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The Restaurant is Named! - Pt. 2 - FF Ep 11
14 Plays16 days ago
In this episode the fathers discuss more of their crazy stories from their time working together for a particular restaurant. Snakes in the DT, crazy voices, and literally "the blind leading the blind"! Nate can hardly tell his story because he's laughing so hard! Join us and laugh, and maybe learn a thing or two!
Check out PreacherDad.com for more!
Email us: Dads@PreacherDad.com
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Transcript
Welcome and Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Preacher Dad Podcast. My name is Jared. I am the Preacher Dad and you found the coziest little corner of the internet. Cozy because there's not that many people here and it's warm and comfortable and relaxing and hopefully you're settled in for a good Fatherhood Friday episode. That's right, our panel of dads are back.
00:00:22
Speaker
to discuss again our experiences at Chick-fil-A. These are some funny stories, some encouraging times, and hopefully some lessons that we learned, which you can also gain some insight from.
00:00:34
Speaker
I hope that you're out there ready listen and ready to enjoy what we have to share with you from our experiences together at a great restaurant. I want to remind you that the Preacher Dad podcast is brought to you by Cornerstone Fellowship, the little country short little country church with a big heart, just a little bit north of Tombsboro, Georgia.
00:00:54
Speaker
And we would love to love you and enjoy loving Jesus with you. We do love Christ. We want to proclaim him, proclaim the truth of his inerrant word.
00:01:06
Speaker
And we want you to enjoy that with us. So come and visit us, or you can check us out online at
00:01:18
Speaker
That's cornerstonefellowship, all one word, dash ga.org. And you can find ah some previous sermons there.
00:01:30
Speaker
And you can also look us up on Facebook, Cornerstone Fellowship. Okay. I hope you enjoyed this episode of Fatherhood Friday. Thanks for sticking around. Have a great one. Bye-bye.
Meet the Panel and Chick-fil-A Experiences
00:01:51
Speaker
Hello, everybody. Welcome to Fatherhood Friday on the Preacher Dad podcast. My name is Jared, and I am the Preacher Dad, but I'm here with my fatherhood panel, Matt Stewart, Mark Blowers, and Nate Eisner tonight.
00:02:05
Speaker
Tony is under the weather, but this is part two of the big reveal episode where we reveal that we all worked together in a particular restaurant. It was a pleasure to serve our guests and to serve one of another and to serve Jesus at Chick-fil-A. And so we're sharing some of our favorite stories or, uh, experiences, lessons learned that we think might be beneficial to some of the dads out there or moms or, you know, anybody else that might be listening all 15 or 16 of you.
00:02:40
Speaker
Uh, we're sure grateful you're here. So I'm going to throw it over to, Matt Stewart, who was at, at one point was, um I think you were an executive director.
00:02:52
Speaker
i know you are an executive executive board ah for a little while of the two Chick-fil-A's that that we all work for. So in addition to being remarkably good looking and a very poor judge of football talent, ah Matt Stewart is a good boss and was a good boss. And so we're going to throw it over to him. He's got some things to share ah about some of the crazy things yeah that we experienced or saw.
00:03:17
Speaker
You just, you said in your little opening that we would say something beneficial. I'm not sure just these funny stories. I mean, I guess a laugh is beneficial, right? But it's not going to really help the fathers out, I don't think. But anyway. I want to laugh. have Go ahead.
00:03:32
Speaker
I've got so many. I'm going to save the best for last. But um one experience, I know we've all experienced things in drive-through from like awful situations where there's people like hide, this pul that pulls up and they've got kids in the front seat, you know, um unbuckled, just all kinds of crazy stuff.
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00:03:53
Speaker
But um I have seen several things as well. um I think my two craziest, they were both in Alabama. i started at birming in Birmingham at a Chick-fil-A and this lady pulled up, you know, when you're in the window, you're looking at the register and you knew,
00:04:10
Speaker
um You know, you turn like they're right there. They're like two feet from you, you know, and I look over and I see snakes wrapped all around her body, like arm, neck, there's on the oma visor snakes everywhere. Oh my land. I couldn't believe it.
00:04:29
Speaker
Oh my word. Yeah. How have never heard that story before? yeah I don't know. That is unbelievable. Yeah. But that was one of the things you can do real quick and you yeah yeah go to the next one. Can you have, I'm going to set your food right here and you just pick it up when you're ready to go.
00:04:49
Speaker
um walking that way. Yeah. so oh my goodness. Same. Was there any exchange there? Like, I don't remember. I don't remember. mean, you just didn't want to talk to her. Just please.
00:05:00
Speaker
It was like 13 years ago. I can't remember. Oh man. So same drive through. right along that same few months, um I was at that Chick-fil-A, this lady, she pulls up and she's, you know, she's got her, so her left arm is right there at the window, right?
00:05:19
Speaker
And she's driving. And so she's got this little frou-frou dog, like a little Chihuahua or something. She's a little yapping little thing. um And she's got it in her left arm there. And so when I go to hand her her food,
00:05:35
Speaker
Instead of moving the dog over her to her right arm where she can reach out the window and grab the food, she just holds her arm, her right hand like this. And so I have to reach in the car across the dog to hand her her food. And we and you know what happens? The dog bites me.
00:05:53
Speaker
He bites you. That little thing. oh it just made me so mad. Just wanted to punch in the face. Oh, man. Birmingham where it's at, man.
00:06:03
Speaker
Wow. Yeah. I want to go work in Birmingham now. But it was Andrew blood a little bit. And of course I didn't care. I'm like, just put a little bandaid on it. Keep going. But you know, but um yeah, not many people can say they've been bit by a dog in the Chick-fil-A drive.
00:06:18
Speaker
No, I cannot. Yeah. So I cannot, I've seen, i have seen a lot of crazy stuff, but I have never been bit by a dog. what's the craziest thing you've seen in drive-thru, Jared? Oh, man, I don't know. It's hard to pick one thing.
00:06:32
Speaker
I know that here in in in the Chick-fil-A here in Georgia, ah one time somebody's car caught on fire in the drive-thru. they They were leaking fuel or something.
