Start With A Win - The Power of Love in Leadership with Monty Moran, former CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill

Episode Date: May 11, 2022

Monty Moran is the former co-CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill. Prior to joining Chipotle, he was head of litigation and CEO at a Denver-based law firm for ten years. Most recently, Monty realized his lifelong dream of becoming a pilot, and flies his airplane throughout the United States to pursue his interest in better understanding and serving Americans, a quest he documents through his startup, Old Tale Productions. He is also the author of the book Love is Free. Guac is Extra: How Vulnerability, Empowerment, and Curiosity Built an Unstoppable Team.In our world, most people are uncomfortable with using the word “love” when it comes to business. Monty helps us understand that love doesn’t have to just be a “fluff” word but that it can mean truly caring about your people, empowering them, and bringing the best out in them. Monty shares about his time at Chipotle and how he worked to build a culture of empowerment. We all know what it’s like to feel disappointed after a lack-luster retail experience where the staff appear less than enthusiastic to be there. Monty believes that often comes from a culture where the employees are not empowered. He defines empowerment as feeling confident in your ability, encouraged by your circumstances, such that you feel motivated and at liberty to fully devote your talents to a purpose. And when you have a culture of empowered people, you can then feel that energy across the counter.In order to create that culture, Monty knew he couldn’t spend all of (or most of) his time in the corporate office. As the CEO, he spend most of his time in the restaurants in one-on-one conversations with employees. In this conversations, he got to know who they were as people as well as how they felt about the company and what was going well—and what wasn’t so great.Monty also shares about the importance of vulnerability in leadership and being your real, genuine self. Because he believes the only source of power for a leader is the people who choose to follow that leader. So we have to ask ourselves as leaders: Why would someone follow me? People won’t follow you if you’re not worthy of being followed—or if they don’t believe you’re being real or genuine. He shares the story of leading his first meeting at Chipotle and how a moment of true vulnerability set the tone for how he was perceived as a leader.Monty and Adam round out the conversation by talking about Monty’s “controversial” view of work-life balance: He doesn’t believe in it! Work-life balance implies that life and work are completely separate, but we don’t stop living when we go to work. Everyone wants something different from our work and our life, and the key is to determine what amount of overlap is going to fulfill us.Episode Links:Order your copy of Start With A Win: Tools and Lessons to Create Personal and Business Success:https://www.startwithawin.com/bookConnect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/https://www.facebook.com/AdamContosCEOhttps://twitter.com/AdamContosCEOhttps://www.instagram.com/adamcontosceo/

Welcome to Start With A Win, where we give you the tools and lessons you need to create business and personal success. Are you ready? Let's do this. And coming to you from Brand Viva Media Studios here in Denver, Colorado, it's Adam Cotto. Start with a win with producer Mark in the studio. How are you doing, buddy? I'm doing so good. Awesome. You know, it's always fun to talk to business leaders and really business leaders who are also adventurers. So I'm really excited about today's guest. Today, we have Monty Moran on. He's the former co-CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill. And prior to joining Chipotle, he was head of litigation and CEO at a Denver-based law firm for over 10 years. Most recently, he realized his lifelong dream of becoming a pilot and flies his airplane

throughout the United States to pursue his interest in better understanding and serving Americans, a quest he documents through his startup, Old Tail Productions. He is also the author of the book, Love is Free, Guac is Extra. I'm so excited for this interview. I think it's going to be fun and we have a lot to learn. Monty, welcome to Start with a Win. Thanks, guys. Good to be here. Hey, it's good to see you. First of all, you're kind of one of those people who's an adventure nonstop,

and you carry this excitement around with you. And I truly, I mean, I'm going to say I love this, and you use the word love in the title of your book. First of all, tell us about your book. Give us a – for lack of a better term, give us a flyover of your book. Well, you mentioned the word love, so I guess I'll start with that since it's the first word in the title. Why love? It's funny. In our country, and probably worldwide, we are all comfortable using the word love with our families, with our friends.

