That was a God- orained experience. This is what I'm supposed to do. Your chances of getting into Harvard are higher than your chances of owning a Chick-fil-A restaurant. For us, my pleasure isn't just a catchphrase. That's our moral obligation. Serving a lot of people really good chicken very quickly.
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You can find your tickets at Indiana Beerfest. com or at the link in the show notes. Use code natefest 25. That's natf s25 for $10 off any level of ticket. We will see you at Summerfest. Today I'm joined by Sam Hartman, the owner operator of the Chick-fil-A in Noblesville.
For over two decades, he has been with Chick-fil-A. He's known for mentoring talent, building strong team cultures, and he's led his location to a state breaking record uh that we're going to get into later in the show. I'm also joined by Nick Lawrence, executive director of People and Culture in Noblesville, who believes my pleasure isn't just a catchphrase, it's a moral obligation. His mission is to turn what many see as a fast food jobs into meaningful lifelong careers. Today we're going to be talking about what it takes to run a Chick-fil-A, how to get into the Chick-fil-A, the how to get into the chicken business, and uh talk about the different iterations throughout both their careers with Chick-fil-A. Gentlemen, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having us. Thank you so much. I am uh I am super super excited about this. So, I have to start off with a with a fact. So, according to an article from the Washington Post, Chick-fil-A only accepts 100 to 115 franchises for every 40,000 people who apply. I actually think that's a little low.
Oh. Historically, we've had over the course of the last 3 or four years somewhere between 100 and 120,000 people apply uh each year. And uh selection for those operator opportunities I think is probably in the 80 to 85 uh per year range. Oh wow. So even so we were wrong. So this is old data.
So over a 100,000 people apply to be a franchisee. Franchisee. e. e. e. e.
e. e. e. e. e. Yes.
Franchise franchisee for Chick-fil-A and only 80 new restaurants open a year. Uh yeah, something like that. Uh ballpark numbers. Is there like a limit to how many uh restaurants you can open? Uh three is the current cap. Three is the cap.
Wow. Everyone has heard this before, but that means that your chances of getting into Harvard are higher than your chances of owning a Chick-fil-A restaurant. It's very competitive. You mentioned over two decades. Uh I just had my 21st anniversary last month, so I've been around long enough to know that it wasn't always so competitive. Uh, fortunately for me, uh, or else I definitely wouldn't be in this chair sitting here now talking to you about Chick-fil-A.
Where, uh, where did you start your career with Chick-fil-A? Uh, I started in kind of an apprenticeship program. Uh, Jeff Mosley, who's the current operator here at of a couple stores in the Indian area. I think I see him on the Broadle app. He's there. He's always giving me free nuggets.
He's a generous guy. I started uh work right after college with him uh in in that apprenticeship program. And Jeff spent two and a half years kind of showing me the ropes. Uh he's been a dear friend and father figure and mentor for 20 plus years. During that two and a half years with him, I scrubbed the floors. I washed the dishes.
I filleted chicken. I did all of it. Is this when you graduated from college? Yeah, right after I graduated. Uh where'd you go to school? Taylor University, beautiful upland.
Taylor Ivan Hose in the middle. Indeed. Indeed. Okay. So, you graduate from Taylor. Mhm.
And the immediate uh like like you go to your first Thanksgiving back home and you have to tell grandma and grandpa, "Yep, I'm working at Chick-fil-A." Uh there was some tenseness, that's for sure. Yeah. What did you I mean, what feedback did you get? Like we just sent you to college for four years and you're now working in fast food. Yeah.
Uh my parents uh were very supportive obviously. Uh, but I think that there was some really, especially because prior to accepting the role at Chick-fil-A, I'd never seen a Chick-fil-A before. Never had a Chick-fil-A sandwich. Uh, nothing. How did you get convinced to join Chick-fil-A without knowing about Chick-fil-A? Well, it's a bit of a long story.
I'll give you the Reader's Digest version. Um, we had nothing but time here. Nothing but time. I was chasing all sorts of different jobs. Going to get married right after graduation. the the Taylor like that's the the pinnacle of Taylor's ring by spring.
Ring by spring, baby. Yeah, for sure. It definitely is. So, getting married right after graduation uh had not had a lot job lined up. My father-in-law to be sticks a finger in my face one day and says, "You do understand you will not be moving into my basement. You will provide for my daughter.
You know, you will find a job." And I said, "Yeah, yeah, I I I understand, Mr. Connor. I understand I will. The end of the conversation, he sticks his finger in my face and says, "Even if you have to get a job flipping burgers, you will provide." And of course, you know, being the respectful young man that I was, I said, "Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely. I I I will make sure to get it taken care of." In my head, I thought, "You stupid old man, there's no way on earth I'm flipping burgers for a living." And I will tell you, I've maintained that vow. Not one burger have I flipped for an income. Show him.
I'm going to fry chicken. Come on. So, all while all this is going on, uh my roommate at college, best friend since junior high, uh had had an internship at Chick-fil-A in the IT department. Loved it. Like Chick-fil-A local or Chick-fil-A cuz the headquarters is in Atlanta. Yeah, the headquarters is in Atlanta.
So, he was down down there. That's pretty cool. Um loved the experience. Said nothing but wonderful things about uh his time there and said, "You really ought to pursue this operator thing." And I told him he was an idiot. There's no way I'm doing that.
through a kind of a series of events, uh, I wound up finding out that Chick-fil-A was actually coming to recruit at Taylor's campus and started to sign up but didn't because I had three tests that day, kind of endear, senior year test. Day rolls around, Chick-fil-A's completely off my radar. All three tests get cancelled. They were the only three classes I'd had my entire Taylor career that had gotten cancelled. So, God with the two before across the back of the head, I'm supposed to go to this Chick-fil-A interview and So that's that's very much how it went through. U have you like gone back and thanked those teachers?
Like hey, if you wouldn't have canceled those three tests, like I probably would not look them up. Yeah. Uh I like telling that story, especially to the young people that are working in our restaurants, because I think so many of them feel like they've got to get it figured out. They got to know where they're headed, uh what their life is supposed to look like at 18 or at 22. If you had told me 15 minutes before my first Chick-fil-A interview that I was going to be doing this, I'd have said you were a There's no way I'm doing that. There's a plan.
And trust the journey. Trust your process. Uh you often don't get uh the 40th step in your journey revealed to you. You get the next one. Yeah. And and take the next one.
So you go and interview with Chick-fil-A and so they came to your campus recruiting for you. Like was it the Indianapolis location that was at Taylor or was it the corporate location or the corporate headquarters that was at Taylor? It was uh the corporate office. My buddy that had gone down for the internship uh while he was down there had just heard people in the cafeteria talking about this apprenticeship program that I mentioned earlier. Um and he comes back to me and says, "You ought to chase down thing down. It's called the leadership development program.
You'd you'd really love it." And again, I said, "You're an idiot. There's no way." So, when the corporate recruiter came, she asked me, "What's your favorite Chick-fil-A item?" kind of softball interview question, you know, and I said, "Well, I I've never actually seen a Chick-fil-A." Oh, okay.
Oh, gosh. At least she's honest. Yeah, I'm honest. Uh, her second question was, "What um area of work do you want to do at our home office in Atlanta? IT, accounting, marketing, whatever." So, actually, I I don't want to move to Atlanta.
