Own It. Grow It. Give It: Leadership with Chick-Fil-A

Episode 83: Pocket Change Podcast

What does culture look like for Chick-Fil-A in Greater Memphis?

Our guest, Allen Arant, is the owner/operator of two Chick-Fil-A franchises in the Greater Memphis area. Allen’s personal vision is: “Own It. Grow It. Give It.”

• Own It = Excellence, taking personal responsibility.
• Grow It = Stewardship.
• Give It = Positive Influence; be the reason someone smiles.

Questions to ask about your work culture are:

• What do people experience in my business?
• How does my team feel?
• What do guests actually experience?

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Full Transcript

Shea:

Hey, this is Shea.

Carrie:

And this is Carrie.

Shea:

Welcome to the Pocket Change Podcast.

Carrie:

Where you'll learn better ways to spend, save and invest and take control of your financial journey.

Shea:

So, Carrie, this might be my favorite podcast.

Carrie:

I know…

Shea:

My favorite topic.

Carrie:

It is…

Shea:

Chick fil A. So what's your favorite Chick Fil A order?

Carrie:

I'm kind of basic. I just get the eight count chicken nuggets with fries and some Chick Fil A sauce.

Shea:

I'm a… I'm a Chick Fil A classic. I like the number one… get a sandwich, but I'm not a pickle fan.

Carrie:

So do you get spicy or regular?

Shea:

I’ll take whatever, but usually regular.

Carrie:

What's your favorite sauce?

Shea:

Oh, I'll do the Chick Fil A sauce. Yeah.

Carrie:

It's kind of my go to, but I also like the buffalo sauce. It's really good too.

Shea:

So our guest knows all things Chick-Fil-A. He's a franchise operator of two Chick Fil As, and so we're excited to hear what he has to say about leadership, about what Chick Fil A's taught him, the military and what he can share with us.

Carrie:

Yes, he's got some great advice. I can't wait to talk to him.

We're excited to welcome our guest, Allen Arant, owner and operator of two Chick Fil A franchises in the greater Memphis area. Welcome to Pocket Change, Allen.

Allen Arant:

Thank you. My pleasure to be here. Thank you all for the invitation.

Carrie:

My pleasure, I love it. So tell us a little bit about your background and how you got to Chick Fila A.

Allen Arant:

Yeah. So born and raised in Mississippi. Grew up on a family farm. So I was taught the value of hard work very early by my dad, who was a farmer for 40 years. I went to college at Mississippi State University, my degree’s in accounting, but I went into the Army right after college.

Shea:

Cowbells. It's the same, you know, Mississippi State. I feel like that's pretty much the same…

Allen Arant:

Pretty close, you know, pretty close. State might just be a little bit louder.

Carrie:

Yeah. Very much so.

Allen Arant:

More loud. But that's that. But it's great. Yeah. So I went into the Army. Active duty. I was a helicopter pilot. Flew attack recon helicopters called the Oh-58 Delta Kiowa Warrior. The aircraft is no longer in the Army inventory. They got rid of it back in like 2015, 2016. Went to flight school, got married right before that. Went over to Alabama, Fort Rucker, Alabama, now called Fort Novosel and where I was trained in my first duty station was in Savannah, Georgia, with Hunter, at Hunter Army Airfield with third Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment, and a deployment to Afghanistan with them back in 2012-2013. Learned a lot over there. And then when I got back, I knew I wanted to get out of the Army. I was approaching the end of my eight years. I had an eight year commitment. My wife was expecting her first child while I was deployed to Afghanistan. And so I’d always told my wife when we got married, if I could make any decision for the family, the army gives me the choice. I will make the decision for the family. And so they were getting rid of the aircraft. The Kiowa and I got offered a transition to the Apache helicopter. It was the 864 echo model which was going to be the replacement. And I knew that if I did that, I would probably be deploying again soon. And we just found out we were expecting baby number two. And so I told them no. And they were pretty shocked because they gave at like 500 people. They gave about, I think it was about 50 slots. Wow. And I got offered one. I was very thankful for that. But I turned it down and I went over to Atlanta to recruiting command of all places as a as a first time commander, which was unusual because I knew want to get out. Hey, what better place to be than Atlanta to network and find a job post army? And so I went there and met some people in Chick Fil A, at a little get together with some guys from our church. It's funny how the Lord works. We switched churches very last minute. Kind of felt bad about it in a way. But love the community, love the people. And I met this guy named Brandon Bray at this get together at this guy's house from church, and we started talking. He asked me what I did, said, hey, I'm in the Army. I'm getting out in like eight months. Like I'm 29 years old. Who's going to give me this kind of responsibility, trying to figure it out? Something, something like that. He's like, well, I'm with Chick Fil A, with franchisee selection, and that's what we look for. All that leadership stuff, you should apply. But I got to go home now and take the kids home. It's nice to meet you. Have a great day. I was like, huh, interesting. And I remember I told my wife about it and I was like, the Lord just put it on my heart. And she just kind of looked at me kind of crazy. She's like, you've never worked in a restaurant. You hardly even been into a Chick Fil A. I mean, I didn't grow up around Chick Fil A, really. When I got stationed in Georgia, I was the first time that I really started going to Chick Fil A around the Peachtree City area, and I told my parents about it. It was a few months after that. My parents said we went into a Chick Fil A, we just cannot see you doing that. And I was like, okay, but I'd already applied and I got selected about ten months after I applied, which was a pretty quick, pretty quick process which just doesn't speak to me, speaks to just the Lord's timing. And I moved to Memphis with my wife, my family, after I got out of the Army and I was working for Fedex and Chick-Fil-A selected me. And then I grand opened my first restaurant in Bartlett, Tennessee. So just down the road back in April 2018. And so that's how I went from college to the Army to Chick Fil A. And just what really attracted me to Chick Fil A was when I went into the restaurants in Peachtree City, the guy who owned those, his name was Mike Holmes. He had three locations, which was highly unusual, especially during that time. And I just, there was something different. The people were different. The leaders were different. Kind of the way I equated Chick Fil A was everything I loved about the Army without everything that I hated. So like, you know, it wasn't enough to just lead in the Army. There's all this paperwork and bureaucracy and politics. It wasn't just about it wasn't always just about doing the mission and being a pilot and flying and leading your soldiers. There was always just more. But Chick Fil A was much more about, hey, here's our mission of serving guests, caring for people, taking care of our team. And that really resonated with me.

