How A Janitor Making $3/Hr Created The Multi-Billion Dollar “Hot Cheetos” Empire! (Richard Montanez)

should one Tonya's creative hot cheetos and one - nephew [Music] [Music] hey guys welcome to this episode of the passionate few today I'm gonna be interviewing one of the highest-ranking executives in North America none other than mr. Richard Martinez but you guys might know him as the famous janitor who went on to invent hot cheetos to become the multi multi-million dollar empire that it is today so mr. wonton yes thank you for being on the show today Yoshi ledger yes so first question I got to ask you what's it like to go from being a janitor with no necessarily formal education to being the founder of one of the most viable heiped products on the planet as hot cheetos frito-lay what's that feel like well I can tell you that it's it's an incredible feeling it's really hard to explain but it's also a difficult one because you have to understand you know being a janitor without an education I really didn't have any business mentors so there was times where I made a fool of myself mm-hmm and I looked ridiculous so many times I went home crying to my wife it was my inspiration like hey I did it again yeah till the truth is one day you know I realize it in order to achieve your greatness you've got to be willing to look ridiculous and I began to use that in my favor so I got away from being afraid of looking foolish I don't think if you're afraid of looking foolish you're never gonna accomplish anything great I think that's the first thing you got to get over with get over yourself maybe you don't look the part maybe you don't look like everyone else but it doesn't matter and I realize that I mean there was time that I could stories I could after story I can tell you that you know I mean one day I'm you know mopping floors next day I'm you know in the executive suite you know one day I you know I've never been on a plane next day I'm on a private jet and I know one time I heard you speaking you said that you literally believed that part of your life was a miracle because one day you're mopping floors the next day I think you were having dinner with the Obamas is that correct President Obama and his wife you're invited for like a big dinner or something well I mean wasn't it wasn't Obama but we had one of the first things after you know creating hot cheetos I got invited to the White House you know and it was a White House dinner you know I did have you know dinner with the Obamas me and my wife his last year before he you know he left and that was a great experience but you know we've had lunch or dinner with every US president since that day you know you know we've been invited several times you know it just opened up so many different opportunities but again you know you don't know how to talk to a president you don't know how to talk to a senator you don't especially when you're just been mopping floors you know your whole career you know so there were some things that I said but I realized that people love the honesty people love you they don't want to see this outer person or this fake person so I'd never tried to fake my way you know I don't agree with you know you know people may disagree with me but I don't agree when people say fake it till you make it mm-hmm you know I've never you know been 1/2 degree on that you know I've always said you know learn it so you can earn it you know understand what you're doing and I did that you know even though I didn't know everything I went out and you know I watched other leaders what are they dressed I watch are they what are they talk and I picked the ones that I wanted to act like yeah you know you made your own mashup in there yeah you know put it on put a package together and this is what you get that's why sometimes I don't match yeah but you feel good about it yeah okay so take us back to how this all started so where did you grow up what was your childhood like give us some of that background appreciate that question and you know and those are for me emotional questions because it takes me to a place that my head inside and I finally realize another thing that I realized and I like to teach young people this that sometimes you've got to go back to your path to find your future and that's how it happened with me you know is I went back to when I was a little kid actually in this area is area called kawaski California which was one of the biggest wine producing areas in the country you know people don't realize it was bigger than Apple Valley yeah and I believe you grew up there right in the vineyards you were you would pick grapes and suppose yeah you know what my grandfather picked grace my dad picked grapes and I picked a little grapes and we lived we lived and it was a like an apartment complex they were one-room apartments and it you know in a row and then the kitchens were a community kitchens like a restaurant it was across from the apartments so there'd be a big stoves there a bunch of refrigerators and then the the bathroom and the showers were like the high school they were away so every morning I had breakfast with several different families you know and never realized I was poor until somebody said while you were poor and I'm like yeah I was poor but this might not make sense it was a fun kind of pour right yeah you know we never lacked anything so and you make the best of it growing up you don't know the context other than your household growing up yeah yeah I think if you have the basic you know food clothing and you know roof over your head you know you can be happy right and I think that's why one of the reasons I'm happy because you know I have you know many possessions but I was happy before I got those possessions hmm and you know we're on possessions you know I also want to remind people that you know sometimes people will say you know possessions don't make you happy money doesn't make you happy and I like to tell people would you stop saying that let us find out you know because many times people who say that don't have any possessions nor do they want you to have possessions but there's nothing wrong with having possession there's nothing wrong with having money you can do a lot of good things anyways you know you know I've picked grapes I quit school you know I hate telling people what what grade but I quit school at a young age and uh would you be willing to share it what like what level of schooling you quit out or well I'd say the the highest level that I have is a fourth grade education Wow dad even went to high school I couldn't you know when I started at frito-lay I couldn't read it right my wife actually filled out the application for me I was 18 1976 1976 you started for your way yeah I was 18 this is 40 years ago so your wife she's my girlfriend then we got married after I got hired at field house so she got to see the whole story play out what the truth is the interview should be about her you know cuz she's the one that she's my motivation and my inspiration and continued to push it you know you know we've been together you know over 40 years Wow how did you guys meet I she was friends with my older sister uh-huh and I just as soon as I saw her I knew that was she was for me well for some reason when I was growing up as a little kid yeah I wanted a girlfriend named Judy you know yeah and her name was Judy oh man yeah yeah she was gorgeous man that's the girl for me so I just you know that was started dating her and you know yeah you know we hit it off and now you know we raised uh three three men you know five grandkids we have a foundation been together over 40 years and young people say like well you've been together longer than I've been alive and they ask how do you how do you still argue how do you do it and say I'll tell you what we still argue but my wife told me years ago she made it clear Richard I was with you when you had nothing I'm not leaving now yeah we have a good time very cool and then so she was supportive when you start working at frito-lay a team filled out the application for you said yeah okay and then you get the job right away yeah I got the job and you have to remember in those days I think I was at the my job paid like two dollars and ten cents an hour Wow so when this came you know the it was gonna double that yeah remember we're still in the center I was gonna make three books like 450 or something which was yeah you know for me was great so you know filled out the application and I remember the guy the HR manager said well you can start tonight and with the graveyard shift and I went home told my grandfather and my dad hey I got the job and it was just like you know I just graduated from the University you know like wow a real job a decent job you know with benefits I've made it you know I'm no longer gonna have to you know pick grapes or do those thing not that there's anything wrong with that but for me I wanted I wanted more you know so I want to take a step forward yeah and I remember my grandfather said what are you gonna do and I said on the janitor and he said you know when you mop that floor you make sure that it's shine that people will know that a month anya's mopped it then my dad said listen to your grandpa you know that I took that on that when I when I started working at the planet mopping the floor to keep in mind a huge warehouse that I had to mop I literally would hear my grandfather and I would like mopped out the floor and I'd make it shine cuz I wanted people to ask yeah it was so shiny that people were saying hey who cleaned the restroom it smells good in here and you know who mopped the floors shyness a new janitor and I realized too that old you know Bible verses says you know if you're faithful in the little things they'll make you ruler over big things and I've said that many times is you can't be great until you become good you know be good at what you're doing and then you'll go some people want to skip that good they want to be great well you're not even good at mopping the floor mm-hmm you know you're not even good at taking out that that was my job yeah and I remember friends would you because you always got to watch out for the haters and yours I remember friends I was so happy and I got the job well what are you janitor like oh you're just the janitor and I said this you know what there's no such thing as just a janitor when you believe in your heart that you're gonna be the best janitor in the world there's no such thing no such thing as just a waiter bus driver valet any of those jobs if you believe in your heart that you're gonna be the best and I and I believe that today you know I mean there's no such thing as just anything and at that time did you have that mindset or was that a mind so you developed later it was coming you know during that time I didn't realize that you know I would be using that you know you know throughout my leadership abilities but it was there was like no because I guess you know growing up the way you grow up you know hard and you know I grew up like you know I'm Latino right so right you know everything that our parents taught us was work hard do it right the first time and you take those things that you learned at home you know out into whatever you're gonna do and you realize it wow these things are just as good at getting a college degree ya know for me you know I don't have a college but I teach at universities across the country so yeah and now you've gotten to speak all over the world and share your stories with people that's incredible now do you think that working as Jenna at that time your plan was to just move up in the company or what you're just grateful you have a job what was your mindset at the time of what you wanted your life to professional life to be like you know I I had no dreams mm-hmm whatsoever I was not a dreamer my dad and my grandpa we're not dreamers they were good good man but they didn't have time to dream because you got to remember in those days they were too busy trying to put food on the table right so then the dream was what are we gonna eat tonight is there food so I grew up with that mentality I didn't really have a you know a dream to be