 Hi, my name is Nealey Stewart, and I'm a 4-H state ambassador from Lee County. This is my friend Stacy Brown, and she's the founder of Chicken Salad Chick, so today we're just going to talk a little bit about that. Well, thank you so much for having me, Nealey. Of course. So I know your major at Auburn University was communications, so how did you get in the restaurant business? Well, so I really did not know what I was going to do with a communications degree. At that point in my life, I was really going off of my parents saying, you have got to get a degree. It really doesn't matter what it's in, just get the degree, and then you can move on with your life without having any restrictions that you just needed that degree to be able to move on with life. And so at that point, I wasn't going after a degree because of what my passion was in life. I was just doing what I thought I needed to do. What I didn't realize is that a communications degree perfectly prepared me for what I would do many years later. So I did not, let's say I graduated in 1999, and I did not begin chicken salad chick until 2007. So, you know, life just does not happen in the great plan that you have for yourself. You just have to adjust to how life hits you. And so the perfect storm for me to start chicken salad chick ended up being, it came in the shape of a divorce. Unfortunately, you know, we think of a large life event like that is going to just be all devastating and all tragic, and it was, but to come out of that situation and become an entrepreneur in order to survive and take care of my three kids, that's how chicken salad chick started. I did not go to college with a dream of opening a concept and franchising that business. Life is just not that neat and tidy. And so, thankfully, the way it all unfolded, it has been a dream that is, I mean, I just, I never could have imagined that it would be this wonderful. And so I'm so thankful for everything that has happened in my life to get to this point. But I did not go to college and think I was going to be an entrepreneur and open chicken salad chick. OK, so I know you said that something like your college degree helped you in your job today. So how, how does it help you like explain? So my greatest classes that I took at Auburn about communications were really about interpersonal communication, about how to communicate effectively one on one, one on one with people, how to be good team members, how to be a team player, how to accomplish a task as a team. And so running a kitchen and running a restaurant is an absolute teamwork, getting through every shift, all of that is about a team. And then the interpersonal communication one on one has been so helpful in running a restaurant because you really feel like you're every guest therapist. You know, I mean, I have real relationships and lots of one on one communication that helps everybody in a restaurant feel very loved and valued. And that comes from my communication degree. And then moving into the franchise world and building an infrastructure for that business, all those skills were used as well. So communication really can be used in all walks of life. OK, so since you are an entrepreneur, what is your biggest hint of how someone can get started in the restaurant business? How to get started in the restaurant business. I would say go get a lot of experience, so go work in restaurants. If you want to get into a restaurant and you want to open your own and that is your dream is to go own your own business. You need to go sink yourself into other businesses first. And you need to drink up all of the knowledge and experience that you can get in the industry and really be observant about what's working and what's not working and take notes. And if that is your path, that's what you want to do. Then you need to be a good student, need to be a good student of your experience. And then you've got to have the drive and the passion to move it forward. It's a lot easier to not act. And it takes a lot of courage and it's got to be in your heart. It has to be a passion or work just becomes work. And when work is just work, it's not very fun and it's harder to get up in the morning. And I have never felt that way one day in my life. I whistle to work every single day. I never think I don't want to go in. I absolutely love what I do because it's in my heart. It's in my veins and I just can't wait to get going. And that's my wish for everybody is don't go after a livelihood. Don't go after the money. Go after what you love and then you're bound to be successful. OK, so if you do it all over again, is there anything that you would do differently? So this sounds crazy because I've made so many mistakes. I made so many mistakes that, thankfully, our franchise owners don't have to make because Kevin and I made them for them and we learned from those mistakes. And so it sounds like, well, I wish I would not have made those mistakes, but that's not true. So we made a lot of costly mistakes and we purchased equipment for a kitchen three different times rather than going to spend the money the first time around for commercial equipment that would have worked. We bought residential equipment three different times because we didn't want to spend the money that we needed to buy the commercial equipment. And we didn't go and research other restaurants. We didn't research other restaurants on the way that they did things. We we basically recreated the wheel because we did not go out there and look. But what I have to say about that is if we had really taken what other people had done before us, we would not have had the out of box thinking that we ended up having. So even that benefited us. And so we've made lots of mistakes. And I can honestly say I would not go back and do anything differently because I would not have the knowledge that I have today