That sounds awful. I don't want to do that. So, her third question was, "Why are you here?" "Well, I heard about this leadership development program. I've always wanted to own my own business. I think I'd like to be an operator.
Tell me about that." Her response was, "That's really not I'm here recruiting for home office jobs. I don't know a whole lot about the LDP program, but let's let's talk about it." So, that's kind of how it all transpired. Yeah. And so, then you end up getting hooked up.
What's the the broader like Indianapolis? What's his name? Jeff Mosley. You get hooked up with Jeff. That's where you end up getting and he puts you to work scrubbing the floors. Scrubbing the floors.
Yeah. I was at Castleton Mall. Uh scrubbing floors, washing dishes. What What was like volume of of Castleton Mall? What time? This is like uh 2001.
I'm going to guess volume was probably a million and a half maybe. Okay. And like volume like it was like like malls were hot in the early 2000s, you know, like going to a mall was like the thing to do. Yeah. Absolutely. So, and I I we talked about a little bit before air, but it's like I grew up up in South like up in the South Bend area.
So, we would drive 30 minutes to hit the food court and get some nuggets from the Chick-fil-A up there and, you know, take your middle school girlfriend on a date. So, I'm very familiar with what was happening at the Castleton Mall. Um, so you're working there. You're like an like what's the like you're in this leadership development program, but are you like treated like an hourly employee? Are you treated like a leader? Like how does that work?
Yeah, it was uh kind of a weird hybrid. definitely an employee of Jeff's. Um I was working for him doing whatever he told me to do, but uh he knew and our corporate office knew that I was chasing down this operator opportunity. And so every so often a person would come up from Atlanta and spend an hour with me. Um just kind of catching up and seeing where I'm at in the process. What am I learning?
What am I struggling with? Did they give you like a timeline? Hey, grind for five years and then we'll get you a spot. It was originally two years was what I was told. Um, and it wound up being a little closer to three before I wound up in a a location that they offered me as a what was called an interim manager at the time. Okay.
So, you are, you know, work in all of it at the Castleton location. Castton location. And then when the Keystone the Crossing location opened, uh, Jeff got that one and I moved over there with him. That one has to also do some serious volume. It does indeed. That drive-thru, it's like now like a double-decker drive-thru, right?
like it was one of the first ones to do that. It's nuts. I used to work across the street there and I would frequent often. So, you go from, you know, the the Castleton location to the Keystone Crossing location with like I mean, you're you're going to be almost 3 years, so like 24 25. And then they're like, "Yep, you're ready to run a store." Yeah.
Here are the keys to Columbus, Ohio. Yeah. It was um another mall location, Eastland Mall, Columbus, Ohio. Uh not a good area, not a good part of town. Uh very very challenging demographic. Uh it was the second lowest volume store in the chain uh at the time when I got there.
What was the lowest? Uh the lowest was actually a Chick-fil-A. It was a test concept. It was inside a Kroger grocery store in Mcdana, Georgia. Uh and so we have what we call the location comparison reports that come out every month. You know, here's every store's volume ranked highest to lowest, right?
And every month for almost a year, I'd hold my finger over the mouse. Dear Lord, please don't let me be last. Don't let me be last. And then I'd click it and I'd scroll scroll scroll scroll scroll scroll scroll scroll scroll scroll all the way to the bottom. Okay. Still second to last.
We still had that Kroger location. Uh, okay. That was a Were there other test concepts like that? Not really. No, not at that time. That was the kind of the only one.
So, you get the second lowest volume store in the entire franchise. Are you an owner? Are you running it? Are you just an intram manager? Like how does that how does the ownership structure work? Explain that to the listeners so we get of like are you a 24 year old 25-year-old business owner at that time?
Uh yeah, 24 they offered me the opportunity to go over to to Columbus as what was called an interim manager. So I was a corporate employee at that point but doing all the same things that an owner operator did just without the ownership uh without the liability uh etc. And that was just sort of a continuation of the LDP program that was expected that I go and be the inter manager. We're going to reward you with the second worst store in the franchise. Exactly. Congrats.
Congrats. We're talking about putting yourself in like a position to win, right? Like was that hard? Oh, absolutely. I could tell East Lal stories till your ears fall off. What do you What do you do?
You're a young kid basically. I mean, you're a kid. You're 24, 25 years old. You're a kid. You get this store that's struggling. Mhm.
And like is the goal to fix it? Is the goal to maintain it? Like what was your what were they expecting from you? First meeting I had with uh we call them business consultants. So kind of the liaison between operator and our corporate office. The first meeting I had with him, I said, "What what are you hoping for?
What what spells success for you?" And and he said, "Grow sales. Don't worry about profit because there won't be any. Just grow sales." What Why didn't they just close it? Contracts.
And I that's above my pay grade. I don't know. Just grow sales. So grow sales. So what is like the first thing you go in there? It has to do with like people coming through, I'm assuming, right?
Like foot traffic volume or like how do you grow sales for a mall location? Our first day there. Uh we did $380 in sales. Maybe spent more than that on my own one time on accident. Oh yeah, for sure. Uh very very very very low volume.
Uh we were up 10% that day, so that felt like a pretty big win. Uh, stop. Is it just like you and one employee? Like, how many employees are you running? Uh, the first day, uh, there were five people on the staff, including myself and my wife. And if you wanted to count our two-month-old at the time, uh, then we had six if you if you count her.
Wow. Our oldest uh, Taylor, $380. $380. Yeah. Uh, two of the five quit the next day. Uh, and so there were a lot of afternoons when it was I was up at the front counter and my wife was in the kitchen and Taylor, our oldest, was in a large cup box by the back door.
That's That's a great name. Taylor, named after Taylor. Well, maybe. Yeah. Right. So then day two, you obviously delegate one of your employees to wear the cow costume and go out front and twirl the sign.
I wish I had been that innovative. No. No. So, what did you do to grow sales? Yeah, it's a great question. Um, we really focused in on uh catering and developing sales outside the mall.
We knew that people coming into the mall was never going to be a a rapid revenue growth. Um, just not a lot of traffic in the mall and there wasn't any reason to come into the mall. We thought apart from Chick-fil-A. So, we partnered with every private school we could think of to do school lunch catering. Spent time with every major business in the area. Uh Riker Ford is a huge car dealership there and they uh ordered lots and lots of Chick-fil-A from us.
There were Shout out to Riker Ford. Rikert Ford. I'm still grateful to those folks. There were many, many, many, many days for years when we would do more sales outside the mall than inside. No way. Okay, so after your first year there, and Nick, I promise we're going to get to you at some point.
That's good. That's fascinating. He's heard all these stories 30 times. After after your first like year there, did you crawl up from second to last? Uh yeah, we certainly did. Uh we never got very high, but we certainly were not second to last anymore.
So we uh the first year we finished right around 370,000 and by the end of year three we were at 790,000. Oh. So pretty substantial growth in a short amount of time. What was it where you took over? 375,000 was the you received 37 and then you doubled in some change that number. Mhm.
In three years based largely on corporate partnerships. Yeah. Thanks Rockford Ford. Shout out to the car guys. Um, okay. So, so you're obviously like things are working.
You're you're growing. You're getting your sales. And if you put it in comparison, what's like the best store in the country, do if you're 700,000. What was number one? Close to 5 million. Oh gosh.
