MY HUSBAND IS AN OFFICIAL, BONA FIDE CHICK-FIL-A OWNER/OPERATOR! (Ok, well maybe he won't be "official" until he signs the paperwork in a couple of weeks. But he was offered the store we've been praying over and going for in Elizabeth City, NC.) HE DID IT! I am so stinkin' proud of my man - words can hardly describe it. He has worked so hard for this for the past 4 years. He's endured hardships, grown so much as a leader and a man, and learned so many intricate parts of running a business, and I am so thrilled the Lord has blessed his effort. Here is how our interesting, yet fun, trip to Atlanta went!
Tricia came to our house early Thursday afternoon so we could head to the Fort Myers airport. (Cayman was so excited that he was going to get to stay with Tricia again! And skipping ahead a bit, when I picked the kids up on Saturday at Tricia's house, Charis DID NOT want her mama...Nooo...she wanted Mrs. Tricia! That is FINE by me though because RARELY does Charis want anyone but her family. Separation anxiety.) Anyways. We made it to Atlanta right around 6, and we waited for a shuttle to take us to our hotel. (I'm so glad Ian has so much experience at the ATL airport now. It is gigantic and intimidating!) Ian had already made plans with a friend of ours, Jessica, who works at home office with the IM program, for her to pick us up at the hotel so we could go to dinner somewhere with her. We told her we wanted something Atlanta-ish, and she did not disappoint! She took us to this ah-mazing burger joint called Flip Burger. The food was so delicious, and the milkshakes definitely did not disappoint either! Of course we stayed for a while at the restaurant, chatting with Jessica, catching up about all the IMs we know. Meanwhile, poor little me, started feeling kinda icky. But of course I didn't want to say anything, so I just stuck it out. (Funny stomach issues kind of run in my family immediately following big meals. Imagine 6 people all racing for the bathroom - one bathroom...not plural - as soon as we got home from eating out at a restaurant. That's how it was growing up in my family.) So I was just sitting there hoping that I could make it back to the hotel, if you know what I mean. :)
Well when we finally got back to the hotel, I just started feeling worse and worse. It was just one of those feelings where you know if you could just throw up, you would feel so much better. I did just that around 10:30 or so. But unfortunately, I did not feel any better. I felt so much worse. I had to get out of bed and run to the bathroom every 30 minutes or so until 4:00am! Needless to say, by 4:00, nothing was left inside of me, and I was able to finally sleep uninterrupted until 7:30. The whole night I was so worried about what the next day of interviews was going to be like if I was having to jump up in the middle of a conversation to run out of the room! Goodness, I was nervous! Thankfully, that was not the case in the least bit. We believe now that I must have gotten food poisoning at the restaurant because it came on so quickly, didn't last that long, and Ian never had any issues, so it wasn't contagious. That morning, I made a decision (and had many people praying for me) to put my game face on, and I didn't want anyone to be able to look at me and tell that I had been laying on the bathroom floor for 6 hours the night before (unless we told them...which we did tell some people - as a precaution of course!) I believe I succeeded because everyone we told was surprised at my stamina during the day. Praise God!
We were picked up in the Lincoln "Cow" car at precisely 10:30am Friday morning. Sweet, old, Mr. Dennis was our chauffeur. He was so encouraging, and he told us he had a "good feeling" about us getting our store. He told me that I had nothing to worry about, and that I just needed to go in there and be myself. We pulled into the Chick-fil-A Corporate entrance, and I was surprised that we drove about another mile or so down this long curvy road through the most beautiful scenery! Home office is tucked away in the woods, and it seems like it is the most serene, peaceful place to work. If you ever get a chance to tour home office, please, PLEASE, do so. It will definitely bless your socks off. And not just because of the scenery either. The people who work there, from Truett Cathy himself, to the cafeteria workers, all the way down to the people who clean the building late in the afternoon, were all so incredibly kind to us. I was so taken aback all day long. (And they do offer tours of the building - I'm not sure how you set it up, but I cannot wait to go back for Ian's graduation from FRL training just for the sake of going back to that "utopia.")
11:00 - We are met by a lady named Jamie down in the lobby, who then took us upstairs to a waiting room (where we spent the majority of our day with other couples/individuals who were interviewing also). We sat on the famous blue couches for a large part of the day. (We have heard so much about these blue couches, and it was so fun to finally be sitting on them ourselves!)
11:15 - Another lady named Terri took us downstairs to the cafeteria to go over a few legalities. She of course had to make sure that Ian was certain he really did want to become an operator for Chick-fil-A. She also had to give Ian the legal handbook and go over a few other important things, such as insurance, etc. She took us back upstairs when we were finished to our blue couches. When we got up there, there was another couple in the waiting room who were also there interviewing. It was fun to talk to them, hear their Chick-fil-A story - chatting with them and the rest of the people (who we met later in the day) helped pass the time!
