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 Lifestyling Church. That's why I created this pike, 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. Welcome back to the joy led business podcast today, my guest is the amazing Nyssa Farnsworth. And Nyssa, tell us the name of your business, because I don't want to mispronounce it.

Nyssa Farnsworth

Thank you so much for having me. My husband and I own Hesed Ridge Homestead, which is a faith centered business that strives to create products where sustainability meets imagination. So we're inspired by great storytellers such as J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and authors who celebrate truth and light, and we felt like that was an important part of who we are as well, we're homesteaders we love fiber arts we celebrate, truth and light, and that God led us here to where we're at.

Tina Joy

You said God led you here and Homestead, there's like 35 minutes on each one of those, explain to us what you mean when you say homesteader, what that means.

Nyssa Farnsworth

For us, the journey has been a real rollercoaster. A couple of years ago, we were living in the suburbs in Utah and, had a small, modest home and we thought, we thought we were living the life. I had a couple of chickens in the backyard and a little garden but we, we went out camping and. Which we did a lot of, but this, one particular trip that we went camping, we actually stayed in a little cabin by a lake and it was maybe like 12 feet by 30 feet and. We had kind of talked about, living off grid or doing that kind of lifestyle at some point, and this was right at the end of COVID. So 2021, we were wait, we need to do this. And God was yeah, you're going to do this. And we were wait a second, is this really what we want? So we started looking at property And we couldn't find property in Utah three hours from anywhere. And so we started looking at surrounding states and surrounding states were having the same issues, the same problems. And then we made a joke about the Midwest. And about some of the religious history here and but God saying, no, that's where you need to be. And I was wait a minute. I don't know anybody there. I lived in Indiana as a senior in high school for a couple of months and that was about it. I was born and raised in the West. in Utah, Oregon, Alaska, Pacific Northwest, do I want to live in the Midwest? And I waited a couple weeks before I told Kevin about it. When I did finally tell him about it, his eyes got wide. And, he was like, okay, let's look at it, and started looking at properties, and the more that we And so we sold our home for twice the market value as what we bought it five years before and started looking at properties here in Missouri. We had no real idea where we were looking. it was basically the state of Missouri. Was our inspiration at first and like, okay, we need somewhere to go from here. And as Kevin looked at properties on his own and I looked at properties on my own, the circles of where the properties we liked were was Lebanon, Missouri.

Tina Joy

Oh, wow.

Nyssa Farnsworth

And that was individual. Just all of a sudden one day he, we were in the car and he said. You know where I think we're supposed to move? And I said, what, Lebanon? And he said, yeah!

Tina Joy

That's funny.

Nyssa Farnsworth

That's basically how it happened. We looked at properties, I think, three different times. And this property was the third property of the day. The third time that we looked, and it was the last one on our list of prospective properties. And, I mean, it was, it was just absolutely perfect. The, the other properties that we had looked at, all of them had something or another that just didn't feel right. And this one, walking onto the property, just felt like coming home. Oh,

Tina Joy

I get that. You mentioned the word off grid. You've been on the property now, how long?

Nyssa Farnsworth

Let's see, the story gets even crazier from here, which is why I wanted you

Tina Joy

to tell the story because I know the story is a God story. When you say God led us, when God leads, it's joyful that hence the joy led, right? But it's not always, it's not always easy and it's not always what you expect. Sometimes it's a zillion times better than you expect. So tell us more.

Nyssa Farnsworth

Right. As we sold our house in Utah and started looking at properties up here, in the meantime, we were staying with Kevin's parents who live outside of Fort Worth, Texas. We were driving back and forth from here to there a lot and when we bought the property, it had been livestock pasture for 20 plus years. And probably 50 years before that, but it held it stopped being maintained about 15 or 20 years ago. So it's been it's extremely overgrown in areas and and really needs a lot of work, but it had no driveway. It had no address. It had no power, no water. Nothing, completely untouched, pretty much.

Tina Joy

That's about as far off grid as you can get, right?

Nyssa Farnsworth

Right, right. Okay. So, the, the summer of 2021 was a process because getting, an address, getting a driveway getting power put in, all of those things, even just getting, permission to put a mailbox up took us two and a half months.

Tina Joy

Wow.

