Speaker 1: When you think ahead to your seventies, you might picture
Speaker 1: yourself sleeping in, drinking tea, maybe spending time with the grandkids,
Speaker 1: and enjoying the slow life with nothing on your calendar.
Speaker 1: That's the life that Maggie be a plan to have.
Speaker 1: But she hasn't shown any signs of slowing down just yet.
Speaker 1: She's still the director of her food brand, which now
Speaker 1: boasts a wide range of products that we all know
Speaker 1: and love. She's now also running a foundation that's lobbying
Speaker 1: for better quality food experiences in nursing homes, as well
Speaker 1: as overseeing the family property, the orchards of the farm
Speaker 1: and the vineyard. So how does Maggie keep coming up
Speaker 1: with new ideas and recipes? And what condiments does Maggie
Speaker 1: have in her cupboard that help her quickly jazz upper meal?
Speaker 1: And I personally wanted to know how do I cook
Speaker 1: the perfect roast chicken. I'm doctor Ramantha Imbat. I'm an
Speaker 1: organizational psychologist and the founder of behavioral science Consultancy Inventium,
Speaker 1: and this is how I work a show about how
Speaker 1: to help you do your best work. Maggie is someone
Speaker 1: who I have admired from AFAR for a very long time.
Speaker 1: She wears so many hats and seems to have boundless
Speaker 1: energy despite being well into her seventies. So how does
Speaker 1: Maggie keep herself and her brain so sharp.
Speaker 2: I'm very involved in a lot of things. I'm always
Speaker 2: trying to learn something new, so I guess my work
Speaker 2: with the foundation where I'm trying to change the food
Speaker 2: in age care. I've been really diving into research and
Speaker 2: practical issues that help me with my goals, so that
Speaker 2: continually learning really does keep your brain agile. I used
Speaker 2: to have. I used to I really used to remember
Speaker 2: it all, and now I have to write myself notes sometimes.
Speaker 1: Like the rest of us, me immortals. I'm curious, like,
Speaker 1: what's something that you've learned recently or started to learn recently.
Speaker 2: The science of or the physiology of taste and smell,
Speaker 2: so that I have learned and that impacts my work
Speaker 2: in putting food together for the older Australian that it
Speaker 2: is not just a feeling, it is actually a science.
Speaker 1: What's an example of something you've learned there that you've
Speaker 1: been able to put into practice in the business.
Speaker 2: As we age, we have less saliva, and saliva is
Speaker 2: like a key to knowing whether we want to eat
Speaker 2: or not. So if someone has dementia, they don't have
Speaker 2: those natural responses because their saliva is so diminished. So
Speaker 2: we have to stimulate saliva in other ways by because
Speaker 2: a sense of taste is actually a sense of smell,
Speaker 2: So without the sense of smell, there won't be a
Speaker 2: great sense of taste. And as the older Australian, as
Speaker 2: we age, we lose the effect of both salt and sugar,
Speaker 2: and so we have to really boost those flavors to
Speaker 2: be able to get the older palette to identify. And
Speaker 2: so we need to have things in like age care homes.
Speaker 2: We need to have in the dining rooms bread machines
Speaker 2: that let off that scent that is so universal and
Speaker 2: so extreme of baking bread. We have to give really
Speaker 2: great emphasis on umami in flavor to stimulate the senses.
Speaker 2: So it all intertwines with trying to change the food
Speaker 2: in age care.
Speaker 1: Wow, that is absolutely fascinating, Like I had no idea
Speaker 1: about any of that, And how then like just what
Speaker 1: you're learning around that does that impact say, like when
Speaker 1: you're creating a new recipe for a cookbook or for
Speaker 1: supermarket shelves or something like.
Speaker 2: That, Well, It certainly influences the food, the ideas that
Speaker 2: I have for cooks and chefs and age care because
Speaker 2: there's absolutely no very specific training for this very complex world.
Speaker 2: So I do training modules and have masterclasses, so it
Speaker 2: impacts all of that. The more I learn about what
Speaker 2: the older Australian needs in terms of both that sense
Speaker 2: of smell and taste, but also the amount of protein
Speaker 2: they need, the amount of dairy they need, because we
Speaker 2: do not have a guideline that has been scientifically put
Speaker 2: together for the older Australian.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about new products and I want
Speaker 1: to know where does your inspiration come from?
