What If Serendipity Is The Best Business Plan

A 16-acre orchard, a taxing year, and a knock from fate: that’s how Niki Hilbers found her way from selling fruit to building a year-round honey brand with real roots in the Four Corners. What began as a practical move to make the land pay its way turned into a full-hearted partnership with bees, a masterful co-op with beekeeper Kyle Harris, and a mission to keep everything organic, local, and community-first. The journey winds through caregiving and loss, a sudden delivery of 24 hives, and the kind of instinct that feels like luck but looks a lot like paying attention.

We dig into the real work behind the sweetness. Niki shares how “do not spray” signs, county conversations, and no-chemical practices protect pollinators while building trust. She opens up about the systems that keep a small business alive: ditching the cash box for a POS, juggling WIC and SNAP across clunky apps, hiring her first steady team member, and carving out time to make the products people love — habanero hot honey, lemon ginger throat coat, and those thick honey sticks. There’s no gloss here, just practical tactics, messy spreadsheets, and a steady commitment to serve.

Along the way, we talk honey as medicine — why daily local honey may help with seasonal allergies, and how simple, functional blends deliver comfort when sore throats hit. We explore a bigger vision: a storefront with a glass-walled extractor, a live hive observatory, mentorships for new beekeepers, and a sustainable path to 700 hives to serve San Juan County. Niki’s mindset ties it all together: collaborate instead of compete, welcome constructive criticism, and believe so deeply in the mission that setbacks become fuel.

If you care about small business, local food systems, beekeeping, or just need a nudge to follow your instincts, this story will stick. Subscribe for more candid conversations, share this with a friend who loves honey, and leave a review with the one takeaway you’ll act on this week.

Be sure to follow or subscribe!  And, if you're a local business owner who'd like to be featured - or know someone whose story should be told - get in touch at Ken@StrategicHorizonsConsulting.com

This show is brought to you by Strategic Horizons Consulting (a division of Ken Collins Marketing).

Transcript

Meet Nikki And The Orchard Roots

SPEAKER_02 1:05

I'm here with Nikki Hilbers, the owner of the Happy Pear Honey and Produce and other things that would be super cool. Tell us a little about yourself.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

My name is Nikki, and I opened this business back in March of 2024. I had we had moved into a place that was of plenty. It has an orchard and about 16 acres. It's got um a hayfield and a big place for a beautiful garden. And so my after being there two years, it was like, my gosh, our tax situation is really, really bad. Like I could sell the produce off of this farm. So I decided I was gonna do that. I was gonna doll up the farm, take take my harder and work into it, and like try to sell the um pears and peaches and cherries and plums and things out of the apples out of the orchard. And and so I opened up my business as the Happy Pear Orchard and Produce. Um, and that's where it all began. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:06

Cool. So you've kind of answered a bunch of how did you get started? So, how did you get started with honey then?

Caregiving, Enrique’s Legacy, And The Bees Arrive

SPEAKER_00 2:13

So um it's a funny story. Um, before I opened up the Happy Pear Orchard and Produce, I was caretaking for an elderly couple, um, and they were very well known in the area due to um the man who I was taking care of, his name was Enrique Del Vito. He was a beekeeper around here for 40 years. Um, his wife was a handicapped um woman who was handicapped her whole life, wheelchair, not wheelchair bound her whole life, but in her later years she was. Um and so she grew up with cerebral palsy. Um, me and my daughter were care takers for them. I opened up my business. My daughter started caretaking for them more, so I kind of got to step away a little bit, opened up my business. Um, and within a couple of months, Enrique had passed away. So um when Enrique passed, uh I uh I was helping take care of Amber. She no longer had her husband, so I jumped back in to help my daughter and kind of slowed down with the with the orchard and produce, and I uh I gotta back up. I just messed it all up. I hadn't opened the happy pearl honey and produce yet. I was still caretaking. Um Enrique had passed away, and um uh I had I we together um my daughter was like, hey, I need a little bit more help over here with Amber. Now that Enrique is gone, and so I stepped in and helped with Amber a little bit more. Um, in the midst of taking care of Amber, that's when I opened up the Happy Pear Um Orchard and Produce, and eventually had to step a little bit away from taking care of Amber because it was harvest season and market season, and I was marketing and all the things, and so um yeah, we we um started the Happy Pear Orchard and Produce. Um, Amber wound up passing away, and about three months after Amber passed away, bees came into my life. Um, and it was the weirdest roundabout way. My husband met a guy in the oil field, um, and the guy the guy said, Hey, I got a buddy who is a beekeeper and he's looking for places to put bees. He's like, Your orchard would be a good place. My husband's like, Yeah, we're in, like, have him call me. So Kyle called and he said, Hey Shane, you know, I'm Kyle, and so-and-so sent me your number and he said, I'd like to come out and see if bees would be good on your property. Brought us 24 hives about a couple days later, and I fell in love. Within a day, I was out there just enamored by them, watching them, sitting with them, um, listening to them, watching them on my in my orchard as it was blooming when he brought them the first time. And uh that's where that's how the bees came in. It was kind of a weird magical thing that you know, right after Amber passed and Enrique had gone. And and I was never interested in bees. I was interested, I was like curious, but I never thought, oh, I'm gonna be a beekeeper like Enrique. I I didn't ever want, uh I didn't think that. I just had an orchard and was like, oh, I'm gonna be sell produce at the market, you know. And and when the bees and honey came in, it took over, Ken. It took over my heart, my soul, my life, my my family, uh, just everything, you know. So bees and honey became huge to the happy pear orchard produce.