a doctor to be a businessman I didn't have a dream to I didn't want to be rich mm-hm you know what I wanted to be was happy mm-hmm so I never saw you know I would see you know people you know other men in suits and careers and they were so far from me that I couldn't even get myself to dream about that right because again as a kid I was never taught to dream so even like it'd be embarrassing if I said hey I'm gonna be somebody in a tie hey I want to be a manager I want to be a director I want to be a vice president was it was too almost like awkward yeah it was so far-fetched yeah so I didn't have those dreams you know just but I did wanted to be happy yeah now what do you think about what you would tell what what would your 18 year old self who sarah's janitor if you would have known that you would be where you're at today one of the most powerful executives in North America what would that 18 year old say looking at you now I think that 18-year old probably wouldn't believe it first of all like yeah you know because again the way that we grew up and and you know none of that formal education that I think it you know it's needed there's a place for it you know but you know looking back you know when I was an 18 year old you know as I said before there's the things that I did a lot of things wrong I did a lot of things that I regret you know some people say you know you should never have regrets I have a lot of regrets you know and they and they're in that age group you know coming up until you know until I began to mature mm-hmm you know for me I was I would say that I was a hard worker mm-hmm you know but I was immature mm-hmm you know and then one day my wife helped me to you know Sharon Judy yeah Judy did you know and one day it just it just clicked yeah I just started acting completely different yeah it just made it I started dreaming a lot of it I know there's she was at home praying you know you know we're spiritual so we believe in praying absolutely and I know that she was telling God God give Richard wisdom because he doesn't have any he could use some right now yeah and like a miracle yeah this wisdom began to just fall upon me you know and I like to tell people I'm probably the most uneducated brilliant person you will ever meet you know but I've learned that and so 18 you know 19 were you know rough years for us for sure yeah you know we were trying to find ourselves you know was she working as well at the time already yeah she was working I don't remember where she was worried but she had you know odd jobs at the warehouse and she's a you know he works man you know you know even now you know she doesn't have a job that she goes to but you know taking care of me is full-time job and yeah also you know she helps run our you know our charity so she's you know probably works more now than she ever has you know but there would suck the earth for us you know we didn't go back and you know decide you know do we pay the gas bill today or do we pay the water bill you know do we pay the electricity tomorrow you know just you know not knowing how we were gonna do it tomorrow and I'd like to tell people you know I was uh recycling aluminum cans but it wasn't because I cared about the environment mm-hmm I needed the money right you know and this was at that time at that 19 year old age yeah you know so then you were working there trying to make ends meet and trying to keep it together 18 19 and then at how at what point I guess did the hot cheetos thing come up because I know that there was some stir about Cheetos having an issue with some of their sales and the idea came to you or what's the famous what happened was frito-lay was you know going through a few struggles and I'm talking about the whole division mm-hmm so and you see the okay man who became my best friend and just sent out the video because that was a communication in those days you know you either got a memo or a video you know there was no email there was no whatever so that was the technology so he sent out a video and they shut down all the plants across the country and that video he talked about empowerment mm-hmm and this is the first time I ever heard that word empowerment you know and he said I want everyone in the company to act like an owner mm-hmm and I'm sitting in the back with about 500 you know front line employees in it and I and I grab it I'm sick do you guys realize what he just said mm-hmm he's giving everybody the opportunity to act like an owner regardless of what rank or what level you're at and I'm thinking his does he mean it for the janitor to get a say in this as well so I'm like well let's find out he sees the CEO so that moved me into action you know that word empowerment you know and again you have to keep in mind this was gonna set you know well when he took over it was in the 80s and corporate America had hadn't really understood what empowerment was you know some companies today still own you know what empowerment right yeah so were you at this time I was in my 20s so you worked there from 1819 all the way in your 20s and then you see that video about empowerment yeah yeah I was in my mid-twenties I think it was something like that and that's when a spark was lit yeah well I said you know what can I do to act like an owner I didn't really know what our business was I know that we made [ __ ] but I didn't you know so I I'll ask the salesman if I could go with him on my day off mm-hmm and the salesman said sure you know I mean it was free labor for him I was load the truck and he said come meet me at 5:00 in the morning and I met him at 5:00 in the morning we went to the stores and he taught me how to fill up the rags how to take the order you know and I was learning and I've said this before you know and I believed it strong and I think every young person needs to understand in life all you need is one revelation to create a revolution and I didn't know that then but I was about to get the biggest revelation of my life that was going to create the biggest revolution in my life but the revolution and my company that was going to lead to a revolution in the industry hmm so I like to say you know and I get excited about this I like to say that yes I changed corporate America and people were saying you're so full of yourself I am you know because I know what I did and I think that's something that we have to teach young people too so I revolutionized how you see corporate America today it's not the same it was 20 30 years ago this little Mexican had a big part in it what he thinks the biggest contribution to it do you think that you've revolutionized or what's what's the biggest difference that you think you've made well I think when you know how I got that revelation as I was looking and I saw all these spices and then I looked at our products and like we didn't really have a lot of spices so that was a revelation create something with spices for those who enjoy you know everybody loves spices today yeah you know I mean especially you especially enjoy it yeah you know you know so that's what we decided to do and then again here comes another revelry I didn't know what to do I just like okay I gotta make something mm-hmm I didn't know what that was you know what that would look like whatever you but I'm sitting in my old house and you know there comes he he looked at man and I bye and he looked and he puts them chili on it the cheese and everything this is the truth remember one revelation what is the revelation something that was always there but it's been revealed to you so I took a bite and when I looked at it was like this looks like a Cheeto what if I put chili on a cheeto a crazy ridiculous idea what are you doing yes I wanted told my wife hey we got to make some some special chili so I went to the plant and got some Cheetos with no cheese on it took him home and me and my wife you know we worked on a recipe we tried this we tried that we finally got it down she took something to work I took some to work everybody loved it Wow so now Richard you got a call to CEO this is great well keep in mind you don't call the CEO right you know I didn't know any better that's something sometimes you've got to be willing you know to do the things that you're not sure of and at the time you were a janitor during this time mm-hmm so you're doing all this as a janitor thinking about it like a marker thinking about it like a businessman and you're a janitor not even taking into consideration that there's any limitation you're just going for that revelation Wow because I believed the CEO I believed the seal when he said you are empowered this is a warning and a blessing to every CEO in America don't tell your people that they are empowered if you yourself don't believe it because once somebody gets going it's too hard to stop them and I don't know who said this but somebody said once the man's mind has been stretched it never returns to its original form so many times CEOs have gotten in trouble because they you're empowered and all of a sudden you know the employees don't feel empowered that's something you know if you don't believe it don't say it mm-hmm if you do believe it allow them the opportunity well this CEO was challenged himself so yeah what was his name Roger Enrico Roger Marie he just passed away and he used my mentor and just one of the greatest marketers in the world of all time you know and but I know it was also a challenge for him you know because he threw that out and then here somebody was taking him serious it's just like you know sometimes I think leaders will say hey you're empowered and all the managers know that but for you guys we're just kidding because we need this to be out there that this organization is empowered acts like this yeah and that happens today you know for PR purposes and whatever you know so it's like you know calls them up and that was in itself incredible experience because again I didn't know you weren't supposed to call him yeah you just you just found his number well in those days they had phone books you know yeah today it's email right yeah but in the old days he had company phone books okay yeah if you wanted director in Kansas or whatever you'd find that a CEO CEO frito-lay yeah so CEO frito his numbers just right there yeah it's tinier you call yeah you know when you're the CEO of the company only another president of the division would call you right so until mr. Martinez came into the picture yeah you know so his executive assistant who was that an executive assistant she knew something because she said you know who I and I said Richard one thing she said well what region do you run I said I work in California she's are you the president of California i said no i work in southern california oh you're the SoCal vice president I said no I work in the plant she was always the vice president of operations I said no I work inside the plant this is true and she said you're the plant manager and I said no and she said what I said on the janitor mm-hmm and she's sitting hang on and talked to the WoW CEO and he said you know I heard you got an idea for Gant ooh tell him I didn't really know how to hallmark I just began to tell him from my heart what I saw what I daaad and said okay I'll be there in two weeks hung up the phone just like that hung up the phone and I was like floating like I did it he's coming to see me you know but I've always said this and young people need to be prepared for this I said I don't care what room you're in it's always somebody in that room is gonna try to steal your destiny mm-hmm as soon as I hung up I didn't realize the protocol that had just broken so they started doing the phone calls the president called the division president called division vice president called all the way down to the plant manager who is this Richard who let the janitor call the CEO yeah so the plant manager comes running looking for me and tells me starts yelling at me like who do you think you are you know you realize what you've done you know everybody's coming you know and I didn't know he goes you're doing a presentation and I remember I thought man I've never even done homework how am I gonna do a presentation yeah