Yeah. So, you're like grinding like you're like getting out in the community. You're meeting these people. The car dealerships are buying nuggets. Like, let's go. But you would still have to not only you'd have to 5x over 5x what you had already done for your store to get to like near the top.
Yeah. After doubling and plus sales, we were still well well well well below average for sure. Wow. Um but this led you to your next opportunity, right? So how long did you stay in Columbus? We were in Columbus about just a little over three years.
Okay. So after three years there and was it like that's like kind of your cutting your teeth. You're the leader. like the buck stops with you, but then you get this next opportunity to come back to Was the plan to always come back to Indianapolis? That was our hope. My wife and I are both from Bedford.
Uh shout out uh Bedford North Lawrence Stars. Yeah, come on. There we go. Uh so we had always wanted to get back into the indie area. The limestone capital of the world. You got it.
But it's actually not Bedford. It's the little town by Bedford, right? Uh you're going to start fist fights. You're going to start fist fights. I'm not I'm not going to answer that question. What's the town called?
O something. Uh Olytic. Oolitic. Yes. Is the Is the limestone really from Bedford or is it from Otitic? I'm I'm not answering that question.
There we go. I had uh I got I got relatives that are going to listen to this. I had Clayton Anderson on. Yeah. And he is the one who divulged that it was Oolitic. Yeah.
Clayton uh and my brother Andrew were in a band all through. Did he get to play when Clayton got to open for Kenny Chzn? No. Oh no. Before then? Yeah.
band broke up uh before Clayton hit it big for sure. All right. The tough looks there. U Okay. So, you get to move back to the Circle City Mall. Yep.
And at the time, was it a brand new store? No, it had been open uh three maybe four years at that point. Give us a perspective. You're coming from a mall. You started in a mall. You're going to another mall.
Was this like they were struggling or was this like a really good opportunity for you? Uh it was a huge improvement. Uh for sure. uh Circle Center was still well below average in terms of the chain. Very very challenging location. A a normal week might be, let's say, $20,000 in sales.
Uh the week following might be a h 100,000 because the convention was in town. Uh and the Pacers had a game and and the Colts had a Saturday night game or whatever, you know, and they're like, "How can why can't you just do this all the time?" It's like, "Bring a better convention tonight. I don't know what to tell you." Exactly. So that that fluctuation in sales was really really challenging from a staffing perspective, from an inventory perspective.
It was again a huge improvement over Eastland and we were thrilled to be back in the Hoosier State. Yeah. Well, I I think I see two really big types of stores. When I when I'm like looking and thinking about Chick-fil-A, you have the mall location which would be like tons of foot traffic, right? It's like especially in the this would have been what 2010s. Uh yeah, got to Circle Center in uh 2008.
You have a mall with a lot of foot traffic when malls are really hot. Makes sense. On the other side is a drive-through location that just like churns cars through the drive-through. Like those seem to be like the two types. Is that kind of like principally? Yeah.
Cuz like no drive-thru in a location that doesn't have any parking really. Like I mean there's a parking garage, but like unless you're within walking distance, you're probably not like parking and walking in just to get Chick-fil-A unless you're like a really big fan. True, right? Like at the mall. Yeah. Uh hopefully we're drawing people into the mall.
You know, uh at at Eastland, even at $700,000, we were probably the third highest volume retailer in the mall. Oh, wow. Uh after J C Penney and Sears, we were probably the next No way. Yeah. Uh so hopefully we serve as a traffic driver in a lot of these mall locations that we're still in and over the country. I think we still have 200ish malls, maybe 150.
I should look that up. you get the the gig at uh Circle Center and how how long were you down there? How did things go? Are you still are you now back working with Jeff? No. Uh I'm owner operator of Circle Center.
So you got owner operator before you were kind of inter manager. Now you are owner operator. Yeah, at Eastland we were the uh interim manager for about four months. Um and then they asked me if I would take over as the owner operator. So I was the owner operator there for most of the three and a half years. How does that process work?
Like they're like, "Yeah, cool. We're going to give you this promotion to owner operator. We're going to need you to write a check for 50 grand or whatever." Yeah. To like 24y old you. The franchise fee at the time was five grand.
So it's it's since gone up to 10 grand, but back then it was it was 5 grand. Wait, the franchise fee is $10,000 currently? Currently. Yep. Yep. What's like the franchise What's like a standard franchise fee for like anywhere else?
Uh I'm sure it varies a lot. I know McDonald's is millionish. I talked to this Subway guy who said he was paying about 200k. So, we're we're at 10. There's some differences between our franchise model and the McDonald's, a Subway, a Burger King going down. Let's go let's go into that.
What are the what are the differences? Cuz that number is like shocking to me. Like I see the billboard that's like $10,000 and you can own a steak and chick. Yeah. Yeah. So I was like, okay, in my head I'm thinking like Chick-fil-A, like, okay, so it's probably like I was saying like at least probably a million dollars is what I thought a franchise fee would be for a Chick-fil-A.
So it's only 10. Only 10. And at the time it was five. At the time it was five. Uh so the principal differences in, uh ownership. So uh McDonald's franchisee probably owns the building, owns the equipment, maybe owns the, you know, land or has some kind of lease worked out.
For us, I don't own the building. I don't own the land. I don't own in most of the equipment that's in the building. When I retire, I hand the keys back to corporate. Um I don't retain ownership. I can't hand the ownership of the building off to my daughters, for example.
That's kind of the trade-off. Uh on the plus side of that, uh we just had a pretty significant renovation happen at our Saxony location in Noblesville off the 69 and it didn't cost me anything because it's Ink's building, right? So, it's a little bit like less risky. Yeah, it's certainly less risky from a financial investment standpoint. Uh the returns are uh still in your hands. You know, each month I get a report card that says how well we did uh in terms of a in the form of a profit and loss statement.
Was that a hard decision? I'm thinking like so you would have been how old were you when you were 24 when they came to you and said we want you to be the owner operator. Yep. And like I don't know, five grand to a 24 year old isn't nothing. And like you're kind of committing like a little bit of your life. Oh yeah, absolutely.
You know, like I said, the the story of being at Taylor and getting hit over the head with the two before with the three classes that had gotten cancelled. I have just felt like that was a God- orained experience and this is what I'm supposed to do. I never would have dreamed that I was going to be flipping chicken at 46. like it said, "Hey, father, not burgers, though. Not burgers. Have I showed you not only am I flipping chicken, I am an owner of people who flip chicken.
I'm an operator. Come on." Um, I do want to like fast forward the story a little bit cuz Nick, at some point you come into the the the jump here. It all gets better after Nick arrives. Really? Yeah.
Oh, for sure. Well, um, you run the Circle City Circle Center Mall. Yep. What pulls you north? Saxony and I69 location that's uh there in Noblesville uh had its grand opening in 2015 and I applied to relocate from the mall to the Saxony location. What was the thought behind that?
The mall location I I loved it. I love the energy and the vibe and every week's different. It was really hard. It was really hard. What was so hard about it? Uh like I mentioned before, the fluctuation in sales because a convention center is really challenging from an infrastructure standpoint.
It was 45 minutes away from home. uh getting downtown. Finding talent was very challenging in that kind of downtown urban environment. Uh the freestanding location I knew was going to be higher volume. I knew was going to uh kind of create a better lifestyle for my family, better opportunities for my daughters to come and work with me when they enter into high school. So, a lot of lot of positives.
