[MUSIC] [MUSIC] >> commercial science with honors to yes like that honors.

>> my guest today is sheri mark daughter of the business maven florine mark who had the highest amount of franchisees of weight watchers and the weight watcher history.

and we are here to talk about the legacy of your mother.

you're the eldest of five.

and she was going back and forth to new york to a program called weight watchers.

yes.

and after being a part of the program, she lost fifty pounds.

what moved your mother florine mark to start the michigan franchise of weight watchers?

>> no, that was a time when women you maybe you work that the shoe store selling pantyhose because i know that women weren't allowed to sell the shoes.

and but she saw this opportunity because there was nothing like it doesn't.

and she was a very good speaker.

she always love to be on and, you know, do things in the community.

and luckily had the foresight and the outer barrier foresight to say i'm going to start this here.

i'm going to this franchise that was just starting in new york.

she started it and a little synagogue on seven mile.

and my mother was the lecture at that time is called the lecture and leader.

so it started with one class and it really grew.

you know, i'm i was very dynamic speaker and so very good motivator.

and people would come and it really was a good probe.

i don't call it a diet.

you know, it's called and it was very good program.

it's also, you know, it's a support group.

you would come once a week or more if you needed it and you would be with other people.

so everybody was supporting each other.

and my mom loved that.

she loved to put all these people together.

and so that grew very quickly from that first class to many, many, many classes.

what inspired her to continue championing for women in leadership.

she was a leader and a businesswoman, a business leader at a time when women weren't allowed to, you know, she tried to our five thousand dollars to start the business here and nobody no bank would get for long because she was a woman.

i think she just always felt that as a champion for women.

you know, she always told us as did my grandparents that, you know, you can do anything you want to do if you try.

and she did so much.

not only with weight watchers, not only with advocating for women, but she served on numerous boards.

we should have the time to do it and and give so much.

she always told me and i'm sure my siblings that you make time for what's important to you.

i always learned that, you know, i got up in the morning and i was healthy.

i have to give back in some manner.

and that's where i think all of her charitable nurse and tearing boards and and making a difference.

you know, she wanted to make a difference.

and as a leader, you know, when you're on these boards, you make a difference.

you're setting policy and you're doing great things.

and i think that's where all came from.

>> where are you encouraged or your siblings encouraged to follow in her footsteps or to follow your own passions and purposes.

>> everybody worked in the business.

my siblings all worked in it one way or the other.

some of us weeks.

we all started at the bottom.

we swept out center's.

you know what, what your center's?

we set up chairs.

we my grandmother was behind the scale, you know, meant so everybody, the whole family, which was wonderful unos, wonderful, provided like a really nice family business for everybody.

we all took part in decisions of it and things even if you weren't, you know, working in there on a daily basis, my grandparents didn't have a lot of money.

and so she didn't go to college and she married young in.

so this was her way of of giving back in and taking care of everybody.

and she now has, i think six degrees from, you know, wayne and oakland and you would be and lawrence tech and it's beautiful.

she led that we would go with the shoe so honored to get those degrees.

but she encouraged us college was always a given.

you went to college.

so why one brother is a doctor, a nurse, an attorney, my sister and her husband worked in the business.

my other brothers, an attorney.

she encouraged us to go out and do and be successful and things that we felt were important to us.

how do you want the world to remember fluorine mark?

i want the world to remember her as a person with a really good heart.

a motivator for not only women, especially women, but women, men, children, you know, motivating people to go out and make a difference.

and two love your family every day.

you know her or her signature was love.

love, love to fight for peace and be kind for people and good sense of community and give back.

you don't have to be really wealthy to make a difference in the world.

you know, you really don't whether you get a sandwich to a homeless person or whether you volunteer to it, you know, forgotten harvest or something.

i think her greatest accomplishments, her family.

and she would tell you that you loved having her family around her other equally as important greatest accomplishment is being a woman entrepreneur and being that role model for women.

the world and us.

i think my mother considered everybody her family.