The Dave Crenshaw Success Show

The Macaron Franchisor, Rosalie Guillem - Co-Owner of Le Macaron

• Dave Crenshaw • Season 4 • Episode 11

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Rosalie Guillaume, co-founder of Le Macaron, a French pastry franchise with over 65 locations, shared her journey from a modest background in France to building a successful business in the U.S. Despite losing everything during the Great Recession, she leveraged her experience with Amway and her passion for macarons to start her own business. Rosalie emphasized the importance of hiring for traits, maintaining family harmony, and breaking down large goals into manageable steps. She highlighted the significance of customer service, simplicity in operations, and the cultural experience her stores offer. Rosalie’s story underscores resilience, family values, and the power of following one’s dreams.

ACTION PRINCIPLES 

Pick one to do this week:

  1. Take smaller steps. When a project or task is overwhelming, it helps to break it down into smaller steps. ACTION: List out all the steps of a large project and focus only on the next step.
  2. Embrace your unique qualities. Finding ways to incorporate your traits or passions during reinvention can boost your success. ACTION: Ask yourself how you can incorporate something you love or a natural talent into the next phase of your career.
  3. Hire for traits. Many leaders make the mistake of hiring based on skills. Traits are far more critical to your company’s success. ACTION: Prioritize traits in a potential employee that match your company culture.
  4. Believe in yourself. Surround yourself with a supportive circle, and have faith in your ability to succeed. ACTION: Write a list the reasons you will succeed and read them daily as a reminder.


GUEST RESOURCES

Learn more from Rosalie Guillem by visiting Le Macaron.


SUGGESTED LINKEDIN LEARNING COURSE
 

Discovering Your Strengths

 

Dave Crenshaw develops productive leaders in Fortune 500 companies, universities, and organizations of every size. He has appeared in Time magazine, USA Today, FastCompany, and the BBC News. His courses on LinkedIn Learning have been viewed tens of millions of times. His five books have been published in eight languages, the most popular of which is The Myth of Multitasking—a time management bestseller. As an author, speaker, and online instructor, Dave has transformed the lives and careers of hundreds of thousands around the world. DaveCrenshaw.com

Unknown:

My husband, my son in law, my daughter. They were hiding in the kitchen. Everyone was scared about talking with the first customer. Oh, my God, and I was in front

Dave Crenshaw:

in this episode, you'll get to know Rosalie Guillaume, the macaron franchisor, and you'll hear the story of how she went from losing everything in the Great Recession to building a successful French pastry franchise with over 65 locations. I'm Dave Crenshaw, and this is my success Show. Welcome back, friends, to the Dave Crenshaw Success Show. This is where I interview some of the most successful people I've met in my life's journey, and I let you come along and learn along with my family, if it's your first time here, by way of introduction, I'm a best selling author. I speak around the world to Fortune 500 companies, and I've taught millions of people how to be successful through my online courses, in particular, my courses on LinkedIn learning with this show, I wanted to create something lasting, a bit of a legacy project, to help my kids succeed. I was thinking about them. Then I thought, Well, why not let you enjoy learning along with them? I seek to interview people who have multi faceted success, so not just career or financial success as important as those are, but also have time for fun and make time for family. And my guest today is someone who really that's an important thing in her life. Now, one thing I'd like you to do as you listen to today's episode, look for something you can do, an action you can take, and then that way, you'll make my guest success story a part of your success story. And I'm really excited about my guest today. I admit that this whole morning I've gotten very hungry thinking about her business. My guest is Rosalie Guillaume. She's the owner and co founder of Le macaron, a French patisserie specializing in authentic, handcrafted macarons. She moved to the United States from France in 2002 and started the business in 2009 with her daughter Audrey. Since its inception, le macaron has become a growing franchise with 66 locations nationwide. Le macaron has received the entrepreneur franchise 500 top food franchise award multiple times. Rosalie enjoys reading books, traveling, playing golf, and spending time with her family and eight grandchildren. Rosalie, it's an honor to have you on the show today. Thanks for being here.

Unknown:

Thank you for having me on your show. I feel honored that you wanted to hear my story, and I hope your details will understand me even with my French accent.

Dave Crenshaw:

Yeah, before the show, we were talking about how I took several years of French, and so did my assistant, Victoria so but I think your English is far, far better than our French.

Unknown:

Thank you.

Dave Crenshaw:

And I'll confess that as I've been contemplating this interview this morning, I've been getting very hungry. I love macarons and your store, and so I'm really thrilled to learn the story behind all of it with

Unknown:

pleasure. I am here for that.