Carrie:

That's awesome.

Shea:

Yeah, well, thank you for your service in the military and also to our community through the love of food.

Allen Arant:

It's my honor! It’s been a lot of fun. It's been a lot of fun.

Shea:

So tell us about your franchises. You have not only Bartlett, but another one on Austin Peay Highway in Memphis and what makes them unique. And what are you most proud of?

Allen Arant:

Yeah. So my Bartlett store opened in April 2018, a little over eight years ago. We kind of started off just really out the gate, just really just going for the races. I'd always been taught to have a pay now versus pay later attitude, both from my dad, from some commanders in the army, from the guy that mentored me in Chick Fil A. They had those three restaurants, Mike Holmes. And the concept is, hey, look, you're going to put the work in now. It's going to be hard, but there's going to be future rewards and benefits. If you don't make the hard choices now, you're going to have those consequences down the road. And so I didn't want that to happen. And so we worked really hard. I had a consultant tell me that the best marketing is a short line. And I was like, well, that makes sense to me. I never worked in... The only restaurant experience I have prior to grand opening was I quit my job at FedEx a few months before Chick-Fil-A sent me off to training to operator training. And so I got about a month and a half on a restaurant. It's all the experience I had before I grand opened my Bartlett store. So I was like, well, at least I know how to work in the kitchen. And so really, the path of Bartlett was the best marketing was a short line, pay now versus pay later, build up my leadership team. Be, me initially, be the example of what right looks like and what, what and what is expected when I say excellence. And that's really what I was pushing for. And so the Lord really really blessed the work and within. So that was 2018. And by 2022, we were the number one transaction store in the entire country in all of Chick Fil A.

Shea and Carrie:

Wow!

Allen Arant:

So we were the number one freestanding restaurant with the highest transaction counts in the whole country. So I had a great team. We're just doing crazy business, doing everything we could to take care of our guests and serve them well and serve our team. So that was a lot of fun. And then in August 2023, my second location opened over at Austin Peay Highway. So both the Bartlett community and the Raleigh community are just wonderful. Both of them have taken great care of my team, of me. They really care about the restaurant like we take care of them and they take care of us. You know, they keep us engaged in the community. They tell us what we're not doing well, they tell us when we are doing well and they come back often and they buy and that's great. And we support them. Send out lots of free rewards. We're really big on the mobile app. If yall have the mobile app here in Jackson go see my friend Grant Edwards down there at Vann Drive. Grant's great.

Shea:

Yeah.

Allen Arant:

And over on Jackson team. Yeah. And so both stores have excellent food safety. So they're both known for food safety. They're both known for having great food, great team member environments. You know, we hit several of Chick Fil A's big sales awards that they give out. In the first couple of years, my Bartlett store has gotten Chick Fil A's top food safety award for about 5 or 6 years in a row. And so both teams really do a really good job making sure that our core values and my mission of own it, grow it, give it are front and center in the restaurant. And so there's about 220 employees between both locations, which is a lot. And so I kind of have them structured like an Army unit structure. I'm the commander and I've got my sergeant major, my executive team right under me, and I've got my two director of operations that are like my general managers that most folks might equate that to. They're like my company commanders, and they've got their whole team of directors under them. They're like their lieutenants or squad leaders and so forth. So that's kind of how I do it. It makes sense to me. And it's worked so far.

Shea:

Sounds like it.

Carrie:

That's a fun way to do that.

Allen Arant:

Yeah, it makes sense to me at least.

Carrie:

Yeah. So it sounds like you go to great lengths to foster culture. So what does good work culture mean to you?

