The cocktail world is full of characters, from bartenders to bar owners, to night party crowd, but if you look more deeply you’ll see a greater variety of different characters with truly inspiring stories.

The amazing Ben Reed goes through the top 5 things we can learn from a concierge in this video.

1. Be connected
The concierge has their finger on the pulse of a city but it doesn’t come on a plate. Compiling a black book is a meticulous and systematic networking process that is constant and relentless. Dan’s voice is now recognized on the end of a phone right across the capital and this has been achieved through hard graft, always being on the ball and building lasting relationships ‘with clients, suppliers and fellow industry professionals.

2. Be inspired
Everyone can learn from everyone else and it pays to have a mentor. In the early days, Dan was thrown in at the deep end: “It’s the best thing to do in life. I would listen to the older guys on the desk who were so charismatic. I thought, crikey, how can someone have so much confidence on a desk, have that amount of knowledge of London and be talking to Elizabeth Taylor.”

3. Be optimistic
“You can get anything for anything, can’t you?” Well, with that starting attitude, I’m pretty sure you can. The concierge’s cup is always half-full and it’s a good job too as the requests keep on coming. “Can you help me find out how to ship 21 live deer to the Middle East as a surprise for my 21-year-old wife?” asked the member of the Middle Eastern Royal Family. You’ll need to speak to Dan’s boss about that one but he’s not going to spill the beans for anyone.

4. Be collaborative
The job of a concierge has been around for centuries. The term is derived from ‘comte des cierges’ or ‘keeper of the candles’ which was designated to those who served visiting nobles in castles. The Golden Keys Society is the secret society (motto: ‘In Service through Friendship’) and now a modern-day global network of 4,000 concierges in 65 countries. To receive the cross-key lapel insignia that denotes membership, it’s a minimum of 5 years service, you have to be nominated by 2 members and sit rigorous exams to test your cultural expertise. Is it any wonder that the Concierge prefers collaboration over competitiveness

5. Be positive
And finally, to the golden rule… well you’ll have to watch the film obviously but there are two possible contenders: “I don’t know if I’ve ever said no to someone” and “If you don’t like people, don’t do it.” Both seem pretty obvious on the surface don’t they – that is until you match them up against your own performance perhaps? But for the record, we also like the story about those creative folk at Apple who are well known for taking ideas from outside their industry to improve their lot. “What’s the best customer experience you’ve ever had?” asked Apple CEO Steve Jobs when his business was ramping up to open their first ever Apple stores. The answer that always came back was invariably that of a 5 star Hotel. Hence the Apple Genius Bar was born and directly modelled on a hotel concierge station of course.

Thank you so much Ben for your amazing contribution to the Bartending World!

Original source & Credits: cocktailcredentials.com

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