00:06:45
Speaker
The engine just was on fire. It was so close to the restaurant and so close to – I think it was in the evening. But we had to shut the restaurant down. we had to close the restaurant.
00:06:58
Speaker
Um, you know, this we, we got the fire put out and stuff, but it was, it was kind of, kind of nuts. And then another time somebody else's car caught on fire was in the parking lot.
00:07:10
Speaker
And i have never seen a car fire like that in my life. I think it was some sort of electrical fire. The guy wasn't in the car. He parked it, went inside. And all of a sudden, eventually you see, I mean, 15 foot flames,
00:07:24
Speaker
There was things melting, dropping out of his engine block, just dropping on the ground on fire. It was intense. We had to shut the drive-through down for like five minutes for that one.
00:07:36
Speaker
Five minutes. No, it was more than half. You didn't just um get out there and just run IPOS or make them to make the lanes go around? yeah Well, I mean, we did sort of kind of get people to just, hey, just come around the smoke, okay? Keep moving.
00:07:50
Speaker
Yeah. But I don't know. That was
Customer Service Ethos and Kitchen Mishaps
00:07:56
Speaker
crazy. As you were talking about that, it reminded me. i And this is not a funny story, but this was one of the many times we got to do.
00:08:03
Speaker
you know Our operator, he was great and in in letting us do something. We'd call them what? Surprising delights to to reach out to someone and help them, whether they give them free food or whatever.
00:08:15
Speaker
And I remember at one point, um Brian and I, we noticed this lady's in the drive-thru. She has a flat tire. And she pulled over. And, um, we went out there and offered to help change the tire. We're like, I will get this knocked out like five minutes.
00:08:31
Speaker
Well, I can't remember all the details, but everything went wrong. Everything. So we were out there for like an hour changing this lady's tire, but it meant so much to her.
00:08:42
Speaker
She, I think she called back. I think she put it on Facebook, all kinds of stuff. She was so happy. And that was, that was really fun. I do miss that. One of things I miss about you, Glenn, um,
00:08:54
Speaker
Couple of my, my last two really good stories. You ready for them? So bring it, bring it on. all right. So y'all remember couple of you may remember Potros. You remember him, right? Jared? Yeah.
00:09:05
Speaker
Nate. Yeah. So it works. mosts Well, no, I would, I remember even even though we were at the same store. ah Okay. Yeah.
00:09:16
Speaker
So I don't remember exactly how this happened. But so I guess to to give the listeners an idea, so the the the chicken comes in frozen in bags, and then we put those bags in the refrigerator until they thaw out.
00:09:32
Speaker
And then when they thaw out, then we move them out into the kitchen and and our and our breading table so that we can actually bread the chicken or grill it. And so one time Potros was pulling out a big stainless steel pan that had, know how many bags of chicken in it, six or eight or whatever.
00:09:49
Speaker
I don't know how this happened, but I was right beside him. In some kind of way, the chicken juice spilled out on his face, got in his mouth, and he's like spitting.
00:10:02
Speaker
Then it runs down his shirt and his armpit, goes down into his pants. Chicken juice everywhere. Oh, no. He was gagging.
00:10:13
Speaker
no. I mean, as you can imagine, it's enough of just going down youre going down your shirt. That's enough. But it got in oh in his face, on his in his mouth. It was awful.
00:10:24
Speaker
Oh, I felt so bad for him. think I'd have to just say, that's it. I'm done for the day. Oh, but that's pretty bad. Sometimes that chicken can, I mean, it can stink, I guess, a little bit. But it's not stink. It's just ah it's just a raw chicken smell. different kind of smell. Yeah. that's not It's not a sour, it's not a rotten smell. It's just.
00:10:43
Speaker
Just raw chicken, but boy, oh boy, that's a rough one. um more One more good good story. It's a funny one, but bad. um So in the last episode, i was talking about the gravy um and how I missed that. and That was of some good stuff.
00:11:00
Speaker
So don't like y'all remember, but they came in white bags, right? The powdered gravy was a white bag, and then we just poured it out of the bag into a boiling pot of water.
00:11:13
Speaker
right, to make the gravy. And so one day, um one of the kitchen workers did that, and customer ordered some gravy pretty early in the morning, and they came back, and she, he or she, I can't remember, he was lady, said it's not, yeah she didn't really complain, and she wasn't screaming at us, but she's like, this gravy just doesn't taste right.
00:11:35
Speaker
And so we went back, in and we were looking at it, And he did not put gravy in the water. He opened up a bag of milk wash and poured that into a pint water.
00:11:51
Speaker
So it's and it's a white bag for the listeners. It was white bag with powdery milk. Yeah. Right. But yeah, it was. So he mixed that with the.
00:12:02
Speaker
The water. Well, I mean, let's be clear. it what he He didn't have – there was nothing raw. He hadn't had any raw chicken in that milk wash. It's just – Correct. It was the wrong stuff. It's just not going to taste good.
00:12:14
Speaker
Ooh, boy. No. I remember somebody talking about one time how they mixed up the ah ice cream mix with milk wash.
00:12:25
Speaker
Yes. So they were they were dipping – Raw chicken in ice cream and then breading it. And that fried chicken was sweet.
00:12:37
Speaker
I've always wanted to try it. I just haven't had the courage yet. That's better than mixing it up and putting the the milk wash in the ice cream maker. Yes. That would be some very wildly horrible ice cream.
00:12:49
Speaker
I have a question. And this isn't mixing anything up. But did y'all ever notice when making lemonade, So, you you know, lemonade, great. Now, i Jerry, you tell me, are they doing the pre-squeezed lemons now or is that, or y'all, so y'all don't squeeze lemons anymore?
00:13:07
Speaker
Nope. Not at our Chick-fil-A, we don't. that was That was a blast, man. I love squeezing lemons. But making the lemonade, you could either do the, you know, the regular or the diet. And so you get your big old scoop of sugar, you know, coming out of the container and all that stuff.