So, you end up getting the location Yeah. on the north side up in Noblesville. Gave up Circle Center and um headed up headed up north to the Birds. And then at some point you and Nick crossed paths prior to Chick-fil-A. I spent 11 years in big box retail and the pandemic hit and I was put on furlow from the company I was working for and uh ended up being about 65 days but I didn't know how long it would be and one day I got an email for a free chicken sandwich and I thought that's a good price. So uh that's right in my budget currently.
Yeah, exactly. So, I drove up to my local Chick-fil-A to get my free chicken sandwich and the line was out of control. I couldn't believe it. And I'm used to the mall food court, so there's no cars there, right? The dining room's closed because of the pandemic. And I thought, well, let me just get gas and see if the line calms down.
And uh sure enough, I got gas and the line moved forward and I thought, here's my chance, right? And right before I get in the line, I I see this this black vehicle and I said, I'm just going to wave this guy in. And on the side as it the vehicle passed by me, it said Chick-fil-A award winner. I thought, "Oh, that's quite the award, right?" And I knew from talking to the mall operator that was um likely the owner operator of the the franchise I was visiting. So, I thought, you know what?
It was a beautiful sunny day. I thought, if we get side by side, I'm just going to yell out my window like, "Hey, do you need any leaders to work for you?" Right? I didn't have a job, right? What did I have to lose? Um unfortunately, we never got side by side, but I got my my meal first, thank goodness.
And I parked at the end of the dumpster kind of out of the way and I walked back through the line which I now know is a big sin to like hold up the process and I said, "Sir, are you the owner operator?" He said, "Yes, I am." And he's sitting there like, "Get back in your car now. What are you doing?" So, we move around to the front of the restaurant and I said, "Hey, I'm I'm looking to get into HR work. Do you do that in-house or do is that a third party?"
He said, "Oh, we do that in-house." Um, and three weeks later, I started working for him. So, that's that's the the story. And Okay. says, "And Sam, you're clearly Wait, are you going through your own drive-thru?" That's what my dad says.
Why was he in his own the drive-thru? Yeah, absolutely. In the giant chicken winner. In the giant chicken winner mobile. Indeed. What did you think when this guy walks up to you while you're in the drive-thru?
I love people who ask good questions. To me, that is a sign of I I want to grow. I want to develop. I want new opportunities. And Nick just asked in the span of five or six minutes while we talked six or seven really good questions. Um you know even the do you do HR in-house or third party is a good question.
People who take the initiative to to take charge of their own career their own uh opportunity is something that I really admire too. And again Nick did the same thing. So um I was really excited from the get-go to to have Nick join our team and it's been an awesome experience ever since. I also have to ask, what does one have to do to get a a chicken award winner? Yeah, good question. vehicle.
So, every year we have a a sales contest. We call it the symbol of success. Uh started uh gosh, back in the 70s with our founder, Truit Cathy, giving away cars to operators that grew sales a certain percentage over the last year. Uh the last decade or so, it's been 20%. 20% sales growth over LY. Uh you get a car at the end of the year.
So, we've won six of those. Oh, what kind of Wait, what what kind of like have the cars been? Like what kind of cars are we talking here? Uh, our first one was a Ford Escape. Uh, second one was a Ford Explorer. Third one was a Tesla.
And then the last threes have been Jeeps. Oh, wait. Tesla just threw it in there. That's pretty cool. But also, can we go back to the the original one? Ford coming in again in the story.
Ford showing up bigdeed. Um, okay. So, Nick, 3 weeks later, you start working for Chick-fil-A. When people associate fast food, like outside people maybe don't see it as like, oh yeah, a career that you're going to be like gung-ho about if you graduate from Harvard to go serve chicken. Um, but yeah, you're furoughed and you're going through this and there's this whole story and the the line that I want to get to is that you are building careers and people stay at Chick-fil-A for 21 years or even longer at times. Talk to me about how you navigated the conversations you were having with your family about going to work for Chick-fil-A.
Yeah. And I was dating my then my now wife, but uh my my fiance at the time. And I ran the beauty department at Macy's. So I said, "Hey, I'm going to go from selling lipstick at the mall to selling chicken at at Chick-fil-A." And um good on her. She said she had faith in me and believe believed in me.
And it uh I'm glad she did. And of course Sam did as well and turned into something really remarkable. But when I first started the first five months, I didn't do any HR work at all. I I was working side by side with the the frontline team. And uh I call that red shirt boot camp because our our entry- level team, they wear a red polo. So, and Oh, wait.
There's different there's different shirts based on your experience level based on Yeah. leadership level. Okay. So, wait, what are what are the different shirt levels? Most of our team's wearing a a red polo and uh we've actually kind of streamlined it and and simplified it. So, I think navy a navy shirt or maybe a a button-down shirt is is what other leaders will be in.
But the vast majority of our team you're going to see in a red polo. Okay. So, you're red you're wearing your red polo. wearing my red polo. I'm in red shirt boot camp and and that's where I learned almost every position in the restaurant. It was tough.
That was my version of like military boot camp, you know? I've I've never been, but that that was my version of it. And like were there times where you're like I've had I've been working in the professional setting for 11 years. Like what am I doing saying my pleasure in the drive-thru? Like were there moments where you were like gh this is frustrating? Yeah.
the first hour into the job, uh, a 14-year-old is teaching me how to make lemonade in the kitchen and this is during the pandemic. We're wearing masks and it's 90 degrees out because it's it's August. And she said, "Are are you 18?" I said, "Well, I'm at least 18." Yes. And she goes, "Okay, because you can't use the cardboard bor if you're not 18."
And and you know, I'm joking with my now wife. I said, "I have to ask a 14-year-old if I can go to the bathroom." You know, I'm, you know, I went from a lot of responsibility at my previous company to, you know, going through this red shirt boot camp and learning to make lemonade. Well, a piece of what makes Chick-fil-A so successful, it's the people. It is like the the person with the iPad looking thing, the tablet out in the drive-thru like with a smile that takes immense amounts of pride in serving a lot of people really good chicken very quickly. What's the secret behind that?
You know, I admired uh Chick-fil-A for 11 years before I worked there. In fact, when I worked in big box retail for Macy's and Target, we met at those companies every day at three o'clock and we talked about three things. Customer service, growing sales over last year, beating Ly and finding great people to work for us. And throughout those that decade, each boss I had, this the store manager would say, "Who's been out in our competitors? Who's been recruiting? Where are all the good people at?"
And I always said, "They're at Chick-fil-A. That's where they're at." And after 11 years, one day I had this thought, I should just go work there. And uh and then, you know, I did and and met Sam. Admiring the company for 11 years externally and now working for the company internally for 5 years, I've been able to boil it down to one sentence, which is this. For us, my pleasure isn't just a catchphrase.
That's our moral obligation. That's how seriously we take it. A lot of companies have core values and a lot of companies like write them on the wall and do but like again, you're a 14-year-old. How do you get a 14-year-old who's like making lemonade to believe that they have a moral obligation to serve their customers? Yeah, that's a great question. You know, it and I would say this whether Sam's here or not, it really does start with local ownership, our owner operator.
