Your Energy Is Finite. Stop Solving the Same Problems Twice.
Early on, I took on events solo to keep costs down. I was afraid a quote that came in too high would lose the job. So I absorbed the work myself.
What I did not see at the time was what that decision was actually building. Not a solution. A pattern. Whether you are working independently or embedded with a client or company, the moment you take on more than you should, even temporarily, that becomes the new floor. You have shown them what you will do. And the ask will come again.
I do not operate that way anymore. Not because I cannot handle the workload alone. I can. But my time and my energy are not line items I am willing to discount to make a budget work. And if I do not treat them that way, no client will either.
When you make an exception, you are not making an exception. You are setting a precedent. Boundaries are not for specific instances. They are the foundation of how your operation runs. The moment you treat them as negotiable, you have already lost the argument before it starts.
The pricing piece took longer to figure out. I had to stop thinking of myself as an option a client might reject and start thinking of myself the way a trade professional thinks about their rate. When a plumber comes to your home and gives you a quote you weren't expecting, you might push back. But you don't fire them just for showing up. You have a conversation. If I didn't respect the value of my time, I could not reasonably expect a client to.
I have worked at every scale this industry offers. Intimate dinners. Large scale productions. Festivals around the country, including multi-day events in Las Vegas where we were feeding anywhere from 3,500 to 4,500 people a day out of kitchens running around the clock. When those operations worked, they worked because the systems were built before the first guest was served. Understaffed at any level is a liability. It costs you energy before the operation even begins, and that deficit compounds as the day moves forward.
I have also been on the other side of that. I showed up to a festival as a favor to a friend, designated as a helper. By the end of day one, I was deep in the weeds, pulling on years of professional experience just to get through the basics. We made it work. We succeeded. But making it work is not a business model. It is a single draw from a reserve that does not replenish the way you think it does. I did not go back.
That scenario is not unusual. I have watched operators run programs in Marin & beyond where survival was the mode from day one. Where the crew was pushing at 150 percent just to hold the line. Where capable, willing people had that willingness worn down over time because stepping up had become the expectation and not the exception.
Inspired employees will give you more than you ask for. But there is a ceiling on it. When you have not built the systems that protect your crew from repeated, solvable problems, you are not managing an operation. You are managing a slow deterioration.
The goal is not to survive service. The goal is to build something that can absorb the unexpected and still deliver at the level your clients are paying for. That starts with protecting the energy of everyone involved, including yours.
If the same problem keeps showing up, that is not bad luck. That is an unanswered design question. Every time you solve it manually instead of building the fix, you are spending from a reserve that does not replenish the way you think it does.
Surviving a service should never be the standard.
Next in the series: Some of Us Are Wired to Build a Clock and Not Watch It Tick.
The conversation can start anytime. Reach out directly at reino@cruzexperience.com
Let’s build something unforgettable.
