- [Voiceover] Production
funding for this program is made possible in part by
the WKNO Production Fund, the WKNO Endowment Fund, and by viewers like
you, thank you. (upbeat music) - We call it the American dream. But something that
makes our nation great is the freedom to think big,
work hard, and achieve success regardless of social class
or circumstances at birth. We're joined by someone that
embodies the American dream. He was a janitor who
spoke little English, who now is an executive
that's been recognized as one of the most influential
Hispanics in corporate America. He turned an idea and a craving
into a flaming hot product. Today he leads Multicultural
Sales and Community Activation for Pepsi North America and
is their top Latino Executive. His book is titled "A Boy,
A Burrito, And A Cookie" and is now time to hear
the flaming hot story from the man himself
Richard Montanez. Greatly appreciate you
being here Richard. And let's start with
something to me that you have earned your PhD, but you've
done it a different way. It's poor, hungry,
and determined. And I love that analogy
that you use in terms of using your history, your
experience, as educating and where you are today. So let's start with the
poor, hungry, and determined. Give us a little bit of
your background, your story. - Well, first of all, it's
a pleasure to be here. I love Memphis. I think I was here
a couple years ago and it was my
first time visiting and I fell in love
with the area. I think the people here
are some of the most friendliest people
I've ever met. And I get to say that
because I travel the country. I get to meet people
in different cities. But a little bit
about my background is I come from an area
in southern California where my community everyone
there picked grapes. It was kind of like
a farm labor camp but we didn't have to move
like a lot of other people did. We kind of stayed
in the same area. Cause everyone picked grapes. It was a Wine Industry. - [Park] It was literally
out your back yard right? - Yeah, it was my backyard. And if you know a little
bit about Wine Industry it's kinda year around. You gotta prune, you
gotta some of the work. So that's kind of my background. And you know, I don't
have too many regrets, but the one thing that
I do regret is that I never received a
formal education. I quit school at a
very very young age. I don't really like
to tell people, because I'm still a firm
believer in education. I like to tell people,
"Look how far I got "without an education,
just imagine "how far you can get
with an education." So I'm a firm believer, if
you can get it go get it. But I'm also a firm believer
that if you can't get it it's still okay, you're
still gonna be successful because there are some
things that you learn from your community,
your culture, the grandma's,
and the grandpa's, and the aunts and the
uncles, the wisdom. But sometimes you just
gotta take the time just to listen. So I was teaching an
MBA class one time, and it's ironic because
I don't have a degree. And I've always said this, I
don't care what room you're in, there's always somebody
in the room who's gonna try to steal you destiny. And your job is to make
sure that doesn't happen. So here's a gentlemen myself, never finished high school,
teaching an MBA class. And one of the students asked me "Where did you get your degree? "All my professors
have degrees." And I said "University
of Kookamunga." The young man says
"Where's that?" I said "Never mind, private
school, you couldn't get in." So I went back to started
teaching again, the same class. The gentleman asked
another question, he says "Well wait a minute, "all my teachers
professors has PhD's." And that's when I
realized and I told him, I looked him straight and I said "Look I have a PhD, I've been
poor, hungry, and determined." And I think when you've
experienced those three things there's a lot of wisdom. Because when you've been poor,
there's so much innovation that comes out of that. When you've been hungry you're
no longer afraid of anything. And that's kinda
where I got my PhD, is just from being hungry
and having to work. - [Park] Life experiences. - Life experiences, and
I think a lot of times young students today
don't have those abilities to sit down with,
you know how we say "Sit down with your grandpa." Maybe he wasn't
he CEO something, but listen to her stories,
his stories whatever, because there's a wealth
of information in there. They overcame through
some tough times from generations that
they've done some things. And I always find it
fascinating when I can find someone who's older than
me and wants to talk me. I'll just sit there
and listen to em. And you never
know, somebody says "Where do you get your ideas?" I said "By listening to people." You know, people will
say things and they don't even understand what they said. But I'm the type of individual,
I'm a great listener. I can hear, and
I've made a fortune out of just listening to people. - [Park] And paying attention,
and seeing, and watching. And so I wanna back up
a little bit because you witnessed diversity
