Misty Thompson recalls a conversation with her boss when she became the manager of the Idaho Falls Michaels four years ago.

She remembers asking how many stores were in the company. When he told her, she said "Oh, perfect. I'm only 32 from the bottom. I have a better chance of hitting last than I do first."

Thompson laughed at the time. But even then she told him, "'One day I'll be number one.'"

Thompson grew up in foster care in Twin Falls and has managed stores since she was 17.

"She's been a fantastic manager," said Sydney Goddard, a sales associate and a senior at BYU-Idaho studying accounting.

She described her three and a half years working with Misty as "transformative" for the store, a sentiment shared by Sydney Goddard's husband, Alex Goddard, who has worked at Michaels for four and a half years. Alex explained how they balance their work and school life.

"It can be a challenge," said Alex Goddard, a junior at BYUI studying automotive engineering. "But Misty has been very considerate with my wife and I's class schedule."

Alex Goddard also described Misty's consideration of their religious beliefs.

"One of the things for us is we don't work Sundays. She [Thompson] has been very respectful of us so we can have that day off ... we really appreciate her for that consideration," Alex Goddard said.

Thompson explained what happens behind the scenes.

"I have like, four people that can work Sundays," Thompson said. "So, I tend to work a lot of Sundays because I want them to be able to take that time off and be with their family and go to church. It's important to me and my team members are important to me, and if that is what helps ground them for the week, I feel like that's where they need to be."

Thompson and her family attend a non-denominational Christian church.

"We go on Wednesday nights, and my team knows that; they respect my Wednesdays because of that."

Thompson believes it is this mutual respect that helped her team win store of the year. The journey wasn't without its challenges, though.

"At the end of December," Thompson said, "I was helping out the Montana stores and I just wasn't feeling very good. So, I went to Instacare and they said, 'you need to get your gallbladder taken out."

Complications followed that surgery, and Thompson spent the next two and a half months in and out of the hospital. On January 16, doctors spent three hours trying and failing to put a stent in her liver. While they were successful on the second attempt days later, Thompson's pancreas had become infected.

"It is the worst pain you will ever, ever have," Thompson said about pancreatitis.

Soon after, Thompson suffered from a paralyzed stomach, and on February 3, she went septic.

Thompson said the weeks that followed were a blur: teams of nurses failing to insert IVs, an allergic reaction to pain medication, and the family dog waking her husband Jeff, because she had passed out on a trip to the bathroom. Thompson underwent seven surgeries in a month and a half. Despite the circumstances, Thompson recovered and returned to work on March 28.

On May 15, she accepted the award for store of the year from none other than David Boone, CEO of the company, and Nicholas Bertram, COO and president of the company. They flew from Irving, Texas for the occasion and offered to cook the team whatever they requested. While Boone and Bertram grilled burgers for the team, Boone explained how Thompson's store won the award.

"It's a combination of numbers. So, did they perform well? And the more qualitative: how they lead their team, engagement with the community, are they serving the customers well? ... That means as much to us as the overall performance of the store," said Boone.

Bertram also brought up community engagement in his address to the team.

"Nothing in the whole network has happened in any store better than what you all did here," said Bertram. "Of 1,376 stores, you're the one. You're the one who rose above. You're the one who did the best. You're the one who really made the biggest impact. And so, Dave and I are super proud of you guys ... the whole community is behind you all, and donating these things and everything else, it's just beautiful."

"... what I'm most proud of is, this is not a show," said district director Derek Grunander in his address to the team. "This is every day in this store. And this is what's awesome about it, even when Misty was out, I'd come in and it was the same thing. It's the culture here, and that's the best part about it is, it's an engaged team. It's an engaged community. Because I think I've met more customers in this store than I've met in any other store. They come up and they say, let me tell you about this store. And I was like, 'I already know, but tell me!' The energy is amazing here, and it's all of you." 

After the address, Grunander said in an interview:

"They win because of their culture and a lot of other stores that I've worked with, they want to know the key. They want to know what the secret is. And it's because of her team, everyone breathes it. I mean, Alex [Goddard] over there, part-time employee, you know, 20 hours a week roughly. He knows everything. He lives and breathes it. And you don't see that in all stores ... The whole team breathes it. And when the whole team breathes it, that's when you win. You don't think the part-timer or the one shift a week guy matters, they matter. Everybody knows it. That's what it is."

Grunander explained that he covers 15 stores across Utah, Idaho and Montana. He said Thompson is invaluable in mentoring his other store managers, and that she regularly assists stores outside the state.

"The store is about 50 years old," Grunander said. "It's not the nicest store in the company; there are brand new stores that are gorgeous. But she [Thompson] is store of the year with a physical store that's old; there's certain parts that are falling apart ... and she's store of the year because of the team. That truly is what it is."

Thompson explained how the store ran in her absence:

"They all stepped up and worked crazy hours outside of their availability," said Thompson. "They came in whenever they were needed, they just stepped up."

She recalled Grunander saying the store was running as if she were still there.

"Michaels paid me the whole time," said Thompson. "They never once made me go on a leave of absence. I never got a call from my district manager like, 'When are you coming back?' Nothing like that. He [Grunander] stepped in and helped my team ... when I got back, there were no fires to put out. They made sure I was able to come back and not have to worry about the store. They took care of me the whole time, and I'm so grateful for this company, because most companies would say 'you're going to be out a while, so, let's just put you on leave,' and they never did that."

"My son, who is 19," said Thompson. "Came in to my room last night and says 'I know you're super nervous for tomorrow, but I know you're going to kill it. I don't need to tell you, but I'm going to tell you you're going to kill it. I want you to take this rose and set it somewhere in your back room, and when you start getting nervous, I want you to look at that rose.' So, when I was giving my speech, I started to say, 'What do I say next? What do I say next?' because I didn't want to pull out a piece of paper, and I went like this [looks at Rose], and then I was like, 'This is why I'm doing this.'"