Dave Crenshaw:

So I always like to start at the very beginning, Rosalie. And by beginning, what I mean is the question that many people ask their kids, which is, what do you want to be when you grow up? So when you were growing up in France, what did you think you would be, or what your career would be,

Unknown:

that's a good question. In fact, I didn't have a specific dream job in mind, but what I wanted to be or to do. I wanted to travel the world. I wanted to be in contact with people. I wanted to travel different country and hear people listening their story, and discover how they do live in other countries. That was my dream. And I'm coming from a very modest family, so I didn't have the money to travel, and at the time, at 14 years old, I said, Oh, maybe you can be a flag attendant, so you will be able to travel the world, by this way, without to have to expend money. Yes,

Dave Crenshaw:

and right now you're in Florida. What part of France did you grow up in?

Unknown:

I grew up in south, south France. I grew up in a small city between Marseille and Exxon Provence, where the lavender grows. Very lucky.

Dave Crenshaw:

Oh, that sounds beautiful. That sounds like a smell, really good. So did you have opportunities to travel like around Europe? I mean, that's one advantage that you have in a place like France versus the United States, is just access to more countries immediately.

Unknown:

Yes, that's true, that we were able to go in Italy, Spain, Switzerland, England, very easier. And I think that is the advantage that we have in France, is that we speak several language, you know, because we have to adapt to the city where we go. You

Dave Crenshaw:

know, I heard a joke about that once, if you speak three languages, you're trilingual. If you speak two languages, you're bilingual. If you speak one language, you're American. That's good. So did you have the opportunity to be a flight attendant? What did you study? Please tell us about that. Yes,

Unknown:

I wanted to learn and study different language, because I already spoke Italian, because my mom was from, originally from Italy, so that was my maternal language. But I was born and raised in France, so France was my second language, of course, and I didn't pursue this career, because I was very, very lucky. In one sense. I met my husband. I was 16 years old. Oh, wow. He is the love of my life. I'm very lucky. So we're gonna celebrate 50 years, waiting in two years. So that's great. Oh, that's fantastic. Very proud of that. So I was 16, he was 18, he was going to college. He wanted to study and to become a doctor that he did. So I understood that I had no choice to do long study by myself. I wanted to get married. I wanted to to be able to support a little the family. So I went on private school to become a secretary, and I learned at the time how to use a typewriter and take shorthand. And I think that was a great idea at the time, because, remember, at the time, we had no computer, but when technology advanced, I was already familiar with using a keyboard and being able to use different software very quickly to create my own company.

Dave Crenshaw:

Oh, and what was that company

Unknown:

that came after? Because that was 78 we didn't have the possibility at the time. Bernard was a student. I was doing a little work, you know, some temporary work, and at this time that might surprise you, but we were inviting to a meeting, and they were presenting the concept Amway, the American concept Amway, so

Dave Crenshaw:

Amway, right? Yes. Okay, so multi level marketing, right? Exactly,

Unknown:

yes. So we were on our 20s, and I thought it was a good way to have some extra earning. And we started this business with my husband and with this business, I mean, we had to travel a lot. We had to meet a lot of people, of course. And I was happy, because that helped us to go through all this nine year of study that Bernard used to have. So because we were doing very well with harway, we become a distributor diamond, and we were invited to do some wonderful travels, and to come to the USA, and fell in love with America here by the travel that we were earning, because we were very good at selling.

Dave Crenshaw:

Okay, so I want to dive into that for a moment, because I see some parallels with the business that you run now, with being a franchise, right? It's you understand the value of having people underneath you who are earning and you're receiving income from that, but I do want to really focus on the sales process. So first of all, what made you good at selling Amway to other people? What are your you and your husband's skill set that allows you to do that?

Unknown:

We were a hard worker, very hard worker, having a good sense of humor that's making people interested and laughing about the concept, but we are very proud of the quality of the product that we were selling. We had a passion for the product that we were presenting that was something that was really 100% sure for us. So we didn't have any issue presenting this concept and this product, because we were very proud of them, and we worked very, very hard. Yes,

Dave Crenshaw:

when you say very hard, could you describe that a little bit more? What did that mean at the time? Yeah,

Unknown:

we had a meeting every day. We had to meet people, to organize meetings, to travel all over France, to. Meet people where they live, because we were doing meeting in day house, in day home, in day city. So that was a lot of work for us. And Bernard was studying and I was having a baby, you know? Wow. That was a lot. But motivation was here, and the pleasure to share the idea and the pleasure to see people, the people having some extra money for them too. That was, that was great for us.

