Habits: How Matt Spriegel Created Atiom

Wait—did he just start juggling?
When Matt Spriegel, founder of Atiom, pulled tennis balls from his pocket during a guest talk at AIHM, no one expected a masterclass in mindset. But that’s exactly what they got. From daily habits to business hacks, Matt shared how “1% better every day” can transform your ideas—and your future.

Curious what juggling has to do with success? Let’s dive in.

Delighted confusion ripples through the room when Matt Spriegel pulls three tennis balls from his coat pocket and begins to juggle them. “Every day for five minutes, I practice juggling,” he declares. Matt’s passion for the daily practice of building habits drove his desire to start Atiom, a platform built on a small amount of learning every single day.

Meet Matt!

Matt Spriegel is the founder and CEO of Atiom, a behavioral tech SaaS company transforming frontline team engagement, learning and performance. Under his leadership, Atiom has expanded across five countries, helping leading organisations enhance guest experience and increase employee productivity through AI-driven training and gamification. He has a passion for scaling businesses and optimising performance, a passion which he displays not just through the company he started but in his every day life. AIHM’s students had the fantastic opportunity to meet him and learn from his insights during his June visit as part of the Institute’s ongoing guest speaker series.

“One Percent a Day”

Matt has a wealth of experience is the practical areas of starting a business, but he pointed out is often the less practical elements of being an entrepreneur that take the most work to cultivate in ourselves. Resilience, persistence, belief and passion are all key ingredients. “The idea for Atiom came from my own love of habits and my passion for pursuing 1% improvement every day,” he said. “I wanted to bring that passion for incremental growth to others.”

Passion and excitement for your own idea is crucial. I have heard it said before: don’t start a business unless it will kill you not to. It bears repeating: you should love and be excited by your business. That passion will help to bolster your resilience and persistence when the creative journey inevitably brings you low.

“The Process is the Goal”

Every creative or practical endeavour that we undertake in life will take us on a journey. Often at the start of that journey, we suppose that—while it will be difficult—it will ultimately be an upward trajectory to our goals. So when we fail, when we have to stop for a time, when things go wrong or we lose motivation, does that mean we have given up on that goal and have failed permanently? 

I hope it won’t come as a shock that the answer is emphatically no. Just as Matt strives to

maintain his skill of juggling each and every day, so must we cultivate and safeguard a growth mindset in ourselves so that we can view these hurdles in the proper light.

The idea of a Growth Mindset vs a Fixed Mindset originated from Carol Dweck’s research at Stanford University. Dweck published her book Mindset: The New Psychology of Success in 2006 and her ideas have continued to stay relevant and be supported by further research and anecdotal evidence. Specifically, a growth mindset believes that intelligence and abilities can be developed through effort, learning and perseverance.

“When I juggle,” Matt said, “the process of learning and getting better is the goal. There isn’t an end point of success, per se, that I’m aiming to reach. This daily habit helps to remind me in all areas of business and life, the process of development and positive change is the goal in itself.”

“Just Write It Down”

Matt guided the room through an exercise to generate business ideas and push past the futility we sometimes face when trying to create a viable business concept. What is a problem you face? What is something you want to fix in your daily life? Or a way you might be able to help someone with something? Write it down on paper. The act of writing things down is cathartic, and often clearing ideas out of your brain allows you to dig a little deeper instead of staying on the surface.

Cringe, or embarrassment, may be stopping you from writing down your craziest or most pedantic ideas. But the ideas you find yourself embarrassed to talk about could be the seed of a solution that only you can create. Cringe is the enemy of all creatives, and whether you have realised it or not, starting a business is a creative endeavour! Stop letting cringe hold you back from passion and sincerity.

As the AIHM young professionals worked together to generate new and seemingly silly ideas, I could see the moments that humor and awkwardness began to transform into true excitement and ease. “Oh yeah, I hate when that happens! You should fix that.” “That is a great idea, can I write that down too?” “What if you made the elevators faster in the morning?” Giggles erupt but no one spurns the thought. The ideas are flowing fast and furious now.

“Mistakes are Inventive”

The next step after finding a business idea that excites you is creating a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). You might have heard the saying “Fail fast and fail often”, or “Start small then expand”. These are two of the principles behind creating an MVP. What is the lowest or easiest version of your product that you could make and sell tomorrow? Make the thing, and start selling it! Fail, get feedback, and make a new MVP with your new knowledge. Sell it again. Fail fast and make a new MVP. You’ll notice that your product gets a little better each time. Each time you refine your solution, and each time you meet the needs of your customer a little better.

Matt highlights the idea of frequency over volume. You want to rapidly test and create new products. It’s extremely hard to fail and make mistakes over and over again. That is why starting with a clear growth mindset and using other creative endeavours (like juggling) to continuously remind yourself of the incremental change that is occurring is so valuable. That is how you build resilience and persistence in the face of difficulty.

“Mistakes are inventive,” he said. “Each of the tricks I showed you while juggling was born out of a mistake and then turned into a new pattern of juggling.” The mistakes you make while starting a business are essential to creating the best version of your end-product. You will learn more from a failure than you will from succeeding. Take note of what didn’t work, and never fall into the trap of thinking that failure is the limit of your abilities.

Now Keep Going!

There is no neat 10-step plan to building a business. If it were easily achievable, perhaps we would all do it. Matt’s reminder to look for that 1% improvement each day might be the key to unlocking your own passion and bolstering your own fortitude as you go out and try to make your dream business a reality. Failing is just one part of the journey you are undertaking. Just in case you didn’t catch it before: failure is not the limit of your abilities! Remember to keep the bigger picture clear in your mind, cultivate your passions beyond the framework of business, and lastly… perhaps take up juggling!

Are You an Entrepreneur in the Making?

Do you dream of starting your own business? Do you see successful business leaders chasing their dreams in the world and making them happen and think to yourself: “That’s what I want”?

AIHM attracts passionate students from around the world to make their dreams happen. This is part of what makes AIHM special. We’re a relatively small school that’s big on passion and commitment. As an AIHM student, you’re surrounded by others who share the same level of excitement and drive. You collaborate with fellow students, faculty and business leaders who share this drive and who want to help you succeed.

In a large university setting it’s easy to slip through the cracks, to just skate by, to do just enough to earn your degree. At AIHM, you benefit from a close-knit community of go-getters and mentors who are intensely dedicated to helping you explore the pathways before you and building concrete plans to make your dreams happen.

Are you a high school student exploring university options? See if the BBA in Global Hospitality Management is right for you.

Are you in your early high school years and thinking about going to university abroad? Our BTEC Higher National Diplomas or the NCUK programmes at AIHM College might be just what you’re looking for.