at a very young age. So mention, you didn't
speak much English and you were riding
the green bus to school because you were
being integrated into an English speaking school. And that was a big, obviously
obstacle in your life. And one of the things
that your mom did, and this gets into the story,
especially with the burrito. The first day of school, I
want you to tell the story, but you're showing up where
every other kids has a sandwich you have packed in
your lunch a burrito. Describe what that was like. But really most importantly,
the lesson learned, because the next day your mom
gives you not one, but two. - Well you know, that
was an interesting time. I was a young boy during the Civil Rights
Movement of the 60s. Now what I like to tell
people is that I wasn't old enough to have an
impact on the movement. But I was old enough that the
movement had an impact on me. And here's how the story goes. We're in a one room apartment and my mom's getting
me ready for school. Because I was being
bussed from my school to an all English speaking
school across town. And I remember I'm crying because I don't
wanna go to school. My mom says "Why not?" And I said "Because
everybody speaks English. "It's not fair for me I
can't speak a word."-- - This was before
bilignual, no translators. - That's the other thing,
I'm glad you brought that up. Is people forget is
that during my days there were no bilingual classes. If you wanted your license
you needed to know English. It was pretty difficult,
it was different. It was really different. So my uncle takes
me to the corner, and here comes the yellow bus. And then there goes
the yellow bus. I'm kinda happy and
telling my uncle, "I guess they're not
gonna stop for us." There was about
10 of us waiting. Then all of a sudden we
hear this big pop and bang and we see this green bus
coming up the hill smoking. That's the bus they sent for us. And I remember I told my uncle, it's like it happened yesterday. That's why I say, sometimes
you gotta go back. You know, so you can catch
some of those wisdoms and some of those things
that happened to you. I'm telling my uncle
"Why can't I ride "the yellow bus like
the other kids?" And he has no explanation. "I don't know, this is the
bus that they sent for ya." You know Jeremy, it
wasn't til I was an adult, that I finally realized why
they sent that green bus. And it was society
at the time saying that this group of children. This group of 10,
they're not good enough to ride the yellow bus. Let's put them on a green
bus, parade them across town, so that the whole town
can see that because of who they are, they're
not good enough to ride. And as a young boy
I took that hard. Cause you have to understand, I didn't know what
diversity was. I didn't know what
discrimination was. I didn't know what race was. But one thing that I did
know, and I knew my color. So for me it was like
"Oh, dark skin is kinda "like a second class citizen." That's all I knew. Oh okay, so I began
to take that on. I'm not good enough
for the yellow bus. So we get to school,
I don't understand a word the teacher's saying. But I always said this,
"If there's one sound "that's international, that
every child knows that sound, "that's the sound
of the recess bell." - [Park] Recess, that's right. Or lunch. - Lunch, as a matter
of fact it was lunch. So it was lunchtime,
so it was all a relief. And my group, we got our lunches and we sat outside and
I pulled my lunch out. I was getting ready
to take a bite, and I put it back. I put it back because
everybody in that whole playground was staring at me. And the reason they
were staring at me, because it was a burrito. And what people need to
understand that this was 1963, the world hadn't
seen a burrito yet. - [Paul] Right. - Contrary to popular belief
Taco Bell didn't introduce the burrito to the
world, me and my mom did. (Park laughs) - But the fact is,
I was embarrassed. So I went home and I
told my mom in Spanish, I said you know, "Make
me a bologna sandwich "and a cupcake like
the other kids, "because I don't
wanna be different." And I told my mom, "Why do I
have to ride the green bus? "Why do I have to be this color? "Why do I have to
speak this language? "Why do I have to eat this food? "I wanna fit in
like everyone else." But my mom, I've always said
she's a marketing genius. She said "No, this
is who you are." And that was Wednesday when
I was bussed to that school. So Wednesday was my
burrito nightmare. Thursday she made
me two burrito's. And she said
"Here's one for you, "and here's one to
share with a friend." So I went to school,
shared a burrito with a friend on Thursday. Friday I was selling burrito's
for 25 cents a piece. - And thus the
entrepreneurialism kicks in. - That's when I realized
that even at a young age that you know what, maybe just maybe, there is something special
about being different. And I finally realized
Jeremy that none of us were created to fit in. We were all created
to stand out. And I think that's what we
need to teach our young people. Is quit trying to fit in,
because it's never gonna happen. Because you weren't