Nyssa Farnsworth

it was crazy there for a while. I, I was living in Texas we had a lot of savings from when we sold the house, but through car problems and all kinds of things, that money was dwindling. And so we were praying about it and, what do we do? Because we don't have money to put a, put a tiny house on it now. We, we don't have money to, to build anything now, but we know that we need to be there. And had this, I still get goosebumps every time, had this moment where God said your ancestors lived in tents as they went across the prairie. Like,

Tina Joy

and.

Nyssa Farnsworth

You can do this. You can live in a tent while you get everything else set up.

Tina Joy

Okay.

Nyssa Farnsworth

And I said, okay, but I have some stipulations here. What do I do about this? I hear you, but.

Tina Joy

Yes.

Nyssa Farnsworth

Right. I'm willing to do this, but I have some concerns. You know, for one, the amount of bugs and dangerous bugs here in Missouri. And I was worried about the ticks and chiggers and, mosquitoes and all of those things, as well as I don't want giant wolf spiders in my bed. Sure. Yeah. And so basically what he said was, okay, you heard about recently, this amazing, industrial grade weed fabric. that your friends were using on this Homestead channel that you watch. You'll take that and lay out, 40 feet by 40 feet, and then you put the tent in the middle of that, and that will make it so not as many bugs are trying to get in, into your tent. And then we didn't even have a tent that would work at the time. Kevin's brother ended up lo loaning us his canvas bell tent. Which is almost army tent grade. And so from August to October of 2021. That's where we lived. Our dogs and our ferrets were staying with Kevin's family in Texas. And We started getting things set up here and that was hard, but nothing else in my life even comes close to, to that time spending here on the property and being so connected to the land. Just because like, I mean, we, we love to camp, right? So being out for 10 days or, or whatever during deer hunt in Utah, that's just something that we did, but all of a sudden having time to myself here on the property. On a daily basis, and, between, when the sun comes up to, the afternoon, and when the sun goes down, and the different weather patterns, and, the different wildlife, and, and everything, and, we got to this point where we're like, we don't even miss having a TV because there's this whole cycle of The dragonflies come out in the afternoon and there's thousands of them and then when they start to go to bed then the lightning bugs are coming out and, the birds are all going to bed at that time, so they're all take, they're all rushing off to their nests and everything and just this whole cycle every day. And we'd sit out in front of our tent and eat dinner and just watch.

Tina Joy

Wow. That is so, so cool. So how does this experience turn into a business?

Nyssa Farnsworth

I was really unsure of that for a while. We knew that we wanted to live rural and, and have livestock and, to build up this property. To create, not only a world for us and for our family and, to live a life that we love, but to share it with other people and, and, to share with, people who may need other resources, who may be down on their luck or, just be having a hard time that they have Some, that we can be a friend and, and provide, for people. And so it's like, I knew that, I knew that that's what I wanted, but I was like, I have no business skills. I've, I've been trying to do crafts as a hobby slash business for 10 years and had, 15 sales in that time. if we're going to make this work, I've got to have some help. And that's when, Fiber U came along and there's, there's a course from Tina Joy Cochran

Tina Joy

There's this crazy lady at Fiber U who talks about marketing, yeah.

Nyssa Farnsworth

And took the class, absolutely loved it, came to talk to you in your booth afterward. Yeah. And was like, okay. you're the person I needed. Oh,

Tina Joy

it's funny how God arranges things, right? I grew up in upstate New York near Lake Placid. You talk about being on Alaska and yeah. And, and here we are in the middle of Missouri. God, no, right. It's fascinating as you're talking about this because we live in a really interesting time where in some ways you are completely off grid. Do you have running water?

Nyssa Farnsworth

We do not. We, we did get power put in and we, we have an RV that we're living in now. We don't have running water. We're still hauling it from town. Yeah.

Tina Joy

And yet we are doing this over zoom, right? Sometimes when people think about homesteading and being off grid, they think about, never connecting with the outside world. And that's not really where you're, where you're at. You're at a place where you were experiencing life in a certain way and then wanting to share that. Is that true?

Nyssa Farnsworth

Exactly. And that's, that's exactly why, So, God said, okay, you guys have been dragging your feet long enough. You need to start a YouTube channel.

Tina Joy

Okay. So we can find you on YouTube.

Nyssa Farnsworth

Yes, yes. So we're under Hesed Ridge Homestead is our channel.

