Monty Moran - Building Chipotle Into A $35B Business (with former CEO)

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All right, what is going on, everyone? Casey Adams here. Welcome back to the Rise of the Young podcast. Today we are joined by Monte Moran, the former co CEO of Chipotle. Thank you so much for coming on, Monty.

Yeah, it's great to be here, Casey. Thanks for having me.

So when I first contacted you on Instagram, man, I just fell in love with your story on how you love culture. And just your new book, Love is Guac is Extra. It caught my attention. And for the people listening, I'd love to just start with where did your journey with Chipotle begin? You know, you were the CEO managing a company with over 70,000 employees. Like, where did this first start?

Yeah, well, I mean, it started because I was a lawyer, you know, and I had been working actually in Los Angeles at a law firm downtown la, near where you are now. In fact, before that I was in Marina Del Rey at a law firm, so right where you are. And a buddy of mine named Steve Ells back in Colorado, I stayed in touch with him after college and he had started Chipotle, so he was actually the founder. And when I came back to Denver to practice law in Denver and raise a family, he was working on getting the or he had the first Chipotle open. And I was a lawyer in a nearby law firm. And so he asked me to start doing some if I would be willing to do some lease work. And I said sure. And I started doing leases. I did them on a really low flat fee. Actually probably lost a lot of money doing them because I quoted way too low a fee. They took a long time, but it was cool. So I got to help out the company. And then he asked me to, you know, get involved doing more and more and more different things for the company. And I got to know just about every, well, pretty much everybody in the corporate office because all of them had at one time or another some legal problem they needed help with. And then I became known as like the go to guy who could Solve legal problems. And then I. Then I ended up solving, like, a lot of other problems that weren't really legal problems. And I became sort of the go to guy to solve, like, all kinds of problems. And so people, when they got in trouble or got, you know, to where they weren't sure what to do, they'd just call me. And so I became general counsel of Chipotle without initially having that title. And then a few years, a year or two later, I actually got named the official general counsel of Chipotle. And I had a business card that was a Chipotle business card, even though by that time I was the CEO and managing partner of my law firm. So I was actually an employee of the law firm. But Chipotle had named me its formal general counsel. They asked me to come on board and be an employee. I said no, because I love my law firm. But I had a business card at Chipotle too. So they kind of thought I was full time over there. And I did. I did as much. I worked as hard as I could to prove to them, to, you know, make it seem like I was full time at Chipotle. But really I had about 66 to 70% of my business that I was doing elsewhere.

Yeah.

So I was working really hard during those years.

Yeah, for sure. And for you, what. What made you make that pivot and that jump to go full time with Chipotle. And real quick, for the listeners, what stage was that in Chipotle? Like, how many restaurants did they have? How early was it? Yeah, coming on board.

Yeah. When I came on board and started doing leases, there was only eight restaurants. So it was really early. And then I kept working with Chipotle. In the meantime, like I say, I was general counsel. I started going to all of the board meetings. Steve asked me to go to all the leadership meetings, which was sort of the top person from each discipline in the company. So I went to all the leadership meetings. Maybe that was. That group was between 12 and 18 people, depending. And at the leadership meetings, I ended up taking more and more of a leadership role. I just had a lot of opinions. I can't help but voice them. I've got. I got a loud voice. Right now it's a little weak. I've been talking a lot, but usually I had a loud voice anyway, so I started doing that. And then Steve asked me to get involved in going to the board meetings. Ultimately, I became secretary of the company, did all the minutes from the board meetings, and at one point, well, many times, Steve started Asking me, hey, why don't you come run this company? And that happened, actually, after Steve had come over to my law firm, and he loved the culture of my law firm. So you talk about culture, and my book talks about how I built the culture at that law firm. But Steve came over and saw the law firm and saw the culture that I had built there and said, how did you do this? This feels awesome. And I would. I said, oh, you know, it's just, you know, I don't know. You know, and he's like, no, no, I don't know. I mean, I want you to tell me, you know? Yeah. And so I didn't. So I stopped blowing off, you know, his question and really sat down to try to answer him. And so I answered how I built the culture at the law firm. And he was. He was like, wow, it's incredible. I love it here. People are really working hard, but they're stoked. They're having a great time. They're upbeat. They're ambitious. You know, they're curious. They're, like, really fun. They seem to love it here. Wow, can you come do this at Chipotle? You know, And I. So I, like. I say. I said no for about four and a half years.

Wow.