Speaker 2: Oh, that's easy. It comes from It comes from the seasons,
Speaker 2: and it comes from the fact that I'm lucky enough
Speaker 2: to live in this Mediterranean climate and we are farmers
Speaker 2: and we grow, you know, vines and olives and quinces
Speaker 2: and soft fruits and pears and apples, and so I
Speaker 2: always have produced a hand to make the most of
Speaker 2: and sometimes it's produced that no one else wants and
Speaker 2: I think, okay, for instance, and I have the windfall
Speaker 2: quinces that we can't do anything else with, But I've
Speaker 2: made a syrup with Seville to make a cocktail syrup,
Speaker 2: and that only comes from the fact that you have
Speaker 2: this produce. So I am a produced driven cook and
Speaker 2: I always have. I'm flavor driven, I'm quality driven. I'm
Speaker 2: not wasting anything driven. So it all makes great sense
Speaker 2: to me.
Speaker 1: I want to know, how do you adapt the recipes
Speaker 1: that you create, you know, say for a cookbook. How
Speaker 1: is that different when you're then creating a product for
Speaker 1: sale and distribution.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's an interesting question. It's all about scale up,
Speaker 2: and so it comes over time when I think that,
Speaker 2: I guess the first time I started to actually scale
Speaker 2: up from what you might do in a commercial kitchen
Speaker 2: of a restaurant into two hundred leaders, four hundred leaders,
Speaker 2: and then one thousand leaders for a run, say of
Speaker 2: Quinn's paste. You have to do it in increments, and
Speaker 2: you have to be driven by flavor profile and not
Speaker 2: by just multiplying a recipe. You have a guide, and
Speaker 2: then experience helps you a great deal. You start to understand, well,
Speaker 2: you hold back the liquid, you hold back the sugar,
Speaker 2: you hold back whatever. So yes, scaling up is perhaps
Speaker 2: the most difficult thing ever in food production, but I
Speaker 2: love it.
Speaker 1: It's interesting because I had Gary Meagan on the show
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago, and we're talking about recipes, and
Speaker 1: he said one of the reasons why when a famous
Speaker 1: chef creates a recipe book inspired from their restaurant, oftentimes
Speaker 1: the recipes don't actually work that well at home because
Speaker 1: they've done the reverse of what you've just explained. They've
Speaker 1: gone from the scale up version to you know, dividing
Speaker 1: it by one hundred. So like, I'm quite interested in
Speaker 1: that scale up scale down.
Speaker 2: Oh well, now that's interesting because I can agree with
Speaker 2: Gary on some things there. But there is another thing.
Speaker 2: When you have a restaurant chef writing a recipe, there
Speaker 2: will be many gaps in terms of not buy well.
Speaker 2: Sometimes there will be gaps in terms of things that
Speaker 2: a chef will just take for granted everyone knows, and
Speaker 2: that is, you know, if you're blind baking for a
Speaker 2: keyshe you need to have your pastry warm and your
Speaker 2: mixture immediately to go in. You know, there are little
Speaker 2: little things that are just so normal to a chef
Speaker 2: that are not written in many recipes. So it's a
Speaker 2: mixture of those two things, the scaling down and the
Speaker 2: obvious being left out because it's never even thought about
Speaker 2: unless there's someone questioning the chef, well, what do you
Speaker 2: do here? So yeah, there's a bit of both, and
Speaker 2: then there are those that do it brilliantly too.
Speaker 1: By the way, I guess it's making the unconscious conscious.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm packing that into a recipe, well said, Well.
Speaker 1: Now, interestingly with I did ask Gary and I also
Speaker 1: had Ben Shuri on the show not too long ago,
Speaker 1: and I asked them both for what are their go
Speaker 1: to cookbooks, like their absolute favorites, And your name came
Speaker 1: up in both those interviews. So really, yes, why are
Speaker 1: you so surprised? Now? I want to like, what are
Speaker 1: you doing in your cookbooks that the thousands and thousands
Speaker 1: of other people are not doing in there? Like how
Speaker 1: are you thinking about this? Differently?
