Don't Eat Poop! A Food Safety Podcast

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Elena Montoya: Well, Francine, the difference between chemicals and detergents, so as Matt was talking, we are, in manufacturing, use a lot of chemicals, corrosive chemicals, acids, cloths. You are, really have to be very knowledgeable because the potential of accidentally mixing those can and will kill somebody, like mustard gas, ammonia, and bleach, highly, absolutely deadly.

But in distribution, we're using more detergents. So think of Dawn Dish Soap, but a more concentrated method for industrial dirt.

intro: Everybody's gotta eat, and nobody likes getting sick. That's why heroes toil in the shadows, keeping your food safe at all points. From the supply chain, to the point of sale. Join industry veterans Francine L. Shaw and Matt Ragucci for a deep dive into food safety. It all boils down to one golden rule. Don't. Eat. Poop.

Don't eat poop.

Matt Regusci: Hello, hello Francine.

Francine L Shaw: Hi, Matt.

Matt Regusci: And hello, Elena. We have an amazing guest with us today, which is really fun because we've been talking back and forth. Elena just popped up into the radar like 18 months ago, two years ago, and has been everywhere that Francine and I have been. And so this is great for us to have this conversation with you and talk about your career.

What are you up to? And all the stuff that you're doing to help promote food safety within the industry. So, Elena, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Elena Montoya: First of all, good morning, Francine and Matt. I'm honored to be here today as a guest on Don't Eat Poop! Surprisingly, this was on my list of goals for 2025.

Matt Regusci: Oh, you're done!

Elena Montoya: Accepting, accepting applications. I rushed to fill it out. It's really an honor to be here today.

Matt Regusci: So, tell us, what is it that you do? What do you do in food compliance?

Elena Montoya: I'm a site operations manager, and I work with a company that provides third party sanitation and janitorial management. We have two different legs of the business.

One leg is the grocery industry and the other one is distribution, food distribution. So I help manage the sanitation program for a national food distribution facility.

Matt Regusci: Awesome. Cool. Okay, so sanitization obviously is very important, right? We've been seeing this like all the listeria stuff that's that's going out that most likely is coming from facilities.

When you're looking at the facilities, what type of sanitization is done within a warehouse or within these facilities?

Well, I started in manufacturing. So, manufacturing is significantly different than storage and distribution for as before I was a program owner for our pathogen environmental monitoring and integrated pest management.

Now the focus of my food safety is really based on preventing cross contamination and cross contact with allergens or glass and making sure that we are not essentially creating homes for little critters that want to get into the building and whatnot. So it's just really important and sanitation is the foundation for food safety, and it really is your first line of defense when it comes to food safety.

That's why it's a passion of mine.

Francine L Shaw: So I'm typically the one that asks the dirty questions. During all of your years of, of working in the industry. No names. What is the most bizarre thing that you've ever seen?

Elena Montoya: A snake?

Matt Regusci: A snake. Is this in manufacturing or I'm guessing in manufacturing? Yes.

Elena Montoya: In a building.

And it was the last thing I expected to see was a snake. I literally couldn't believe it.

I was rather surprised.

Francine L Shaw: What kind of snake?

Elena Montoya: I think it was just a garden variety. I'm not really a... I have turtles, but

I don't know.

Francine L Shaw: Probably weren't any mice. There's always a positive and a negative, right? So if there were snakes, there probably weren't any mice.

Elena Montoya: Pest control.

Matt Regusci: Or quite the opposite because there are mice. There were snakes.

Francine L Shaw: Uh, well.

Matt Regusci: Come on, glass half empty glass, glass half full, Francine. What are we talking about here?

Francine L Shaw: I prefer to look at the positive side of things, Matt.

Matt Regusci: Okay. So on the manufacturing side, cause I think a lot of people don't really understand how sanitization is its own thing.

There's food safety practices, right? There's your SOP, standard operating practices. Then you have your logs and you're going out, you're making sure that each shift is doing what is expected in terms of a people point of view, right? But the sanitization is like really getting in there and cleaning things out and then adding chemicals to sanitize it.

