Tina Joy

Hey there, welcome to the Joy Led business podcast. I'm your host, Tina Joy Cochran. I am thrilled that you're here. Sometimes growing a business can ruin your work life balance and make you feel like you have to be someone you're not, but it doesn't have to be that way. Business should incorporate your faith and honor the creative rural lifestyle you cherish. That's why I created this podcast to be your personal business coach in your pocket. Here you'll find Practical tips, insightful interviews, and easy to follow training all crafted to fit seamlessly into your busy life. Whether you're driving, creating, or taking a walk, I'll be right there with you. Now let's dive into this episode and start turning your dreams into reality. I can't wait to share this journey with you. Today's joy led business podcast episode. I'm really jealous of this person because she gets to have alpacas in her life and having had alpacas for 12 years and not being able to have them anymore. I just live vicarious. Through her. So join me in welcoming Penny Moore from Wellspring Acres Alpacas. Hi, Penny. Thanks for being here.

Penny Moore

Hi, Tina. Thanks.

Tina Joy

Before we dive into what you do with alpacas, tell us what an alpaca is and how is it different than, say, a llama. Or a sheep.

Penny Moore

Okay, we get that question a lot. I thought you might. Yes. Alpacas are part of the camelid family, which includes camels, llamas, alpacas, vicuñas, guanacos. They originate in Peru and around Chile and Bolivia. And they, Ended up exporting some over here and they've been pretty popular in the United States alpacas are fairly small compared to a llama. Llamas are large. And used as pack animals or they can be used as guard animals for cows, sheep, goats, even alpacas,

Tina Joy

what does an alpaca business look like?

Penny Moore

Alpacas are mainly on this earth for their fiber which there's two kind of alpacas, a hikaya, which is like a fluffy teddy bear, or a suri, which has the long curly type dreadlocks very two very different fibers. We have mostly Hakaya. We do have a Suri girl.

Tina Joy

Tell me about Wellspring Acres. What does Wellspring Acres do as a business?

Penny Moore

We have our alpacas mainly for their fiber. We get them sheared once a year in the late spring. And Then I take that fiber and skirt it, clean it and I will either send it off to the mill and they will process it for me to different end products, such as roving, batting or yarn or felt. I keep some of the fiber and I will process it myself, which means I wash it, rinse it, dry it. If it's white, I will dye it all kinds of fun colors. And then I Use it for mainly needle felting and wet felting. And then to support Peru, which is where they originate, the women down there do very, very beautiful work. And we support them by purchasing little alpacas or finger puppets, ornaments that they have made by hand with the alpaca. And fiber or clothing, sweaters. Wow. Do you sell the animals, too? We sometimes do sell animals. We don't always have ones for sale, but we have sold in the past, mainly to people who are starting a small herd or wanting to add one or two to them.

Tina Joy

What's really fascinating is I hear essentially you have everything from the live animal itself, all the way down to the felted hat. that comes from that. So it sounds like you have a great deal of knowledge about how something goes from being on the back of an alpaca to being on the top of your head. How long have you guys been doing this and how did you end up in this business?

Penny Moore

It started out as a family. And we got four fiber animals. My husband and I were the only ones who were interested in taking care of the alpacas and doing what we needed to. And we went from there. We started out with the four fiber boys mainly because we didn't know, we didn't know anything about alpacas. We didn't know what it entailed. We both worked.

Tina Joy

Right.

Penny Moore

And we were new to Missouri. We had just moved here. Within a month, we were loving it and we ended up getting them in like January. So, oh, wow. And there was no, we were putting up fans, but we loved they were just too adorable. About a year into it, I decided I needed a stud. I found a, a male. And then, well, if you're going to have a stud, you have to have females. Because I wanted to have babies. I, I'm a baby nurse. Right. Right. Right. So we ended up with a fairly good size herd, maybe 15 or something like that. And we kind of dabbled in some product I started taking all kinds of classes. I wanted to know what to do with the fiber. So that was the beginning. I learned what to do with it, how to clean it, how to dye, how to make things. And lots of classes. So lots of research on the internet, watching YouTube videos, just trying to soak up as much as I could. And then Doug and I took it over so it is solely ours now. And we had started doing some vendor events along the side, but we have really ramped it up since we took it over. We take the alpacas on some of these events and to us when you can actually see the alpaca and feel their fiber and then come into the booth and say. Wow, we get the the comment. You can make all this. No, this is without packet. Yes.