You know, not no, like, no, but, like, wow, that sounds really cool. I'd love to, but, God, I love what's going on here. And my firm was, like, doubling every year in size, and I became the CEO of the firm, and I was doing really well. I was hiring a lot of associates. I was having a blast. I was, you know, I was kind of my own boss. And if I went over to Chipotle, I was concerned that I would ultimately have to work kind of for McDonald's, because by that time, McDonald's had bought 87% of the stock in Chipotle.

Wow.

So I didn't really want to work for McDonald's, but nonetheless, a fellow named Jeff Kindler, who at that time was the chairman of Chipotle's board, flew out. Steve asked him to. Flew out and tried to convince me. Hey. Because he was a lawyer, too, so he used to be a law firm lawyer. And he made the jump to go to McDonald's as McDonald's general counsel. And then eventually he went to go to Pfizer Pharmaceutical as its general counsel and then as its CEO. So Jeff is a real smart guy. I really respected him. He was super awesome. And he came out and basically tried to convince me, hey, you know, you ought to go to Chipotle and Run it. You know, it's like being a lawyer is awesome, but you should go to Chipotle and it's gonna be a chance for you to really. To do a lot more. And then Steve, you know, he said something to me that really got into my ear, and he said. Because I said, nah. You know, I kept saying, no, I'm a lawyer, though. You know, I'm a lawyer. Like, this is that, you know, and he goes, okay, a lawyer is what you're doing, but a leader is what you are. If you come to Chipotle, you'll be able to use your leadership to guide and influence a lot more people. And it will help you leverage what's good about your leadership across a lot more people. And you're gon have a lot more power to help people's lives. And I thought, wow, really? So I thought about that for a bit and ultimately said, you know, okay, I'll do it.

I love that. And I know you talk a lot about management leadership. How do you see the difference between management and leadership in an organization?

Yeah, to me, they're absolutely opposite approaches. To me, one is really awesome and one is not good. So I'm a very, I'm very binary on this issue. Management is about getting someone to do something that you want them to do, you know, basically go do it, you know, and all the management books, there's a lot of management books, and I haven't read sort of read them, but I've seen excerpts and I've seen articles. And most what I read about management is people, you know, describing in all sorts of different words the same thing. And that same thing is always how to put your foot up someone's butt, basically, but in different ways. You know, how to. How to put your foot up their butt where they don't notice, or how to put your foot up their butt where they like it, or how to put your foot up their butt where they're having a good time, you know, whatever, so. But that's not what leadership's about. So leadership is about getting someone to do something. Getting someone to do something that they want to do, which also happens to advance your cause. Okay, so what this involves is joining with somebody together as the leader and the person to be led. You join with them, you get to know them and understand them, you care about them, and you see what they're passionate about and what they can do beautifully well, and you help cultivate that in them such that they're doing something that they want to do that they're awesome at that they're passionate about and that they're doing with all their heart, which also happens to advance your organization's cause. And that's true leadership. You know, that's what leadership is about.

I love that. And speaking of that, like, leadership, one of my mentors was Larry King, and rest in peace to him. But he always talked about being curious and asking questions. And you talk a lot about the importance of being curious and asking questions, like, how has that shaped your life and your career?

