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Molly Moon transcript:
I love ice cream
YOU CAN FEEL THE LOVE IN ALL OF MOLLY MOON’S DOZEN ICE CREAM SHOPS.
FILLED WITH FLAVORS FROM STRAWBERRY TO SMORES TO SASQUATCH… AND OTHERS THAT DON’T LAST LONG.
That was awful. Laughs
THE CHEERFUL STORES … FILLED WITH BRIGHT COLORS AND THE SMELL OF WAFFLE CONES … REMIND YOU OF CHILDHOOD.
UNLESS YOUR CHILDHOOD WAS LIKE MOLLY MOON NEITZEL’S
I had a lot of really terrible things happen to me as a child.
IT’S NOT BEEN ALL WHIPPED CREAM AND SPRINKLES.
ESPECIALLY AT THE START OF HER LIFE-
AND THE START OF HER BUSINESS…
SHARED WITH HER SISTER ANNA … HER FIRST EMPLOYEE.
Died when she was 22 as the result of drug and alcohol abuse because of that experience as a little girl
A CHILDHOOD STOLEN—
A SISTER LOST--
BUT SOMEHOW IT POWERS THE SWEETEST SUCCESS STORY IN SEATTLE.
whatever life hands me, I do the best with it
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SUCCESS IS MESSY. AND THIS IS WHAT IT SOUNDS LIKE.I’M MONIQUE MING LAVEN, AND THIS IS A PODCAST ABOUT REALLY SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE AND THEIR MISTAKES – SETBACKS – SCREWUPS—
BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT MAKES YOU SMARTER AND STRONGER.
YOU HAVE TO KEEP TAKING YOUR BEST SHOT AGAIN AND AGAIN, AND IT IS GOING TO BE …
“HIT AND MISS”.
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A lot of us are anxious right now-- our country is divided -- there’s the War in Ukraine - climate change... it’s a lot.
We all need a little escape.
And a trip to Molly Moon’s provides that.
I remember living on Seattle’s Capitol Hill and being lured into her shop when it opened.
The first thing I noticed was their logo – a sweet boston terrier face? I’m in.
And once I was in – I got hit with that waffle cone smell. Glorious. Nothing about that sweet scent makes you think about the bitter world of politics.
But it sneaks up on you.
You notice its mission statement: “Ice cream for everyone.” Hardly a radical idea.
Or is it?
“Everyone” means every color, religion, gender, sexual identification, immigration status … every everything is welcome.
Molly Moon’s critics will say she means everyone … except police. We’ll get to that.
Some might dismiss the novelty—
Say that the ice cream shops just mirror her community.
It’s not bold – it’s just Seattle.
But it’s more personal than that, and, yes, a little political.
Molly Moon Neitzel is full of energy – and ideas – and ideals.
And it’s not all sweet. It’s a little salty.
You may not agree with her politics – she has plenty of haters.
But she puts her money where her mouth is.
She believes how she makes ice cream should make the world a kinder place.
She has faith in the future – even though parts of her past have been really cruel.
And – anyways-- her story doesn’t even start in Seattle.
We pick it up when she’s 5 years old, at the foot of her grandparents … Republicans in Idaho.
Monique And this started with an entrepreneurial spirit of a young you bellied up to a bar in Idaho.
Molly Yeah. I started getting dropped off at my grandparents bar in the summers at about 8:30 a.m., got dropped off at the bar when my mom was going to work. And my grandparents took care of me all day, and they started their day by going to Pen Gilley’s Saloon in Boise, Idaho that they owned. And my grandpa would clean the back bar and cut all of the fruit for the drinks and fill all the liquor bottles and wash the dishes and get everything ready behind the bar. And my grandma would vacuum the carpet in the bar.
Monique Carpet in the bar. Yeah, okay.
Molly And then she would do the back, like count out the deposit, create the change bag, all that stuff.
But pretty soon I was being helpful, so I would fill the, like, Boston peanuts. We had these, like, carafes of peanuts that the patrons would get at their tables, and then I would also crawl around. This is disgusting, but informative. And I have a very good immune system because of it. I would crawl around on the carpet and pick up all of the change.
AND BEING WITH HER GRANDPARENTS TAUGHT HER –
YOU DO THE WORK … YOU GET THE REWARD:
ICE CREAM.
Molly Every day of the summer, Monday through Friday. With grandpa. He always got strawberry on a cake cone. I always got German chocolate cake on a sugar cone like we did. We did not deviate. We knew our order.