created to fit in. You were created to stand out. So for me, that
became a revelation that led to a
revolution of my life. I knew that "Okay, I'm
different but it's okay." And I really started
to fall in love with my culture and who I was. - Well there's so many
great stories in this book. There's one where
you're standing in line and it's primarily
for the white children but they were
passing out cookies. And you're hungry, and
you say "You know what, "I'm gonna stand in this
line and see what happens." And amazingly the women that
are passing out the cookies treat you no different
than anybody else. And they give you the cookies. And when you fast forward,
you know that starts teaching you those lessons
of overcoming fear and using your God given
talent to be different. But also too, your work ethic. And one of the things
that stands out to me is you took great pride
in being the janitor and that was a big
accomplishment for
you and your family. Is getting the janitorial
job at Frito-Lay. Which ultimately kinda
became the catalyst to everything we're
gonna talk about. But give us an idea
when you talk about just work ethic and taking
pride in the little things, why that was so
important to you. - You know, that's why I'm
saying it's good to hangout with people that
are older than you. Different generations so see what it was like
during their time. It may help you it may not,
but it's always interesting. So my mentors were my
dad and my grandfather. Now, they didn't
mentor me in academics or how to write a check,
they had no bank accounts. What they mentored me
in how to work hard. How to be the first one. Never to be on
time, to be early. I've never been late. I have this thing, I'd rather be an hour early than
five minutes late. Well I gained that from them. But I didn't realize
also, another thing, that that would separate me. Cause when I was first
hired as a janitor I remember I went and
told my grandfather and my dad at the same time. And both of them said
"When you mop that floor, "you make sure that it shines. "That people will know
that a Montanez mopped it." Then my dad said, "You
listen to your grandfather. "When you mop that floor, let
people know that a Montanez." So I took that on, I
really believed that in my heart I was gonna
be the best janitor that Frito-Lay ever had. I took out the trash,
I mopped the floors. But I saw that I had an
influence as a janitor. People were smiling. Because they'd walk
into the break room and it smelled fresh. Well I can make people
smile just by working hard. And I remember, cause
there's always doubters. And I like to tell young people,
stay away from the haters. People said "Well
what do you do?" I said "I'm the janitor. "Oh you're just the janitor?" "And I said, you know what, "there's no such thing
as just the janitor." There's not such thing
as just the waiter. There's no such thing as just, when you believe in your heart that you're gonna be the best. And I believed in my heart. And people were taking
that and our floors shined. - But that also too
led to opportunities because people start
realizing, "Wait a second, "that guy is good
at what he does. "He takes notice, he takes care. "The floors are shining." But what happened is
you started paying attention to other things. And so when there were
inventory problems, when there was food
that they thought "Hey wait a second, this
might be too much waste." Who did they ask for advice? You. - Yes, and I've
said this before. There's so many statements
out there that are incorrect. And one of them I'd
like to correct, and the statement is that "You get promoted
by who you know." And that's not true. You get promoted
by who knows you. Who knows of you, who
knows your work ethic, who knows that
they can trust you? You can say you know
the CEO of the company but if he doesn't
know you you'll never get that opportunity. - [Paul] And trust you. - And trust you. But see I didn't realize that. I was just being me. I was just happy, I
just wanted everything that I could get out
of life in my area. So when the time did come
when they were having problems I started to learn
my whole industry whether it was my job or not. I would hang out with the
guy that ran the machines. I would hang out with the
guy that cooked the product and I'd say "Teach me this." And I was just having fun. And for me, if you come from. You know, going back
to the thing you said about the cookies, and
let me share that story. Cause I think
it'll help everyone to understand exactly
why I wasn't afraid. A lot of it was being naive. A lot of it was not
knowing the playing rules. If you don't know the, you just play the way
you think you can. But you know, every
Tuesday they had after school reading programs. And one was here
for the Latino kids and one for the non-Latino. So I would get in every Tuesday in the line that I
was told to get in. And one day I broke ranks. And I got in the white line. And you should of
seen my own line. Intentionally or
unintentionally they were saying "Ricardo, (speaks Spanish). "Richard you're crazy, "you're in the
- [Park] Yeah, what're "the wrong line.
