth and eleventh grade, and I was apparently pretty slow and you know, kind of a mess. But you know, I did it. I wanted to earn some extra cash, and so I did. But she never even asked us to come in and take over the business. She was very much like, I got this and I'm cool and if you're ever interested, sure, But she never pushed us. And that's a big part of what I talk about in my book, which is

It's not an act of desperation. For example, now.

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

For me, Like I knew early on, McDonald's was not from me, or I believed obviously, And I also had a passion for I knew that I would be a good lawyer, Like that's what I really wanted to do in my heart. So I did, and I was successful at it, and I loved it. I really really enjoyed being a lawyer. And so for me, you know. And so I say that to say, I'm having my you know, going to law school, having my legal career. Mom is steadily growing. So by the time I fast forward to

So your sister did choose to go directly into McDonald's.

Now, she also had a ten plus year career in social work.

Oh so she went to mama's old Yes okay, okay, yes, okay, okay.

So she she did.

She graduated from her master's program in ninety four and then didn't join mom until two thousand and three.

Okay, And did both you guys join at the same time.

No, two thousand and three and twenty thirteen, ten years.

Old day, So did did your sister start planning little seeds of come joy?

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

But Thanksgiving and talking about McDonald's over the turkey? Can we just eat the turkey?

And they ever beef at all? Like then it's over McDonald's.

No, No, I know, sorry, but I know that would have been an exciting story.

But well, knowing your family, y'all wasn't talking about emotions anywhere.

We weren't and I mean, trust me, what we weren't. There's no beef with Patricia, Like you don't beef with her?

Oh that's you.

You, yes, you roll with what Patricia is doing or you hit the road you know, so it wasn't no room for Beethan.

So how many McDonald's did your sister and your mother before.

You before thirteen thirteen? Now the ad twenty one? Right?

Yes?

Wow? Okay, so so you joined the squad? Now are they receptive to you or are they like.

Girlfriend, we don't tell you what it's done, and if you don't listen, we told you.

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

That's actually great.

It was.

It was a great asset to the scene, the biggest asset.

Yeah, you are walking in there like, oh guess what? No, So first on day one, like everybody else, I started on fries. Everybody else day.

One, the attorney. So I started on fries.

I was a senior director at twenty for our finis. I had responsibility for half of the United States.

Okay, on Friday and then on Monday, I was working the fries.

I'm sorry, I can I say this? Well, why we gotta.

Do you like that?

Why they had to do you like?

Is that?

Like? Do you think that's a black people think? Do you think what they did was right?

Do you?

Because it's hilarious.

Let me tell you why it matters and why I would not have done it any differently because it was literally fries.

I went through all the stations.

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

But they were really put you through all that.

I I got there at four in the morning and did prep. You DoD have no attitude. I worked over night. No, I did all the things.

No cursing out, no hang ups. Come on, now, what could I say?

I don't know nothing.

But you worked there when you was a.

Teenager, like fifteen years before that.

Can me tell you something?

Okay, sidebar, Okay, guys, I worked at McDonald's was my first job. Okay, that job is hard, Okay, French fries, the burgers, the little cheese, the egg that comes out of the carton, all that shit was hard. I burned myself on the thing, flat oven thing. The cashier job was hard. There was not one position in McDonald's that was not hard. By the time I was done with McDonald's, I was permanently banned because I was a prankster, had a big.

Mouth that I couldn't even order food.

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

L L on fries. At your level, that's dope of you to like.

Take it as a badge of honor and brag about the fact that you had to start at the French fries.

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

Going, oh, by the way, Neo has two.

Yeah, lots of people have Jeff Bezos, Amazon or McDonald's.

Damn, you sound like a McDonald's commercial.

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

You doing snickers jokes, nothing.

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

Who respects the boss's kid?

Who get.

Of course they did. They knew.

How could they not.

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

Like you look girls get together.

I love her. She is now one of our key areas. She's been promoted since then. She's amazing. Okay, yeah, so okay, you sound.