00:13:21
Speaker
But the Splenda packets, you know, it's a big old industrial-sized Splenda packets. That stuff would go airborne. Every time it pours, there's nothing you could do about it. And when you breathed in, you could taste it on the back of your throat.
00:13:33
Speaker
I can still taste it. Am I the only one that loved that? Loved it? Oh gosh. You like it? Oh, wow no. Horrible. Oh, you can have mine, Nate. I don't want it.
00:13:45
Speaker
Now, that's the thing. I don't drink diet. I don't like Splenda. But there's just there's just something about inhaling it that's just different. Yeah. and not give any Let's not give any 15-year-olds any ideas here. Oh,
Workforce Diversity and Comedic Moments
00:14:01
Speaker
my word. That's funny. i I did not know that you liked it, but I definitely remember tasting it any time you made Diet of Day.
00:14:08
Speaker
Oh, yeah. i know It goes airborne, and you can't avoid it. It's just going to happen. Yeah. I tried hard to keep it from happening, and I never really know you can't. There's no way to stop it. Yeah, customers have no idea. are listeners have no idea what all went into baking.
00:14:25
Speaker
lemonade, but we would squeeze hundreds of lemon. Well, not by hand. but We had a machine just going back and forth as fast as can go. It was one of my favorite jobs.
00:14:35
Speaker
and just Start to finish. And just like being in the drive-thru, you know, you need to have your, your bags and your napkins and utensils and sauces like all right there within reach.
00:14:46
Speaker
So you can be efficient, right? You don't need to be walking over here to get something. Same thing with lemons. Like we would have, um you know, a bucket of a box of lemons on each side. And then we would have ah boxes for the rinds.
00:15:00
Speaker
The spent rinds, yeah. Yeah, and so you're you're squeezing, dropping them in the triad. I mean, just going so fast. And it can get competitive, too. Like, you can get competitive against yourself, like, trying to beat your record.
00:15:10
Speaker
I did two two cases of lemons, you know, 30 seconds faster than last time. Yeah, but I would come behind you, though, and pick up one of those lemons and squeeze it. Yeah, that's right. You're not doing enough, Nate. That's right. That's true.
00:15:22
Speaker
No, that was, man— I'm telling you, if you're having a bad day and you told me I got to go make lemonade, oh it was all better from there. It was. yeah That was good.
00:15:34
Speaker
What was your least favorite job at Chick-fil-A? Least favorite thing you had to do? e Cleaning out the thaw cabinets and specifically the breading table. The breading table is not fun.
00:15:47
Speaker
ah Honestly, rotating the frozen chicken was my least favorite thing to do yeah of any time. Again, because it's chicken juices. As these as this chicken as is stoleing out and it's out, the bags leak a little bit and you just get juice everywhere.
00:16:00
Speaker
It wasn't really that for me. I didn't have a problem with that, really. It's just um it's just the the whole process of working with these heavy things and you've got to go faster. and I was never fast enough. you know They eventually said, I'm sorry, bud. You can't hack it in the kitchen. We need you back up front. you know I just wasn't enough wasn't it fast enough to get it done. so I don't know. I think that's part of why I didn't like it very much.
00:16:27
Speaker
What about you, Mark? Did you have a ah least favorite job or task? don't know. I don't know if i had a ah least favorite one. i Well, no.
00:16:42
Speaker
i I hated the headset. They would put me, when I was on the headset, people would be like, what on earth is Mark doing on the headset? And it was only in like absolute emergencies. that probably i am I am like the typical, give me my one task and don't let me multitask or else everything will be done wrong.
00:17:05
Speaker
um And so when it's like we got desserts and you know the responsibilities of the headset person can be um you know many when you have a lot of cars and a lot of desserts and so um I hated being on the headset and know I actually I really enjoyed doing truck that was something that I enjoyed doing kind of rotating and moving and worked with ah you know good old Effett from ah you know just that man his first name was what EFF
00:17:40
Speaker
E-F-F-A-T. Oh, F it. That's what we say when something goes wrong. i remember that.
00:17:50
Speaker
um And that man was just the kindest, like strong as an ox man. Just, oh, thank you, Mr. Mark. I'm trying to carry a thing of sugar, 50 pounds of sugar, and he's carrying you know two of them with something else. Excuse me.
00:18:06
Speaker
You go and do all of this by yourself. long Let me speak. um want to speak to that real quick. One. So last episode, ah or was this he had this episode mentioned Potros. We mentioned effort.
00:18:20
Speaker
um I wanted to talk about the idea. So these are all, yeah these are all Egyptians and we, we hired ah a lot of them and a lot of them had wonderful work ethic.
00:18:33
Speaker
yeah um And I think about the idea he's awesome. He's, a dad of four kids, maybe three or four kids. And he had several, um but he would work 5.00 AM to 2.00 PM or 3.00 PM, six days a week.
00:18:53
Speaker
And he did that for years. And he worked at a hotel and he would clock out and go work at a hotel and clean as a janitor. about that. Yeah. Effett did the same thing.
00:19:04
Speaker
And Effett would, and our truck came at three 30 in the morning. And so, and And so on like, you know and it just would happen right where you just you you sleep, you sleep in and you miss it.
00:19:17
Speaker
You miss the the alarm and you wake up at four o'clock and I'm living in Bumpus 30 minutes away. And I'm like, I'm coming after because and I just I'd get there and it's like if you want to punch me in the face, I it would be all right. You know, because I'm because he's already been waiting there to in the trucks getting unloaded and I have the keys to unlock it. it was.
00:19:39
Speaker
But those the work ethic of a lot of those people in the back was um yeah and all over was impressive, but especially those the Egyptians. yeah I can tell you that I think Miriam is still to this day the best specials maker I've ever worked with.
00:19:59
Speaker
I have no idea how that woman could go so fast and be so precise, but she was absolutely the best I've ever worked with. And you say you say special, so that's like you know making clubs and right and ah deluxes and all that kind of stuff. but But not just that. I mean, she would do all the sandwiches. Special orders. but she was same she Yeah.
