Episode #13: Navigating the Second Act: Launching a Business During Retirement Kay McCoy's Inspiring Journey

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Episode #13: Navigating the Second Act: Launching a Business During Retirement  Kay McCoy's Inspiring Journey

On this inspiring episode of the Coming Home to Joy Business Podcast, Tina Joy Cochran chats with Kay McCoy about finding passion and creativity after retirement. Journey with Kay as she shares how she birthed a unique business inspired by her love for the prairie and fiber arts. Tuning in, you'll learn the value of building a business that serves you and gets a sneak peek into Kay’s transition from an esteemed government career to a fulfilling life of entrepreneurship.

## Show Summary

This episode of "Coming Home to Joy" features an inspiring interview with Kay McCoy, owner of Prairie Inspirations. After a fulfilling 37-year career as a loan officer, Kay took the plunge into entrepreneurship in her retirement, combining her passion for fiber arts with teaching. Her journey shares an inspiring perspective on late-stage entrepreneurship and the idea that you're never too old to bring your dreams to life. Kay also emphasizes the importance of building a business that serves her lifestyle rather than fitting her life into her business.

## Key Points 

- Kay McCoy transitions from 37 years as a loan officer to owning Prairie Inspirations, an inspired lifestyle business focused on fiber arts.

- Prairie Inspirations has an umbrella brand allowing it to incorporate different aspects such as teaching, painting with fibers, blacksmithing, and soap making. 

- Kay tackles technology challenges to build her business and develops her website as a key showcase of her work. 

- Embracing the lifestyle and shifting the mindset that business needs to serve her, not the other way around.

- Teaching and sharing the passion for fiber arts is a significant aspect of Kay's business. She believes in sharing knowledge and engaging others in her craft.

- God's role in her journey: Kay credited her faith as a critical guiding source, believing that God inspires her creativity and positions her creations to those who are destined to need them. 

- Kay's advice to others contemplating late-stage entrepreneurship: Follow your passion, build your business to serve you, and remember that business can be an enjoyable enterprise if approached correctly.

## Key Resources/Links Mentioned

- [Prairie Inspirations](www.prairieinspirations.com)

- [Golden Heartland Business Community for Women](www.goldenheartland.com)

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Transcript

Tina Joy 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. This is your host, Tina Joy Cochran. And joining me for another fabulous interview here on the Coming Home to Joy podcast is the amazing Kay McCoy. Welcome, Kay. Hi, Tina. It's good to be here. So Kay and I have been working together for a bit and Kay, you birthed a business recently called Prairie Inspirations. Is that correct? That's correct. That's the way I understand

Kay McCoy 0:53

it. A little different than other birthing experiences I had in the past, but brought a few tears to my eyes too. So,

Tina Joy 1:05

you have a, really great lifestyle business. So tell me how it all started. What's the business?

Kay McCoy 1:11

So I have always loved fiber arts and have always been involved in some aspect of fiber arts. I didn't realize it until later in life, but even in 4 H, you know, I was teaching fiber arts, macrame, wheat weaving, those different types of crafts and things like that. And I love to teach then. And that always continued. Of course I've always enjoyed art. I love to paint. I took a lot of watercolor classes. I took every elective that I had in college, I took drawing and design and watercolor and painting classes. Even though my career life was agricultural related. I went to college actually and have a degree in animal science and industry with a business focus. And from there it was just expected that you would go and get a job and a career. And I did that. I worked for the federal government and the USDA Farm Service Agency for 37 and a half years as a loan officer. Had a lot of wonderful, amazing experiences and met a lot of wonderful people, worked with people that I always wanted to work with, which was farmers. And the part I love best was sitting across the kitchen table. Working with them on their finances and things. It was a fulfilling career and, I enjoyed it, but in the government, you don't get to be very creative and there was a part of me that always yearned to be creative. And I was in my spare time., I played in fiber arts, my sister. Sally Brandon and I, we had a little fiber art store together called Great Plains Artisans, and she did a lot of traveling to fiber shows. And I tagged along and took classes and had a lot of fun. And just kind of did what she told me. I was known in the fiber world as Sally, Brandon's sister, Sally is a fantastic, amazing

Tina Joy 3:25

sister. And we interviewed Sally for the podcast previously. Sally shared her journey. And so it was interesting to hear another version of it. So you were the tag along for a bit and then retirement happened and it was time for you to come out on

