Espisode #10 - Designing with the Threads of Life: Sally Brandon’s Weaving Journey

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"Designing with the Threads of Life: Sally Brandon’s Weaving Journey"

Today's episode invites you on a global crafting voyage with Sally Brandon. Listen to Sally’s powerful testimony of how her love for weaving grew despite her fear of failure and living in rural America. Find out how she transformed not just her life but also the lives of others by weaving her passion into successful enterprises. If you believe you've shelved your dreams permanently, Sally’s story will give you the courage to dust them off and try once more.

**Summary:** 

In this episode, Tina Joy Cochran interviews Sally Brandon of The Shepherd Studio. They discuss Sally's incredible journey from working in a business office to becoming a successful woman entrepreneur specializing in the textile and fiber arts industry. The conversation covers Sally's passion for weaving, her experiences of operating a successful business, and the challenges of balancing work and personal life. They also explore the transformative power of faith and community in their businesses, and how to work with God to revive your secret dreams.

**Key Points:**

- Origin of Sally Brandon's passion for textiles and weaving which started from her immersion trip in Finland as part of the International 4 H youth Exchange program.

- Her transition from working in the business office to setting up her own business, Great Plains Artisans.

- Growth and eventual sale of The Shepherd's Mill, a fiber processing mill she ran with her husband.

- Current operation of The Shepherd's Studio, where she embraces her identity as a Weaver, Designer, Artist.

- Importance of having a supportive community for rural entrepreneurs like the Golden Heartland community.

- Value of having faith in one's business journey, acknowledging the presence and guidance of God.

**Links mentioned:**

- The Shepherd Studio's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theshepherdsstudioks

- The Shepherd Studio's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theshepherdsstudioks/