Okay, well, curiosity, Casey, has probably been the single biggest engine of my enjoyment of life, the single biggest engine of my success, the single biggest engine of sort of everything I've accomplished. It's been my curiosity. And, you know, curiosity is a beautiful thing. Curiosity to me means, you know, sort of the willingness to put yourself in a subordinate position because what you really want is to understand and you'll. You know, no matter who I meet in life, Casey, I always find something in them to admire, like, right away. In fact, I'll go further. I'll say, whenever I meet someone, I'm almost always initially envious of one of their qualities. Or maybe. Or maybe many of them qualities. Right away, I'll be like, wow, this person. If I look at you, Casey, I'm like, wow, this guy's young and ambitious and, like, has his shit together at a really early age and has a lot of energy, you know. And I'll be like, that's cool. I really admire that about you, you know? But I can meet anyone and I find something to admire in them, and. And then I'm curious, like, how did they come to be that way? And I want to learn from them. So I look at everyone in the world as someone to learn from. You know what I mean? And that attitude, you know, I don't know. I've had that attitude so long, I can't really tell you where I got it, but I can tell you that I definitely got the. I definitely fanned the flames of that attitude when I worked at Dairy Queen when I was 15 years old, and we had these homeless people coming in all the time and sitting down, and they would just get a cup of coffee, and they'd, like, get like six or eight creams and like 10 sugars, you know, and they're maximizing the caloric value of that cup of coffee. And these guys were a lot of them guys and gals are men and women. A lot of them came over from a mental health facility that was nearby. And I just got really curious, like, wow, you Know, because I was a kid who, you know, came from a middle class family, and I knew where my next meal was coming from, and I basically had my. All my safety needs taken care of. My parents love me, all that stuff. And I was like, wow, how does someone come to be homeless, you know, and alone in the Dairy Queen drinking a coffee? And so I just started sitting down with them. Hey, do you mind if I sit down and get to know you? And when I asked could I sit down, they would look up like, yeah, you know, and then I would sit down and I would just. And I would just bring curiosity. So what does it mean when I say I brought curiosity? I sat down with the desire to know them, you know, the desire to understand them, to see them, to value them. And what I've learned since, and I can say it much more clearly now than I would have when I was 15, because I didn't really know what I was doing. I was just curious. But now I can say, Casey, without a doubt, that I am certain that everyone in this world wants the same things. We all want to be seen, valued, loved and understood. That's what all of us want. I mean, you know, we go about it a lot of different ways. Some people want to get really rich, but why do they want to get rich? They want to get rich so they feel seen, valued, loved, and understood. You know why some people want to be the best athlete in the world, like the Usain Bolt, want to be the fastest runner in the world. Well, why? Well, because then everyone's going to know me and see me and value me and understand me. Right. Some people want to become like a monk, you know. Oh, because I want to be seen, value. So it's really. That's what everyone wants. But what's significant about that statement? It's not just academic. Okay. What's significant is when I sat down with those people at Dairy Queen, I wanted to see no value and understand them. I did value them right away. I already valued them because I was curious. I wanted to learn from them. That meant I valued them. Then when I sat down, I really looked at them. I was very present with them, which meant I saw them. And then as soon as I started getting to know them, I felt compassion and a desire to understand them further, which is a form of love, of course. And so I was giving them that. So when I was there with them, just by sitting down and wanting to know them, they would open up to me and I became fast friends with these people, and it was an awesome experience. I learned a ton because they came from such different backgrounds than I did, and I learned so much. So from that point on, I mean, I was just always trying to learn all I could from everybody.

That's amazing. And I think it's so cool because I know, like, one of the most important practices that you talk about at Chipotle is your one on one interviews. And I find that so fascinating because I love doing interviews. I've had this podcast for three years. I've done over 300 with just high level entrepreneurs, but doing it for employees and for an organization. Where did this practice come from? Because when I first heard about that in your book, it really intrigued me about, like, why you would spend so much time doing these one on one interviews. So, like, where did that come from? And how do you explain that?