Like a good good So I told the most hated job at McDonald's because I got to hear something negative.

What's the job you hate.

The most, the hardest.

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

Oh yeah, I've seen that the other day.

That was crazy, So imagine and what I didn't realize until I.

Had to do it breakfast time.

So your drive through was full of people, A large coffee, three sugars, one cream, do you want it on the side?

Okay?

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

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

If there's a lawsuitent in fast suit, it' McDonald's Because we're the biggest, we're the target.

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

Is it?

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

I knew it.

I told, let me just.

Tell you something, nothing, nothing more. Okay, I am Jewish and j maake. I'm gonna repeat it a hundred times over.

Okay.

Nothing bothers me more than people that are sucky at finance.

I had friends. I got rich friends, stupid rich like yo, yo, can you hear me on that side of the house.

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

Are you in your car? You would go to the seven eleven ralfs? What do we even talk?

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

Okay.

If you wasn't with me, girl would have been like, can I get a little plastic cup with the ice?

Okay? Just know your presence earned that seven dollars. Okay, But it baffles me that soda.

I thought it was your coffee that was the most proffee is up there too, okay, okay. And then since we hear at it, okay, uh. The when you go on the app, they have the dollar forty nine line fries, which by the way, is Jesus on wheels, okay, because I mean we all know if you eat beef, it's the big mac in my opinion, But it's the French fries all day. I don't know what kind of crack you put in the salt.

None, no crack.

Oh sorry, goshould have even said that.

Sorry, no cracking the fries.

No cracking the fries. Sorry. The fries is so damn good. I don't know. It's the size, the shape.

Even when you.

Try to buy the imitation frozen fries at the store, they.

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

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

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

I'm like, they got me.

But I try not to drink sweet beverage, so I try to avoid it. But I will admit it's always the dollar forty nine fries. But my daughter never eats the nuggets, never eats anything else. So now every once in a while, when I'm trying to force her there, I will do the happy meal and enjoy a high Sea Orange. And by the way, you guys added the high Sea Orange with the vanilla and Da Da da flavors. But I did want to say, back in the day when I used to do the drinks at McDonald's, they

Those little machines.

They pre you push a button, they put the ice in, and they put the drink in. At least that's what they tell me when I put too much ice.

Man.

Yeah, but that's just the that's just the cold. That's just soft drinks. We have a lot of different drinks that we sell. We do Frappe's, we do or We would also do the mcflurries, which is not a drink, but shakes. We do coffee, we do ice coffee, we do tea, we do orange juice. Like, there's a lot of different drinks there. That machine, Yes, it's helpful, but even all the other the drinks are a machine assisted.

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

Being disrespectful to our people and putting them down.

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

To how people to handle your food?

People?

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

Anyway.

Did you hit him with, yeah, that's why I'm on twenty one of these bitches. No, that would have been me. I would have been on one.

Okay, did you I roll? Because you knew it?

Did you?

He was like, you have no idea?

You have no idea.

I just smiled and said, thank you, sir, have a nice day because I have enough education and I'm not stupid.

I do that.

You handled it like that. I know that was your your secret inner confidence, like.

Right, okay, okay, So and people, you know what, you would be shocked. What angers people.

They that they can't be heard through the headset and so they so our people may say, I'm sorry, can you repeat that?

I already said it, you know, you know, and people and I mean.

Not just like you have like a McDonald's just that sounds sorry, I'm sorry.

Why are we doing this to McDonald's.

I want it so nice.

I want to hear more.

You know, Let's say our people are human, we make a mistake on in order. Usually, Let's say we gave them strawberry jelly instead of grape jelly.

You know, I didn't want this f jam. They'll come, they'll throw it at people.

I mean, people get mad about what I consider very small things.

Do we want to get it right every time? Yes, we always want to be perfect.

That's kind of saying.

It's really unfortunate like that people feel and they feel like they can just say.

And do anything to our people.

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

What do you How do you guys handle those situations?