We use it about our pets. We use it even about our favorite sports teams, you know, and our favorite colors. Oh, I love red. I love blue, whatever. But, you know, when it comes to business, all of a sudden we feel nervous and don't want to use the word love, and we just stop using it. And, in fact, it's not just that we stop using the word love because the word love isn't what's important. In our businesses, we sometimes, I think, at least generally businesses are not operated with love.

And really, when I talk about love, I don't wanna, it sounds like a puffy, cute concept, but really it's something very, very powerful. And really, if you boil it down, when I use love, what I'm talking about is really caring, caring about your people, wanting to empower them, wanting to see people at their very, very best, wanting to actually get it, you know, kind of get your kicks out of bringing the very best out of the people around you.

The reality is, Adam, that the only source of a leader's power is that other people choose to follow that leader. That's the only source of a leader's power. Now, you might be thinking, no, but you could just say you're going to fire someone. That's not leadership. That's management. So really, I wanted to write this book to help people stop managing, which I think is a waste of time and an unfortunate way of trying to guide people to a result, and instead start leading. But if you're going to lead, you have to lead from love because if you don't lead from love, which means leading from care, a place of caring for other people, then they're not going to follow you. Because why would someone choose to follow you if you do not care about them and do not have their best interests at heart? That's such a powerful statement. I think we had a lot of reflection on that during the pandemic as well because everybody kind of felt managed at that point. Yeah, it's an awful feeling.

No one likes it. Oh, it's horrible. Yeah. You know this term holding accountable? You know, it's said like it's a positive thing. God, that guy, he's really awful feeling. No one likes it. Oh, it's horrible. You know this term, holding accountable? You know, it's sad that it's a positive thing. God, that guy, he's really good at holding people accountable. I hate that term. Holding someone accountable?

Why would you have to hold someone accountable? Right. You know, how do you, I mean, do your kids feel, if you have children, you know, and you go home and go, hey guys, so I'm going to hold you guys accountable. I'm going to start using a management system to make sure that, you know, we get the most efficiency out of you. People don't like that. People don't want to be managed. No system to make sure that, you know, we get the most efficiency out of you. People don't like that. People don't want to be managed. No one wants to be managed, you know, because management, and I've got kind of a simple definition for these things that I talk about in the book.

And then I've got a little more of a complex definition. But the simple definition is that management is getting someone to do something for you, you know, getting someone to do something for you, you know, getting someone to do something for you, getting someone to do something for you. Leadership is really about getting someone to do something for themselves that helps enrich themselves, but also happens to guide you to the place that you're seeking to go. So management really then is about manipulation. That's what management's about. Management is about trying to get someone to do something by manipulating them so that they will do it for you. And that's offensive. And holding someone accountable is offensive. And so really, isn't it a lot better if you can actually just become a person, become a leader, become someone who derives their power because other people choose to follow them to hopefully a better place? So have you noticed, and I know you've noticed this because this is

probably something you look for, but it seems like when you walk into a business where people love what they're doing, it's a totally different business than the others. Absolutely. Tell me about that observation you have or how – I mean why do you agree with me on that? Well, I mean gosh, I am a person who is often disappointed with a business, business transactions, you know, in retail transactions, you know, I walk into places and I just often feel like, God, it just doesn't feel like it's any fun in here. Uh, the people here don't really want to be here. Uh, they're leaning, you know, if it's a fast food restaurant, usually, you know, a lot of times they're leaning against the counter, you know, help you next, next, you know, and it, and, you know, it's not because they're not good people, but it's because they're not empowered. They're

not, it's because they don't really care about what they're doing because no one they don't feel like anyone cares about them, maybe. Or that maybe no one's really interested in them or the business or there's no passion there. Well, you know, at Chipotle, you know, I didn't want us to be that way. And so what I really wanted to do is create a situation where all of the people working at Chipotle were empowered. And by empowered, I mean, you know, I've got to, you know, I mean, at their best, you know, just to make it simple. But I've got a longer definition, which I'm actually really pleased with, which is, you know, empowerment is a feeling and it's feeling confident in your ability and encouraged by your circumstances such that you feel motivated and at liberty to fully devote your talents to a purpose. Okay, so confident in your ability and encouraged

