Two Cowboys is Celebrating What's Right With the World

The Trap

This year has been unprecedented on so many levels. We are lost for words at the madness of 2020. It is tragic that at a time when we need each other more than ever that we are being driven apart. 

As I am writing, months since my last blog entry, we still face lockdowns, mandatory mask-wearing, travel restrictions, closed borders, business closures, event cancellations, growing unemployment, layoffs, food shortages, deficits, increased inflation, cancelled contracts, snitch-lines, social distancing, riots, and death. 

Celebrating What's Right with the World!

No, it is not a coronavirus. It is not a thing that is doing this to us, our society, and our community. It is also too easy to blame the Chinese, the politicians, or the Government. With all the adversity, we are constantly reminded about the things that are wrong with the world. Are we in this mess because of Climate change, Big Oil, Capitalism, Patriarchy, Intolerance, Income Disparity, Racism, Hate, Colonialism, Apartheid, Trump or Bigotry? 

By imparting our responsibility for our salvation to the whiffs and whims of others, we are inviting 2020 to be our world. We blame instead of respond. It is someone or something else that is responsible for making it all a mess. They are screwing it up for everyone, we say. If only there could be fewer men, less money, more credit, lower carbon, less plastic, fewer cars, higher wages, a vaccine, more tolerance, fewer people.

The fault and the solution seem to conveniently be just out of reach - to be found elsewhere. You get the picture! 

Escape to '21

Why has it then become so incredibly challenging to recognize what is right with the world?

Unfortunately, whether we like it or not, our world is in large part the product of our thoughts and perception. We have the power to define our experiences and responses to the things around us. We contribute to our collective bubbles - our community, town, Province and Country. 

How we interpret our circumstances creates our reality and influences the behaviour of those around us. Yes, we are doing 2020 in large part to ourselves because we tolerate it. We are the dreaded virus. Unwittingly, we are also doing it to each other. 

The bad news is that we will remain trapped for as long as we continue to listen to the echo chambers of society's zombie hums of despair. Endorphin tapping amplifiers of desperation (referred to comically as "social media") will continue to milk our time and attention for calamity. It happens while we become more disconnected, separated from our friends, from our community, our partners, and even our children.

With a small shift in our perception, we should be able to recognize and create beauty again. We should be able to restore hope in the future. Trust our neighbour's intentions. With a simple decision, we can commit to extending the liberty we expect for ourselves, to each other. We can sidestep blame and engage for prosperity.

We need not look elsewhere for a new or better world. We have the mental power within us to make the call. We've had it all along within our grasp. The place to start is with ourselves. A simple decision of "No more!".

Nothing will change until something changes. Then, hit the uninstall button. Save yourself. 

Disconnect to connect. 

Share a Meal

For eons, food brought people together. We survived by pooling our resources for a meal. We joined forces with neighbours for safety and formed friendships around a fire. The moment we became human was when we shared a meal. This is where we will reconnect. 

By cooking and eating together again we can change the world for ourselves and for others. Going back to the beginning around a fire should be the best place to make new connections. It is where we can begin again to recognize what is right with the world. 

That is why the Two Cowboys encourage you to Eat, Drink and Live. Create a better future for yourself and for your community. Cook. Share. Invite family and friends to join. Meet strangers. Recognize what is right with the world. 

Welcome to tomorrow!

Hendrik

Cowboy Nouveau

Photos

Two Cowboys HQ

Cooking with Fire

A Feast

Cabin Fever in the Ou Transvaal - Cowboys Cooking with Acacia BBQ

Cabin Fever Remedies

January and February are cold months in Canada. By the time late-February rolls around, Canadians are grumpy. Cabin fever sets. Children and old people go missing. Ice Hockey referees resign, and parents get violent. Strange things that happen in the winter lands of ice and snow.

We've been living in Canada for 12 winters now. Every year we are still astounded to see just how much of an influence the winter blues have on people around us. Many lucky ones escape to warmer climates. Popular destinations include Mexico, the Southern United States, and a few lucky ones make it Downunder or to our homelands - Southern Africa.

This year we stayed home under our blanket of white. To counter cabin fever, we relied on our diligent preparation and applied remedies that didn't involve children, violence, sticks, or rock hard rubber disks. We saved items and happy thoughts for the occasion. Some things we used as crutch included a little Mieliepap, Old Brown Sherry, a few vintage Peppermint Crisps, Dry Wors, Jelly Tots, and some frozen slivers of Biltong.

Then we remembered our African lump charcoal from Acacia BBQ. Willie, one of the owners, left us a stash in the Fall with a mini-braai before he himself escaped to warmer climates. What a happy discovery!

DO YOU WANT YOUR BUSINESS OR COMMUNITY FEATURED?

The Bushveld Smell

Why bring Charcoal from the other side of the world to Canada?

Honestly, unless your first breath in this life was that of a Bushveld Braavleis fire, you will be hard-pressed to follow the logic. In reality, charcoal is a lightweight black carbon residue produced by removing water and other volatile constituents from plant materials (Wikipedia).

