LOCAL CELEBRITY! Where is your balance in the limelight?

When your behind the bar you are everyone’s best friend. Everyone wants your attention and wants something from you… whether it’s drinks, attention or whatever… they want something from “YOU”.  So that gives you power… and power is attractive. Attractive to girls and guys. One sex wants you why the other wants to be you.  It definitely has its advantages.

With all that power comes responsibility. You have to serve responsibly, work and ring responsibly, act responsibly and so on… How you use that power is up to you? Think about it? How often do you get hit on and offered phone numbers? Get your picture taken while at work? How often do you get into hard to get in spots because of who you are? Once you get in, how often do you get “hooked up” at the bars because those bartenders come in to see you? Then once you get in, how many people do you know and how many of those people start buying you drinks and starting conversations with you because of who you are and where you work?

Sounds great huh? Almost like partying like a Rockstar? Yeah… don’t get me wrong, its great at times! But what about the times you just want to be left alone? To just go to a bar and relax… enjoy the solitude and be a fly on the wall? One thing you have to understand is when we are behind the bar we are on stage. At times we are an amped up version of ourselves. Almost like we are playing a character and we are here to create the energy, make you feel special and entertain you to put you in a better mood then when you first walked in the door so you are in a better mood to spend your hard earned money and tip us better as well.

Its hard work… but most of us enjoy it very much… and that’s one of the reasons some of us enjoy bartending so much. We get to entertain while putting other people in better moods while being the center of attention. I was talking to a good friend of mine the other day Brielle Robinson who bartends at “The Living Room” in Fort Lauderdale, Florida about this very topic… “What do you do when you go out and just want to be left alone?” We are constantly “On Stage” behind the bar and when we go out but do we have the right to be “Off Stage”, out of character and just be ourselves and relax and not worrying about saying hello to everybody and constantly promoting ourselves and our venues.  Do we have the right to just be left alone? Or because of what we do and how we are at work and our loyal guests basically “pay our bills” do we always have to be “On Stage” when we see those same loyal guests on the other side of the bar? When we are off… are we really off?

It’s the paradox of being a good bartender and better promoter. Its hard but the more we work behind and outside the bar, the more successful we will be. The more we put ourselves out there, the more we can expect to see a return on our investment. An investment of our time, energy, relationship, money, sanity and much more. With hard economic times like these, can we afford not to always be on our game? The answer lies within you. What is your balance between life and work? What works for me might not necessarily work for you. Ultimately only you can only decide what you want out of your life? Without work there are no rewards… but then again all work and no play makes Rob a dull boy. Balance… sometimes you teeter in one direction and sometimes you teeter in the other direction. The important thing is to find that balance that works for you. Good Luck and enjoy what’s important to you!

To Flair & Friends,

-ROB HUSTED-