What a Week!
From Music Videos to 40-Year Friendships
Phew, what a busy and exciting time (week) it’s been!
I had a lot of fun making a video clip to be considered for a music video of a well-known musician. The brief was to play a particular character, and it was terrific getting into the character’s role. Shouldn’t life be about finding the balance between having fun, experiencing joy, and of course giving your best at whatever it is you do for a living?
And talking of joy, I spent time with an old friend, John Austen, whose ancestral home is now the quite stunning Greenway Hotel and Spa in Cheltenham. John lived there during his teenage years before heading off into military service and later establishing Orchard Farms, supplier of frozen meat products.
A Cold Call That Changed Everything
I met John Austen from Orchard Farms in the late 1970s while selling advertising space for the Oxford Journal. John’s sales manager spent a fortune on ads that delivered very little ROI. I contacted him intending to sell him ad space. During our first discussion, he fired his sales manager, and I left that meeting with a company car and a job as his new sales manager!
I began my dynamic adventure to scale John’s Frozen Meat Company by setting up a team of women to do door-to-door marketing and telesales. The timing was perfect – it coincided with the rise of the frozen food industry and the development of more affordable, compression-based freezers, which meant more domestic homes could afford one.
Revolutionary Strategy
I designed all the colourful and more compelling ads, trained our new saleswomen on the products and their exceptional quality. I ensured they were knowledgeable on every aspect of John’s business and all products, so there would be no question asked they couldn’t answer for the housewives and occasional husbands they encountered. Remember, this was in the 1970s – I don’t recall this being done anywhere at the time.
We started taking orders for home deliveries almost immediately. We had to increase from one van to three to meet the delivery schedules!
We then began attending business and marketing events, and trade shows, and carrying out demonstrations. Our team grew, as did sales. In fact, we tripled sales in just 18 months.
The concept was simple – order directly from us and we’ll pack, deliver, and put your products straight into your freezer. Once the customers met us, and knew all about us, they trusted us, and we scaled as a result.
Full Circle
And here we are, some 40 years later, enjoying afternoon tea at The Greenway Hotel and Spa, a 16th-century manor house set in eight acres of lush green countryside – that was once John’s home. That’s Luke Milliken, the ever-helpful GM, sitting next to John in the photo.
It’s quite something, isn’t it? A cold call about advertising space in the 1970s led to a revolutionary business partnership that tripled sales, and more importantly, to a friendship that has lasted four decades.
From that first meeting where I walked in to sell ads and walked out with a job, to sitting here in the elegant surroundings of what was once his family home – now transformed into this beautiful hotel and spa – it’s a reminder of how life can surprise us when we trust our instincts and say “yes” to unexpected opportunities.
Sometimes the most meaningful connections in our lives begin with the simplest of phone calls. Here’s to taking chances, building trust, and the beautiful friendships that can grow from the most unlikely beginnings!