Speaker 2: I have blown away that and Gary should do that,
Speaker 2: but I would suspect it might be my harvest book
Speaker 2: on my early books, which were Maggie's Farm and Maggie's Orchard,
Speaker 2: because I tackle seasonality. I tackle something, let's say, locuts.
Speaker 2: No one writes about locuts, but how they're this amazing
Speaker 2: fruit that are in season in November when no one
Speaker 2: else and no other fruits other than strawberries coming from
Speaker 2: Queensland in season, and so I go through all of
Speaker 2: the ideas, not just you know, recipes too, but I
Speaker 2: talk about ideas that then triggers somebody to think about
Speaker 2: locuts differently. And I also I love to write, and
Speaker 2: I a lot of the pieces in Maggie's Harvest experiences
Speaker 2: that I've had, like doing a cocktail party in Paris
Speaker 2: for seven hundred to celebrate the Bodin expedition to Australia
Speaker 2: from France, or the cherry blossom festival in Tokyo for
Speaker 2: the Australian Embassy with Lou also for seven hundred people,
Speaker 2: you know. So I interweave those stories that great food
Speaker 2: stories because they were great experiences. So I think, I
Speaker 2: think that's the only difference I see.
Speaker 1: What about the recipes themselves, Like are you approaching you know,
Speaker 1: looking at or creating a recipe that goes into one
Speaker 1: of your cook books, you know, maybe differently from how
Speaker 1: other people are doing it?
Speaker 2: Well, I don't know. Perhaps if I think about Maggie's table,
Speaker 2: which I did so many years ago, but I remember
Speaker 2: because I never cooked the same thing twice. I always
Speaker 2: time the same way. I have to have someone with
Speaker 2: me who takes down all the notes of what I'm doing.
Speaker 2: But I remember my publisher, Julie Gibbs being absolutely astounded
Speaker 2: because all I did to prepare for the photo sessions
Speaker 2: was get all this amazing produce delivered from our farm
Speaker 2: from the river Land, and I had it all around
Speaker 2: the kitchen and then I decided how to cook it.
Speaker 2: And Sophie Zelica, who used to be my apprentice a
Speaker 2: long time ago, came over from Western Australia to be
Speaker 2: my backer, so she would assist me in the kitchen
Speaker 2: but also take notes. So I guess my cooking being
Speaker 2: a produced driven cook. I'm a very simple cook and
Speaker 2: I let the produce shine.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. So it sounds like it's a really intuitive
Speaker 1: process for you.
Speaker 2: Totally intuitive because I've never been taught to cook. I
Speaker 2: use instinct entirely so and I'm not great at planning.
Speaker 2: When I say I'm not great at planning, I plan
Speaker 2: all sorts of things. But I like to just be
Speaker 2: reactive to what I have to work with.
Speaker 1: I want to try and dig into that intuition a
Speaker 1: bit to try to find some tipsly to make my
Speaker 1: cooking better for anyone listening to this, So, like what
Speaker 1: is like, aside from using fresh seasonal produce, like, what
Speaker 1: are some other simple rules that you know that I
Speaker 1: could learn if I was watching you doing your thing
Speaker 1: in the kitchen.
Speaker 2: It seems a bit trite, but just keeping things simple
Speaker 2: is really important. When I say fresh seasonal produce, I
Speaker 2: have a very big vegetable garden, and so I am
Speaker 2: inspired by the flavor that I'm working with. So having
Speaker 2: your own garden, even if it's only herbs, the difference
Speaker 2: that that makes to food. What other getting yourself confidence
Speaker 2: in basic in sort of like a base repertoire. You
Speaker 2: know how to roast the perfect chok, how to make
Speaker 2: a beautiful stock and soup. If you just get a
Speaker 2: few really basic things down and then then you start
Speaker 2: they're building blocks and you start to build on that.
Speaker 2: So you then go on how to braise some beautiful
Speaker 2: lamb shanks. And because we've still got quinces, you put
Speaker 2: quinces in. You look to some inspiration from perhaps a
Speaker 2: culture that you admire. For me, it's the Mediterranean, because
Speaker 2: I live in a Mediterranean climate and I love Italian food,
Speaker 2: and I love Spanish food, and I love French food too,
Speaker 2: But I look for inspiration there and I find Italian
Speaker 2: food perhaps the most inspiring because it is almost the simplest.
