I build brands that redefine how we experience food.

As Founder & CEO of Three Mills Bakery, I’ve spent over a decade turning a small Canberra bakery into one of Australia’s most respected challenger food brands known for its world-class sourdough, pastries, and bake-at-home range that’s changing how people eat at home.

After nearly two decades in the food business, my obsession is with what happens behind the scenes: the systems, supply chains, and storytelling that separate lasting food brands from the ones that fade. I believe the future of food will be built by founders who master all three: craft, tech, and culture.

Through Fix Before You Scale (my weekly newsletter), I share what I’ve learned with operators trying to grow without losing their soul. 

And through upcoming ventures, I’m building an ecosystem designed to back the next generation of challenger food brands.

My mission is simple:

To help ambitious founders build better food businesses. Ones that nourish people, reward craft, and respect the planet.

As for LinkedIn, I share the behind-the-scenes journey along the way. 

Thanks for reading.

Jarrod Deaton

Most people only focus on the wins. 
 
But in 2016 I lost everything. 
 
Financially wiped out when I walked away from a business partnership. 
 
But I wasn't done with business. 
 
Even though I interviewed at a few other places to work, each time it didn't feel right. 
 
It wasn't ego this time. 
 
Something in my bones told me to give business another go. 
 
With the support of my family, I accepted the terms to buy the used bakery equipment from my business partners and start again. 
 
I only had 2 weeks to pull it off if it was going to work... 
 
That's: 
 
- start a company 
- find bakery space 
- fit it out and open a cafe 
- handle legal, finance, banking, branding 
- move all the bakery equipment across town 
- and maintain the dozen or so wholesale clients we'd built up during that time. 
 
Crazy when I think about it today... 
 
I've always admired people who have started with nothing and built a life for themselves and here I was doing the same thing. 
 
It's incredible what you can do when your back is against the wall. 
 
But in saying that, none of it was a solo effort. 
 
Along the way, I've had incredible support from friends and family. 
 
Not to mention the wonderful team who've contributed to building each part of the vision. 
 
I rarely step back and admire it but I'm proud when I do. 
 
- 140 employees 
- Loads of wonderful clients 
- And some of the best sourdough and pastries around 
 
It's been a wild ride! 
 
Hugely grateful for every bit of it. 
 
My mates who lifted all the bakery equipment out of the basement and drove it across town. 
 
Those first few clients who walked in the door on day one. And every single one since. 
 
Our amazing team and all our families who back us. 
 
And a long list of wonderful suppliers, advisors and partners. 
 
Thank you all!

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Curious Founders NL

I share stories and tips from growing my business to 140 people in an email every Sunday.

You might like to join 1677 other business owners already reading it.

Here's where to find it:

www.jarroddeaton.com.au

three-mills-bakery

Founder & CEO, Three Mills Bakery | Building the next generation of food brands through craft, tech & culture | Writer of Fix Before You Scale

Porridge Sourdough.

Tasty as hell. Amazing crust. Chewy and juicy in the middle.

It was just an experiment but I reckon this one has a place on the daily line up?

Yes / No?

No one noticed, but we went 'dark' for the last two years.

Here's why:

We had a great brand. But there was no profit. 

We were doing all this work only to slip backwards financially...

It was so frustrating.

So we hit pause and stated madly fixing things inside the business instead of trying to grow it. 

The result?

Revenue flatlined.

But every other metric improved. 

It scared the crap out of me at first because we've always chased growth. 

But it was often the wrong type of growth. It ended up adding complexity to the business that weighed us down. 

At the time, more clients meant:

- More space
- More people
- More deliveries
- More equipment
- More accounts to chase up
- More labour to produce orders

Topline looked great, client growth was solid, but profit evaporated. 

But after focusing on fixing the business from the inside out, everything started to align. 

We were all of a sudden selling the right things, to the right people, at the right price. 

And we had the right people, working on the right things. 