Tina Joy

Okay. Can you spell that? Hesed. H

Nyssa Farnsworth

E S E D.

Tina Joy

Hesed Ridge Homestead is the name of the YouTube channel. And that's really how the business started is. Let's. Share our experience on a YouTube channel and then continue to flesh that out into a business. When you're living in a tent on landscape fabric your products weren't really in the ballpark at the point But you certainly had content, right?

Nyssa Farnsworth

Right

Tina Joy

So, where does Hesed Ridge come from?

Nyssa Farnsworth

So Hesed Ridge is another God thing Hesed is it's a hard word to translate into English. It's Hebrew and as Hebrew does It has many different layers of meaning. Nothing, nothing in Hebrew has just one meaning to it. There's multiple different layers of meaning and symbolism. But the best way that I can describe it is Chesed is the word for God's love for us, our need to show love for Him in return, and we do that by loving one another and serving each other.

Tina Joy

That's just beautiful. And it's interesting that you talk about your connection to the land has birthed this. Yeah. That's that's the source of it, which is super cool. So what does the business look like now? Question number one. Question number two is where do you see it going?

Nyssa Farnsworth

Right now we have a limited number of products available as, as well as the continued effort to release YouTube content, I love to make. items with shrink plastic or shrinky dinks, if you will, from the 90s or whatever. And so I make stitch markers for knitting and crochet earrings, and I'm looking at some other things like keychains and stuff like that for the future. But I am also looking at, switching to sustainable materials, natural materials. Making them out of wood and, keeping the hand drawn handmade aspect. I'm really excited about some stuff we've got coming up for that. And then I really like to take old denim jeans and, other fabrics and make things as well. I have an apron that I've made that I absolutely love. I'm still working on. How to do that over and over again

Tina Joy

and you mentioned livestock So, how is that going?

Nyssa Farnsworth

We we do have a couple of rabbits at the moment a good friend of ours practically gave us a number of rabbits and so we're also working on how to take take materials that they produce endlessly. A. K. A. poop.

Tina Joy

We don't stand a ceremony. It's rabbit poop.

Nyssa Farnsworth

Yes, and how to take that and make it a marketable product. That you can order in the mail. And, use it for your house plants, your garden, your flowers. Whatever you love to grow, you can order that in the mail and get it and use it on your property without it stinking and a whole bunch of stuff.

Tina Joy

Very cool idea. Having worked with you for a bit now. This was one of the areas where the, the way you describe it is sustainability meets imagination shows up.

Nyssa Farnsworth

Yeah.

Tina Joy

So do you want to share with us just a sneak peek at how you're packaging, basically, rabbit fertilizer?

Nyssa Farnsworth

I've got an amazing illustration that I'm working on that I'm super excited about that. That is another thing that I really love to do is to draw. A number of months ago, I don't remember exactly how, but I love the idea of,, having a mascot. And so we, we, I came up with the idea for Madam Long Ears. And, had this picture in my head of this, super hipster, gypsy looking bunny, on our packaging and everything. And that has kind of I would say it's evolved a little bit and there's a little bit more there now that and I'm super excited to share it once it's complete and we can release this as a product that you can buy but she will be there and she is going to be part of our brand. We're looking at some options to include her in our videos as well.

Tina Joy

Oh, that could be super fun. That's gonna be super fun. and there's another part of the business that has shown up as this has evolved, where your husband has gotten involved in offering some stuff.

Nyssa Farnsworth

Yeah he's been looking for different ways to have a side gig to, earn a little bit of extra cash and stuff like that. And just, and one day he was like, dang, our kitchen knives are really dull. I need to find somebody. That we can, we can take them to and have them sharpened because I just don't have the time to and so he went looking and lo and behold, there is one other person in our county who does any sharpening and that's mainly chainsaws and stuff like that and he is extremely overbooked, extremely, over overwhelmed by his amount of business and Kevin said, well, maybe I should look into if I can do this and then it just so happened some money had come in from somewhere random, and he had the exact amount of money that he needed to buy this system that had, that had come up as a really amazing system that he could do this, and so it's been a couple of months now, and he's really getting into it, and since we're kind of in the middle of, rebranding with our new logo and new illustrations and stuff like that with the added storytelling aspect. He's like, I need it done so I can get these business cards out to everywhere. Because we have multiple businesses in the County that are already saying, Kate, when you have business cards for us, we will, we will have them on our counter. We will. And we will have items to bring you for sharpening, And so it, it's been super exciting and it's been crazy that, last year I had, one vendor event that I did and then all of a sudden they keep getting dropped in my lap with, vendor booth discounts and, Hey, if you want to demonstrate for us, and bring a couple of products for your table and. Just focus on demonstrating. We'd love to get your name out there. Right. And it's just, it's been amazing to be a part of the journey that God has for us.