Speaker 2: Isn't that helpful?
Speaker 1: It is? I want to dig into a couple of
Speaker 1: those things. So you talk about you've obviously got an
Speaker 1: amazing garden full of produce. But let's just say you're
Speaker 1: living in an apartment and you've got a balcony, Like, what,
Speaker 1: at a bare minimum would you recommend that people start
Speaker 1: to grow if they've got a small space.
Speaker 2: Even on a balcony, just grow your herbs. If you
Speaker 2: pick flat leaf parsley just before you're going to use it,
Speaker 2: if you have lemon thyme in the spring and the
Speaker 2: summer and ordinary time in the winter, if you have
Speaker 2: in the summer you have tarragon in your garden. Being
Speaker 2: able to just add that last minute touch of a
Speaker 2: fresh herb that you've grown yourself, rather than a bunch
Speaker 2: that you've grown from that could be two weeks old
Speaker 2: at the supermarket will make the most the most incredible difference.
Speaker 2: And if you have room for a big pot, then
Speaker 2: whatever you do, have a lemon tree fitting in there
Speaker 2: on your balcony. It's beautiful to look at green all
Speaker 2: the year, and we'll give off fruit the whole year round,
Speaker 2: if you look after it properly.
Speaker 1: Oh I'm getting excited listening to this. I'm sorry. I'm
Speaker 1: so going to do something in my island after this interview, Maggie. Now,
Speaker 1: you also talked about having a good base repertoire, like
Speaker 1: what would be say five things like.
Speaker 2: That should be in our based repertoire, really base things.
Speaker 2: I'm going to put all the eggs together. You need
Speaker 2: to be able to boil an egg, poach an egg,
Speaker 2: and make an omelet, and boil an egg so it's
Speaker 2: not overcooked and it's lovely inside.
Speaker 1: And how do we do that? Like, how do I
Speaker 1: boil the perfect egg?
Speaker 2: Oh, my goodness, the perfect egg? Look, it depends whether
Speaker 2: it's come from your own chooks or whether it's come
Speaker 2: from a supermarket, whether it's in come out, straight out
Speaker 2: of the fridge or being at room and temperature. I
Speaker 2: have done some videos on just boiling an egg and
Speaker 2: poaching an egg, and I think it's really worth looking
Speaker 2: at something like that because all these things will be
Speaker 2: slightly different. But get it right with your own parameters,
Speaker 2: whether you're having to buy a free range egg from
Speaker 2: a farmer's market or a supermarket there are all these
Speaker 2: little things that make a difference. And I guess having
Speaker 2: yourself a dozen eggs and just go for it and
Speaker 2: practice it and get it right for the circumstances you
Speaker 2: are working with. I mean, I know that sounds crazy,
Speaker 2: but that's how variable things can be with eggs.
Speaker 1: Wow, Okay, what else should be in our based repertoire?
Speaker 2: Making a stock? You roast your vegetables and your say
Speaker 2: chicken frames or bones. That is extra flavor and it's
Speaker 2: just the base of so many things. Then, so that's eggs,
Speaker 2: that's stock. The stock will allow you. Then I think
Speaker 2: everyone should know how to make a beautiful winter soup,
Speaker 2: and for that you've made your stock. So then you'll
Speaker 2: use legumes and vegetables and you'll have soups that are
Speaker 2: a whole meal themselves. Then roasting a chook, a perfect
Speaker 2: roast chook, so long as you have bought a well
Speaker 2: bought up chook, can be like an absolute revelation.
Speaker 1: Okay, So now with roast chicken, I think during twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: I maybe roasted twenty chickens, right, I was determined to,
Speaker 1: and then I found like they were getting better and better,
Speaker 1: and then they started getting worse and worse, and they
Speaker 1: were undercooked, and you know, all right, risking people's health.
Speaker 1: So what are the secrets to creating the perfect roast chicken?
Speaker 2: The secret to creating a perfect roast chicken is one
Speaker 2: by yourself, a digital thermometer. Two buy a well bought
Speaker 2: up took and not a supermarket chok. There is such
Speaker 2: a difference, it's phenomenal. A supermarket chilk.