It has completely transformed the business, the opportunities ahead, and the lives of the people who helped pull off the transformation. 

I look forward to sharing loads more insights as I reflect on the journey. 

I share practical tips for navigating the messy middle bit of business growth in weekly newsletter called Fix Before You Grow. Click the link in my bio to take a look.

I hope to see you there.

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I used to be afraid of sucking at things. 
 
Always practicing in private before revealing a skillset in public. 

But the problem is, when you keep it a secret, you miss out on rich feedback that can help you level up faster. 

Most people genuinely want to help you succeed.
 
The key is to switch to a student mindset, and not an expert.

Being prepared to suck at something first and make tiny rapid improvements using loads of feedback. 

That type of vulnerability has helped me so much in my career. 

Not to mention the accountability it's added to my life as an entrepreneur.

Apart from the occasional idiot who laughs at you from behind the screen, it's been all upside.

I'd encourage you to put yourself out there, openly try new things and be prepared to ask for help along the way.

I’ve had weeks recently where my calendar owned me.

Back-to-back meetings.
Lunch as an afterthought.
Late to the gym or not at all.
Zero time to actually think.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth:

If you’re in a leadership role and your week leaves no time for thinking, you’re not leading. You’re reacting.

So, here's my plan to get it back on tack:

Block 2 x 60-minute “no meeting, no calls” slots in the calendar weekly. 

Use them for one thing only: deep work on the 1–3 priorities that define your year.

Thinking is part of the job description.

If your schedule doesn’t reflect that, you’re playing an operational role with a leadership title.

Running a test bake in my home oven on our new bake at home croissant.

This one spent months in the freezer with things stacked on it. I wasn't sure how it would go. 

But, it was a freaken lovely result.

Would you bake this at home?

You scroll past plenty of weird advice for entrepreneurs on the internet. 
 
It's confusing AF to know what things work and what's complete garbage. 
 
Trying to absorb it all often distracts you from just building your business. 
 
For the record, I didn't: 
 
- Join the 4 am club 
- Recite affirmations 
- Meditate daily for hours 
- Delete my friends and go dark 
- Get sunlight in my eyes the minute I woke 
 
And I still built a business that employs 140 really great people looking after thousands of wonderful clients. 
 
Honestly, it's better to spend each day doing things that actually move the needle.
 
You know: 
 
- Eat well, sleep 7hrs, move 
- Write out your goals & values 
- Plan your day in line with them 
- Look for ways to delight your customers 
- Seek honest feedback & improve yourself 
 
By no means am I the pinnacle of success. 
 
And at the end of the day - each to their own. 
 
But be careful about subscribing to things that don't suit you, or don't suit the chapter you're in right now. 

Everyone's path is so different so don't copy others. Instead, try match the effort they put in at the start of their journey (not once they'ye 'made it')
 
The world needs more unique operators. 

Not copycats.

Forge your own path.

Not many people share the tough times in business... It's always the postcard moments and winning photos.

I completely understand what drives it. 

All the normal mindsets are at play:

- No one wants to back a losing horse.
- It's not good for business.
- Weakness is a flaw.

Not to mention the whole 'fake it 'til you make it' approach that most entrepreneurs subscribe to in the early days.

(That included me)

But fast-forward two decades and I've always learned more during the rough patches that the good bits.

The hardest moments in business taught me more about myself, my business and the people around me. 

And you don't just magically learn things without going through the crappy bits, yet the business world still doesn't value talking about them openly.

When I shared our bumpy journey in front of a few hundred distillers, brewer and bakers at a recent event, a remarkable thing happened. 

It opened the door for so many amazing conversations and new connections. By opening up, others did too. 

Since the event, I've received loads of emails and DMs from really incredible people. 

Easily one of the best things I've ever done. 

But, you don't need to speak in front of hundreds of people to make the same thing happen.

You can start small, group coffee meets with other business people. A nice dinner with a dozen like-minded folks in industry. It's always worht it.

