Hello there,
So, you think this is easy, do you ? You just tap on the link & up I pop, me in all my naked (OK exposed) glory...all those emotions...those highs & lows.... fears & jubilation...the agony & the ecstasy of my life as a food producer.
Well let me tell you ..it's not.
I thought starting my blog would be hard, getting it going, finding my voice, that would be the hard thing, but now that I think I've done that & I like where this is going the challenge is to keep you interested, amused & informed.. I also want you to know that whilst the going is tough I'm doing okay.
So take a seat beside me, in my little van & let me share with you my latest musings.
I don't think I've told you my story about how I got here with The Delicious Food Co. We have a been around for about seven years now and in that time have been a supplier of premium sandwiches & salads to the in house cafes of many of Dublin's most salubrious joints; Google, RTE, Deloitte, PWC, Ernst & Young, Citibank, AVOCA to name but a few, hundreds & thousands of items to discerning customers.Yet for some reason, I never really felt accepted.The Cafe Sols, The Artizans....they were grabbing all the limelight, whilst there we were with our gorgeous genuine artisan breads, our mini salad pots, our 1,000 items into Google every week, a client list others would kill for...so why did it feel that nobody noticed us.
One evening at a networking event I met a man who introduced me to a concept that incredibly I hadn't really considered before...That chance meeting with the man I now refer to as Gok Wan, changed everything...you see he had heard of us...he was sure he had tasted us....but he couldn't see us, we had been so busy working, producing & delivering our produce we neglected the most important thing..ourselves Gok Wan introduced me to the concept known as BRANDING..
It was such a Eureka moment... I knew we were good at what we did, were busy, even after the recession kicked in, we operated so far under the radar we had no recognisable identity. Gok Wan gently pointed out that what I needed was ...a MAKEOVER.
Meetings were arranged, design agency appointed...the makeover commenced.There was a snag....the agency just didn't get me...they were making me look like something from "Tesco's finest"
all twinset & pearls, a poshness that just wasn't me...They kept telling me that they knew about branding & I kept telling than the brand was mine...so like all relationships that are going nowhere fast..we parted...This makeover was going to be tougher than I thought
Then like manna from heaven, God gave me another chance...when I met Orla Brosnan in car park (don't ask...) of the Hilton Hotel in Kilmainham
My God ...is Orla Brosnan of BCreative talented or what..she totally got me....she knew that this girl wouldn't be seen dead in a twinset...this girl is more of a hippy chick ...together we have made The Delicious Food Co into a brand, a tiny minuscule brand at this stage ....but it's there...our delicious food, made with love packaged with humour. People say I'm a peoples person My best friend once said to me when I was chatting to somebody, that if I could take the elements of my personality & package it & sell it I could make a fortune. I just never thought it would happen.
And now it has....Shirley...food producer...available in a salad pot near you.
Who'd have thought it.....
Shirley x
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