And then I would make my own bank deposit. And my grandpa drove this big, long boat of a car, and he would pull up and he would go to the, you know, drive through teller, and he would give them his blue bank bag, and then he’d pull forward, just roll the wheels, you know, two rolls. And I would give them my deposit and I’d get a lollipop from all.
Monique Of them, from all the coins that you collected.
Molly From my coins, my coin rolls. And when I was heading to college and needing to figure out how to pay for room and board my “bar floor money” paid for room and board my freshman year of college. No. Yeah. And maybe a little babysitting money added in there. I was like 18. I think it was $1,850. Wow. That I needed.
THAT BRANCH OF THE FAMILY TREE – HER CONSERVATIVE GRANDPARENTS ON HER MOTHER’S SIDE -- EXPOSED HER TO THE VALUE OF EARNING HER OWN NICKEL.
HER OTHER GRANDPARENTS, ON HER FATHER’S SIDE … THAT BRANCH MADE JUST AS BIG AN IMPACT … EVEN AS IT STRETCHED IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION.
THAT GRANDMOTHER WAS THE CHIEF OF STAFF FOR THE LONE CONGRESSPERSON IN IDAHO – A DEMOCRAT. AND IT WAS AT HER KNEE THAT MOLLY’S POLITICAL ROOTS GREW.
Molly And sometimes she would leave his federal office and go work on his campaigns. And so many summers growing up, I worked in the campaign office or volunteered like stamps, did mailings, you know, did little jobs for the campaign. Politics, I think, is more in my blood than small business.
I loved my Republican small business owner, our grandparents, very much. They were probably the more nurturing of the two sets of grandparents. Okay. Especially to a young child, but at my core, very young, I knew that my belief system and who I was was agreeing with my grandparents, who were very progressive, who had fought hard for civil rights, who were feminists, who were, racial equity advocates
SHE BECAME UNUSUALLY POLITICAL AS A LITTLE GIRL…
PROUDLY PINNING A ‘JESSE JACKSON FOR PRESIDENT’ BUTTON ON HER JEAN JACKET IN THIRD GRADE.
AND IT WAS NO PHASE – HER LIBERAL LEANINGS ONLY GREW AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA, WHERE SHE BECAME STUDENT BODY PRESIDENT.
AFTER THAT, SHE HEADED WEST.
Monique Were you drawn to this area because of the progressive politics here in the first place?
Molly No, I was I came here because I married the drummer in my favorite band who wanted to play music in the town where Nirvana was from. So that’s how I ended up in Seattle.
SEATTLE - THE PLACE WHERE SHE WOULD EVENTUALLY COMBINE ALL THE LOVES IN HER LIFE,
INCLUDING HER NEW POLITICAL ONE: UPSTART PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE HOWARD DEAN.
IN 2003, THE PROGRESSIVE GOVERNOR FROM VERMONT HAD CAPTURED THE IMAGINATION AND SUPPORT OF MANY YOUNG VOTERS LIKE MOLLY…
YOUNG VOTERS WHO WERE CONNECTING IN THE EARLY DAYS OF INTERNET CAMPAIGNS.
Molly I found on the Howard Dean website, there was a blog and I found these kids in the comments of the blog talking about throwing. Concerts in Manhattan and getting the artists to play for free. And the venues to donate the night and the venues would make money on the bar, but they would donate the cover to instead of paying the artists, donating it to Howard Dean.
And so I emailed them and I was like, can I do this on the West Coast? I’ll throw a show. I know somebody at Chop Suey on Capitol Hill. Let me see if I can throw a show. So I got involved and they were like, yes, you be our West Coast chapter.
Molly And Howard Dean, I thought was going to save the world. So I was all in and I was like yeah okay.
And we charted out what a national political organization would look like that partnered with bands and music venues to register their fans to vote, and then turned those people out to vote in November for Howard Dean or progressive candidates all over the country.
THEY CALLED THE ORGANIZATION ‘MUSIC FOR AMERICA,’
AND AT THE AGE OF 23, MOLLY MOON BECAME THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR.
THEY HIRED STAFF IN 14 STATES … THREW MORE THAN ONE THOUSAND SHOWS… REGISTERED 90-THOUSAND VOTERS TO TURN OUT FOR PROGRESSIVE CANDIDATES.
LOTS OF SMALL VICTORIES, BUT ALSO BIG LOSS.
HOWARD DEAN LOST THE PRIMARY TO JOHN KERRY –
KERRY LOST THE GENERAL TO GEORGE W BUSH
Molly So I, I could say, you know, we weren’t successful in 2003 and 2004, but we built a young voter movement, along with a couple of other young voter organizations that I really do believe turned into Obama’s ground team.