And you know, with our competitors, they sometimes they sign an agreement. I'm going to open 10 locations in the next seven years. And um with Chick-fil-A, they they want one restaurant, one owner operator in most cases. If you're into great country music, good vibes, and an atmosphere that just screams summer, then you need to check out the Red, White, and Brown Music Fest. It's going down on August 23rd at historic League Stadium in Huntingburg, and we're going to be out there. This just isn't any venue.
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Grab yours now and we will see you down in Huntingburg. And like you have to like you can't just be the owner and like chill, right? Like you're an owner operator for 20, 30 years or whatever. It's like even in your last year like you can't just like let other people do the work like you have like is there like a certain amount of hours you have to be on the floor? No, no one's kind of tracking that. I'm not clocking in or anything, but it's certainly the expectation and it's a known expectation that we're there, we're in the restaurant, we're visible, we're present.
In fact, the business consultant person that I was chatting about earlier, he and I were on the phone yesterday and he talked about one of the members of the Kathy family. Truet Kathy is our founder. So, one of his grandsons was talking just yesterday about how frustrated he is with operators and corporate staff going into restaurants wearing sport coats. I've been wearing a sport coat every day for years and years and years. But John White's rationale was, I don't want to see them wearing sport coats because that means they're probably not scooping fries and they're not standing by the breading table and watching the breader make chicken. My counter to that is I've got plenty of sport coats with stains on them to prove that I am doing just those things uh in a sport coat.
But well, and at some point your time is less valuable breading chicken than it is like building a culture of people who are really good at their thing. Right. Sure. Undoubtedly, if I'm spending the bulk of my time breading chicken, I'm doing it wrong. But I should still bread chicken every so often. Yeah.
How how did you manage that? like the the balance of I'm not too good to bread chicken. Like it's not it's not below me, but like if I do all that then, you know, payroll's got to get like whatever the other thing. Like that's a tough balance when you like want to lead from the front. But eventually like you don't want to be the best chicken breer. You don't want to be the best at the drive-thru.
You if you're the only if you're the best at all of those things, then it's actually you're just not good at training probably. Yep. That's an interesting an interesting balance to maintain there from like the owner operator perspective. Yeah. Uh undoubtedly uh early on at Eastland Mall, $380,000 a year. I was the best breader because I was the only breader.
I was the best fry guy because I was the only fry guy. Uh actually my wife was probably better than me. But anyway, um I digress, right? Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.
Uh, undoubtedly as as my career has gone on, I've I've had to shift quite a bit. And it's been awesome having really really talented, smart leaders like Nick and a lot of other folks who have been able to um do the things like payroll and inventory management and 401k management and health insurance and and all of those. We're talking about a like a fast food restaurant and you're talking about 401k and you're talking about I mean all that like that's why like those are career terms you know how do you like what's the average tenure of like one of your employees that's doing this as a because obviously you have like the high school kids that might roll in or like the college kids might roll in but when you have like an adult that comes and works for like what's the average stay? We've got folks who are here from five years to 20 years and um it's so cool to see their their progression when they start out as a 14-year-old and now they're, you know, assistant general manager.
Um it's pretty cool and I think that's the hardest thing in in my role is trying to um tell this story of that Chick-fil-A can be a career. You you can grow here and we do have marketing, HR, finance, all all the traditional things any business would have we we have here. Um and we just happen to sell chicken, too. Yeah. you know, it takes all that to run the business. So, when you think about the training and instilling your culture to your employees, the culture of like very very like it almost seems like servant leadership, you know, like all this stuff of we're going to take exceptionally good care of our employees and of our customers.
How do you like get them bought in? Are there moments where someone like misses my pleasure and you have to reprimand them or like how does that work? Yeah, we have a big coaching culture that that we try to instill. And you know, I think a lot of at least from what I experience out in the wild, I think a lot of people have this mindset of I have to take care of this customer where where I think our mindset is we get to take care of this guest. You know, when when you have your owner operator scooping fries and cleaning up a a spill and then every layer on down is is modeling the way. Um I think that's what makes the difference.
And we're very clear in the interview. In fact, we kind of try to talk people out of the job. I say, "Hey, you can make more money and do less work across the street." You know, why why do you want to work here at Chick-fil-A? Wait, wait. You can you can make more money and do less work across the street.
Yeah, probably. You know, everyone's willing to pay a quarter more. You know, we we have competitive wages and and you know, pay alone will not win the day anymore. That's what I've learned in in this job market. So, yeah, people want their their bucket filled up along with their bank account. Yeah.
And it's like time passes to for me when I think my first job was at McDonald's. Don't judge me. It's okay. Don't judge me. There was no Chick-fil-A in Warsaw, Indiana. So, that was the nearest big town.
So, I got a job at the McDonald's there. And like, if it wasn't busy and you're just like sitting there like twiddling your thumbs like time passes so slow, I'm bored. I'm not having like I'm working. It's like I don't know anyone who wants to clock in and just sit there and watch paint. And back then, and I'm I'm I'm sure you guys are like this because it's Chick-fil-A, but like you couldn't be on your phone. They would yell at you if you were not yell at you, they would scold you kindly if you were on your phone.
So, it's like you could either sit there and watch paint dry or when it was busy and you're like rocking and rolling and you're like serving the drive-thru and I'm loved it because I just love talking to people and, you know, doing it. But it was like when you are working hard and you are delighting customers and you're doing all that, like it's a more enjoyable process. Yeah. Yeah. And the great thing, especially now with the average volume of a Chick-fil-A, there's very little time for for downtime or or um goofing around basically and like messing on your phone. Yeah.
And the thing that's really enjoyable, I think, is that we have some of the most loyal and grateful customers or guests that that uh we get to serve. Guest, that's that's the word we prefer around here. Guests. There are guests indeed. You go from wait, I have to serve this customer to I get to serve this guest. There we go.
hosting someone at a dinner party. You know, during the pandemic, they would say things like that this is the only place I leave my house for and this is the only place I trust and Chick-fil-A should run the company or the the COVID testing and it it was remarkable. What is the secret? What is the secret to Chick-fil-A's drive-thru that makes it go so fast? You know, I think part of it is the upstream ordering on the iPad. You know, you don't have to wait to get to the speaker box.
So, we're we're we're kind of advancing now. Do you guys have the mobile mobile through? We do. We do. That is the game changer. I get so and I'm not mad.
I don't get mad at Chick-fil-A. You always are happy. But like sometimes the line in Broadripple gets so backed up that I can't make it to the split and I'm like I just need to get to like where it opens up cuz I'm going through the mobile through cuz I can get You could literally get in and out in two minutes maybe. Yeah. It's nuts. So you say the one thing that changes it is upstream ordering.
That can't be it. That can't just be that. Yeah, that that's part of it. But I do think it's the the diligent care that that we take and you know our team uh you know we have everything is is timed and different colors, right? So we want to get the the food out hot and safe and fresh with a smile and and with my pleasure. So take us through that the timing of it like what the desired times to hit.
So, like if we were like a pit crew running orders through uh the drive-thru at Chick-fil-A, from the moment I drive, like I my front tires step foot onto Chick-fil-A property, like where does the timer start? We actually kind of track it a little bit differently. What we try to envision, particularly in the drive-thru, is departure rate. Because line lengths can vary throughout the day. We want to make sure that there's a car leaving the window every 18 seconds. That's the goal.