11:40ish - A man named Brandon, took us to a meeting room, where he questioned Ian briefly: "Do you smoke? Do you currently drink alcohol? Do you eat chicken?" (Seriously. Not joking.) Then he took us down to the cafeteria to have lunch. I was so upset that I wasn't very hungry because all the food smelled and looked so delicious! I settled for a bowl of beef and bean soup (I just ate the broth...no beans or beef for my tummy that lunch...) and a small salad. I definitely wanted to eat the fried shrimp po'boy! I'm sure that our conversation during lunch was considered an informal interview, but it definitely did not feel that way. Brandon asked me some questions since he knew Ian so well from previous interviews. We talked about the kids, Elizabeth City, our background, etc. It was just a relaxing meal. Brandon was very nice and easy to talk to! He took us back up to the couches following our meal. One of my favorite parts of the day was when a cafeteria worker spotted me in line while I was waiting to get a drink and she was stocking cups - she looked right at me and said, "You are just so pretty! Look at you! Your hair is gorgeous! You're so beautiful." I was a little surprised, because I rarely (and I do mean rarely) get compliments from complete strangers! Of course I thanked her and said told her how sweet she was. I told her that we were there for final interviews, and she just smiled and said, "Honey - just lay it at the Lord's feet! He's got it all under control! Don't you worry about a thing!" (Can you hear the southern drawl in my typing?) :) I felt so encouraged, and honestly, a little astonished! When in the world would you ever hear something like that from a cafeteria worker in a huge corporate office like that?
12:30 - We were told we had about an hour before our next appointment, so Ian took me downstairs to look at Truett's model car collection. (My dad is going to love all of them if he gets to go for Ian's graduation!) And we walked through the Chick-fil-A museum (just a small area set aside for Chick-fil-A's history...shows pictures through the years, timelines, and also has a mock Dwarf House kitchen...Truett's first restaurant which is still operating today.)
1:15 - We head back upstairs to our blue couches and join in the conversation. We met a third couple who was there for their final interviews and a man who was interviewing for a position in the company. We enjoyed talking with all of them for about 15 minutes. And then it was time.....
1:30 - Todd Grubbs came to get us in the waiting room to take us back to a meeting room for "the" interview. The one I had studied for. The one I had been preparing myself for however many days/weeks. I was a little nervous, but I was definitely ready! I was feeling better after getting a little nourishment in me at lunch, so that was good! We stayed in there with Todd until 2:30-2:45 maybe? So it was a long interview - not nearly as long as Ian's previous interviews though! (His 4 hour interviews definitely had that one beat!) Todd spent some time asking Ian to tell him his "Chick-fil-A story." Of course Ian always has to explain how seminary fits into our story. :) Todd asked me about my family, where I grew up, going to college....very basic questions. He then asked Ian other questions, like, explain the difference between being an IM and begin an operator. We talked some about the diversity in Elizabeth City. I got to talk about how much we were looking forward to moving to Elizabeth City and settling down and planting our lives. I'm glad I prepared myself for a tough interview, but it definitely wasn't that for me. (Either I interjected enough points during our conversation or Mr. Grubbs felt sorry for the poor girl who had been puking her guts up until 4am, but it was definitely a laid-back, interesting, good interview.)
2:30ish - Todd takes us back out to the waiting room where the wait of our life began! I'm SO glad the other couples were out there again for us to chat with because it helped pass the time so quickly. One couple, who was interviewing for a store in Richmond, VA, got called back into one of the rooms almost as soon as we got back out there. It wasn't long after when the secretary stood up from her desk, kind of rushed around, and said "We've got a selection!!" It was so exciting because we all knew exactly who she was talking about and what she was referring to! We all jumped up to congratulate them. They had to rush out to catch their flight home, so the celebrating was cut short. We sat back down with the other couple, waiting anxiously to see who would be called back next.
3:30 - Brandon and a business consultant named Scott (Ian interviewed with Scott for the EC store also), came out into the waiting room and said they were ready for us. My heart jumped to my throat! The wife of the other couple quietly said, "Good luck!" and gave me a big, encouraging smile. We walked back to one of the meeting rooms and sat down. Brandon started flipping through some of the notes of our "file" and said, "Todd had some follow up questions, just some loose ends he wants to get tied up before we proceed in the process. So we'll just spend some time answering those questions now. Scott, would you like to take it from here?" So then Scott looked at me and said, "Alyson, first of all, I just want to thank you for coming here today. It was a pleasure to have you and get to spend time with you." Of course, I started thinking... "Ok. Here it goes. Here come MY questions. Get ready, Alyson." Then Scott looked at Ian and said, "So Ian, we just want to know.... If you'd like to be the operator of Elizabeth City FSR!" Scott and Brandon had the biggest smiles on their faces because they knew they had pulled off a big joke on us! We all stood up and started hugging. I slapped Brandon on the arm and said, "You're so mean! How could you do that to me?!?" And we all laughed - what a fun, memorable time! I will never forget that moment. Brandon had Ian hurry to his office so Ian could sign the "wall of fame." Brandon keeps a poster in his room and has all new operators sign and date it. When we came out, all kinds of familiar faces were out there to greet us - different business consultants who have helped us along the way, other people in corporate that I know Ian has interviewed with (but I'm not sure of their title...) It was just a fun little celebration!
4:30 - Mr. Dennis meets us outside home office in the Lincoln "Cow" car to take us back to the airport. He gave me a wink and smiled as he said, "I told you I had a good feeling!"
Our trip to Atlanta definitely didn't go exactly as we had planned (the whole food poisoning kind of threw a wrench in our plans) but it went perfectly, exactly as the Lord planned for it to go!
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| Ian Moody - Owner/Operator at Elizabeth City FSR (free-standing restaurant) |
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