Kat's Nine Lives & Katstyle Designs
Where Passion Meets Action - For Restyling Personal Growth, Home Energy and Business Style
Lifestyles That Matter
People making choices to live a new way
KAT CONN CREATING HER GOAT MILK BODY CARE PRODUCT LINE ON THE FARM
DAUGHTERS MORGAN 13, LEAH 12, KADY 9, JJ 5- GOATS: EXPRESSO AND GRANNY (15) PRODUCT MASCOT
THIS FEATURE IS ABOUT THE DREAM OF DOING SOMETHING DIFFERENT
AND THE COURAGE TO TRUST AND THE REWARDS OF A NEW LIFESTYLE.
LIFESTYLES THAT MATTER
For people making choices to live in a more conscious way to feel better.
KAT CONN - KAT"S CREEK GOAT MILK PRODUCTS INTERVIEW KAT: I was raised by my grandparents on a huge ranch in New Mexico. It was about 5,000 acres with cattle. My grandmother used to own a restaurant and later created these meals and big Bar-B-Q parties during round-up time. I learned to work with people and be creative. She taught me how to live simply – canning, growing your own food, raising goats and other farm animals. I learned about sustainability.
KC: How did you get from New Mexico to Oregon?
KAT: After high school, I got married and moved to Oregon near his family. I was taking school courses and I had had a child, but nothing in school really interested me. Over time I divorced and worked at odds and ends type jobs to make a living in the city. I couldn’t find my passion. I met a wonderful man who was in the police department and we got married, living in Pendleton. We tried city life, but weekends were spent taking a ride to the country to look at farms. KC: It sounds like a restless soul needing something that was missing.
KAT: Yes, but his job required him to live in the city where he worked. He also grew up on a farm – only 8 miles from where we live now. We both felt something missing. We always talked about coming back to farm life. He took retirement and started working in the family lumber business. I transferred to the Wall-Mart in Eugene. I love working with people. KC: I think sometimes we work to get “things”. Did you find you don’t really need all of what we think we need?
KAT: I was starting to buy to fill the void of love for myself and my family – like an eating disorder. Buying “things” became a way of relieving the guilt of NO TIME. I worked 50 hours a week on graveyard. I could have made this a career, but something was missing inside.
KC: How long can you live like that?
KAT: When we came to that point of realization we moved out toward his parents. We have been here now for years. We only have an acre but it is filled to the brim with everything sustainable. The kids were happier and my husband had built a firewood business.During the week he work at EWEB reading meters for an ecologically minded water and electric company.
KC: So he was an entrepreneur and supporting the ecology of the land as well. Did you know you were going to create the goat milk product line?
KAT: I now had 4 daughters, ages 13, 12, 9, and 4. I was a full-time mom for a while. We were given goats as pets. My 12-year old has had eczema since birth- it is a hereditary form, and the dermatologists have tried everything to help her. Her skin was raw from an early age. They told me about soaps to use. I remember reading in a news article about how goat milk soap helped skin conditions. I went on the Internet, did some research and created a formula to make the soap myself.
KC: So literally, out of the Mother of Invention came your heart connection.
KAT: Within days she stopped itching and 2 weeks later she started clearing up. Doctors wouldn’t believe it was the healing agent, but we proved otherwise. We believe natural products work. It is a choice for everyone to live that way.
KC: Most people are afraid to make that large of a life change. How did it go for you?
KAT: At first it was a difficult transition. We didn’t make the money we had before, but we had to make conscious decisions each day as to what felt better for the family. I remember a time where we asked the kids did they want to spend X$’s on a computer, or go away and swim together for a weekend. They chose the getaway. We found we were not depriving ourselves but freeing our lives spending quality time.
KC: What a fabulous concept. It sends chills up my arms to hear that. Let go and trust. If it comes from the heart it will work.
KAT: Exactly. You return to the old way of giving and sharing with others. It is unique and your choices have so much more meaning. Not only is it beneficial to the earth but for our family. I want to raise my girls to want this kind of giving/sharing relationship with the land.