by your circumstances. When people are confident in their ability and encouraged by their circumstances, that magic combination, they light up, they're enthusiastic. They are, they want to do great things. They want to become the best, become the best version of themselves while doing that, which it is that they're, that they're there to do. And so I, you know, and when you have a culture of empowered people, let's say at a Chipotle, if you have an empowered culture in that restaurant and people really are, you know, confident in their ability, encouraged by their circumstances, they have a vision, they want to achieve that vision for themselves, not for their boss, but they want that for themselves. Then all of a sudden you can feel that right across the counter as a customer.

It feels good. It's exciting. You know, you're like, I mean, isn't it nice to go to a place where you know that the people want to be there, want to take care of you, want to serve you, you know, want to do something special for you, help your day be a little bit better or whatever? That's exciting. Anything else is subpar, and that just wouldn't be any fun. So I have a question for you about that because, you know, you look at, okay, your position as co-CEO of Chipotle. So you're like way, way up here. And for those of you listening to this, I'm holding my hand above my head. And then you've got the person talking to the customer at the cash register who is many, many, many, many layers

below where you're at at Chipotle headquarters doing this. How do you translate your thoughts on love and how to talk to that customer all the way down to where that customer is having a conversation with the person at the cash register? Well, it's funny. I mean, I don't love and how to talk to that customer all the way down to where that customer is having a conversation with the person at the cash register. Well, it's funny. I mean, I don't think of it as down. Okay. I don't, you know, I don't agree. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I, I just, um, I mean, first of all, if you really are in the corporate office as a CEO of a re a retail organization, if you're spending all your time in the corporate office, you're not doing a good job. I can just tell you that plain and simple. Um, the reality is, you know, when I was working at Chipotle,

uh, you know, we had, you know, I guess at the most we had 75,000 employees at any given time, 75,000 employees. Those are the most important people in the company, not me. You know, if those 75,000 people are performing wonderfully because they're excited about what they're doing, because they're passionate about what they're doing, because they're empowered people who have a vision that they're pursuing for themselves, well, I become unnecessary as the CEO. You don't even need me. Everything is going to be beautiful. You know, and so what I wanted to do is build a culture where the people in the restaurants

were elevated and at their very, very best. To do that, I spent almost all my time in the restaurants. I went from restaurant to restaurant to restaurant, and I sat down with our people one-on-one. And when I was there, you know, I estimate I sat down with between 20,000, 25,000 people, something in that range, one-on-one to sit down and say, just get to know them. How are you doing? Nice to meet you. You know, and those one-on-one conversations taught me so much. They taught me about the individual I was talking to, of course, but they also taught me about what was good and bad at the company, what people thought about our policies, our procedures, what people thought about the physical place they worked and what was easy and what was difficult about that environment, what they thought about their leadership, what they thought about the vision, and on and on and on and on. And what I learned from all those conversations helped me to really focus my attention on doing the things that were top priorities and that helped our people in the restaurants be the best they could be.

And that was very, very powerful to our guest experience. It's truly insightful, you know, going from a, you know, and you said not the top to bottom, but we'll call it a bottom-up organization or flip the paradigm. Everybody is as important as anybody in the organization. I truly, really love that. And what that took is a lot of vulnerability on the parts of your leadership. Can you talk about why is vulnerability an important source of a leader's power is that other people choose to follow. So then you have to ask yourself, why would someone follow me? Well, first of all, people will not follow you if you're not worthy of being followed. Okay, so I'm dodging the question again. Well, then what makes someone worthy of being followed?