And if it's manufacturing plant, you're looking at all the different belts and all the different machines and storage and distribution. You're looking at walls and drains and all that stuff, right? What's the difference in terms of people needed for like a manufacturing plant versus storage and distribution versus a retail establishment?

Elena Montoya: So in my experience in manufacturing, I was supervising two shifts. We had just a random kind of off shift person in case we had some incidents that needed to be addressed immediately. During or outside of our essential working shift and downtime for plan sanitation, whereas with warehousing, they both operate 24/7.

But with warehousing, there's always trash that needs to be thrown. There's always, you know, aisles that need to be cleaned. There's always spills that are going to happen. So with that I currently now manage five shifts and they work around the clock 24/7 days a week. It's a bit of a different challenge, but with sanitation in manufacturing, my teams were a lot more technically knowledgeable, especially when it comes to using those chemicals.

A lot more PPE. I used to go to work in a duck suit, so if anybody's ever been in... I'm sure Matt can relate don your chemical suit. You have your safety glasses, you have your face shield. You are just PPE eed up, and you're foaming and covering every surface, and you have chemical dripping down on you and you're in your chemical boots.

It's just trying to walk like a little penguin so you don't slip in.

Matt Regusci: So PPE, for those that don't know, PPE is personal protection equipment. And when you say you're looking like a duck suit, that's because you're basically wearing yellow rubber suit and you're walking like a duck because it's not very comfortable.

Either wear like these boots that are basically like snow boots type stuff. And when you're talking about foam, it's like a chemical foam that you can actually see this going through there. And so what's the difference in staff? Like how many people did you have in a manufacturing plant versus on the storage distribution side?

Elena Montoya: My two previous teams were a headcount of 18 and now I manage 26.

Francine L Shaw: Is it difficult to staff those facilities?

Elena Montoya: That's one of the great benefits of having a third party sanitation provider is we take away that pain point of staffing. So that's where a lot of companies will turn to outside their party sanitation and janitorial management.

Matt Regusci: Got it. Okay. So when you're... when like a manufacturing plant is like, Hey, we're doing seek-and-destroy we're finding a bunch of Listeria all over the place. Our own crew isn't managing this well. We need to get somebody in here to do this. Do you guys then provide them like a consultation of what it would take to get this sanitized and up to a certain level to begin with, and then maintenance day in and day out, and are you providing them like the recommendation of the chemicals and all that different type of stuff as well?

Elena Montoya: Typically, when you're working with customer company, the third party service provider, such as the company I work for, they'll come in and they essentially just take on whatever programs you have. So, if you already have a national chemical company that you're working with, they just work with those chemicals that are already pre approved, usually by corporate.

At a cost effective method, we might make recommendations for things like floor tools or keep stock to potentially provide cost savings to the customer because oftentimes a lot of people aren't highly experienced in that sanitation niche. And so they might not understand that putting a little bit more money into a floor tool in the beginning will actually save them money in the long run because they're having a product that performs and is durable and is more long lasting.

Francine L Shaw: And let's talk for the people that are listening that might not know what makes a chemical pre approved. What are some of the factors that would make those chemicals pre approved?

Elena Montoya: Well, Francine, the difference between chemicals and detergents, as Matt was talking, we are in manufacturing, use a lot of chemicals, corrosive chemicals, acids, cloths, you are, really have to be very knowledgeable because the potential of accidentally mixing those can and will kill somebody.

Like mustard gas, ammonia and bleach, highly, absolutely deadly. But in distribution, we're using more detergents. So, think of Dawn dish soap, but a more concentrated method for industrial dirt. If you don't know, you can really just be a danger to yourself and everyone around you.

Matt Regusci: I love mustard, but I've never had it in a gaseous. form.

Francine L Shaw: I like mustard too much better than ketchup.

Matt Regusci: My land.

Francine L Shaw: Move forward.