Business can be a lonely game. But that's also a choice.

Work Life balance and business growth don't mix.
 
Each time I've started a business I knew I had to pause on other things and go all in. 
 
It helped me launch faster and grow quickly.
 
By taking work home you find great solutions that set you up for the next day. 
 
It generates momentum. 
 
It's not easy, and you do risk burnout if you try to sustain the rediculous pace for more than a year. 
 
But it's worth it IMO. 

The key is to surround yourself with people who push you to continue, not ask you to detach.

Our Beef and Pepperberry Pie baking in a home oven. 

Not only is it freaken delicious, it picked up a Gold Medal at last year's Sydney Royal Fine Foods Show!

And even though we're not that into entering awards, we're super proud of it.

Especially because it's built for baking at home. 

- Buttery short crust pastry base
- Flakey puff pastry top
- And filled with chunks of local Claystone beef

Keep it in the freezer and bake it from frozen when you want a simple dinner. 

Ready in 40 mins.

Failure and success: It's not one or the other in business... They go hand in hand. Here's what I learned after looking at some of my epic fails and big wins: 
 
Every entrepreneur has a trail of failures behind them. 
 
What separates people who get ahead isn't that they've never failed, but that they learned from their failures and used them as stepping stones to success. 
 
I know you've read that line a hundred times before. 
 
But its been simplified to the point where it even sounds easy. 
 
The reality is, I struggled with it. 
 
I kept making the same mistakes in different ways. 
 
Because in business, each stage or growth presents the same problem differently which can make it harder to diagnose.
 
There's one thing that helped me - Getting an outside perspective. 
 
Whether it's a: 
 
- Coach 
- Mentor or a
- Friend in business 
 
Set some time aside to explore your failures and wins with them to find patterns. 

Each time I've done this, it helped find common threads to be aware of next time.
 
Hopefully this tiny habit helps you get more wins than fails.

I visited a really large food manufacturer last week.

One guy kept saying: “Where to play and how to win.”

For them, winning was all about cost. Cheapest product. Highest efficiency. Competitors scratching their heads.

But here’s the thing: figuring out how to win is the same inside any business. Except... it’s not only about cost.

Swipe through the carousel – I broke down:

- Why small businesses lose trying to play big-company games
- Where you actually have an advantage
- How to pick your lane and win

If you’re serious about winning, this one’s for you.

Where to play and how to win

There’s a quiet trap founders fall into. 

We build a business... then feel weird about paying ourselves a proper salary.

Talking about it gets complex. Especially when there are non-working business partners, different levels of responsibilities, or family are involved.

Even as a sole owner, I waited way too long to look at a proper salary. 

After chatting with a few people about it recelntly, hee's where we landed on the topic:

Stop mixing salary and profit together.

Part 1: Your salary.
Pay yourself market rate for the role you’re doing. Not what feels comfortable. Not what you need. But what it would cost to replace you with a competent operator.

Part 2: Profit
Profit is the return on risk you took + ownership.
It's what you have access to after you take a real salary, consider reinvestment decisions, and leave a sensible buffer.

When you blur these two together, everyone gets confused.

Partners get spicy with eachother, you get resentful and the business gets messy.

If you want to build a serious company, you need serious clarity around roles, responsibilities, pay, what 'good' looks like, growth/reinvestment, among loads of other things. 

My point is, separate the discussions about pay and profit and decide on a policy moving forward. Don't leave it to assumptions and feelings.

If your business feels messy, it’s usually not because you’re dumb.
(even though it can feel that way sometimes)

It’s because the truth is too hard to see quickly.

Here’s what I should’ve done earlier:

- Confront reality fast (no sugar-coating)
- Simplify the data (one page, one dashboard, one truth)
- Act early instead of waiting for “the perfect plan” to launch

Your team can't own what they can't see.
Similarly, if your leadership team doesn’t share one truth... you don’t have alignment. You have opinions.