Dave Crenshaw:

So I just want to kind of debate something with you a little bit here. My perspective is, a lot of times people will see something like a multi level marketing company, and the phrase that they sometimes use to promote it to others is passive income, right? It's the idea that you have these other people working underneath you, and then you get this passive income. But I feel like that's kind of a misnomer, because clearly there's nothing passive about what you were doing. You were working very hard to build that and I think that that that's required of any successful career is to continually work and maintain that income. What? What's your perspective on that?

Unknown:

I totally agree with Joe. I mean, you need to call people, you need to motive them, you need to push them. You need to to be in contact with them. You need to organize, you need to present, you need to try. You need to share the motivation with them. That is a lot of work, but we were at a level I think. We were the youngest distributor director of all the time. We were on our 20s, you know. But at the time we really need to have something in order to survive. So that was the good opportunity that was presented to us, and we catch it. You know, when you are 20 and 22 years, you don't think a lot about future, you you leave the present moment. But for me, I have to say that being with this company for several years, that has been the best school ever. I learned so much meeting all these people. I learned so much with my husband, doing all these meeting, presenting, talking with people, learning from people. That was the best school, the best university I could do, I think so. That was difficult. That was the worst thing.

Dave Crenshaw:

What's a lesson that you learned that you apply today in your business with Le macaron,

Unknown:

never give up. Never give up. And I have a My motto that is just here, you know, a journey of 1000 miles begin with a single step. So even sometimes I can still overwhelm me. I say, Okay, start Step one. Done. Step two, done. Step three, done, you know, and never give up, and and you can do it. And also, my husband is funny because he said, always, I am not worrying about something that I don't know. He said, she doesn't know She cannot do it. She does. I am very curious, and if I don't know something, I ask. I ask people, How we do that. I ask, do you know that? And until I find all my answer and am I taught me that that was very important,

Dave Crenshaw:

and they provided a system as well, right? Like you provide a system to your franchisees, and in a similar way, you were following a system that Amway was giving you in terms of sales training and that

Unknown:

sort of thing, the support, exactly, the motivation, and they used to organize a wonderful trip for us. So I had the opportunity to leave my little city and travel the world with the most beautiful hotels. Can you imagine? I mean, I was on my on my 20s. I I, I end up at the world of Astoria in New York for the first time of my life. You know, that gives you a lot of motivation to see people succeed, that show you that you can succeed too. Yeah,

Dave Crenshaw:

and I had a mentor early on in my career, Rosalie, who he talked about, he created a school in Mexico for kids, and it was so important for them to have everything look nice, the best desks, the best classrooms, all of those things. And the reason why he did that, it was to expose them to the concept of success, to give them a taste of this is possible. Look at what this is. It sounds like. That's what that was for you,

Unknown:

exactly. Because if I had to stay in my little city, I would not have been traveling in USA. And maybe I will be there as of today. I will. Not moved. But because I saw other things. I saw success. I've saw the USA. I saw the beautiful hotel, the beautiful boats. I saw the beautiful plane. I said, I can have that too, and I'm gonna fight to have that

Dave Crenshaw:

too. And I want to emphasize something too that you said, which is, and this is a recurring theme Rosalie, with the people that I've interviewed, is a little bit of ignorance is good, a little bit of getting into something and not realizing what you're doing. Because if you think about all of the steps and everything that you're gonna have to do, it just becomes overwhelming. It's too much. You're right? I'm dealing with that right now, with a new project that I'm doing, and I just have to continually stop myself from thinking about the future. It's very weird. Stop thinking about all that and just thinking about what's the next step right here,

Unknown:

that's helped me a lot, step by step. Yeah, yeah.

Dave Crenshaw:

Okay, so I know that you moved to the United States in 2002 so were you working with Amway all the way up to that, or was there a period in between? No,

Unknown:

he was a big period in between. In 1988 with Bernard. He was a doctor, but he decided that he doesn't like that anymore, so he wanted to change fields. And we created a company, and we started to sell houses, an apartment, a real estate company, both together, and we were doing very, very well. We had a big company in France. Everything was nice, and in 2002 we moved to Florida because I wanted to take a sabbatical year with my children. I wanted them to learn to speak English. The fact is that I really love living in Florida, so I didn't want to go back in France. And that's when, in 2008 2009 the Great Recession eats, and it was chaos. We lost everything. The bank were not financing anymore, so it was chaos. So we lost everything, even my house here in USA. And

Dave Crenshaw:

you lost it all because you were selling real estate because you were investing, yes, yes. And both here in the United States and in France, did you have properties in both locations? Yes,

Unknown:

wow. And that was terrible. I

Dave Crenshaw:

want to spend a little time on that, because a big part of this show is helping people understand principles of success. But you can't have success without failure. So could you sort of paint a picture of what that was like for you and your husband and your family to feel that and experience that degree of failure.

