Episode #26 - Faith, Family, and Farming: Jada Sharp’s Joy-Led Journey

Episode #26 - "Faith, Family, and Farming: Jada Sharp’s Joy-Led Journey"

In this episode of the Joy-Led Business Podcast, host Tina Joy Cochran welcomes Jada Sharp of 14 Hands Ranch, a faith-filled entrepreneur transforming her family farm into a thriving business. What began as a 4-H project for her daughter has grown into a flourishing operation featuring goat milk soap, wool production, and educational experiences for families and fiber artists.

Jada shares her inspiring journey of blending faith, family, and farming while staying true to her rural lifestyle. Learn how she built her business around her values, uses time-blocking to balance homeschooling and entrepreneurship, and trusts God’s guidance through every challenge. Whether you dream of starting your own farm-based business or simply want to infuse more joy and intention into your work, this episode will encourage and inspire you.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• How Jada turned a 4-H project into a thriving family business.
• The importance of faith in navigating the ups and downs of entrepreneurship.
• Why she shifted from hair sheep to wool sheep and the unique qualities of fin sheep.
• How time-blocking helps her balance family, homeschooling, and running a farm business.
• The vision behind 14 Hands Ranch’s focus on education, fiber arts, and agritourism.
• Practical advice for starting small and staying aligned with your values.

Key Takeaways

• Faith-Driven Business: Jada’s story highlights how trusting God can guide your journey and affirm your purpose.
• Family First: Learn how to build a business that prioritizes family and aligns with your lifestyle.
• Education & Creativity: Discover how Jada uses her farm to teach others about fiber arts, livestock, and rural life.

Links and Resources Mentioned:

• Website: 14handsranch.com
• Instagram: @14handsranchks
• Facebook: 14 Hands Ranch Kansas

