A Shout Out to Anna Daniell

If you've visited Chocolopolis in the past six years, you've probably met Anna Daniell. Anna has been with Chocolopolis since the spring of 2012, making her our longest-serving employee. She has held almost every role we have to offer from Sales Associate to Store Manager to Operations Manager to Bookkeeper.I still remember the day I interviewed her for a job as a Sales Associate. While I could tell she was very nervous, I loved her answers to my interview questions. She had attended the Northwest Chocolate Festival and was geeky in her answers about chocolate and cacao. She gave me some of the best chocolate-focused answers I've ever received in an interview. I was sold. I later found out that she was a founding member of Geek Girl Con, which explained her general geekiness. If you want an illustration of her geeky traits, ask Anna about webcomics.It was wonderful to watch Anna blossom over the years and to see her continue to gain confidence. On the day I interviewed her, if you had told me I would one day make her the store manager, I would not have believed you. Yet a few years later I made her the Assistant Manager, and, eventually, Store Manager. Anna did these jobs with aplomb.A few years ago, Anna told me she was ready to move on, wrapping up her role as Store Manager. Being the incredibly reliable person that she is, she gave me more than six months notice. I was very glad to have that time to figure things out. While Anna was ready to move to a role that did not involve managing people, she was not finished with Chocolopolis. I had recently begun teaching her how to do our bookkeeping, and she took to it like a duck to water. She really enjoyed it, and she agreed to stay on as our Bookkeeper. I also formally gave her a title that she had been doing informally for a few years, Merchandising and Operations Manager. In these roles she is responsible for product forecasting and ordering, and handling the bulk of our retail shipping.Anna has been my right hand for so many years. She understands the business better than anyone besides me, and she knows how to do almost everything. After trying her hand at Bookkeeping, Anna decided to go back to school to become an Accountant. It was gratifying to know that Chocolopolis had offered her the chance to exercise many skill sets, and to figure out what she wanted to do in the long term (and what she didn't want to do!). She works part-time, but her contributions are still significant.Anna has a Bachelor of Arts from Western Washington University in Communication Sciences and Disorders, focusing on speech pathology. She recently enrolled in North Seattle Community College to study Accounting.Anna is here three days a week, but she is often hidden back in our office, her preferred place to be. If you want to say "hello" to her, ask and we may be able to spirit her away from her desk.We're featuring some of Anna's favorite chocolate bars as our happy hour theme this week. Stop by Saturday for tastes of Zotter Nicaragua 50% Milk, Amedei Red 70%, Charm School Belize 70%, Fruition Hispaniola 68% Dominican Republic and Pralus Le 100% Madagascar.