Yeah, I mean, I think it all sort of emanated from that Dairy Queen experience I told you about. And also that I had built this culture at the law firm where these people, where everyone that they were all so excited to be part of what we were doing, they had a vision, they wanted to accomplish that vision, you know, so Chipotle, the first thing I did when I went in there is actually the first thing I did when I started at Chipotle was some version of going, oh, shit, I'm president of Chipotle now. What do I do? You know? And what I very quickly figured out, Casey, is that the thing that I had to do, okay? Unlike being a really good lawyer, when you're a good lawyer, you can just do shit well, right? You can try a case well, you can take a great deposition. You can, you know, you can go give a great closing argument. You can be good just by going and working and going home and working and selfishly working to be good, okay? But when you become a leader, you can't do that anymore, you know, you now have to leverage your power to work through other people. So why would it. And this is a really important thing, And I know you've probably read this because I say it in the book, you know, the only source of a leader's power is that other people choose to follow that leader. Okay? Kind of like Beauty and the Beast, when you can't just demand someone love you, love me, God damn it. You can't do that, right? Doesn't work. They can go, okay, yeah, hey, I love you. But they don't. It's the same thing. You can't say, hey, follow me. The only way you can get someone to follow you is if number One, you have a great vision for them. In other words, you're saying, casey, I want to take you somewhere, and the place I want to take you is awesome. Let me tell you about it. Let me tell you about where I'm going to take you. So that's, number one, I've got to have a vision for you that you think is awesome, that you want to come along. And number two, you've got to believe not only is it a great place, but that following me is your best way to get there. Not a way to get there. The best way to get there. So I got to give you a great vision, and then I got to say, hey, let's get there this way together. We'll go there. Follow me. Let's go. You know, now, if you choose to follow me now, I'm your leader, okay? If you don't, I'm not, period. So if you're going. If you want people to follow you, you've got to know them, you got to care about them, you've got to understand them. You got to know what they want. Well, hence the one on one interview. Okay, so when you're. And at Chipotle, granted, I had 75,000 employees, you know, in like, 20, 15, 16, my last couple years. 75,000 employees. Well, okay. Can you get to know every employee? Well, no, you know, you can't get to know every employee, but you can get to know a lot of them. And I interviewed more than 20,000 people one on one. I had a practice where every time I went to any restaurant, I'd sit down with everyone one on one. Now, sometimes these conversations are pretty quick. Sometimes. Hey, how you doing? Names? Monty. What's your name? Yeah, and it was pretty quick, you know, I got to know someone, I was like, right on, you know, and then sometimes I. It would be three hours, and I had no. I had no agenda except for I wanted to get to know them and understand them. Now, once I got to know and understand them, guess what happened? Number one, just by my desire to get to know them and understand them, what did that cause them? To feel seen, valued, loved, and understood. Okay? So they felt like, wow, this dude's for real. This company's for real. Like, this guy actually cares about me because I did. It wasn't bullshit, by the way. You can't bullshit. It. It can't be. It can't be bullshit. It's got to be genuine. But I was present with them, and I cared, and I really wanted to understand and get to know them and When I did, they thought, wow, this guy really cares. Okay, step one to wanting to follow me, you know, step two was I would make sure that they understood the vision. Hey, why are you here? What do you want to do at Chipotle? Like, you know, do you think it can get you there? Like, you know, hey, is this going to help you achieve your dreams? And they'd say, well, you know, I want to be a doctor someday. Cool, man. Well, awesome. You know, do you think that working at a Chipotle and learning to work in a team and really make each other better is something that you could probably use as a doctor? Oh, yeah, definitely. Definitely, yeah. Cool. Well, that's going to happen here, man. And I can't. I can't wait to see how you blossom and develop a Chipotle towards becoming a doctor. That's great. Wow. Cool, man. And then, you know, maybe that conversation ends, but I get follow up from that person or other people or their manager, and, you know, that person would believe, hey, man, this. Even though I want to be a doctor, you know, this is the best place for me to be right now in my work towards becoming a great physician someday. Great doctor.

Yeah.

So other people are like, hey, I want to be the CEO of Chipotle. I'm like, right on. I mean, hey, you came to the right place, you know, but same thing. It's like, hey, how are you going to do that? How can I help you? You know, what do you need from me? So anyway, you know, when I interviewed all those people, of course, word gets around. Hey, the guy cares. Hey, the guy, he's going to probably, he'll come talk to you. Need to watch out. He's coming to your stories. And he's like, really? Wow. Yeah. You know, so people would sit down, they'd be excited and, you know, they'd be kind of amazed that the CEO would sit down to talk to them one on one. But what could be less amazing? I mean, if I'm, if I'm the CEO and I really care, why wouldn't I sit down with everyone?

When it comes to, like, when you say, like, walking into these restaurants were this something, Was this something that you would do, sort of, you'd walk into a restaurant and they would have no idea you were coming. Or was it a lot of planned interviews? Because, you know, if I was working at a Chipotle and the CEO walks in and wants to talk to me, I'd be like, this is crazy, right? It's like, what was the, like the normal, typical type of interview. And how did it go?

Well, you know, at the beginning, I did a lot of planned visits at the very beginning, but then I thought, no, no, no. I don't want them all to be a surprise.

Yeah.

So I started never telling anyone. I would just go to a restaurant, and then I'd walk in, but they would recognize me in the parking lot, usually, and I'd hear this roar. Oh, my God. You know, I'd walk in and people would run up and hug me. Because by that time, you know, the kind of culture I was building was well known to everyone. Everyone loved the culture. They loved being part of it. They felt that I really cared about them and wanted them to be at their best. They knew that I was committed to promoting 100% of our managers from within. They knew that I created a career path whereby every single person could have had very logical steps by which they could move into management positions. They knew that my goal for everyone we hired was to help them develop into the best person that they could be. And so they were stoked. And so they. And they related that. That culture. They related that culture with me, you know, and so when they saw me, they're like, oh, my God. And they'd come up and give me huge hugs, and they'd be in tears. A lot of the times they want to take pictures and get selfies and autographs. It was really, really fun, you know, but also, I would get to know them really, really well, you know, and usually in any given store, by later in my career, I'd know one or two or three of them, either because I had been to that store or because they'd come from another store. And so my reputation preceded me, you know, and so people were always glad to see me because I knew that I was there to help them.

And I think that that speaks so much about who you are and your character. And, you know, you recommend hiring based on character and not necessarily education, experience. And I know that's such a important topic nowadays, Right. You see Microsoft and all these different companies, like, doing the same thing. Like, why is that so important to you? And where did that philosophy come from as CEO?