Matt Regusci: So my mom married a janitor and her sister, my aunt married a janitor and carpet cleaner. So growing up, we were like free labor, right? I remember stripping floors and like passing out because of ammonia and stuff like that. And my dad'd be like, Oh, he'll wake up, it's fine. Go walk it off. Yeah. Throw water on me. And yeah, that stuff is nasty. It works really well, but it's not really good to breathe for a human being.

Francine L Shaw: So to start my company Savvy Food Safety, I started that with no financial backing. It was 100 percent me, but I needed money to do that that I did not have. So, being very strategic, Matt and I talked about this last night, my husband and I started a property preservation business because I had my real estate license.

So, we at one point were taking care of 40 properties at one time and we were cleaning and taking care of the maintenance on the outside and all of this at one time. And I was working this job during the day at Savvy Food Safety and in the evening going out and cleaning 5, 10 houses at night till midnight, 1 o'clock in the morning and taking somebody with me to do that.

And I don't even want to tell you about the chemicals that I was mixing because these houses, some of their foreclosure properties, some of these houses and the condition that they were in. And I work with a lot of bleach and it's I know I shouldn't mix this. I'm just gonna put up the windows and but yeah, don't follow my lead.

Elena Montoya: That reminds me, when I was younger, my family was into real estate development as well, and we would go as children, free labor, like Matt said, and we would have to go and gut these places. And there was one place, we called it the cockroach house. Every crevice you opened, dead cockroaches were falling out.

Matt Regusci: Nice.

Francine L Shaw: We opened a door one time and cockroaches all over the threshold. All the stories. Yeah. So anyway.

Matt Regusci: This is 100 percent scientifically unfounded. But the reason why Francine looks so good is because she's already been preserved with chemicals.

She's created her own formaldehyde basically.

Francine L Shaw: Oh my god, the stories. That's a whole different business.

Matt Regusci: I always like to time my jokes too when Francine is about to drink. Did you notice that, Elena?

Francine L Shaw: Great timing, Matt.

Matt Regusci: You're trying to get her to spit on her computer.

Francine L Shaw: One of these days it will just shoot out my nose and that's just epic.

Elena Montoya: That's gonna be on the bloopers reel.

Matt Regusci: I feel like that's the only thing I'm good for now, Francine. Right? Is the jokes. We're even putting together a group of people to have a LinkedIn live conversation. And this is an amazing group of people. We're going to do this February 26th. And Darin Detwiler has all these amazing different descriptions of each of these individual people.

And mine is humor. I'm the class clown of the food compliance industry is what is coming down to. Okay, so that leads us into another conversation that we wanted to have with you. And we were talking about this before recording. You've been in the sanitization world for how long now?

Elena Montoya: This is my sixth year as a sanitation.

I started out obviously as a supervisor, but in sanitation, this is my sixth year, but I started in food manufacturing and food safety essentially in 2018. And I started at the bottom, I was loading cases on carts and onto trailers on the floor.

Matt Regusci: Nice. And okay. So then what happened over the progression over the last, I don't know, six years or so where did you see this as it turned in from a job to a career and if it's going to be a career then you're going to go all out because it seems like you just all of a sudden went all out. I don't know, maybe you've been doing this for the last six years, but we've only seen it over the last two. But to us, you're like, this is my career, I am now passionate about this and I'm going to try to get to know and network with everybody who is also like that.

And I'm going to read every book there is, I'm a share it on LinkedIn. Give us the journey of this.

Francine L Shaw: What he's trying to say is why in God's name, did you choose this field? Cause it's not easy. It is not easy. I absolutely 100 percent love what I do, but it is not easy. And tell you what else it reminds me of Tia and Jill.

It was like, they just exploded onto the scene. It was like, where the hell did they come from? These women are amazing. And they are absolutely phenomenal at what they do. I am a huge fan of those women and they are. Crazy. Phenomenal what they do. So very similar. You've been amazing.