Kay McCoy 3:44

your own at the point when I decided to retire, my husband and I both retired together Sally was in the process of transitioning in a different direction. then really what I could see myself fitting into and really liquidated our little fiber arts business together. And I decided, I need to go my own way. I need to do my own thing. Just wasn't sure how I was going to achieve that. I knew I wanted to teach fiber arts. I knew I wanted to create fiber arts and in order to create fiber arts, you have to. buy supplies. And if you want to teach fiber arts, you have to have supplies available for your classes. And, it was one of those things that I really needed to have some way to monetize that because I needed to cover those expenses. Obviously when you retire, you don't have as much income as you had when you were working and when I was working, I did sell some of my things through Sally's store and things like that. But I, I needed my own outlet. I needed to get out on my own and I did a lot of thinking about that. And I went to a workshop that you had at Fiber U. Saying, Oh, you need to talk to this gal. She can get you going in the right direction. And I had not really thought about having my own business before that. And after we had that workshop and I kind of tossed some things around and talked to my husband and he also went with me to the workshop, cause he kind of. you know, he and I can kind of communicate and speak the same language that way. I realized that I think I could do this. I think I could have my own business. That kind of started the thought process. And I was so thankful to have you, Tina guiding me on that because I would have been totally overwhelmed by the thought of it. So

Tina Joy 5:50

it's interesting because even though you had in a long time career, you had been part, part of Sally's business. You still didn't see yourself as a business owner.

Kay McCoy 6:01

No, I thought, you know, it would be, it'd be really something to have my own business. and, you know, I don't expect a great deal out of my business other than to return the cost of my supplies. My initial goal was, Hey, you know, if David and I can do a little traveling and I can enjoy teaching and creating fiber arts at the same time, and we earn enough from this to just support that travel, that's all I really need. And so that started the process of, okay, so what am I going to call this business? Yeah, so prairie inspirations. Where does that come from? Prairie inspirations was definitely an inspiration from above. I got to thinking about, you know, what's special about me? You know, I live out here in rural route nowhere near Sabetha, Kansas. And I had a hard time seeing anything special in where I live or what I do, but I got to thinking about it. I thought, you know, there's a lot of people around who don't get to see the beautiful sunsets that I see, don't go for walks and see little animal tracks in the road. And I thought, you know, I'm inspired by the Prairie. The paintings that I've always done in the past and things that I have created have been inspired by where I live, which is the prairie right? I grew up in Phillips County, which is rolling hills and beautiful country. Nemaha County is a lot like that only with more trees. And so I thought, you know, I can share my perspective with other people who might also enjoy the prairie. So that's what I do. And that's where prairie inspirations came from.

Tina Joy 7:53

I love it. I remember when we first started working together, when we were talking about this idea one of the things. That we teach in the academy is something called an umbrella brand. It's having a single brand that allows you to do a lot of different things. And I was looking at your website at Prairie inspirations. com. And what's so cool about the website is you have it positioned with the different things you teach. You paint with fiber. The needle felting pictures that you do it's like a watercolor, but it's made from fiber and needle felting rather than paints. Right.

Kay McCoy 8:25

Yes, and we do so much here on the farm, my husband is an artist

Tina Joy 8:31

it's interesting to watch you go from, you know, we want to just monetize what we do to know we want to own a business that supports what we're doing travel wise. He doesn't do needle felting and fiber arts, does he? No, he's not a fiber artist.

Kay McCoy 8:45

I am the fiber artist. My husband is a blacksmith. He does beautiful work as do both my sons. David is more of the practical blacksmith. I have another son who does beautiful little shawl pins and things like that. And then I. and leaves and just fancy little things. And then I have a son who makes knives. And so some of their things appear with me. I sell those items for them. David sells dinner bells and he makes little Christmas ornaments, bells and things like that and does beautiful work. He also is a sawyer. He owns his own sawmill that he built. He spent 25 years building his sawmill and tinkers with that a lot, but he turns out some beautiful live edge boards and I use those for the backdrops for some of my fiber arts items. David also teaches blacksmithing and, I teach soap making. We both demonstrate. Blacksmithing, soap making at different shows mainly with our own museum that we're involved with, but we're very interested in the heritage arts and the way our ancestors did things. So that aspect's brought in under that umbrella of

Tina Joy 10:09

prairie

Kay McCoy 10:10

inspiration.