Charcoal is usually produced by slow pyrolysis - the heating of wood or other organic materials in the absence of oxygen. The advantage of burning charcoal, compared to burning wood, is the absence of water and other components. This allows charcoal to burn at higher temperatures, and give off very little smoke ("...regular wood can release a significant amount of steam, organic volatiles, and unburnt carbon particles - soot - in its smoke when it is not burned completely."). The end result is the solid-state of the one thing that drives the hysteria and New-World religion - carbon. Burn it, and you have pure carbon monoxide - plant food!

The charcoal you buy for your local BBQ or Braai at your supply store is close to, but not pure lumps of carbon. Where the mass and weight of the material is concerned, one chunk of plant material-derived carbon is much like the next. However, not all plant material is destroyed in the manufacturing process. There remains a faint memory of the origins of the wood due to some unburned content and volatiles. These are the remnants that impart the particular characteristics that differentiate Oak derived charcoal from Muskeet, Applewood, or in the case of Acacia BBQ, African hardwoods.

That is why a bag of Royal Oak differs from Kingfords, Canadian Maple, and the rest. The mass and density set the temperature, and the time it burns (hence briquettes are very similar in performance). The unburned material and volatiles impart the flavour. It is this flavour of the Bushveld smoke that took us home when we lit our first box of Acacia BBQ charcoal on a little Easy Grill.

Acacia BBQ charcoal is a product of HB’s Premium Char Imports Ltd. It is available in Canada and the USA. The charcoal they import is the result of 10 years of trials and tribulations to realize the dream of a family business.  Acacia BBQ searched all over Southern Africa to find producers that would bring the “braai” (BBQ) experience of Africa to North America.  They are conservation-minded and source the materials sustainably while remaining sensitive to the socio-economic issues and opportunities of Africa.

Observations

If you haven't breathed the Bushveld, then you will be forgiven for considering the Acacia BBQ product, just another premium lump charcoal. Burn-time and temperature don't set it apart, and you will be forgiven for thinking it is expensive. Remember, it did come from halfway around the world.

It is the flavour that sets it apart! We consider the profile baby perfume-like. Yes, we are biased because our memory receptors are triggered to take us to our happy place - a bushveld fire, the sun setting, jackals howling in the background, and a "tjoppie" sizzling on the braai (grill), fueled by African hardwoods.

We thank Willie and Acacia BBQ for this huge present at a time we needed it most. He gave us another glimpse of heaven and reminded us of where we came from. This is our Valhalla!

It made -25C a little bearable this time around. We escaped Cabin Fever for another year. If you want the smell of Africa for your meat, then cook with Acacia BBQ. That is why we do it.

Hendrik

Cooking Cowboy

Photos

Christmas Box!

Little Fire!

Eazy Grill

Wors!

Cooking with Fire

Two Cowboys Cooking in 2020!

Cooking Cowboys

Today marks the start of a new chapter in the lives and the stories of the Two Cowboys. We are embarking on the Two Cowboys' "Cooking" adventure.

"What will be different?" We are glad that you asked.  

The Two Cowboys Experience

We live the Two Cowboys Lifestyle, exploring local producers, small towns and celebrating great food. We film it and showcase our experiences through our online content. However, this time, we will also have an open invitation for people to participate. Come and do it with us. 

You've seen the movie, now drink the milkshake, pull the pork, rub the butt, bite the brisket, lick the sauce, and share in the adventure.

We will cook, cater, and eat our way through tremendous food experiences, and we invite you to enjoy it with us. You will be able to learn, cook, sample, and feast with the Two Cowboys and our partners.

The Two Cowboys Cooking adventure will be in three parts.

• The Two Cowboys HQ and Milk Bar: This Spring, we are launching the Two Cowboys Cookhouse (HQ) and Milk Bar "pop-up concept" in Greenwood, British Columbia. It will be our new home base where we will have our kitchen, cookers, and smokers on display as we cook because we love it. At this location, we will redefine what it means to hang out around a fire with friends. During the special events, we will sample-serve traditional hearty to-go fire-cooked favourites and unique and amazing gastronomical marvels. On special occasions, and by invitation, be prepared to bite into delicious apple smoked pulled pork, creative and flavourful arepa creations, boerewors, porchetta, ribs, lamb shoulders, and much, much more. We will complement it with locally sourced cheeses, ice creams, milkshakes, custards, cakes and chocolate dessert creations. We promise that there will always be something new, top quality, and out of the ordinary to savour from the community in Greenwood, BC, on Highway 3.
• Two Cowboys Exclusive Catering Events: With our partners, we are also taking the show on the road. We will be hosting exciting food events in unique and unusual locations in celebration of producers and seasonal local produce. During these events, we will be showing off our gear, instructing, cooking local ingredients, tasting, and enjoying exceptional dishes with our guests and supporters. You will find us at local craft breweries, vineyards, campgrounds, in a tent, on a vacant lot, at a food festival, parking spot, in a forest, or on a beach - wherever we can share the gospel of fire cooking local produce.
• Two Cowboys TV and Blog: All the time, we will continue to produce online content to showcase, chronicle, and entertain you with the adventures of the Two Cowboys lifestyle. 