Nancy Pelosi told me in 2006 that we had ignited a young voter movement that had helped Democrats take back Congress in the fall of 2006, and that was going to have a lasting effect on our generation’s turnout for Democrats for the rest of our lives. So. I did not feel successful at that job, but I think it had. Kernels and seeds of some of the wonderful things that have happened in progressive politics since then.
Monique So how do you get from that to scoops of ice cream?
Molly I had no idea that what being the executive director of a nonprofit for a cause that you’re totally passionate about really means is. Asking rich people for money all the time. And it felt it started to feel pretty gross to ask. Some wealthy people to donate money to help young voters turn out for progressive candidates.
And I started to think, you know, I don’t want to ask rich people for money anymore. This is the majority of my job. It’s not super fun. I think Obama is going to run for president. I don’t I don’t really want to do this anymore. Like we’re going to lose a bunch of our good staff who want to just go work for Obama. That’s probably a better use of their time.
THERE WAS SOME DISILLUSIONMENT.
SHE WAS SICK OF THE MONEY GRAB.
AND HOWARD DEAN DIDN’T SAVE THE WORLD.
BUT MAYBE SHE COULD? AT LEAST HER CORNER OF IT.
Molly My first marriage had ended, and I. I left Seattle, I missed Seattle, and I was like, well, what if I could start a business and I could make money? And not feel gross about how it was getting made home. What if I could make the world a better place with the existing system that we have in the United States? That is capitalism.
And my mom, who is the daughter of the bar owners, said, Molly, why don’t you just open an ice cream shop and like, set it like that? Like almost anyway, like, can’t you come up with this? Because I had eaten ice cream every day of my childhood.
And then I had worked at an ice cream shop in Missoula, Montana for four years. Okay. And I had had every job at it was called the Big Dipper in Missoula. And my last year I had sort of been in power, empowered to, like, lead the team a little bit. And then I got fired from that job for being too bossy. But my mom was like, you know how to run an ice cream shop? You know how to do all the things. Just do that.
AND SHE GOT BACK TO HER ROOTS – FROM BOTH SIDES OF HER FAMILY TREE:
THE REPUBLICAN ENTREPRENEURS AND THE PROGRESSIVE POLITICOS.
So the year 2007, I wrote a business plan for Molly Moon, and I put all of my political values into it. I was like, everything’s going to be compostable.
I wrote into my business plan that I was going to buy everything local that you could. And then I put in my business plan, free health insurance for every worker who worked 20 hours a week or more. Living wages, and and an investment in community. So I wanted from the very first day I was like, I’ll even either give 1% of sales or 10% of profits, whichever is greater, to charitable organizations in my community.
Monique A lot of, small businesses, when the $15 minimum wage was brought up with the family medical, with all these things that you support and from the beginning. I would say we, we can’t survive as a business. Yeah. This we can’t afford this.
Molly I ended up saying to myself, if the numbers at the bottom of this sample profit and loss statement that I’m building into the plan are black, then I’ll do it. But if they’re red and I’ve put all my values in, I’m not going to take my values out of the business model to make it work. I’ll just go get a different job. I’ll work on a political campaign. I’ll work for a marketing firm. Like it won’t work. I wasn’t going to do it unless I could stick all these things that I believed in into.
HER BELIEF HAS BECOME HER BUSINESS.
AND NOT JUST HER BUSINESS.
SHE’S ADVOCATED FOR A HIGHER MINIMUM WAGE IN SEATTLE—
PAID FAMILY LEAVE—
FAMILY MEDICAL LEAVE—
ALL POWERED BY ICE CREAM,
INCLUDING ONE FLAVOR INCORPORATING AN OATMEAL CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE RECIPE FROM HILLARY CLINTON.
Molly So I took that cookie recipe. And in 2016, we made Hillary Rodham Cookie Dough, and we put it on the menu in all of our shops. And in 2008, I made Barack Road, and that was on the menu in Wallingford. And, you know, I’m sure that’s why Barack Obama won it, of course. And that’s it’s probably why Hillary Rodham Clinton won the popular vote in 2016.
SHE ALSO HAD A ‘COCONUTS FOR KAMALA’ FLAVOR THIS YEAR, WITH A PORTION OF SALES GOING TO THE ‘MOVEMENT VOTER PROJECT’ THAT FOCUSES ON VOTERS FROM UNDERREPRESENTED COMMUITIES.
HER CANDIDATE DIDN’T WIN. BUT HER ICE CREAM STILL SUPPORTS THE POLITICS SHE REPRESENTS.
