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MANY SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE out there started out on one career path and ended up following something totally different.
Gordon Ramsay, for example, once played with Glasgow Rangers FC, before going on to becoming the foul-mouthed Michelin-starred chef we now know.
Helen Graves is a freelance recipe developer, food and travel writer these days, but she worked in psychology research in the UK for more than 10 years before her food blog gradually grew a life of its own.
Since then, Helen’s passion for food has turned into a spectacularly accomplished career. She has written for publications across the UK and is editor of Pit, an independent magazine about live fire cooking and smoking.
“I do a lot of great shoots for Pit where we work with barbecue chefs or producers to create something special,” says Helen, a self-proclaimed sandwich and BBQ addict.
“A particular favourite was the time we created a gigantic goat shawarma for around 30 people using a giant spit in a garden in Catford. It was snowing and we were all standing there keeping warm around the shawarma! The photos were amazing, though.”
Helen’s Instagram account is enviable and definitely drool-worthy, with photos from all of her work on photoshoots as well as recipes in development – and a whole lot of meat.
We asked Helen to share five things she’s learned throughout her career…
1. Clean up as you go along
“Sometimes the simplest lessons are the easy ones. It’s so obvious, but if I get into a mess it really affects my cooking and I start making mistakes.”
2. Keep the weird photoshoot props to a minimum
“Some food stylists will put objects on the table that wouldn’t normally even be around food and I find that quite strange. When I shoot, I like to see the food looking natural, with no faffing about.”
3. Don’t work for free
“Write as much as you can and don’t let people take the mickey by asking you to work for free unless it’s really, genuinely an amazing opportunity. I started food writing through the blogging route, which means you have something you can show to people, rather than pitching cold.”
4. Get up at the same time every day
“I’ve learnt that it’s important to establish a daily routine as a freelancer, so that means getting up at the same time and having some structure to the day. For me, it’s about getting up and going to the gym, which wakes me up, gives me somewhere to be every morning and of course, counteracts the effects of food writing!”
5. Make mistakes, then move on
“It’s important not to dwell on mistakes. Most people have done work they’re perhaps not so proud of, or even that they regret. It’s important to acknowledge this, but then move on and not let it hold you back from developing.”
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Thanks for the kind comments. The “deals” business has become very… murky lately. We didnt want to get into that sort of business but its very hard to compete with underhand practices so we chose to wind up that part of the business the same way we have operated, cleanly and with no one getting hurt. As a director, I’m proud of the executive team and what they accomplished, its just time for us to bow out of the business before the whole industry gets… messy.
All the affected staff are being snapped up by other companies in the Distilled group and needless to say we wish them the very best.
?? That’s a strange comment! I know the owner of a deals website that is doing very well and he is totally above board, I’ve also been on the opposite end of offering deals through a website. The fact that some websites insisted on 50%, non negotiable, made the deal impossible offer, hence the lack of variety in some of the sites. It’s not so much a murky industry but one that needs to realise getting rich quick these days in this country isn’t going to happen. As they say look after the customer and the money will look after itself, such a shane another business is gone!
I strongly disagree with the shady comment.
It’s well known that BD were operating on commission percentages between 15 & 25%
If you have a deal selling for €40 & you sell 100 of them, with a 20% commission your take is less than €800 for the day.
BD tried (badly) to monitize an existing subscriber base & as pointed out above, ended up burning some goodwill.
It was a badly executed exercise. Having said that at least they had the balls to pull out before it dragged down the entire DM group
Shady comment? Oh please! The deals business is a great business and I hope it stays. I know for a fact that there is a lot of price fixing amongst certain businesses so the more competition the better. The fact is when the recession hit people were looking for great deals, rightly so and the deals business blossomed. They hit companies with rediculas percentages that were unsustainable. Prices in general came down and now there is better value in general therefore deals companies needed to move along with that trend. Some didn’t, that’s their downfall. Unfortunately just like during the boom, businesses didn’t realise it wouldn’t last and like the initial downfall some companies took advantage of that, not realising that that first initial drop wouldn’t last either and burnt bridges. It’s unfortunates but the deals business is still going strong, thank god for the consumer, as for some businesses? Lesson learnt!
Sad to hear as It was a great site and if you ever had a problem they were second to none in sorting it out. The deals market has been severely diluted by the sheer amount of sites operating tot the detriment of both the customer and the business involved.
Have to agree, the other frustrating thing about deals websites is the vast vast majority of deals appear to be just beauty treatments and nights in hotels, these get old very fast and the beauty items are generally just aimed at women.
Awful shame men appear to be ignored so much
The other thing that I’ve found is that they’re quite deceitful. The deal could be €60 for one night B&B in a 3 star in Lahinch with a glass of vino but when you log on to Roomex or hotels.com, you can get the same deal except in a 4 star & for another €20 throw in a dinner.
They’d one recently for dinner for two people that was worth €90 but yours just €40 (roughly). Anyways, I went on the restaurants site & their price list was up- unless you were planning on ordering two fillet steaks, there’s no way it would come anywhere close to their alleged RRP. Cowboys Ted.
Is that the IT guy on the far left?
Stereotype much?:) That’s Dav. Boards community manager. @Shiminay
hahah, I used to work as a Sys Admin and a Software Engineer, my nerd heritage will always be with me :p
I’m not sure it’s the quality of the deals that are killing these enterprises. I think people have awoken to the fact that they’re not actually saving any money (unless they get a deal on something they were planning to buy, or really need).
If you weren’t going to spend it in the first place, then that’s not saving money.
Any enterprise that bases it’s model on impulse buying will generally have a short shelf life, as the consumer soon cottons onto it.
Pity, they were by far the best run of those splurge of sites.
Great way to bow out, call time on the industry and a shot across competitors. Nothing to do of course with a woeful brand name and gradually deteriorating selection of offers. Stay classy!
Agreed mark. Classy indeed……. Let’s remember guys that just because boards deals doesn’t like the daily deals space doesn’t mean it is doomed. Far from it I would say. It will evolve and change and definitely deal quality will be a must. As a consumer I love deals. U just gotta sift through them. I read somewhere that the market is something like 8 million each month in Dublin alone :-O And let’s not forget the jobs that this sector is creating both within itself and in associated businesses.
In fairness, it’s not as if boards deals didn’t have its small share of badly handled deals either. They also managed to squander almost all of their boards.ie good will at various points.
It is a shame though, as conceived boards deals had fantastic potential to become a community oriented deals site that offered customers more than just €40 Off a hair colouring or spa treatment.
Forgot to add, serious props to DMG for absorbing the losses within the wider group. Nice to see, especially these days.
They’re right about the shelf life of this type of web site. Best of luck to all involved in the site. A great bunch of folks!
I agree-han ^
Crowded marketplace… No room for a ‘me too’ service. The 1/4 of those websites that survive will be the ones who establish a record of quality offerings now.
Hence the banner ads on Boards.ie?
A lot of companies are using Facebook. I presume it costs them nothing. I see a couple of hotels with deals on it lately and you can see how many people took up the offer.
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