DO YOU WANT YOUR BUSINESS OR COMMUNITY FEATURED?

Our travels and the time we've spent with many producers over the last three years made us realize one significant fact. Just how right we've been to celebrate the makers and producers in our communities. 

In particular, we marvelled at the dedication of our farmers and food producers to persevere in a world where quality and authenticity remain under threat. It is why we are motivated to showcase and celebrate even more of their work by preparing, cooking, serving, and sharing their products and those of our partners that allow us the opportunity to do it. 

There is a profound reward for makers in the simple act of creating and adding value. In its purest form, we've recognized how people change for the better in health and outlook when they embark on something as simple as regularly finding, cooking and sharing food. By doing it over a fire, it becomes even better - no matter the weather (Yes, we are cooking in the middle of the Canadian Winter). 

We continue to pursue and share our passion online and offline, for this highly rewarding and sacred ritual. We also endeavour to bring even more people into the fold of preparing and eating real, locally produced, and self-cooked food. We hope you can share the journey with us as this unique adventure continues and promises to become something impressive.

See you on the road!

P.S. If you want to partner with the Two Cowboys on any of the above, then please get in touch. We are on the lookout to feature produce, partners, chefs, hosts, and unique locations for the festivities.

Hendrik

Cooking Cowboy

Photos

Two Cowboys

Cooking School

Flame Grilled

Two Cowboys H-Q

Off the Desk and Into the Sauce with House of Q in Vernon, BC

Share It

If you are tired of mixing the same seasoning spices every time you cook a steak, then you have to meet Brian Misko. If you are not up to making your own BBQ sauces from scratch, when quickly needing to grill a pork chop, or slow smoking a butt, then House of Q is your home. You have something in common. If you are in need of tasty BBQ seasoning spices and sauces for your cooking hobby, there is a Q solution.

Brian built a business from it. He created base seasoning and saucing for his out-of-control hobby and then shared it with other like-minded BBQ and grilling enthusiasts. It quickly became the go-to for customers pressed for time, with no appetite for compromise. People that require award-winning foundations for their love of meat. He called it House of Q.

Successful companies come from innovative entrepreneurs that invent products or services out of necessity. People who take their products to market for others to also enjoy. Brian is one of the best examples of how to start such a business. He is selling something he made, like, and use regularly. By doing it, he is adding value with his products, advice and support, to other like-minded enthusiasts in his BBQ industry.

This is part of the TWO COWBOYS' EPIC GLOBAL TRAVEL & CULINARY EXPERIENCE - 2019! 

Episode 1 - Cooking with Yoders

Episode 2 - Cooking with Q

DO YOU WANT YOUR BUSINESS OR COMMUNITY FEATURED?

Escaping the Pod

It is an all too familiar, yet, still an inspiring story. According to Brian, it started around 2004. His cubicle in the software industry became too small. His escape was the discovery of his love for cooking. More and more of his time went into this passion. BBQ competitions followed. Before long, a little media attention, and voila! House of Q was born as a byproduct of this drive for award-winning food.

BBQ'ers have few choices for making a living from their passion. Some will call it art. Many cater to functions. A few start restaurants or smokehouses. Even fewer become entertainers. Starting a manufacturing business and launching a consumer brand with the name "House of Q" is probably one of the hardest and gutsiest ways to earn a living.

Brian escaped his pod. Today he spends his time honing his competitive cooking streak, developing new products, promoting them where he can, and inspiring others to discover their own food passions.

What he makes, promises to deliver a little help on the way to BBQ salvation. It includes a cookbook, seasoning spice blends, and sugary smokey spicey sauces - the necessary base ingredients for old-fashioned low and slow Southern BBQ. In his free time, he is generous with his advice and his commitment to inspire healthy living through good eating, and the art of cooking with fire.

Observations

Here is where the House of Q meets the Two Cowboys. We eagerly promote something we enjoy.

The Cowboys likes using Brian's products. It saves us from assembling our own beef pepper seasoning, which mostly contains the same ingredients. Q's all-purpose seasoning works equally well on pork ribs and chicken. We cannot decide if we like the Rocking Red or the Apple Butter Sauce more. We guess it depends on our mood and the amount of beer lubricating our cook. All we know is that our pork has never tasted more "Appelly" and "Zingy" when combining the two.

When it comes down to it, we share a passion for cooking with Brian. We agree about the need to advocate for more people to cook, grill and BBQ at home. You eat better that way. We both buy from local food producers, sourcing in-season ingredients for our cook, and include more fresh vegetables and meat protein in our diets.

Above all, we love sharing our passion with the people we call our friends. There is nothing better than to cook with fire, doing it for, and with the people we love, and findings innovative ways of telling the world about it. That is why we like a little House of Q. It comes from the same place.

Enjoy!

P.S. Get your House of Q products here.