Allen Arant:

Yeah. So when I think about culture I think of what are the values, behaviors. What are the what do people experience in my business? Both when I'm there, when I'm not there, early morning, after hours, whatever the case might be like, what actually goes on? How does my team feel? What do I want the work to be? But what did they actually experience? What do I want my guests experience to be? What do my guest actually experience? And we can get that from looking at what's called a team member engagement survey that we do every year. We just got one back from a Bartlett store, and they got their highest marks I've ever had in eight years.

Carrie:

That's awesome.

Allen Arant:

So we've done a lot of work the last calendar year on culture. We say we want to be these things, but are we actually doing it? And so we're really trying to put our money where our mouth is. And the Austin Peay store, the same thing applies to them too. We always want to make sure that we're holding folks accountable, but we're balancing grace and compassion with accountability and make sure that we're taking care of our folks. You know, our customers have all these…Have you ever had one of the surveys through the app or surveys and yeah, that's right. All that comes back to us operators okay. And so we see that stuff. It gets aggregated. And all this data… we can look at comments. We can see all this stuff to understand how do our guests say that we are taking care of them. That's really important. Then we have measures for our team to do the same thing. And so with that culture this calendar year, I really made a big push and it kind of got put on my heart last year that we want to make sure that we say this stuff, but I want to make sure that my behaviors, what actually goes on, my behaviors are aligned with my values. And that's been really important to me, especially this year. We've always kind of done that, but I've never been quite so explicit by saying that. And so in years, and for the last seven years, I've had a mission vision core value statement that's about this long. All the stuff is in there, and it was great, and we obviously done well with that. But I just really found that it wasn't really resonating with my current work, with my current generation that I'm hiring and my team, they agree with it, but they don't really know how to apply it. And the main principle was this extreme ownership. That's this book here. My vision was be world class in all that we do. Well that's great, but what does that actually mean? How do I apply that? So this year I've changed it to where my vision is own it, grow it, give it. And that's supported by our three core values of excellent, stewardship, positive influence. So own it: means excellence, which means you take this is what the team gets out of it. You take personal responsibility by doing your best every time. And then we have give it: which is stewardship. Leave it better than you found it. And then... I'm sorry. Own it and grow it. It is stewardship. Leave it better than you found it. Then give it: is positive influence. Be the reason someone smiles. And so what I want the team to remember is those three things on each line, right? I give it excellent stewardship, positive influence and one, two, three. But when I say, hey, do your best, what does that mean? What it means I show up. It means that I work hard. It means that my hard work is hopefully recognized and rewarded. Right? And then on stewardship, leave it better than you found it. That is so simple. As you're walking by, how many times have you seen a piece of paper on the ground? Right?

Carrie:

Right.

Allen Arant:

A little a little bitty straw wrapper. I want you to stop, and I want you to pick it up. Right. Let's be observant. That's leave it better than you found it. It really is that simple. And then be the reason someone smiles… is a positive influence. Like, we actually have a thing on our register that a team member can hit, that they can press that if they made a connection with a guest inside or outside, or they can tell the person who's having a great day or a bad day, or they learn something just kind of touches that team member. They can put on their surprise and delight, and we will do something nice for them. It might be take care of their meal, give them an extra cookie, but a lot of times it's just giving a lot of encouragement or just warm words and make them feel welcome.

Carrie:

But paying attention to detail.

Allen Arant:

Yes, we want our team to pay attention to details. One of our kind of internal taglines is pay attention to the details, right? You can say, leave it better than you found it, but if you never notice the paper on the floor, then you're never going to leave that area better than you found it, right? And so I want the team to do that. I used to have this viewpoint that especially with the social media craze, that I don't want my team to bring their full, authentic selves. I've kind of had to rethink that over the years. We're like, we obviously know there's things that you might do at home or in private that you don't do in the workplace. That's not what we're talking about. But I want you to bring your care, your attention, your initiative. Right. The things that are special to you. I want you to bring those into Chick Fil A, because if you do that and you're energized and excited about your work, then you're much more likely to take care of those around you and the guest that you're serving right, because you don't feel like you have to be a certain way. You can be yourself, and you can say, my pleasure, and you can look folks in the eye and you can smile, right? And you can show great hospitality. And that's what we want to encourage within our culture. And when things go the other way, we have folks say or do things that are not in line with our values, then we counsel. That's what I had to do in the Army. And that's something I understand is counseling. That's a form of accountability. Sometimes there might be corrective action in there, but most of the times it's just documentation to say, hey, look, here's what you did. Here's what we want you to do. We want to lead you toward this, which is in keeping with our values. We want you to be successful. If you do this and work with us, you will be successful. And that's what we want. And I will say, I say nine out of ten people. They may not have been used to that happening before, ever. They're either younger or they come from many jobs and they're just not used to that kind of thing. But if we can get through to them and show that this is an element of care, because I think one of the one of the ways we can show the least amount of care is to not set proper expectations. And then when we set those expectations to not hold you to them, right. In the book on page 54, in Extreme Leadership, there's a great quote that says, it's not what you preach, it's what you tolerate. Right? I can say these things all day long, but if I'm not actually holding you to them, then what good are my words and people are going to look at my actions, not my words, and I'm just going to be a hypocrite.

Carrie:

That's right.