Oh, a couple of reasons. I mean, you know, when I was CEO of my law firm, I was trying to hire awesome associates who could do a great job for all these clients that I was bringing in. And I didn't have time to do all the work, so. And I really cared about the clients, so I wanted to make sure the work was done, really. So I had to hire really, really good associates. And then I trained them, you know what I mean? And it was really, really hard work, right? But what I learned from the school of hard knocks, I learned from failure. I learned from hiring some people that I really liked, that I believed in, who didn't end up being as driven as I'd hoped, who didn't care as much as I cared, who didn't even care about their own success as much as I cared about their success, you know? And so I had to let some people go, and I didn't like it, you know? So I thought, well, how can I hire better? Like, what am I? What do I need to look for so I don't ever have to fire someone again? You know? You hope that never happens, but you still. No one hires perfectly, but I got a lot better at hiring. What I learned is that, Casey, no matter how good you are, no matter how motivated you are or how smart you are, you cannot teach someone certain things unless they've already learned them by the age of, let's say, 10, 8 or 10. You can't teach someone to be curious. Actually, I think Larry King said that on your interview. I don't know if you can teach. You can't teach someone to be curious.

You can't teach curiosity.

You can't teach it. You can't teach someone to be smart. You know, you can. I mean, you can educate them, you can give them lessons, but you can't teach them to. When I say smart, I mean like the lights on someone's home. They're curious, they're wanting to learn, interested. You know what I mean? You can't teach someone to be presentable. You can't teach someone to be hospitable. You can't teach someone to be high energy. You can't teach someone to be infectiously enthusiastic. You can't teach motivation. You can't teach ambition. You got to hire for those things. However. However, when you get someone who's got the appropriate characteristics. And another thing, by the way, why hire for characteristics? Because you can't teach them, so you better hire for them. Okay, number one. Number two. Oddly, this is oddly. Oddly, people with excellent characteristics do not expect to get paid for them. In fact, they usually don't even know they have them. But people with experience do expect to get paid for their experience, even though the experience is more often than not, not valuable. Yeah, it's usually like. I mean, I'm not saying experience isn't valuable. I'm saying. But like, for instance, in my world at Chipotle hiring someone with fast food experience would do more harm than good. Right? Like, fast food experience is usually leaning against the counter and not caring about your customers. I didn't want that. So anyway. But yeah, so, but, but, but for experience. So don't hire for experience because you can teach it generally. I mean, if you need a Spanish interpreter, it's best they speak Spanish and English. You know what I mean? You know, if you need someone to program a computer, they need to know how to write code. Okay. But short of that, you know, the other characteristics are best, are best to hire for because number one, you can't teach them. And number two, no one expects to be paid for them. So when you get someone with great characteristics and then you educate them and teach them the. Give them the experience, now you've got a hotshot. Now you've got someone who's going to be a great addition to your team.

Yeah, I know you spoke on this earlier, but like, when you came on board of Chipotle, I'm very curious myself. You know, starting with eight restaurants and then having 75,000 employees, like, if you were to keep it simple with the audience, like, what changed through that period of time and growth? Was that the plan from the beginning? Did you say, hey, when I come on board, we want to set out to be the most loving and compassionate organization and have 70,000 employees. Like, what was the vision when you came on board to getting it to this multi billion dollar Fortune 500 enterprise?