Hendrik

Cooking Cowboy

We earn our livelihood by producing great content and supporting inspiring people, businesses, and communities. Please book us here so we can tell your story too.

Photos

Getting the Sauce

Quality Control 

Recognize it

Hacking All Grain Brewing with Kiwi Ingenuity and Simple Affordable Tools at Bevie in Auckland, New Zealand

Hacking Our Beer

How do you take the beer brewing process, and make it accessible to the average Joe? Simple, you hack it!

The processes for brewing quality beer have been refined over centuries and continues to evolve even today. From an outsider's perspective, it appears to be safeguarded by an eclectic club of weird scientists set on excluding ordinary folk from the inner circle. They mumble of gravity, sparging, yield, steeping and other incomprehensible nomenclature. They keep their brewing secrets close, their recipes even closer, and their influence as wide as it can go within their brewing circle of friends. 

While brewing good quality beer used to be a regular kitchen affair, a couple of hundred years ago, it slowly evolved into dark science, out of reach for ordinary people, like the Two Cowboys. Now, with the help of some simple equipment like a kettle, a pump, some tubes, and good ingredients like grains, yeast, hops and water, a company called Bevie, in New Zealand, managed to apply modern-day control-flow systems, and a mobile app, to unlock the highly complex all-grain brewing processes for ordinary people.

This is part of the TWO COWBOYS' EPIC GLOBAL TRAVEL & CULINARY EXPERIENCE - 2019! 

DO YOU WANT YOUR BUSINESS OR COMMUNITY FEATURED?

They call it the Grainfather. It takes the best brewing practices from craft breweries and puts them into a simple to use, all in one system, to ensure anyone can brew a professionally produced craft beer, no matter their brewing experience.

You can also turn the Grainfather into a microdistillery by changing the top parts and adding the Still Spirits Alembic Pot Still Attachments. It is highly illegal to distill liqueur without a license in Canada, while pot smoking is now allowed (...go figure!). We are just saying that you can make fuel for your car or truck from your Grainfather brewing activities if you should ever need it. If you store the fuel in an oak barrel lying around, to keep it safe, it is between you and the RCMP to work out who gets what share when they come knocking.

There are many all-grain brewing equipment manufacturers and lots of equipment for brewing beer on the market. If you buy quality, it is expensive. People are spoiled for choice if they know what they are doing. Herein lies the problem - you need to know what you are doing! Short of learning from an expert or enrolling in beer school, it takes time, trial and error, and lots of learning to work out the best way for brewing beer from grains.

The innovation of the Grainfather is that it is a highly affordable, all-in-one system, for producing an excellent quality wort that you can ferment in the ways you prefer. It also drastically reduces your learning time and eliminates many costly brewing mistakes.

The one-pot brew system may not even be the most innovative around because there's been many that copied the approach and tried to improve on it. Some may also claim that not even Grainfather can be credited for coming up with the approach, although Kiwi's have been known for their innovation in all kinds of industries.

What struck us about the Grainfather is the innovation that Bevie put into the control of the brewing process. The smarts are in the software, not the pot! It offers the ability to a brewer to dial in an exact recipe and then execute it flawlessly, with a built-in controller, and the help of a mobile app on their phone or iPad.

Good brewing's foundation is precision and repeatability. Couple this with good ingredients, great water, and perfect fermentation, and you are on your way to consistently delicious craft-style beer and the envy of the neighbourhood. Not only do you get to execute the brewing tasks flawlessly, but you can also collaborate with other users, all over the world, on recipes and outcomes so that you have a massive database of brewing information on hand for your perfect beer. It gives new meaning to brewing with your mates!

Apparently, Bevie also has an answer for fermenting and serving your beer and provides you with another shortcut by having portion perfect fresh ingredient packs ready for a variety of standard brews. That is a story for another time.  

Observations

The brewing process is getting hacked. People are now liberated to brew their own craft quality beer consistently from grains with simple equipment and software that not only dramatically reduces the learning curve but assist in controlling the quality of the execution.

I don't want my beer to be made for me. If I did, I will just go and buy it from the next brewery or liquor store. I want to make my own beer, simply, affordably, consistently, and deliciously from available ingredients. That is what true beer liberation is about.

There are no gimmicks with the Grainfather offering a "one-push button dark magic beer brewing box". It is old-fashion grain brewing done right. They should have called it the "BigBrother" of beer. The whole solution comes in under $1,000 with free support and an ever growing database of brewing/distilling knowledge and beer recipes. It allows you to make a batch of 23 litres of beer with the ingredients of your choice.

Herein lies the problem. We want to brew more during the few weekly hours we can dedicate to this delicious hobby. Apparently, Bevie is working on a system that can do three times the volume of the existing Grainfather, and it will likely still be an electric system you can use in your shed. Yeehaaa!

The Two Cowboys has been on a journey for the last three years to liberate our beer. Bevie is giving us another option with the Grainfather to get closer to drinking what we make ourselves. We cannot wait to tell you what more they have installed for average people like us, on our beer and do-it-yourself journey.

