From Janitor to Top Executive Part Two
Jill on Money with Jill Schlesinger
Audacy
4.6 • 1.9K Ratings
🗓️ 13 June 2021
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This weekend we're joined by Richard Montañez, whose upcoming book, Flamin' Hot: The Incredible True Story of One Man's Rise from Janitor to Top Executive, tells the story of a man who made a science out of walking through closed doors.
Having taken a job mopping floors at Frito-Lay's California factory to support his family, Montañez took his future into his own hands and created the world’s hottest snack food: Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.
This bold move not only disrupted the food industry with some much-needed spice, but also shook up a corporate culture in which everyone stayed in their lane.
Through creative thinking, community building, and a few powerful mindset shifts, he outsmarted the naysayers who tried to get in his way, proving that you can break out of your career rut and that your present circumstances don't have to dictate your future.
Have a money question? Email us, ask jill [at] jill on money dot com.
Please leave us a rating or review in Apple Podcasts.
"Jill on Money" theme music is by Joel Goodman, www.joelgoodman.com.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Jill on Money Podcast. It's Sunday, June 13th. And yesterday, if you didn't |
| 0:09.2 | get a chance to listen, we talked to Richard Montañez. He is the guy who wrote this book |
| 0:16.0 | called Flamin'Hot, the incredible true story of one man's rise from janitor to top executive. |
| 0:23.4 | In this part of our interview, we are going to hear about how this guy created Flamin'Hot |
| 0:30.1 | Cheetos in a secret test kitchen. Pretty amazing. So check it out, and I know that you'll find |
| 0:36.7 | the story pretty engaging. Alright, here we go. Part 2. Flamin'Hot. |
| 0:42.0 | You know, I started seeing these videos from PepsiCo, because that was a communication, right? |
| 0:46.7 | There was no email, there were videos, and the videos were always inspiring. And it's |
| 0:52.2 | about Mr. Enrico talking about, you know, the company's not doing too good. He says, I need |
| 0:57.1 | your help. We can't do it without you. So he goes, I'm giving you permission to act like |
| 1:01.2 | an owner. And that just stunned me. Most people don't understand that, but you know, I grew |
| 1:06.7 | up when corporate America was a command and control. I command, I control. I didn't hire |
| 1:11.4 | you to think. I hired you to do what I tell you to do. So there was always that wall between |
| 1:16.0 | supervisors and frontline workers. And here was Rajeev was trying to tear down that wall. |
| 1:21.9 | And I was like, wow, you know, I went home and I told Judy, hey, you saw this video, you |
| 1:27.2 | know, the new CEO said act like an owner. And she said, well, an act like an owner. |
| 1:31.6 | Next to the building was a sales officer. I went and I found me a salesperson just randomly |
| 1:36.7 | walked up and I said, hey, can I go with you on my day off? I'll do all your work. I just |
| 1:41.8 | want you to teach me the business, the job. And he looked at me like, heck yeah, you can |
| 1:47.0 | come on your vacation if you want free labor. So he said, meet me at five o'clock in the |
| 1:51.6 | morning. I got there at five on my first day off. He taught me how to pull an order. He |
| 1:57.0 | taught me how to load the truck up so that we could maximize our space. And then he taught |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Audacy, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Audacy and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.