The Founder’s Mindset with Tricia Wallwork

0:00I'll have folks come in from large CPGs that are like, wow, y 'all really talk about the things. I'm like, yeah, we talk about the things. You can't be a high growth company and like skirt over it.

0:14What would happen if we just told the truth? Welcome to TruthWorks, where we dig into the nitty gritty of leadership and work. And what needs to change? I'm Jessica Neal. And I'm Patti McCord. Our journey together started in HR, but trust us, it's evolved into something wild, honest, and well, a bit rebellious. So throw out the handbook. We're here to redefine rules to work for us, not against us. Let's dive into another episode.

0:49Hi, everyone. Welcome to another episode of TruthWorks. I'm Jessica Neal. And unfortunately, Patty is not here today. But the good news is that I'm actually here with somebody very cool who I'm excited to introduce you guys to. So I have Tricia Walwork, and she is the CEO of Milo Tea Company. Tell us your story. I want the listeners to really hear the story of your family and you and this business that has just grown so much. Well, thank you. I am honored to be here. I say it a lot at our company. We're a 79-year-old startup. We're a third-generation family business. And there was actually a Milo.

1:31He was my granddad. He served our country in World War II, came home, married my grandmother, and he had the same need that all of us do at work, and that is to create economic prosperity for our families. And so he and my grandmother founded a restaurant, a walk-up hamburger chain in North Birmingham, Alabama, where the focus was on quality and it was serving working people burgers, fries, pies, and tea at a fair price. So he and my grandmother for 40 years served their customer at a walk-up window because back then in Birmingham, not everybody could sit together by law. And my granddad said, if everybody can't sit together, then no one will sit.

2:07So they were able to do, they were able to serve their customer. And, you know, we didn't have the word people first back then, but that to me is the essence of people first. So like these values, this values-based business was really started three generations ago. and each generation has laddered on new elements to that. But, you know, I think the thing that makes us, we're just such a values-driven organization. My parent generation wanted to go a different direction. So they started franchising the restaurants and they would drive around delivering sauce and tea. And back then there was only a chemistry experiment in a can for the tea category.

2:42So they started bottling it and selling it in the grocery store. Well, of course, like every kid, I had to rebel against the parents. I became a vegetarian and decided I was going to save the world and went to law school. And quickly, you know, it was my early stage career experiences that were just kind of toxic that really informed my leadership. And I wanted to create a workplace that was different. And, you know, it's been just a real joy. So I did end up trading in my high heels and pantyhose for steel-toed boots and joined the family business in 2004. And my dad had kind of taken a step back and hired a guy to run the company.

3:23So I worked for him for about eight years. And then 2012, I got the chance to be the CEO. And we've had our foot on the gas ever since. Oh, amazing. Okay. I love the values that, you know, just even from the beginning and in that time saying, you know, if not everyone can sit together, then no one sits. I mean, that's just kind of beautiful. And what do you think that that sort of foundational value set forth in the company from that point forward? Well, you know, family businesses are unique because they're founded based on love, right? And so that thread ends up pulling through to, you know, hopefully, I mean, if you're successful, right, that you're going to treat your associates with respect and care and compassion and empathy and as transparency, you know, as much transparency as you can.

4:12And so it's really motivated me. You know, you mentioned me being a female CEO. I mean, if you think back to my grandmother, she worked alongside my granddad back when women didn't work, you know, and this wasn't glamorous. Okay. You know, she was making burgers. I mean, smelled like onions, you know. I bet that seeing her work and having that role model in your life at a very early age probably made an imprint on you and, you know, set your, you know, sort of work ethic and, and thoughts about work and, and sort of a very positive way. Absolutely. I mean, we need to see ourselves, right? We all do.

4:51We want to be represented. And then we see, okay, this is possible. You can have both. It's not easy for any woman, you know, our place in the home is very different than, I mean, it just is. right so you've got to you know you got to have a team you got to have a partner that supports you and and because it's hard it feels like every time my kids had a fever when they were little I was on a plane you know I'd get the call so yeah just right and I'm you know I'm in a similar situation and it is hard I think a lot of women struggle with the guilt right like you know when you're at work you feel guilty for being at work and not with the kids because you're on the plane and they've got a fever.

