How To Flip The Script Of Your Own Troubled Industry Narrative
Presented by Society Insurance
To write your own article click here
By Sarah Carpenter
For the past two decades, I have set out to write about how a community eats, drinks, lives, and loves through a lens for sense of place.
I grew up around Denver from the foothills to the ‘hood,’ under a broken but loving home centered around free decision-making. I chose the city and beyond to forge my own path. What my upbringing lacked in discipline, city restaurants picked up the slack by taking me in and putting me to work. What I lacked in structure or culture, I found in writing and opportunities in travel. Food jobs turned into food writing careers, and the rest was braided into a horizon for fieldwork curiosity.
But the past year shook our sense of place like an earthquake—particularly those same restaurants where I worked, were hit. Most shuttered, and yet they continue to occupy my daily thoughts and nightly dreams. The more their identity comes into question, be it mistreatment of employees to shady business practices, the more I question my own identity working for them. I find myself both loathing and loving them, angry for what went wrong, struggling to honor what went right.
So I decided to do something about it. And by “it,” I mean my thoughts. In the cracks, are the answers.
Years ago, I did a story on neuroplasticity. I found, “Imagine your thoughts are roads toward a mental destination. Because of neuroplasticity, the brain is able to build a slew of new highways to get you from point A to point B.” The book The Mind & The Brain calls this volition, or the power in choosing to attend to your thoughts to affect change. The late Wayne Dyer suggests con-to-pro lists in Excuses Begone!—‘the experience that ruined me,’ becomes ‘the experience that taught me.’
So I used these exercises to flip the script of my own time in the industry. Here’s what I learned:
That college-job, deli-cafe that ridiculed my work ethic while turning a blind eye to drugs and harassment—becomes—The place that took me in, and anyone from parolee to immigrant, where I labored and learned about east-coast food anyway, and paid my way through school.
The Spanish spot that held secret stripper parties after hours and tried to force the female staff into skimpy cocktail outfits—becomes—The place where I fought the dress code as the only girl to stay in pantsuit uniform while cocktailing, learning all about Spanish food and wine anyway.
The pizzeria that stressed the turn and burn and chastised my guest-centric ways, earning me the nickname “she’s so fine dining”—becomes—Thank you for showing me where I belonged, in front of guests in actual fine dining settings telling stories about food and wine history.
The list goes on, with dozens of restaurants and even writing workplaces. A collection of HR nightmares, worn out doubles on hourly pay, burn out from beyond 40 hours on salary, and lessons all the same.
But what I found was that the common denominator in any positive force was: me. All of the things they did, externally happened. But all of the things I did were internal, I was eternally hustling.
Headquartered in Fond du Lac, Wis., Society Insurance has been a leading niche insurance carrier since 1915. As a mutual insurance company, Society focuses on the small details that make a big difference to its policyholders while offering top-notch insurance coverage, service and competitive pricing to businesses in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Tennessee, Colorado, Georgia and soon Texas.
For the past two decades, I have set out to discover and write about how a community eats, drinks, loves, and lives, through the lens of sense of place. Born in Colorado, schooled by Denver chefs, distilled in the roots of journalism, refined in anthropology methods, and stirring for exploration—has braided into a horizon of fieldwork curiosity. Explore more on IG at @diningsarah.
Opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily represent the views of Best Served. To achieve our mission of bringing more voices to the table, we are committed to sharing a variety of viewpoints across the industry.
