Hollenbeck’s exists in a weird place as a business. That’s because we are wildly popular for 17 days out of the year, quite busy for a further 30-40, and slow to closed for the remaining 310 days out of a year.
When we are busy (in the normal times), we are damn near our max capacity, when we aren’t we have what feels like infinite excess capacity. The great goal and drive for any changes I’ve made while I’ve owned the business is to bring that into greater equilibrium. The intent is not to drive customers away during the busy times (though intentional and intelligent contraction is not out of the realm of possibility), but rather to try and muster up business in the winter, spring, and summer. Ours is a strange business in that during the fall we have to hustle everyday to make fresh pies and donuts on the weekends, and then have other times of the year when we would struggle to give away the same products.
One of the results is that anytime someone asks me to do a radio spot, a tv news segment, an interview, or anything else of the like I always say yes. Even if we/I don’t really have time, we’ll take the free promotion, especially if it’s in the off times, or can be viewed/used then. That’s resulted in some awesome content that was a lot of fun to make, and things that would best be described as encounters.
A couple years ago we had the pleasure of making a video with Experience Cortland, that was the first that I had participated in. It went so well and was so easy that we did a couple live news spots that have been lost to the ether, and a commercial for the Dryden Bank that still plays on tv. Those were a little less fun, but still pretty painless and beneficial.
Fast forward to last year I get an email from the producer of a show called “A Walk Through America”, which is made and airs on Voice of America, Korea. I say yes, as I envision tours buses full of Koreans and/or US military service personnel. What followed was what we now refer to as “the Korea incident”. In retrospect, it was a hilarious experience, but goodness was it a wild and stressful day. They never sent along the episode, but with some internet sleuthing we found it on youtube. It helps if you speak Korean, as it is narrated and the hosts are speaking in Korean, we’re all speaking in English but subtitled in Korean. There is a super heart warming, fortuitous, chance encounter with a couple of customers, a Korean War Vet and his Korean-born wife. Her reaction and emotion that day makes all the stress in world worth it. Check out “the Korea Incident.”
This year in the lead up to, and first Monday of, this peculiar season I participated in an event organized by a couple of friends in CCE. It also happened to be with a couple of local apple luminaries who I very much look up to, and hope to emulate in some aspects of my business and life. This one was more stress relief than stressful.
