My name is Matt Kaye and I am going to take a crack at “Attitude is Everything”. First off, I want to give you guys a little introduction. I have two wonderful kids and an amazing, beautiful wife. Couldn’t do anything without that support system around me! Love ya guys! I have worked for Buffalo Wild Wings for 12 years, or crushed 3,120 shifts for H5H! Probably a lot more with all the time you go in “EXTRA” and minus two callouts over that time, but anyway. My biggest hobby, when not working or spending precious time with my family, is Bodyboarding in huge swells. As most of you know and I’m sure that there will be many references to that in here. It’s who I am, can’t help it. So let’s GO!
Just like Rob, my journey started as a 3 month early premature baby. I weighed 2.8 pounds at birth, and at that point, the fight began. Due to my family’s choices before my birth, I was in an incubator for months, and not supposed to be on this earth. Thank GOD I am! I also have too many crazy stories that you guys probably wouldn’t believe and would take about 50 more pages. So, we are going to fast forward to the good part. The beginning of “Attitude is Everything” for me. Hopefully it will give our TEAM and Leaders a different perspective and habits that make your Attitude WILD!
In my career, before BDUBZ, I was told so many times that I didn’t have what it takes to be a leader. My attitude wouldn’t accept this to be true. I kept telling myself that you can and will be great. Just keep pushing through and it will happen. I believed in myself but didn’t have a good support system. Which is a major part of Attitude is Everything. This all changed the day I met Bobby Pancake! This also happened to be at the time, near the same day, that I made a commitment to my wife. Life for me was turning a new page. The rest was up to me… Bobby hired me as a manager. He believed in me, he didn’t tell me that I couldn’t do it, he believed! Now it’s time to GO Make a difference in the world! One of the first things I remember is a speech that Bobby gave about Attitude. How YOU are in control of it! This stuck with me big time. It changed my life forever! Thanks Bobby! Because of you and my wonderful wife Lauren, I started to believe in myself. Now I can stand on my own stage and Fight the Good Fight!
Believe in your Attitude and stretch it, push it past any problems you have, don’t second guess your attitude! Tell yourself, every day that you are AWESOME! Like I said earlier, I have made it through so many shifts, and have heard many times: Managers suck, Fights, Drama, Bad attitudes, people quitting, this is the worst place I have ever worked, there are too many call outs, someone didn’t do side work and so on, and so on….blaaahhhh! 3,120 shifts, my attitude alone has gotten us through all that. Keep pushing forward! You can do it! I have faith!!!
Discipline: A lot of misconception around Attitude. People think that this is something that people are born with. Well that’s what people with bad attitudes think. There is so much discipline in setting up your attitude. I start my day by getting ready and letting thoughts sink in my head, like today is going to be awesome, or whose life can I impact? As I keep getting ready and drive to work, this intensifies. I build my Attitude the whole drive to work. If you drive an hour to work, you should be super pumped to be there! You should be walking in with a super great Attitude that is so contagious that everyone wants to work for you. If that’s NOT how you are coming in, take a longer drive! Get your MIND right! Remember that WE all have problems outside of our 4 walls, but it’s NOT the team or restaurant’s fault! Do NOT take it out on them! One of the hardest examples of this is, the day after my DAD passed away, I had a All Store Meeting. Man it was hard, but the right thing to do. Discipline your Attitude!
Pushing your Attitude: You need to learn how to push your attitude past problems. A good way to explain this is from my 7 year old Logan. When he was 5 years old, in taekwondo, he had to break his first board. After hearing countless smacks, from kids feet, not breaking the boards. Logan was up to the plate. Logan broke his board on the first go at it. You see, Logan accepted to push through it! He didn’t accept, in his mind, to meet it where it stands. He thought past the problem. This also applies to what I do. When heading out in a hurricane swell, waves 15 to 25 feet tall, and life threatening. You can’t go out without your support system. You have to have people you trust, because you need to know, that they might have to save your life. You also can’t go in without being disciplined and having your mind at 100%. When you are in the ocean you can’t meet the wave at its breaking point. The result will be almost life ending. You need to push past that area. Your Attitude is the same thing! If you can’t get your attitude, past your problems, then you will accomplish nothing! Again, don’t meet it where it stands!
The Whirlwind: At our last conference, there was a lot of talk about The Whirlwind. You know, that chaotic place where things seem out of control. (Like how I said seem?) There are two kinds of people in this world. We have the hiders who run away from problems. Then we have the doers who run to the problem. I choose to run towards the problem. Run to the whirlwind, get right in the middle, and break this up. I personally love the whirlwind! It’s where I love to dwell. I don’t know how many times out of the 3,210 shifts that I have walked in to a, what seems to be, a crash shift. All I do, every time things are so called “Crashing” is hold on to my Attitude and go straight to the eye of the storm! From there, I dismantle everything! And it always has 100% great results. Ask yourself – Do I run away? And if you do, is that the right thing to do? What if our police departments did that?
Perception of your Attitude: Remember, just like you, your attitude is always on stage as well! You might think that you are the best thing since sliced bread. Or, you are just the coolest person in the world. Attitude can be perceived easily, as cocky, overconfident. The key is making sure you have the best attitude that suits your team. Don’t be afraid to ask your support system, your team, how is my attitude perceived. Also, remember that if you are perceived as a person with a bad attitude, it will confuse your team. If you’re constantly negative, then the team will not work for you. If you are always positive, and when you show some emotion over a issue, they know that you are for real! Know when to strike!
- One more thing that I would like to add is a hard-learned example of Attitude is Everything that just happened! My store and team were recently the ones that failed our D.A.T.E. sting operation. It started with a teary-eyed bartender as I was walking to my car. She informed me that a police officer wanted to talk to me and that she messed up. Right then and there my attitude was all over the map. So confused as to what just happened. How could a team member not make the right choice, when it comes to our team? How can she NOT care about everything that we have accomplished? How can she not care about our community that we care about so much? This consumed me to the point that over the next few days, I was not sleeping, and was throwing up. The stress and anxiety was so overwhelming! My wife couldn’t even snap me out of it! My kids were trying to play and love me and all I had was blank stares for them. And then, I broke, I checked for my support system. It was there! Then I actually had to review some of the above statements. Now it’s time to apply them into action. I can’t get past this if I meet the problem where it stands. I can’t fix anything with my state of mind the way it was. I had to look in the mirror and pull myself past it! I had to dust myself off and do what’s right for the team! Can’t run away, nothing will get done! It’s time to project my Attitude past this problem and find the eye of the storm!
Attitude is Everything! Mindset!
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