Well, I mean, I certainly believed that Chipotle could be very large and very successful and nationwide and even internationally successful. So I believe that. But that wasn't really my vis. I thought that, I thought that would just happen. It's sort of like if you go run really hard every day, you're going to get more fit, right? You don't have to worry about how much more fit you're going to get more fit. Right? So it's the same thing at Chipotle. From day one, I wanted to build a culture of all top performers who were empowered to achieve high standards. I wanted our culture to be awesome. I wanted it to be fun. I wanted it to be exciting. I wanted it to be just like the culture at my law firm. And so when I set about doing that, the first thing I wanted to do is I told everyone, hey, everybody, you know, my vision for this company is that we will have a team Chipotle wide of all top performers who are empowered to achieve high standards. Let me tell you what top performers and empowerment means. High standards is easy, means things are good. That's easy. Yeah, but the other two definitions are really important, and no one thinks about it this way. Okay, number one, top performers, top performer. I defined it as meaning someone who has the desire and ability to perform excellent work and through their constant effort to do so, elevates themselves, the people around them, and the whole organization. Chipotle in this case. Okay, so if you break that definition down because it's kind of wordy, Two pieces does what they do excellently and does it in a way to make others better. Okay, so Chipotle wasn't good enough just to be great at what you did. Not good enough. You had to be great at what you did and make others better. Okay, why is this so important? Well, for a million reasons. But number one, in a growing organization, you need to teach others. You need to get the benefit of everyone who's excellent to make the people around them better. So we started making every promotion, every raise, you know, every performance review, every personnel decision based on does this person make people better more powerfully than the other candidates who were considering for the promotion? And so that was, number one, the top performer. Number two was empowerment. Empowerment. And I wrote a definite definition for empowerment that I'm very proud of because it was so helpful. Empowerment means feeling. So, first of all, it's a feeling, again, you can't make someone have it anymore. So empowerment means feeling confident in your ability and encouraged by your circumstances, such that you feel motivated and at liberty to fully devote your talents to your purpose. So again, two pieces. Confident in your ability, encouraged by your circumstances. In order to empower someone on your team, you must do those two things. You have to make sure they're confident in their ability and encouraged by their circumstances. Now, again, the problem is almost everyone spends all their time on confident in your ability. And that's the easy part. That's training someone you know. So you train them how to do a job, and now they're confident their ability to do that job. But what people fall down on all the time, and that's why they're managers, not leaders, is they fail to cause someone to feel comfort. Excuse me. Encouraged by their circumstances. How do you make someone feel encouraged by their circumstances? And obviously, as you know, I describe this in detail in the book exactly how to do this. But in short, someone will feel confident in their circumstances when they have a vision and when they know that their boss or leader cares about them, sees them, values them, loves them, understands them, wants them to be at their best. Will challenge them and will stop at nothing to make them the very best they can be. And that's encouraging circumstances. And you can say, most of us, if we didn't have parents who caused us to feel encouraged by our circumstances, and many of us didn't, but we might have had a stepfather, stepmother, or a coach or a pastor at a church, or just another person in our life who made us feel encouraged by our circumstances. But picture that person. What did they do? Someone who made you feel really encouraged by your circumstances wasn't someone who just said, hey, Casey, I love you no matter what. You're great now. They did love you no matter what, and they did think you're great, but they wouldn't let you be less than you can be. They wouldn't sit idly by if you wasted your life, you know, if you treated you, if you didn't stay healthy, if you didn't, you know, work towards your dreams, you know? So someone who makes you confident, encouraged by your circumstances, is someone who is, like, kind of like they're so interested in you that they're not going to rest until you're great.

Yeah, I love that. And I know you're bringing up your new book. I want to ask you, where did this idea to write your new book? Because not only did I love it, but I think the importance of what you're teaching is so important for leaders and CEOs and anyone that's looking to start a business. So, like, Love is Free, Guac is Extra, number one. I'm curious, where did the title come from? And why did you pick that? And then number two, what are you excited about with your book?

Okay, cool. All right, well, the title, I got to give all the credit away. David Christman, who you worked with to set up this call, David came up with the title Guac is Extra, Love is Free. And I was like, oh, I don't know. I mean, I don't know. Isn't it like. I don't know, because I was gonna name it something, like, I was gonna name it. It wasn't like a legacy of love or something. And the guys are like, that's good. But it's like, people, like, it's too general, you know, I'm like, yeah, that's true. Anyway, so Guac is Extra, Love is Free. And then my son, Michael Moran, his. His buddy Johnny Garcia, is walking through the house one day, and Johnny goes, hey, Monty. Hey, Johnny. He goes, oh, what's that? It was a mock up of the COVID Is Extra Love is Free? And he goes, is that the title? And I go, yeah. And he goes. I go, what do you think? Yes, it's cool. Should probably reverse it, though. And he walks away. So I thought about it for like a week, and I go, david, you know, Johnny walked by and said, we love his free gog is extra. And David, right away, that's better, you know. And so that was it. So I can't take credit for the time. I like it, but I can't take any credit for it. None at all. The book, why did I write it? That wasn't my idea. You know, everyone at Chipotle, I mean, man, it's like almost everyone. Like, dude, you got to write a book, man. You got to put these ideas down, you know, I mean, even my ex wife, you know, she was always on me to write a book. You know, you got to write a book. Wow, these are great. So people were always asking me to do that. And when I left Chipotle and retired and had some time, the first thing I wanted to do is get my pilot's license, which I did. And then I got my instrument rating so I could fly up high and in clouds and all that. Got an airplane and started flying around. That was really fun. But then I had time, you know, and people kept saying, hey, you should write a book. You should write a book. And I thought, you know, I should write a book. And so. And so I wrote it. And I wrote it really, really fast. And it took a while to edit it because it was way too long. There was so much that I cut out but to try to make it. And the reason I cut it down so much is I wanted it to be super, super helpful, super crisp, super not boring, Flow really well. And I wanted it to take people on a journey that they could repeat. You know, I didn't want to write just to say what I had done. I wanted to write stuff that would. That I would love to have had myself when I was 16, 18, 25, 30, and beginning, you know, my career. Because the stuff I put in the book, you know, it is stuff that you can use and will make your business or your relationships or your communication way, way, way better. Because, you know, I talk about communication, right? I talk about the specifics of running a business and the things that work and don't work. I talk about empowerment. I talk about top performers. I talk about the five steps of empowerment, how to empower a team, and then how to know when you're blowing it. And I also talk about developing yourself as an Individual. Because the first thing you have to do as a leader is be someone worth following. If you're not worth following, to hell with the rest of it.