I go home I went to the CEO frito-lay yeah you know with the chief marking officer chief financial officer everyone was there and when Owen told my wife and my children he I've been trouble you know and thought of what happened you know her strength you know their the leadership of a woman is just so powerful incredible you know I mean people don't know you know follow a woman man you know woman we'll get you there a woman will protect you a woman they'll teach you there and I've learned that from my grandma my mom and my wife I'll take a leader over me any day you know so she said you know calm down you know we just go library and we'll check out a book on how to develop a marketing strategy so what's a library chick calm she calmed you down just like that woman yeah that's why I've said you know we have to understand that brilliance isn't a diploma on the wall not to take anything away right but it isn't every every child is born as a genius over the course of the year it begins to die out because the world began to tell people that you're not you're not your creativity just because somebody doesn't see my creativity doesn't should never be the factor in why I'm stopping you know and my wife has always been brilliant you know so we we actually copied like three or five paragraphs mm-hmm and we put them on transparencies you remember that was the technology of the day right put them on transparency I went and I bought my first tie for I should have wore it today for three dollars and fifty cents not this time oh yeah my first time three dollars and fifty cents my neighbor made it in a knot the night before also is ready to go in the morning I just put not a tie not what color was a tie it was black with blue and red stripes what skinny tie you still have it I still have it wow that's incredible have a picture they'll show it to you later yeah so you wear the tie you're ready to go in the morning yeah and Judy irons the clothes I'm sure yeah my wife telling me hey you know what there's nobody better than you you know you're the man of this house go get what belongs to us don't forget who you are I don't forget your letter I was just like wow you know yeah they could take your movie so we we got there and you know it was a large room and you know maybe a 100 150 people but every senior executive in the company was there because remember this is there's a big business when corporate America was still command and control you know you had to be there were you nervous at the time oh yeah I was you know I couldn't tell you how scared I was you know I know older year the time I was 26 yeah so you're going in there 26 and then Judy comes with you no no she's but she prepared everything and and you guys made the Cheetos is that correct you guys made samples yeah actually what I did is I made a hundred bags and I put up my bought some kind of like industrial zip logs mm-hmm and I'm a little bit of an artist not much but I drew my own graphic so and when I sealed you know I sealed them how and this is why I say we're ingenuity yeah I used the iron ah I put him on an ironing board I just can't at a certain temperature I mean it took me a while to get that temperature right through but once I hit a certain temperature it's sealed oh when you looked at it looked like a bag that was you could bind a market so yeah you know I had it I had it looking like it was ready to go so I made about 100 bags yeah and we let him out on the table people were walking and saying well I didn't know we were going to market with these they couldn't tell the difference and then the actual Cheetos themselves did you and your wife actually have like hand roll them or did you have somebody at the plant do that putting chili I mean what was your guys process to actually get I got the Cheadle's before any seasoning went on got it and I'm for the cheese so we had our guys shoot and because I worked at the plant I could see how the process was so what I did is I used you know the because you got to remember our research and development organization our food technology or scientists mm-hmm so they do everything scientifically right well I took all that did it scientifically get away yeah you know I would style you know did it have any money in it it tasted great so what did you guys use for the chili in the first samples sorry I keep asking I just really want to know what those first executives tasted when they got the idea for you I mean well that that's a question I can't answer because that's a and the reason I can't answer because that's my wife's secret recipe that she first made gosh and she still makes some of the best salsa you know I get you some you know and I may go into the salsa business and I know from the minds of hot cheetos yeah yeah so that was that was her you know my job was selling her job was really you know recipe you know all that stuff and you know because what there was a different process this tastes good that tastes good yeah you know but that's why I would like to tell people you know we're from the hood but I tell people you know good things come from the hood man sometimes you got to let your hood nough scum out right yeah I know it's like well that's pretty good or well but ghetto made me rich man yeah ghetto rich everyone yeah capitalize on what you have yeah so so then you go in you do the pitch you take the Cheetos and there's 150 people in the room give or take yeah and you go up there and then you speak alone or what's the setup room you know they introduce me and like again every executive you know from headquarters at that level was there and I remember I walked up and again it was the transparencies and you know those are kind of difficult you know you gotta just you know I had it upside down of looking at the lots upside down yeah you turn the light on right and I'm the janitor I don't know how to do presentation yeah and did you practice the night before with your wife speaking points or no practice so you pitched hot cheetos to the executives and the CEO free to lay with no practice no practice you know I'd let me put it to spread up somebody say why didn't you practice that wasn't smart enough to practice yeah I practiced what I didn't know well you should be ready oh I didn't know anything you know I didn't know self-help books that anybody said read this or yeah and there's you know I don't believe in seven steps to success right and not put in this book you know what success I don't know you tell me you know if you're happy you're successful right yeah do whatever does and not for me was just like let's just roll yeah you know and the plant manager didn't help you out at all no one bit how does that plant manager feel now I don't even know if he's around when it's kind of funny that you know eivol ranked so many that people that doubted you and we're not worn believers in I think that's also another testament that you got to believe in your people mm-hmm because some day you know they may outrank you and that's a good thing as a mentor you know your job is to develop people that they become better than you you know a lot of people can't do that you know but anyway so there we were I was scared I finally got it and I began to do it and guess what I was doing a presentation it was going great it was just it was just flowing you know I just read that and then one of them one of the marketing executives said I have a question then talk about fear I literally almost fainted I don't know if you've ever had that type of fear where you're you're like a hot flash yeah questions we don't have time Judy didn't tell me anything about this wasn't in the book yeah yeah just like so he said was just once a simple question and I remember it's like it happened a few minutes ago yeah this is Wow 30 years ago and he said so Richard looks like a great idea but how much mark is sure when talking about mm-hmm and I remember the first thing I thought was market share we haven't read that chapter yet mm-hmm yeah the first thing I thought I got the market share and I almost fainted and there was a door and I said you know what this is what I was thinking mmm I'm gonna run out that door you know after all I'm just a janitor you know that's how scared I was and you have to imagine when as I said earlier there's always somebody in the room it's gonna try to steal your destiny I don't care what room you're in mm-hmm always somebody in that room and you have to be ready for that and I didn't know any better I was just like you know like that dear that's gonna get run over that rabbit like oh my god everybody's looking at me and as scared as I was there was something inside of me that was greater than my fear and people say what is this and I said this is the antidote to fear get this and you know ever be afraid again I was hungry mmm as ridiculous as I look as foolish as I felt my hunger were greater mmm and I'm gonna just go with I'm hungry because I'm hungry for a different lifestyle hungry for a change in my life I'm hungry I want to do something different I'm hungry I want to be somebody different I'm hungry I don't want to be the same person and some people say well you got you should never change who you are that's not true yeah I didn't want to be that person no more I wanted to be I like Who I am today you know and sometimes changing is also releasing right what is you're supposed to be I love that yeah so it's growing yeah yes judging yourself granny capability yeah I remember and this is why we say that many times greatness comes in a ridiculous form mm-hmm so I thought about it market share I don't know what that is how do you explain market share of course I know what market shares today yeah but back then you're talking to an uneducated janitor I don't know LaMarcus Shariat and but I remember going to the stores with that salesman hmm and the racks are called gondolas mm-hmm you know and I remember well the gondolas this big and this big and I remember with the most ridiculous smile I got it I said this much market share and I believed it this is market share I was so happy I got the Atlas much market share I could hear from the marketers and the executives in the room know whispers like oh god did he just say that yeah I could hear the poor guys I could eat I don't know why they're saying that yes I'm answering your question how much market [ __ ] this much but I'm hearing like yeah oh my god did he really just say that yeah yeah and then not realizing what I just said right and then the CEO stood up and said ladies and gentlemen do you realize that we had the opportunity to go after that much market share Wow that ridiculous statement made me a legend but here's part of the story it's not just the story of the Jeep the janitor it's the story of the CEO who looked beyond see this is what I like to tell people when people saw what I was he saw what I would become mmm when other people saw a janitor he looked in he saw a billion-dollar idea he saw a high-level executive he saw somebody that was going to change so many different things and I think that's what we have to do when we look at people is what do you see your and it goes back a lot to you know with the Bible when King David I'm still when everyone saw a shepherd boy that's all King one of the greatest Kings over you know it's my favorite story and that's kind of how it came into existence hot cheetos after that you know my world changed like I said one revelation will lead to a revolution I created a revolution and you can see just as well as I have the revolution that hot cheetos has created in the food industry mm-hmm hot cheetos on hamburgers on sushi macaroni and huh I mean you name it you know and for me that's a great joy to see you know there's a restaurant that's gonna be opening up it's just gonna be you know selling hot cheetos you know there's just and I love the fact that so many people are making money off my product I love that fact yeah no heck no there's enough for everybody my pockets are full more so why not allow other people that's that's how you stimulate the economy mm-hmm you know when we get these business leaders to start opening some doors here's what I've always said and and I