Antonio McBroom is the CEO of Primo and owns over 20 Ben & Jerry’s franchises across the country. He is also the author of The Selfish Leader and owns Starbucks locations. McBroom is also heavy on building up leaders and men, and something he has dedicated his time and efforts to lately. McBroom took A Seat At The Table to talk about his new book and give some tips on business and leadership.
What’s the one thing you hope readers take away from your book?
The one thing that I hope people take away from reading the selfish servant, is that it’s really all about creating growth opportunities for people like us, and the best way that you can do that is by being selfish, spending time on yourself unapologetically, so that you show up with a cape on as your best self as you live a life of serving others.
What is something I can do on the daily basis to be more selfish?
I’ll start just on a daily basis, on a daily basis, a practice that you can use to just be more selfish. It’s starting your day in a way that I call it a miracle morning. I talk about this in the book some it’s the Savers Morning Routine, where you just spend a little bit of time in silence before you get on your phone, email anything. Just give yourself at least 30 seconds of just pure silence with your thoughts. Spend some time from there going to affirmations, building yourself up and telling yourself positive reinforcement, because once you pick up that email, you’re dealing with somebody else’s agenda, right? So spend some time affirming yourself with your own agenda, and then actually visualize your success for that day. I think that all of us know that if we don’t physically feel good, we can’t show up well for others. So that’s why the E in savers is exercise. And then lastly, feed your mind through reading something positive. And lastly, the S is scribing, which means jot down some quick notes for yourself and prioritize your day. I think that’s something that you can do on a daily basis. That’s a selfish act. You know, I’ve got a selfish kind of savers routine that I can do in as little as three minutes. Everything I just described you I can do Silence, Affirmations, Visualization, Exercise, Reading, scribing in three minutes.
How did you end up owning your first Ben & Jerry‘s?
Well, look, the biggest difficulty was, was me. I was getting in my own way by by telling myself it wasn’t possible, by not dreaming big. And I had to get past that. I called what I call my Primo. The name of our company is Primo. It’s a [double entendre]. In Spanish, primo means cousin. And in Black urban culture, primo means creme de la creme, top shelf. And so I called my top shelf cousin, Eric Taylor, who was a few years older than me, and told him about the idea I had to try. How to Buy this store I was working at, and my primo supported me. He was he was in so he and I co-founded the company, and he pushed me to dream big. And so, we actually went after buying two stores at once. That’s why we say in the book, shoot for the moon, even if you miss you land on the stars. So we went after buying two stores at once and ended up buying our first store together just two days before I graduated.
Why is building up leaders important to you?
Giving back, philanthropy, and mentoring are at the core of my being. I’m a man of faith, and I was raised in the church, and my grandmother and mother instilled Christian values into me, and so this piece of giving back to the community and helping those less fortunate is just what I do, the value of mentoring, and I think about all the folks over the years who poured into me and just how I was able to learn from the experience and successes and mistakes of others so that my path could be straighter. My goal is to spread some of that learning at scale to lots of people, so that their journey why it took me 17 years to build this company to where it is now. I’d love for the next entrepreneur to be able to come through and be able to build it in five and so that’s what it’s all about, and that’s what we do at Primo.