- The Shepherd Studio's website: www.kansasfiber.com

- Golden Heartland business community for women: www.goldenheartland.com

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Transcript

0:00

Hey there. Welcome to the coming home to joy business podcast. I'm your host, Tina Joy Cochran, and I am so happy that you are here. There is no need to stop your busy life right now. Let's just hang out together as we discover more joy in business. Just drop me into your pocket and keep on going. Can't wait to share this episode with you. Today's episode is she hates it when I call her this, but is my friend, the rock star. Sally Brandon of the shepherd studio. And I have been working together for a couple of years now. We've known each other for a long time and I am invited her to join us on the podcast because she has the most amazing story. That starts in middle of the country, United States, goes to Finland, comes back, and I'm going to stop talking and let her start sharing her story. Welcome, Sally. Hey, Tina. Thanks for having me today. Yes, it's a journey. And it's a God led journey that, Along the way, I didn't really understand. I grew up in Phillipsburg, Kansas. I spent my high school years telling everybody I would never marry a farmer. Forgot. Never say never. Well, if you're not going to marry a farmer, you really shouldn't date a farmer. Went to college English, speech and journalism education and looked around the Phillips County area and the surrounding counties. And there were no positions that were going to be coming open for at least 20 to 30 years. But I really loved English, really loved journalism. So the trip to Finland that you mentioned. Was completely off the wall. I was on my way home from school for a weekend and about, Oh, 10 miles south of Plainville. It was like, Hmm, you know, I really would like to travel. I wonder 4 H used to have a program. I wonder if that program is still available. Hey, I might make it back to Phillipsburg in time to stop at the extension office And find out that I know those thoughts were not my own now. At that point, I was not even what I would consider a follower of Christ. I had been baptized. I had had some experience with Christ, but not a follower by any means. And so I stopped at the extension office and by golly, that deadline for that program was the following Monday. Fascinating. I took the application home and I filled it out. If I remember right, I don't think I even said anything to my folks at that point because it was like, you got to be accepted for this. Yeah, it's probably just a fluke, but I'll, I'll see what's going on. I think it was about a week and a half or two weeks later, I got notification that I had been accepted to the program. The program is called the International 4 H Youth Exchange or IFI program, and I was to spend six months living with families immersed in the culture, immersed in the equivalent of 4 H in whatever country I went to, working alongside the family. Experiencing life, as I was accepted and owned up to what I'd done to my folks and, we started looking at Raising the funds for me to go. And I started doing the training to be able to go. I really was intrigued by the stories I was hearing from other Ify's about the culture of folk arts. Especially textiles. And so I set one of my goals for the trip to learn as much as I could about Finnish folk art as part of the 4 H program. And that was my immersion. I learned to weave while I was in Finland. I learned to do bobbin lace while I was in Finland. Had absolutely. An amazing adventure of discovering myself and I really don't think I had truly formulated the idea that there weren't going to be education positions in my fields open up until after I came home from the trip. And so the first thing my husband said is we're getting married. He actually proposed about a month into the trip. I think he thought I would come home at that point, get on with life. I couldn't, I felt the commitment to stay the six months, but when I did come home, he went to ask my dad for my hand in marriage and my dad made him promise that I would finish my school and. Unfortunately, that really wasn't in Jay's hands. We didn't know Jay promised that he would do everything he could to make sure I finished school. About a year later I chose to leave a program at Fort Hayes and I had been working in the business office at Fort Hayes. So I ended up in the business world here in Phillipsburg and did I ended up in the business world here in Phillipsburg and did. Secretarial work, did all kinds of inventory work ended up managing a small pretty good size for Phillipsburg distributor of petroleum, ag hardware some automotive items they worked with the co ops in the region. And so I, ended up. As their general manager at one point had a bit of a conflict over how people were to be treated in the business. Told my boss I was done. He called me later that night and asked me if I wouldn't come back. And for a sizable, a bit more money. I had already talked to my husband or we had already been talking about the possibility of not working for someone else and that became a reality with a God provided six month notice that I gave my boss and that he. paid me more money for that six months as I made that transition to being my own entity. Essentially God provided a way for you to become your own boss. To prepare for it. Yeah, both mentally and financially and the whole nine yards to get ready. For that opportunity. And the funny thing is Jay and I had kind of been talking about, well, you know, we're probably about six months away, you know, you probably need to make sure everything is going to flow. So yes, that's just how that worked. What did you want to do to work for yourself? So the passion of weaving was built in Finland. It completely inundated every part of my creative spirit. Now I have experimented and I love all the fiber arts. I felt, I say I knit, but I'm not the knitter in the family. I have a sister that is much the knitter. I crochet, There isn't probably any of the fiber arts I haven't tried at one point. But the one that I cannot walk away from is weaving and bobbin lace fits right in there because it's, it's a form of weaving just a little different take on it. So that was the idea. At that point my sister, my mom and I were partners in a business called Great Plains Artisans. And so, My goal was to build Great Plains Artisans. My sister and I both were teaching fiber arts for different festivals I taught out of my living room. Mom for a long time, housed our inventory in her basement. And I would carry it over to my living room when I had somebody coming for a class. It, it was a growing thing. I continued to do that out of my house and my mother's