Well, you know, someone is not going to follow someone who they, first of all, don't believe is real and genuine. You know, if they think someone's full of crap, why are they going to follow them? If they think that what's coming out of their mouth is canned, they're not going to follow them. People are only going to follow someone if they think that that person is genuine, is real, cares about them, and will take them to a better place. Will help, you know, provide a vision and help them get to that vision that they want for themselves. So, you know, and so how do you become real? Well, you just have to be yourself. You have to be vulnerable. You have to, you know, not only admit your weaknesses, but advertise your weaknesses. You have to give your power away to someone else to the extent you have power. Now, what is a power that everyone in this world

has that's incredibly, incredibly powerful, that's incredibly effective? Well, it's the power to care about others. It's the power to, you know, sort of elevate others to be their best. Everyone has that power because that's the power of love, right? So when I talk about love, I mean, you know, caring about someone, being interested in them, being curious about them, wanting them to be their best, being willing to sacrifice your own time and effort to help them be at their best. When someone feels that way about you and gives you that, you're going to feel elevated. You're going to feel loved. And that love comes from vulnerability. So without vulnerability, there is no love because without vulnerability, nothing is genuine.

It's just canned. So vulnerability is that willingness to let go of your defenses, relax, be yourself, be open to what others have to say, to allow, you know, a flow of communication to happen between you and someone else. To understand that you're just one person. To understand that everyone else in the company, you know, cumulatively are really who are important. And, you know, and so vulnerability is really that willingness to allow love to flow, basically, you know, and when we're defensive, or when we're arrogant, or when we're judgmental, or when we're opinionated, you know, and we're not listening, and we're not open hearted, well, we have no love, we have opinionated, you know, and we're not listening and we're not open-hearted,

well, we have no love. We have no power because the greatest power that any of us has in this world is the power to make others better. And the power of making others better emanates from love and a loving heart and a desire to help them. It all goes back to one place. I mean, that's so fascinating. I'll tell you what, if you're looking for some quotes here, advertise your weaknesses. I love that. That, I mean, that is powerful.

It's funny. It's funny, Adam, because if you go out there and tell people you're a hotshot, they're going to look for that in you, which is not so great. Okay. But if you go out and tell someone, look, hey, I'm just a guy. I'm just here to do, you know, I'm just here to try to help. I don't have the answers. Uh, you know, I'll look for them. Um, we'll get them. We'll find them together. You know, gosh, I'm, you know, it's funny when I had, when I first started at Chipotle, I was thrust into a meeting with a whole bunch of area managers that I didn't know I was going to be in. And my co-CEO Steve said, Hey, just go talk to these guys. Uh, you know, I said about what he said, I don't know, just go talk to him. So I walked in there. I was brand new on the job. They didn't even know I was there. And one of the, and I thought, I didn't know what to say. I literally, so I just said, hey guys,

I'm Monty. I'm the new president and COO. Cause at that point I was president and COO. I said, I'm the new president here. And you know, I don't know what the hell I'm doing. And so I'm going to really need you guys. And what happened in the room is that first of all, they didn't know there was a new president. So they were kind of like, what the hell is going on? But when I said, I don't know what the hell I'm doing, you might say that's the dumbest thing you could ever say as someone starting a new job leading an organization. And you could certainly argue that. It wouldn't sound like a bad argument. But by saying, I don't know what the hell I'm doing, which, by the way, was true in some regards.

I had never worked at a restaurant company before. That's not true. I worked at Dairy Queen for a couple of years, you know, many years earlier, serving burgers. But when I said I didn't know what I was doing, you know, that I didn't know what I was doing and that I needed them, I'm going to need your help. So I'm going to come to you and get your help in deciding how to best, you know, do my job here. It was very disarming because all of a sudden they thought, hey, maybe he's not great, but at least he's going to listen to us. You know, maybe he's not great, but, you know, at least he knows it, you know. And all of a sudden they thought, hey, we're dealing with a person here. We're not dealing with some guy who thinks he knows better than we do, you know. And so it ended up being, you know, I think one of the most powerful things I said during that meeting. And as I went on, I talked to them about, hey, you know, I may not know exactly what I'm doing here, but, you know, at my law firm, I was able to build this really neat culture. And that culture was based on this foundational principle. And the foundational principle was that each of us will be rewarded based on our effectiveness in making the people around us

better. So I said, that's the next thing I said in the meeting is, hey, you know, I don't know exactly how we're going to do this, but we're going to make a culture here where every single person in this organization, Chipotle, is going to be rewarded based on their ability to make the people around them better. So we're going to be about making others better here. And people thought, oh, that sounds cool. And they might not have known exactly how we were going to go about that, but they knew it sounded like something really just and good and loving and powerful. And so that was kind of how things started. That's, I mean, very enlightening, if you will. It's, and it all boils back to love. I mean, you know, one more little thing that just came to my mind.