Unknown:

Life was very simple before, beautiful house, beautiful boats, travels, I mean beautiful life, and suddenly you have nothing. You cannot pay your mortgage, you cannot pay the food, you cannot pay the utilities. You have nothing. So you have to give back the House to the bank, and I have to try to find an idea to survive. Again, what I'm going to do to survive? I still had two little daughter at the time with Bernard, and it was a terrible no one wanted to start a new business. And I said, I need to find an idea. We need to bounce back. We need to create something so not having all the material was not important for me. The most important was staying a focus on my family. I had the love of my life. I have my children. We were wealthy as health. I mean, that was very important. We had a roof overhead, even if it was a small apartment, I didn't care. That was the most important family children, a roof. That was very important. The rest, I was ready to start over anything else,

Dave Crenshaw:

there's an interesting combination. Is you're describing this Rosalie, which is on one side, you're talking about gratitude, and you're saying, here are the things that I have that are most important, and you're grateful for them, which is also a principle I've seen in many of the people I've interviewed. At the same time, there was a hunger, the hunger for more, the hunger to to do more and get back to that level of success. I think sometimes people feel that the two are against each other, that gratitude and the desire to succeed, but really they're not right. They both can exist at the same time,

Unknown:

absolutely one. One is the motivation of the other one, as long as you're strong with your family. I used to say, I don't care where I live. My family is my husband and my children. So if it's a palace or if it's a two bedroom apartment, that's not important. You know you are motivated to start again. You know that you were successful, and you know that you have the capacity to start over, but you don't know how. You don't know where, and my English at the time was really, really bad. I'm gonna, I have to say

Dave Crenshaw:

you were able to get by in Florida for many years without learning English. How did you do that?

Unknown:

Yeah. Because you know, when you move in another country, you have tendency to be friends with the one that speak the same language that you are, yeah. So you have the basic one just what you need to have to go to the doctor or to do some paperwork at school for the girls, but you don't need to express yourself and and you don't know the the professional term, but anyway, I and I thought, what I can do, what I can bring to this wonderful country that has already almost everything. So I was thinking, what do I have in France, and that I am not able to find an USA. And I started, where are we good in France, that USA needs to have some improvement. So I started, oh, the wine. We have wonderful wine in France. You don't drink wine Rosalie, you don't know thing on wine, so eliminate. And I said, okay, the fashion. Oh, we have a wonderful fashion in France. Oh, you don't know how to sew, you don't know how to draw, you don't know how to design. Eliminate. And I went by elimination like that, you know? And finally I found out, what do we love in France that we don't find here something to eat. And I thought, oh, macaroon. I love macaroon in France. I don't have any macaroon store here in USA,

Dave Crenshaw:

especially Florida, right everywhere

Unknown:

at the time, in 2009 not one macaron in all the USA, because in France, when I left France, we were able to find macaron only in Paris, at the lagerre store, and it was a long tube behind the in front of the store to have macaron. And a few years after, we were able to see macaron almost in every little bakery in France that was growing and growing and even in Europe, but still not in USA. And I said, that is my idea. We're going to open a cafe patisserie, having the main product being macaron. So my daughter, my eldest daughter, was still in France, and she was married, having children, and I called her, and she wanted to come and join her. And I said, you know, Andre, I think I found an idea. We should open a cafe patisserie, and we should sell macarons and other little stuff like ice cream and chocolate. And she said, Yes, that's a wonderful idea, ma'am. And I said, Okay, you need to send your husband at school now, because he has to learn how to do macaron. Wow. So we spoke with Didier, and we sent a DJ in Paris to the Lenape school. We sent DJ in several different school to to learn how to do this specialty. DJ is, who is my son in law. He's an older husband, okay? And Didier was so good at what he was doing in Paris that he gets friends with the instructors. And he was um, sharing his idea of moving in USA and opening a store, and one of his instructors said, I will be willing to help you. So we got the help of this uh, wonderful chef that is still in France that came several time in USA to help to set up the recipe, to set up the kitchen and to open our first location, just a little tiny location in Sarasota, Florida, that is still open today.

