When employees feel fulfilled in their roles, they’re more likely to stay with their employer, giving the company the advantage of their experience, dedication and passion for helping the business grow.

Sherry Dean, executive administrative assistant at TXB, which has 54 stores in Texas and Oklahoma, has been with the company and CEO Kevin Smartt for over 30 years. CStore Decisions spoke with her about her career path and journey with the company.

{CStore Decisions (CSD)} What is your role at TXB, and when did you start at the company?

{Sherry Dean (SD)} My current role is executive administrative assistant, and I joke all the time with the employees — I tell them I’m far more than that. I call myself a social worker and a counselor, as I feel that they come to me for all aspects of life, or when they just need someone to vent to or share a story with; I feel like they know my door is open at all times. I started with the company when I was 19, and the year was 1990. It was the year after I graduated high school. I was attending college at the time. I do have a teaching degree, but I never taught, as I felt like from day one, Kwik Chek, now TXB, was my home, so that’s where I have stayed all of these years.

{CSD} How has your position with TXB changed over the years?

{SD} I started as an auditor and just auditing the daily paperwork that came from the stores. From there, I moved on to training, since I did have a teaching degree from many years ago. Of course, we went from site to site to do on-site training with employees. I’ve always worked for the owners of the company, which started with Bob McCraw and Doyce Taylor and now Kevin (Smartt). So I’ve worked in all areas — human resources, operations, marketing — and still do a little piece of each area today.

{CSD} What were some of the most significant moments of your career?

{SD} Watching the company evolve and grow from the 15 stores that they had when I first started working. Of course, over the span of my career, we’ve sold and purchased and built new sites, and today, we have over 50 sites and are still growing. I would also say having the opportunity to move to Austin and the Hill Country area four years ago. I was born and raised in the small town of Bonham, where the company was founded. So this move was kind of a big step for me in my career, leaving that area. I would say, too, reaching that 1 million mark raising funds for CASA from our annual golf and fishing tournament last year was a significant moment. I have been a part of every tournament since day one, and this year was our 29th annual event.

{CSD} What have you seen over the course of your time with TXB that made the company what it is today?

{SD} I’ve worked here for three decades. I think I read somewhere the other day that the average person changes jobs at least 12 times during their life, which surprised me, because this is all that I’ve known. I feel like whatever the company faces together with changes or challenges, I feel like teamwork is the key there. I feel like it takes operations, it takes marketing, it takes foodservice and everyone in between to work together to reach the final outcome in any of those situations. And I feel that we’ve always had a good team of leadership to get us from start to finish when something like that arises.