Don’t Be Afraid of an Adventure.

A few weeks ago, we heard some entertainment news of a famous actress/spokesperson embarking on a somewhat risky TV series role. She’s a multimillionaire. It’s not as if she needs the money. Some “handlers” surely told her it wasn’t  a good idea. But she did it anyway.

We have to (love to) read brand manuals for hotels and restaurants. They’re big books which offer “suggestions” (or demands) on how the franchisees of those multimillion dollar operations should conduct business. Such manuals get into everything from guest safety to long lists of the coffees, teas, and whiskeys which have to be available.

We love food & beverage (F&B) and watch way too many cooking shows. It’s very creative stuff. We love to hang out with chefs, bartenders, and food service managers. They are a cross between the world’s most brilliant creative minds and astute business managers.

Brand manuals, for the world’s top hotels, are pretty much Adobe Classroom in a Book for making something really cool for breakfast.

We have had the honor to become certified in a few aspects of hospitality. The learning tools are pretty much identical to becoming an Adobe Certified Expert (ACE). Yes, there’s something very similar to rough cutting 5 hours of footage into a 2 minute news feature, which must air at 6:00p, tonight, and making a super sexy egg dish for a dozen people every, 15 minutes, for the next 3 hours. It’s all insane production which has to dazzle and delight. It’s spectral cooking masterpiece at 6:45:15 and if not carefully executed, a disaster at 6:47:00.

If you overcook the eggs, you’re history. It’s like “dead air” in broadcast news when your “package” isn’t ready the second that it’s supposed to be on everyone’s television screen.

But, if you know the brand manuals, backwards and forwards, it’s like knowing how to cut that news segment in Adobe Premiere Pro.

What’s our take-away from these experiences?

The man/woman behind the curtain has to know how to flip the switches at the exact second. It’s an admitted adrenaline rush. It’s pretty much like when someone on stage sings a specific note and a few hundred lights change,

How much of it is technology and how much is creativity?

You reset the stage once, twice or three times a day. The manual guides you. You’re lost without it. Making 100 perfect Italian Omelets isn’t that different from retouching 100 photos with Photoshop’s Content Aware tools, by Noon.

Both of them are quite a high wire act which should never get boring. Don’t let “handlers” tell you to not take a manageable risk. Listen to the creative lobe of your brain, experiment with those exercises in the manuals, and then smartly flex your creative muscles.