Dave Crenshaw:

When you opened that, what was your vision? You had all this success before in real estate and even as a diamond level Amway executive, when you started that one, did you see a lot more in your mind?

Unknown:

My husband, yes, he did see. Okay, my husband had the vision. He is a visionary, too. So he said, I. We're gonna do something so simple that people will be able to duplicate it. I love that. So the way we did when we set up our first location was extremely simple. Even teenagers, my teenager, they were 14 and 15 at the time. They were having some money during weekend, you know, they were watching at the store and running the store because it was very simple. 16 years old, can run a store, can open a store and close the store, because everything is extremely, very simple. So when we opened the first location, people, they had no clue about what was a macaron. So they saw the beautiful science outside le macaron, French pastry. So they were coming inside. They were looking for French pastry. At that time, we didn't have French pastry. Now we have a line of product that is much more important. But 10 years more, 13 years ago, we didn't have that. And the people had no idea, and were looking for Napoleon. What is a Napoleon? I had no idea. What is a Napoleon.

Dave Crenshaw:

Yeah, that's an American turn, isn't it? It's not really what the French say.

Unknown:

Absolutely not. We call that mill Fauci, you know. But when we opened the first day, Dave, he sent to me, my husband, my son in law, my daughter. They were hiding in the kitchen. Everyone was scared about talking with the first customer. Oh, my God, and I was in front. I love people. I love to talk with people. I love to interact with people. That is a quality that I require for my franchisee, and I went in front of my first customer. No problem. They were showing me the flavor, because sometimes I was not able to understand the accent. You know, when people come from New York, for me, for French girl, it's like listening. Wow. It's very difficult, but with a big, beautiful smile and kindness the customer, they are great. I never had any issue with my accent at the time, and we opened the first location like that, 2009

Dave Crenshaw:

well, your accent, too is a strength for the type of product that you're making, because it's it's authentic. Here we have a French woman talking to us about French food, right? Yes,

Unknown:

you're right. And I remember the some customer, they were looking at me and, oh, it looks like I am on the movie a chocolate. Have you seen the movie chocolate? And they said, Yes, I know chocolate. It's a it was a beautiful movie. Yes,

Dave Crenshaw:

okay, so the the trickiest part, and and Rosalie, I used to do a lot of coaching for small businesses, in fact, sometimes help them move to a franchisor situation. So I know that the most difficult thing to do is to get the second one going. So can you talk to us a little bit about that process of going? Okay, now we've got this set up to the point where we can use systems. Was the first one a second location for yourself, or was the second one a franchise that you sold

Unknown:

both? In fact, as I said, we lost everything. So I took the few last money that I have. My daughter came from France. She took a saving with her, and with a little money, we were able to open the first one. My second store open was my son. He was still in France, so I called him, and I said, I am a mama. I love to have my daughter, my children around me. I have four children. And I said, Gregory, you should come. We have opened a first location, and I'd like to open a second location. And I think that you should be great opening the second location. So he opened the second location in Orlando that is still open now. And the third location was a customer inside the store. I love your store. I love your product. Are you a franchisor? And I say, No, I am not a franchisor yet, and I would love to open a store like you. And they say yes, no problem, we're going to become a franchisor. So I was in contact with lawyers. I was able to find an American lawyer that was speaking fluently French. So that was a big plus for me. And I called a company that helped me to set up all the paperwork to become a franchisor, and in 2012 we become franchisor with several stores. Was

Dave Crenshaw:

it just one customer that came to you and said that and that and that sparked the idea? Did you already have that idea? Or were there multiple people we already

Unknown:

have the idea? That's why we wanted to keep. Very simple, very duplicatable, as I said, that is extremely important. We didn't want the franchisee to learn how to do the macaron, how to do any baking, because we know that is extremely complicated. We don't want our franchisee to wake up at night, at 3am to do the baking with or even to have to hire a chef, you know, because sometimes you cannot rely on them, and you have nothing to sell. In the morning, we wanted to have something extremely simple. And when I did my first batch of macaron, that is a funny story, too. I said to my husband, I know I find the idea we're going to open a store, we're going to sell macaron. And he said, it's not possible. The only macaron we're able to find, they were in Paris. They're extremely difficult to do. And I say, you know, they're very difficult to do, but I want to try. And I did my first batch of macaron at home. They were not looking good. I have to say, I have to be friends, because I'm very, very difficult to do, but my husband wanted to have one, and he said, Can I have one? And I say, No, no, no. Why? I said, because in the recipe, it's written that in order to have the moisture back on the shelves, I need to freeze them, and only when I will defrost dam, the flavor will spread on the shelves, and the muster will be back, and they look at me, and he said, you are genius. That is a perfect idea, because we're going to be able to ship macaron all over the world with this recipe, you see. So it's the complimentary, yeah,