5:32Even today, I'm going to be a little late for the art show, the spring art show, and my husband's going to get there before me. It's tearing me apart that my husband's going to be there before me. But I also want to do this because I love doing it and it's my job, right? But what's your advice for women in any role that is struggling with this guilt. Yeah. I mean, look, we as women do have that guilt, whether you stay home, whether you work 80 hours a week, you know, there's, there's just mom guilt and, and, you know, we've got to take care of ourselves first. I mean, we learned it during COVID, put on your mask first and, and really focusing on, you know, purpose.

6:15What is your purpose as a human being, you know, and, and your children grow up and, you know, working on your marriage, working, it's, it's an And you have to look at your whole self. You've got to be very intentional about your time. Really have a plan. I mean, what do you want out of your career? Or I wish I had done it in my 20s, but the past decade or so, I do a personal one-page plan. It's like, what do I want? I work with my husband. What are we doing here? Because if your purpose is money, then you're never going to be fulfilled. But if your purpose, you know, mine is building institutions and people that make a positive impact in the world.

6:55Now that feels really good. Right? Right. The first ones are my children, you know, they're first my children, then my team, you know, then the community. But being super intentional, how you want to write your retirement speech. What do you want to be known for? Oh, I love that. That is really great advice. Something that I actually might do because I think that that's a great plan. write your plan out and share it with your partner. Okay. Speaking of your journey as a woman and a leader, take us back to you're a vegetarian. First of all, how did the family react to you becoming vegetarian? Oh, yeah.

7:34They thought it was horrible. They thought it was horrible. I'm sure they did. And then you're going to law school. And let's talk about why you wanted to do that. And then let's talk about those career moments that sort of were aha moments for you when you started out after law school. Yeah. So I went to law school. Well, I got an undergraduate in philosophy and then I was like, I really wanted to fight for folks that couldn't fight for themselves. So that was the purpose of that. And right after law school, I worked at the 11th Circuit. So that's the federal appellate court for Florida, Georgia, and Alabama.

8:09And I had one of the probably one of the best bosses I ever had. I mean, this is a very important job. We were deciding cases before they would go to the United States Supreme Court. And I was 24 years old. I mean, and he trusted us to draft the first version of the opinion and invested in us and invested in time with us. And we had a very important case. We had the Bush v. Gore case coming out of Florida with the hanging Chad. So he was the chief judge. So So he really taught me what kind of servant leadership was. You know, he believed in the rule of law. And so I left that experience really just empowered and then went and joined a civil defense law firm where we represented companies that got in litigation with one another.

8:52And the culture at, you know, large firms in the early 2000s was not, it was just not inclusive of women, really. I mean, and it was just more of a culture of go, not let's go, you know, activity, not results. you know, just all of these things that are just, that are not, that just, I don't want to work at a place like that. So that's really was the reason that I left practicing law. I looked for another law job for a while and then just realized that I was probably too entrepreneurial too. And when I joined Milo's, we had 16 employees. So it was a very small local company. Well, what was that conversation like?

9:30So, cause your parents had taken over at that point, correct? Right, right. Yeah. So there's 16 employees. Your parents are in charge. They've started to franchise the business and sell into grocery stores. And so you're like to your mom and dad, I'm done with law. And what do they say? Well, I wish it was that strategic. So my dad had hired a guy to run the company and there was some legal opportunities. So, and they were, it started the process of estate planning. So we had a little bit of the company. So it was like, okay, I'll go learn this. And I, I mean, you know, I said it earlier, traded in my high heels and pantyhose because women back then wore pantyhose.

10:10No, I know. You made me think about my first job in the handbook. It was like, if you're, you have to wear pantyhose, it was like a rule. And I was like, God, why is that a rule? Right. Yeah. But the business was so small, I got to grow up in it. Right. I mean, I was in my twenties. I was newly married, no kids yet. And, and really learn the business right on route trucks, you know, shadow sales calls, learn about quality and food safety and manufacturing and consumer packaged goods. And so it just gave me a breadth of understanding of, you know, all a lot of corners of this business that most CEOs don't have that opportunity.

