Although I am now in the business of selling ideas to the C Suite of Big Retail, throughout my long nonlinear work life, I’ve always migrated skills from one job to the next, even though they might not seem related.
My waitressing days taught me how to spot the problematic people in any room (you just learn); time spent working in the kitchen taught me the culinary preparation practice mise en place: that having “everything in its place” before you undertake any project is vital to its success (with the warning “Don’t sleaze your mise.”) And decades as a reporter taught me how to truly listen (and not just be waiting to talk while others are speaking).
But the real throughline in my varied career is a pack of Sharpies and a pad of 18 X 24-inch newsprint, what one of my corporate clients christened “the big paper.” No matter the task at hand, I’ve always felt the need to let my brain spread out: to sit back in a rocking chair with a cup of coffee or a cocktail and review my idea blue-taped to the wall, an oversize view that helps me understand process and make better decisions.
In catering, I used the big paper to make endless lists—ingredients and equipment, with little diagrams or cut-out pictures of how we might garnish the trays, lightly adhered with a kiddie Elmer’s glue stick, so I could lift them off the paper and move them around without ripping the newsprint.
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