IB Woman
Issue No. 19 - October/November 2004
Business Dream Weaver
Diane Bellchambers
The immortal words of Darryl Kerrigan from The Castle - "Tell ‘em they’re dreamin’!" - is particularly relevant to businesswoman, Diane Bellchambers, who ‘sleeps on’ most business decisions she has ever made.
Nearly 30 years ago, young Diane Baohm was planning to study psychology. Her father, successful businessman Les Baohm, had seen great potential in purchasing a particular building in King William Street, but the owners wanted to sell their second-hand furniture business as part of the deal. More used to making multi-million dollar business decisions, Les Baohm didn’t want the business, but he did want the building. Les’ dreams then led him to open a bookstore in the building that later was called Cosmic Pages.
"My Father was a great believer in the prophetic nature of dreams and the awareness that dreams give you," explains Diane. "Dreams are unique to the dreamer even if the symbols are the same. Thus, dreams tell us how we really think and feel about ourselves and what sub-conscious programming or beliefs may be holding us back from achieving our goals."
Diane went on to complete her psychology degree, writing her honours thesis on dreams. As a businesswoman, author, national dream educator, radio consultant and columnist, Diane dreams the dreams that have contributed to her success.
After graduating, Diane continued to manage Cosmic Pages with the vision that it be developed beyond being a mere bookshop. She maintains that many people live in Adelaide for the work/balance options not available in other major Australian cities, and she wanted Cosmic Pages to offer a diverse range of lifestyle alternatives. To raise the profile of the store and to become imbedded in the Adelaide psyche, Diane placed small and consistent advertisements in the paper every week for 20 years.
"Twice in that time we took out full-page advertisements with editorial in the centre surrounded by advertisements from companies that supporte...