I've got, you know, I've got the, and I talk about this in the book. I've got a English Cocker Spaniel and her name is Chelsea. And you know, when this, so it's kind of a medium-sized dog, like 35 pounds. Most dogs on the bike trail are bigger. So when we're walking along the trail, these other dogs come along, and they're really big. And whenever Chelsea encounters a larger dog or even a smaller dog, she just rolls over on her back and puts her paws tucked inward like this. And it's adorable. And she's on her back, and she's literally exposing her neck, exposing her chest, and just literally putting herself in the weakest position she could do. So what do the other dogs do?

Well, it's very disarming. No dog goes after her because they don't feel threatened. You know, this is just a natural thing that happens in the animal kingdom and we are animals. Okay. You know, and so when somebody comes to you and is not only not threatening, but in fact, sort of just goes, Hey, you know, Hey, I don't really know what I'm doing. You're going to look for their strength. You're going to say, Oh yes, you do. You've got a lot to offer. But if someone says, hey, I've got all the answers, you're going to look to see the cracks in the armor.

And so people tend to, you know, respond really, really well to someone who does not put up defenses and is vulnerable, shows their weaknesses. Hey, I'm just here to help. How can I help you guys? That's pretty amazing. I mean, incredible tactic, you know, to really get to know people also. Yeah. And I don't even, you know, Adam, I don't

even think of it as a tactic, right? But I just think of it as like, I was honest. I just didn't yet really know what I was doing. You know what I mean? And just by being honest and kind of leveling with them like that, then it set the standard for like, hey, we can just be honest with each other here, you know? Right. We'll call it a trait. Yeah, maybe it's a trait. That's good. A trait of genuinely good people. So let me ask you this, and I want to change gears here a little bit. You have a controversial view on work-life balance. Yeah, well, I've got the right view on it. There you go. But we're being contrarians here because contrarians typically find the true way of doing things a lot of times. Give us your view on work-life balance, Monty.

Well, I don't believe in it. And I think it's a daft concept. And here's why I say that. And it's not because I think that people should work all the time. And it's not because I think it's a daft concept. And here's why I say that. And it's not because I think that people should work all the time. And it's not because I think they should never work. I don't know what it means. I mean, first of all, I mean, I have no idea what it means. And I think no one knows what it means, right? Or if they do know what it means, that's what they think. But no one else agrees with them.

So it's a useless concept. First of all, work-life balance implies that work and life are separate. Right. I mean, let's again go back to the animal kingdom. Let's say a lion. Is a lion only working when he's chasing to try to kill something? Or is he also working when he drags the dead thing back to the den for all the other lions to eat?

Or is he also working when he's looking over his lions at night but keeping one eye open for, I don't know, a threat of some kind? Or another lion? Is he also working when he, you know, sleeps lightly to make sure that he pops up at the earliest danger? I mean, they're always working, but yet what does that mean? They're also always living because the time when they're chasing their prey, that's just living. So for a human being in a job, I mean, do you stop living when you go to work? You know, is that what, okay, now, okay, bye,

honey. I'm going to go to the thing that's not life, that sucks. I'll do that for eight hours and I'll come home. I hope that's not what most people are doing. I know some people don't like their jobs. That's a fact. But I hope that they'll all go find a job they do like. But basically, you know, work and life just overlap, right? You know, when you're at work and you take a call from your wife or your, you know, friend,

hey, I'll see you tonight at the game or whatever. Did you stop working and start living at that moment? That's silly. So first of all, work and life are intertwined. Second of all, what is the balance? You know, when I first started as a lawyer at my law firm, I was working for a long time. And when I first became a partner and when I became CEO of the law firm, I was working all the time, but no one was telling me to work all the time. I was trying to build a practice. I was trying to train people. I was trying to make the culture great. I loved it.