Hendrik

Brewing Cowboy

We earn our livelihood by producing great content and supporting inspiring people, businesses, and communities. Please book us here so we can tell your story too.

Photos

Smart Pot! 

One Pot

Learning Fast!

Dogs are Getting Groomed - Not Cowboys - at Country Suds in Greenwood, BC

Lifestyle Change

What if the end is only the beginning?

People are often confronted with significant changes and choices in life. We've all been through it. The start of a new job, the loss of a friend, sickness. Moving away from home or moving in with someone you love. Buying a car or choosing a house. Starting of a new business. Some changes are forced upon us due to circumstances. Others, we do to ourselves. 

Whenever a significant change occurs, we are confronted with at least two perspectives. The one view is a feeling of loss, decline, powerlessness, and the lack of control. The other a sense of gain, re-birth, strength, and a new beginning. 

It doesn't matter how small or large the change is. The key to success in life is how well we deal with changes. How good are we at moving away from what we had, towards something new? 

This is part of the TWO COWBOYS' EPIC GLOBAL TRAVEL & CULINARY EXPERIENCE - 2019! 

DO YOU WANT YOUR BUSINESS OR COMMUNITY FEATURED?

Nature is in a constant cycle of decline and renewal. It should be natural to us as humans too to easily let go of the old and to welcome the new. Why is it so hard then for people to embrace the same fluidity of life?

It is because we trap ourselves in temporal illusions. Our imagination creates time, circumstances and places in distorted realities. In our silliness, we fear losing things long gone, while holding on to things that may never be. Our perspectives define our reality. The hardest task then is to tie our reality down to the truth of where we are now and what we need to give up to move forward.

When we are honest with ourselves, we will realize that every change is a goodbye to get a hello, an end for a beginning, letting go for something new. Without this realization, we risk being trapped in an illusory twilight of despair. It will destroy our spirit if we cannot say goodbye. We won't have a future if we do not say hello.

Greenwood

Greenwood City in British Columbia has been saying goodbye since 1918 when the copper mine and smelter closed. It's been saying goodbye for such a very long time that it became trapped in a very real twilight of despair and decay. Old buildings crumbled, people moved away, and businesses left town despite the city seeing an average daily traffic pattern over 3,000 vehicles during the summer months (Traffic Patterns, 2011). It may well be on the road to oblivion like its predecessors Phoenix, Bridesville, Sidley, and others if it doesn't embrace a future.

Because of the city's rich history and its record resistance to change, Greenwood also attracted people fearful of letting go. You can see it in the junk of the yard collections. The failed upkeep of its small houses, and the prevailing rust of the old clunkers in the driveways.

We think that Greenwood and the area are poised for change and on the verge of a millennial renaissance. It is the right time now for the City to move towards its tomorrow as more and more people drop out of big-city life, avoid daily commuting, expensive mortgages, and having too much meaningless stuff.

Greenwood could and should say hello to young families, college graduates, entrepreneurs, crafters, makers, small houses, new buildings and people that embrace lifestyle, simplicity and old-school authentic values. The mine won't give it a future. Instead, it should court producers, makers, and telecommuters - the foundation of a new economy.

The last thing Greenwood needs is a Mickey D's on the corner, Starbucks or a Safeway parking lot. Instead, it requires a butcher, doctor, grocer, candymaker, woodworker, cabinet maker, knifemaker, weaver, and it needs more people that realize that it is an affordable place to work and live - really live. It has the required vehicle traffic. Greenwood just needs to give people more reasons to stop, and some will even choose to bring their dreams, hobbies, businesses and jobs to stay.

Observations

Tammy Bowering moved to Greenwood and established her Country Suds Dog Grooming in 2018. She just realized that Greenwood has dogs that need grooming. Her love for dogs compelled her to say hello to her future, and she started her small grooming business. It's been growing steadily, and we are proud to feature her as part of our portfolio of Boundary Country stories.

Tammy is so passionate about the future of the City that she is now heading the Greenwood Board of Trade. It is an organization that was incorporated in 1899, just two years after the city itself was incorporated. The chief goal of the Greenwood Board of Trade is to promote economic and community development, networks with local and regional businesses, and to provide small business support.

The Cowboys are glad that we can throw in our support too for the future prosperity of Greenwood. It gives another opportunity for people to find a better way to work and live in the Boundary Country of British Columbia. It is a chance for us to have our chosen lifestyle.

Hendrik

Boundary Cowboy

We earn our livelihood by producing great content and supporting inspiring people, businesses, and communities. Please book us here so we can tell your story too.

Photos

City Hall

Powder Room

Grooming

Doggy Love!

Doggy Wash!

Many New Beginnings and Constant Innovation at New Beginnings Toffees and Caramels in Pretoria

Balance

A small business owner lives in two worlds. The one forces him or her to standardize, systematize and consolidate for efficiency. The other calls on constant innovation and change to try and out-manoeuvre competitors and market demands. 

