373. Nobody Got Her Goat
P.J. Jonas
Like many educated women, PJ faced criticism when she left an engineering job to be a stay-at-home mom. Soon her problem-solving skills and creativity were going to be put to the test. After all, she was planning to homeschool her eight children, and–oh yes–raise goats.
PJ Jonas is a business owner, goat-wrangler, entrepreneur, and mother. After getting goats to provide healthy milk for her eight children, she decided to put some excess milk into a batch of handmade soap. That decision was the beginning of Goat Milk Stuff, a growing goat milk products business that has been featured on The Today Show, The Doctors, The Huckabee Show, and in “O”, the Oprah Magazine. What started with an initial small batch of soap has expanded into a host of goat milk items such as goat milk soaps, cheeses, candies, fudge, gelato and more.
How Did You Start Using Your Talents?
PJ Jonas earned a degree in Engineering from the University of Virginia and worked in that profession for several years, but it was when her first child was born that her creativity and problem-solving skills were fully put to use. In addition to full-time parenting, she and her husband took on the homeschooling of their eight children. She found ways of using their newly-created family business to engage the children in hands-on learning, not only academic but also in core life values.
The Most Impactful Turning Point?
Deciding to leave the workforce to be a stay-at-home mom was the first step of a life-changing process. A practical decision to lower their cost of living by moving to Indiana set PJ and her family on a pioneering path of holistic health. Getting some goats to provide raw milk for the family morphed into a full line of healthy products created by their new venture, Goat Milk Stuff. JP, her husband and all eight children are intimately involved in the entire endeavor.
The Most Powerful Lessons Learned?
“I had been praying for years for a family business, but I never really thought about making soap! We started making and using the soap ourselves, and my husband’s fingers stopped cracking and splitting, and I realized we have a really good product that helps people. When we started selling it, feedback flooded in from the moms of children with eczema, telling us the soap helped their kids when nothing else had worked. The feedback was so tremendous we realized, “We can do this!”
Steps to Success from P.J. Jonas
1. To pursue what you love, first free-up your resources by living well below your means.
2. Begin your journey toward your goal—toward healthy living, for example—by taking baby steps. Just start somewhere now.
3. Help others understand that what they do matters, beginning with your own children.
On Her Bookshelf
Lady on the Hill: How Biltmore Estate Became an American Icon, by Howard E. Covington
Connecting With P.J. Jonas
Website: http://goatmilkstuff.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/goatmilkstuff
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/goatmilkstuff
Free Gift
Free bar of soap for podcast listeners. To request your gift, use the “Contact Us” form on the website goatmilkstuff.com and mention “Discover Your Talent Podcast” in message.
