28 Years of Making Waves: Beth Baker’s Journey from Carhop to National Recognition

Great leadership is built alongside the people who make the work happen. For Beth Baker, that belief has shaped her Sonic career since 1998.

When Beth Baker first joined Sonic as a carhop, she didn’t picture herself building a career in the restaurant business. She was studying to become an X-ray technician and figured fast food would be temporary.

Then came an opportunity to become a General Manager.

She had a decision to make: continue with school or take the next step at Sonic. She chose the GM role, and what began as a job became a career she couldn’t imagine leaving. That decision opened the door to a career built on experience, growth and leading by example.

In 2005, Beth became the first General Manager of the newly built Greenville, Kentucky, Drive-In.

In 2016, she took the next step in her career, becoming an Area Supervisor. She has spent the past 10 years leading the same six Drive Ins, building relationships with her teams and putting her hands-on experience to work across the group.

From learning every position in the restaurant to developing leaders of her own, Beth’s journey has given her a clear understanding of what it takes to run a successful Drive-In and what it takes to help the people in it succeed.

“I enjoy getting up and coming to work at Sonic every single day,” Beth says. “It just became my life. Sonic is life. It gets in your blood.”

Today, as a supervisor who has spent the past decade in the role, Beth brings years of hands-on experience to the locations she supports. Her journey has taught her that strong operations and strong teams go hand in hand.

Lead by Example, Every Day

For Beth, leadership starts with knowing the work.

“To be a GM, I mean, you need to be able to do every position in the store. You need to be able to be their leader, their best friend, you know, their mentor.”

She believes people take their cues from what their leaders do, not just what they say. If a leader works hard, stays involved and sets the example, the team has a standard it can see and follow.

“If you're in there working hard, they are going to work hard. If they see you doing it, they're going to do it. Lead by example.”

That mindset follows Beth from location to location. She pays attention to the details, works alongside her teams and holds people accountable to clear expectations. Her goal is to build an environment where people understand what good looks like and have the support to deliver it.

Strong Teams Drive Strong Results

Beth’s results reflect that commitment.

Her teams have reached the Top 50 in the Dr Pepper Game, earned a place in the Final 12, and placed in the Top 20 in the Coca-Cola Proof Challenge. She has also helped develop a GM whose Drive In achieved a perfect 100% food safety audit. Across her group, the food safety audit score reached 90%.

Sales at one point grew from $1.3 million before COVID to $2 million, another milestone in her leadership story.

Those results matter, but Beth knows what makes them possible.

“Building a team is where you're going to get the result. The team matters. Good carhops, good cooks, people that care matter.”

She focuses on motivating people, setting standards and recognizing effort. Sometimes that means running games and offering gift cards as incentives. Other times, it means noticing someone doing a job nobody asked them to do.

Beth remembers a team member at one of her Central City locations cleaning the sides of a fryer without being asked. When he finished, she went back and gave him a $50 gift card.

It was a small moment with a meaningful message: extra effort gets noticed.

For Beth, recognition is part of building mutual respect. She expects a lot from her teams, but she also makes a point of showing them that their work matters.

A Track Record Built Together

Beth’s leadership has helped teams across her six Drive-ins earn recognition for performance, operational excellence and competition results.

The milestones include:

• 2025: Guernsey Sonic’s Top-Performing Area Supervisor

• 2025: Troy Lear, GM of Greenville, Kentucky, reached the Circle of Excellence Final 12

• 2025: Sierra Tollison of Central City, Kentucky, became a Top 20 finalist in the Coca-Cola C.R.E.W Challenge

• 2024: Three of Beth’s teams earned Top 50 recognition in the Dr Pepper SONIC Games.

• 2020: Amanda Gaddie, GM of Russellville, Kentucky, received Guernsey Sonic’s National Operational Excellence Award.

  
  

These achievements reflect the standards Beth sets and the people she helps develop. Her success is measured not only by how her Drive-ins perform, but also by the leaders and team members who grow and achieve along the way.

An Award Shared With Her Team

The Multi-Unit Leader Award recognizes Beth’s leadership, but she’s quick to share the credit.

“I feel like I respect them. They respect me. We work hard together, because I wouldn't be getting this award without them.”

That perspective says a lot about the way she leads. She understands that performance isn’t built by one person alone. It takes people who care about their work, leaders who invest in them and teams that keep showing up for one another.

Her family has played an important part in that journey, too. When asked who she called first after receiving the award, Beth’s answer was simple: her husband. And when asked who helped make the achievement possible, she named her family.

Behind the recognition are years of hard work, the people who supported her along the way and the teams who continue to make the work worthwhile.

Keep Making Waves

From her first shift as a carhop in 1998 to earning national recognition as a Multi-Unit Leader, Beth Baker’s career has been shaped by hard work, high standards and a commitment to helping others succeed.

Her story is also the story of the people she has led: the General Managers who have grown under her guidance, the teams who have earned recognition and the team members whose extra effort she makes a point to notice.

Congratulations to Beth on this well-deserved achievement, and to the teams who have been part of the journey.

Great leaders build great teams, great teams make waves! 🌊

Learn more about Guernsey Sonic at guernseysonic.com