Speaker 1: Well, I was just going to say, how do we
Speaker 1: know if it's been well brought up? Is it just
Speaker 1: a matter of going to a butcher rather than a supermarket.
Speaker 2: No, it's asking questions. You know, there's a lot we
Speaker 2: have to If we're looking for the best washing machine,
Speaker 2: we would do some research. For the best chook, you've
Speaker 2: got to do the same. And every state has got
Speaker 2: really good chicken farmers where they're grown out naturally without
Speaker 2: antibiotic which I used as a preventative to grow cooks
Speaker 2: out quicker. And you want to know about their feed. So,
Speaker 2: like everything, if you want something good, you've got to
Speaker 2: do some background and make some choices. For me, it's
Speaker 2: protecting the breast with some foil when cooking, so the
Speaker 2: breast will dry out much easier. I always cook a
Speaker 2: large chook, say two kilos, because that's a chok that's
Speaker 2: grown out naturally and I've had a good life, and
Speaker 2: so I will cook for probably two hundred degrees with
Speaker 2: the breast protected in an oven tray with not very
Speaker 2: high sides, because that's important. So the heat gets right
Speaker 2: into the chok for the first twenty or thirty minutes,
Speaker 2: and then I will take the foil off and I
Speaker 2: will rub the chook. I previously rubbed the chook with
Speaker 2: extra virgin olive oil and salt, and then I will
Speaker 2: cook for about fifty minutes. Then I will check the
Speaker 2: temperature at the thickest part. It must be sixty five
Speaker 2: degrees c at the thickest part to be safe. And
Speaker 2: then I will cook it a little bit longer. I'll
Speaker 2: drizzle it with verdue, and then I will take it
Speaker 2: out of the oven at about an hour or an
Speaker 2: hour and ten turn it over because that really helps
Speaker 2: all the juices go back down into the breast, which
Speaker 2: is more likely to be dry.
Speaker 1: I'm like making notes as you talk. I'm just so
Speaker 1: excited to try these. Hello there. Maggie will be back
Speaker 1: soon talking about some of her favorite things to pair
Speaker 1: together in the kitchen, along with her favorite cookbooks and
Speaker 1: the best pieces of advice that she's ever received about
Speaker 1: running business. Now, if you are not currently connected with
Speaker 1: me on social media, you should because that's where I
Speaker 1: post a lot of content when I'm not doing this podcast.
Speaker 1: So connect with me on LinkedIn. Just look for Amantha
Speaker 1: INBA I think I'm the only one, and also on Twitter,
Speaker 1: I'm at Amantha and on Instagram, where I'm now starting
Speaker 1: to post little bits and pieces, you can find me
Speaker 1: at Amantha. I now another question, but I guess related
Speaker 1: to what we're all doing in the kitchen. I feel
Speaker 1: like I have no idea what flavors to mix with
Speaker 1: what flavors, or say, what herbs to mix with what foods? Like?
Speaker 1: Are there any kind of fundamental pairings that instantly make
Speaker 1: certain meals or certain foods taste better.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it's textures, like if you're cooking octopus on the
Speaker 2: barbecue and your child it's wonderful with the creaminess of avocado.
Speaker 2: Know that there are rules, Now that I think about it,
Speaker 2: I think it comes from experience and reading. And I've
Speaker 2: never followed recipes, but I read incessantly because things come
Speaker 2: to you from reading other people's work and stimulates your ideas.
Speaker 2: So I would go. I would go to someone like
Speaker 2: Elizabeth David, the English author who wrote back in the
Speaker 2: nineteen fifties, and not so much just recipes, but ideas
Speaker 2: of what went with what. And in fact that octopus
Speaker 2: and avocado came straight out of Elizabeth David. And I
Speaker 2: can't believe the difference it makes.
Speaker 1: Wow. What are some of your favorite cookbooks?
