Chatting A Bit With Shann Jones

Deep in the countryside of South West Wales is a small goats milk dairy which is the home of The Chuckling Goat. This is no ordinary goats milk business and has an amazing story on how it started through a desperate battle to cure illness through natural remedies and the probiotic drink; kefir. Samantha Hobden from Haynet recently caught up with joint founder Shann in its Chatting A Bit series to find out more behind this fascinating story and award winning farming business:

With your roots originating in America, how you did end up living on a farm in Wales?

Ask a woman how she came to be all the way across the world and you’ll nearly always find her following her heart – my husband is a Welsh farmer, so I left California wine country to live with him on a Welsh farm!

What was your childhood ambition? Was it always to work and write from the countryside or did you have other plans?

Even living in the CA suburbs, I grew tomatoes in my backyard and kept a goat – although it was a pygmy goat. I didn’t want to be a farmer though – I always wanted to be a writer. I’m lucky in my life today, because I get to do both.

The story in how the Chuckling Goat started is a fascinating one. How did it start?

I was looking for a way to help my family, when doctors didn’t have any answers for us. When my son had eczema, and my husband had MRSA, and conventional medicine couldn’t help us, I was forced to turn to natural solutions – and they worked.

What have been the challenges of working and running your own business? Tell us about the highs and lows.

I love creating new products to help people, using the wonderful healing remedies that the land gives us – so that’s a huge plus. I suppose a low would be that because we live and work onsite, and all our family is involved in the business, it’s hard to get away from it. We’re all talking about the business, all the time!

The famous bottles of Chuckling Goat Kefir

For those that are unaware of the benefits of kefir, give us your insight in why we should be consuming it daily.

Your microbiome is constantly being assaulted by what I call “the 4 Horsemen of the Gut Apocalypse” – sugar, antibiotics, stress and environmental toxins. Unless you do something like take kefir to repair the damage, the bad bugs will win over time, and your health will suffer.

You have a brilliant team behind Chuckling Goat! Why does it work so well for your business?

Our business motto is “family first,” and that includes our team. We pay high salaries, big bonuses and look after our workers really well. Because of this, I get 100 applicants for every open position. Our workers are our greatest asset!

What areas of social media marketing do you find works well with your brand?

We do a lot on Facebook and Instagram. These are great places to forge a community feel.

What are your future plans for Chuckling Goat?

CG is going virtual! We’re working on developing an app for our users, as well as designing new projects like lip balms and scalp oil, and getting into microbiome testing.