by making those mistakes. And I hope that what students realize is every mistake is going to benefit you, whether it ends up narrowing your focus because you made a mistake in that way or you made a costly mistake. It always teaches you how to move forward. And so if people will take the time to be reflective and say, what did I learn from that? Then every step forward is going to be more focused. But it's all those mistakes that you make that get you where you are. So I don't regret any of those. It's they're all time consuming. They've taken a lot of my life, but still wouldn't be here today without it. OK, so I already know the answer to this question on how you came up with all your flavor names. But lots of people don't understand. So can you explain how you came up with all the flavors in the name? Yes. So the very first part of that, how that idea evolved was when I was delivering out of my home, only had four or five flavors. But when I told Kevin, who at that time was just a family friend, when I told him I was asking him for advice on how to run this business from my house. And he said, well, if you're going to have different flavors, you should really differentiate them some way. Now, it already named the business chicken salad chick. He said, I don't know, give them like girly names or something. And I was like, oh, my gosh, that is the most brilliant thing ever. Chick and with a girly name with the chicken salads, it was the perfect piece to the puzzle and it was a theme and it all fit together and it just came together beautifully. So I just took it a step further and said, not only are am I going to name them after chicks, but they're going to be named after real women, real southern women that have influenced my life and really shaped me to who I am today, just like everybody out there, you have people, your environment and the people around you end up shaping who you are. And all of the namesakes of all of the chicken salads have played a large part in my life. So Nutty Nanna is my mother. So Luelle Lydia is my daughter. Kicking Kalen is my aunt. Jazzy Julie is my college roommate. Some are neighbors, some are friends. Some are sorry, my neighbors and friends together and aunt's daughter, mother, mother-in-law. So it's just a wide variety of real people that I was just trying to honor by naming chicken salads after them. I did not realize it was going to lead to some hurt feelings because there are chicks that I love in my life that don't have flavors. And it was just to honor people. I didn't want it to hurt people's feelings, but it did. And so that is how Sassy Scotty came to the menu. So Scotty, her actual name is Scott, it's not Scotty. And she called me up one day because she was not on the menu. And she said, I have been your best friend since kindergarten. And I am not on that menu. And I said, I can't put you on the menu. It's a chick menu. You've got a boy name. And they said, you call it Sassy Scotty. Then you put bacon and cheese and know I love all that stuff. Well, she is the number three seller. She never lets me forget it. And she tells everybody, yes, my recipe. What's wonderful is we have a great chicken salad that accepts a lot of different ingredients and a lot of different flavors can be made from it. So there's so much potential that all of the chicks in my life could one day have a chicken salad, it's endless. So excited about that. Didn't mean to hurt anybody's feelings, but there's a lot of potential. OK, so I've kind of always wondered this question. But if you were going to name a flavor after me, what would it be? Oh, my gosh, Neely, Nettles, let me say Neely. See, I already have a Nutty Nanna, but it would be a Nut Neely because you're pretty nutty. I'll have to think about that. Do you have what it should be, Neely? I don't know where to start with the N. The Nettles, Neely, I have to think about that. I have to think about that. But I'm glad you brought that up. Now we're going to have to start thinking about ingredients. Well, you need to help out with the ingredients. Make sure there's fresh fruit in there. Fruit, OK, I'll be working on that. So you've really got my wheels turning. N, N, N, N. OK, I'll be thinking. OK, this is the last question. What is your favorite flavor if you could pick one? So I get this question at every opening and I try to attend all of the openings I can attend. And I get this in every at every opening and I have the same answer all the time, which is they're like my children and just don't have a favorite child. Don't have a favorite flavor. But I do get in moods. So like some days I want fancy Nancy on a croissant. Some days I want cranberry Kelly just with the fork. Some days if it's the beach or the lake, then it is Buffalo Barclay on a Frito scoop and then Olivia's Little South. I want it on a slice of a tomato with salt. I mean, I could go on and on how each one needs to go on something different at a different time. So it's just by my mood. OK, well, you already know my favorite, but I just like the classic Carol. I know, Nala, you're a purist. You're a classic. Yes, you're a purist, and you are my pickiest eater. So when I when I have you over and I get you to eat something, I'm like, yes, success. That's the funny thing, because I eat everything that you pretty much give me. And I always got home and I'm like, mom, Miss Stacy has the best nachos and then mom tries to make them and they're not good. Bro, you just think that because the nachos I'm not even going to say I'm embarrassed at how easy they are. Not to say, but whatever I can get you to eat at my house, I feel very proud of. But I understand that the classic Carol is your favorite, it makes sense. OK, well, thank you for your time and thank you for answering all these questions. OK, well, thank you very much for having me. I hope I didn't talk too much.