think you know I say a lot to young people because I know that the base that I love talking to is that you know many times people will say you know I'm not in competition mm-hmm you know and but that's not true you are in competition but you have to understand this you know you go to war with an enemy mmm you compete with people friends neighbors if you're trying to sell that house you're competing with a lot of other real estate agents if you're trying to close that deal you're competing with a lot of other people you know the competition is real you know but it's amongst friends it's not going to war and I've said this that you know in business you should never treat it as a sports because in sports there's one winner yeah business there's many winners mmm we could put a deal together you and I were none of us lose that we're both enough I've said this in order for me to win you don't have to lose right you know and I think that's what I love you know teaching these young people and that's what happened is hot cheetos just opened up to changing the world absolutely yeah you could say it doesn't well you know go back 20 years ago there it wasn't you know only the people they cheated were Latinos yeah in East LA you know now it's it's everywhere you know that's incredible and then after that first that that event would CEO believed in you and everybody started believing in you how long from then until they tested it in actual markets was it pretty instant couple months no it took it took about it took about six months mm-hmm which is actually pretty good process for a big company yeah and the whole time when they loved the idea you you're freaking out that this happened right like oh yeah you can't even believe this is real yeah I'm just like wow what the heck and I'm trying to learn you know they're the busines you know I'm trying to act like a marketer okay you belong here you know like you know fit in and all that stuff I'm trying to dress different you know changing my I'm trying to talk differently you know making up words I'm you know starting to read now you know I mean for you know for 30 years you know I read a book a week yeah you know it's incredible I have an elaborate library you know and you know I wrote my first book I'm working on my second book you know a boy of Rita on a cookie correct yes name of your first video so I write motivational letters they go out to a couple hundred thousand people you know once a quarter so you know I've turned from not being able to read and write that I considered myself a pretty good writer you know communicator yeah you know so that's incredible and then when you go home from that event and you tell Judy is she just over the moon about the whole thing that it went wow what was her reaction when you go yeah she was like you know I knew you could do it it's just you know and she's always been like this is just the beginning yes is just the beginning she's put so much in my head it's unbelievable this is the only you're just experiencing this and everything that she's she's like a prophet you know cuz everything she's told me has come the path yeah she said you're gonna do all she she told me one day she goes you're gonna stand before kings you're gonna stand before a great man people are gonna seek your wisdom on I'm like you know but why why would anybody seek out the wisdom of fourth grade you know who's a janitor but I learned that you know wisdom is completely different than something that you get an education as I said before brilliance is in a degree on the wall and it came to pass in 2003 you know I spoke at a session at the United Nations you know I've had one-on-ones with some of the top CEOs in the world yeah seeking my my advice you know I won't give you their name just to protect their privacy you know and I teaches some of the best universities you know you know people want to pay me big dollars to get on my calendar absolutely you know and all that came to path you know all because you know I decided to be who I was supposed to be and that's why I encourage you know all the young people to just you know what just go for it man if it's looking ridiculous in you can't get beyond ridiculous you're never gonna be great mmm I like that if you can't get beyond ridiculous you can never be great I like that I like that and then when the hot cheetos went to test market a couple months later six or seven months later did they do well right away I know they put them in test markets right only in Latin dominant areas because the yeah they're in test market in East LA mm-hmm and there's a certain number that you know because we're a big organization I can't give you that number but there's a certain you know million multi-million dollar number that we need to hit and we don't hit that number or scratch it right you and I may want it right it's not big enough for for us and it didn't reach that number mmm so I got a note that hey Richard uh nice try not gonna mm-hm you know but there really wasn't a whole lot of muscle behind it because it didn't come from headquarters so it was almost like this is hard to save it's almost like there's a group of leaders an executive that really wanted it to fail mmm because it broke traditional right you know no you know smart people are paid over here you know you're kind of like just got lucky the CEO wanted to talk to somebody but it was beyond now but I learned that later yeah you know so there was a little that they kind of might have had this Cement of hey we're paid big bucks to come up with these ideas how to degenerate absolutely so when it comes out they're not going to look for ways to make it work they're kind of coming back well it didn't go so well sorry you know that's exactly what happened you know and so anyways uh talking about ingenuity mm-hmm you know what you learn from being poor what you learn from coming from the hood that's why I've always said there's so much brilliance in the hood I mean it's incredible if you just take the time to look I mean look at tattoo artists right yeah you know making thousands of dollars now it started off as taggers painting cars now somebody has you know they do speakers you know they have a 5 out of whatever you call it shine stuff like that you know manat always about this you know there's just that's why I love going and I love going into the audios I love them going into the light I really do I get so much inspiration and there's so much innovation and so much potential there yeah yeah absolutely so you know I've realized you know what I got a team of my family my boys Stephen was there Steve I'll tell you some great I should have brought Stephen here you tell you they can tell you that they remind me remember no we did it Stephen and my wife used to sell tortillas door-to-door yeah to make extra money Wow you know and money is the last thing we ever have to worry about but we did those things yeah you know so that's I realized I had to get to those markets so what I did I got a team and we would go into the markets and then I saw that hot cheetos they were a small bag there they'd only be like one or two bags right so I walk in there and we would buy those bags I was acting like a customer and I'd tell the owner cuz they were little stores all right and I mean I did good yeah and he's like no I didn't even know we had him yeah well I wanted to buy more because everybody wants sex they'd be like five of us in one store yeah because I tell my guy next week to drop off so next week he would see his salesman say hey bring that hot stuff you know there was no marketing behind it there was no whatever yeah so we would go to different stores before you know it we'd come back and there'd be a whole rack and people were just like what is this where the mouth yeah yeah we're the mouth then before you know it they had one of the biggest new product launches in the history of the company yeah you know you go to you know any store Hot Cheetos is in the top three it's either number one two or three I don't care what store it is it's gonna be you know yeah but again you know we got it to a certain place and it began to grow I began to grow and you know little by little we took off Southern California we went to the west and went to the country and then in the world and the rest is history yeah and then I started creating other products yeah you know that was this this was my first child but you know I started doing anything that you see hot right yeah cuz I know there's a flaming hot Fritos and then you guys had the asteroids for a while yeah like the bottles with the caps someone I put it I posted a thing actually for people to ask questions and someone asked one of those asteroids gonna come back I know everybody wants to know you know I get so many DMS and tags on bring asteroids back yeah you know and everyone's waiting am I gonna do that you know and the answer is yes but I don't know when okay even try to post I said you know I need two million people to ask yeah and there was a petition it was 30,000 signatures 30,000 is nothing right and I think you know the business people don't understand you know to make an asteroid and all that and go into production and do that you need a certain number of guarantees sales on a daily basis right you know and I don't have time on Instagram to explain that to everybody if you understand business truly you can't make that and can you lose money you know and so we're thinking about it mm-hmm you know and statements will be coming soon you know I'll let you be one of the first to do it you know okay very cool it's a someday you know yeah I just can't tell you when yeah so wow that's cool okay no problem we'll take that and then as far as the hot cheeto products I know that you guys stem to do it on everything right so is the flamin hot your creation is that that trademark is that what you created or how does it work with ya you've taken it to apply to other chips and stuff yeah that's uh something that we own we know we created that whole brand and you know everything but you know when people began begin to use that I'm okay with it mm-hmm you know long as they don't change it or you know do whatever you know get and do the you know certain trademark rights you know right it's okay cuz you know other companies just can't you you know right we need to have the partnership and you know but when individuals want to put them on their shirts and sell pins and you know a lot of these snack shops now are doing Hot Cheetos yeah yeah I love that you enjoy that no problem you know just just remember where it came from the only thing I asked you gotta show respect and I love when people will show me a picture of the product they created and they you know they sent it on my on my Instagram DM me and I look at the pictures that's a sign of respect yeah absolutely you know and then when it hits off in the markets I mean you're in your mid to late 20s at this time right when it starts to really pop off yeah and you're just probably just tripping out like oh my god how is this happening I was a few years ago I was mopping floors and now here I am traveling all over the country with this product that's phenomenal what's going through your head at this time were there a lot of surreal moments for you mean what was that like yeah you know I couldn't I couldn't walk into a store without going to telling everybody that that's I did that you know yeah my whole family and you know is taking pictures in there to go to every store and and that was the feeling like oh my god you know it's like I still can't believe I still can't get that feeling that I did I'm telling myself I did it but it's just so like you said so really like how did this happen didn't Judy we did this you know and I did down for a couple of years Wow and then I realized there was an awakening hmm in my leadership principle then I realized that the hot cheetos isn't the story mmm the story is the leadership opportunities they were the hot cheetos was a platform to get me out there mm-hmm so after that you know I started concentrating on what a leader was about and really that's what I found out my calling is is to you know it's leadership