00:20:21
Speaker
yeah I mean, she could do... yeah yeah she could thought She could have three sandwiches bagged by the time we get one. I mean, she's just that fast and that good at what she did. Yeah. And so that is one reason why... um And if Tony were here, we could talk about records being broken and kind of what all we did, all accomplishments and stuff that we we had at Chick-fil-A. But I'm not sure if we'll talk about it in the future or not, but our but our best day was 220 cars in the drive-thru in one hour.
00:20:51
Speaker
And that was fantastic. And you couldn't do that without Miriam and the Badillas. And Badilla was breading the chicken all was a day. He was wizard at it.
00:21:02
Speaker
Just breading it, putting it fryers, and just constantly and going, just nonstop. And that was hard work, really hard work. And then you also had to have all of us up front who had the easy job. Because like I was saying, we need one person. You just put the sauces in the bag. You put the napkins in the bag. and you you know But you have to have you have to do that in order to hit 220 cars in one hour.
00:21:23
Speaker
You have to be that efficient. That was fun. I enjoyed those days. It was hard work. But it was great. I remember seeing Tony just running full speed.
00:21:35
Speaker
around the building and was like, we're about to eclipse this really important moment. And, oh man, he was he was the drive-thru director. So he was definitely pumped about breaking records in the drive-thru. But you're right. one and We're number one in the state, I think, for a while.
00:21:51
Speaker
Really? Our drive-thru. Well, I don't remember that. That's great. and gar We had a sign hanging in it hanging from the ceiling tiles. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, that was good. And we ah just, if anybody...
00:22:04
Speaker
knew what our Chick-fil-A looked like. We only had one one lane for the drive-thru. And then for that for that record, we blocked off the entire parking lot, except for the handicapped spots, and made it three lanes merging into two all the way around the building.
00:22:24
Speaker
And we had, I think, 40 people working that shift total, which our operator would, he would cringe right now if you heard us say that. but had 40 people working, but we made a, we had a $4,000 hour. So it was a hundred percent productivity, you know, that's right. But, um, that was the, the, that was a crazy lunch, crazy lunch, but it took a lot people to do it, but we pulled it off. It was great. Do you, uh, do you guys still remember how to say thank you in Arabic?
00:22:54
Speaker
Uh, we'll see. got shoe crown. Is that? Yeah. I say shoe crown. Shoe crown. What's, um, Did anybody ever learn what Sakamaka meant when they would call us Sakamakas?
00:23:08
Speaker
don't know if that was actually a word or not, but they... I don't know. I think it was a word. They would call us... Yeah. Yeah, I never found out what it meant. I used laugh at... Go ahead.
00:23:21
Speaker
No, no, you go. I used to laugh at some of the Hispanic employees, and I cannot feel laughing to remember her name, but she was the sweetest cleaning lady. Carla. Carla.
00:23:32
Speaker
karla Carla. Carla, thank you. Yeah. She had, i mean, she was very sweet, great at her job, but she had some sass on her. And like, she would just get, i mean, she would get up in your face and she was joking.
00:23:44
Speaker
Like, it was all satire, but she knew how to flip that that attitude. she get but i down books yeah but there was no but but yeah exactly But that's the thing. She would get up in my face and start talking in Spanish and I'm like, here's homeschool me, know not a lick of Spanish.
00:24:00
Speaker
And I think – so the only – this was the funniest thing ever happened with that whole interaction. The only thing I know and Spanish is agua no yellow, which means water no ice.
00:24:14
Speaker
And that's because we used to go – when I was dating my wife to Taco Tuesday with her dad and her brother every Tuesday to all the Mexican restaurants. And he would always order his – my father-in-law would always order his water agua no yellow to the waiter.
00:24:29
Speaker
And so she's up in my face one day doing that blah, blah, blah. And I'm standing there deer in the headlights and I just say, Aqua Noyella. And her and Carmela and whoever else standing in the... And they're you have any idea what you just said? I'm like, yeah, the only thing I know how to say.
00:24:54
Speaker
I can imagine they probably just lost their mind. ye I remember one time, you guys, I don't know if you really have experienced this, but Sometimes when you have eight
Handling Emergencies and Leadership Growth
00:25:04
Speaker
children, when you have like six or five and you say, yeah, we're going to have another baby.
00:25:10
Speaker
There's about two comments that you usually get. ah One is like, are you Mormon or Catholic? ah The other one that you frequently get is don't you have TV?
00:25:22
Speaker
And and so, you know, I've learned some responses to but throw out there, you know, hey, my dad said, find something I was good at and keep doing it. So I did. So that one usually makes them laugh and back off.
00:25:38
Speaker
But one one time i was in the kitchen and I don't remember which child I was announcing. I don't remember what number it was, but I said something to our prep lady in the in the kitchen who spoke Spanish, primarily Spanish.
00:25:53
Speaker
And she didn't speak a lot of English, but she spoke enough to get by. um um But it just seemed to me like she didn't, She wasn't really fluent, but we were friends, and I told her, yeah we're going to have a new baby.
00:26:09
Speaker
She said, new baby? I said, yeah. She said, you know TV? And
00:26:17
Speaker
was just like, I can't believe but that joke transcends cultures and languages. And she knew to say, oh, you don't have a TV at home?
00:26:29
Speaker
Yeah, that's good. That's funny. hey i got a drive-thru story go for it all right i guess yeah it was drive-thru it was a combination of front line and drive-thru so i'm standing there on the front line and i feel something on my leg i feel little bit on my leg look down and there is there i'll laugh every time tell this
00:26:59
Speaker
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00:27:47
Speaker
There is a blind customer that has walked behind the counter.
00:27:55
Speaker
I'm like 16. don't know what to do. And so I'm just trying to direct this guy politely out, you know, to the, i'll you know, trying be nice about it. And I realized there's commotion.
00:28:11
Speaker
I'm having much fun watching you laugh about the story. If you're just listening to this, he's just laughing right now. There's another time. Come
00:28:22
Speaker
oh Nate. You can do it. You can do it. yeah Get it together. No, there's there's a second blind person. A second?