Molly I make it really easy to feel good about getting ice cream. You feel good about where your dollar is going. You feel good about the ingredients you’re putting in your body. You feel good about how you’re participating in the community. Because of our give back and because of where we buy our ingredients. And the whole experience, including what you’re putting on your tongue, feels good.
SHE’S PUT HER MONEY WHERE HER MOUTH IS.
BUT SOMETIMES THERE’S BEEN A PRICE TO PAY.
MAY 2020, PROTESTS EXPLODED ACROSS THE COUNTRY AFTER THE POLICE MURDER OF GEORGE FLOYD.
JUNE 1 - PROTESTERS CLASHED WITH SEATTLE OFFICERS ON CAPITOL HILL.
A WEEK LATER, OFFICERS ABANDONED THE EAST PRECINCT AND THE 8 SQUARE BLOCKS THAT BECAME KNOWN AS THE CAPITOL HILL ORGANIZED PROTEST ZONE – OR CHOP.
THE AREA STARTED WITH PEACEFUL PROTESTS, BUT IT OFTEN DEVOLVED INTO CRIME AND VIOLENCE.
Monique What this neighborhood went through. Yeah. What business owners went through you on top of all of that? And somebody was killed very close to your front door.
Molly Right in the doorway?
Monique Yeah, in the. It was in the doorway.
Molly Kind of between our doorway and the next door doorway. Wow.
OVER TEN DAYS, THERE WERE FOUR SHOOTINGS.
TWO YOUNG MEN DIED, INCLUDING 19-year-old Horace Lorenzo Anderson, NEAR MOLLY MOON’S DOORSTEP.
MOLLY SAYS POLICE SHOULD NEVER HAVE ABANDONED THE NEIGHBORHOOD.
BUT WHEN THEY DID RETURN, IT WASN’T TO OPEN ARMS.
that was more comfortable for some of us than others, right? When I pulled up in my kind of nice car and white lady got out. The police officers. Lifted. The caution tape for me to walk under and come into the zone. But for my employees who were not white and were not stepping out of nice cars just outside of the barriers, they were being questioned. They were being asked to see their IDs. They were being told they couldn’t come into the barrier to get to work. It was really, really uncomfortable in those days when they were dismantling chop and my employees felt like they needed extra protection. And. So then a, Russian businessman who is in Seattle, for what purpose? I don’t know, came into the shop and put his credit card down and said, buy all the police ice cream on this card.
Monique Do you think he was trying to be provocative?
Molly Absolutely. He was trying to be provocative. And so police officers came in in droves, like by the dozen and got free ice cream. And what was on their social media and what was on the social media of every one around here. Molly Moons is giving free ice cream to the pigs. Who? And my employees. Did not feel super safe in here, and not all of the police officers were being kind to them.
SO SHE MADE HER BUSINESS’S LONG-STANDING POLICY CLEAR—
MOLLY MOON’S IS A GUN FREE ZONE.
AND SHE PUT UP A SIGN TO MAKE IT KNOWN – THERE WERE NO EXCEPTIONS.
Police officers, this applies to you too. Okay. And I really think that if you are at work and you’re in uniform, like you don’t have to come get an ice cream cone. I appreciate that you want to. But in that moment, my employees feelings of safety were of utmost importance. Do do the mistake. Yeah. Was every news channel in Seattle wanted to talk to me about it. I should not have come and done an interview.
Monique Why?
Molly I came and stood in front of the shop. I did interviews in front of three cameras, and that footage was. On repeat, especially on Fox nationally. There were articles in NRA magazine. I received death threats. I did not feel like my kids were safe at their schools.
SHE SAYS THE FALLOUT LASTED FOR ABOUT A YEAR.
THE PRESIDENT OF THE SEATTLE POLICE GUILD CALLED THE SIGN “UNREASONABLE ACTIVISM” AND “DIVISIVE RHETORIC.”
MOLLY MOON HAS NOW SUED THE CITY FOR THE POLICE ABANDONMENT AND SUBSEQUENT LAWLESSNESS DURING CHOP.
SOME CHEER HER – OTHERS CALL HER A HYPOCRITE.
BUT SHE’S MOVING ON, PRESSING FORWARD, AND GETTING BIGGER.
SHE’S ABOUT TO OPEN HER 12TH LOCATION.
AND HER ICE CREAM IS AVAILABLE IN 139 GROCERY STORES AND COUNTING.
Monique Back to what unites us. The ice cream. All right. Have you had any misses with flavors? Have you thought, oh, this is going to be great. Oh, man. It just.