Dave Crenshaw:

and that can't be overstated, is with the franchise, you want as little as possible to think about. So that I really think is the genius. As I was listening to other interviews with you, and I heard you're not requiring them to make them I think that's brilliant. Now you one of the things you said, I want to I want to focus on you mentioned how when people came to your store, you were so friendly and welcoming to them, and that's part of the reason why the first one succeeded. The tricky part with the franchise is creating systems for customer service and doing the same thing that you did. So how do you teach your franchisees how to behave, so to speak, how to treat the customer? What's your process for training them with that?

Unknown:

So we have a training that is almost a focus on on the sales, but I think that I choose my franchisee myself, and before to start any process, I have a founder call with them, like you just seeing on face. Face time since the beginning. I used Skype at the time because the first time was not here, and I wanted to talk with my franchisee, and I wanted them to feel comfortable with me, but I want me myself to be comfortable with them, so I was able to see if they were friendly, if they were not too shy, if they if you had the first hour, having a good contact together, that was the First pound to pass for them. And after I invite them also, during the process for discovery day that I personally welcome them in a store, I spend time with them. I make them taste my product. I made them see the confectionary, meet the team, and at the end of the day, same thing Do I think they will be good franchises. How do they act with my employees? How do they listen? How do they pay attention? All these little information are for me, extremely important, and at the end of the day, I take 2448 hours to think again about them and to tell them if yes or not, I think they have a chance to become a good franchisee. I love my franchisee. I really love them. They are all very nice people. We have one annual meeting, and every time we meet, it's like having a big family reunion, because we are all feeling comfortable with the other. There is no competition within my franchisee, they help each other as long as they can.

Dave Crenshaw:

There is so much gold in what you said right there. Rosalie, I hope people really paid attention. And one of the things that you talked about, and I think this applies even if you're not a franchisor, is I talk about this in a lot of my courses and books, hiring for traits, meaning, like you said, friendly. They are? They people who listen? Do they pay attention? These are not necessarily skills. They can be improved as skills. But really you're you're choosing to get into business with someone because of who they are. You're going to teach them the skills. You're going to teach them how to run the business, how to sell the macarons. But you're really hiring for the kind of people, and I say hire they're buying from you. I'm just trying to extend the lesson to other fields. You're hiring people who have the right traits, and boy, that makes life so much easier when you have a group of people who share those traits in common.

Unknown:

I agree, and not only that, but also in training, we teach them that when they're gonna hire people to help them, we want them to help, also to hire people, also that they are like them. I don't work anymore in the store, but once a while I still go because I really love I cannot resist. I have to go behind the display case, and I have to interact with my customer, where are you from? And you have a taste my macaron. They love that. I really love that. So if you have this kind of person in the store, people feel comfortable. They like to come and see you. They like to listen the story of the macaron. When you explain what is a macaroon, how do we do the macaron? Vanilla, how do we do the microphone? The Mint Macaron? They love to start to listen the story of the franchise. Also a little, not too much, and you'll have to listen who they are, also when they are recurrent customer. And they come always, you know? And that's my life, so enjoyable.

Dave Crenshaw:

But the culture is part of the product. Yes, you're selling a pastry, but you're also selling a culture. You're you're selling that feeling, you're selling the connection to France and a very friendly interpretation of what that would be like an experience. I think that's what people are buying as well, aren't they? Absolutely

Unknown:

it's, I used to say when my customer come in our store, it's like they're having a five minute vacation in France. You know, the atmosphere, the the people that they are serving them, they're very nice, the quality of the product, we have wonderful products. We do our own gelato, we do our own macaron, our own pastries. The high quality of the product that we use to do our past three is unbelievable, and that makes people feeling good when they come to our location, yes,

Dave Crenshaw:

and I could see that there's a type of person who would really enjoy working in that. I mean, we mentioned how I took French. It didn't stick. I didn't do well with it, but I do appreciate it, and I do also know that there are a ton of people who I went to classes with who just loved the culture. And I think if you hire those kinds of people who are just in love with France, that's going to exude the experience when people walk through the door and they're going to say, let me give you a little slice of southern France right now, you're

Unknown:

right, and I and I'm going to say that almost all my franchisee, they love France. They were all in love with France before to meet me already, or they have been traveling there, or they have heard about France, but they really love France. That was very helpful too, also, and you're right, my little French accent has helped me also,

Dave Crenshaw:

absolutely, absolutely. So there's a word that you have used so many times in this Rosalie, and I really want to focus on it for a moment. Here you use the word family how it was important, how it was driving what you were doing early on in the 70s and 80s, how this is a family business. Sometimes family businesses are very difficult. There's a lot of ego and baggage that's carried with that. How have you maintained success as a family business?