00:28:33
Speaker
There was two? I bet you the other one was in the drive-thru one day. but They were in the drive-thru. Oh, my goodness.
00:28:45
Speaker
I mean, what are the chances of that happening? What are the chances of that happening? I can't even believe it.
00:28:56
Speaker
Oh, I'm sorry. yeah You're not supposed to be back here. Or your friend. Your friend is not. Could you yell at them, please? I'm trying to find out.
00:29:07
Speaker
There's a guy that is training them how to use their canes.
00:29:15
Speaker
Not very well.
00:29:24
Speaker
is awesome why she's also like It was literally the blind leading the blind. Nate, are you telling the truth? This cannot be real. I swear.
00:29:36
Speaker
man. might be the funniest story that I have in entire life. that might be the funniest story that i have ah my entire in my entire four years.
00:29:47
Speaker
And I can't believe you guys weren't there for that. I don't remember that. I'm sure I would have remembered.
00:29:56
Speaker
I was not planning laughing that hard, man. That's, Oh my goodness. Oh, it's amazing. So they were just behind the counter and just walking around.
00:30:07
Speaker
They were walking around. Apparently the guy bet the one that if he can make it all the way around the restaurant, that he would buy him his meal. He made like a challenge and he ended up in the drive-thru, not around the perimeter of the restaurant. And the other guy was behind the counter.
00:30:25
Speaker
I, I presume the third guy training that was blind. He had a cane as well, but that's wow. Awesome. Yeah. It's amazing. Well, we were hoping we would, we were hoping people would laugh laugh at this episode and like I did. They probably were. We were at least.
00:30:42
Speaker
yes Yeah. I, well, Matt, did you? Oh, go ahead. Go ahead, to Mark. Yeah, i dont have I don't have very many like you know funny stories. that The interesting ones that that I remember aren't necessarily in drive-through.
00:31:03
Speaker
ah did kind of pick a fight with one guy in the drive-through where it was like he pulled up and he he was like a college student who just had ah a coupon for like a free chicken mini, you know, something.
00:31:13
Speaker
And it was at the point when we didn't accept them anymore. And I just, you know, we we say that and if people, know, are disappointed or something, i'd I'd accept them sometime. But this guy was just such a punk about it.
00:31:27
Speaker
And he was being such a jerk that was just like, no, like, I'm not taking this from you. And he put his car in park and said, I'm not leaving here until. okay And I remember it was just like, know, and we had somebody. And so we had somebody coming and going around his car to get the stuff and put it back. and And we did that for maybe a minute before I was just like, call the cops and take his license plate. And then he spit off. i was like But I had, you know, I had somebody start having a seizure in the middle of taking an order. You know, I had, had a guy, but the weirdest one was i had a guy walk in from outside.
00:32:05
Speaker
he was like, Hey, yeah you know can I talk to you? And he's like, so I might be having an allergic reaction. He's like, And he's holding his EpiPen. And he's like, but every time I do this, I faint.
00:32:21
Speaker
And he drove in off of the street. He was like, I was just, i felt like I was having it. And I was like, you want me to give you an EpiPen? He's like, yes.
00:32:31
Speaker
was like, I will do this for you. Just go. I was like, no. Certainly not ah not wise, but... Yeah, you're lucky you didn't get sued or anything.
00:32:44
Speaker
I know, but I was excited to do it. didn't and He didn't pass out or didn't faint. He did it, but he had to brace. the He's like, I got to lean on you. I was like, all right.
00:32:55
Speaker
so Well, there you go. Anybody ever witness a car get rear-ended in the drive-thru? yeah I remember being on the headset when that happened. I heard a lot of obscenities yeah over the headset.
00:33:11
Speaker
I've seen lots of fights in the drive-thru. We had recently people getting out of the vehicle. and We once had a lady who had a flat tire. She couldn't leave, but she was mad about food that she was supposed to get. We ended up trying to give her a drink. She threw the drink at the leader that handed it to her. She just threw it across the parking lot.
00:33:34
Speaker
Wow. It's like gracious alive.
00:33:38
Speaker
Yeah. Well, Jared, can I, um shifting gears a little bit, can I tell you a couple of um success stories, like people's success stories, or at least one?
00:33:50
Speaker
Yeah. um You know, we all got to interview and hire people, and you see, well, I mean, you you see some of them that they can't they can't take it And they're out like in two weeks. I just do hard for them because it's our job.
00:34:07
Speaker
It really is. or Or a day. Do you remember the guy that left on his first day? i mean, no, but it doesn't surprise me. I mean, he he got there like at at like five thirty or six. Oh, an adult, like an older guy. Right. Yeah. And ah and he wasn't that old. He was, you know, a young man, but he was and yeah an adult.
00:34:24
Speaker
But he he started working for like five minutes. I said, hey, I need to get my drink. I left my drink in the car. OK, go get it. He walked out the door and never came back.
00:34:34
Speaker
Yeah, that was a kitchen where we never saw him again. Yeah. And then we made it. And then then we we joked about that. I need to go outside to my car real quick. Yeah, man, I and don't i' I'm not trying to derail you. But just on that one point, this is this was like the last story that I had in my mind that I remember. It was just the ongoing joke of this one woman, an older woman who came and worked for like three days. And it was just hard on her. And she just came and clocked out and said, you know, I'm going to.
00:35:01
Speaker
I'm going on break and, you know, just never came back. And so my, and so the ongoing joke that I would pull out, I pulled this joke out so often and, and for so long that eventually everyone who knew what I was talking about had like left the restaurant at this point.
00:35:20
Speaker
But I would just, when we were, when we were deep in red, know, which that means that you were just back up, you know, just really needed, people were waiting a long time for their food for whatever reason, right? It was just those kinds of things happen. I would just say, don't worry guys, you know, so-and-so should be back from break any minute. mean, I did that two years after it happened. but we know No one just, I would just are you talking about? yeah and i mean, I think, call her Edna.