Tina Joy 10:10

Yeah, it makes so much sense too, when you think about prairie inspirations, it doesn't say I do fiber arts. It's like I do whatever comes underneath this business. It's inspired by the prairie. And as you're talking about blacksmithing and live edge furniture, all these different things are inspired by your lifestyle. Right?

Kay McCoy 10:29

We have soft maples on our property, and David saws those soft maple logs that he harvests, and they have the most beautiful spalding and decoration that nature has provided. But my daughter, taps those soft maples and makes maple syrup. So we kind of throw that under our umbrella as

Tina Joy 10:52

well when we talked about doing this interview, one of the reasons I really wanted to have you on the podcast is because you really have embraced this idea of lifestyle, for 37 years, you had a specific kind of lifestyle, the, the nine to five job, and all the things I'm passionate about are a hobby. And when you retired it was time to make that transition. And I think you have done it so brilliantly and quickly, actually. I mean, how long have you been retired? Almost two and a half years now. So you have jumped in with both feet. And I know you mentioned earlier about some birth with tears. What would you say was the most challenging part of this transition for you?

Kay McCoy 11:35

Really the most challenging part of the transition has been a couple of different things. One is learning and dealing with the technology and I think everybody has that challenge. I wanted to build a website and there were some points where I just wanted to give up. I thought, I just can't do this. But I would walk away, maybe cry a little as you write on your shoulder some and then I come back and then we kind of make more sense. And, I won't say that I love website work, but I do really like that. I have that calling card out there on the internet above and beyond Facebook. Of course I do Facebook. But the website is mine and mine alone and I share my pictures and things on the website as well. So that part was tough, probably the tougher part. For me has been embracing the lifestyle. Okay. Tell me more. And not thinking that, Oh, I'm in business now. Now I've got to do this. I got to do that. I got to do this. And you know, I don't have time to do that because I'm a partial caregiver for one of my grandsons right now until he can graduate into daycare. I've been doing that since last August and that's taken a fair amount of my time., I've had some other things going on, I'm three hours away from my family and, my mom, Needs me sometimes and I just need to go and so, it's been tough. Maybe the toughest things, maybe not feeling guilty, but I remind myself that this business is serving me. I'm not serving my business. I love it., you know, maybe I feel a little guilty because I'm not having to make a living from this business, but I do have certain expectations that this business to me is that I can't serve from a place of emptiness. There it is. I need to find some way to. recoup some of the expenses that I have in working on my craft and my husband too. And so like I say, we have certain parameters that have to be met and that's where we come from, so.

Tina Joy 14:03

One of the things I love about what you just said is my business serves me. I don't serve it

Kay McCoy 14:11

right

Tina Joy 14:12

after 37 years of a government job, right? There's a real mindset shift that has to go into this type of business where it's okay to. Take those three hours and go be with family and you don't have to ask permission. When I work with business owners and we talk about this on this podcast, we really want to focus on what is the lifestyle that you want and then building your business to support that rather than the other way around. as you've grown your business and designed your business with that in mind, the business serves you you mentioned teaching as well. So that's one of the passions that goes under this umbrella of Prairie Inspirations, right? Absolutely. Yes.

Kay McCoy 14:56

I've always had a passion to teach. I love to learn new things. And when I learn new things, I want to share them with others. So, I get to teach all kinds of different things that fiber you, I'm going to teach to Tunisian crochet classes. Nice. I have taught nooking, which is knitting with a crochet hook. I teach several different kinds of needle felting classes. And I, I love the needle felting, too. I just love it all. And

Tina Joy 15:24

I would just want to share it. I love that. That is so amazing. What would you tell someone who is maybe looking at retirement coming up and going, it's too late for me to be a business owner. That ship has sailed. I don't know if I'd ever want to try to be a business owner. Because you know, that's for the young folks, that's for the folks just starting out and I've put, you put 37 years in a USDA, right? So when you're looking at retirement, a second act is where essentially what you're doing now.

Kay McCoy 15:53

You know,

Tina Joy 15:54

who's considering that?

Kay McCoy 15:56

If you have a passion, do it. Share your passion with others. Don't keep it under a basket. And at the same time, you may not have to have a full time equivalent income, but if you can find some ways to monetize that passion, do that. But mainly have fun, you know,

Tina Joy 16:17

business can actually be

Kay McCoy 16:19

fun. Yeah. It's just so, just so worth it. So rewarding. I never would have dreamed two years ago that I would be getting ready for my first art show. With my needle felted pictures, but I am. And it's just amazing. And it's my passion. I get in my studio and I create and I can just totally lose track of time.