Tina Joy

Yeah,

Penny Moore

you know, it all has our packet in it. And I think it makes sense to them. This is an animal that will live 20 years. Right. And you get their fiber every year, and you get to continue to make this stuff. Right. And, and the products are wonderful. They're made by hand. They're made with love to me.

Tina Joy

Yeah, it sounds like it's not just a business. It's an obsession just a little bit. Yeah. Nothing wrong with that. I work with a lot of people who are creatives and they, they talk about, Oh, I want to have a business, but I want to be able to knit and weave and crochet and I want to be able to paint and I want to be able to sculpt and I want to be able to do all, hashtag all the things. And I love to use Wellspring Acres as an example you could do a whole bunch of different things, but typically there's usually a common thread

Penny Moore

and

Tina Joy

for you it's alpaca. The beautiful thing about alpaca is very versatile. So where are you guys located?

Penny Moore

Southwest Missouri in Sarkoxy, which is between Joplin and Springfield. Okay. Right on I 44. Big town, little town? Very small town. I think the sign says 1200 maybe. Right. You know, so very small town, very rural. Right. You know, we live outside of town. But there's enough around. That you don't feel like we're isolated. Right, right. But, but we love it.

Tina Joy

You and I've been working together for a while, and you are working on a pretty exciting new project. You have a grand opening. Yes. Of a downtown store, which is, you know, close to my heart. I love downtown revitalization in rural America. And you are going to be opening up a grand opening in November of 2024. And tell me a little bit about the shop that you're opening. What is it like?

Penny Moore

This is a very old building. Even though the downtown, I guess, burned, but they rebuilt it. So it's still old. We are down on Historic Square. The building is It's like in the middle of a block. They're all connected together. It's brick walls inside. We've redone the floor to be red oak planks. There's living quarters in the back, but getting it set up to be a shop now is, has been hard and long, but so satisfying.

Tina Joy

Another labor of love. Yes. I gotta have you tell the story of the floor. Because I think it's really speaks to what the tone is of the store and what the tone is of Wellspring Anchors.

Penny Moore

Yeah. So

Tina Joy

tell me about that.

Penny Moore

Okay, well, we didn't know what to do with the floor. It was so many different kinds of flooring once we got down to the bottom and a lot of the floor joists were rotted. We had to replace them and I told Doug, I said, I just want I want wood. I just want some planks of wood to put down. I want different links and different widths I wanted to be something different, something that would stand the test of time and something that would look like it had already been there. With the store being old and I, I wasn't really particular about if the wood had not circle, I like that. I like the knots. I like the, the grains to come out. So we got red oak from a mill close by. And we laid it all down and then beans as it had holes and knots and little splits and creases, I needed to fill those with something. So, right, you know, and I decided I wanted to do this colored resin. I just wanted the floor to be kind of. Blitzy or blingy or you know. So I, I took this resin project on and did all different colors, filled these holes and, and divots and put glitter in some of them, glow in the dark on some of them. Awesome. And you know, to me, it, That's I think the creative side coming out. I want people to walk in and say, oh, that's really cool. Yes. I just want to be kind of a little bit different.

Tina Joy

What I love about what you're doing is here in the US, sometimes alpacas tends to be rather stuffy What you're doing is bringing some real fun to it. Which is really exciting. So we've got a grand opening coming up. It sounds like we're going to have some more fun stuff. I will put the link to your website in our show notes. Now, I always ask everyone on this podcast about their faith because joy led business is really about walking with the Lord in this whole journey. And you get to play with one of the Lord's really coolest creatures. So tell me how your faith has played out in all of this.