Matt Regusci: That is the world's longest question, Elena

Elena Montoya: You're seeing my song with the praise of Tia and Jill. I think they are so authentic. They show up with mindful purpose and they lead by example and they inspire and they educate and they empower. And you do the same Francine as well... you're my favorite food safety duo, so.

But I don't know that I chose sanitation. I think sanitation chose me because Francine said it's a tough job. You're usually only hearing from leadership when something goes wrong. Equipment's not starting. You're not in that sanitation window or you don't have an on time startup where there's some type of food safety issue or during audit time.

That's when you're everybody's favorite person. But sanitation has just become a foundation for me to help give back to the community. And protecting people from experiencing foodborne illness, I think, is something that we can't have enough people that are passionate about it, especially with the number of recalls that continue to happen and the severity of the lifelong effects and the potential loss of life. So sanitation is one of those things. I think it's just a calling and something I certainly didn't expect to fall into. But the more I learned and the more I had experience in the industry, it really became something that I was like, this is my career. And if this is where I'm going to be, I'm going to be the best I can be at it.

Francine L Shaw: Well, you're out there and you're doing all the right things. You are connecting with people, you are taking the classes, you are reading the books, you are posting the content, you are doing absolutely everything that you can do. You're doing it right, you're doing it well. And I said this before we started, you remind me so much of myself when I first started and made the decision to make this my career, that it is just... it's amazing.

It's like very proud of you. I know how difficult it is to do this and to make a mark. And Matt's laughing at me, but it's tough.

Matt Regusci: Because she reminds you of her. She's very proud of you, then she's very proud of herself too.

Francine L Shaw: And Matt, you know me well, that's exactly what I'm saying,

Matt Regusci: Yes.

Francine L Shaw: It's tough.

Elena Montoya: I'm extremely honored to be even in your same company and for you to see part of yourself and me is really makes my day. So, thank you.

Matt Regusci: Oh, that's cute. So you joined Toastmasters because you've given that experience a lot on LinkedIn. And what made you decide it? Toastmasters, by the way, and you could explain it too, but it's basically like you're learning how to do speak in front of in public, public speaking, and it's all across the United States, maybe all across the world.

Toastmasters. But what made you decide to do that?

Elena Montoya: As I was continuing to commit myself to this career, I wanted to start looking at some of those soft skills that I needed to work on and develop so that when the right opportunity comes along, I would have those skills in place. And I think public speaking, impromptu speaking, being able to present a message clearly and be able to connect with people.

Communication is the foundation of every relationship, both personally and professionally. And I thought that public speaking was something that I could always put a little bit more polish on as in my previous career as an interior designer, I actually used to have to get up and present design boards to my clients and during college, that's when I really started coming into that public speaking and presenting, but I wanted to be able to polish that and have an opportunity to have a platform to have a voice and to really help spread the message of food safety.

Matt Regusci: Awesome. Have you been able to put it to use? Obviously you're on our podcast, so that's one way, but have you been able to put it to use within your career? Have you seen that what you've been practicing and doing in Toastmasters has benefited you in communication with your team, with your higher ups, with companies you work with, et cetera?

Elena Montoya: Absolutely. I think just even when you're having a pre shift, being able to engage and speak to people on their level, like we talked about not using a lot of statistics or industry jargon that a lot of people may not understand or connect with, you start losing them. And at that point, it doesn't matter what you have to say or how important or how meaningful that is.

You need their support, you need their engagement and you need to speak to people on their level. And as much as we all know and have our technical and industry knowledge, it's always about being able to connect with individuals.

Francine L Shaw: As you move forward, you're going to find yourself on occasion in a room that might have some people that have education level of maybe eighth grade.

And in the same room, you have CEOs and you have to be able to maintain the attention and explain what you're explaining to everybody in that room without losing any of them. And that's a challenge.

Elena Montoya: I had read an article that most people read at an 8th grade level and I had found another recent study that is actually diminished to a 6th grade level and I think that is a reflection on our unfortunate standing of our education system.

