Holly Rivera is Chick-fil-A Nona’s restaurant owner/operator, a wife, a mom, and a Nonahood resident. Read our interview with her below!

Nonahood News: What is your job?

Holly Rivera: My main role at Chick-fil-A is to attract top talent. My job is to always make sure that our organization here in Lake Nona has a positive culture. I’m always working on opportunities for my team to grow. I try to focus on culture and development. Luckily, Chick-fil-A is such a great brand, so a lot of top talent comes to me. I try to engage that talent, get them excited about the vision, and then help them grow and develop as a Chick-fil-A leader.

NHN: What does your day-to-day schedule look like?

HR: Every day is a little different. It depends on the business’s needs. Some days, I get in first thing in the morning, and I’m here through lunch rush. On Fridays, I get in a little later, and I might be here until 8 or 9 p.m. because we’re busy on Friday night. I flow wherever the business needs me. Now that we’ve been here almost five months, during the weekdays, I’m able to do 9-5 days, schedule my meetings with my management team, do one-on-one coaching with team members. Whatever the business needs, that’s what I do.

NHN: What is the most challenging aspect of your job?

HR: The biggest challenge I’ve had since opening this restaurant is when we disappoint customers. I hate when we don’t get it right. I hate when we give a customer the wrong order or we forget something. I’ve had to deal with being okay that not every single transaction is perfect. We, of course, apologize and try to make it right, but we’re serving almost 1,500 transactions a day. So, even if my team were 99% accurate in the orders, we’re still upsetting 15+ customers a day. That’s been challenging with a brand new team of 100 people that have never worked at Chick-fil-A before. But every day, we are striving to improve.

NHN: What is the most rewarding aspect of your job?

HR: The relationships I get to build with my team. I’ve gotten to lead thousands of employees in my almost 10-year career with Chick-fil-A. It’s amazing to see team members grow, either in Chick-fil-A and go on and own their own store or go work for corporate or go into any field they are passionate about. I love to see people grow and have a positive experience working at Chick-fil-A.

NHN: What got you interested in doing your current job in this area?

HR: I grew up in Oviedo. I’ve always been interested in this part of town and what it could become. When I was growing up, Lake Nona was not nearly as developed as it is now. When my husband and I were in college, he did some ministry work here with CRU, and we started to get an idea of what this community was going to become. We knew we wanted to own a Chick-fil-A here once corporate decided it was time. I relocated from Houston, where my first franchise was, to come back home.

NHN: Where do you see yourself in the next five years?

HR: Right here! Not going anywhere. I want to be leading this store at a high level. I would love to create a deep leadership pipeline. That’s my main goal from a business standpoint. From a personal standpoint, we have a one-and-a-half-year-old, and we would love to have maybe one more baby if that’s meant to be. Hopefully, in the next five years, we will add another child to our family.

NHN: What brought you to Lake Nona, and when did you move here?

HR: We’ve been here since June of 2020. It’s been a really tough year because we’re in the middle of a pandemic, moving to a new part of town, and opening a brand new business. It’s still been amazing. Everybody we’ve met has been so kind and welcoming. We can’t wait for this season to be over so that we can go to events, meet more people in the community, have fun outings.

NHN: What is your favorite part about Lake Nona?

HR: How welcoming everybody’s been. I’m excited to continue to get to know the community. I’m also impressed by the diversity. Coming from Houston, that was something we loved, and everywhere I go in Lake Nona, there’s such a diverse group of people. I think that’s such a beautiful thing that brings a lot of value to a community.

NHN: What would you say to anyone who is considering a move to Lake Nona?

HR: Definitely do it. People from all walks of life can enjoy this community and add value to it.

Photos Courtesy of Holly Rivera