- [Park] you doing? "This is our line." And when I got in this
line, I was really, I had a lot of fear. Because all the white
kids turned around and were like "Hey." They were saying what
they were taught. "Their line's over there." Nothing mean, just like "Hey,
you're in the wrong line." You know how kids do it. And then I thought,
"Well you know what, "I wonder if I can
pass for being white?" There was two beautiful ladies
up there in the trailers. I remember a blonde
with blue eyes. And I kept thinking "Are
they're gonna notice "that I'm not white?" And really I had a fear
that was unbelievable. But I had something inside of me that was greater than that fear. And when my friends were
saying "What are you doing?" I just looked at them and I
whispered in a loud way said, "They have cookies inside. "I'm gonna get us some cookies." And the truth is, why
did I get in that line? Why did I, cause sometimes
you gotta break rank. You gotta get out of that line
you were told to get into. Because I was hungry. And I knew they had, I
just wanted a cookie. I was hungry. And as much fear as I had, my hunger was
greater than my fear. And that's why I
tell people today, if you're hungry
for that promotion, if you're hungry
for that degree, if you're hungry to run for
an office fear will lead. - [Park] Right. - And when I got up there,
guess what those two ladies did? They filled my
pockets with cookies. Well there's two
morals of that story. One is hunger is the
antidote to fear. If you're hungry,
you'll never fear again. The other part of
that story is that everyone needs to understand,
and I mean everyone needs to understand
that there's a cookie that's been baked just for you. Your job is to get
out of that line that you were told to get into
and get into the cookie line. For many of us it means a get
out of the uneducated line into the educated, the poverty
line into prosperity line. And that's why my
success has been beyond my wildest dreams. I really didn't know any better. All I had was "I'm hungry." - And you are not
afraid to go ahead and take advantage
of an opportunity. And that leads us to me, where
this is the flaming hot part, but the flaming Hot Cheetos. And so to me it's kind of funny, but a CEO's typically
put out the edict "We want everyone to be
an owner in this company, "and take control and
every idea matters." And that's what happened. The CEO put out a video and said "We want everyone
to take ownership." And you saw that
as an opportunity and said "You know what,
here's a chance for me "to have an idea
and to share it." And so share the story,
because when you look at the Flaming Hot
Cheetos, it comes from you noticing, so back to being
a listener, being a noticer. But noticing that
there were corn vendors that were putting
spices on the corn. - Well I'm glad that
you mentioned you know, that my CEO at the time
had sent out a video. That was the communication
during the time. The technology, sent a video. He told everyone there,
across the country, actually across the world. I think 300,000 plus
employees at the time. "We want all of you
to act like owners." And you gotta understand, that ws such a bold
statement because that was during when
Corporate America was in command and control. Corporate America had not yet
heard the word empowerment, let alone individuals. So he was basically saying "I empower you to
act like an owner." Here's another
thought for me was "Wow, is he telling the truth?" He's inviting the janitor
to act like an owner. And so many people it just, I said "Didn't you hear
what he just said"? "He said we could
all act like owners." So I went into action, I
started researching my company. And then I asked the
salesman if I could go with him on a weekend. I said "I'll load
your truck up." So I went to the stores with him and I loaded the
Frito-Lay products. And just had a great,
learning the business, whatever I could. And I always say, "All you need
is," and I said it earlier. "All you need is
one revelation." One revelation will lead to
a revolution in your life. And what is a revelation? It's simply this, it's something
that was there all along. It's just been unveiled to you. It's like this water's
been here for an hour. But if it was hiding and
I unveiled it to you. You didn't know it was there but it's been
there all the time. So you just need
that one revelation and I was looking and this
was many many years ago. And I saw... And here's what I saw. I saw no products that
were catering to Latinos or to the person
who loves spices. It's all pretty much salt
and maybe barbecue flavored. No one was selling spicy
flavored or anything hot. So I'm like that was it. And I even looked at
the salesman next to me and I'm thinking like
"Don't you see what I see? "You're here everyday." - [Park] I'm connecting
these dots, come on now. - So he took me
home and I remember I went home and I
sat on our porch and we have the old fashioned
steps you know concrete. So I'm sitting there
and in my neighborhood, and a lot of Latino
neighborhoods like mine that I grew up in. Well something that is
called the Elote Man. It's a vendor, it's
called the Corn Man. And he sells corn on a stick
and he puts mayonnaise, butter, cheese, however
you want it, lime, chili. And I remember I whistled
and I said "Let me have two." You know one for my son here. And I said yeah with
everything of course. So I'm eating and I'm
thinking "What could I do? "What could I create?" And then I looked at that, and
it looked just like a Cheeto. And it was just
like that Jeremy. I thought-- - [Park] There it is. - What if I put
chili on a Cheeto? So I went to work. I actually made up my own