A small business owner is usually good at one of these. At New Beginnings Toffees, it is the latter that stands out. Jan Snyman is always busy with something new. His adventures have one thing in common, delicious toffees and unique chocolate caramels!

This is part of the TWO COWBOYS' EPIC GLOBAL TRAVEL & CULINARY EXPERIENCE - 2019! 

DO YOU WANT YOUR BUSINESS OR COMMUNITY FEATURED?

The challenge for a small business owner is to have the right balance in efficiency and innovation. Efficiency is not always tolerant of changes. By doing something in a standard way and scaling it, there are opportunities to increase profitability. Innovation presupposes change and is a very demanding partner that tends to destroy efficiency and gobble up capital. Sometimes, and more often than not, this means that profitability becomes a casualty.

The two are in a dance that is not always obvious to entrepreneurs. These are people that favours the latter, else they would not have bothered to start the business in the first instance. It is a 'chicken and egg' situation. Innovation drives growth, but efficiency drives the bottom line. Being profitable allows further innovation.

The key to the right priority is to know where in the business cycle you find your business. If it is a new business, and the industry allows it, and you have the capital and resources, then innovation should get priority. If it is an established business in a mature industry, it is usually better to consolidate and standardize to achieve efficiency and improved profitability.

The trouble with an entrepreneur is that they usually favour one. Either efficiency or innovation drives them. That is why it is essential as a business owner to recognize your strengths and realize that it has a place in the cycle of the success of your business. It can also quickly become the downfall if you do not temper or supplement your focus to establish important priority on either efficiency or innovation at the right time.

Observations

New Beginnings Toffees is a remarkable business that grew mainly from a necessity for Jan to have a second career. It provided an innovative confection play-pen to him and his partner, Joelean. The result is a substantial array of unique and traditional toffee-chocolate-caramel flavours, creative packaging, promotional positioning and marketing strategies. It is indeed something we have not yet encountered on our travels across the world. It is unique!

The business manufactures and distributes exclusive hand-made confectionary for select retailers, corporate gifting, hospitality industry, wedding favours and markets.

Jan cannot help himself but to continually explore the next possibility within his product development. He certainly landed a few of our favourites like the Turkish Delight Caramel and Treacle Toffee. It is encouraging to see his enthusiasm for creating the next "big" thing.

Unfortunately, South Africa has seen a series of casualties in strong confectionary brands. The toffees that did survive are no longer of the quality they used to be. We can only hope that Jan finds the magic recipe for successfully distributing his delicious products to step into the shoes of those that have gone before him.

Here is to wishing him and Joelean all the success they can handle. May we one day taste a new beginning for toffee-chocolate-caramels all over the world thanks to the work and dedication of New Beginnings Toffees in far-off South Africa.

We hope to have a maple syrup version we can take to Canada, the next time we see him ;-)

Hendrik
Sweet Cowboy

We earn our livelihood by producing great content and supporting inspiring people, businesses, and communities. Please book us here so we can tell your story too.

Photos

Toffee TV

Hand-Made

Guilty Pleasures

Many, Many Flavours

A Coffee Drinking Chicken and Breakfast Blueberry Gin at the Magoebaskloof Farmstall and Cafe, South Africa

Coffee Pit Stop

Life happens while you are making other plans!

While trying to escape the humid Lowveld summer heat of South Africa's Limpopo Province, we were in dire need of a good coffee. It's been several days since we've seen an espresso as we were heading up Magoebaskloof. Halfway up the pass, we passed a cafe sign and immediately decided to turn off the main road to inspect further. 

What we found proved to us, as we've discovered many, many times before, that when you travel, you should turn off the main road and prepare for the truly extraordinary discoveries. This time, we found great coffee, learned about a brewery, fed a pet goat, made cheese, and had blueberry gin for breakfast.

This is part of the TWO COWBOYS' EPIC GLOBAL TRAVEL & CULINARY EXPERIENCE - 2019! 

DO YOU WANT YOUR BUSINESS OR COMMUNITY FEATURED?

Harry and Agie are the owners of the new Magoebaskloof Farmstall and Cafe. You cannot miss the venue on the side of the picturesque Magoebaskloof pass, between Polokwane and Tzaneen. It is a farm stall stocked with local produce and a whole lot of heart and passion. You will find wine, gin, vegetables, plants, oils, soaps, pies and a little of everything the people of Magoebaskloof is proudly producing.

Yes, you are reading it right. You can buy alcohol-to-go on the side of the road in South Africa. Not only can you buy local wine, beer and gin, but Harry will also mix you a cocktail or spike your favourite latte for you, any time of the day. We were spoiled when we checked in. The Flatwhite was done correctly, and the locally baked pies were divine. However, it was the blueberry gin we had for breakfast that made our visit most memorable.

I think Harry played with Dolphins for a living and Angie, who is Canadian, were catching elephants in the Lowveld when they met. One thing led to another, and now a little Harry is running around the farmstall playing with a pet billy goat, and a big Harry is pulling espresso shots while entertaining tourists and regulars with his stories.

