This is us – 10 Year Anniversary of a Bakery

Thank you!

Hello again! First, thank you all for that super-warm-welcoming a week ago – wow, I did NOT expect that at all. Got a little emotional, I even mentioned it to my girlfriend, who looked a little flabbergasted but did read the room right and came up with a “Congratulations…?” 😅

And where from here?

Now, my next big problem is – where to start? I did a short review of the last 12 years, more or less, but where go from here? I read through the comments below the post and hope I replied to every one (even if late, sorry for that). I didn’t really get a clear idea of which part people are interested in, so I’ll just go with something that happened recently and was a huge milestone for me – the 10 year anniversary of the bakery, Pandala.

For said anniversary, we had a little documentary made, including current and former staff members of our bakery, Pandala. The videographer and interviewer, Shannon Frady, did an amazing job on this one, really getting into the essence of what Pandala is, and I think it might be source for topics for future posts – I hope you agree. If not, don’t hesitate to tell me so. After 10 years in client service, I’ve become incredibly good at receiving feedback – any kind of feedback.*

The Video

So, here’s the video, it’s a mix of Spanish and English, with respective subtitles – it’s almost 40min long, just warning you. Worth it, though, in my opinion as I will explain.

From Roots to Fruits

The title is “From roots to fruits” for good reason. We were brainstorming about a title, and the phrase “rooted in the community” rang to me. Being something one could call a grassroot-business (as said in the other post, I started with 3 pans and a home oven that did not fit more than 3 pans at once), it really did start with the roots, getting to know people, finding out their preferences and adjusting recipes according to feedback. These roots grew and grew, and they actually did so quicker than the business itself. Just in recent years, after the pandemic, the business part took off as well, against all odds and difficulties that Ecuador has presented in the last 5 years (like, seriously, we’ve been in state of emergency since the big strikes in 2019). The long rooting-phase and the work we did during the pandemic (another post!) was starting to show effects. Now, we are harvesting the fruits.

Also, it kind of rhymes, and that’s always cool. A dirty rhyme, as my high-school linguistic teacher would say, but still.

The waves it made

The effect of this video on my team as amazing. My administrator had formerly told me to rather spend the money on a big meal (which we did, too) or as a bonus (which they got, too), that a video did not make any sense as my intention with it was not to be for advertisement or publicity, but more of a recollection of memories from the last 10 years, and giving a voice to those who usually work in the darkness (baking happens during the night), and give everyone on the team the chance to express themselves. The intention, though, was defrauded – I think it has become an incredible advertisement.

Back to the team. Especially on the ones that are not working with us for such a long time, the video had a notable effect. Francis and David both stated afterwards that watching that video made them understand so many things about Pandala, the history and values behind it, and that it was very inspiring for them to watch it, and they were grateful to work there. Which was wonderful for me to hear.

Then, there was a huge effect on our families. Diego told me that the video brought his grandma to tears, and that his whole family did a sit-in to watch it together. He was very proud, by all rights.

From my family I received similar comments – it’s one thing to hear about the project in the day-to-day calls, another thing is to see it in a format that distilled and refined the essence, put together in an incredibly professional manner. None of them was really aware of the scope of impacts that Pandala had in the local community in the last 10 years – not even me.

Respect - Our values in a nutshell

This word falls a lot, like really a lot of times in this video when it comes to the values of Pandala. When I was thinking myself about the core-values that we represent, respect wasn't really one of them - but after watching the video for the first time (and yes, I, too shed a few tears), it came to me that "respect" is just the pool-word for our values.

For me, first and upmost is CONSIDERATION - we consider everyone in our decisions. Investments are made only if I can convince everyone that it's a good thing. If one of us feels unwell, we take over for them. We listen to each other. We consider each and everyone's situation. Consideration doesn't mean that we completely change our actions, but that we're aware of the other being as a being.

That goes for our clients and providers, too. We consider special needs of clients, and do always put HONESTY in front of a sale. We consider that something might harm you (although I sometimes would love to slap those around who come saying "I can't have gluten" and then turn around and buy a White Sourdough - because "it's sourdough, you know, sourdough eats all the gluten" - okay, deleted half a rant-paragraph here, that's for another topic), so we don't sell it to you and point you out to other people who might have the appropriate product for you.

LOYALTY - We stick to ours. Within the team, we stick to each other through thick and thin, and we all had our big problems. Diego went through a serious depression as he says in the movie, I went through depression and burn-out, we have maniac-depressive bipolarity within our ranks, two certified attention-deficits, and one other with depressive tendency. And we're all doing a lot better now, noticing the personal improvements of every one in the team is a beautiful thing for me.

We stick to our providers, too. Of course, we could save money here and there by switching providers from time to time, but honestly, it's never worth it. Those few bucks you save are not worth neither the trouble, nor the lack of the loyalty coming back to you: During the strikes, our flour-provider came around 1 am when the strike-enforcers were asleep in order to supply us with flour (of which we used a part to bring to the barricades as donations, which cut us some slack).

Another important thing for me is to be COHERENT with my values, and the bakery as well. Nobody is 100% coherent, I know, but it's about trying. For example, the bakery is strictly vegan (the restaurant was not), and we always try to get high quality ingredients, if possible of organic agriculture, and mostly buy from local producers (again, whenever possible). Our newest product, the Chochonnaise, for example is made with the local lupin-beans, and we use avocado oil instead of sunflower oil. Makes the process harder and lowers the profit margin, but it's so much easier to sell when I can be 100% behind a product.

As contrary - we stopped making gluten free bread, because it just sucked. I always told people who asked for it if they were very sure that they need it, if they don't want to try a 100% Rye Sourdough first (fairly low gluten content), or anything else - and then told them "okay, but I warn you, it's not a good bread." Back then, it was the only one available - now we have alternatives to it, so I always send these clients to them. It makes everybody happier.

So - Respect?

I think, yes, respect is a good summary of those things. There are many things that I did not mention, like "Good money for good work" and others like that. But "Respect" does sum all that up pretty well. What do you think?

Thank you for reading - and watching

So far for today, this is getting very long. Two topics that I think I’ll approach next – one is the interaction between Pandala and the community over the years. The other is combination of business advice about feedback and an introduction into values, and how the way we receive feedback not only tells a lot about our selves, but also links to a root of society.

If you have a preference, let me know, and I'll put that first in line. But probably in a few days, I want to snoop around here a little, first, get the hang of things and probably ask some newbie-questions.

Note: All photos are my own. Credits for the video are in the video itself.

Post Scriptum

*I do love getting feedback, since it helps me grow and improve, but sometimes it’s also very funny – just remembered this anecdote: My favorite feedback was a woman who accused me of poisoning people because I used regular salt that contained the "heavy metal" flouride (not fluoride!) that can only be stored in special containers because it burns through everything and is used to control people. She did very in-depth research, sending me the link to a video with the title “The Dark Army! Millions will Die!” I first redacted an incredibly sarcastic mail, using my chemistry background to pick apart everything she said – but I did not send it to her. Instead, I thanked her for her feedback, and told her that I will take it into consideration. “Wave and smile, boys!”

P.P.S.:

I'm looking for a nice paragraph divider - I can't seem to figure out how to do that on PeakD. Any suggestions? I tried some free pngs, but it's all too big. I used pictures here, but I will eventually run out of those... For splinterlands, I use this one, and I like it a lot - but it doesn't fit here 😅 If you have something like that or know where to get it, please comment!