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Transcript

Tina Joy 0:01

Hey there, welcome to the Joy Ladd 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. I'm always excited about our guests. Today's guest is Jada Sharp of 14 Hands Ranch. Hi Jada. Welcome. Thank you. We're going to dive right in here and let you tell us about 14 Hands Ranch. You're in Leonardville, Kansas. Is that right? Yes. Tell me the story. How did 14 Hands Ranch start and what does 14 Hands mean? It actually started as our daughter's 4 H project with some hair sheep. And it's just kind of grown from there. We've raised hair sheep for a long time and La Mancha dairy goats. And then For the 14 hands part started when I was having a lot of skin allergy issues to the soaps I was buying. And I was doing some research and discovered goat milk. So we were already raising La Mancha dairy goats and I had a freezer full of goat milk. So I started making soap and it. Fixed all my skin issues. And then I posted it on Facebook one day and people started buying it. So we had to come up with a name. And 14 hands is what we came up with. We have five kids, my husband and I do. There's seven of us and it takes all of us to make everything work. So that's where the 14 hands came from. Two of our kids no longer live at home full time, but they do come home and help quite a bit still. It is the exact example of business grows up around you because it started out as a four H project for your daughter. And how do I fix some skin issues? And next thing you know, you've got a full blown business. Yes, that's pretty much how it went. Well, how long have you been in business? I've been selling the soaps for probably five years. I didn't make it an official business until probably about four years ago. Okay. And then just really started pushing it and trying to grow it the last couple of years. what does the business look like now? Now we have goat milk, soap and lotion but our main focus is raising fin sheep. They are an older breed of wool sheep and we no longer even raise hair sheep, which is what we started with. I do the wool yarn and roving from our sheep. and then needle felted art and stuff like that. And you still have some Lamont goats. Yes, we still have dairy goats. We're still raising those, just not as many of them either because I still do the soaps and lotions. You've mentioned a couple of times, and I know a lot of our listeners are fiber artists, so they may understand, but I'm still a newbie on this stuff. Hair sheep versus wool sheep, fin sheep. Help us understand what's the difference and what's special about the fin sheep. Hair sheep are sheep that mostly have hair. They do grow a little bit of wool in the winter, but then in the spring, when it warms up, they actually just shed it out on their own. So you never have to share them. And that's why we did those with our daughter when she wanted to raise sheep for 4 H because it was a lot easier than trying to get them sheared every year. And then I decided I wanted to have wool sheep cause I wanted my own yarn. And so we started with 11 head of fin sheep. And I chose fin sheep because their wool is very soft. It's next to skin soft for most people when they are an older breed. So they're pretty hardy and take care of themselves pretty well. They're great mamas and they are also known for lambing and litters. So they almost always have triplets quads. Last year we had a set of quints. Wow. Yeah. Like it's there. It's amazing how many babies and they can count. They know if all their babies are there or not. They can count them and they can feed them all. Oh yeah. We supplement bottles, but most of our mamas can feed them, but we do offer bottles just in case they need it. But a lot of times they don't come and get them. Wow. Wow. In the fin sheep side of your business, do you sell the sheep themselves? We have sold some that's not our main focus with them though. I did sell one starter flock to someone last year but she'd been waiting two years for me to be willing to sell her any. And mostly our focus though is on just raising the sheep for the fiber to sell. My goal is to have enough of my own wool to have a line of nice wool blankets made from my own yarn, something like that. How big is your herd now? We have about 50 head right now. Wow. We just added 10 border Lester's to our flock. Most of those are weathers and then one you and then we're probably going to be adding some blue face Lester's later. In the next year in the spring. So those are different breeds of sheep. They're different breeds. Yep. Just to get a better variety of yarn. One of the things I love about what you're saying is, It sounds like you're making decisions with the future in mind, as far as what you want it to look like. So tell us more about 14 Hand Ranch as far as what does it look like when this business is where you want it to be? What is the vision for it? Our main thing is education. We like educating people about living on a farm and about livestock and caring for livestock. So we're doing digital products that way. And probably going to have some farm days where you can come and visit the animals and learn about how to care for them. Things like that, we're trying to set it all up so that it runs a lot smoother. And not as much input it is possible to set it up so that, all your paddocks are done. You don't have to go out and build fence every day to rotate them. Again, starting with the end in mind and building process from there. Yeah, we have a plan how we want everything set up especially as our kids leave home and I lose all my assistant. Will the name of the company change? It's now 12 Hands, not 5 Hands. No, hopefully they'll come home or grandkids will come home someday and help. Right. Yeah, we're trying to set how our farm runs with that in mind, because I do most of it. And then one of our kids helps me a lot and trying to set it up so that it's easier for me as kids are not here. So we can travel some too and not have to worry about it. This is really fascinating. What would you say to someone who's listening and saying, okay, that sounds really cool. I'd love to copy what you do. What's your best advice for the newbie start small. Start with something you can handle and don't believe everything that you read on the internet. What's an example of something they should not believe? That sheep are stupid that really is super annoying to me cause sheep are not stupid, sheep are actually very good at hiding that they are sick until it's almost too late to do anything. Yeah. But if you're out with your sheep all the time, you will notice if they don't feel good. But they're very good at hiding it and they are smart. They will figure it out. They all have their own personalities and they can recognize faces and voices and. If you spend enough time with them, you'll learn. So talk to me more about what you have on the farm itself. It sounds like it leans towards. agritourism to some extent, wanting to have education and events and teaching people, which allows for lots of different products, which is really neat. It's not a soap business, it's a farm business and soap is a product. So what are all the different types of animals and livestock that you have and what other products do you sell? It started as a soap only business and is definitely ballooned from there. Our main things that we raise are our sheep and then we have a few La Mancha goats, but we also just added Guernsey dairy cattle, Last March. And that's also started as a son's 4 H project. I was going to say another 4 H project. Yes. So if we do this, if we do this in a year, it'll be a dairy too, right? Yep. We love 4 H. We're huge Supporters of 4 H. We have two, a cow and a heifer. And we do sell the raw milk off the farm from them the cow that we milk. And then we also have, chickens and rabbits and ducks and all the things, so all the things we would expect on a farm. Talk to me a little bit more about your location. I'm proud to say that, that our podcast has been listened to internationally. So when we say Leonardville, Kansas, that might not mean a lot to somebody listening. Tell us a little bit more about the environment, the location that you are in, in Kansas. We are about 25 to 30 minutes Northwest of Manhattan, Kansas, right on the edge of the Flint Hills. The Flint Hills just start right about here where we live. And how many acres do you have? We have 40. 