not so much even though I've developed so many products even don't know business I've done this this and that and yeah you name it I realized that my true calling was to develop others and I've said this you know I think when it comes to leadership and everything that that I always talk about when it comes to leadership it's it's my thoughts and many times they'll go against big names sure you know cuz sometimes I look at big names it's like huh you know he sold another book what did you do without money things like that you know but I think when it comes to leadership my principles is that you know there's three levels did at one point everyone is a pioneer somebody says you're a pioneer I said no I'm not a pioneer I was I'm not pioneering anymore and at some point you got to be come a settler see sometimes people say settlers are bad like oh you've settled but here's what pioneers do pioneers is map out new territories mm-hmm and they bring settlers and what if settlers do is they build infrastructure all right without settlers there'd be no towns it'd be no cities without settlers there'd be no apple right yeah you know steered but it was the settlers who put the infrastructure together so at some point you go from Pioneer and I settled and then you get to the point to the third level which I call the the ultimate leader and that's a purposeful leader I'm a purposeful leader and what does that is my role now is to help other leaders find their purpose mm-hmm you know and a purposeful leader it's kind of like a grandfather mm-hmm you know your children you know you may have spanked you may have had rule but your grandchildren it's none of that it's about mentoring and developing never be everything and that's what I do you know as I develop other leaders to be everything my goal for every leader that I develop and they become better leaders than me mm-hmm that's the ultimate leader that's a purposeful leader but again you got to be a pioneer at some point you become a settler and then you grow into becoming a purposeful leader so I realized that hot cheetos was my platform for all that right Wow and then at that time I know too that you probably experienced a different type of income and financial opportunity than before was that something that was hard to deal with I mean was that obviously that must have been pretty surreal but a lot of people that we interview that have these stories encounter a lot of challenges from family and friends you know people start getting word around them when money gets into the picture did you deal with any of that I mean what was that like to go from you know in your early 20s not having much and then to the later part or 20 is that being a different story I mean what was that like for you that's fun time from growing from going from poor to you know rich but it did bring yeah issues you know people who I thought were my friends were no longer my friends people thought I have changed you know and in some cases I did change but I think it was for the better mm-hmm yeah and I've said this before too and I think people need to understand that money you know wealth and riches will never change you what they do is they reveal you mmm who I was with money was who I was going to be it didn't matter I think I became a better person because I I was a bigger giver you know we started a foundation we were doing more charity work and things like that but yeah I wish you guys foundation focused on I'm just feeding people and you know helping kids with that are going to school back to school we give thousands of backpacks we buy shoes for kids that can't afford them we feed family it's kind of like going to Disneyland and everything's free you know we don't give away anything you use everything's brand-new we give away bikes sports equipment computers we do scholarships that's awesome it's just you know what we can do it's not a lot of people just my family you know as I said earlier I don't do any fundraising mm-hmm you know if somebody wants to give then that's fine but I'm not gonna give them a plaque mm-hmm because it's not about us it's a fire sir and I and I heard you know when when uh when I began to see my bank account you know I haven't checked my bank account in years mm-hmm you know I don't I don't look at my how much my bank statement anything like that yeah you know that's what you call financial freedom when somebody says how much do you got how much I don't know I don't check you know when I buy a new car somebody said you get a new good deal what does it matter I wanted a car yeah so those things do change you know you don't have to worry about those yeah but the little stuff like that yeah yeah you know but do you find that it makes life easier a lot of people you know a lot of people grow up and aspire to have a certain amount of wealth do you find that you know being at that level now that it does indeed make your life maybe not happier but a lot easier would you say that that's pretty true oh yeah it's it's it's it's can still be complicated because now you need lawyers now you need PR now you need managers and agents and you know and I have to watch certain things but the benefits still outweigh the negative you know and it's still well you know I've said this before you know if I want to be sick I'd rather be rich that's you know Singapore yeah you know if I'm gonna be depressed I'd rather be rich and depressed versus poor and depressed yeah like that the expression they say money doesn't buy you happiness but everybody wants to find out for themselves absolutely you know and I think that's true and I think we have to give people the freedom to go out and again you know you have to be careful because those who become you know envious of your success and you know will try to hold you back and sometimes you just gotta break ranks there are certain people you got to get out of your life to achieve the life that you want you know and I had to do some a lot of that you know and it hurt you know but me and my wife just you know we can't hang with the anymore because you know toxic yeah you know and even the little comments that they would say and you know I remember when I when I bought my my first house you know I went from you know my old house you know could fit into my bedroom mm-hmm you know and when we bought our house people like you know why are you buying this big old house why you know yeah very few were like wow Richard this is beautiful I really I can't remember anybody was supportive or kind about it yeah so we were kind of like timid you know it was hard for us at the very beginning like I said you know sometimes you got to break out mm-hmm you know we humbly say this that you know that we're humble and we want to stay humble but there comes a time when you got to get your ego out of the way and tell people you know what I'm a great person and I can do these things you know people were saying why don't you do it my answer was it why do you feed 100,000 people a year why'd you buy that house why'd you buy this car that's what I'd love to say because I can mmm simple as that I'm not gonna argue with anybody anymore and you have to get to that point you know as long as you're doing what you feel that God's called you to do and then yet and as I've said earlier you know with those type of finances and success comes the responsibility absolutely and I realized that my success wasn't for me it was a responsibility to my fellow man to help them whenever I could and God said to me years ago take care of my kids and I'll take care of your kids Wow and ever since then we know everything that we do for these kids out there it just comes back 100 times you know it's almost like you know the fruit never ends yeah they just keep picking just keep picking just keep picking you know if you do the right things absolutely sometimes a wall will dry up and sometimes it needs to dry up I believe you know I'm teaching a class and I think you've heard a little bit of that I'm gonna be teaching about there's gonna be coming a redistribution of wealth mm-hmm you know certain wells are going to dry up and the redistribution doesn't mean it's gone it just means it's been redistributed yeah different ways elsewhere yeah you know individuals are gonna have to line themselves up to be in position mm-hmm to be on the receiving it that's the hardest thing to get people educated on is they'll believe that it's coming but to get them to move from here to over there that's my past why I do what I do is I'm trying to educate because I said there's so much out there mm-hmm you know there's so much out there that there's enough for all of us we can all be living in that same neighborhood we could all have more than enough we can all have private jets you know we can all buy you know but those you know and for me you know giving back is what I like to be extravagant in you know I know I spent a lot of money on clothes but you know I don't I don't drive you know the million dollar cars and you know my kids tell me why don't you buy Ferrari why don't you buy a landlord I get tempted but it was like hey you get a red one get like a little red Ferrari hot cheeto yeah maybe some days off like that but you know for me you know my extravagance is in my giving mm you know we spent a fortune on uh you know shoes food and clothing things like that and what can people find out more information about your nonprofit if they want to we don't we don't it's called one light but we don't advertise it because again this is this is a family thing mm-hmm and you know people have said hey let me run it but I'm not trying to make it a national organization with a big budget nobody gets paid right everything comes out of our pocket mm-hmm you know so so we keep it low-key you know that's awesome and then how long have you guys been running the nonprofit for I think about about 14 years you guys have touched what tens of thousands of now because now we've sent food you know across the world Wow so we we fed you know thousands and I can tell you how it started it started on one one Thanksgiving is my oldest granddaughter I think you met her name's uh Lexi okay yeah yeah yeah she was five or six at the time and we just finished Thanksgiving in mm-hmm they had always my sons had always seen us me and my wife feeding the homeless no no we would make sandwiches and go out you know we're always we weren't with a church or do we just go do it on our own it's like that tell people what are you waiting for it's not the way for the government of churches go do it yeah you got some Bologna and hungry I eat it yeah and so we used to do that so my kids started doing that and started taking their children and kids and one day our Lexi said hey mom can we make leftovers sandwiches and go feed the homeless I was like man I just broke me like wow you know it's a dream come true that's my legacy absolutely yeah it's my legacy and so they did that and so the next year my daughter-in-law made uh an extra turkey just for sandwiches so we had our turkey and then they carved that up and made you know a couple of dozen sounds went out well the next year they made 12 turkeys and we had something in a park where there was a lot of homeless and we fed a couple hundred people mm-hmm the next year I went to five hundredths and then the year I think the third year we got a stage we got a sound system we started to do we started to do things we did we do back to school we've given away like 2000 backpacks out of time yeah full of school supplies we do free haircuts we feed everybody lunch we give every family a box of groceries every kid that comes and gets a brand-new pair of shoes you know we started giving away sports equipment and we saw that 5,000 people were sure and this is just my wow yeah so we had to get security we had to get premieres we had to get porta-potties and you had to get cooks barbers but I realized it was a dream come true because you know I said I didn't have any dream but I remember one dream in particular yeah when I was a kid they didn't have food stones they gave you food mm-hmm you know and I remember every Tuesday I'd go with my mom to walk in to pick up food you