Depends on how they handle it, So we our position is you definitely have the right to have feelings.

If you need to go in the walk in.

Refrigerator and scream and be mad and yell, you're welcome to do that, but you can't at the same time disrespect a customer back. That's not what we're able to do. We can't allow you to do that, but you can remove yourself from the situation. We can remove the customer from the restaurant. We'll call the police if we need to. So we're certainly not like, go out there and subject yourself to insanity. Walk away, call a manager, get support, go to the back. Don't engage, Yeah, because it's the

When I worked at McDonald's, I used to steal the chicken nuggets.

I don't know why I confess that. I'll confess it because I want to know Carrie.

I have to know you and McDonald's. It's late got a little hungry in you. What you take it to eat from McDonald's.

Secretly nothing. You cannot steal the food. I mean, like, okay, okay, you want to if you want to restate the question.

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

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

The next Do you ever add the Big Mac sauster with?

Though, Oh it's the ketchup and mustard, delicious mustard. You even brought the ketchup? You know what?

As I got older, You're right, the double cheeseburger is hidden. But I've never I don't think ever ordered the double cheeseburd without the Big maxauce.

Okay, that's fair. Big people do love that. I have people.

I have a friend of mine, a dear friend of mine, and as a Christmas give one time, I gave him a container of Big Max sauce.

You can I be on that list? Can I please be on that list?

Hey?

And you know what I didn't do. I did not sneak it out. I actually paid for it.

You could buy it in containers.

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

Sickly, but you know, like a sick feeling is like this is good and bad. I get to say this.

I'm enjoying this. Mech professional, Okay, it's lovely.

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

I ain't gonna lie.

It takes a lot to give me irritating, but I usually pay for everything with card. Everything like now that they have the phone on the wallet and the key on the wallet on the phone, yes, forget it. Even though it takes forever to open your car with a little app, I'll stand out there for that minute if it means I don't have to carry a bag or a Purson wallet. But I will pay for everything with a card. And nothing irritates me more than you want

I'm gonna be honest to say, we very specifically don't do that in our restaurant.

Oh twenty one McDonald's. Right there, you just set yourself apart. Twenty one McDonald's in California. Do not charge you to twenty five cent feet. I'm telling you right now, you just gained the whole fan base because I know there's other people that can really relate to that sit Do you know what I'm talking about?

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

Yeah?

They should not be. And so if you do get charged, call me or call my office.

Call her office.

She's trackable now because she got a book. Yall, she got a book, The Family Seeker out.

Check it out.

I want to check it out.

One last.

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

Does it not?

Does it irritate at least you?

It is frustrating and oftentimes in outrage, I'll just say no, and then I'll hobble out.

I'm glad to hear you say that twenty one McDonald's that she will hobble out.

That for I will hobble. I'm pretty sure I just did a target yesterday.

I thought you were gonna say I always carry my bag.

No, I mean I.

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

Attorney, that's the attorney in her is gonna be good.

Guys, you better go out there and get it, because, uh, because it ain't nothing. So now you're you all you since joining on, you've.

Added what is that?

Seven?

Six seven?

What's thirteen? Those twenty one minus thirteen eighty eight? Yes, eight more McDonald's been added to the to the legacy.

How does that feel?

Do you?

How does it feel?

You know?

What's I mean?

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

I was a part of those decisions.

The fact that we felt comfortable growing is because we felt able as a sister partnership to take this on.

We've now built a team.

We are the doo that the director of operations that my mother had has retired, Nicole and I hired our.

New Do you know what does that mean?

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

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

The latter.

Sometimes I forget which restaurants Nicole owns and which ones I own, But we do own them all separately, one hundred percent each. So I own one hundred percent of the interest in all of my restaurants and she owns one hundred percent of the interest in her restaurants.

And then what your mom, Well, my mom is retired.

So did you guys split the ones that she one hundred percent?

We did?

I love that you said the best line of all of this, the jay Z of all lines, the best line I heard of all this shit. Just now, Sorry for cursing.