Unknown:

That's a very, very good question. First of all, I mean, I have four we have four children. They live all not close to me, and we are very close. We are a real family. I mean, we love each other. Does not mean that we don't fight. We fight in the business because each one has a strong personality and idea, but that is also complementary in the family. You know, we see things differently, and we let our children to express themselves. So I'm gonna be with my daughter online. I'm gonna not agree with her. I'm gonna be, no, I don't want to do that. She's gonna say, I want to do that. And so we're fighting. And two minutes after I call her, Oh, by the way, are you coming Sunday morning or. Yeah, you see, we don't let the business go over the love that we have in the family. That's special. That's really special.

Dave Crenshaw:

Is that something you've talked about specifically and say, This is what we're going to do? Or is that just happen naturally,

Unknown:

naturally? But my daughter Audrey, said, Mom, I don't want to talk anymore business during the family dinner or lunch. Not a world of business. That's for a few years now, and we respect that. That's so smart of her. Yeah, we don't talk about business at all. But now she doesn't want to need to talk business on Friday because she doesn't want to be upset on Friday and she doesn't want me to talk on Monday morning because she's too busy on Monday morning. But we adapt. We adapt that is important. I'm

Dave Crenshaw:

putting myself in the shoes of somebody who maybe is working with a family member at work or in their business, and they're hearing this, and they want that, but they don't have it. They're not creating good boundaries. So what would you say to that person to establish a more healthy relationship with their family member?

Unknown:

You know love is, is everything. Listen and respect what your children say. You don't agree all the time, but you respect what they have to say. Let them express what they have to say. I think that respect is very important as an individual. They are not my child anymore when they talk business, they are adults I work with when they talk business, you know, that's like a big difference. And they think that sometimes some family they do not agree with their children because they don't want to see them as adults, as responsible. They want to over protect them. I let my children doing mistakes sometimes because they have to learn, also mistakes, you know,

Dave Crenshaw:

yeah, that's so critical. Is not going in and rescuing them. I think that's also not just true with children, but with your employees, with people that you lead, sometimes you need to allow them to fail so that they can learn from it, and then you can talk to them about it and help them grow.

Unknown:

Because otherwise they think that you want to control them, control their life, control their work, control, control, control no they have to take their own responsibility also, and they will fail sometimes, and they will recognize that they did not listen and that they had but that's normal. When you fail, you learn always something. The only people that never fail, there are people that they do nothing. So it's normal to fail. It's normal to make mistake, because that's helped you to grow.

Dave Crenshaw:

I've come to appreciate that in your story, how you have taken failure and you've used it as a springboard to success. We've seen that several times in your story, I always like to ask, how have you made time for fun and just enjoying the things that you like to do, like golf? How? How have you been able to do that? Not just now, where the businesses achieve this great level of success, but the years leading up to it? How did you maintain a healthy rhythm between work and life?

Unknown:

I mean, I have to say, I have to tell you the truth. The two first year, I didn't have a lot of time for fun. It was a lot of work because running a store is seven days a week. So the first two years, you work, you work, you work. And after you can breathe, and after you can take some times for you, because you start to have some success, enjoying success. So you cannot enjoy life and create something at the beginning, you have to invest 100% of your time after

Dave Crenshaw:

those two years. Though, how did you make that transition to giving yourself a little bit more and more time

Unknown:

naturally, because what I what I love to do, is not complicated. I love to gather my children with me. I love to cook for them. I love to read. I love to play golf on weekend and maybe one time during the week with friends. I like to go to restaurant with some friends, and as I said, I love my children. I love my family. I wanted to have time to be with them. I love my friends. I love myself. I love to take time for me. I am not a super woman. I need to have time to rest and to think, because if you are on the running mode all all all the time you exhaust yourself. You need to rest at one point and take care of yourself, and you love one and that is the fun part.

Dave Crenshaw:

Oh, that's beautiful. What do you see ahead for the next five years of La macaron? Keep

Unknown:

growing right now. We are now 20. Six different states. I like to be present in all the states keep growing. I love to see my franchisee growing with me, and having number two, number three, number four, number five stars. I'm very proud when that happened, and having maybe a line of product more important also for the franchisee. And just keep growing, keep having success, and make us say all, all the little, all the city of the USA having their own little le macaron store for the five minute vacation time.