00:35:55
Speaker
I think, you know, Edna will be back in, Any minute now, guys. Any minute. We'll be fine. We'll be fine. That's funny. That's good. That's funny. But that's not a success story.
00:36:07
Speaker
that's No. I just, um and I'll make it brief, but it was just fun, you know, going through, you you get some, let's just say like some 15-year-old homeschool kid like Nate, you know.
00:36:20
Speaker
um and Specifically, I can think, I'm thinking about Champ, and I don't think he would mind us talking about him, you know, but, um, get somebody start working. They just work their butt off, you know, and, um, but really don't have any leadership skills. They're just good workers.
00:36:36
Speaker
Right. And we sit down with them and spend some time going over the, uh, what the heart of leadership and just talking to them like, this is, well, they see it. and They, we lead by example. Right. So they see us working and they, and we do this training with them.
00:36:50
Speaker
And, um, and then one day they get their chance to be a leader. And then they kick butt when they finally get to do it, you know? And, um, and so I, speaking of champ, you know, he, it took him a while. He was team member for several years. Right.
00:37:05
Speaker
And then he ended up becoming a team leader. Now he's an assistant director and he's doing pretty well. Yeah. And, um, he was great to work with. Yeah. Super hard worker, but just, um, and he had to, he had to overcome some, you know, some, um, I don't know, things like personality or whatever, you know, he had to,
00:37:25
Speaker
He had to come ah overcome, but he but he was ah a great guy. He could always count on him to do the right thing. But he's very, he's a very sincere person and he sincerely gave his all yeah and was willing to take correction and willing to work on things. And he actually grew.
00:37:41
Speaker
I mean, I remember another success story.
00:37:45
Speaker
ah Colleen Hudson. Remember her?
00:37:51
Speaker
So, you know, at first, we We couldn't say anything to her that was remotely critical. but She would break down crying and incredibly hard on herself.
00:38:03
Speaker
And you know we said, hey, we're we're fine you know we're not trying to to rain on you, break break you down. It's just you have to. Anyway, over time, she began, of course, to take that criticism much better.
00:38:17
Speaker
But she developed into a very capable leader and a very confident young woman. And so I really have ah appreciated seeing her growth in her life as well.
00:38:28
Speaker
But yeah, that was that's always just really exciting and it's fun. Yeah, it's one of the best parts of the job.
Personal Impact and Life Lessons
00:38:39
Speaker
Best parts of the job is the people you work for, work with.
00:38:42
Speaker
The people you work with was one of the best reasons that I stayed with Chick-fil-A is stay today. that That is true. you I mean, I'll tell you guys, i'm in I'm in ministry and I was called to ministry since I was six.
00:38:55
Speaker
And ah my heart is to ah bless others and to minister the truth of Christ to them. And I can say i probably had more opportunities to minister to the needs of others through my work at Chick-fil-A than I ever have through anything at church.
00:39:13
Speaker
Because I interact with people through Chick-fil-A that would never darken the door of a church or you know are not you know, very comfortable around Christians in general, but I have a chance to interact with them on a day-to-day basis, whether they're guests that come regularly or employees that i work with all the time. Yeah. um I have many opportunities. God has really used that in my life for the opportunity to influence others and impact them. I've preached people's funerals who were regulars, you know, and they were like, we don't have a minister. Would you come and do it? And that opportunity to,
00:39:49
Speaker
speak truth into their life. And I have actually some really amazing stories that maybe I'll share for another day, but I'll save for another day. But it's really been a great opportunity to impact people's lives. And that's one of the things that Chick-fil-A, the corporate a purpose statement of Chick-fil-A involves being a positive impact upon all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A. That's one of the things they intentionally do. And I think that that is one of the best things that Chick-fil-A does.
00:40:19
Speaker
It's not the waffle fries, not the chicken sandwiches, not the nuggets, even though those are great products. It's not even the customer service. It's the impact that you have to make a positive impact upon people on a day-to-day basis.
00:40:34
Speaker
And to me, that's the most the most meaningful thing that Chick-fil-A does, in my opinion.
00:40:41
Speaker
I agree. um One thing that I wanted to mention, since we've kind of shifted gears to... um kind of what we've what we've learned and all that kind of stuff, or the impact that Chick-fil-A has.
00:40:54
Speaker
Remember the acronym ESRC? I know, Jared, you probably still remember, Nate, Mark, you remember what it stands for? so hey Expectation.
00:41:04
Speaker
Expectation. Skills. Skills and tools and then consequences. Resources. Yeah, ESRC. And so that's, since again, Fatherhood Podcast. Actually, that's one thing that I've,
00:41:19
Speaker
kept with me since the Chick-fil-A days. And you can use that at home with your kids, right? It really is. that's That is, yeah not to cut you off, but that is the one thing when you when when we were talking about what is the one thing that stuck with you, it is that training and the the kind of grace that needs to be then it's ah be in that, right? Where you need to stop and be able to say, okay, before I jump to the the the consequences for you know someone doing something wrong, let me step back and make sure, do they know the expectation?
00:41:47
Speaker
Do they have the skills? If they don't have the skills, do they have the tools to get the skills? And then, you know, and then once all of that is established, then you can get to, okay, well, but why is it still not working?
00:42:02
Speaker
Right? Like that, that is, if you use that at home, you're not the only one. Yeah. I mean, it's like, son, um I need you to pick up all the shoes or whatever.
00:42:17
Speaker
right. yeah Do you hear me? What did I say? You take up the shoes. Okay. We got the expectation thing down. Obviously, you know how to do it. You have time to do it. You know where the shoes go. You know all of that.
00:42:31
Speaker
Yeah. So if you don't do it, then there's going to be consequences. I'm to have write this down so I can refresh myself on it. That's good. Yeah. No, it was. that Going through that that, that stuck with me.
00:42:42
Speaker
um And that's also, that's kind of, you talk about pouring into other people. That's where I kind of developed my own philosophy of of discipleship in a way where it's like I would have people want to talk to me and want to, hey, you know can I talk to you outside of work about the situation I'm going through and that kind of thing? And I would be like, yes, I chop wood.