know and I remember they would they would just like kind of give it to you like yeah yeah like she kind of throw it at you like you're one of many and I remember that was always hurtful and I just thought that someday I'm gonna feed kids and people with dignity as a little boy Wow you know and you know 40 years later that dream comes true you know we give everybody we don't make them feel like the whole said anything we give it to him with dignity but it started because of my granddaughter and my grandkid you know and then and for other people who have children this is the best thing that you can do you know I want them to remember this is I knew this is I wanted my kids to know what hunger was without experiencing its pain mmm how do you do that is by feeding somebody who's hungry because I know what it is to be hungry I don't want my kid to know that it's painful mm-hmm but I want them to experience it in a different way so they'll know that what hunger is cuz I think it's like I said hunger is the antidote to fear mm-hmm if you're hungry you're gonna accomplish the things you want I like that yeah and it comes back full circle of what you were saying because in that room the first day you pitch hot cheetos you had that that that sort of anxiety that worry that you know life life wasn't the easiest but then your your desire to be hungry it was just so much more powerful that one the two fought the hunger one and I love that that's a good way to come around full circle yes you know you hear sometimes people that again you know careful what you leader should follow some leaders who say you know go get what you want don't worry about what he or she has I did mmm I saw people like I want what he has yeah get that yeah you know forget about you know what I'm out right now mm-hmm you know you have to you don't go for it and and it's worked for me you know I've modeled myself after you know certain key leaders you know that did I respect well I mean Jesus Christ you know I think he was the greatest marketer in the history of marketing you know here's a man who marketed his product across the world and never traveled more than 200 miles here's a marketer who you know started his thing 2,000 years ago and his product is still being marketed today yeah worldwide you know so I mean you look at his his marketing principles you know his leaders you know how he how he how he governed how he mentored how he cared about it those principles you know I don't think enough is taught on his principles mm-hmm you know his marketing strategies his business strategies you know the things that he saw how the people that he picked everyone that is picked today these are the requirements his requirements was simple will you follow me come on you know I'll get you to that point but no one wants to get people to those points anymore they want you to already be there it's impossible yeah in my days I was fortunate that I had leaders who saw something in me and helped bring that out yeah and the fact that you took action mm-hm and I think that's the thing too that a lot of people not just young people but older people feel like oh well you know I'm just this or I'm just a janitor I just work here I don't have a college education now they have all these excuses in your experience traveling all over and meeting all these people from all walks of life what have you found to be the biggest I guess crippling or limiting belief that a lot of these people have what's the biggest handicap that you see a lot of people have who want more for their life but just aren't getting it I think you know I appreciate that question because that is a that's a million-dollar question mm-hmm you know and it is it's one thing and I don't and what it is it's Eagle see when people say everybody has it Eagle I don't care how much you deny it even you yeah yeah I have Eagles but here's here's what you have to understand how the Eagle works mmm see the Eagle works when you're up on top it'll tell you you're the greatest thing when you're not and the Eagle will work when you're on the bottom telling you you're the worst thing ever when you can be on top so I think what happens is is here's what happens for me is my ego got in my way my ego said well you're just a janitor you're not good enough to you're not as good as those guys over there so you have to put your ego to the side and and that's the part that needs to be talked about more is the ego because most people think it's the ego that you're all you're all that but know what I'm talking about the Eagle works to keep you from becoming who your intended Jen be yeah so as I gone out there and I've met you know waiters and janitors it's been their ego who said it's not they're not good enough that's your ego talking you know when your ego tells you how good you are that's bad when your ego tells you that you're not good enough that's bad and you have to understand you know that you do have an eagle then once you admit it you can deal with it you know because for years my Eagle held me back my Eagle never I would never want who watching in the room now I'm the greatest thing that ever happened yeah Eagle said you'll never be the greatest thing then yeah I had to tell there you go get out of here I'm going in this room by myself because guess what when I walk into the room I'm gonna be the greatest thing because I finally realized that as individual we have the capabilities to walking into a room and controlling the environment versus allowing the environment to control us and absolutely ego that and that's what happens when you know when you don't understand and so many times you know my greatest joy it's telling the janitor story mm-hmm the waiter story because when I'm done and speaking at a gala I'll have a line of waiters waiting for me you know and to be able to do that I think that's the true leader is when I can talk to the top CEOs in the world and I can talk to the waiters you know because I see them as leaders themselves you know as equals and they feel comfortable with you because they know that you know both sides of the fence and I believe it yeah exactly whereas most CEOs or executives might think I go there you know they're not at my level I can't talk to them but with you they see something powerful because they think he was where I am now if he could do it I could do it you know and that's probably why so many people resonate with your message yeah and you know I always tell a lot of people do hey you know you're probably a whole lot smarter than I am that makes it feel better yeah you know because the days of being the smartest guy in the room are gone right you know and at old you know quote days if you're the smartest guy in the room you're in the wrong room mm-hmm you know you define those rooms were somebody smarter than you you know but to be the smartest guy in the room is what you do is you just hire the smartest people mm-hmm and what other people need to understand this could be you know offensive in one way is that intelligence is a commodity mm-hmm we can buy it that's expensive but it's you know I'm a dozen you know you can buy it wisdom isn't you know wisdom is probably the most expensive thing that you give yet you know because wisdom comes through mistakes mm-hmm you know and I think people you know that are trying to get to that next level who have failed many times need to you know file that under wisdom and it builds their confidence like you know how much wisdom yeah man look at all the things that I failed that you know I tell people you know I never I never passed a test in school in my life well never have mm-hmm but in life itself out of school I've never failed the test mmm you know and you know how it is with God I mean you get the test first in the lesson second school you get the lesson then the test how important has God been to you or your faith in God to get to where you what get to where you're at now I mean because it seems like even at the beginning you and your wife were both very spiritual do you find that that was an important role every step of the way oh yeah I think that uh God and the Bible were my educators mm-hmm you know everything that I learned you know if I were to give any man credited be maybe him you know if I were to give any book credit it'd be it would be the Bible you know his his principles you know his the encouragement and I think that's the another subject for us that you know ministers have changed the statements so bad that they've chased people away but the Bible has always been attractive to draw people and when you are explained and read it the right way it's attractive mm-hmm it brings people to it tells you that you're good enough as you are you know so many people take from the Bible especially motivational speakers and they write books based on it you know but they failed to give the true author the credit you know and I've always said be careful who you followed because it's sometimes it's just about making money you know and so you know God has been our everything you know even even today you know you know we pray a lot and everything that I movies been based on what is the next step for me he is my leader he is my general he is everything he's my CEO and as much as respect as I give my CEO believe me he's gonna get it all if he says go over here I'm gonna go over there you know if your CEO tells you to go do something you don't question it pays the bills well guess what God pays my bills yeah it's been working well so far we change it now yeah and then now you've evolved to a stage where you're not just at frito-lay right because Pepsi acquired frito-lay so your role is currently vice president in Latin markets and dealing with sales and stuff like that day-to-day what's it like being an executive versus you know your roles prior because I think a lot of people are intimidated by the thought that they too could one day become an executive or that they too could you know participate in conversations and be of value so what's been your experience seeing both ends of the fence is it is being an executive as intimidating as people aiming to be that would think it is is it not really you earn your stripes do you get what I mean yeah it's like what's been your insight what wisdom could you impart to people out there that think executives are this big intimidating thing you know when when when I was first coming up you know I always thought for me I always thought that executives didn't do anything yeah they just said yes or no and then I realize executives are some of the hardest-working people you will ever meet and I've seen different types if you go back to the beginning of my career before empowerment was introduced Corporate America was a command and control so executives were hired and groomed to be I command and I control do what I tell you to do then we come into an empowered and I think it's it's even becoming even more were leaders that have to be more inspirational so I think you know some leaders are just finding who they are you know they were the command-and-control and they're becoming more inspirational leaders and I think you know when you see that and you recognize that that it's less intimidating because you realize it well you know what that's what I like like the stuff that you do you know everything that you do you're like an executive you know at a fortune 100 company that's what an exec the way you present yourself the way you want to inspire people the smart CEO the smart companies know that that's what they want as an executive so I think the field is even greater for for young leaders than it was when you know cuz in my days I'll command control I don't know if I want to do everything that I'm told to do the way you want me to do it I don't know if I can because you had to be cutthroat you had to you know in today's world you know in most companies you should be able to call the CEO you might take a little heat but it's not is earth-shattering is when I did it it still is to some companies you know yeah but I think you know corporate America today is looking for the conceptional thinker mm-hmm you know it's no longer the truth this is no longer about