Dave Crenshaw:

Yes, we can all take a little five minute vacation in France. Okay, so at the end of every episode, Rosalie, I like to summarize some action steps. My belief is that as wonderful as it is to hear your story and be inspired by it, we want to do something about it. We want to take an action today or this week so that we can make your success story a part of our success story. So what I'm going to do, Rosalie, is I'm going to summarize a few action steps, some concrete things that someone can do, and then I'd like you at the end to share one action step you'd suggest to people. Sound good? Yeah, so the first one that was early on in your story was talking about how, when it became overwhelming, you just broke it down into what the next step is. And I think someone listening to this may have this big, lofty goal that they want to accomplish, I would ask them to consider, what is just the next action step? What is just the next five minutes of activity that you need to take to get yourself closer to that goal and just do that thing? Another approach that you can take is, if you have a big goal, break it in half. So if you say, in two years, I need to be at this number, where do you need to be one year from now and then break it in half? Where do I need to be six months from now and then break it in half again? Where do I need to be three months from now and keep breaking it down into little increments until you get to what do I need to do today? And just do that thing, and it's going to move you forward on the path. The next action step is maybe a little more philosophical, but if you're in a situation where life isn't working out the way that you expected, like Rosalie talked about how a couple of times she had to reinvent yourself, ask yourself, is there a way that I can bring a part of what makes me unique and different to that reinvention? Rosalie was talking about France and macarons, and how she used that as that reinvention of herself. Ask yourself, what's something that I love? What's something that I'm passionate about, that I could bring to other people and see if that's not an inspiration for that next step for your life. And then the last one is, boy, just that principle of hiring for traits and creating a culture. All too often, companies hire for someone who knows what to how to do something. Oh, you're a chef. We need a chef, so we hire you. The first thing that you need to answer is, do they have the traits that fit this culture? Are they the people that we want to spend time with that we can consider family hire for traits. You can train the skills later. So if you're in a leadership position, look to see if you can hire people for who they are first and then train them later. Those are actions that stood out to me. Rosalie, what's one that you would suggest to people, yeah,

Unknown:

they and they are beautiful, and the you are, so you're right about that. The last one I would have is believe in yourself and don't listen the other one. When I opened the first location, I had customer coming. It was during the Great Recession, and I had comment like that, huh, you're opening a store, but all the stores are closing, you will never make it. I'm glad I never listened them. I trust myself, I trust my family, I trust my product. And I was keep moving. That is very important. If you have a dream and you are surrounded by negative people. Don't listen them. One day, they will come back and they will see you successful. And

Dave Crenshaw:

you've been such an example of that over and over in your story. Rosalie, thank you for sharing that, that inspiring example with us. Okay, two questions. If they want to find Ella macaron store. Where should they go?

Unknown:

Le macaron us.com, that is our website, and they have all the location store in this website. Le macaron us.com, okay,

Dave Crenshaw:

great. And if they're thinking of maybe being a franchisee, where should they go?

Unknown:

Good. Question, I would love to have more franchisee the same website. There is a franchise link that they can just go and put some information about them, and I will be pleased to have my founder call with them very soon. Yes,

Dave Crenshaw:

and if that happens, please let her know that you heard about this from me, yeah, maybe that'll get me some free macarons. That would be great. I

Unknown:

will. I will, for sure, even even if no one is showing up. It was such a pleasure talking with you, Dave. It was really, really nice. Thank you very much for having me. Thank you. Thank

Dave Crenshaw:

you Rosalie and Darci. Yes, you were cool. And thank you everyone for listening. Remember, it's not just about the knowledge that you gained or the inspiration you received. It's about the action that you take. So do something today or tomorrow and you'll make Rosalie's success story a part of your success story. Thanks for listening.

Darci Crenshaw:

You've been listening to the Dave Crenshaw Success Show, hosted by my dad, Dave Crenshaw, and produced by invaluable incorporated research and assistant production by Victoria Bidez, Sound Editing by Nikic Wright, voiceover by me, Darci Crenshaw, and the music is by Ryan Brady via pond five licensing, please subscribe to the Dave Crenshaw success show on Apple podcasts Spotify, wherever you like to get your podcasts. If you have a suggestion for someone my dad might like to interview, please send it to guests at Dave crenshaw.com and please don't forget to leave us a five star review. See you next time you.

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