seasoning and all that. Put it on an unseasoned Cheeto. My wife took some to
work, I took some to work, and everybody fell
in love with that. And the next thing you
know I called the CEO. - And that's the funny thing is you call the CEO as the janitor. And the secretary
at the time is like "So what division do you run?" And you're like "No,
I'm the janitor." But this you know, she
forwarded you to the CEO. The CEO picked up
the phone himself and said "Hey, I'll be
there in two weeks right?" - Absolutely, and again
that goes back to, that's why I like to. When I speak I like
to teach young people, go back to your childhood. Go back to what you thought
was bad in your life, was actually something good. So I knew that I was different
because of my burrito day. I also had courage because I
was hungry for my cookie day. So being innovative
and full of courage plus I was naive. I didn't know you were
supposed to call the CEO. Well let's find out if
he's telling the truth. So I call up and his Executive
Assistant was just that. She was an Executive Assistant. Cause she saw it right away. And she started saying
"What division do you run?" Because he's a CEO,
only another president or vice president
would call him. I said "No, I work
in California." "Like General manager
of California? "No, I work at the
Rancho Cucamonga plant." She's like "You're
the plant Director?" I said "No." She's "What are you? "I'm the janitor. "Oh, hang on." CEO gets on 10
minutes later he says "I'll be there in two weeks." And hung up the phone. And like I've always said,
there's always somebody in the room that'll
try to steal your. So I hadn't really
know what I've done. Here come the Plant Manager-- - Cause you had broken
protocol by calling the CEO. - Yeah, and I still don't know. I can't even spell protocol
let alone understand. So here he comes
and he's so upset. And I don't understand
what he's upset. He just said "You
realize what you've done? "The CEO he's coming
and he's bringing "everybody with
him to hear you." He goes "You do
the presentation." I've never done a presentation. I wouldn't even
know where to start. But I remember, you know, I'm married to a
brilliant woman. I've always said, when
you're in trouble, go to the wife, go to the
mom, go to the grandma. A woman has the answer. - Well she helped you
basically put together the marketing plan
and everything else. And when you look at it I mean, you've completely revolutionized
the snack industry. I mean Flaming Hot Cheetos, if you ask anyone,
especially with kids. Flaming Hot Cheetos
is the go to snack. And so you've completely
revolutionized that. The one thing I
do wanna touch on is because we're
running short on time is you never forgot
where you came from. And so you yourself now,
providing scholarships, education, food drives,
clothing drives. All for you hometown
in your area. And so give us one
kind of little teaser, 1 Light is a non-profit that
you and your family run. And it's all focused
on giving back. Give us one proud
moment when you look where you are today, because
of not only your story, about Flaming Hot Cheetos and everything
you're accomplishing. Give us one success story
that makes you proud when you look at the
philanthropic side of what you're doing. - Well you know, when
we have an event, again, what makes me
proud is that it's my three sons, five
grandkids, my wife, two daughter in laws,
and handful of friends. And 5,000 people
show up at my events. We feed everybody lunch. We have a big stage,
we have a sound system, we have a warehouse
full of toys. We give every family
a box of groceries. And what I'm proud
about is that, cause again, I know
what it is to be hungry. The box groceries
is enough groceries to feed a family
of four for a week. When you open my groceries
it's not gonna be a can that has no label on it. I've said this, "If it's
not good enough for my kids, "then I'm not gonna
give it to those kids." It's gotta be just as,
sometimes even better. So when we're on stage
and my grandkids, that's our legacy. Is I know when I look
in the mirror that my success is for a reason. And that reason, with success
comes a responsibility. And that responsibility
is to your fellow man. And I tell people,
other people who've been financially successful. "How big does your house have
to be before you give back?" So my proudest
moment is when people say "For Christmas we give
away 2,000 unwrapped toys." Every kid that comes get
a brand new pair of shoes. I give away bikes,
scholarships, you name it. It's just unbelievable. It"s like going to Disneyland
and everything is free. And people, the question, was once asked to me. Is "Why do you do this?" This is what I love
with a passion. Because I can. You know how good that feels? That you reach a point in your
life that you can give back. But again, I think other
Executives, other people who've been very very
fortunate need to understand. And I think a lot of
them are coming around. They realize when they
look at their bank account there's a reason there's
that much in there. Is part of it is
to give it away. - [Park] That's right. And that's to me why
I love you so much. Is not only everything
you've accomplished with your legacy on the
business front, but most importantly on
the philanthropic front. So make sure
everyone, the book is "A boy, A Burrito,
And A Cookie." Pick up the book,
share Richard's story. Greatly appreciate
you coming on the show and sharing your amazing story. - [Richard] Thank you Jeremy, always a pleasure
to be with you. - [Park] Good job Richard.
00:26:13.872,00:00:00.000
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