Allen Arant:

And so we're very careful about that. We want to not tolerate the things that are against our values. So that's kind of how we try to foster a positive culture. And we also have great... There's also something I learned in the military don't expect what you don't inspect. That's not native to the military. I mean, it might be I don't think it is, but that really resonates with me, right? If I expect an outcome, I need to be looking at the things and coaching on those things and inspecting the outcomes I want to lead to success. Right? So culture for us is about showing extreme ownership, living those values. That's what I push the team is living these values so that we push people toward mission accomplishment.

Carrie:

That's wonderful.

Shea:

I think another example of that book in that stack that if you're watching, you can see it, but we'll mention it. The Power of Moments… talks about some of those little ways that, you know, you notice someone having a good or bad day and treat them, you know, or to a cookie or whatever the case is, just noticing that Power of Moments talks about that, too. And that's a great way that businesses and companies can learn. Hey, what's this little thing we can notice to make that impression and that experience that much better for a guest or, or a customer or a member. So, so important.

Allen Arant:

Well, what I've had to learn on that is what? So I am not the best at doing that. That is not my natural personality. That's not how I was raised in my family of origin. That's not how the Army was. But I've had to learn that. But I'm I often hire great people for that, that fix my deficiencies, that compliment, that help me. And I have a couple people who were just absolutely amazing at doing that, that their love language is words of affirmation and recognition. And given that, that very thoughtful, deliberate praise when it's earned. And so I'm grateful I got some of those guys and girls.

Shea:

You talked about a little bit, you know, inspect or what was?

Allen Arant:

Don’t expect, what you don't inspect.

Shea:

Yeah. So you've got some other maybe some other things of, you know, how the Army prepared you for where you are now, like these principles and different things. What else?

Allen Arant:

Oh, the army. So it really started with my with my parents. My parents were farmers. They were very kind, loving, gracious people. But they were not the kind of people that would just give you a pat on the back, just to give you pat on the back. I remember one time I brought a report card home, and I made I had one B on there, and I was so proud of my mom said, I think you can do better, and handed it back. And I haven't made a B since…

Shea:

Straight As.

Allen Arant:

Well, whether that's good or bad, it is what it is. But yeah, but I was taught the value of hard work, and I was taught that obviously my parents loved me a lot. I have wonderful parents, but my dad taught me to hard work on the farm. They taught me mental toughness back when I was growing up, especially playing football, I was all about mental toughness, you know? I don't know if that still was tall or what, but what it did for me, though, is when things were hard, it taught me to not just give up and quit because just because it didn't fit where I wanted to be or wasn't comfortable, or it was too tough, or I didn't have a skill that I needed, I was taught persevere. Worked through it. You still may not get it, but just don't quit on it. And so that really translated to the Army. Army aviation is very hard to get into. Everybody in Army aviation is extremely intelligent. They're all the top of their class in wherever they came from, like they are some of the best of the best. And so academically, it was extremely competitive. You know, when you're an officer, you're expected to lead. It doesn't always prepare... They don't always prepare you how to lead a platoon of 30 or 40 men and women who might have 4 or 5 combat deployments each. And some of those pilots have 2,000 hours and I've got 300. I'm supposed to lead them. How do I do that? And so it also taught me how to rely on others so that I can be the one in charge. And I can have absolutely no idea what I'm doing, which is not which was not untrue in Chick Fil A. I mean, I was a brand new operator. I had no idea what I was doing, but I had some great leaders who I had hired who did have Chick Fil A experience. And I had some great operators, like my friend Grant down the road, who I would call all the time. He probably got tired of seeing my phone number on there. And so those are two big things that the Army taught me perseverance, hard work, mental toughness, taught me leadership. It taught me how to sacrifice too, my parents had taught me that, but it also taught me to delay gratification. You had to do a lot of things in the military that were to your detriment, but were for the benefit of your soldiers. And that's what counted like the whole job was to take care of your soldiers. You know, the Army defines leadership in the leadership manual. It's called I think it's 86-22. It says leadership is the is the activity of influencing people by providing purpose, direction and motivation to accomplish the mission and to improve the organization.

Shea:

Wow.

Allen Arant:

And so that's what the Army taught me. It wasn't always perfect. I mean, just like any job, like, you see the good examples, the good leaders and the bad examples of the bad leaders. But where I really first started learning what this concept of ownership was, I was a I was a young officer. I just made captain. I didn't know what, still didn't know what I was doing. I had never deployed before. And my squadron commander had tasked me with planning my unit’s deployment to Afghanistan. And I was working with our higher element called the brigade. And I needed all this stuff. Long story short, I didn't, I wasn't getting what I should have gotten in a timely enough manner, but I was having to go forth, and I was having to give briefings to my boss, all the commanders. These are my peers, the people I look up to, people I want to be, you know. And he looks at me one time, one of these briefings and looks at me and says, I think I might have been a lieutenant still. He said, Lieutenant, you have failed… in front of everybody. Like image a room full of like, everybody you respect, all your bosses, the people that write your evaluations and that is told to your face, and you still have to stay up there and brief, I wasn't done yet. You gotta stay up there and finish it. I wasn’t done yet.