the intellect if you look at corporate America and how everything was built it was built on the left side of the brain mm-hmm but everything you know we've experienced things we've experienced a revolution that the next leaders the next generation aren't going to be right side it's going to be the conceptional thinkers you know the the first our economics if you look at how this country was was built it was a first revolution was the farming mmm-hmm you know it was a revolution because we had some of the biggest farms and you know the equipment that that reveled the farming revolution in the you know 17 18th century led to the Industrial Revolution because we needed you know farming equipment tractors you know and that's where you know the the big car agencies came from thean the GES of the world came from the right Industrial Revolution that Industrial Revolution led to the technology revolution with a lakh kids and that's the cheese actually came in you know existed and if you look at that technology revolution you know it's it's primed us for you know a revolution that we've never seen which it comes from the conceptional thing all that mass has been left brain thinkers and it's even hard today for some of the leaders who are left brain because they want everybody to think the way and I really think the way they do yeah I wrote a little bit something in my book about this there's a chapter and talk about leadership I said you're either a feral or on deliverer and what does a Pharaoh Pharaoh is a leader who takes people captive to build everything in their image mmm a deliverer is someone who sets people free to be everything they were intended to be you're one of the other one I love that yeah one of the other you cannot say you're not you're either a Pharaoh or you're a deliverer and for every CEO there running a fortune 100 company they need to understand that the Farrell's are dying out and we need to delivers because the best thing that you could do is help somebody to become a Richard one ton yet to be mmm the company benefited way more than I did right I found my colleague but my calling is is beyond just you know my company right it's open it's in the meeting doors so you know it's a good time right now to be an executive session for the conceptual thinker you know don't have to be the guy that you know 2+2 you know I wanted to do the guy like what's 2+2 you know what do you want it to be yeah you know the conceptional thinker someone who can take me in too you know and I've said this to you know I'm the type the individual is that I want to see the things that other people can't see mm-hmm you know and I teach in my leadership workshops be that leader that sees the other things that people can't see everyone else can see that everyone else can see that green but when you get somebody who can see the green and there's purple in it and start pain that's the person I want to hire mm-hmm because as I said before all you need is one revelation what is the revelation something that was always there she's been revealed to you there's so many revelation waiting to come out yeah you know but you got to go into the unseen yeah you know so you need to have the eyes that can they can you know see those things and then the hunger to bring it to life absolutely I love that and then in in terms of your legacy right because now I mean it must be an incredible feeling till this day to see people eating hot cheetos all over the place right I mean what does that feel like for you when you see people you're not Cheetos in obviously I'm sure you've seen people where they don't even know you're the you're the creator of it or they don't know anything and you just kind of smile to yourself you know private victories what are those moments like you still have that does it get old I mean what's the oh you know I I love that I love you know when I'm in the grocery line and I see somebody you know we were in Malibu me and my wife and we stopped in a in a target and we were getting some some snack just something and the lady in front of me had a bag of hot cheetos and she opened that she was pregnant and she opened the bag and she was eating while they were but she was I can't when she looked at me and she was I apologize but I'm sorry I can't I can't wait I love these things and they're my favorite snack and I couldn't resist yeah you know I said you don't have to apologize I'm the creator and she's like she just don't like what what do you mean yeah you know she want to take a photo and Digger I love that you know yeah I really do you know because it brings it brings the happiness and joy and here's the other thing too and to think that people once doubted you right yeah and then now moments like that I mean how does that that must be just incredible feeling it's an incredible silly but what I remind people is and you know everything I did I never did anything to prove anyone wrong I never did anything to shut the doubters I did everything for one thing by - The Hunger alone hunger was my motivation getting back to you wasn't showing you that you were wrong and they feel good now that wasn't my motivation my motivation was strictly hunger and the other thing that I want to say about hot cheetos to go with this question because I started getting followers who had and this is you know very very emotional but I started to get followers that had children with cancer mm-hmm and I didn't know this but you know when they go through chemo they lose their appetite mmm and and doctors found that hot cheetos would help them with that so parents will buy their kids hot cheetos and I started to get tons of messages thank you God bless you for come like what so for me that's incredible it ended there yeah if if there wasn't anything else that was you know in a couple I went to visit you know I bought him a case of Cheetos and I bought them but they would show me the you know the pictures you know and it was just so interesting how doctors discovered that the hot spices helped stimulate the appetite yeah so it was it was good for them so that was like you know such a joy to see that you know and I think when you look at a god idea mmm you don't know how big it is if somebody said it's just like hot cheetos you know you just did there's no such thing as just anything is right huge you know you yeah you know you opens up so many doors and you know I mean so you know I still love it and I can relate to that too because even though like with our show my the reason that that revelation came in to me to interview people to a younger audience you know it started out as a passion project I had no idea that I I literally get messages almost every single day from people in different countries that listen to the show that were inspired and so it's I can kind of relate to you on a micro level in that I had no idea just like you had no idea that the chips would help people dealing with cancer you know and you would have messages from all over the world or people in mind I know exactly what you mean about acting upon something that just feels powerful inside and the magnitude of it that you can't even imagine and so it's it's amazing to hear that from you in terms of legacy what do you hope when people remember the story of Richard Montaigne is past present and future what do you want people to take away from your legacy you know I'm not what would I tell people talk about my legacy a lot and you know if you look up with the word legacy you know it's it's a word that you know in the 16th century was used you know in contracts it was associated with the gala teas with legal word oh it was you know and the truth was a legacy was something that today it's something that you will mm-hmm but a legacy you know the word actually meant something that you gave so for me a legacy a legacy isn't something that I leave a legacy is something that I give and if you look at you know some of the two greatest men that I've admired is you know dr. King and says so Chavez you know dr. King didn't leave a legacy he gave a legacy he gave his life the same thing with sesor Chavez is these men were givers they you know and that's what I want to be remembered in my legacy is that I gave because the day that I'm gone people will forget who created hot cheetos but that little girl who comes to my event and we bought new tennis shoes and a backpack she will never forget mmm no matter how old she'll be a grandma herself and she'll remember remember that family that came that's my legacy my grandchildren who are now helping you know with our charity that's my legacy you know my legacy is not you know my bank account my legacy is not in the things that I've accomplished my legacy I wanted to be in the things that I gave you know I want people to remember that I'm inspired giving you know it wasn't about how many I spoke to you know how many books or how famous it's it's simple you know my legacy is you know I was a giver you know and you know what we're on that path you know I'm not expecting to leave anywhere soon but yeah absolutely you know my legacy is in place in an intact love that and then in closing what would be some of your best insight wisdom philosophies after all these decades of experience being on multiple ends of the fence if you could look into the camera into someone's eyes or people listening to this on audio on the podcast and just give Richard Montaigne 60 seconds of bottom line wisdom what would you tell people from all walks of life about how to take their life to the next level well I appreciate that very much and I think you know there's so much that that's out there and I would say that the one thing that you need to understand and you have to be careful what you're listening to and what you're reading because there's so many quotes especially with Instagram you know social media Facebook so many quotes quotes out there too just aren't true somebody said you get promoted by who you know that's not true you get promoted by who knows you you know and and someone you know said you know so many different things but what happens they get inside of you so you know find these books find these speakers you know get this stuff that's in you did it really change your life and understand this there isn't a book out there that's gonna place anything inside of you to become successful everything that you need to become successful is already inside of you your job is to release it so I don't spend money on book to say follow these seven steps because guess what they're not gonna work do you know you already have it inside of you your job is to release it so I always say be careful who you listen to what you're reading and what's coming out of your mouth you know one of my greatest proverbs is is this is life and death are in the power of the tongue you've got to be confessing good things in your life you got to be saying that yes I am great with humbleness you know not with arrogance but you've got to say it you know you've got to be the first that believes in yourself before anyone else but yeah I've always said that you know it's great when somebody believes in you but it's fantastic when you believe in your sell and that's what's gonna change your world so thank you it's great I'm here no absolutely yeah and then I didn't want to ask two more questions that popped into my mind one of them is gonna be from Brian Roberts who is a listener my show he's a big fan he can't wait to listen to this interview so I'm gonna give him a special shout-out to Brian Brian asked did you ever along your journey use any visualization tactics I know that it might have been more so in the form of a prayer for you but was there anything you did to to sort of build those prophecies to create them mentally before they became a physical reality first was there any of that that you and Judy worked on absolutely there was his name Brian Roberts Brian Brian that's a great question because that that was all of it you know everything was my imagination my creativity was flowing through you know we began to visualize and here's a good example you know me and my wife we went when we were dating we went trick-or-treating but we will never