KC: Where do the goats come in?
KAT: As I recall, it happened almost instantly. I decided not to go back to my manager job. I told my husband I would find some way to help him in his business and create something that would make some money. The next thing I remember friends asked if we would take these 2 goats. They couldn’t keep them and they needed a good home. It all seemed to grow from there. KAT: Yes, it seemed divinely guided. I raised goats as a child. They had babies and we had all this milk. I began making cheese and then the newspaper article showed up – and I haven’t stopped since. When I let go, everything grew. I can understand how fearful it is for people to make that shift, but I asked myself, “What’s the worse thing that could happen”? I’m smart, resourceful, I can always fix things. I started giving out soaps to people and then orders starting coming in. A farmer’s market opened up and I went there 2 times a month. People asked about lotions…and more.
KC: So is this where the business product momentum came from? As the energy expanded so did the choices the Universe offered?
KAT: I really didn’t have a plan in mind. I never knew it would grow to this type of a business. I just started. I created a brochure, decided on products, found shows to participate in. I had a lot of disappointments, but I decided to view business as a learning experience and to enjoy it. I love meeting and talking to people to the point I would come home from shows, whorse.
KC: Yes, everything is always growing and expanding
KAT: Including my goats. We have 10 goats now, 1 buck, 4 kids, 5 does (female goats), with a few on the way. We also raise our own meat goats. My regular customers buy goats from me – some pets, some meat and some for dairy goats. So now I breed goats as well. We have become very close to all of our goats. Especially Granny now 15 years old. Granny have given us everything.
KC: Kat, if you could help someone who wanted to follow their heart and change their life what would you say to them?
KAT: A feeling led to peace. I started in 2003 and now, by taking care of nature, it has grown to 28 different products. My girls are learning to love business. I am passing on what my grandmother taught me and more. They are seeing hard work has a benefit. They told me the other day they were proud of how their hard work turned out. They will learn they can create their own life and be happy. When they are inspired they will inspire others. Talk to the older generation and see what family meant to them and see how the value systems matched. Find your roots and remember what it felt like when you were supported and connected. The benefits are a lifestyle you love for those that you love as well.
Next WORLD SPACE 2
MOTHER, FARMER AND ENTREPRENEUR
I first met Kat Conn at a coastal craft show I was taking part in. With some time on my hands, I meandered toward her booth. I became interested in the story she was telling to a lady who had skin issues. She had gotten into the body product business because of her daughter’s serious skin condition. She was led to an Internet article about goat milk. With doctors throwing up their hands, this was the next alternative…nature. She made soap and her daughter used it and got better. Now 28 products later, she is a full entrepreneurial business with a wonderful goat milk product line. I bought her products and swear by them. My glass cut hands from glaze stay healthy, and my 90+ year old parents have beautiful skin. At the time I did not know I would be producing a magazine to share this kind of knowledge with others. When it came time to start IS, Intentional Style, and I was looking for stories about why we exchange jobs for intentional lifestyles, she came to mind. This is the interview with Kat Conn of Kat’s Creek Goat Milk Products. Kat Cunningham _____________________________________________________________________________
Kat Cunningham – KC and Kat Conn – KAT
KC: I am really excited to know more about a mom with 4 kids and a husband created the new life you chose. How did you learn the ins and outs of starting a business?
KC: What was the final connection to get back to the land?
KAT: When I started working at Wall Mart it didn’t take long for me to work myself up to a manager’s position. I found we were becoming like many others and our time with our kids became less and less. We found we were buying them with gifts and objects because we were guilty for not spending more quality time. Everything seemed wrong, and our values were not being met. I started to realize I was tolerating people, not enjoying them. I was physically sick from the people I was working for. I made good money, paid a lot of bills, but my environment felt awful. I hated to go to work.
KC: So as I see it, you closed a door and told the Universe to bring you something that fit your heart’s passion and could make money, right?
Contents Page Newsletter