Shea:

You gotta finish it.

Allen Arant:

That's right. I didn't have answers to their questions. And I went in to my boss. He was the operations officer of the S3. And I said, sir, you know what he said is not true? I've been working night and day, blah blah, blah, blah blah, right? He goes, you're right, you have. But what do you what are you going to do about it? And I said, yes, sir. And then I went in and I fixed it and I worked harder. I mean, it's the answer is not always work harder. Sometimes it is. It's not always that way. But, I embrace the concept of ownership that there's nobody to blame. You can't pass the buck. Everything that happens or fails to happen as the leader is on your shoulders. It's your responsibility. It's your responsibility to go fix it into accomplish the mission. And then we deployed. I got promoted to captain, I think, in December of that year of 2012. And it was like in February 2013, my boss sat me down. That same guy told me I failed for my annual evaluation. This stuff makes or breaks your career as officer. Like this is, this is it. You get like one shot and he said, hey, how do you think that deployment went? I said, sir, honestly don't know. He said, well, I think you knocked out of the park. And he wrote in my evaluation. That was the best planned deployment I've ever experienced in my 21 years as an officer. And he could just he could have just been nice by saying that. But nonetheless, he said it. And I told that sort of Chick Fil A, my interview. And the lady who was interviewing me said, I don't believe it. And I pulled up my evaluation and handed it to her and she went, huh, okay. Okay, I'm going and pass you now, congratulations. We're going to move on to the next round. And so the point is not about the success, because I could still have taken ownership and still failed. I still could have said, I'm going to fix it, sir. I'm not going to blame the boss. I'm not going to have pity on myself. And I could not have been successful. So ownership is not dependent upon your outcome. It's about the mindset and what you do. All the steps going forward that we're hoping that you will accomplish the mission, that you will succeed. You will improve the organization by doing all the concepts that are in this book of check the ego. No bad teams, only bad leaders. Extreme ownership, right? How you plan, how you influence up and down the chain of command. So those are the things the Army taught me that I think made me successful both in life and in Chick Fil A.

Carrie:

It's also about the journey to get there, right?

Allen Arant:

It's a long one. It's not always easy. Not always easy at all. But y'all know that.

Carrie:

But that's awesome. So what does leadership mean to you? You've talked a lot about that so far, but what is it?

Allen Arant:

So I gave you that army's definition. And so that's what I try to teach my team. Right. How we influence the organization, how we improve it, how we take care of our people. And the whole objective of leadership is not me. That definition the Army gives, it doesn't say anything about the leader. It says your job is to do these things for other people, because you can't lead effectively without influencing people. If I'm I mean, you have to also lead yourself and sometimes leading yourself looks like, am I going to follow through with the hard things, or am I going to give in to the easy road? You know, am I going to? Am I going to stand up for what is right to my boss, and the right way to lovingly care for my people and protect them? And sometimes it looks like I have to say yes sir, yes, ma'am and go do my job. Even if I'm right. Now we're not talking about a legal, moral or ethical, right? I just may disagree with the direction the company is going or my individual department is going. Right. But leadership says that I need to, I need to ask my boss questions. Right? I need to ask clarifying questions. My boss has a duty and obligation to explain them to me in a way that I can understand them, so that I can then go talk to all of my team members, my young leaders, to help them understand so that they can go forth and execute successfully. That's what that definition of leadership pushes you to do is those things when you go, well, the boss told me… I disagree with it. We ain't doing that. Well, now we have a problem. You are not leading the organization. You are causing the organization to fail. You're setting a, you're going against your organization's cultural expectations and you're not producing positive outcomes. And so you've got to be very, very careful about that. There've been many times when I was in the Army where my boss told me to do something, or we were going in a direction where I just thought that we should go in different direction, because I was the guy on the ground with my soldiers actually executing that mission, and I knew it wasn't quite the way they understood it, but that's the way they understood it. And so I had a duty to explain and to give feedback. And then my boss would tell me hey you do this, do that, or shut up in color. And I go execute. And I have to do my job. And that's, that's so that's how I learned leadership, the good and the bad, just like anybody. And how when I go to my team, I try to give those same purposeful directions to help them understand the why so they can go execute. And I'm very careful that when they give me feedback that I listen. And I don't dismiss them, that I say, hey, look, I know you don't agree. Let's talk through this. Tell me how I can help you understand where I'm coming from to get there. There have been times inmy business where I have said, I understand your concerns, but we will do it this way. Okay. You know, for instance. You know, I had a time where we had the power go out and we were worried about food safety and blah, blah, blah, blah. And so I basically had to stop everybody and say, hey, stop. We're going to take care of the first measures first, which is guest safety, team member safety. Then we'll worry about that kind of stuff. But, but, but! No, no, no, we're not doing any buts. This is the way it will be done. Do those things and then we'll get back to those concerns right there. But this is the first priority, right? If it's a safety issue, that might be an example.

Shea:

Yeah.

Allen Arant:

When I was flying in the Army, you know, you might want to take care of your buddy who just got shot beside you, but you got to take care of yourself first. You got to suppress the enemy. You got to get the aircraft to a safe place. Right? You can't very well take care of them if you crash the aircraft.

