No Ceiling Season 3 Guest: Teresa McGeehan

Local women share their journey to the top of their professions and the challenges and triumphs they faced along the way. They’re rewriting the script on success and there’s no ceiling.

Teresa McGeehan is my guest for the fourth episode of No Ceiling, Season 3. She’s the owner/operator of 19 McDonald’s restaurants in the Ozarks. She started at the restaurant as a teenager in an entry-level job and worked in nearly every leadership position before becoming an owner. At that time, she was one of only two female McDonald’s owners in the region. That wasn’t the only barrier she’s overcome. In her teens and into adulthood, Teresa experienced domestic violence. It was her then boss, and now husband and business partner, Chip, who helped her discover her worth and find her confidence. In this episode, we talk about how Teresa’s leadership style has changed over the years, how she learned to believe in herself and why she’s paying it forward with her employees today.

Below is an excerpt from our conversation.

Christine Temple: I want to go back 40 years ago to 16-year-old Teresa, when you first walked into a McDonald’s to get a job. Can you tell me the reason why you wanted to get a job and what your goal was?
Teresa McGeehan: I wanted to drive like all my friends. I didn’t have a car. Wanted to have a part-time job to save for that first car. I wanted to work somewhere where my friends were working. I got hired on the spot at McDonald’s and never looked back.

Temple: Could you have imagined for yourself the path that your career took with McDonald’s?
McGeehan: Not at all. I thought it was going to be a high school job and I would move on from there. I remember seeing a training video from McDonald’s and my boss saying, “If you mop the floor like you own the floor, maybe one day you’ll own that floor.”

Temple: What was your life like growing up? You grew up in Lebanon, right?
McGeehan: I did. I was one of five children. My mom and dad both put a hard emphasis on work ethic, and if you’re going to have something, you’re going to appreciate it more if you have to work for it. Plus, they probably couldn’t afford all those luxuries that we wanted, so that was their spin on it.

Temple: You’re working at McDonald’s and you start with an entry-level job. What was the first experience like of someone seeing potential in you?
McGeehan: I was actually surprised because the culture back in the ’80s in the workplace in McDonald’s is a little different than it is now. Usually, the boss only wanted to talk to you if you had done something wrong. When my boss asked me to stay after my shift for a few minutes to talk to me, he said just that: “I see something in you. I see some leadership. You’re competitive when it comes to your results and your performance, and I think we could do something with that, and you could climb the ladder here at McDonald’s.” I was so excited to go home and tell my parents. It was pretty surprising. I didn’t think that it was going to be something I continued on with, but I found out I was good at it.

Related: No Ceiling from SBJ Podcasts