10:50Which I think is amazing. And then it gives you a true appreciation for the business as a whole, but also like all the moving parts that make it happen. Right. And, you know, there's so many folks who are in these roles, but they don't understand every aspect of the business, right? And they haven't sat on a customer call, which it's like, how can you not sit on? You know what I mean? But anyway, I love that you did that. So there's this other guy in the role. You're learning the business. You worked for him, what, eight years, I think you said? I worked for him for eight years and then had the opportunity to become the CEO.

11:27Were your grandparents still alive when you became the CEO? No, my grandmother had passed away. Yeah. Yeah. But she was a constant fixture until she, you know, she did pass away. But yeah, she saw me leading. Yeah. What do you think she would have said? Oh, she would have said, go girl. I mean, she would have been so happy. And so eight years, you take it over. And then where is the company when you take over? So when I take over, we've got about 50 employees. Now we've got about a thousand. So last year we did$730 million of retail sales. So that's a lot of tea. We delivered 1.8 billion Milo's moments.

12:08And those are servings of joy across America. And we were named Newsweek's number third most loved workplace. And it's not about the award, but it's just about, well, first of all, the associates filled out the survey. This wasn't some sort of pay to play kind of deal. And so it was based on their feedback. And one of the things that I'm just continuing to be most proud of is we use an industrial psychologist to do assessments pre-employment. And then he meets with them after the 90 days. And he does not an employee. And whenever I get to talk to John, he's like, Tricia, all of them keep saying, I can't believe it's not just a sign on the break room wall.

12:45I heard it during recruiting. I heard it, you know, during the on all this, but it's real. And so it's remarkable. Yeah. Well, I think that brings up a good point. Obviously, you've scaled the business to a totally different trajectory than maybe your grandparents could have imagined. Maybe even your parents could have imagined. A lot of success likely comes from the culture, which is how you guys operate and how you make decisions and your values. The success is building off of that. And I now spend a lot of time coaching founders and companies and things. And it's always interesting to me because each CEO, each founder, of course, they say that culture matters and there's no one that says it doesn't.

13:33But I think the very hard thing to do is live it, right? And so a lot of times it really is just on a poster or in a nicely presented book, right? But people, when they come into the organization, they don't see it. They can't feel it. And it takes a lot of work and dedication to make it a reality. Talk to us a little bit about how you do that, how you think about that. So when I first started my career, I thought HR was a compliance department. Of course. Of course. Everybody does. Yeah, it was. I mean, so I came from that upbringing. And then as I started to lead and I started to really understand what was going to take to continue to double the business and double the business and double the business, I realized that we had a gap.

14:23We had corporate values, but we didn't have team values. And so we implemented what we call the Milo's hat. You get a hat when you start at Milo's. I'm not a company. I'm a person. So the values that I need to exhibit, the behaviors that I need to bring to work every day are hungry, agile, and together. And we have sub-definitions of all that, like entrepreneurial mindset, under hungry, agile, we've got to be nimble. you know, that's that 79-year-old startup mentality. Right. And then together, valuing the team before yourself. And so when we implemented it, we had people self-select and leave.

14:55They were like, I don't want to work that way. And we were like, okay, we'll cheer you on as a valued alumni. So that was a big thing. We recruit on it. I don't care if you're on my board. I don't care, you know, if you're a consultant that's going to work with us. Everybody understands the Milo's hat. And we separate on it because if you don't live our behavioral values, then we're going to wish you well in your next opportunity. If you've got the skills, we can find a different job for you. But the behavioral side, we just don't, we're not patient. Yeah. I love that you do that. And, you know, when I'm talking to companies all the time, I'm like, you have to be really clear about what you are and what you're not.