Those opinions might be fine if they're connected to the work they do and the business is small, but as you grow, you need access to data. 

In my business as we grew, there was no single source of truth. 

Finance was stuck in XERO.
HR in Deputy
Customer data somewhere else

Not to mention the infinite spreadsheets and docs...

The first thing we had to do was to pull all the data together to find the truth. 

Then pick out the bits that were important to us so we could align and get on with fixing things. 

Not sure if you can relate, but I wish I started that process earlier!

Most founders don’t fail because of their product.

They fail because they try to build everything alone.

This one’s for the founders grinding it out solo - thinking working harder is the answer.

It’s not.

Swipe through if you’ve ever felt like you’re carrying it all on your own.

Building solo feels noble Its actually reckless

The biggest bottleneck in my business wasn't the market, or the team, or our timing. It was me.

Every time Three Mills hit a ceiling, it was because I hadn't grown fast enough into the role the business needed me in.

Across 5 locations and 130-odd people, here's what I've worked out: your job as a founder isn't fixed. It changes every time the business does. 

And if you're still doing the same job you were doing two years ago, you're probably already the problem.

It goes something like this...

Phase 1: Everyone does everything. Fine.

Phase 2: Team grows and you need to lead skilled people. Different skills entirely.

Phase 3: You need to get out of the way. (Easily the hardest one...)

Most of us get stuck between phases. Doing too much of the old job, not enough of the new one and the fix isn't complicated, its just a bit uncomfortable.

If this resonates, ask yourself: what does the business need from me right now that I'm not delivering?

Then go learn that thing fast (or recruit for it). 

Love to know your thoughts?

If your company falls over when one person’s on holiday, you don’t have a team. You’ve built a shrine.


Too many businesses are built around a hero.


The rainmaker.

The genius founder.

The “only one who really knows how it all works.”


Looks impressive from the outside.

Feels powerful on the inside.


But it’s also weak, fragile, and one crisis away from breaking.


As entrepreneurs, you want to push through that phase as quickly as possible, making yourself redundant at every stage as you hand things over.


The ones that don't, say things like: I wish the team would “take ownership” or “demonstrate autonomy”...


Meanwhile they design systems where:


Decisions bottleneck through one inbox.

Information lives in one person’s head.

Clients only trust one name.


I don't claim to have the solution here in this Linkedin post, but I do know exactly what I'm trying to build.


And it isn't a shrine.


We need more antifragile businesses.

It's tempting to relax a bit once your business is out of the start-up phase. 

And after years of working your face off to build something from scratch, who can blame you? 

But complacency can destroy things. 

If it's about getting your time back, delegate things instead. 

If it's about enjoying yourself, find someone who's hungry to grow your business for you.

Because even if you deserve a break.

Even if you don't have competitors chasing you. 

Things that are hard to build can be shattered easily. 

And the bottom line is, instead of taking your foot off the gas at the first sign of success.
 
It's best to use that time to double down on what's working and leap further ahead after years of grinding.

There's real power in saying 'I don't know'. 
 
But it seems scary to say in business. 

My experience with admitting it has always led to better outcomes. 

It shows:
 
1. Honesty - It's the foundation of trust and credibility. 
 
2. Curiosity - Admitting that you don't know something ignites curiosity, a driving force for innovation and problem-solving. 
 
3. Collaboration - Sharing your knowledge gap invites others to contribute and allows teams to work together towards common goals. 

I'm not saying you should 'know your sh*t' as a professional... 

But there's lots of places where simply saying '𝙄 𝙙𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙠𝙣𝙤𝙬 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙬𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩' unlocks better outcomes. 
 
Leaders should embrace the power of it more.
 
It will open doors you never even knew existed.

Company values aren't wall decals. 
 
You're meant to bring them to life. 
 
One way to do that is through rich stories. 
 