I, I didn't want to be anywhere else, you know, and then I had young children. And so I went home to be with them because I wanted to be with them. And, you know, and when I was with them, sometimes I was distracted by a phone call. Uh, when I was with them, sometimes I was distracted by a work call. When I was at work, sometimes I was distracted by a kid call or a call from my wife. You know, so those, I never thought of the two as different. I'm just kind of living and work was a huge part of it. My kids were a huge part of it and it was all life. You know, some people on the other hand might say, God, Monty, you work too hard.

I wouldn't have wanted to work that hard as you, Monty. And I'd say, well, cool, don't then. You know, it's like someone else might find that they don't want to spend as much time in the office and they want to go home a lot more. Now, they may not be okay with their employer, but they should go find a job where that's fine. And that'll be their work-life balance, I guess you could call it. But the point is, everyone wants something different. And if a company tries to impose work-life balance by saying, you know, I don't want anyone in here more than eight hours a day. We want you to enjoy your lives. What about the person who would have enjoyed their life a hell of a lot more by staying another four hours?

Right. Well, it sounds like, I mean, to kind of put a bow on this, it sounds like, you know, we all have competing priorities in life. And now, and being a CEO, you have a lot of competing priorities, especially with 70,000 employees, you know, 70,000 person company, there's a ton of, you know, competing priorities here. How, and, you know, let's pretend we're all CEOs in our own companies here. All of the listeners are CEOs. Some of them are. So how do you, or what advice do you have for all of these folks that are, you know, obviously they've heard this work-life balance BS and they're like, there's no way I agree with Monty. But we still all have competing priorities. How did you handle that and what advice do you have for the CEOs out there on managing those competing priorities?

Yeah, that's a great question. And I think one that everyone should consider. You know, when I started at Chipotle and I really didn't know what I was doing, I had to ask myself, what am I going to do? I've been given this big job with this large responsibility, leading lots and lots of people, 10,000 people at that time and later 75,000 people, you know, and I was like, oh my God, what should I do? What should I do? Obviously I couldn't go in and do everything myself. Right. So so hard work like I used to do at the law firm working all day, every day myself on a project by myself. That wasn't going to work anymore. I couldn't make every burrito. Even if I tried, I couldn't clean every countertop. If I tried, I couldn't cut every onion if I tried. So I had to work through other people. So then the question became, gosh, what is my top priority? Well, my top priority had to be to help each and every one of the people at the company be at their very, very best, right? Because so when I looked at priorities and when I first started at Chipotle, I had a ton of things that I wanted to accomplish because I started noticing lots of things that I

thought could be better. And so I had all these things in my mind, but then what I had to ask, and I think this works at any company, I had to ask myself, what things are there of all this big menu of things that I'd like to get done? Which of them, if accomplished, would knock down more, you know, would encompass a lot of other things? You know, sort of like think about bowling. Which pin can I knock down that will knock down the rest of them? You know, it's kind of like, well, in bowling, usually that's hitting the front pin, right? So you have to decide what is that front pin you're going to hit, you know, or what is that one pin you're going to hit that's going to decimate the other problems and eliminate them such that the place just goes, you know? Well, you know, for me, that was empowering each and every person to be a top performer who was empowered to achieve very, very high standards.