15:33And let people who want to be that select into that and let people who don't select out. And it's a scary kind of proposition, I think, for a lot of CEOs are like, oh, we can't lose anybody. It's like, yeah, you can because you're losing the right people, right? And you're keeping the people who are motivated by that. Did you get pushback from the board or did you get pushback from other folks when you started doing this? Or was it something like, okay, everybody agrees and we're all in? Yeah, it was really kind of early on before I had developed my board to the sophistication level. It was kind of earlier in my tenure as the CEO.

16:10I will say one of the other big shifts that I had, you know, HR, which back when it was called HR, was in legal, our legal department. And in 2019, I really started to realize, no, we've got to change this. If people is our number one ingredient, that needs to be directly reporting to me. So I made some changes with the executive leadership team. And Ryan is our people leader. it was one of these moments, you know, I was like, Ryan, I don't know if you're ready, but I need you to step up. And he stepped up in a big way. And, you know, that was the year we kind of rebranded our culture and people first.

16:49And we were like, this isn't an initiative. This isn't, you know, one year, this is who we are. And I bet that with that shift and sort of the operating culture, I'm sure you can correlate it to the bottom line being impacted. Oh, for sure. I mean, we've doubled in the past 10 years, three and a half times. You know, I was so scared years ago. We moved. So we were all at our Bessemer plant for my whole career at Milo's. We ran out of room. So I had to move my corporate offices. And I was like, oh, no. Oh, no. How do we translate the culture? You know, I was so concerned. But, you know, making it top of mind, making sure we're diligent about the behaviors.

17:30we do a quarterly ENPS on all of our associates. Our goal and our industry, you know, teens is the average. Our goal is over 60 and we're, we consistently, you know, hit it. Now, does that mean every department's always doing it? No, you can see what, well, we got a problem there. We need to go talk to that later. Oh, you know, so we, we keep that pulse all the time and that feedback loop and our cadence. And so we can see what's really going on. Right. Right. Well, I think that that is, you know, a challenge for many companies is to have that constant pulse and feedback loop, but really constant pulse on performance, right?

18:12Like, because, you know, you can define performance so many different ways, but, you know, when you are saturating the company with the best talent and you're, you're keeping the right talent, right. And, you know, when you're doing processes, like an annual performance review and things like that does not tell you who's performing and who's not. And the challenge is to have meaningful feedback loops and insights that kind of give you a constant pulse on this versus an annual look at it. And so you guys are running surveys and things like that. When we do the EMPS every quarter, we ask an open-ended question.

18:50And obviously we say you can provide feedback, but like last quarter, It was, you know, do you have psychological safety at work? We had to explain it, you know, what that means. But, you know, trying to get folks to really dig in there and, you know, do you feel like you can speak your mind? We talk a lot at Milo's about brutal facts, you know, we don't want to ignore the brutal facts. And it is so interesting. I'll have folks come in from large CPGs, you know, that are like, wow, y 'all really, you know, talk about the things. I'm like, yeah, we talk about the things. You can't be a high growth company and like skirt over it, you know, it's not blame or shame.

19:22It's okay if we don't hit the priority. You know, we just need to talk about it early enough so we can go, okay, well, what can we do to help? Or do we need to, you know, shift and pivot? Yeah. Be actual. Yeah. I'll tell you this, Jessica, this is pretty remarkable. So last year, 2024, we had 70 ,000 applicants for 130 jobs at Milo's. Wow. I always say every time you double, you break your people in your process, which is how, I mean, that's what happened to us, right? Right. But we're designing now with not doing that. Like, you know, we are looking at our enterprise operating system and really trying to make the ecosystem more scalable.

19:59Right. What do you think it was about the reputation and how did people hear about Milo's? And why do you think you've got so many applicants? Well, in my industry, you know, it's really CPG is not that big. I mean, you know, as far as corporate jobs. Right. Now, we're 10 % of the manufacturing jobs in America. Okay. So people know. Yeah. People know and they hear about the culture. I also have been really intentional on LinkedIn. I'm very, very active and I talk a lot about culture. I talk a lot about our values aligned, you know, business and our growth. People want to work at a growth company.