Carrie:

Right, wow.

Allen Arant:

That's kind of an example of that.

Shea:

You've got a lot of younger team members on your teams. And so what is some things you may share with them, you know, that might be different from others or, you know, just because they're young and upcoming that might be different.

Allen Arant:

So for my young leaders, I talked to a number of them about perseverance. Kind of what I talked about earlier. You know, there are things that will be hard in this job, and you're going to have to make a choice of whether it's too hard and you want to move on, or if you're going to choose to persevere and overcome. You know, if there's anything illegal, immoral or unethical, you need to come to us immediately. That's not what we're discussing. We're talking about… you have challenges with other team members, challenges with guests. A lot of times people have challenges at home, right? Whether you're 18, 15 or 35. And I used to think when I was younger that you can just check your personal life at the door and come to work and do your best and go home, and I'll be fine. And that's just not how people work. Not at all. And so I had to change that many years ago to understand how can I meet them where they are and care for them. Right. So we talked to them about, hey, if you're having personal struggles at home, please come talk to us. We can adjust your schedule. We can be a place where you can be safe, right where you can feel like. And I do have folks like this where the most stable part of their life is at the restaurant, and we are aware of that, and we want to make it stable. But that doesn't mean there's no accountability, right? You start showing up late every day just because your home life is a wreck. Well, we can lovingly pull you in and talk about the accountability aspect of that, right? You can have a lot of stuff going on, but you can't bring down the whole restaurant, the whole culture with you as you're going down that glide path. And so we want to meet them where they are and try to bring them back to where they need to be to love and care and support them. And that's different for everybody. So talk a lot about perseverance. Overcome adversity, communicating with us. Right. A lot of lot of folks will just kind of clam up and think, they can't talk to us and then just leave. Like what happened? I've been going through this like, do you not want to talk about it? Okay. You know, I know you're having a hard time. We can work with you on your schedule. Come talk to us. And so we try to really emphasize, hey, we are we are not just the overlords. We're not just the boss.

Carrie:

That's right.

Allen Arant:

Come, come and let's walk this journey together. So I think that's really, really important. I talked to him about delayed gratification. I've got, so we have a thing called Chick-Fil-A-tionships. You ever heard that term? It is. When is? When two people meet at Chick Fil A and end up getting married.

Carrie:

Oh.

Allen Arant:

And they met at Chick Fil A first, right? So we call it a we jokingly call it a chick fil A-tionship. I love it, and I've had a lot of those. There was one wedding I went to last summer, and I was kind of have a little bit of a discouraging time in my life just in the restaurant. It was a hard season, and my wife and I were at the wedding and she put her hand on my arm, said, hey, just look around the things that have happening in your restaurant, your leadership, all of your team, like most of these folks, would not be here if it wasn't for the restaurant. And, you know, she said, all these folks have worked for you at some point or another and just think about the influence you that you had on them. And so that just really kind of slapped me in the face, honestly. I was like, and I left that wedding very happy after that because it just it was perspective. My wife helped give me perspective. And so it is a it is a privilege and an honor and also a great burden to lead people. Leadership is not. And that's what I tell them to like. Don't expect to be pat on the back every day. No one's going to tell you how great you're doing every day. You need to learn that leadership can often be a thankless road, but we don't. But it doesn't have to be, though, right? Leadership in the army was a very thankless road. You strive your work hard, and you found out how you were doing when you got your annual eval every year, right? But you really measure how you were doing based on what your soldiers and your noncommissioned officers said about you. You know, I had one officer. I had one noncommissioned officer telling me when I was leaving my command. He said, sir, we didn't always like you, but we knew you were fair because I had to make some unpopular decisions sometimes, you know, and that's what leadership is sometimes. But I always tried to be careful on how I use that authority. And so we talked about that too. But how you use your authority, use it wisely. Right. Don't think that you're above anybody, but you're not the overlord. We're here to serve. And that's another thing I try to teach my young leaders.

Carrie:

That's great. So, do you have any favorite stories of team members taking the initiative and becoming leaders themselves?

Allen Arant:

And so yeah, a bunch. So I'm really proud of this. I've had between 5 and 7 people who start off as team members. Like 16 or 17 years old who are now directors or running restaurants, who are supporting families, getting married buying houses, working for me. And so that's a really that's really I take a lot of joy in that. That's great. I have one guy named Noah who started off at 16 years old. He was my, and then I promoted him at 16. He was my youngest ever team leader. He was too young to even close or open the restaurant, so I had had to have somebody with him at all times. And he's now a director and he's 24, married, getting his college degree right now, and he and his wife met at my restaurant.

Carrie:

That's awesome.

Shea:

Those Chick Fil A-tionships.

