The Brave Archives - Christine Camp

Who’s the King of the Field

Christine Camp — Sun, 22 Aug 2021 05:43:13 +0000

It was time to plough the farmer’s field. From my terrace, I watched the worker walk along the narrow pathway spying out the rice paddy. It was the same grass pathway I had been warned by locals to walk along very slowly. The day before I had hesitated at a particular spot and looked down into the water. Every hair on my body stood to attention watching the python slithering across the water.

Holding that traumatic vision in my mind, I strolled to the edge of my balcony and stared at the man. Who would plough a field filled with deadly snakes?

The farmer of the field walked down the path and waved to the worker. There was a brief exchange between the men, and then the worker left. Later, I was inside my bungalow when I heard the sound of a chugging tractor. I grabbed a coffee and headed back out onto the terrace and sat to enjoy the day’s entertainment.

The Rice Fields of Bali 2015

A few hours later, the worker in knee-deep mud pulled his rotary tractor around that field like he was mowing a lawn. The machine was (in my eyes) massive and yet he operated the tractor with such ease and skill. Wasn’t he afraid he would get bitten?

If he was afraid, fear did not show in his face or his body language. On one of his many by-passers, he raised his rice hat and grinned. His toothless smile was priceless. It was nearly dark when he finished. The previous scruffy field was now ready for planting.

The farmer appeared as the worker was leaving. The hearty wave from the farmer acknowledging his gratitude of thanks to the worker, who nodded in return, raised his hand and then rode off into the sunset on his formidable tractor.

“There are snakes in that field,” I yelled, walking slowly over to the farmer, also the owner of my small bungalow.

“That’s why I pay that man to work my field for me,” he chuckled. He walked up to the doorway of his grand little house, turned around and lifted one of his aging fingers, “Today, he was the king of the field.”

There’s a saying in business ‘work smarter, not harder,’ and the 80/20 rule. When starting out in business with a small budget, we are the king of the field and the worker. On my daily to-do list was a string of tasks, from working with my book team to learning business systems and redesigning my website. And many times I got bogged down in the little tasks. When I started my small business course, the list grew dramatically. Then, one day I wrote a list of what was essential in launching my business. I already knew what I enjoyed doing and could improve through learning. The two big picture tasks were branding and my website.

I reached out to my book graphic designer and I spent time working through a branding journal and then a 1-hour zoom to work out what she needed to produce a story of my branding. The time and money I spent on this branding task was incredibly valuable and I started using the branding tools within all aspects of my business. It saved me a lot of time in designing my SM platforms and posts. The original logo design with fonts and style sheets was also the preparation I needed for my website.

With a tight budget, I researched government and local grants and found the WA ASBAS program. I signed up and worked with a content writer, social media specialist and finally found a WordPress guru. We worked together for six weeks, with weekly 2-hour back to back sessions. Each week we recorded the sessions for me to play back and learn how to update my site. I was given homework and encouraged to have a go, do more research and get creative with my business story. If I broke something, she could fix it and show me how to fix it!

There are some people that you meet in business that do more than just professionally produce what you need and tick the task box. The kings of your business field for a season will ‘get’ what you do and minimise your risks. Be patient to find them.

The WA ASBAS program ended in August 2021, with a new program and structure to start in September 2021.

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When ‘Rock Bottom’ Spins into the Catalyst for Change

Christine Camp — Wed, 19 Jul 2017 08:33:55 +0000

Hitting rock bottom is like a wake-up call in a person’s life when everything is spiralling out of control, and finally one day the inevitable happens.

It’s when tragedy, loss, and failure are a constant state of existence, which slowly extinguishes all hope in a person’s soul. Like a candle burning in a dark place, their heart finally gives in to the atmosphere of sorrow. Broken beyond recognition, their lives are changed forever.

Why is it, that some people don’t’ bounce back from tragedy, while others can use it as a springboard to rebuild their lives? If your heart is breaking today, imagine your best friend who whispers, “Let’s go for a walk and see if we can change the scenery.”

The Scenery
1. My People – We all need friends, a tribe where we can seek comfort and support. These wise ones will be patient with us, as we mend and heal and decide what to do. It starts with time, and after a while, we give ourselves permission to think about rebuilding our life.

