How quickly you can lose 'em
I have just bought myself a new camera and it has a much better zoom than my last one. I seem to buy a new camera ever 12-18 months, it just works out that way and I have never yet learned all the features on any of them! My kids get my old ones because I carry a camera with me at all times so they tend to get a bit knocked about.
When buying this one, I could not believe the price difference between the different camera stores. I knew exactly what camera I wanted, so I went into JB Hi FI in Sydney to buy it, but the staff member who served me was so rude that I walked out without buying it. I generally find their service to be great, but this time it wasn’t, so I walked out and bought one down the road from their competitor.
I would hate to think what my business would be like if my staff treated our customers like I was treated by this guy. Part of our philosophy at our bakery is that our staff should treat our customers with respect, and to treat them how they would like to be treated themselves, when they are a customer. Which, of course, often they are.
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Congratulations on a fantastic effort!!
WOW! What a wonderful weekend we had in Beechworth recently. The town celebrated the 130th Anniversary of the Ned Kelly Trial. The Ned Kelly weekend has been an annual event for the past 7 years but this year's was the biggest ever, with the organising committee, which is the Beechworth Historical Re-enactment Group, somehow being able to get the complete Kelly Gang armour (4 in all) be brought to Beechworth on loan, to go on display for the public for the whole weekend. This was an incredible feat to have the 4 armours together, as part of it belongs to the Police Museum in Melbourne and Joe Byrne’s armour is in a private collection, and this was only the 4th time ever that they have displayed all the armour together since the Kelly gang were caught in the siege in Glenrowan. They somehow also managed to persuade almost the entire cast from the movie “The Last Outlaw”, which was made 30 years ago, to attend the weekend. Actors such as Sigrid Thornton, John Jarrett, Steve Bisley, Gerard Kennedy and many more were in Beechworth for the entire weekend, taking part in many of the activities and enjoying being part of it all. There were massive queues at all times waiting to view the armour, which was under very heavy security, but most agreed it was well worth the wait. There was also the re-enactment of Ned’s Trial held several times over the weekend, plus many other activities and with lots of people wandering around in period costumes, it was fabulous. The Beechworth Bakery was the major sponsor of the weekend and it was great to be part of the whole event. Marty, my business partner, dressed up in a replica Ned Kelly armour and wandered amongst the crowd. He confused a few people at first, who thought he was part of the re-enactment group for the trial, but he was just promoting our bakery and our famous Ned Kelly pies. He had people lining up to have their photo taken with “Ned” and Marty made sure he was standing under our bakery sign advertising our “Ned Kelly Pies”! What a wonderful weekend, I don’t know how the committee can beat this year's event for next year, it was a fantastic effort by this very small, but very dedicated group of people….Congratulations and well done to each and every one of them!!
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Don't just take 'No' for an answer
I had an Aussie lady, named Lynda, who lives in Utah, contact me a couple of months ago. She has started making Aussie meat pies and has come up against a lot of very strict food guidelines imposed by the dept of agriculture in the USA which was preventing her from getting approval for her food labels that she is required to have on her pies so that she can sell them via her website.
Lynda wrote to me and asked if I could try and help her convince the USDA that some Aussie pies contain vegetables, as she had been unable to do so herself. So with the help of my wife Christine, we wrote a letter to the USDA to inform them that lots of our pies we make contains vegetables and quoted our website along with some other well known bakeries that listed the varieties and ingredients of the pies.
A few days a go I received an email from a very excited Lynda to say that the USDA had finally approved 6 of her pies!
It just goes to show what bit of determination and not taking “NO” for an answer can do! We all get knock backs from time to time, but the secret is not to give up, think outside the square and tackle the problem from a different angle.
I hope Lynda has great success with her “Gourmet Aussie Style Pie” venture and will have all those Americans buying her pies by the thousands!
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Risky Business
Only the person who takes risks in life is truly free. I find getting out and speaking to groups is a real risk, writing a book is a big risk in that I may upset people who I put in my book and I upset people who I leave out!
Writing blogs & articles is a big risk, as some people do not agree with my ideas/ thoughts, and I take a risk that people will judge me when I am on stage telling my story. The best way to avoid criticism is to say nothing, do nothing, and be nothing!
Talking about taking risks, here I am at 58 and have just borrowed a lot of money from the bank to invest in our business. Bl**dy hell, in my early days in business I couldn’t even borrow $10,000 from the banks…(Isn’t it funny how when you really need the money the banks generally won’t lend it to you.)
All my business life I have been prepared to take risks. I remember when I first came back to Beechworth 26 years ago to set up the bakery, my accountant and the bank manager said I was mad taking a risk investing in a dying county town, but luckily I didn’t listen to them... and look what happened.
Take a risk and live, don’t just exist. Turn off the TV and get into life… It’s a risk worth taking!
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