00:43:03
Speaker
You can come and stack it. like come and you can come to my house and you can do this with me. but I'm, you know my life is, is moving and I need, I, I need you to it come in to help me and I will, and we will do life together and we will, I will help you in this situation.
00:43:22
Speaker
um and that's just, I've kind of always done that with, with people that are younger who I'm, you know, especially ah just younger men, you know, who need advice and counsel. It's just like, okay, you know, I'm, I'm not going to just sit down for an hour with you, but,
00:43:37
Speaker
we'll do this. Like you come and help me do this and we'll talk while we do that. And that's been really just, I think, helpful. And that was just, I always had to do it that way because there was never time to really sit down for half an hour or an hour at Chick-fil-A, right. To discuss these things, um, or even outside
Personal Connections and Nostalgia
00:43:58
Speaker
of it.
00:43:58
Speaker
And, uh, and there was a lot of fruit in a lot of relationships from that, uh,
00:44:07
Speaker
that happened outside of work, but those relationships started, you know, in the walls of Chick-fil-A. yeah ye fish Officiated a ah wedding of of two that met.
00:44:24
Speaker
I remember that was that was a highlight of something that I got to do. It was a COVID wedding. No one else would do it.
00:44:32
Speaker
You know, I've been asked by, I think two different employees at Chick-fil-A that, and they were a couple that met at Chick-fil-A and they wanted to get married. So they knew was a minister. I said, Jared, would you want to officiate the wedding? And I said, yeah, okay, let's have some meetings. I'm like, we're going to have to have some counseling sessions. You know, I'm not just going to show up on the wedding day and do it.
00:44:53
Speaker
So we get to counseling sessions. This is actually like three different times. And it's like, you know what, Jared, nevermind. We'll find someone else. It's just always good. That always turned me down because, you know, they're not willing to, you know, I guess hear the truth, but.
00:45:09
Speaker
I had one of those in Chick-fil-A too, but yeah but the one I got to do was good. Good. Good deal. Well, um guys, I think we're going to kind of wrap this up here. I'm wondering if you can share a little bit about what you miss most.
00:45:27
Speaker
What do you think made the biggest impact or that you think was the sort of the biggest takeaway of your time ah with this very good company?
00:45:38
Speaker
What is the thing you maybe miss most or the thing that made the biggest impact in your life?
00:45:47
Speaker
And I'll talk at once, you know, calm down. i mean, I really do. It's a kind of a simple answer, but um I really do miss the food.
00:45:58
Speaker
for free all the time.
00:46:02
Speaker
And the one time the cookies were recalled because of possible peanut allergies and I got to bring 220 cookies. Oh, that was the best. Oh, that was great.
00:46:14
Speaker
oh But I really, but I mean, I really do miss the food. um And, and then the people. And I'm mainly referring to, you know, brothers in Christ that I worked with.
00:46:28
Speaker
y'all but um but it was fun just getting to to interact with the customers and to have somebody come up and say you know what y'all are just doing such a great job or whatever you know and um yeah and just seeing to the the surprise and delight you have angry customer and you give them you know what let's just i'm just going to go ahead and replace your whole meal for free it is the whole meal yeah and then they turn around and and they're like, oh, that was just the best thing. You've just made my day.
00:46:58
Speaker
Nobody's being nice to me and y'all are, you know, whatever. And it's fun just keep being able to make a difference and in people's lives. So people and food. People and food. There you go. That's most of life right there.
00:47:12
Speaker
What about you, Mark? Free Chick-fil-A twice a day for three and a half years was pretty nice. um yeah and And that was nice. But I,
00:47:24
Speaker
It's rare that you get to, and we talked about, I talked about this a little bit in the last episode of just how the restaurant industry is unique because you're dealing with with hungry people and and hunger and hunger can be just such that catalyst, that cherry on top, you know, no pun intended, I guess, if that is a pun, but you you have that, that's that's the thing that tips people over the edge is just that that hunger and hunger can be you satiated it so quickly.
00:47:50
Speaker
And so, One of the things I do miss is what Matt just touched on and is how you can just see a simple thing just totally shift someone and and see that 180 of repentance, and so to speak, right? um of Particularly the people who are rude
00:48:11
Speaker
turn around, right, and
Customer Service Challenges and Resolutions
00:48:13
Speaker
see. Or even like, you know, there was often my my name tag said peacekeeper on it. um because I was the one that always had to go and deal with the angry people and that was that was just Mark Peacekeeper and and so going and dealing with with those people and then knowing that other people were watching me oftentimes like they would come and just say hey but then it that didn't end very well but like
00:48:43
Speaker
that was that was good, right? i' um And it was people who weren't even involved in the situation. um But i I miss that kind of challenge and being able to see that change in people happen really quick, because that doesn't, you don't get that opportunity in a lot of different industries.
00:49:00
Speaker
um But being, whether it be a surprise and delight of just blessing someone and and seeing their day improve, or seeing that kind of conflict resolution happen where they're furious because they're so hungry and then it gets satisfied. Even if you don't give them what they want, you find some way of satisfying them that helps everybody.
00:49:22
Speaker
um that was That was a ah challenge that I enjoyed when you could see the fruit of it. Cool.
00:49:33
Speaker
Hey, Jared, real quick before we move on to y'all. So I just did some quick math, okay? So you've been at Chick-fil-A for 17 years, right? ah so Well, 17 in March. Okay.
00:49:43
Speaker
So let's just say you didn't get free food the whole time. I guess when you were a team member, you probably didn't get free food, but anyway. Yeah, did. So team member free food. Okay. Anyway, so you work four days a week for most of your career, probably four days a week, right?
00:50:00
Speaker
So I did all that. So I did four days a week for a year 17. And let's say you eat $12 of food a day. You think that's a reasonable amount of food? $42,400 in food you've eaten
00:50:20
Speaker
eaten. $42,000 worth of food. That's a lot of food. That's not the cost. That's sales. Yeah. yeah but Well, the thing is, i I would have eaten that much anyway. you But you had to get it for free. That's a nice ah that's a bonus.
