Tamlyn M. White

I attribute my success to not only my community, thats a big thing, I feel that most people should have some sort of support system, somebody there to cheer you on when you’re not able to do that yourself. But also to be able to have that drive and discipline. Because it’s not every day you’re going to be motivated, right? But it’s that voice that screams within you, get up, get out of bed, let's get this done.

This is a very simple one, and this would almost be kind of a cliche, but it's do what you want. This advice was given to me at a time where I was going through a lot, and I was also self-doubting a lot. Social media makes that self comparison kind of easy, doesn't it? But I was at a point in my life where I was, very much self-comparing. This is when I had dropped out of my, JUCO, and I felt like I was kind of veering off the path that everybody else was taking. Hey, like, I’m not doing what everybody else is doing, therefore, Im deeming myself a failure, which, of course, isn't the case. It’s hard to kind of see that in the moment. But success came when I started asking myself, what do you want? you know? At the end of the day, that’s going to be what makes you happy, not what somebody else wants.

I feel like this would be not just my field specifically, but I feel like this would be for any field that you are ever trying to go into. Your number one goal should be to learn. Experience is the best teacher- so with that, nothing is set in stone, nothing is permanent, right? A lot of people undergo career changes, and decide that, “hey, this isn't for me”, later on down the road. So I feel like the number one thing that you should be focused on is learning. Because, of course, Pizza Hut isn't a forever career for me. But the leadership skills, being able to multitask, and becoming a successful operator is something I will always take with me.

Biggest challenges, I would say, is definitely work-life balance. At times, this is a very demanding field, right? With being a leader, a lot of people come to you when there is a problem and sometimes don’t recognize you as a human being, but almost as an entity, right? “Thats my boss, thats who I answer to.” So a lot of times, I do receive calls, text messages, and even, like, prompts and invoices, and I receive a lot of that communication outside of work. So that work-life balance is definitely a big challenge I would say, being able to set boundaries and have communication is definitely the treatment to that. Opportunities, I think that the companies that I work for, definitely has a lot of growth potential, which is something I'm blessed to say that I have. A lot of people are kind of stuck in this, one position- one field, to where they almost have to completely start over to be able to grow. I'm blessed within my position to where I have the ability to grow with being in that franchise. I have the ability to become an operations director, I could go into marketing, I could go into sales, I can go into finance, accounting. I have all these different avenues I can branch off into, and thats something I’m blessed to say that I have.

I would say just being loving. That is something that is free, you know? Love is free, and that’s something that, you don’t know how the other persons day was, you don’t know how what they’re going through, you don’t know what their experiences are, where their mentality's at, and a smile, you know, a compliment a bright conversation could be a big turnaround for them, and you wouldn't even know it.