Francine L Shaw: I write. I am, depending on who I'm writing for, but most of the time when I write, I have to write at an eighth grade reading level.

Matt Regusci: Yeah. And it should be lower than that, actually, depending on your audience. Seriously. What I've found through my career working in the auditing world and meeting thousands of food safety professionals, there is a drastic difference between success of food safety professionals within their role in a facility or a farm or whatever, not based upon their IQ, not based upon even their knowledge of food safety broadly, but their ability to communicate and tell stories. It makes zero difference, if you are the most intelligent person in the room when it comes to food safety, if you cannot communicate that to the people who actually are doing it on the floor or on the farm, I've met a lot of very smart people in this industry that know they are very smart and are extremely ineffective.

And it's because they are condescending because they just assume everybody should just know this stuff. Well, you know what, but assume means it makes an ass out of you and me. So it's fascinating that one thing, the ability to communicate what the issue is and what the problem is into some sort of story or way at which you can relate to the person who needs to understand it

is the most important, effective way of training on the floor.

Francine L Shaw: Well, and also the people you're speaking to don't care about you.

Matt Regusci: And most of them don't care about food safety. Two strikes against you.

Francine L Shaw: There's a lot of people that are speaking stand up there and talk about themselves. And that's not why the people are there.

They're there to learn about the subject. And a lot of times speakers will go in and start to talk about themselves and One or two things that's fine, but that's not why the audience is there.

Elena Montoya: I like to implement floor training. So, my floor training, typically, when I start training for a new method, I will be the 1 to conduct the training and I'll have an assistant 1 of my cleaners.

I'll have them come forward. I'm like, okay, you're going to demonstrate the methods that I'm talking about. And then once I get them trained on that. I like to use the each one teach one method, and I really like to make training light, fun, engaging, and crack jokes and tell 'em about some of my failures in sanitation or how I didn't know any of this when I first started.

I literally didn't know a single thing about sanitation. I was like, I know what clean looks like. How do you get there? Well, we're gonna find out. And so just being able to crack jokes and those people that become the trainer and it's really empowering to see them up there and being so knowledgeable and having an audience and engaging the other team members.

I think it's really just what you live for as a leader.

Francine L Shaw: Right. And I think that's important. The involvement is very important.

Elena Montoya: Absolutely.

Matt Regusci: That's so much fun. Okay. So you have been again... by the way, if anybody wants to know how we all know each other, we all know each other basically solely through LinkedIn.

Eleana, you and I have had a couple of conversations outside of that. I know you and Francine have had a couple of conversations outside of that, but really, truly what we're talking about right now is LinkedIn, it has this amazing community for food safety professionals and for food professionals in general.

So if you guys want to join the community, just connect with Elena, Francine, and I, and then start playing around in there. But you have been talking a lot about all these books that you have been reading. And one of the great things, and I actually commented about this. I think I reposted one of your posts and then complimented all the authors, but you're talking about these books that you're reading and plugging in LinkedIn.

If you don't know, you can actually link other people to that. And so you're linking the authors to these books and then they're coming back and talking to you, not talking, but replying back and commenting. So there's a conversation in text that's happening in these with the actual authors. And I just found that Absolutely fascinating that you just reached out and started doing that, that the authors came back to you and we're talking with you.

But tell us about that journey. What made you decide to just start picking up all these books? And then also, what made you decide to start posting it on LinkedIn?

Elena Montoya: It actually started with Maureen Omolo. She and I had started connecting on LinkedIn. She was talking about a book at the time, and I believe the book was Outbreak, and so I was like, wow, this book sounds so interesting, so fascinating.

I didn't even really, wasn't aware at that time that there were food safety books, to be honest with you. I just thought, okay, well, there's the audit manual, and I've read plenty of audit standards throughout my years, but I wasn't aware of all these others.

Matt Regusci: Audit standards are riveting. If you have a hard time going to sleep at night

and you take Ambien or some other type of chemical formula to get you to sleep. Just pick up like an SQF manual and put it right by your bedside. And within what? A couple pages? Out.