Finding those moments that happen throughout the year that embody the core value entirely and wrap it up nicely in something others can relate to. 
 
One of the best ones I can share is around our core value: 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆. 
 
On it's own, it's a pretty ambiguous word. 
 
And for that reason, it can be interpreted differently by every member of the team. 
 
So instead of letting people think that it's giving free stuff away to their mates, we use stories to describe why the word generosity is important to us. 
 
Last year a regular customer at one of our stores broke their favourite coffee cup. 
 
It had a pretty significant sentimental value to them. 
 
So, a few members of our team went home that night and searched the internet to find the exact same one which was no longer available in stores.
 
They ordered it and when it arrived, presented a beautifully made coffee in it to our regular customer the next time they came in. 
 
It blew them away! 
 
It doesn't just sum up the word generosity, it touches most of our core values in one go. 
 
But you can see how stories bring core values to life in a way that wall decals never could. 
 
That's the power of using them inside your business.

Avec

As the General Manager for Avec ACT I am responsible for developing and growing the Avec brand and business, delivering projects, and providing consultancy services across Avec’s practices.

My key responsibilities include implementing sales strategy, driving pre-sales engagements, solution design, and leading proposals and bids. In addition, I lead and deliver our ACT consulting engagements, including project management, client engagement, and ensuring adherence to methodologies and best practices.

General Manager - ACT

Projects Assured

As General Manager Ben manages the delivery of high-quality consulting services across various client areas, currently within the Department of Defence. The role has significant business development responsibilities, including delivering on business development targets, leading the development of business development collateral and active networking within the Canberra market, to ensure successful business outcomes for Projects Assured.

As a key member of the firm’s Management Team, Ben is responsible for setting and upholding our behavioural standards and culture within various Accounts and across the organisation. 

As a GM Ben is responsible for:
- Develop and execute the annual Account ‘Win Plan’ (Business Plan)
- Manage and execute sales process within the Services Australia and Defence Accounts
- Manage client relationships and contracts
- Management, mentoring and coaching of staff
- Conduct Account Meetings and participate in Quarterly Business Reviews
- Execute Quality Management practices
- Internal and client reporting
- Resource planning. 
- Manage the quality management process end-to-end; and
- Motivate account teams to deliver high quality outcomes.

General Manager

UXC Consulting

Ben was responsible for the leadership of UXC Consulting’s Strategy and Architecture (S&A) practice in the ACT region. This role included developing business opportunities for UXC clients, developing trusted relationships in local accounts, evolving and developing the capabilities of local UXC S&A staff, developing relevant thought leadership material and lifting the profile of UXC Consulting, evolving S&A offerings with associated methods, IP and marketing material, managing the local S&A consulting practice and communications both internally and externally, and providing guidance and mentoring to local members of the S&A team.

ACT Practice Lead - Strategy and Architecture

Architecture Lead

Cordelta

Ben is Executive for a Cordelta profit centre, responsible for profitability, hiring, development and sales of consultants and capabilities. In this role Ben is responsible for placing and managing new contractors at various sites in Canberra as well as managing the careers and engagements of his staff. 

Ben is also the Service Line lead for ICT Infrastructure. In this role Ben provides ICT Strategy and Architecture advice to clients, consults as a technical lead for various projects, and is responsible for developing and defining methodologies and standards for the Cordelta ICT Infrastructure service line.

Executive

Red 29

Principal

Apis Consulting Group

Senior Consultant

Open Integration

Senior Systems Engineer

Ben is an astute and pragmatic leader, with 20 years' experience in Executive and Management roles. Ben is an accomplished, delivery-focused consultant, specialising in enterprise solutions, technology advisory and digital transformation. He has a proven ability in strategic planning, technology strategy and architecture, IT operations, and program and project management.

Ben is skilled in account management, sales and people engagement. Ben has exceptional commercial acumen and an in-depth understanding of relationship management, service delivery and procurement within government.

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