There is a car leaving the window every 18 seconds. Yeah. Wow. Okay. So, so it's like, okay, that's changing my perspective. So, what are the levers that are pulled to like continue to get that and and along the journey from like order to it starts to be prepared to bagged to out the door like Yeah.
What what are like the times that you're or like the little milestones that they're hitting within that journey to get a car exiting every 18 seconds? The level of technology in the restaurant that allows us to communicate really really well is magic that is created by oftent times 50 people working in the restaurant at a time. production times, bagging times, our what we call kitchen production screens that you've seen in every fast food restaurant. And you're like watching the stats on these. Oh, 100%. Yeah.
And you're like, "Ah, hey, hey, Charlie, we noticed that the bagging time was like up a quarter of a second today." Like we're going to we're just going to need to be a little more diligent there and like help get that number back where we need it. Like is that like legit? Like we're watching the film of Not to a quarter of a second, but yes, 100%. Um we're watching camera. We have uh our support center down in Atlanta has a wide variety of drive-through consultants that will come and watch our drivethrough consultants, watch our cameras and and help us with Johnny is standing two feet further to the left than he should.
Let's try to reduce his steps and and it it gets down to the nitty-gritty for sure. What's like the typical lever if a drive-through consultant comes in? What's the typical lever they're pulling? Like literally where people are standing. Uh that's one. Yeah, for sure.
Uh where is inventory? How far away are they reaching for ketchup, for example? Um, and if your ketchup is two feet this way, can we move it this way so that that team member is taking I mean, you're you're talking about 18 seconds, right? So, shaving a second off by moving ketchup makes a big impact. Yeah. And it's like shaving a second off and you what's the average volume of departures per hour?
Uh at our Saxony location, we're probably averaging somewhere around 170 180 cars during a peak hour. 170 cars, like 170 seconds, that's almost 3 minutes an hour just based on the location of your ketchup packet. That's crazy. Like you go from 60 to 57 minutes on the placement of ketchup. That's wild. The biggest bulk of the credit goes to the leaders in the store who are managing these things really, really, really well and coaching to these things really, really well.
To your point, how do you get a 14-year-old to care about a second? Well, it it comes with culture and it comes with the understanding that when guests win, we win. Um, and that we're we're playing to win together. Um, when we achieve something great in the restaurant and magic happens, the team wins, the guest wins, the business wins. Uh, and that sweet spot when all three things happen at the same time has an impact and it has an influence on the 14-year-old. Every 14-year-old wants to be on a winning team.
Yeah. You know, and and when you are able to as a leader, be it as a 18-year-old leader or a ancient 46-y old leader, express the value of those wins, then it gets ingrained in the culture and seconds start to matter to a 14-year-old. What advice would you give both of you would you give to other leaders or business owners that want to improve their company and team culture? Yeah, I would say it starts with yourself, right? and asking questions like what could I do better? How could I have?
When I was a younger leader, I would ask questions like who dropped the ball and accountability is important, but accountability just look in the mirror, right? And and hold that person accountable. If you start with that, there's a saying that a colleague of our ours has that says we judge other people on their actions and we judge ourselves on our intentions. So, it's not really a level playing field from the start, right? So I think if you look in the mirror and start there with accountability, you know, that's the advice I'd give other leaders and um I have to give myself that advice, you know, in the morning too, right? That okay, what what did I do yesterday?
How can I do it better today? Sam, find a mentor and find a mentor who's really really really worth following. How do you judge a mentor that's worth following? Um don't look at their professional success alone. Does this person have character that's consistent? Are they an awesome leader in the restaurant and with their spouse?
Um, have they found a way to balance life and work well? If you're looking to model your life after someone who's only living a third of their life well, then you're kind of missing the point. Find a great mentor and then ask really great questions. Ask really great questions of yourself and of that mentor and anyone that you can find that you want to learn from. read books like crazy. One of the books that we read uh as a team, we have a vice president of leadership development teaches courses on a variety of different book studies.
One of them is uh called QBQ. Do you remember the author's name? I can't remember. I don't. The question behind the question. Question behind the question.
If you're a 18 to 23 year old aspiring leader, read that book. Uh it's great. By John G. Miller. Thank you. Yeah, John Miller.
Eliminate blame, complaining, and procrastination. Don't expect to lead others if you can't lead yourself. When it comes to being an owner operator at Chick-fil-A, obviously there's like a ton of speculation around what goes into selecting new owner and operators. Obviously, you do they still have the leadership development program? Is that still a thing? It the program has changed, but in in essence, yeah.
What goes into selecting owner operators for Chick-fil-A like from corporate? Yeah. Well, right now we have uh two of our former leaders uh Sam Baker uh and Robera Thompson who are in what is the current MDP uh programs called LDP leadership development program now but it's two and a half years on the road doing grand openings uh helping out stores as kind of that inter manager role as we talked about. Uh and so it's very much development folks at our corporate staff are doing operator selection. They're looking for character. Do you match our ethos?
Do you match our culture? Uh, are you going to be a good representation of the brand? They're looking for capacity. We have restaurants that are $20 million individually. Our team in Noblesville is close to 300 people. You have to have a certain level of capacity to lead that kind of organization.
They're looking for credit, which seems kind of rudimentary, but if you can't manage your own finances, then you're probably not going to be very good at managing the finances of a restaurant. And those are kind of the big 10,000 foot view uh perspectives of what they're looking for. Do you have an entrepreneurial drive? As a franchisee, there are a lot of decisions that I can't make on my own. You know, I've got to I can't change the sandwich if I think it should be a little saltier. What?
I better not anyway. Uh, but I still have an awful lot of purview to manage our 401k plan and we can manage our health insurance plan and we manage how much we pay people and we have a marketing strategy that we develop in house and all these other things that are very entrepreneurial. Um, and if you don't have those skills then you're you're probably going to really struggle as an operator for sure. What goes into uh deciding where a new location will pop up for Chick-fil-A? Uh that's definitely outside my my purview. Uh all of that happens at our home office through real estate brokers and so forth.
Are there like things they look for? Like can I just be like like put in enough requests where they'll be like okay finally we'll give one to Warsaw Indiana or wherever. Uh you can certainly try. You can certainly try. Spoken like a true politician there, right? Yeah.
That's not bad. I love it. I think it's so fascinating. I think the how loyal and like committed the staff is to uh serving guests and and making it an amazing experience like it's no shock. Like I mean I think the numbers of like capacity or like restaurant like if you look at sales verse days open versus locations like you're the most efficient restaurant in the world, right? Or most efficient fast food restaurant in the world.
Uh yeah, I think average unit volume um last year was I think 8. 5 million maybe 8. 6. So the average Chick-fil-A store does 8. 5 million in sales something like that on six days a week. Six days a week.
So obviously a total volume you guys aren't going to like there's more McDonald's in the world like a lot more McDonald's. But if you go if you base that out by per unit per unit. So like AUV in 2020 7. 96 AUV in 2021 8. 142 8. 5 9.
27 2024 9 oh it went down for the first time in like 5 years. M 9. 22 that is nuts. Average unit volume. So that's basically you take total sales of all restaurants divided by the number of locations. So like how many locations of uh Chick-fil-A locations are there?
I think it's about 3,100. And yeah, I think the report that we're talking about is freestanding restaurants. So I think they might back the mall numbers out of that potentially the same store sales with our competitors. Sure. That might not have mall locations. And you said that looking at it, you are double the whoever's in second place.