Tina Joy 16:40

I love what you're doing. I just love. The company that you're building, and I love that you're building it in a way that you can still babysit your grandson and be there for your family and do the things that you want to do in retirement as well. Sometimes we think of entrepreneurship as. I have to be chasing that seven figure dream and I have to be building this big business and most of the people that are in my world, that's not something they wanna do. It's not an either or. It's not. I can't be a business owner unless I want that. You're living proof that that's not true.

Kay McCoy 17:14

That's true. I hear these people say, I just don't know what I would do if I retired. And I think, you know, I could find lots of stuff for you to do. You know, you just need to find what inspires you, what interests you and, just dive in with both feet. Don't be afraid. Don't just sit on the couch wondering what you're going to do from day to day. This is a fun way to share your knowledge and, be part of something bigger. Nice. And just

Tina Joy 17:46

yourself. How has your faith played a role in all of this journey?

Kay McCoy 17:50

I've just seen God working. In all kinds of areas in my life, in helping me learn to trust him more. Mm-Hmm. You know, you made comment in one of our coaching sessions that you are making something you don't know who it's for, but God does. Mm-Hmm. And I thought about that and I thought, well, that's cool. And, then that fall. I went to some different shows as Prairie Inspirations and I have this needle felted iris picture. And I almost didn't take it. I thought it's not good enough, but I thought, well, just throw it in. So I did, I threw it in and I was at this farm day show and this lady came and she says, Oh my gosh, I love that iris. I collect iris. I've got to have that. And I thought, whoa, Tina's right. God has in mind what, what somebody wants. and my job is just to create it. And I found the same thing with, some mittens that I had made and her little daughter came through the, and they said Oh, just love these mittens, you know, and they bought them and I thought well that little girl has a cute pair of mittens And her mom has a pair to match, Who knew you know? So I have learned that that god gives me the inspiration And I am to create and God's got somebody in mind for whatever I create. It makes marketing a whole lot easier. Right? It does. That was probably the big reason I went to your workshop.'cause I thought, I'm no good at marketing. But that's not what it's about. It's about being creative and sharing what you can do. With other people and and you know that has that has just Given me a lot of insight and has allowed me to share some of what god's done in my life And it's easier to look back and see things than maybe at the time Yeah, but god had a plan for me from the very beginning And always does he put in me this this desire to create hire to draw and to paint and you know, all that stuff. But you know, careers are important too. And I don't know who might have needed my help in that 37 years working for farm service agency, but no doubt God knew. and I can look back and think, yeah, that's probably why I was here. And then when I retired, he said, okay, okay. It's your, your time to create. I'm going to give you the ideas and you just And that's, that's what I'm doing.

Tina Joy 20:51

And it's so beautiful because what you've done is you've taken business and you've basically built a vehicle and a structure in the business for you to pretty much create and be you and just trusting the Lord to bring the next client and you're showing up like if you hadn't shown up at the show, if you hadn't brought the iris picture, the woman collecting irises never would have seen it. And so you're doing your part and it's that partnership that is just so beautiful. So your website is prairieinspirations. com and I will drop a link to it in our show notes as well. I have so enjoyed having you be on the show. I've loved having you be part of our Golden Heartland Academy in our community. You always bring the fun and you have this gentle way of just inserting the Most entertaining comments that just, I love, and I love your calm demeanor and how you've jumped into this whole world of business and just said, I'm jumping in with both feet and I'll figure it out and we'll go there. So I want to encourage our listeners to go to prairieinspirations. com. Check out Kay's site. If you're in the Midwest, make sure you check out the events tab on her site and where she's going to be. So we're going to have some really good fun. Thank you so much for being on the show. Okay. if someone was listening to this, what's the one thing they should remember from this?

Kay McCoy 22:17

I think the one thing that, that they should remember is that if you want to create a business, don't try to do it alone. You know, every great football player has coach. And I am so thankful, Tina, that you have been my coach, my guide in birthing my business and now in watching my business grow and thrive. And I, I'm just so thankful that I got involved with the Golden Heartland Academy. Great community, of women business owners and, it's just, just been really helpful to me and helped me not be overwhelmed in the process of building a business. So, yeah. Thank you so much.

Tina Joy 22:59

Nice. Thank you very much. Kay. Thank you, Tina.

23:06

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.