Pam Poore could have stayed in corporate America for the rest of her working life and been successful.
She was at Indianapolis-based USA Funds, which today is known as Strada Education Network and has an office in Washington, D.C., working as a customer relations manager.
Poore’s job was to make sure students and families were satisfied with the loans they had gotten through USA Funds.
But there was something else brewing in her life.
Her husband James became a McDonald’s franchisee 17 years ago. His strengths include thinking more analytically, making calculated decisions. Poore, on the other hand, is a gifted people person, understands how to communicate with others and make sure everyone feels taken care of.
So four years ago, Poore decided to make the leap and went through a spousal program to join her husband in the business. They now own four locations between them: three on the northwest side of Indianapolis and one in Whitestown.
It wasn’t a risky move, Poore said. It was more like a reward, something they could leave for their three children.
Their oldest, Trey, is studying marketing at St. Francis University in Fort Wayne, and Poore said she hopes to have him join the family business someday.
Poore, 54, attributes success to many things including faith and even fitness (she said nothing else is worth much if you’re not healthy enough to enjoy it). But there’s also family.
Growing up on the east side of Indianapolis in what she later realized was poverty, Poore’s parents, who never finished high school, constantly stressed the importance of education. It’s something she’s carried with her today and tells students when she gets an opportunity to speak at schools.
For Poore, it was her oldest sister, Mary Bullock, who provided the inspiration and know-how.
Bullock is nine years older than Poore — there are four sisters in all — and Poore watched as her oldest sister defied circumstances and went to Indiana University. Bullock became the one at the summit, pulling the rope for anyone coming behind her.
That included Poore, the baby sister, who needed help applying to college, filling out all of the paperwork, things children from more affluent families might take for granted.
Poore always had that “you have yours, I gotta get mine” attitude as the youngest, Bullock said.
“When I look at her,” Bullock said, “I’m so proud of her and what’s she’s been able to accomplish.”
Outside of her own family, Poore understands that as a Black woman who owns a business, she’s automatically a role model.
“They can look at me and say, ‘If she can do it, why can’t I?’” she said.
Poore recalled going to career day at Pike High School — where many of the McDonald’s employees who are still in school attend — with her McDonald’s shirt on and shocking the students when they found out she doesn’t just work at the fast food joint, she owns it.
“People see the things you do, and they want to ask you questions,” she said. “They want to know, how’d you do it?”
Poore tells them the same thing every time, the thing her parents told her was the key to everything she ever wanted to accomplish in life: Stay in school, and value your education.
Contact staff writer Tyler Fenwick at 317-762-7853. Follow him on Twitter @Ty_Fenwick.
Pam Poore