40 acres. And then we rent some more acreage from my husband's grandma, and that's where our horses stay at most of the time. So horses too. Everything you would expect on a farm. And you've talked a lot about 4 H. Can you explain what a 4 H project is? 4 H is a program that offers a lot of different Activities for kids to learn. Our kids are involved in the horse project dairy cattle, dairy goats pigs welding woodworking, there's cooking, art, there's something for every single kid in 4 H, but it's really a a good way for kids to learn leadership skills and parliamentarian procedure, how to run a meeting correctly and just a good way for kids to learn how to interact with people. And put themselves out there and learn, gain confidence in what they're doing and present themselves to people in a good way. So am I hearing busy mom? Yes. Yes. Yes. Five kids, four H projects, running the business. all the things we use hashtag all the things a lot. What have you learned as a business owner about being that busy mom and running a business? What would be your advice? That obviously the family comes first. If one of our kids has a cross country meet or track meet or something, I have to work around that because that's going to be priority to go to that. I started staying home when our oldest went to middle school so that I would be able to go to her sports activities. And now we actually homeschool our younger three. So, It's been, you know, just trying to manage my day. I start doing time blocks for my day and that helps a lot that I know in the morning is going to be housework and school and everything that needs to be done outside. And then the afternoon I try to do a couple hours at least of work, some kind of work. Even if it's just one thing, if I just get one thing done, at least I did something today to help push my business a little bit forward. And that's just giving out your priorities. We've worked together for a while, and one of the things I love about what you do is you've got your priorities of what you want the priority state pretty much interact family first, and then business and so forth. But. You have to keep shuffling tasks to make that work every single week. You're not trying to go, okay, this is how my week has to be. And everything else needs to fit into it. One of the advantages of having this kind of a lifestyle business is that you can, you can work it around these things. If you have strong boundaries, and I love that you're continuing to have those strong boundaries. Time blocks sounds like a great tool to use and you homeschool your three kids. Is that reflected in some of the products that you offer for your business? Yes, the newest products are picture book studies or literature units. That's what we just released. And we're going to be adding all about sheep, all about cows, that kind of stuff is what we're going to be working on with picture books as well. In my former life, I worked as a speech language pathologist and I used picture books in therapy a lot with kids. And so I'm just taking a lot of what I did there. And I've adapted it for homeschool families to use and what we and for us to use at home with our youngest daughter. Cleaned it up a little bit and add it to it, and that's what I've listed. People will come to me and say, well, I want to do homeschool curriculum picture books, and I want to do goat's milk soap, and I want to do wool, and so I need three businesses. And 14 Hands of Ranch is a great example of, no, you don't need three businesses, and you probably don't want three businesses, because That's too many things to try to keep track of. There's a thread there that when you said education about farmland, all of these products that you offer fall under that umbrella, including the homeschool curriculum. You've got plans for more homeschool curriculum, it sounds like. I've got two questions left. What's your biggest plan that you'd like to see happen for 14 Hands Ranch in 2025? Because we're doing this at the end of 2024. That's question one. Question two that I try to ask all my guests is, How has your faith played out in all of this? So I'll let you address which one you'd like to talk about first. That's My biggest plan for 2025 is just to really focus more on the digital products. Because once they're done, they're done. Unless I want to update them. They don't have quintuplets on you or anything like that. No, I don't have to go feed them bottles or anything. Is to really focus on getting those done. I have a whole list of them that I want to do and work on those more. And the more the education piece, we offer fiber arts classes once a month. And so just really working more on that education piece of our business. And my faith has definitely been a part of it. There's been many times I've been like, all right, God, I think this is not going to work. Like I'm done. I can't do, All of it. And something will happen that day or later that day. That is like very obvious. Nope. This is what you're supposed to be doing. There will be a large order or somebody will say you're so pelt my skin or, you know, there will be something come in that's like, Nope, this is, this is where you need to be. You need to keep going. Time blocks seems like a good structure that helps you do that too, because you're like, I'm not sure exactly what's happening. I just know I'm going to make myself available for this bigger picture. Yeah, I try to make a list on Sundays or Monday mornings of what I want to accomplish during the week. Monday's usually computer work or just getting everything cleaned up and organized from the week before. And then I have a structure for what I want to do every day, but I just mark things off my list. And I know, like, I'm going to spend a couple hours. Yeah. Every afternoon doing something right. And so if I can't get all the lists done, that's fine because there's another time block coming and I don't have to try to get it helped me a lot because I just started doing that the last couple of months because before it was at my list, I got to try and figure out when I'm going to do everything. And I wasn't super structured with when we did school and just making everything know what mornings are for at home and homeschool. And then the afternoons are I need to work in the afternoon, at least an hour or two, even if it's only one thing that I got accomplished, at least I got something done and I. Still dedicated that time to it. Very last question. What is the one thing if someone is listening to this and they want to be you? no other than run away, don't do that. What is the one thing they should do today? What would you say? Like, they get done with this, they're very excited about this idea, and they're like that's the dream. I want that for my life. What should they do today? I would say find a mentor. Reach out to someone that is doing something similar to what you want to do and just ask him your questions. I wish I would have done that sooner. Ask questions. Probably would have been a little bit easier starting instead of just kind of floundering and figuring it out myself. Ask questions and sit and take some time to pray about it and think about it. And dream like, is this really what we want our life to look like? Is this what we want? I love it. Thank you so much for sharing 14 hands ranch with us. where do we find you online? 14 hands, ranch. com. And then 14 hands ranch KS on Instagram and 14 hands range Kansas on Facebook. Okay, awesome. We'll drop those links in the show notes as well. Thank you for being here. I love what you're doing. I'm looking at my hands are all dry and scaly right now, thinking I need to check out the site for lotion. And keep doing what you're doing. I cannot wait to see what happens next. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. 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.