As they say, life happens while you were making other plans. We are glad to see the amount of passion Harry and Angie brought to their fledgeling business, and we wish them all the success they can handle. 

Observations

Turning off for a coffee at a farm stall is usually a reasonably trivial affair. We've stopped many times all over the world for coffee. It is often only about coffee. However, that morning in Magoebaskloof, something as simple as turning off the main road, a handshake, a blueberry gin and a pie later, put us on a completely different path, and a much more exciting journey.

We could have taken the safe, more comfortable option and simply continued towards the next town for a coffee at a familiar stop (which we did do several days later, only to have a disappointing coffee). Instead, our visit that morning with Harry lead us to a brewery, we discovered a fantastic camping spot by a river, we attended a local food festival, made cheese at an organic farm, ate a divine lamb pie, discovered cream cheese samoosas, and had a goat curry with mielie pap.

What it taught us again, even as seasoned travellers, is that you have to turn off the main road for your coffee. You have to say 'yes' to what is new and unfamiliar, and be prepared to experience and discover. If you do, life will gloriously happen. It will unfold around you with experiences you could never have imagined, even if you were trying to plan it.

Here is our Two Cowboys top tip about our visit to Magoebaskloof Farmstall and Cafe; "Go! Travel! Turn off the main road. Have a coffee. Introduce yourself. Say 'yes' to what happens next and enjoy the journey because life happens even if you make other plans. All you have to do is be ready to discover."

Buckle up and get ready for the ride.

Hendrik
Travelling Cowboy

We earn our livelihood by producing great content and supporting inspiring people, businesses, and communities. Please book us here so we can tell your story too.

Photos

Cappuchicken!

Breakfast

On the Road

Harry!

Six Surefire Ways to Fail in Business, Guaranteed!

Being Afraid, Very Afraid

We broke a record. The Two Cowboys published more than 400 video features of small businesses and communities since our inception in January 2016. Our non-branded content alone included a further 437 productions we did for our partners and for various Business Excellence Awards.

For a total of around 837 productions, we've met, interviewed and filmed more than 3,000 people in three years! We did it in Canada, USA, Mexico, New Zealand and in South Africa. We also added France and Italy to our travels in 2018. How's that for being busy?

In three short years, we've seen and heard more about businesses than most people do in a lifetime. We thought we knew a lot after University, 25 years of management consulting and years in television production. Instead, we learned a lot more from these business owners in a very short time that we ever imagined. We now also know a lot more about them.

Some of the businesses we met were, and still are, wildly successful. Unfortunately, the majority were not, and probably never will be. We came to the realization, when we looked through the lenses of our cameras (cameras rarely lie) and listened to the conversations we recorded, that the majority of those that are not successful face a single, but a major stumbling block. It doesn't matter where the business is. They all have one infliction.

They have a confidence problem! Because they lack confidence, they fear and some even avoid being successful. Entrepreneurs and business owners lack confidence because they have no idea what is supposed to make them succeed in the first place.

To illustrate the point. Here is a statement from one ignorant, cocky, small, hot sauce business owner, somewhere in the woods of Vancouver Island. "We'll contact you if we ever consider paying for publicity!" Our reply, "Please don't. We'd rather be contacted by someone that understands that publicity is what makes businesses and brands, even commodity hot sauce brands like yours, succeed. It makes businesses go national and global. Heaven forbid that someone actually finds out about your sauce. You may just be forced to deal with success!"

The point is that even if you don't have an interest in the Two Cowboys telling your story, a business owner should grab every opportunity possible to promote and get positive publicity for their product and brand. There are many things you can do to grow your enterprise. The most simple is to simply get out of the way of your success.

Simple Business 101

There are countless sources of entrepreneurial advice available in books and online. You don't have to do an MBA. It is all available by tapping a screen and clicking a button. Every second "consultant" and "authoritative" online page carries the keys to the castle. They can give you the 8 steps to entrepreneurial success, 5 ways to make a million, 7 keys to marketing success, or 10 ways to a six-figure income with your laptop on the beach. Don't forget email marketing and there is an app for that! I don't have to point out that most of this advice come from snake oil salesmen, nobodies and wannabes.

Instead of listing another 5, 8 or even a 100 ways to make it in business, I thought of highlighting the five surefire ways we've gleaned through our observation and experience of how to assure failure. Avoid these mistakes and you are likely to stumble upon the right things to do, by accident. Business is not supposed to be hard. It is not something you have to go and do under duress.

What you do in your business should be natural and align with who you are. If it fits, it is bound to have spontaneous progression and evolution.

Before we court disaster, here is a simple formula we've distilled for a successful maker business:

• Make something of value for yourself. (Product Development, R&D, Tooling, Materials, Prototyping, Testing, Validation, Manufacturing) 
• Find people that value it too. Share it with them. (Positioning, Promotion, Market Validation)
• Make more, and share it more often and with more people. They become your loyal customers. (Logistics, Supply Chain, Distribution, Labour, Packaging, Customer Relationship Management, Customer Support, Marketing, Promotion, Publicity, Selling, Fulfillment, After Sale Support, Quality Control, Billing)
• Exchange it for the amount of value it adds to your customers' lives. (Pricing)
• If your customers value what you make more than it cost you to make it, then you have a business. (Profit)
• Have fun and learn how to get better at it every day! (Evolve and Expand)
• If it doesn't work, make something else.