00:50:37
Speaker
Yep. Definitely. Thanks for that math. Makes me feel better about all that food I ate. Oh, and you don't really, i don't, at least with us, we, uh, are people always like, I bet you're going to gain weight working at Chick-fil-A. Well, now you really don't gain much weight. I mean, you could, I actually lost weight when I first started, I lost like 15 pounds.
00:50:59
Speaker
Cause you're your feet for dadgum 12 hours a day and you're walking everywhere. And, Yeah, I mean, you know, you got to be careful about what you eat, but all the physical activity... Uh-huh, that's for sure.
00:51:13
Speaker
Nate, what do you miss most about Chick-fil-A? Yeah, mine's going to be boring, but it's what Matt says to people. It's not that it's boring, but, you it's already been said. But really, I mean, that's it's the it will always and forever be one of the most nostalgic times in my life.
00:51:29
Speaker
ah But it was my first job, and... even though left, came back and it was another major part of my career journey to get to where I am now. And it was also, that was the first job I had when I got married. So, you know, I got married and came back to Chick-fil-A. So Matt let me off for three days.
00:51:51
Speaker
read that No, ah or but but to be fair, I only asked for three days. no we We needed all the money we could get. that was deceptive trying to was trying to bank was trying to bank some vacation but i never ended using it um anyways that's whatever but um yeah like i said it will it will always have a nostalgic place in my heart and the people that's the thing if i went back now it wouldn't be the same so i'm sure i learned you know make new friends and be a new journey but you know what that that
00:52:26
Speaker
All those memories are in a very special place. So it's it's the camaraderie. It's the the brotherhood. that That's what I miss the most. And the free food, of course, is phenomenal. but um Yeah.
00:52:39
Speaker
So it's... yeah ah I'm sorry, Jared. One last thing that I'm to say, I promise. um You know, as you're... you know We're talking about being with each other, the friendships and stuff at Chick-fil-A. like if I can imagine if I was working at a Chick-fil-A like on a Friday at lunch and I didn't like any of the people,
00:52:56
Speaker
that I was working with, it would be miserable. It's so dadgum hard. ah But when you've got people you like on all sides of you and you're all working together. So yeah the difficult times with people you and people you like, it's it's a lot better.
00:53:12
Speaker
its Oh yeah. I'll say- answer is just so much better in those in those times. but What is it?
Influence of Leadership Books and Lessons Learned
00:53:22
Speaker
What's that?
00:53:23
Speaker
I missed that last week. I couldn't quite. I said as banter is so much better. Oh, yes the yeah. And with people that you like. Definitely. That was like so great.
00:53:35
Speaker
Yeah. I'll say probably the biggest impact that, you know, lesson wise, I don't know if this was all Chick-fil-A's or if it was ours, because I know Tony was big on it.
00:53:47
Speaker
um But we read or at least the leadership read. Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin. um That book was huge, but that was the the the principle of owning what you do and taking responsibility for what you do has been a fundamental just life principle that I have applied to every aspect of my life.
00:54:12
Speaker
And I learned it at Chick-fil-A. So that's probably the biggest lesson that I've, that I continue to use, you know, currently. Yeah. I don't know if that was all Chick-fil-A's, but that was ours specifically definitely dove deep into that book.
00:54:27
Speaker
Yeah. Well, you know, i just have to say that I don't really miss anything about Chick-fil-A because I'm still there. you don't have to miss anything. ah But I can say that um the people that I've had the chance and privilege to work with are some of the best ones that I've i've ever worked with. And i can I can say that that's a general commonality.
00:54:50
Speaker
among the different Chick-fil-A's that I've been involved with and worked at is the people that you work with are solid. Not all of them for sure, but by and large, it's a really great group of people.
00:55:02
Speaker
And, that's part of what makes it so, so meaningful and so fulfilling. And that's part of the reason this podcast exists at all is because, you know, we have enjoyed spending so much time together that we were like, let's just keep doing it.
00:55:16
Speaker
You know, that's why, do why do we have to stop? You know? um And, uh, you know, just the opportunities to, uh, make a difference in people's lives and to experience their, their lives with them.
00:55:29
Speaker
And, you know, I've really learned a lot about leadership. I kind of cringe when I stop and think about what kind of a person I was when I first started working at Chick-fil-A. And I have learned so much about the requirements of serving others and being humble and, um, taking responsibility, like you're talking about Nate, but, um,
00:55:48
Speaker
you know, just, I've learned so much about leadership from that company and from my experiences there and really from working with you guys, um, that it's really been such a benefit to my life. And I can't imagine my, ah my life as a father and as a husband has not been helped and blessed by the lessons I learned right at Chick-fil-A.
00:56:11
Speaker
So, and continue to learn. So anyway, appreciate you guys, appreciate your perspective tonight. And, uh, we will, ah maybe have to do this again, ah you know, and share some more of those ah funny so funny stories and lessons learned.
00:56:27
Speaker
Maybe we'll throw some pranks in there. I'll try and keep it together next time. Actually, that was probably my highlight of this episode right there, is watching Nate fall over ah crying. We won't ask him if he peed himself or not, but no worries.
00:56:44
Speaker
Folks, if you if you want to make a comment, we encourage you to If you want to get in touch with us via email, you can send your emails, questions, comments, and recommendations for sponsors for this podcast to jared at preacher dad.com.
00:57:01
Speaker
And we would love to hear from you all 17 or 18 of our fans. We would love to have you here. um like Whether you're dumb or dumber, we still want to hear from you. So please make sure that you send us a message.
00:57:14
Speaker
We would love for you to subscribe to this podcast. We would love for you to follow us. um And just it just helps out a lot. If you'll rate, if you're listening on Spotify, you can rate us ah five stars is the correct ah rating to give to this particular podcast. But I appreciate all of you guys. And we appreciate those of you that are listening.
00:57:37
Speaker
And we hope to see you again next time on Fatherhood Friday. Have a great weekend. God bless you. Bye-bye.