Allen Arant:

So I've got chick fil A. Yeah, I've got another young lady who started off as a team member. Now she's my kitchen director at one of my stores and a lot. There are several stories like that, some who have that same story but now have moved on doing what they want to do, which is personal training. Have young lady who is in that boat. But we try to give every chance we can to people for people to grow. This is kind of the other thing that I tell folks to is like, hey, if you want to grow here, don't expect anybody to hand it to you. How do I know what you're thinking? You have to communicate with me if you want to advance. If you say, hey, I want to do what they're doing, I want to be that person in three years. So, hey, let's get a plan together. But nobody's going to give it to you. You're going to have to work for it. You're going to have to come. You're going to deal with hardships. You're going to have to go the extra mile, all those kind of things. Right. And it's on me and my leadership team to recognize that effort and to coach that effort all throughout that process to get them to where they want to be. That's what we did with those 5 to 7 to people with those 5 to 7 people. Is that coaching. I mean, some hard conversations. Some of them are almost fired at times, some of them almost demoted at times. But, you know, but that's why we have very clear lines of communication. Like, you always know what is expected. You always know where you stand. And it's not to your detriment is to your benefit, right, to do that. And that's what we try to do in a very loving and gentle and compassionate way.

Shea:

Is there any financial advice you give these team members, young or older? I know you're imparting a lot of wisdom and leadership skills into them, so what's some financial advice you share?

Allen Arant:

So my degree is in accounting so I know enough to be dangerous.

Shea:

A little background.

Allen Arant:

Yeah. To get just a little bit of it right, a lot of it wrong. But I when I just had one store, I used to do a lot of financial coaching with my team and with my leadership team and things like, I'm not doing much of that right now just because of our size, but it's been on my mind to actually get back to it, honestly.

Shea:

We'll be glad to help you with that.

Allen Arant:

That's right. I know.

Carrie:

I was going to say that, you beat me to it.

Allen Arant:

I may have to talk to y'all about that. I have talked to a lot of them about simple things like getting on a budget, controlling your debt, having a plan to pay off your debt. I had a series a couple of years, or went through the whole process of making sure they all had life insurance policies, health insurance. I have health insurance. I have 401ks, make sure they're all enrolled in that kind of stuff, making sure. And I actually took them to an attorney and they did a will and estate plan to make sure they have all that taken care of.

Shea:

Wow.

Carrie:

That’s wonderful!

Allen Arant:

I had a period of time where I'm still doing it, kind of nearing the end of this, where I would allow folks to go to college for free to Point University, which is an organization I had a contract with to allow them to go to school, and I'd pay for it. So a number of my leaders got master’s and bachelor's degrees in that program. So those are the kind of ways that I have tried to help them. Right? So I say, I want you to do these things, but let me help you put your personal life in perspective and set you up for success financially. Yeah. So one of the guys who started with me in the beginning, he's now got four kids. He's a homeowner now, and he's paid off $120,000 in debt in eight years. That's not me. That's him getting a plan and living the Dave Ramsey of live like no one else, so later you can live like no one else. Where, I mean, he and his wife scraped by for years saving, paying off their student loans. So now they have four kids. They're in their first house and their debt free. And now he's saving to become a Chick Fil A operator. And he, I think he will be a chick fil A operator. That's how confident I am. And so that's a great success story. But that's him. But he had the discipline. He had the discipline to do it. I think social media can be great, but a disservice it's done is it gives people an impression of life that's not always accurate. Right. Y'all's life, just like mine, has been full of sacrifice, of saying no to things that would have been a lot of fun, but you couldn't afford it or wasn't right for your season of life. And that's what I try to teach folks to, is delayed gratification, right? Sometimes you need to say no just because you can say no. For instance, I might can go by a new piece of hunting gear. I like to hunt, but sometimes I say no, just know that I still can. And my wife and I a couple months ago got together and just kind of felt like that every month is getting a little tighter than it should be. All right. Well, why is this? Well, we're buying Amazon. $20 bucks here, $10 bucks here. It's easy to go down and take the kids to get whatever. It's easy to do that before you know it you’ve blown the budget. So, you know we had a month where we just, where we wanted to spend as little as possible outside of our needs and our giving, and our taxes. And it's a good exercise to do that. You don't want to have to get your whole life right. No, but nobody does. But it's good to tell yourself I can say no and to be able to practice that. So I think delayed gratification, living below your means is incredibly important, right? Every time I got a pay raise in the army, my wife and I, we would not change our standard of living. Every time I got promoted, we kept it the same. And that extra money went into savings, you know? And so we always had a very nice, rainy, rainy day fund. But when I first got married, as a young lieutenant, wasn't making any money. My wife couldn't find a job because I was in flight school and she was a teacher, and everybody knew her husband was in flight school. Nobody will hire her and nobody did. And so we had my little tiny income. I was making less than 30... I was making about $30,000 back in 2009, in 2011 time. So but we lived on chicken and rice and canned corn and canned green beans.

Shea:

Rice and beans like Dave Ramsey says.

Allen Arant:

And that's what we had to do for the period of time that we were in. And so that's what I, I try to get my folks to understand that just because you can afford the new iPhone doesn't mean you should get the iPhone.

Carrie:

Say no. So you can say yes later.

Allen Arant:

Yeah, yeah. And that can produce great blessings for you and allow you to give to other people. So yeah, that's kind of what I try to teach my people.

Carrie:

That's good. Okay. So let's talk about something really serious. Okay. What's your go to chick fil A order?