trick-or-treat in our neighborhood because it was so poor there's no candy there across town to the rich neighborhood yeah and we were good candy yeah get the big candy bars and we would look at these houses and me and her would think like how does someone get these mmm you know and you know after a couple of knocks people would tell us hey you need to go back your started that's what it was like you know yeah Wow back in our days you know but we would keep those memories in those you know visions in in our mind that you know what it wasn't we wanted out of life as a matter of fact we used to when we were very young we used to write things down mm-hmm and we would lock him in a you know you know in a little box and not read him for years mm-hmm you know for 10 years and we'd pull him out like wow it worked so we would write things down that was our way of visualizing like what do you want we want and again these are our wants not our needs who want a big house and want a lot of money on nice cars do I need any of those no but I want them yes yeah put it in perspective you know this and that I want to be this I want to be that I want to change I don't want to be I don't want to be a dummy no more I would see myself you know I'd see myself in the White House mmm and I did a presentation on Capitol Hill I'd see myself shaking hands with the president I wouldn't tell anybody I'd be at home in the living room thinking like okay these are the things that I did practice here comes the president yes sir pleasure I saw myself speaking at the United Nations a thousand ambassador I saw it in my mind you know and guess what everything that I saw my mind because where does it what does it begin it begins in the mind you know what does it come out it comes out the time so I began to see it then I began to speak it and everything everything has come to pass so that's why today me and my wife were thinking other things you know I'm teaching now forget about being rich mm-hmm don't did you now become wealthy because rich people still live check to check write checks bigger yeah what's those little red yeah but it's still you know wealthy people no longer worry about where it's coming from it's just coming in wealthy people don't have to work anymore rich people still do you know so go from becoming rich and become wealthy yeah so we're looking at those things you know we're visualizing you know helping more people we're visualizing doing you know so many different things so that's a great question but it you know that's what change I know it's beautiful and then the second question that I had was what were some of the failures along the way that were hard to overcome or some of the biggest lessons along the way right because now we know the story and how it panned out great and your impact but I'm sure that even even at a high level of accomplishment accolades finances all that I'm sure there's still a lot of problems what were some of the biggest ones you dealt with and how did you overcome them that's a great question to it well you know when I first started my career before acting became an executive I never got any of the jobs that I wanted in in Friedel and applied for that I wanted to move up and I applied for that and I remember interviewing and I was never smart enough I never had the resume you know so those were disappointments and those were hurtful for him because I like I would look back and it took me a while to get over as I look back like man I made every mistake you could possibly make and now it's coming back to haunt me you know and I finally realized that you know as much as I hated my past you know that it wasn't always gonna haunt me but those were my disappointments the things that I did you know people would like well you didn't you know you didn't finish high school how can you become a technician you know you need to know math alright so every job that I always got but again because I'm just following what God that the jobs that I did get were a whole lot better than the jobs that I want it yeah absolutely so I just learned to just kind of to flow with that but there was so many dis disappointment you know quitting school and your failure you know I said I used to cry because I would embarrass myself you know you know that I I speak everywhere now and I'm booked and you know but there was a time when you know I didn't know what words meant you know I would make a fool of myself by saying incorrect words you know and I look back on it but that's how I learned you know I had to overcome those that was things it was you know that's why you know you need to find those mentors mm-hmm you know to help you overcome your insecurities you know you're in maturities and the things that you know a good mentor doesn't and and you know for for your you know your listeners they need to understand for so many people desire to be mentors but you under have to understand what a mentor is a mentor isn't a coach you know a mentor is not somebody who coaches you you know a mentor is a father a mother a parent mm-hmm and let me tell you a story about mentor you know this is a story about this general in this general was being sent to the front and the general knew that going to the front meant he wasn't coming back he had a son so he went to his best friend he told his best friend I'm going to the front which means I'm not coming back mm-hmm well you take care of my son and the generals friend told the general I will raise him like my own you know what the generals friend's name was it was a mentor Julie that's where the story mentor comes from wow I did not know that that's full mentor yeah it's raising somebody like your own child mmm too many people say well I mentor him I meant to her you're not a coach mmm it's about adopting someone like their own mmm so when you call yourself a mentor you better have no insecurities because yeah a father desire a moms desire if there's children become greater than them that's what mentors do but that where mentor comes from so I love that that's powerful and then at the end of every interview with every guest we play a game called first things first so how the game works is I'm gonna list off ten words or phrases that come to mind and then you tell me the first word or phrase that comes to mind has a response back okay make sense yeah so it's pretty easy so we're gonna go into that so you ready mmm all right so the first word is gonna be God God and me second one is going to be freedom finances Hot Cheetos finances Judy my love obstacles many wisdom trials your past my past mm-hmm hurtful your present beautiful in your future gorgeous I love it mister want a nice thanks for being on the show pleasure and then I frown absolutely and then I got to ask I know that you even turned down Oprah so what made you willing to be able to sit down with us and and share the story I would love to hear it thoughts easy man you wouldn't stop asking the power of persistence hunger right no I was that's funny but I was impressed because you wanted to interview the man not the title and I know when you came to hear me speak and you introduced yourself that said to me that you wanted to know the story because sometimes you got to be careful your story is your story and who you share it with and how they share with is so important so you don't just I'm not trying to be famous right you know so that's easy for me that's why you know I've turned down so many interviews from high level personnel because it wasn't about me it was about the hot cheetos it was about whatever they can do to get a bigger audience you're trying to inspire people absolutely this is what I got to tell people too is people need to understand that how cheetos didn't make me mm-hmm I made hot cheetos mmm and and I think that's why I was attracted to you know you you know you you're hungry just showed me you know I love that in young people is show me your hunky keep knocking you don't take no for an answer you know I mean and sure enough you know you kept you know sending me messages sending that didn't that's you know I knew it I knew at the very beginning I was gonna do it yeah you know the struggle was finding the time but I knew you know through your persistence and who you were and I saw your show what you were doing I said yeah that's something that I could be a part of because you know will be linked in forever you can't take this away no one can so who you linked yourself in is very very important you know and even even you know going on forward you look for those there's some people that are famous that I'm not gonna be in a relationship with it right you know and somebody says you're a judgmental I am yeah there's nothing wrong with that absolutely you know those are part of those quotes too it's you know there's things that you have to judge mm-hmm you know judge judge it accordingly I'm not condemning anybody go do your own thing you know I don't I don't condemn anyone but I doesn't mean I have to be friends with everyone mm-hmm you know I I still have I still have problems with certain things I'm still trying to get to the next level you know my wife is there helping me I've said this before like hey you know I want to tie every day you know but I said this you know don't don't let this tie for you I can take it off and you and I can go outside and talk about it my wife said no no no you're not like that no more I'm like wait a minute that's right no not any meeting I'm sorry that Judi wisdom yeah you know but you know you you try to stay true to who you are and your value that's why I go back to the Larios and the hoods of the world there's so much brilliance and creativity in there people look at those places and think of it so bad but it's nothing I said there's there's there's no bad kids only kids and bad environments give them give those kids what suburbia house and you have the next president of the United States you have the next doctor you have that we have to invest and that's why I do a lot for minorities you know and I don't tell everybody they and some people even try to call me out like well you know you got a lot of money and cars and all that what do you do about I don't tell people that and you know but one of the reasons that I do do it is it I've said this look if you don't help that poor child you know someday that child could be a burden or a blessing to your kids mmm work with them now so that your kid doesn't have to let's get them off welfare let's get them educated there's more than enough for everyone you know as I said you know before and even in my book when it comes to you know we don't have a food shortage mmm well we have the distribution problem you know there's enough food of you know there's enough housing look we're the only country in the world to spends billions of dollars on buying and renting space mm-hmm it's a billion-dollar industry we buy stuff to store it yeah you know I mean people's garages are full of stuff so and what do you do you go out and read another story and you fill it up and give it away yeah I've done that me and my wife have gone through so much stuff and give it and guess what happens it feels back up yeah you give it up you'll never run dry so but them absolutely it is like they say the secret to living is giving absolutely my man mr. wrong telling us thanks for being on the show big inspiration that's it guys thanks for tuning in to this week's episode we'll see you guys next time take care [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: OMAR ELATTAR & THE PASSIONATE FEW

Views: 524,940

Rating: 4.9183526 out of 5

Keywords: richard montanez, cheetos, hot cheetos, hot cheetos inventor, hot cheetos story, creator of hot cheetos, inventor of hot cheetos, richard montañez, richard montañez cheetos, who invented hot cheetos, the creator of hot cheetos, richard montanez movie, flamin hot cheetos movie, the passionate few, frito lay plant janitor, passionate few, flamin hot cheetos, omar elattar, who created hot cheetos, richard montanez hot cheetos, richard montanez interview, hot cheetos founder

Id: ADnYF7srPK0

Length: 102min 10sec (6130 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 06 2017