Elena Montoya: Yeah. I have to actively take notes when I read audit standards just to keep myself engaged. But the repetitive rhythm is, it's just enough like massages, lulling you right to sleep.

Francine L Shaw: Studying for those exams. Yeah.

Elena Montoya: So I started discovering the fact that there was books and some of them read like novels. Francine's book is personally one of my favorites. The way that she connects and shares her stories and a lot of them you are just gasping as you're living this through her eyes, but that kind of just led me on this journey.

I was like, well, these professionals are reading all these amazing books. And I kept discovering more. And I was like, I'm sure there's other people out there that don't know these books exist. And the things that I was able to learn and be able to implement it every time I read something new. It helps me look at my current situation or brings different ideas to me about things that I can implement or just a new lens.

And I've been absolutely honored that the authors now interact with me and we've connected on a personal note and just being able to share the value of these amazing books with others is really my passion and joy.

Matt Regusci: That's awesome. So you have a book club. Is that right?

Elena Montoya: That's correct, Matt. My co founder, Michelle Wollenzien and I, both are food safety professionals and leaders within our community.

And as every leader, we've all received a lot of support, whether it's mentorship or guidance and we're both very passionate about supporting other food safety professionals and upcoming leaders in the community. And we were discussing books actually on LinkedIn, which I do quite often, and we started posting pictures of our professional reading library.

And during that conversation, it came about, we should give away our books. And I was like, I can't give away my books. Those are my children. They're all marked out. They're highlighted, scribbled in. And so we started digesting that conversation and I was like, what about if we buy new books? And give them out.

And so that's how our book giveaway have, uh, Louisiana State University. They share our book giveaway in their student newsletter and we are looking to partner with more universities. So that we can really help. I remember being a college student and funds can be tight and you're paying for textbooks, which are very expensive.

So sometimes having the ability to have some of the books that the other professionals read free of charge. And benefit you.

Francine L Shaw: I might be able to help you with that. I have a lot of university clients.

Elena Montoya: Thank you! Michelle and I are so honored. We're really excited to help get our message out there and make a bigger impact in our community.

Again, there's no cost associated with our book giveaway is something Michelle and I personally financially support and we give away six different books a year. That's our current program that we've established. So we will post a book or giveaway to participate or to be eligible to win. You simply like and share our post and submit a short paragraph of what led you to food safety or leadership and why this book would be of value to you. Why you think you should be selected to win. So we read through the responses and then we pick the... what we feel is the most appropriate or best response and then we send them the book and announce it on LinkedIn.

Matt Regusci: Wow, that's a great idea in a lot of different ways. It's a great idea in terms of just engaging within the community in LinkedIn too. That's Super cool.

Elena Montoya: Thank you.

Matt Regusci: Yeah. So how many you've given away so far?

Elena Montoya: So far we are on our third giveaway. So we're very excited. It's a new book. I'm still waiting for mine to arrive in the mail as I'll also be reading it.

My goal for 2025 is to read 24 books and I'm about to start my third.

Okay. So when you say 24 books, these are not all food safety books, right? They're food safety management, sociology, like what type of books are you looking at?

So the majority of the books I read are based on food safety outbreaks, food safety knowledge, like Hal King's, food safety management, those kinds of books.

And then the other portion of books that I read are leadership books. And then I also read books on spirituality.

Matt Regusci: Nice. So what type of like spirituality books?

Elena Montoya: The 12 laws of attraction. We had read another book called the seven whispers. Speaking of Jill and Tia, they have a book club. It's also free to join and they have a monthly book.

So everybody will buy the book. We read the book and then we get together for book club and we discuss it and discuss some of our takeaways. That's a great way to really give something personal to yourself and connect with others in a meaningful way.

Matt Regusci: So cool. That is awesome. Because it's not just, again, it's not just the knowledge, right?