Speaker 2: Well, I think if you're if you're a novice of
Speaker 2: any kind, I don't think there are two books of
Speaker 2: Stephanie Alexander's, The Cook's Companion and The Gardener's Companion. I
Speaker 2: think it gives you such a base of knowledge that
Speaker 2: because you might go to the supermarket and buy some beetroots,
Speaker 2: and then you'll come back and open Stephanie's and see
Speaker 2: what she does with beetroots. I think that's a better
Speaker 2: way than starting with a recipe.
Speaker 1: What are like some of the key condiments or ingredients
Speaker 1: that are in your pantry or fridge that you know
Speaker 1: we can think about, you know, all of us having
Speaker 1: in our kitchen just to easily jazz something up.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, there are things that I can't live
Speaker 2: without and that Australian extra virgin olive oil of the
Speaker 2: freshest possible. Certainly, you would never buy oil that didn't
Speaker 2: have a year of harvest on. So that is extra
Speaker 2: virgin olive oil first, verdue second for me vinocotto, but
Speaker 2: you might have balsamic, but I prefer vinocotto which has
Speaker 2: that agradolce of sweet sour, of vinegar, a good red
Speaker 2: wine vinegar, good salt, and pepper and pepper. We always
Speaker 2: buy Australian pepper from Queensland, and parmigiano in parmagiana reggiano
Speaker 2: in the fridge, and a good stock in the pantry
Speaker 2: of legumes and good pasta.
Speaker 1: Now we've been talking a lot about food, but you are,
Speaker 1: of course a very very successful business woman, and I
Speaker 1: want to know, like, what are some of the best
Speaker 1: pieces of advice that you've been given about running successful
Speaker 1: businesses and how to do it? Well?
Speaker 2: Well, oh, I'm not sure that advice from others has
Speaker 2: come to me, and I've taken much notice of because
Speaker 2: I was always it took us twenty years to be
Speaker 2: an overnight success, and we started in nineteen seventy nine,
Speaker 2: so it took twenty years for that to really be
Speaker 2: considered successful, which meant that our base was really strong,
Speaker 2: and it was a very organic growth, not driven. We
Speaker 2: were never driven by money, but driven by ideas and
Speaker 2: quality and excellence and sustainability. So I'm not suggesting that
Speaker 2: it is a business model for everybody, but it was
Speaker 2: a business model for us, and we made many mistakes
Speaker 2: along the way. And the biggest mistake I always made
Speaker 2: was not getting the right people, not taking the trouble
Speaker 2: to get the right people around us. Now that happened
Speaker 2: because we didn't have the money to do that, But
Speaker 2: then when we were successful enough to do so, we
Speaker 2: didn't use enough knowledge enough to bring the right people in,
Speaker 2: and then we waited too long to move them on
Speaker 2: because they weren't right for themselves or for us. That's
Speaker 2: a very long winded way of saying the most important
Speaker 2: thing you can do in business is bringing people around
Speaker 2: you who have skills that you don't have that you
Speaker 2: need to make a viable economic business.
Speaker 1: What are some other lessons that you've learned.
Speaker 2: I've learned that my basic premise has always been, without
Speaker 2: me identifying it when I was younger, that I'm driven
Speaker 2: by continuous improvement. It's always been part of my nature,
Speaker 2: and it means that you have to have people around
Speaker 2: you that are excited by that and not feel that
Speaker 2: continuous improvement is a criticism if they're not embracing it,
Speaker 2: there has to be a sense of your on a
Speaker 2: path of continuous improvement together. I also have learned that
Speaker 2: the most important thing is to have positive people around you,
Speaker 2: that if you have, if there are people that don't
Speaker 2: want to be there, it's better for them that they're
Speaker 2: not positive. Energy is one of the most important things
Speaker 2: in business.
Speaker 1: How are you, I guess assessing that when you're recruiting
Speaker 1: new people?
Speaker 2: Ah, well, of course you realize that we have sold
Speaker 2: entirely Maggie beer products.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, and we did.
Speaker 2: That because we had no succession plan and the fact
Speaker 2: that we believe so much in the management team I
Speaker 2: had around me before we sold and who are still
Speaker 2: there and driving the business in a way that I
Speaker 2: never could. And so, but from my business at the farm,
Speaker 2: which is still very extensive business, it is now using
Speaker 2: understanding that you really need to use psychological profiling to
Speaker 2: gather that information. Who is a natural leader? How do
Speaker 2: people cope with change?