Totally. I love that. Yeah, I love it. Speaking of pilot's license, you have a docu series that I am super excited to put out there and be a part of when it comes to getting people's eyes turned towards it. But what is this docuseries that you're putting out and why is it so important to you?

Yeah, well, okay, so when I left Chipotle and my friend David Gottlieb, this guy who worked for me at Chipotle, he said, you know what you should do in that new. With that new pilot's license here. You love flying and you love people. You know, why don't you fly around the country? He goes, and just interview people. He goes, you're so good at bringing people out and getting their wisdom, like, you know, from them. You know, why don't you just get a camera, put it over your shoulder and do that? Well, it's a little more complicated than putting a camera over your shoulder, but that's exactly what we did. And so we, you know, decided, let's do this docu series. David Christman, who you met with and who set this show up between you and I, you know, he. He has been, you know, quarterback on helping put this whole thing together and get me out there, and then I get in that plane with him and we got a film crew and we fly out to places and. And have gotten to know incredible people who come from really different backgrounds than any of us. You know, the Blackfoot Nation in Alberta, Canada. The highest crime, the highest rate of teenage pregnancy, suicide, poverty, drug addiction. They've got a lot of statistics that no one would envy in that in the Blackfoot nation up in Alberta. And so I was like, but is that the whole story? Well, the answer is no, it's not the whole story. They're brilliant people with incredible knowledge and wisdom, with unbelievable, you know, helpful wisdom to share with all of us and that all of us can and should learn from, you know, likewise. Went to Philadelphia, northern Philadelphia, a place called Kensington's, known as the Badlands for being the largest open air drug market in the United States. Incredible place, man. I mean, you can go buy any drug you want. And there's. And there aren't police there. I mean, there are police there, but they don't really crack down on it because it seems to be contained to that area. And a lot of people told me that it's intentionally contained in that area. As long as people don't go north, south, east, or west, they'll take it easy. Well, the problem is, you know, you got kids who are exposed to that. You know, you've got adults who are exposed that don't want to be involved. But every kid there grows up in this incredible, very difficult environment. They struggle. And through their struggles, what happens? Well, like anyone who struggles, and this is one of the biggest things I learned through this docuseries. Anyone who struggles mightily with any issue and overcomes it learns a tremendous amount, develops wisdom, develops knowledge, develops character, gets stronger for it. I mean, struggle is an incredibly underrated and highly valued, you know, thing for someone to go through in their life. We should all embrace our struggles because they teach us and they guide us to a much better place. But anyway, incredible people in northern Philadelphia. What a wonderful community. It ends up being filled with brilliant people again. Then we went to Laredo, Texas, to a border town, and same thing. Beautiful, incredible people with amazing stories that all of us can learn from. Then we went to Appalachia. Highest opioid deaths in anywhere in the country. Lowest income anywhere in the country. So the most poverty, the most Government checks in McDowell County, West Virginia. So what do we expect to find? Well, you know, the. What do you call it? Stereotypes of that area are that there's people. You know, there's a lot of. You know what? There's people aren't that educated. You know, maybe they're backward, all that stuff. No, they're brilliant. They're incredible. They've gone through amazing struggle. They're beautiful people. They can teach us how to love each other better, how to help each other better, how to get through hardship together and as individuals and brilliant people. Up to Maine to meet the lobster fishermen. We went to, you know, Brunswick, Georgia, to meet with the family and the community where Ahmaud Arbery was killed. Unbelievable people we met. And so, yeah, so it's just incredible. And the thing ended up so much better than I ever could have imagined. And for the sole reason that the people we met were brilliant and have so much to share. And people always say, where'd you find these people? And the answer was, you don't have to look hard. This country is filled with brilliant people. Filled with brilliant people.