The same applies to a service business. It is even simpler.

• Do something you value for yourself. (Tools, Expertise, Skill, Knowledge, Effort, Time)
• Find people that value what you do. Do it for them too. (Positioning, Promotion, Validation) 
• Do it often and find more people to do it for. They become your loyal customers. (Customer Relationship Management, Publicity, Marketing, Sales, Service, Billing, Delivery) 
• Exchange it for the amount of value it adds to your customers' lives. (Pricing) 
• If your customers value what you do more than it cost you to do it, then you have a business. (Profit)
• Have fun and learn how to get better at what you do. Do it every day! (Evolve and Grow)
• If it doesn't work, do something else.

Let us Fail

Here are some surefire ways to fail in business.

• WASTE TIME: Procrastinate. Try to please others with a product or service you don't care for and that you don't really value. Do meaningless work that keeps you busy and pays the bills. The outcome will at best be mediocre and you are likely to hate every minute you are involved with it. Waste as much time as possible by delaying decisions. Go to the toilet often. Check your social media. Have meetings after meeting with your team. Collect your salary. Go on vacation. Have a hobby. The more you waste time, the less you will have to actually do.
• SHUN CONTACT: Heaven forbid that people should actually make contact with you about your product or service. Avoid customer contact at all cost. Don't answer your phone. Don't return messages or that email. Don't listen to people. Don't appear on your shop floor and don't interact with your staff. Please don't answer questions or entertain proposals. Make sure your website doesn't have an address, phone number or email address. If you are really serious about shunning contact then get yourself a receptionist, a call centre in India, a personal assistant, PR Firm, appoint a marketing person, and get a social media handler. They will make sure no one can get hold of you. Be very important. Have many titles. Customers won't buy from you and suppliers won't be able to offer you any help. If you cannot be reached, then people won't want something from you.
• AVOID EXPOSURE: Keep yourself a mystery. Hide! Avoid publicity. Don't have a proper website, or don't have one at all. Tell as little as possible about your product or service. Consider social media evil. Don't go near it. Never have a page on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Don't do any marketing or promotions. Avoid all forms of advertising. Remove your business listing from Google and maps. Take your shop's sign down. Don't put your business name on your vehicle. Throw away your business cards. Avoid telling your customers how to use your products and the benefits of your service. Remember, the less exposure you have the more likely no one will bother you.
• SKIRT FEEDBACK: Customer reviews are evil. Don't encourage reviews. Take down your Google reviews and disable your Facebook feedback button. Don't ask customers what you can do to make their product or experience better. If they do offer feedback deride them. Make them feel insignificant. Be a victim. Don't respond. You won't have to learn and adjust your product or service and won't meet your customers' expectations. If you skirt feedback then the truth won't hurt you. 
• AVOID SUCCESS: If you are unsuccessful you will have plenty to complain about. You won't make a difference in people's lives. If you avoid success, people won't care. If you are successful more people will want something from you and bother you often. With success, you may turn a profit and will have to pay more taxes and employ more people. By avoiding success you can have your predictable life. You won't be faced with challenges. You can blame your circumstances and your failure on someone and something else. 

The Two Cowboys

Our business is a simple business. 

We love researching, investigating, learning, meeting interesting people, filming and telling stories about the things and places that interest us. The things we value is good food, inspiring people, innovative products and businesses, great beer, and the freedom to travel and work all over the world. We tell these stories in the best way we can through video, photography and writing in our Blog. We feel the world needs more fun and inspiration. We hope to give that to our audience.

Our audience enjoys watching our programming and armchair travelling with us. Our programming is insightful, informative and entertaining. The people, businesses and places we feature garner publicity through our content. They win over new customers. More people learn about them and is likely to deal or visit them. It becomes a channel with much-needed positive exposure for their brands.

We are constantly looking for new stories and bigger partners to feature. We produce as much content as we can and feature as many people, businesses and places as is willing to engage us. We package our content around topics and themes. One theme we love to exploit is a maker theme where we feature people that create and make products. We have several food and cooking themes. We have a travel and camping theme. Overall, the Two Cowboys is an entertaining lifestyle content brand that we live every day and where we invite others to join us on our journey.

Our pricing models make it possible for the smallest business to afford to be featured by the Cowboys and for some of the largest partners to have constant access to fresh and informative highly professionally produced promotional content. At the same time, our audience can access our materials online for free so that we can reach the broadest audience possible.

Our business and our brand keeps growing even in the most difficult economic times in Canada's recent memory. Where businesses realize the power of our promotional capabilities they engage us often and with great success. We love what we do and don't want to do anything else.

Thank you for helping us succeed in our endeavour to show the world that it is a better place.

Hendrik van Wyk

Business Cowboy