I respect you so much.

Is I forget which restaurants I own? I can't even remember which one she own? We be forgetting all the time.

That's the best. Do you know that's a boss line right there?

You could wear that I forget which restaurants I own should be on a shirt.

That's how connected we are. We are one organization.

Either that or that's just how boss you are.

I'll take that too.

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

Know, an asshole? There is no typical day.

But what I will say is we spend Our goal is to create situations where the people in our restaurants are so successful they don't need for us to be there. If I am working Fries, literally something has gone catastrophically wrong, right, So for us, most of my working days are going to be in the office. We have an office HQ and Carson.

Is it like your own officers? Like McDonald's And I'm trying to.

Know it's just us.

The front of it says way because we've gone through a lot of changes.

Williams.

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

There's artwork that used to be in the home she owned.

It's not valuable, but it's meaningful to our family, and so I'm trying to transform that space to be something beautiful. So most of my days I spend in my office where we do have an administrative team, and where we have a training room and then a conference room where we'll do you know, meetings of depending on the size of the meeting. And we also so the way that McDonald's is set up is that there are a lot

I almost cost you that way, Okay, Yeah, I knew some people that could have bumped into you that way.

Yeah.

So I might be working with one of our advertising agencies to put together an event for Black History mother for you know, supporting a local community organization doing a PR activation in an African American consumer market restaurant. So we're both in a lot of leadership. So I pretty much travel about two weeks out of the month to different meetings. A lot of our meetings are in Chicago, which is where McDonald's headquarters is. But I'm not going

Yeah, when you're gone for a week, it's like the whole week.

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

What is the worst hat or you've ever worn as a McDonald's.

Everything, the worst hat? Okay, I'll say this.

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

Feel like my opinions are having an impact.

So I was on a team that met pretty regularly and we were supposed to be deciding things as it related to our restaurants, and I felt very frustrated because I didn't feel like I was being impactful and that the thing that I had to say, which I felt were pretty right, were valued and being taken into consideration. I was on that team for probably about two years, and then I had to get off that team because I can't be in any space.

I get that I have to be there.

I'm into paying my dues or as you can see, I believe paying my dues, listening and learning, but at a certain point, I'm transferring from learning to contributing, and I need to be an actual contributor. And I know that I have good thoughts and ideas, and if they're not being received consistently, not all of them, but consistently those ideas are not being received or listened to, I have to get out of that space. So that's probably been my most difficult McDonald's experience.

When you explain to McDonald's situation, it almost feels like because when I think of a McDonald's franchisee owner, I think, okay, you well, I know McDonald's headquarters owns like the land.

Right most of the time, well, the vast majority of Sometimes they lease spaces.

Oh okay, okay, they'll you're about to say we own some of the property.

No, that would be amazing.

Not quite No, we're specifically not allowed to do that.

But when you talk about you being on this National Black and she's on this field, I'm yes, I'm not

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

We need your help in this way.

National Leadership of NBM away.

National Black McDonald's Owners Association.

Sorry, I'll try to say that, it's just hard to say the full time.

Well, I was just wondering.

So you report on the local level to the to the national level, and then they go to the correct So the chairs of all of the diversity groups.

There's adversity groups for all of the you know, Black Asian, Hispanic pride.

White people have women like I can't. I can't, I don't know how to.

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

Yeah, okay, it's okay.

So all of those individuals who lead our national organizations, they have they are part of a larger leadership group that meets with McDonald's leadership.

Okay, So it's.

Kind of like a voice.

And so we call ourselves three legs of the stool, franchisees, the corporation, and our vendors. Without all three of us, we can't survive if one of those legs is jacked up.

COVID, the supply chain got all jacked up. We had to figure out how to the franchise, suppliers, franchises and the corporation.

The suppliers what suppliers mean like vendors.

Basically, we just suppliers and.

Our suppliers, the.

Suppliers, franchisees, corporation.

Corporation is McDonald franchises, got.