Not quite, but but almost almost almost double. Which is just fascinating, right? Because we we have one less business day intentionally, you know, than our competitors. Yeah. The classic like that meme like circles like once a month where it's like I only ever want Chick-fil-A on Sunday or something like that. Like it always goes viral.
When you think about marketing strategies, obviously, you know, there's corporate marketing that's done, but each individual spot can also do their own marketing. How do you guys market your location? We recently uh hired uh an MBA Sarah Harlo uh to do our marketing at our two uh freestanding locations and she's just done a spectacular job. Where's the second location at? Uh they're both in Noblesville. One's off of uh 69 Campus Parkway, Hamilton Town Center area.
The other one's uh 37 Lowe's Home Depot. Got you. Sarah's done a really remarkable job creating uh a marketing strategy centered around a lot of social media as you would expect. Um but also a great deal of sponsorships that we've done with the Indie Fuel, with the Indie Freight, uh Ignite. Uh we're looking forward to working with the Noblesville Boom, the Pacers G-League team that's coming here soon, reaching out with community partners. The PE festival is coming up, so we're going to be excited to partner with them.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, a lot of community partnerships. We love getting people in our restaurants with free food.
Worked for Nick. Yep. So, over the course of the last year, did we hit 100,000? I think so. Doc's that we handed out. What are DOC's?
Uh, digital offer cards, coupons, 100 free chicken sandwiches. 100,000,000 distributed over the course of about a year. Yep. That's uh individually, right? So, you know, putting one in one person's hand. That's shaking hands and kissing babies.
You bet. You bet. Okay. Who's So, we're talking about marketing. Whose idea was it to break the record for most cars through the drive-through in an hour? I think that was the brainchild of our drive-through director, Tim Chan.
Yep. Uh, who's been with us very, very long time. Uh, another Taylor University grad. Go Trojans. Come on. So, so Tim says, "You know what I want to do?
I want to serve more cars through the drive-thru in an hour than anyone ever before." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And Okay. So, what how'd that come to life?
Tell us the story. Well, it was a whole production. We got the whole team together, the leadership team and the operational team, they get the credit for all the the nuts and bolts of that. I had a a safari hat and I I put one of those cows on the top and they put me outside and said, "You you direct traffic." So, um, but we got local law enforcement involved because we knew it would be a whole production. You know, we made a big push on social media, but we did a few test days like internally.
We didn't tell anyone like, "Okay, here's our setup and this is the way we're going to do it." Took some notes and then went on. What was the key to doing that? How how did you get 339 in an hour? Mhm. Like how Well, it took that whole staff of of 50 team members, uh, community partners, like few extra on that day.
Yeah, we had a couple extra on that day. And then, you know, that's what's so great about our guests. They rallied around and said, "We want to do this. We want to help you break this record." And did you accept that like a specific order? No.
They could order anything. Yep. What? Yeah, I kind of thought it was like, okay, we're going to get, you know, 400 fans or like friends or whatever, and we're going to give each of them a chicken sandwich as they go through the door. Everybody come through and get a cup of water and and get out of the way. No, no, no.
It was like full on like you could order any It's like someone comes in here and like orders some like really elaborate thing and you're like, "My pleasure." Like, come on. Uh, so you did 339 in an hour. Was it nuts? It was. It was pretty cool.
It was a lot of fun. It was cool to see. And like as the 330 like was time expired like 59 59 minutes like when did you know you were going to break the record? What was the record? Was there like was it known before? Yeah.
We didn't know what the state record was before. We knew what our record had been previously and we were targeting 300. It just sounded like a cool number. Yeah. Um and so we blew past 300. Who was like the official timer?
Oh, we've got apps and reports and it's all Yeah, that's I just imagine like the Guinness Book of World Record guy there. like there's like a car at the front and like cuts the tape and it's like go go go go. Well, you guys are going back to break it again this year, right? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah.
End of July, we are going for 400 400 12 to noon. It'll be on a Friday, so stay tuned. 12 to noon. Yep. You're going to get 400 cars through the drive-thru in an hour. That's the goal.
We're going to make it happen. Guys, be be mindful of your orders. Be mindful of your orders, you know, like go through there like and just get back in line, too. Just keep going through. Yeah, if they can. They might not be able to.
It it was Oh, like how long was the line? What was great, we were really worried about traffic, but because there were so many people, there was really only one way to get in and out, you know, to to get in the line. That's crazy that people wanted to That's awesome. Like crazy in the awesome way. The people wanted to like get in this line and help you break this record. Our team members, they get all the credit and then the community we we serve uh you know to put a smile on their face.
Uh which location? This is in Noblesville, Indiana. The Saxony location. The Saxony location. All right. So this July going for 400 cars in an hour.
I love it. Uh we come down to the end of the show where we do a couple fun segments, gentlemen. Uh Sam, we're going to start with you. Yeah, this is our younger year segment. It's brought to you by our friends at OR Fellowship. They're a great organization here in Indiana helping develop young business leaders across the state.
So Sam, what advice would you give to your 22-year-old self? I would remind him that comparison is the thief of joy. often see young people looking at their peers on social media and saying, "I'm not doing as well as they are. Why am I scrubbing floors and washing dishes at Chick-fil-A when I could be, you know, whatever else?" Jet setting. Yeah, exactly.
Uh, comparison is the thief of joy. Focus in on what brings you peace, what brings you growth, what brings you development, and let everybody else do their thing. Nick, what advice would you give to your 22-year-old self? Yeah, I would say just keep the faith. It's all going to work out. It will all be fine.
I don't think anyone's ever looked back and said, "Boy, I wish I would have stressed more over that." You know, it it's all going to work out just fine. Slow down. You need to slow down to speed up. You know, I think about the Indy500 coming up, right? They they have to slow down a little bit in that curve so they can speed up in the straightaway.
So, uh there's there's some real wisdom, I think, I've found in slowing down to speed up. I think that's good. I think when you're 22, right, you're trying to change the world tomorrow and it's like just keep just change your life today and you just keep knocking it down. I love that advice. All right, Nick, we're going back to you. Yep.
What's something the world needs to know about Indiana? Indiana is an incredible place to raise a family. Many of our cities have been ranked on national lists of best places to live, great Midwestern values, and and we really are a true Four Seasons playground, right? We've got great ski hills in the winter, charming lake communities, uh home to worldclass sports events like the Indy500. We're a hot spot for craft craft beverages, right? So, uh just a great place to to raise a family and um make a great life here.
Yeah. Sam, what does the world need to know about Indiana? It has uh three of the best Chick-fil-As in the world right here. Uh that's kind of a cheesy answer. I would echo Nick. It's just been a great place.
Uh I've lived here our whole lives except for the three years stent in Ohio. uh and such a fan of the Hoosier State and the Hoosier people. There is no question in my mind that the values, Midwestern values that we have here, uh allow for a community to foster and grow uh in really really unique ways. Proud to be a Hooer. Heck yeah. Okay, now I'm gonna I'm gonna toss you this pieces.
It can't be Chick-fil-A. When you're not hanging out at Chick-fil-A, what is a hidden gem in Indiana that more people need to know about? My youngest daughter Abby uh her birthday is right around the 4th of July. And so for years and years and years and years, we have uh done the tradition of going to Connor Prairie Symphony on the Prairie for the Fourth of July fireworks show. Could not endorse that activity and all of the the symphonies that they have out there any higher. It's an awesome experience.