20:34It's fun. Yeah. I mean, it is fun. Yeah. It's not fun to be on the opposite end of that. No. Not growing is not fun. But well, let's talk about like not growing and scary moments. Have Have there been moments for you since being CEO where you lost confidence in yourself or you were like, oh God, like, yeah, I don't know whether it's like imposter syndrome or like whatever you want to call it. But have you had those like, oh shit moments? Well, you always have the self-consciousness, right? It's back to the women, you know, guilt, you know, we all are like, oh, you know. I don't deserve this. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

21:12I'm just, I'm a big believer in stoicism, you know, and it's really about, you know, every day you've got to believe in yourself and, you know, you've got to know that, you know, you have what it takes and being just ridiculously self-aware. I hope we grow this business to the point where I'm no longer the one that needs to be the CEO. And so like just radical candor with yourself about who you are, where you are, what your purpose is, what your wants are, what your, you know, what does success look like for you, you know? And we're hitting a lot of my BHAGs that I've had for this business right now.

21:46I was in Boston last week and they're doing a case study about our growth at Harvard Business School. You know, next week we're opening our$200 million investment in a new Greenfield facility in Spartanburg, South Carolina. You know, there's just these big moments that you're like, okay, wow. These are big things. Yeah. And I mean, did you ever imagine? No, but it's interesting. And also I'll tell you this. So I mentioned that story about Brian and my people leader and moving him to the executive team. So we read a book a quarter together, every quarter. So I looked back and I read Patty's book in 2021 with my team.

22:19I just loved the concept of freedom and accountability. It was how I felt like I was leading, but I didn't have those words to describe it. Like we had done self-led leave for some of our corporate folks. It was very meaningful moment in our growth because since 2001, I mean, we've doubled probably three times, maybe not that many times, but anyway, a lot. We've grown a lot. 2001, we grew. I know that year in particular, we had just opened our second production facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was a greenfield, over$100 million investment. And the thing is, I have to go to my board and my family and go, hey, do you want to build a$100 million, $200 million, whatever facility based on a forecast?

22:58That's a scary moment. Yeah. Well, talk to us about that. So how do you work through the fear? It's just the utter confidence in the team. And what we do every day, delivering excellence to our customers. And our world is about being on time and in full with the items that the shoppers want. We're high velocity. We drive category growth, not just take share from our competitors. So, you know, we're a really unique business. To have this 79-year-old heritage, but be so high growth is very, very unique. I mean, it's just so fascinating that you've been able to infuse an energy and a vision that has propelled the company to a totally different level.

23:47It's because of the founder's mindset, right? I feel like a founder. I mean, because the company was so small when I joined. Like I said earlier, having the opportunity to bring this workplace vision, this place where we all gather to live our shared values, to be passionate about what we do, you know, bring joy to our consumers and being literally invited to gatherings that matter where people come together. You know, we get right there on the table, you know, we're on the table. So it's very, it's humbling and it's exceptionally fun. Yes. And I think that that's the thing that sometimes people miss about work is that when you're doing it with really great people and you're doing it with an amazing team and you're doing something that's magical.

24:35I mean, you know, there is magic in tea, right? Because it brings people joy. People love their tea. And then you, just to your point, like you're at the table where it's friends and family and students or whatever it is. Right. And that's an important part of life and bringing people together and you get to be part of that. And I think people often miss that there's magic in, in work and work can be extremely fun, but that fun comes from, you know, doing it with the right people who challenge you and support you and respect you. Yeah, absolutely. So talk to us about like the top three leadership lessons you've had to learn.

25:23Okay. Number one, being too patient with somebody that is not the right fit for that role. If somebody shows you who they are, believe them. That would be number one. Isn't it Oprah said that, I think? Yeah. Right? I love that saying. So tell us the story of like how you learned that. It would be maybe somebody on our sales team that just wasn't living our values. and you try to coach and then you do a pip and you do all these things and you're like, what am I doing? If you're on a pip, we're already too far down the road. And what did I lose? I lost significant opportunities with customers that weren't being served with the behaviors wearing the Milo's hat, right?