Penny Moore

Well, if you look our card and the name does have a meaning behind it. You know, there's a heart with a cross and an alpaca on it and a verse from Proverbs talking about. How everything flows from the heart. And guarding that, my mom, loved that verse. And that's how we came up with the name because she wanted to be able to be of help,

Tina Joy

I love that your faith is integral in all of this, from the beginning, and so it's honoring the history of your family throughout this. And, and you're absolutely right how, the love of, fun and the creativity, it just springs up out of us. So well, Springs Acres just brings up this picture an alpaca dancing across the sparkly colored floor. It just makes me so happy. Hence why we had to have you on the podcast.

Penny Moore

Yeah.

Tina Joy

So last question before we close off for today and let you get back to prepping for your grand opening of this amazing shop in Sarkoxy. I would bet that there was at least one person who's listening to this podcast and going, Ooh, I want to be just like her. What is your best. piece of advice for someone who is maybe brand new to this idea of an alpaca business. What should they do first?

Penny Moore

I think the number one thing is if you don't know much about alpacas researching all about them, the good and the and Finding some farms around in your area and visiting, don't just visit one visit several or go to an alpaca show. They have them all over the country. Ask the people who are raising alpacas ask questions, ask a lot of questions. We did not have much knowledge and we have learned and we're still learning, but the more you know, before you go into it, the better but it might be that, well, maybe it's not right for us. So I think knowing ahead of time before you jump into it. What are you going to do with your fiber? There are so many farms out there that they do nothing with the fiber and it, it hurts.

Tina Joy

Yeah. Yes. I want it. And I want to do something with it. Well, and that's one of the things I love about the alpacas industry and alpaca business, because here's what I heard you say is you don't necessarily have to own the animal to have. the advantage of playing with alpaca products, right? You don't have to actually own the animal, you need the fiber, right? So you might be someone who the idea of, you talked about January and putting up fence that makes you go, no, I don't want to do that. That doesn't mean you can't have an alpaca business. You can have an alpaca business, but be focused on, on products. And there are farms that aren't focused on that. They're breeding farms or they're focused on the animals themselves. Yes. There's a whole bunch of opportunity. But I heard research, research, research, research, research, research. You don't know what you don't know till you get in there. I know from my experience in the industry, people are more than willing to answer your questions. So ask a lot of questions.

Penny Moore

Yes. Yes, definitely.

Tina Joy

What is the last thing we should know?

Penny Moore

What I have learned, especially being with Tina Is how to be more open to where God is leading me because there have been other things that I wanted to do that still involves alpacas, but she's always been able to talk it out with me. And I realized, well, no, that's not where I wanted to go. This is what I'm really wanting to do. And also in this journey, my husband and I communicate a little better about what really we are reaching for as far as, where this journey is leading us., I have been given a lot of patience in the past, but I'm still asking, you know, give me patience and he does. And you know, things go wrong, things come up, but that's just how it is. And you kind of move past and move on and Then something good happens.

Tina Joy

I love what you said about It's a journey and that's really what business is about. And it's, it's an adventure. It can be a rollercoaster ride sometimes of, I think I know where I'm going, but getting on the same page and finding that vision and following that has is really where. success lives and what leaning into who you are. I love that you are like completely obsessed with alpacas and love, and this is your thing, right? It's your thing. And that's what I teach people is find the thing that you would do no matter what, and then build a business and a life around that rather than try to figure out how to make money first and then do something you might not want. So it sounds like. You've got a really great thing going and I'm really excited to be part of that journey. Thank you for being here.

Penny Moore

Thank you.

Tina Joy

You've been listening to the joy led business podcast. I'm your host, Tina Joy Cochran. Thanks for sharing part of your day with me. You don't have to walk this business journey alone. Discover others just like you at goldenheartland. com. Business coaching community for creative rural women. Faith. Go there to learn more and get free gifts I designed just for you. Be sure to hit subscribe so you never miss an episode and share this episode with someone who could use a bit more joy today. Remember, your business success matters to me and to God. Being joy led will get you there. Can't wait to meet you at Golden Heartland.