Tina Joy

You had mentioned a couple of different times about money being tight. And I know that's something that's important for you to get people to understand you hear the phrase in business a lot. It takes money to make money. And, a lot of times people will tell me, well, I'd like to have a business, but. I don't have the money. Exactly. Yeah. So what would you want someone to know if that was what they were thinking?

Nyssa Farnsworth

I think, I think the biggest part is if, if you have faith and you're working toward it, you, you don't have to have all of the funds in line. You don't necessarily have to have a huge. Savings account to be able to make progress with a business and to start a business. Most of what we're going off of and working with on our homestead is stuff that's been gifted to us, stuff that we found secondhand,. And that doesn't look the prettiest right now, but we can make it work until we can afford something better. And I think I think that's the biggest part of our channel right now is I've seen so many homestead channels where maybe they started out that way in the beginning, but what you're seeing now is they're, they're raking in, they're raking in money and they can afford all the toys and we don't see very many, at least personally, I don't see very many channels where you have to DIY it or you have to, make it work on a budget because you don't have any other way to make it work.

Tina Joy

And then that's part of that sustainability factor is it's not go buy something new. It's making some things that are sustainable. Right? Right. Right. Fascinating. So if I'm listening to this and I'm saying, okay, I want to be Nyssa when I grow up, What would be a first step for them?

Nyssa Farnsworth

I would say don't wait to follow your dreams.

Tina Joy

Don't wait to follow your dreams.

Nyssa Farnsworth

Don't make excuses for why you can't do it. If you, if you have a dream in your heart and you know that that's what God wants you to do. He's going to help you do it.

Tina Joy

I think we're done. It is evidence through everything that you're saying on your story that this has been a journey with you and your husband and God. intertwined together. So just as a reminder, if we're looking for you, we go to YouTube and type in Hesed Ridge Homestead and you will pop up.

Nyssa Farnsworth

Yes.

Tina Joy

And we will find some cool stuff and stay tuned for Madam Long Ears, because I can't wait to meet Madam Long Ears. And more of this idea of imagination meets sustainability. So often when you think about homesteading and sustainability, it's. Work and not fun and all the suffering you will to get there what I love about your story is no, one of the reasons you do Homestead is maintain that deep connection with the land. this is what we feel God has led us to do and it connects us with our ancestry. It connects us with the land. Fascinating story. I can't wait to see the next episode of Hesed Ridge Homestead. How often do you put out a video?

Nyssa Farnsworth

We've made a goal of two to three videos a month. You'll see the, the majority of the content on our channel right now. Is the more serious side of it and, down to earth, homesteading content and, and we really felt like it was missing something. And that's when the, the storytelling aspect of, the, Lord of the Rings movies and, Chronicles of Narnia and, and these different things were like, that's the playful aspect of life that we needed because we are not serious people.

Tina Joy

Right. As you start to lean into that, is creating content easier?

Nyssa Farnsworth

It has been definitely, yeah.

Tina Joy

Nice. It

Nyssa Farnsworth

has been so much more fun.

Tina Joy

Nice. Final question on this, what do you want most for the future for Hesed Ridge Homestead?

Nyssa Farnsworth

I would be absolutely overjoyed if it's a place where my friends and family can come and gather and we can make memories together and that we can, that we can educate the community around us about what it's like to live sustainably and still have joy. Oh. Yes!

Tina Joy

We are done, ladies and gentlemen. That is the soundbite we wanted. Beautiful. Thank you so much for letting me be part of this journey. I live vicariously through you guys because you guys are doing things I would never be able to do. I'm not strong enough and I'm amazed by you and I cannot wait to see where God takes you next. Thank you for being here.

Nyssa Farnsworth

Thank you, Tina. It's been an honor.

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.