It’s not much to look at now, the website I originally started on is gone so the preview image went with it, but here’s the first post I ever made about the mineral buffet starter kits.
Looking back now, I’m blown away at how much this idea resonated with you all. I wrote it out pretty well already for my mailing list, so I’ll share with you the email I sent them earlier this week.
8/29/21. That’s the day I launched the mineral buffet in small sizes to the world.
All I had was a hope, a dream, and my own personal experience of really needing this system to be accessible to small herds like mine.
So I scrimped and saved, bought myself the minerals in bulk and wandered down to Walmart, the only store in my town that had what I needed: some Ziploc bags and printable shipping labels.
With that, an empire was born.
I had no idea then how far it would take me. No idea how strongly the concept of the mineral buffet would resonate in the goat world.
But oh, how it did.
It went from a concept that no one had heard of to being the most talked about mineral system in the goat world, all in just a few short years.
And coming soon, I am innovating an entirely new mineral concept that takes the buffet to its next level of evolution.
As I reflect on how fast we grew, how it was both exhausting and exhilarating, I am filled with so much gratitude for you, the goat lovers and homesteaders who made this dream, this, “What if…?” a reality.
And on this, our 4th anniversary week, I think about all that came before the dream finally clicked on.
What you might see if you look at Little Avalon Farm now is a polished, successful e-commerce business, a brand known in goat homes all over the world.
But what I see is the 20 years of throwing everything at the wall that came before it.
Since I first turned 18, I have been trying to build a business that could sustain me.
You might chuckle at some of them:
- I used to play a video game that was very popular. I’d buy in-game items low, resell them for more, then sell the extra game currency for real currency. This was in the late 90s and I made a few hundred a month!
- Or that time I built a brand called Faknitic (fanatic about knitting), imported hand-turned knitting needles from a small company in India and became an eBay powerseller.
- Then there was that one lean summer my husband was unemployed and I kept us afloat selling handmade beaded gemstone jewelry at farmers markets and craft shows. My oldest took his first steps at a nursing home craft show, resting in wheelchair rides from a delighted audience in between his ventures.
- In the late teens, I unexpectedly launched a bath and body care business when my first attempts at goat milk soap had people begging for more. And, inexplicably, this morphed into a full on gift and crystal shop in my local town. I shuttered the windows on that fun but intense time when the mineral business began to demand my full attention.
While none of those businesses were wildly successful, they all taught me incredible skills and determination and everything that came before contributed to my knowledge and ability to make this version a success.
I share this with you not just to celebrate–wow though, what a success to celebrate!–but to encourage you to keep going.
I had no idea that this would be the one that stuck, I just knew I had to keep trying.
I’ve heard it said that the only way to fail is to quit, and I think my experience really illustrates the truth of that.
What would have happened if I resigned myself to working for someone else?
Or stayed unhappy in a marriage to rely on his income, always wondering how I would feel if I had a clearer choice?
You have a dream in your heart. It isn’t necessarily about business and likely isn’t. But there is something dear to you, something you long to achieve, or do, or be.
And this story I’ve shared ends with this: you can see it through, just as long as you don’t give up.
If this scrappy, goat-obsessed mom could turn Ziploc bags and printable labels into an empire, then I know you can build the dream that’s been tugging at your own heart.
Here’s to us, our futures, and our dreams coming true.
I post all my best, most heartfelt content to my mailing list because it’s the place I feel safest to share me, so if you’re looking for a little more depth, I think you’ll like what I send there. You can unsubscribe any time, so feel free to check it out.