So we had to articulate what the standards were. We had to hire the very best people we could. We had to empower them and teach them the best way to empower other people. And had to create a culture where they knew that empowering other people was their best way to, quote, unquote, get ahead. And so if I could do just that one thing, create a culture where each and every person was focused on making the people around them better, the employees around them and the customers around them. If I could get everyone to do that,

you know, and really care about that, it was going to take care of everything else. It was going to lower our food costs because we'd waste less. It was going to delight customers because we'd make better food and deliver it more quickly. It was going to delight customers because we were going to treat them better

and give great service. It was going to result in cleaner bathrooms and cleaner counters and cleaner floors and the right music level and the right temperature in the restaurant and a great environment and a wonderful guest experience. Well, holy cow, if you get all those things, guess what? You've got yourself a winning restaurant company, you know? And so that's where I landed on that particular priority. And it's certainly true that there were operational priorities, too, of course. But I was even there. I looked, what's the one operational priority that if I accomplish it will take care of other operational priorities, the most others? And that was the idea of throughput, to find a way to serve our customers more quickly so that they didn't have to wait in line, which is really the only not so good part of a guest experience anywhere. No one wants to wait in line too long. So eliminate the line, get them

through more quickly. And that solved a lot of other problems because their food was hotter. They got it more quickly. They, you know, they could get back to work more quickly if they wanted to or enjoy or have more time in the dining room to enjoy it. And also it was a lot of fun for our crews because when they got moving quickly, it was like a well-oiled machine and they felt proud. They had fun and the days went by quickly, you the days went by quickly. And there was a million other wins that came from great throughput. So throughput was the number one operational initiative because if I accomplished that, I should say if we as a company accomplished that, then I knew it would solve all these other problems that would otherwise plague our organization. Amazing. And you can see

that in the culture of the organization. You can see what you're talking about there when you just walk into a Chipotle, even when the line is all the way back to the door during lunch or dinner crowd or whatever. And you go, wow, how long is this going to take? And next thing you know, you're up there talking to somebody who's really motivated to make you a burrito. We got it moving really, really fast because our people got into it. They loved it. They had fun doing it. So, yeah, it was a really great operational win. It totally shows that empowerment. I mean, just the flow, the teamwork, things like that.

So as a foodie, as somebody who spent a lot of time in Chipotle's, I appreciate all that you guys have done there. So I do have a question, Monty, that I ask all of our amazing guests on the show and being co-CEO of this huge organization, Chipotle, and doing so much in your life. Monty, how do you start your day with a win? Okay. Well, I suppose personally, I wake up in the morning a lot of times with a little bit of stress, you know, like, oh my God, what am I going to do? I got all this stuff to do. And, and, and sometimes I'm, you know, I feel a little like, oh crap, a little bit, maybe nervous, maybe a little anxiety, a little afraid. I find that the very, and I'm not very good at meditating, like sitting still and just kind of,

you know, I'm not really good at that. I wish I were. I think a lot of people meditate at the beginning of the day because it gets us to get some calm down. I think the best thing I can do is go for a run or exercise. Go for a swim. Go for a run. What's great about swimming is you can't talk. You can't listen to—well, I suppose there's headphones now, but I don't have them. Anyway, in your pool, and you can't open your mouth, the water gets in.

So you just got to just focus on the swim. And it calms you down. It organizes your thoughts. It gives you clarity of mind. And you've also started the day with, you know, cleaning, you know, cleaning out your system and getting your heart beating a little bit and kind of getting rid of some of those nerves. And then when you come out of that swim pool or off that treadmill or off that, you know, off the street from your run, you're calm. You're taking deep

breaths. You've got a lot of oxygen in your mind and you're ready to, you know, start prioritizing really well and being efficient throughout your day and getting a lot done. So I think that's the best way for me is start the day with some good exercise. I love that. That's such a great way to start your day with a win. Monty Moran, former co-CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill, author of Love is Free, Guac is Extra, and just an amazing guy.

Thanks for being on Start with a Win. Thanks, Adam. And make sure, I'd love people to just a quick plug to check out my TV show. It's called Connected, A Search For Unity. It's on PBS. And you can go to loveisfree.com to find out how to view that show or how to get a book or whatever's going on with me. Awesome. Thanks a lot, my friend. Hey, thank you, Adam. Hey, and thank you so much for listening to Start With A Win. If you want to create personal and business success, make sure to subscribe to this podcast and head over to startwithawin.com where you can find more great content and figure out how to get in contact

with Adam. Hey, until next time, remember, start with a win.