Molly Yeah, definitely. So there was this time where I wanted to do, I think, some more interesting, esoteric flavors. And I’ve realized that’s not what I’m good at. Molly Moons is really good at the classics. And like, maybe a little twist. On the. Classics, maybe a more local twist on the classics, and maybe just digging into what people love the most.
Monique Okay.
Molly But okay, so some fails. I did spring garlic ice cream. That was terrible.
Molly I did a partnership with Beecher’s Cheese, and we did a flagship ice cream in the fall of 2012, I think, and I thought that was so delicious. Put a scoop of that on a warm slice of apple pie.
Monique Amazing,
Molly That didn’t sell very well. laughs
SHE LEARNS FROM HER FAILURES –
ISN’T COWED BY THEM.
SHE KNOWS WHAT IT IS TO BEND BUT NOT BREAK.
BECAUSE SHE’S SEEN THINGS REALLY GET SHATTERED.
Molly I don’t think I believe in mistakes.
Monique You don’t believe in mistakes? No, I do. Okay. Well, tell me about that.
Molly I had a lot of really terrible things happen to me as a child. And throughout my life I’ve had a lot of trauma, and I talk about that. We could, I don’t think that. Anything I do is inherently wrong, which is in my mind, the definition of a mistake. I think. Whatever life hands me. I do the best with it.
Monique And.
Molly I always try to do the right thing. And you know, all the things that happen to us are just part of the story and the world is getting better.
And we just got to keep working on doing it better. And so all the little things that some people might call mistakes, you know, they’re microscopic.
Monique I’ve got to dig there a little bit because that is. Most wisdom is hard won. And, what you’re saying is not. Just having a broader perspective and having a wise perspective. But it’s accepting of. Suffering along the way. Yeah. So what get you there? You said you have endured some things.
Molly Oh, yeah. I mean, I think I just realized, like, what’s important in life. And. If you can tuck your child into a warm bed at night and their stomach is full and you are doing what is within your power to make sure that every other woman or parent in the world can do that too, then. You’ve got it. Great.
and I’m a victim of, of. Multiple forms of sexual abuse as a child, and my little sister was raped behind our community swimming pool when she was 13 and was never the same and died when she was 22 as a result of drug and alcohol abuse. Because of that experience as a little girl.
SO THAT EXPLAINS THE MILK JUG IN THE CAPITOL HILL STORE.
I HAD NOTICED IT, BUT NOT TRULY SEEN IT.
IT SAYS “ANNA BANANA MILK FUND”.
LIKE SO MUCH OF THE MOLLY MOON’S EXPERIENCE, IT SEEMS LIGHT, PLAYFUL.
IT’S NOT.
Monique I’m sorry for those experiences. Thanks. Is your sister here? Is she part of this?
Molly So Anna was actually the first employee of molly moon’s. Oh. No kidding. Yeah, well, she, mom was amazing and loved us both very much, but had sort of, like, reached the end of her rope with my little sister and had kicked her out. And so she was sleeping in my bed, in my studio apartment. And I was making, trying to make sure that she was sober every day while we painted the ice cream shop that would open in the spring. And she got a job at the QFC on Broadway, and worked there and slept in my bed and painted and helped at the shop and gave too many samples to the homeless kids on Broadway and got fired for being too generous. So the way that. And then she died, about a year and a half into Molly Moon’s existence.
So the way that she’s here every day is through the way that I try to honor her overly generous spirit. In 2011, we started the Anna Banana Milk Fund. She loved milk, and my mom used to give me money when she lived, when Anna lived in my studio just to buy milk. So we provide money and fresh dairy products to food banks all over the city, where our shops are in Anna’s name. And we’ve done that now for 15 years, and have partnerships with nine food banks in King County and Snohomish County. That’s amazing.
SHE IS FEEDING STOMACHS .. AND MAYBE SOME SOULS.
INCLUDING HER OWN.
HER STORES ARE FULL OF CHEER AND COLOR AND SWEETNESS,
BUT THE STORY BEHIND THEM IS NO FAIRYTALE… THOUGH IT IS FILLED WITH OPTIMISM.
LITTLE GIRLS *CAN FALL PREY TO EVIL.
THEY CAN BE ROBBED OF THEIR INNOCENCE.
BUT THEY CAN ALSO GROW UP AND WORK AND FIGHT AND TAKE RISKS AND WIN HARD SUCCESS..
AND KNOW THAT THEIR STORY IS A CHAPTER OF A BIGGER BOOK…
HISTORY.
AND THEY ARE NOT JUST CHARACTERS IN THE STORY, BUT ALSO THE AUTHORS.
2 09 01 And so if I can just keep making the world safer for little girls, which I think is really about empowering women. Then. Life is good. 2 09 19
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