It, Yes, So we all have to work together.

So we're organized as as franchise the organizations, and then we always have corporate counterparts pardon me, that we work with in order to try to figure out issues in the system because we own ninety five percent of the restaurants, so we know the field better than anybody else. The corporation has, you know, over they're the franchise or so they have ultimate deciding power and a lot of different things.

I can tell why McDonald's is successful off this conversation. It's very well structured. It sounds very sound, very systematic. Shout outs to McDonald's.

My actual.

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

I have to ask this.

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

No?

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

Guy that won that one.

He was like twenty seven at the time, So did you You don't know about that.

The only thing I honestly know.

I do know that their price point to entry is lower than if you're a what's called a registered applicant for McDonald's. I also know that a part of that is because their profit sharing model is different, although I don't know the details of THEIRS. I had a friend who applied to be a chick franchise e and it didn't work out for her, so I didn't I thought that it was just a similar application process. I've never known anything about a lottery or anything.

So I don't.

Yeah, I heard it's like you have to work in there. You enter the lottery from like being an employee, and then once you're pets then you.

Have to follow the steps or whatever.

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

We got to surpass you.

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

Race, The first step is to make sure that you are financially.

Clean. Is your credit good check? Do you have a history of saving?

Yes?

Do you have a pretty success substantial liquid amount of savings at your disposal?

I mean I have a house equity equity? Okay, got like a lot of equity. Okay, that's great. Okay, start there. That's number one.

Two. Are you as an individual cool?

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

But don't you have how do you get into You don't have to work at.

McDonald's, not before you apply? No, what about Hamburger University? How does that work?

You get to Hamburg University when you're ready to become a general manager.

It's our general manager training class.

But if you say you say you have a girl, you got me excited.

Yeah.

But wait, okay, so I got like a Okay, I got an a y like.

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

What else did you say I need it?

Criminal record?

No criminal record except for stealing like nuggets when I was sixteen, But ain never been.

A record, So that's no record.

You're honest that I have a lot of integrity. Yeah, I admit to my you miss doings.

Clearly.

I stole candy. I'm gonna say it. I stole candy for me and my siblings. Okay, I admitted to it because I.

Got caught and I didn't snitch on my siblings. My parents did, I swear to God.

Jamaican mother, Jewish father. Who's afraid of the Jamaican mother.

She said, take her butt to the police. They took me to police station, They took me to the store. I had to apologize.

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

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

No?

No, okay, anyways, thank you so much.

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

Difranctly sure, some.

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

Of your family.

And you're also going to get some information, really truthfully about what it means to put your family first. One of my favorite chapters in the book is chapter eighteen, which is called The House Always Wins. And in that chapter, I talk about what it means to make sure that no matter what, at the end of the day, your family and your family relationships come first, and I talk about how you can make sure that you do that. So that's kind of a brief snapshot of the family secrets.

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

And I will tell you the feedback that I get most often is I loved the family stories that you told, because all in here is background history and quite honestly inspiration relating to my mom's story, relating to my sister and I how we kind of came in. And then I also interviewed several other family businesses to find out their secretcy success because it's not just our secret, but there are things that are common to businesses that anyone can really take into account.

So people love the story. There's a lot of story.

Look at this, it says, know when the only solution is vulnerable communication. This book sounds amazing just looking at the chapters. And right now you can read it, but very soon it will be on audio for all your audio listeners. I am super grateful. I promise you you could read text between my group chats. I was over the hill when I found out I was gonna get this interview. I've been bragging to everybody in name Mama about this interview. So I am thankful for your vulnerability.

I'm thankful to know that if eating Wall Broke don't work out, you know, you never know.

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

A little backstory.

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

You know, and she, you know, Carrie didn't cancel. She didn't.

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

And I really appreciate that you came out.

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

Thank you, and hopefully we go see you at every other podcast on The Black Effect.

All Right, peace out, y'all, Thanks for tuning in. Bye for more Eating while Broke from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.