Small Business... Bread Man Walking

           I knew Gerry Godley reasonably well when I worked and ran the Jazz Section of Tower Records in Dublin circa 1998 until about 2002. It was a period in where there was a sense of a revival or new wave of jazz musicians coming through after public interest had possibly dwindled in the art form in the 1990s. Gerry was a sax player, tenor and baritone mainly and he cut a rather dashing and handsome figure on the instrument back then. People actually bought cds, Ray Comiskey was reviewing his jazz album of the week in the Irish Times and Gerry took notice of the Arts Council Funding and was heavily involved in founding the Improvised Music Company and began to utilise his other talents of organising musicians and concerts at home and abroad. Vicar Street had a little smaller venue called 'The Shelter' and I remember being seated next to the ambassador to Sweden while listening to the hottest trio coming through Europe called the Esbjorn Svensson Trio. A year later they filled Vicar Street (although I think it was a smaller capacity then it is today) and for two years there was actually a Dublin Jazz Festival to rival Cork. I left the retail business myself, travelled and lived abroad but when I returned I did attend his wedding. The IMC had thrived and he was no stranger to the odd feature on RTE arts related programme and he broadcasted on Lyric Fm with a programme called 'Reels to Ragas'. I remember he had told me when I first met him he was a chef in his early 20s in London while picking up the intricacies of Jazz Saxophone but I couldn't help but feel now that he had come a long way since then.

           We sort of fell out of touch, I knew he settled somewhere in Dublin City Centre (Rialto it turned out to be) and the last I heard he had taken a prestigious position as Director of Music at Leeds University and was commuting weekly to Leeds. I almost ran into him (I also reside in D8) when I was running during first lockdown and as all flights were off he told me he was going through the tricky process of trying to figure out what to do next here in Dublin. It does seem that Covid facilitated the rise in the small business, the homegrown, find your niche, trapped in the 5km radius, bored of Netflix and Zoom calls kind of thing. I suppose the drastic change from 2002 to 2022 was the unprecedented rise of all things internet related and especially of Social Media. Gerry was always very comfortable as Mc when introducing acts onstage and he obviously had personality and a way with words if he was a broadcaster on Lyric Fm. I believe it was late summer 2022 when I saw him again. I'd attended a vinyl fair in 'The Circular Pub' in Rialto with my sister and her husband and I was treating myself to a few early afternoon Guinness. While at the bar he literally floated past me looking like an absolute zombie. I grabbed him for a quick chat and he'd told me he had been up all night baking bread and was literally just trying to stay awake for his 'bakers pint' before collapsing when he got home. It was great to see him, I wished him all the best and quickly found the handle on his new venture on Instagram and clicked follow.

          I'd never viewed a Ted Talk until attending this course but I've been particularly influenced by the homegrown and nurtured fanbase approach of 'The Art of Asking' by Amanda Palmer and going deep into your niche. I also found Elizabeth Gilbert 'Success, failure and the drive to keep creating' to be of particular use to myself as a musician. When it's a worrying time when the gig diary isn't full or posting in social media yields few likes or traction on a new video one of the best things is to retreat to the guitar and just practice and create. Taking a few of these things on board I decided to look at Gerry Godleys new business @breadmanwalking. I immediately liked his title as it's catchy, memorable and not without a sense of humour. I would've assumed he was on Twitter from his Lyric Fm days and I was correct although the handle has now changed to @BreadmanWLKG and he joined in feb 2022 as a Guerrilla Microbakery serving sourdough, brioche & pastries to D8 & surrounds on Saturdays. He's sent 741 tweets and embedded an article from the Irish Times and he's pinned a tweet and link to RTE nationwide where his new business was featured. The handle has 666 followers and he follows 310 himself. He tweets regularly and retweets, content is obviously food and picture based  https://twitter.com/breadmanwlkg/status/1636059356889268225?s=46&t=nT13rnKUdCq3HM7jt17bVA and there is a very simple operation in system to order bread etc via dm by Thursday evening, it's prep the dough all day Friday and a very early start Sat morning to a timed pre heated oven by 4am and collect, drop in for a quick chat at his home between 12 and 3.

          Breadmanwalking is also active on Facebook with 431 followers 270 likes , some pinned articles (his Rte feature) and some more pictures of all home baked loveliness packed and ready for collection.  https://www.rte.ie/player/series/nationwide/SI0000001172?epguid=IH000412886.  As I suspected the main push on social media is on Instagram https://instagram.com/bread_man_walking?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= and again the pinned features are his feature in the Irish Times and his coverage on Nationwide. Followers are just under 5000 at 4878, following at 1116 and posts number 327. In my opinion this business mosts suit this social media platform, obviously all the food and bread pictures look wonderful and as it's cook and collect from his home there are plenty of pictures and short reels displaying the homegrown and community nature of his business. Reels suit this business also which display him doing some last minute deliveries on his bike, prepping the dough and footage of their dog, animal features seem to go down well in any of these niche home grown businesses. As of yet there appears to be no website but as he's started doing how to bake sourdough courses etc etc from his home I'm sure he will expand his business more online. Wishing him continued success. #biz