Brian: Living Proof of Growth, Opportunity at Summerwood

This is Brian, a wonderful Area Coach for Summerwood. His is a story of “bouncing around, helping the company out” and climbing the career ladder steadily with Taco Bell for over two decades. He was humbled to be interviewed for the Summerwood blog.

Brian speaks warmly of the enjoyment he gets from developing young team members into leaders, yet he was also in their position once. He expresses a lot of respect and reverence for a former boss in particular of whom he says, “He worked hard. He really showed us what it meant to be hard working. He held us accountable to our results.”

If we’ve learned anything at Summerwood, it’s that strong role models yield great results from the team!

Career Inspirations

Brian also has praise for Matt, our company president. “I’ve had conversations with him,” he says. “His mind, the way he operates the company — it is mind boggling.”

Another person who’s had lasting influence over Brian’s career and leadership style is his dad.

“My father was in the school system in Jamaica … He was a principal, he became an education minister,” he shares. “His whole career revolved around education and you know as a teacher, he kind of instilled that in me to teach and develop people.” 

Watching people grow and develop, and seeing their lives change is what Brian loves most about his job. 

Brian himself is living proof that professional growth and development come from great leadership, training and guidance. Like others, he credits Summerwood for creating a supportive environment. In his career ascent, Brian managed to skip a step, jumping from RGM to Market Training Manager (MTM). It is here that he learned how to lead while training several managers under him and overseeing half a dozen (at least) restaurants at a time. This experience is what helped him feel ready for the AC gig.

In Brian’s opinion, there are infinite opportunities for growth (and plenty of job openings!) at Summerwood.

“I’m telling you the sky is the limit,” he says. “ … “If you want to progress just do the right thing.”

The “right thing” is quite simple, in his opinion — it’s all about the basics: treating people well, doing things correctly, giving guests what they’ve paid for, providing a clean restaurant and delivering food fast.

Brian thought he’d be satisfied as an Area Coach but now realizes he, too, wants to continue to advance to Region Coach. As he says, grow with the company as the company grows. You can, too! Join our team today.