Video Transcript: Dennis McDaniel Testimonial

(Description: “Dennis McDaniel – Kettering & North Dayton, OH” appears lower left screen with Wild Birds Unlimited logo.)

[Dennis:] So I worked in the same company in corporate America for about 27 to 28 years and recently made the decision to move into the store with my wife at Wild Birds Unlimited in Kettering. As I was leaving my corporate position I had the opportunity to help write the note that would be presented to the business upon my leaving and so one of the things that I included in my note, that was ultimately written by my second-level boss, is that I was going to work in a Wild Birds Unlimited store and really the purpose or the mission of a Wild Birds Unlimited store is to help bring people and nature together. That inclusion of that statement got a lot of attention you know within my current employer because they wanted to know more about what does it mean to bring people and nature together. So really presented an opportunity to talk about the business and the joy of bird feeding and the joy of people coming into the store shopping and spending money on their hobby. What that got me to thinking about also was more kind of like the mission of a Wild Birds Unlimited is to really help people experience the joy and bird feeding and experience the joy in the hobby itself.

For me that is one of the critical reasons of why I’m making this move from corporate America into the Wild Birds Unlimited world is because I want to really experience that joy with our customers. I want to participate with them in that joy. I want to work with happy people who are coming into the store to invest in their hobby. What people don’t always realize is that is very much of a gift to be able to do that. A lot of us have worked in a corporate job where we don’t have the opportunity to experience that joy or to really be sure that we’re helping people solve a problem that they really want to that they really wanted to solve. And so working in a Wild Birds Unlimited store is going to really present me with the opportunity of working with customers who are coming in to spend money on their hobby and who really want to experience that joy. And again not often available in corporate America so it represents a big and welcome change for me.