McClain, Vaughn, & Partner’s Annual Awards Banquet was celebrated last Tuesday on February 7th, 2023. We joined together to celebrate our 2022 achievements with food, fellowship, fun prizes, and well-earned awards.
Every year, Buddy McClain, our Franchisee & Chairman of the Board, gives out the Buddy McClain Hall of Fame Award. This award is our most distinguished award for the year and is presented to the person who has stood out during the year among the best of the best here within our Company.
This distinguished award is a Rolex watch that Buddy is pleased to present to a recipient every year as a testament of that person’s achievements to their personal and business goals in SONIC. Buddy McClain lives to mentor those around him. Giving back to the company that has enabled him to be the success he is today gives him the pleasure of “giving back”, and that is what this award is symbolic of: the hard work it takes, the dedication to implement and follow through on the task at hand and being involved in the local community by sharing the SONIC brand.
The Recipient of the Rolex and the Buddy McClain Award this year is Sean Bennett. Sean has been with SONIC for 21 years. He started riding his bike and hanging around his local Downtown Ocean Springs Sonic at the age of 15 because his sister worked there. The manager finally gave him his first job a year later at 16 years old working as a cook. 6 years later he became a General Manager in the same area.
Sean’s life revolved around Sonic, learning how to make this career work best for him with the MVP Profit Sharing P&L method. He learned fast from then Supervisor, Brad Dronet, the secret of making money and maximizing dollars out of your food and labor cost. He also taught Sean how to study his P&L statements and learn from his mistakes monthly. Sean states, “Brad really helped me see how to make stores profitable. He taught me basic business skills that I still use today.”
Don Stringfellow is another person that helped shape Sean’s Sonic Career. “Don taught me about people. He taught me the importance of working on myself first, and then how to treat others,” Sean states.
When we asked Sean what he would say to other SONIC operators to help them run successful Drive-Ins Sean said, “People and Consistency. Take Care of your people. Let them take off and pay them what they deserve. I didn’t know the power of people until COVID hit. When COVID hit, I understood I needed to change how I treated my employees, and what they needed from me to stay, looked different from the years before. Also, consistency! My character and my expectations helped our crew know what I expected and what they needed to do daily. What I worried about, became what they worried about. When you stay in your store, and teach them everyday what matters, things will fall in line with time. I also want to thank Buddy McClain, Bruce Vaughn, and Andy Alsobrook for the continued opportunity and support in my career. Without them I wouldn’t be where I am today.”
Congratulations Sean Bennett on your accomplishments here at the MVP Sonic Group.