basement until I April of 2002. There was a little red house right along the highway, nine and a half miles north of Phillipsburg. Right. And so that was to be my studio and the business. Your story is so awesome because as we walk through it, we hear how God prepares us. Yes. For. What he has for us that we don't even know is coming right without us even knowing, right? So the passion of weaving set in Finland, the passion of fiber art set and then, oh, let's take and push you into a business world where you're working for other people, learning all that administrative stuff before go into your own. So you step into this place of I'm going to be a weaver and then something happened that shifted one more time when you and I met, you were not running Great Plains Artisans. Jay traveled with me to an alpaca show in Denver, Colorado in 2004, right? And he was intrigued with the alpacas, but next to us was a family that had a small fiber processing mill. And they had brought a couple pieces of equipment that were set up there next to us. And I was doing some hand spinning and demonstrating the hand spinning. And they had never seen a hand spinner. And so we were talking back and forth and Jay was really intrigued as they were Operating the equipment really intrigued and on the way home, he said to me, you know, I really think that's what the Lord would have us do. I was happy. I was perfectly content in my little red house, in my fuzzy slippers with somebody stopping once in a while to see me and being supported by my husband, I use the phrase of business kind of grows up around you and all of a sudden you're in business, right? And now your husband is saying let's do this. I spent six months writing a business plan literally to convince him we did not want to do this. Right by the end of the six months when I'd written the business plan. I had really ended up just discovering for myself that it really was a kind of neat opportunity. That it was a way for me to create yarns that I would have access to in the weaving room that would be completely different from anything else that was out there on the market. And so that was my whole focus for the shepherd's mill in the 18 years that we ran it was to create unique yarns. To weave with. So weaving never left. Right. No, no, it was never the goal for weaving to leave, except that there really wasn't time managing as many as eight employees. We've worked for folks in 44 states across the country. Our goal where we wanted to be was a hundred to 150 pounds a week through the mill, which for the mini mills is, a pretty high level. I loved every bit of running that business, except I could not get to the weaving. It was so bad. In fact, at one point I hired. A weaver from the Kansas City Art Institute to move to Philipsburg to run the loom because there was no way I was getting to the weaving. And that was really what I wanted to do. So basically you had to put what you really wanted to do on the shelf, but speaks to, if we're not careful the business can turn into a job. And it was a job it was a job I enjoyed, it was a job I loved the people but I'm not necessarily geared to be a management person,. When, I had three girls that were doing great, could have taken it over, but they recognized it was not what they wanted to do. And so when they gave me notice, I dissolved literally, at this time, you know, Jay and I had been walking with the Lord for almost 20 years. We'd had a lot of ups and downs. The business was always the Lord's the name on the door was the shepherd's mill. So that's so important as you talk about your journey. What I hear in your journey is God never left. God was always with you in this, even when you didn't realize he was there. Right. It's funny how it evolves, because then you open up the shepherd studio and you commit it to him. At that point, you go, this is your business. And for 18 years, it's learned this business. This is why I call you the rockstar because, because of the mill, you became very well known within the fiber arts industry. So again, one more piece in the puzzle to allow you to then make a transition. Now, sell the mill, and move into what is now the shepherd's studio. Almost full circle. So if you're listening to this and you have that secret dream in your heart that you think you have to hide from everybody because there's no time for it. You are the poster child. It can come back. Yes. So let's fast forward up to where you are right now, because. You mentioned journey a couple of times and discovering yourself. And I know since you and I've been working together for a while, we've been following this evolving process that actually is taking you right back to where you were in the very beginning of being a weaver. So now the business has transitioned to the shepherd's studio. The mill has been sold to a new family and you were able to gift them with a solid business that had a good reputation and everything. So you were able to to actually help them with a leg up. We're recording this and you have a tag. underneath your name that says Weaver Designer Artist. And so this is who you are right now, right? So talk to me a little bit about this. So I don't know if you remember when we first connected I had known you from the mill and had helped you with processing. When we connected for you to start becoming my coach was just about the time I was letting go of the mill. And was heading into this new venture. So you've been with me through this whole experience, and I don't know if you remember at the beginning, but there was a time when I felt like I had failed and I was going backwards. Yes. I remember. Not allowing you to say the world. Yes. Failure was not word. Failure was, failure was not a word. So you know that feeling of I know what I want to do. I finally think I've grown up. I finally think I know what I want to do, but it came with some baggage of saying, okay, this is kind of a step back though. And you know, what are people going to think? How's this really going to work? You know, I've been busy, busy, busy, busy trying to juggle all these balls and keep everything in the air. Don't you wish they could see my hand motions, Tina? I think they already know, right? The reason we do a podcast is so that they can be juggling balls while they're listening to us. Right, right. It was when the mill left and the day the trucks moved to Kansas city. I was all alone. Everything had to be rebuilt differently. And it, it felt really awful. In fact, it was really scary. And not only that, but I had to do a lot of work on me. To help me understand that this was what Christ has called me to do. Nobody else was responsible for me ending up in Finland and learning to weave nobody else had