Speaker 1: I couldn't agree more about psych profiling, and inventing. We
Speaker 1: have this tool that we use. It's called the Savile Wave,
Speaker 1: and we call it like our own personal clairvoyant because
Speaker 1: it is so uncannily good at predicting people's future behavior
Speaker 1: when you know when and if we employ them, you know,
Speaker 1: to what their strengths are, to where the areas for
Speaker 1: development aren't. So I'm a huge fan of that.
Speaker 2: Oh me too, Me too. In fact, I think every
Speaker 2: school child should be put through that for them to
Speaker 2: understand what their potential is. You know, are they a leader?
Speaker 2: Are they a follower? Do they they creative? Are they logical?
Speaker 2: And all of those things. I think it would help
Speaker 2: enormously in our community.
Speaker 1: Now, you mentioned that you're working fifty plus hours a week,
Speaker 1: but I've also read that you're like aiming to slow down,
Speaker 1: and I am live right now. I want to know
Speaker 1: what what are some of the habits or things that
Speaker 1: you do to have the energy to keep up with
Speaker 1: everything that you're doing.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm very lucky. I just naturally have energy. I
Speaker 2: love what I do that gives me energy. I walk
Speaker 2: every day because I love it, not because I should.
Speaker 2: I have things in my life that joy that give
Speaker 2: me energy, so yes, and I have a positive outlook
Speaker 2: on life that it doesn't mean that you don't go
Speaker 2: through terrible times, but it does mean that it helps
Speaker 2: you through them.
Speaker 1: With your walks, Maggie like, what does that look like?
Speaker 1: Are you listening to things on your walks? Are you
Speaker 1: thinking about things or solving business problems? What does that
Speaker 1: look like?
Speaker 2: It's a bit of everything. Because we live in this
Speaker 2: beautiful area of the Barossa, and from our own home
Speaker 2: we have lovely walks up the hills. Sometimes I walk
Speaker 2: with Colin and we talk about things. Often I walk
Speaker 2: on my own and listen to music or a podcast,
Speaker 2: but not all the time. I tend to take notes
Speaker 2: on my phone as I think about things, and sometimes
Speaker 2: I just stop and look at a tree that is
Speaker 2: so beautiful that I say hello too.
Speaker 1: Oh it's gorgeous. Oh well, that is a very nice note.
Speaker 1: I think. To finish on my final question, which is
Speaker 1: for people that want to consume more of what you're
Speaker 1: doing and connect with you in some way, what is
Speaker 1: the best way for people to do that?
Speaker 2: I guess I do a monthly newsletter about my life
Speaker 2: and all the things that I take on, and that's
Speaker 2: on the Maggie Beer Maggie Beer Product's website, because I'm
Speaker 2: still very involved with that, because I still, even though
Speaker 2: I don't own it anymore, I feel I do because
Speaker 2: I'm so connected to everyone in it, so that there
Speaker 2: is a food club which is free to join. I
Speaker 2: also write a newsletter for the Maggie Beer Foundation, and
Speaker 2: that website shows the work that I'm doing there. And
Speaker 2: our Instagram is good too, so that sort of fills
Speaker 2: a whole lot of gaps about my life amazing.
Speaker 1: I will link to all those things in the show notes. Maggie.
Speaker 1: It has been an absolute joy connecting with you and
Speaker 1: chatting with you. I'm such a fan of everything that
Speaker 1: you've done. Thank you so much for your time today.
Speaker 2: It's my pleasure.
Speaker 1: Hey there, That is it for today's show. If you
Speaker 1: are enjoying How I Work, then hit subscribe or follow
Speaker 1: wherever you're listening to this from, because next week I
Speaker 1: have Emily Osta, who's an economics professor at Brown University,
Speaker 1: and we're going to be talking about how she makes
Speaker 1: better decisions in work and in life using principles from economics.
Speaker 1: How I Work is produced by Inventium with production support
Speaker 1: from dead Set Studios. The producer for this episode was
Speaker 1: Jenna Coda, and thank you to Martin Nimber who does
Speaker 1: the audio mix for every episode and makes everything sound amazing.
Speaker 1: That's it for today and I'll see you next time.