2. My Seasons – Walking through this dark valley, would for me, be Autumn, the season of shedding. A time of letting go and deciding what we want to take with us into the next season – Winter, the quiet season, where there is self-reflection, and floods of tears. And then, Spring arrives, the season of hope, where the tiniest flower desires to blooms.

3. My life – What does it look like? Who am I? What do I want to do? Asking questions is a sign of healing like feeling emotionally numb and new thoughts peeking through like the early morning sunlight. If we are asking questions, we are seeking hope of a new kind of normal, something that we may never have considered ever doing before, but here, at this lowly place, for me, the possibility of what I’m thinking maybe scary, but what have I got to lose. I want to live.

4. My Story – And, the answers may surprise you. Just like it did with J.K. Rowling. Out of the heartache of immense pain, deep depression, and profound loneliness, J.K. Rowling found life. In that severe dark existence, as she believed the answers in her heart and grabbed them like a life jacket, she poured out the story from her imagination and told it like no other.

Hitting rock bottom can for some, be a catalyst for change where we will be honest about our pain, cry out for hope and take hold of the risks that enter into our hearts that will light up our lives.

1. Image JK Rowling – http://www.confusedsandals.com/7-unputdownable-female-authors-of-all-time/

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What’s the real dream?

Christine Camp — Sun, 02 Apr 2017 16:01:07 +0000

In the 1960s, there was a man who owned a restaurant. By 1970 he was 1.5 million dollars in debt. What motiviated him to keep going?

The man was passionate about food and the service industry. For 8 years with one little shop, he served his vision well. Then his shop burnt to the ground. All he knew was the restaurant industry. Determined to follow his dream, he started another little restaurant business. He worked 7 days a week, taking one vacation to get married.

By 1970 he was 1.5 million dollars in debt.

The business man had pizzas on his menu. He considered new possibilities not yet conceived and had a radical thought. It was risky. He was heavily in debt. Finally, he made the decision to only have pizza’s on his menu and, to deliver his pizza’s hot and fresh to his customers. His vision worked. It succeeded so well that many others have imitated Tom Monaghan’s business plan.

Domino’s Pizza now ranks among the world’s top public restaurant brands with its global enterprise of more than 10,200 stores in over 70 international markets. Domino’s had global retail sales of over $7.4 billion in 2012, which comprised over $3.5 billion in the U.S. and nearly $3.9 billion internationally.

While Domino’s pizzas continue to dominate the pizza delivery world, the man who started in a little shop is now one of the richest men in the US. Today, Tom Monaghan spends most of his money on philanthropic causes. What Tom inspires us to do, is to keep going. If you get knocked down, you get back up again and, there are yet, new fresh ideas waiting to be discovered, if we are willing to take the risk.

All Tom Monaghan knew was the restaurant business. He stayed where he was and used what he had. That one radical and brave thought could have put him out of business. Instead, it changed the pizza delivery business and birthed a new dream to be an entrepreneur and philanthropist. His idea of thinking outside the box rewarded him with living that dream. As of 2012, his Domino’s dream has been shared with franchise owner-operators who accounted for over 96% of the Domino’s Pizza stores.

Domino’s Vision

Number 1 in Pizza
Number 1 in People

Mission

Sell more Pizza, have more fun!

Values

Treat people as you’d like to be treated
Produce the best for less
Measure, manage and share what’s important
Think big and grow
Incentivise what you want to change
Set the bar high, train, never stop learning
Promote from within
We are not ordinary, we are exceptional

In keeping with its mission of selling more pizzas, their emphasis on new technology has helped drive the emergence of Domino’s ordering apps, which now cover over 80% of the smartphone market, driving Domino’s sales to reach an unprecedented $1 billion mark in U.S. digital sales during April 2011 to April 2012.

What’s your dream? What’s that one thought that’s going to change the world?

Resources:
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=135383&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1800074&highlight
http://biography.yourdictionary.com/tom-monaghan
http://www.avemariablvd.com/tommonaghandominosbiography.html
http://www.dominos.com.au/corporate/vision-mission

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