Symphony on the Prairie. That's a good one. Nick, what's a hidden gem in Indiana? Yeah, many many summers were spent on the water. So the the lakes in northern Indiana, to me, that's a the hidden gem. Maybe not so hidden, but that's Is there is there one in particular that that just has your heart?
Yeah, I like uh Lake James, Snow, Jimmerson. Those are all it's a chain of lakes that are connected. And yeah, Jimmy Buffett's my childhood hero, so that's that that's where I'll be. I uh Okay, so fun other restaurant tour in town. Tom Batista. Do you know Tom?
He is his son Eddie started Blue Beard. Oh, yeah. Tom was Jimmy Buffett's stage manager for like 25 years. His episode's going to be coming out in a week or two. And he told some fun stories about how like he was like the responsible one on Jimmy Buffett's tour, which is just funny. Someone has to be, right?
Yeah. Right. That feels like a low bar to get over. The responsible one on the Jimmy Buffet tour. I mean, that's Yeah. Nick, final question of the day.
This is we get to share the love with someone throughout the state of Indiana's doing something pretty cool where we learn about new people that uh need to be on our radar. So, who's a hooer that we need to keep on our radar? Someone who's doing big things. If someone else were to ask me that question, I would give them your name. You know, I'd say any Hoosier wearing a red Chick-fil-A polo, those those folks are going somewhere. So, keep an eye on them and watch out for them in the drive-thru, you know.
Yeah. Right. Well, and I think that that's like a special answer because how you do anything is how you do everything. Like that's like a very very like staple piece of like my character and how I think about like just life in general. And it's like if you are a 16-year-old kid and you get your first job at Chick-fil-A and you treat it with respect and you put your best effort into that, like maybe your career won't be with Chick-fil-A, but it will give you a good foundational building block of like what you want to go do next and you'll you can learn and like garner some some wisdom from your experience there. But if you get your first job wherever and you treat it like it's a joke and it doesn't matter like how you do anything is how you do everything.
I always appreciate like if someone had Chick-fil-A on their resume, it's going to be like a no-brainer, right, of like, oh, this person gets customer service, they know how to delight uh guests. I think that's I think that's really special. Yeah. And periodically people, you know, they find out I'm working in HR for Chick-fil-A, and they say, "Hey, you probably don't want to hear this, but you know, I love taking people from your company, you know, recruiting." And I said, "Oh, I actually love hearing that." And I often ask them, "Do you feel the same way about any of our competitors?"
And I've yet to hear an answer to that. so far. And that's a good way to to feel about it because it's like it's like that age-old like why would I educate my employees? Like they might just get smart and leave. And it's like but why would you build a company of uneducated employees, you know, like it's like the chicken or literally chicken or the egg? Sam, who's a hooer that we need to keep on our radar?
It's someone who's doing big things. I I couldn't decide between 1A and 1B, so I'm going to give you two bonus. Aaron Smith is one of our city councilmen in Noblesville, and he's just been phenomenally helpful uh to the business community. He has helped us at Chick-fil-A on numerous projects and uh just a great great guy that's uh working hard to help hers citizens in Noblesville. Yeah. Uh 1B is a good friend of mine, Matt Barnes.
He serves as the volunteer chaplain at the state house. works with uh politicians on both sides of the aisle just trying to be a wise counsel trying to uh lead them well uh and be a friend and a support when our country is as divided politically as it's ever been. People like Matt serving in a nonpartisan position helping both sides are really rare and Matt is doing great great great work. But like has there been a Chick-fil-A ad campaign like commercial or like any piece of like the eat more chicken like like one that sticks out in your mind of like that was great work. Like I loved seeing that out in public. I think anytime they're on the red couch uh because those are real stories that are happening in our community and they're they're so heartwarming.
I think any of those commercials uh bring me joy because we can relate to them. We have stories like that from our restaurant. Uh so th those bring me a big smile. Uh Nick stole my answer. I was going to say the same thing, but I'll uh since I'm old, I'll go back a ways. We used to sell cow calendars uh around the holidays.
And uh they were so much fun. Uh cows dressed up as rock and roll stars or cows dressed up as uh TV sitcom heroes. And if you uh are old enough to remember the cow calendars, I'm sure you have remember them fondly. That's good stuff. I always loved the billboards where it' be like cows painting eat more chicken. It's such a good marketing idea where it's like your mascot at chicken Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick ChickChick Chick Chick Chick Chick ChickChick Chick Chick Chick Chick ChickChick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick Chick ChickChick Chick Chick Chick Chick ChickChick Chick Chick-fil-A is a cow cuz he wants you to eat.
Like that's just so good. Like whoever thought of that? I don't know. When did that come into like when did that become a thing? Uh predates me. Uh yeah.
So it's been like that. Been around for a long while. Yeah. Uh my uh youngest when she was two, maybe two and a half uh fell off the swing set and we were afraid she had a concussion. So we take her to the ER and you know at two and a half what kind of you don't ask who the president is or what year it is right so the pediatrician is asking her very simple questions to make sure that her head's okay and uh what what sound does the cow make and my daughter's just weeping eat more chicken and the pediatrician looks at my wife like what is going No that's the right answer she's she's good she's fine no concussion that's normal that's normal I love But, uh, Sam, Nick, thank you so much for coming on today and sharing about all the cool stuff you guys are doing, uh, up in Noblesville and the teams that you're building with Chick-fil-A. I think that it's like an art of, you know, building this culture of over 300 people across three locations.
That's incredible. Um and just the way that the passion that you all have for delighting guests and serving those guests trickles all the way down to yeah your 14 15year-old first time first job employee. I just think it's awesome. Thank you for sharing some wisdom and some fun stories about the journey and uh keep up with the good work at the end of July. Going for the record end of July 400 cars in one hour noon to 1. So stay tuned.
More information to come. Heck yeah. And if people want to visit any of your three locations where can they find them at? Yep. We have one in Hamilton Town Center across from there by Interstate 69, one off of State Road 37, and then inside of Gambridge Fieldhouse where the Pacers and Fever play. We didn't even get to that, did we?
We didn't even talk about that one. Okay, part two. We got to talk about that because I love that spot. That's a H. Okay, we that's going to be a part two where we're getting to that. The Gamebridge Fieldhouse.
Oh, that has to be a talk about like a full circle moment for you. Yeah. Going all the way from Circle Center up to the north side and then you know what? We're going back downtown. Going back downtown. We'll have to talk about that.
And then finally, like where social media, where can they learn more? Where can they see more? If there are corporate partners or I know like philanthropy, that kind of thing. Where can they find out more? Yeah, we have a great website that uh Matt Riley uh puts together for us. He does and Sarah does a phenomenal job.
So, um and then we're both pretty active on on LinkedIn and would love to connect with folks and send me a message. Lunch is on me. All right. Appreciate you guys. Thanks for coming on and we'll talk soon. All right.
Sounds great. It's our pleasure. Thanks so much. Thank you for listening to this episode of Get In. If you like what you heard, make sure you leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater.
Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at sweetwater. com. If you want a behind-the-scenes look at everything we're doing across the state, make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok, Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being part of what makes the Hoosier State great. We'll see you next time here on Get