planted those seeds for having a weaving studio, like the community weaving houses in Finland, where there are looms set up and people could come weave and learn to express themselves through the textiles. No one else could have taken me on the journey. And yes, all the things that came along the way have all been learning experiences for better or for worse. there is no doubt that some of them were really painful. And I know anybody that's out here in rural America knows that those ups are glorious and the downs are, uh, you know, I know there's a lot of farmwives just like me that don't feel comfortable trying to live on a farm income and build a business. And it's not for the faint of heart. It's true. and honestly, I think every lifestyle has its ups and downs. Every lifestyle has its challenges. And so it's what challenges do we want to take? So in our last couple of minutes here, there's two questions I want to ask you. You've been part of our Golden Heartland community from the very beginning of Golden Heartland. A lot of us who are rural entrepreneurs or live on a farm or live in rural America, we do so because we don't want to be around a lot of people. You became part of our community at this transition point? How has being part of the community had an impact on your business, your lifestyle, how has it been beneficial for you? So in Phillipsburg, Kansas, it's not. Too possible to find somebody that has the same understanding of textiles and the creative process and being an artist and being in business as a weaver designer artist. So to find somebody locally to just sit down and have a cup of coffee with and say, Hey, I'm going through this and I really don't know how to deal with it. There are people I can sit down with, but they are not from that same. One of the things I struggled with with the mill was to put together an advisory team that understood whose name was on the door and why I operated the business the way I did because of whose name was on the door. So that's part of what I find in this community. Is that there's a common understanding and we are all creatives and we are all in different locations, different situations, but we're all able to give each other support and advice. Some of the things I've gone through with the mill. I have been able to share with others in the group and it's helped get them through a hurdle. Some of the things that they've gone through as I've prayed for them, God has shown me something that I can do that might be able to help others in their situations. The community is so invaluable to me. And I think, I think in a world that almost. has disconnected from each other. The opportunity through this kind of a group, which is more, virtual than in person has been a wonderful benefit. I don't have to travel to get to a meeting. I have them scheduled into my calendar. I sat down yesterday. I couldn't make one because I had a student here. That's okay. I'm I'll be on. This afternoon because it's spring break and my daughter's not needing me to pick her up. So, you know, it's very flexible. I love that part of it. And I, I just love cheering the other gals on I love watching their products develop. And seeing how all that is coming together in their lives. So it's a powerful experience to me. It gives me a connection not only on the creative side, but on on the side of understanding that God is very active in our businesses. Yeah, I love that. And I'm so grateful, This community evolves and program develops as. Our members need things. And so, my goal as the facilitator and the coach for this community is to put it in a place where you have a place to connect with people who understand you and will pray with you. I love that we pray for each other. And understand that God walks in our business, and that's super important. If you're going to have a joy led business, if you're going to come from a place of joy you have to come from a place of communication and relationship with the Lord. watching your journey evolve, watching other people's journey evolve and how we grow together and still be able to live. What did you say? Five hours from anywhere from everywhere is unique for this time in history. And I'm grateful So last question, what would you tell someone who here's what you're saying and thinks, oh, wow, this is, This is really fascinating and I wonder what it would be like to go on this journey. What I want to ask is what would you tell someone who is holding a secret dream in their heart that maybe you were a teenager when you got those seats for weaving and they've given up on it. What would you tell them? I would tell him, take it to the Lord in prayer first, because I suspicion that the Lord will stir and grow those seeds. And I would tell him to give this a try. You know, it's not. It's not a commitment you have to make for 10 years. It's something I've chosen to be a part of because of the value that I receive out of it. And. If they just want to talk to somebody about it a bit more and ask a few more questions and are afraid that Tina is just too too daunting to do that. She's not really, she's, she's pretty easy, but I would love to visit. The business is the shepherd studio KS on Facebook or the shepherd studio KS on Instagram. You can give me a call off my website, which is www. kansasfiber. com. Drop me an email. I'd love to visit. I had always been told with the other business that I needed a committee to kind of help me with some of the navigation and that's actually what made me do it. It was like, okay, well, if I need a committee and I don't have one locally, maybe Tina's got something that she can help me make some of the decisions and help me see my way through this. So. And it's worked. So you mentioned your website Facebook. I want to encourage you guys if you're listening and this has really struck some chords with you, check out Sally. I'm going to drop those links in our show notes as well. Thank you so much for being here, Sally. I know this is an evolving journey and the journey continues, right? We get to do it with God and we get to do it with each other. And that is really where joy lives. So until next time thanks for being part of our podcast. Thank you folks. You've been listening to the Coming Home to Joy business podcast. For more joy and business, check out our website at goldenheartland. com. You might find something perfect just for you. This is Tina Joy Cochran. Your host, coach, and the founder of the Golden Heartland business community for women. Thanks for being here. And don't forget to subscribe and share this with your friends. Remember, everything you're dreaming of is just on the other side of change. Being joy led in your business will get you there. We'll see you next time.