So you're reading all these different books to broaden you in how you communicate and Influence people. It's awesome. So cool. Okay. So on LinkedIn, then that's how they find that, right? And so what are your goals other than those are big ones, right? So you want to grow out the free book giveaway. You want to reach 24 books, which is awesome, which is huge.

And then career goals. What are your career goals? What does it look like the next decade or two decades?

Elena Montoya: Well, I think part of that career goal and that path and that passion is really just continuing to develop and grow my platform to help spread food safety awareness and help prevent foodborne illness.

So public speaking is a huge part of that. One day I hope to be a keynote speaker at a food safety conference or be able to participate in more opportunities like this and food safety podcasts and platforms. Other goals for me would be to continue to grow my leadership ability within sanitation and food safety.

I would like to eventually become a senior sanitation manager and be able to help standardize sanitation practices for a national brand and be able to really give them a foundation that helps prevent those outbreaks and recalls.

Matt Regusci: That's awesome.

Francine L Shaw: Very cool.

Matt Regusci: Alright, Francine, do you have any other questions?

Francine L Shaw: I, no. I don't have any more questions. I... like I said, I think you're doing an amazing job and I'm sure that you're gonna accomplish whatever you set out to do.

Matt Regusci: Oh, 100%. Yeah.

Elena Montoya: Thank you.

Matt Regusci: In terms of being like Francine, I totally see that with you too. Yeah, I accomplish a lot more just being around Francine.

Francine L Shaw: I do keep him in line though.

Matt Regusci: You do definitely keep me in line. Yes, you definitely do.

Elena Montoya: My husband legitimately needs some supervision from time to time.

Matt Regusci: It's interesting. I think there are people that are just, they're a status quo type of people, right? They're, they're driving down their lane and they're at their speed and that's just life. They love that.

It's perfectly fine. And then there are people that are like, you know what? I'm going to bite off significantly more than I can chew and hopefully one day I'll swallow it.

Elena Montoya: Yeah.

Matt Regusci: That is more like Francine and I. It can get complicated sometimes.

Elena Montoya: Matt, that reminds me of some advice that a previous manager had given me.

He's like, how do you eat an elephant? And I was like, well, nobody wants to eat an elephant. That's just abominable, but you eat an elephant one bite at a time. One bite at a time. Yup. And that's your approach to everything. You just take one foot in front of the other.

Francine L Shaw: One bite at a time. And I never bite off more than I can chew, Matt.

Matt Regusci: That is true. And that's why we work very well together is because you help me chew. One of my mentors is a guy named Shane Samples from Cisco foods and he's worked at Cisco foods forever. When I started my career food safety, he was one of my main mentors. We developed Azzule. It was originally Azzule supply chain management software and still used by multiple retailers.

When we were working out how to, to develop that, I did that in conjunction with a bunch of people from Cisco. One of them was Shane samples. And, and I was 23 at the time, really young, starting this company and all this stuff he said to me, okay, Matt, how are we going to create this software that is going to be a generational software?

How are we going to create this plan and get everybody on there? He's like, how do you eat an elephant one bite at a time?

He's much older and wiser than I am, and I was like, Oh my gosh, that makes absolute sense. One bite at a time.

Elena Montoya: I like to really stay busy and productive, so I tend to bite off a little bit more than I can chew.

But it's a balancing act and you're never going to succeed at anything if you don't give it your 100 percent. So in my free time, I'm reading books, I'm posting book reviews, I'm I'm studying for certifications and honestly, I don't have a life. I eat, breathe, sleep, repeat food safety, and that's why I'm committed to helping others and want to give back and protect people in the process.

Matt Regusci: Beautiful. All right. Well, one way to do that is to not eat poop, Elena. So we have some advice for you, and that is don't eat poop.

Elena Montoya: That's the goal, Matt.

Matt Regusci: And also, in sanitization, please help as many people as you can with not eating poop. Let's clean that stuff up.

Elena Montoya: That's right. Keep it clean.

Matt Regusci: Keep it clean and sanitized.

All right, thank you guys.