About
About Monica
After serving as a lieutenant in the US Army, Monica started a new career as a Restaurant General Manager for Taco Bell. Despite her military leadership training, Monica struggled to engage her team. She couldn’t understand how to make her team care about customers, or even want to show up for work. Turnover was high and morale was low. She missed sales goals, turnover targets and profit.
One very late night, after a particularly challenging day, she sat on the floor of her dining room. As the tears of frustration fell, she made a vow: “IF I ever get promoted out of the restaurant, I will spend my life trying to make life easier for managers.” Over time Monica learned that her job was not to survive to the next day, complete a task list or hit the numbers. Rather, her role was to lead and love her team. Once she changed the focus from “me” to “we,” retention increased, customer experience improved and sales grew.
Monica did get promoted and eventually became the COO, leading 4000 KFC restaurants in the US. Yet, she never forgot the lessons she learned as a manager. The first woman COO for KFC US and the first LGBTQ executive, Monica was a role-model for frontline leaders.
Now as Friend of the Frontline, Monica continues her passion to empower frontline leaders. During her keynote she shares real life wisdom with franchisees and multi-unit operators on the importance of elevating frontline leaders.
In 2024, Monica published her first book Lessons from the Drive-Thru, an instructional memoir about her experience as a manager and the lessons that shaped her as a leader.