I love that.

Yeah, it's awesome.

Mati, before we wrap up here, just. I'm so intrigued by the docu series, but also just your story and everything that you have been a part of, like, what is your advice to A young entrepreneur today that's either starting their first business or looking to build a global enterprise. If you were to just keep it simple and, you know, give them a tactical piece of advice that they can take away today from this interview, what advice would that be and why?

Okay. Okay. I'm going to start with something that may not seem that exciting, but it's very important. Feel what you're excited about. Like, find what you're excited about. Do not ever do what you should do. People always ask the question, what should I do? Forget should. It's not should. Life is not a race. If it were a race, what happens to all of us? We die. So why race? To get to be dead. Okay, enjoy. Like whatever you're doing right now, value it. Be grateful for it. Because whatever you're doing right now is teaching you something huge. There's a chapter in my book called, you know, my Minimum wage mba. I call it my minimum wage MBA because my minimum wage jobs taught me a ton. They were awesome, you know, so if you are in a dead end job. No, you're not. There's no such thing as a dead end job. Take it seriously, give your best to it. Work hard at it. Try to excel so that you're better, so that you're the best you could possibly be in that position. Make other people better. And guess what? That will be noticed. You'll notice it and feel good. The people around you will notice it and feel good. Customers will notice it and feel good. And you'll get plucked to do something greater, bigger and more. And then when you do that thing that's greater and bigger than more, do it with all your heart, do it with all your might. And do not consider it a stepping stone. Don't consider any part of your life a stepping stone. Just consider it what you're doing with all your heart and all your might right now. Number one. Number two, don't try to make money. The people who try to make money as their goal don't make money. That's the problem. Maybe it'd be great if you could try to make money and you make money, but when you try to make money, you tend not to make money. Or, I mean, so the thing that makes you make money is to not have that as your primary goal, but to have as your primary goal to deliver some huge value to others through a service or a piece of equipment or a product or whatever, you know. So if you want to invent, you know, you want to invent like a device that really helps people you might make some money from it. This person did. You know, if you want to invent, like, a drinking bottle that has a lid that you can close really easy and doesn't leak, hey, that helps people. You know, there's products all over the place that help people. Invent something that helps people or give a service that really helps people. And do it with all your might. Do it because you love it, and do it because you want to provide that service, and do it because it excites you. And when you're excited, guess what happens? You attract other people who will also be excited, who will also see your vision, who you can then empower to form a team. And now you become a leader, and you have a team, and guess what? They'll have ideas. And then you can add those to the portfolio of things that you're doing as a leader, and boom, it explodes. You will have success, and there will be more money flying at you than you ever could imagine. And. And it will not be the most important thing that money is flying your way. What will be the most important thing is that you have, through your efforts, made other people better. You've done something to help other people, and that's what's going to be exciting more than anything else.

I love that, Monte. And again, thank you so much for coming on the show today. For those that have listened to this interview, where is the best place that they can go to learn more about the book, purchase the book, and also watch the docu series? Because I know they have impacted my life, and I'm looking forward to everyone listening today to be a part of it.

Awesome. Thank you, Casey. Well, go to loveisfree.com I was amazed how we got that. So loveisfree.com I think it was $16.

Wow.

Yeah.

Talk about a great domain.

I know, right? Loveisfree.com so go to loveisfree.com and there you'll be able to buy the book, see the book, you'll be able to see a little bit of a trailer for each of the six episodes of the docu series, which is showing on PBS nationwide right now at different times in different parts of the country, because there's many different PBS member stations, but there's also a button at the very bottom where you can click on it and it will tell you where the docu series is playing in your area, what channel, what time? Okay.

Love it. Well, Monty, thank you so much again for coming on the show. It was such a pleasure having you on, and I'm looking forward to just seeing the excitement about your book moving forward, man. So thank you so much.

Hey, thank you, Casey. And congratulations on all you're doing. You're doing great stuff, and you're an exciting kid. And I don't mean that anyway. I actually mean that in a very complimentary way. You're young and doing great things, and good for you, man. We'll look forward to your continued success. I look forward to staying in touch.

Thank you.

Legacy of Monsters An Apple original series. The world is on fire. I decided to do something about it on November 17th. This place, it's not ours. Believe me. The most massive event of the year arrives. If you come with me, you'll know everything. I promise.

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Monarch. Legacy of monsters streaming November 17th only on Apple TV. Plus.