Allen Arant:

Good news. That's the easy one.

Carrie:

The people want to know.

Allen Arant:

Yeah. Yeah. I bet they do. All right. When I'm not worried about my age and my weight, I get a spicy chicken sandwich, extra pickle, American cheese, and bacon.

Carrie:

Yum.

Allen Arant:

And fries of course. with chick fil A sauce. And now it's our new jalapeno ranch sauce. That one’s really good.

Carrie:

I haven't tried that yet.

Shea:

Would those be your favorite sauces? Chick fil A and Jalapeno Ranch.

Allen Arant:

Chick fil A, for sure. And the Sriracha sauce are probably my favorite.

Carrie:

I love that one, too.

Allen Arant:

Now, if I'm feeling healthy, what I do is I get a grilled nugget, a five or an eight count, and right now I get a side of jalapenos and I cut them up. I put them in the container. I get some of that jalapeno ranch sauce, pour it in there, and shake them up.

Carrie:

You are speaking my language. That's so good.

Allen Arant:

It’s my healthy option.

Carrie:

Do you still eat the fries with it though?

Allen Arant:

Oh, of course I do.

Carrie:

Ok, I'm like, I can't skip the fries.

Allen Arant:

The fries are just too good.

Carrie:

The best part?

Allen Arant:

Yeah.

Carrie:

Okay, now we know.

Allen Arant:

That's my go to.

Shea:

Love it. All right. We got that out of the way. Now, what is the best financial advice you've ever been given?

Allen Arant:

Yeah. So the best financial. So I was raised on a farm with a very, in a very conservative family. You just never knew what your crop was going to do. And if you're a farmer listening to this, you know what the markets are like. You know what input prices are like right now. You know what your commodity prices are. And it's not a very good equation. It's not in your favor. And there were many years growing up where that equation was still true back in the 80s and 90s. And there were other years when it was great, but I was I was really taught to say no, delay gratification and to live below your means. That's really what I was taught. So my dad and I used to ride around on the farm in the truck, especially in the summertime. And I was the I was the kid that had the shovel. I'd go out in the rice fields. I got sent out in the rice fields with the water and the snakes. That's the job. I got, right? But I got to ride around with him, and we listened to Rush Limbaugh back when he was on the air. And it was, it was talk radio. And listen, listen to Dave Ramsey and I just, and it just really taught me to live below your means, to say no, and to be disciplined in your spending. And that's the best financial advice I've ever been given and ever practiced is that discipline aspect.

Carrie:

Yeah that's great. Okay, so we are the Pocket Change Podcast, so we always like to ask if you were to find some extra change in your pocket, what would you spend it on?

Allen Arant:

I would save it.

Carrie:

Okay.

Allen Arant:

I would save it. And the reason I say that is just from growing up my background, you just you just never knew. I'm fiscally conservative with how I spend my money. I like to know where every cent goes. But the first paycheck I ever got, I was eight years old, working on the farm. I got my paycheck and my Uncle Hugh, who's now passed away, he pulled up in his truck, said, Allen, what are you going to buy with that? With that paycheck he got? I said, don't you, I'm going to buy a CD. He said, oh, what, Backstreet Boys? I said, no, sir, a certificate of deposit.

Carrie:

And that's when you knew you were going to be an accountant.

Allen Arant:

My aunt was a bank president, and I could get 8% in a CD at the community bank and Indianola, Mississippi.

Carrie:

That's great. That's great a great story.

Allen Arant:

That's what I did. And so that's the mentality I have. I, I don't save every penny. But the whole point is delaying gratification, saying no, being disciplined in your spending. And if you want to get it and you can afford it. There's nothing wrong with that. But it is a good practice to practice saving and saying no whenever.

Carrie:

That's great. All right.

Shea:

If you want to, you know, have your pocket change and go get a number one at chick fil A.

Allen Arant:

Oh, speaking of that, man, that was a good lead in… Some treats.

Shea:

I don't have to use pocket change.

Allen Arant:

You don’t have to use pocket change, this is free!

Carrie:

Now I don't have to spend my own money. Thank you!

Allen Arant:

These are for y'all.

Carrie:

Thank you so much.

Allen Arant:

My pleasure.

Carrie:

Or just me? He gave them to me so.

Shea:

We’ll have to talk about that after.

Allen Arant:

Whenever I leave, it’s up to leaders.

Shea:

All right. Tell us also, where can we find chick fil A and Bartlett and Austin Peay? Tell us how to…

Allen Arant:

Yeah. You come into Memphis. You can get off the interstate at Whitten Road or get off on Highway 64. It's chick fil A, the Shops at Bartlett at 2940 Kirby Whitten in Bartlett. And then my other store. You keep going in to Memphis, past the interstate, and you go north on 240 and we're off Austin Peay Highway exit 8 at 3565 Austin Peay Highway.

Allen Arant:

Come see us. We'd love to have you. We’ve got a great team, great environment and wonderful food.

Carrie:

All right. Well, thank you so much for being with us today, Allen.

Allen Arant:

Thank you. My pleasure. Thanks for having me.