SPEAKER_02 5:14

I knew that that w on both cases, right? With the product, you didn't have an intent intention to create a produce business or the intention to create a honey business. You're just going about your life and looking around and paying attention to things and seeing opportunities and thinking, yeah, let's just go for that.

SPEAKER_00 5:33

Yeah, if I had a little business, maybe this could help our tax situation. And my husband wouldn't have to work the hard hours he works in the oil field. Maybe we can get back a tax return if I can create something where we have a way to do that. Um, and that's where it all started and began. And and my dream eventually is to get him out of the oil field, you know, so that he's working this our farm with me. With you, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

Um do it as a couple.

SPEAKER_00 5:57

Yeah, so Kyle and I are in a co-op situation, is the way that that works. Kyle Harris is my master beekeeper, uh, and he hates when I call him master. Um, he does not like to be called master. What he says every time I bring it up is I'm not a master beekeeper. Do you know there's people in this community that's been doing it so much more longer than me? And I'm like, Kyle, but do people in this community take care of 700 beehives? Because Kyle does. He takes care of 700. 400 of those are in our co-op, and then he's got 300 off the side with his brothers. Wow. Um, and so yeah, um, our co-op situation, he is the backbone of our our business. He's um behind the scenes, nobody ever sees him, so he produces honey and is master beekeeper. I am a um apprentice in the making, but I do run my business and sell the produce and honey, which um keeps him afloat and keeps me afloat, if that makes sense. Um, my um entrepreneurship with him is also obviously gonna take some time, um, but I'm patient and he's patient, and one day I will step into the role of more beekeeping. That is part of the goal and and part of uh the dream for me.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

That would be fun. It looks like it would be fun.

SPEAKER_00 7:07

Yeah, definitely. He's a master, it's amazing. We watch him do his thing. Um, again, he carries me, he takes care of these these creatures and makes sure they're healthy. He's so so smart. He was born and raised in bees. Um, and I I become a honey um whiz. I search honey, I want to know what what it's all about, how it's made, where it comes from, you know, things. So yeah, very good relationship.

SPEAKER_02 7:31

So in the early days, were there any like lessons or surprises as you were getting started in all this?

SPEAKER_00 7:38

I mean, yeah. Uh again, the the biggest surprise was the bees came in into um the orchard and produce business and and the name changed. I had to do a name change. We had to do some um revamping of not only our name change, but our our farm, um making that more bee savvy, putting signs up on the road that says this is organic, do not spray, talking to the county about other ways to um combat um you know mosquitoes and things like that, because we are close to the river. So um, yeah, that was that was very unexpected. I again I wanted to sell fruit and vegetables at the markets, the local farmers' markets, and here I am full-time 365 days a year selling honey. Yeah. Um, so yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:21

Wow. Yeah. So again, you didn't have the initial intention to go into the honey business.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

No, I I was in love with my trees and my orchard, my property. Like I wanted to grow a bigger garden and and you know, sell garden and vegetables and fruits. Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:37

So you didn't sit down and create a plan of how we're gonna get into honey and work out all the logistics of how that has to happen.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

Honey got into me, my friend.

SPEAKER_02 8:46

Right, so yeah, you did it afterwards. You just went for the opportunity and went, oh my goodness, okay, I gotta keep people from spraying around here, I gotta do this, I gotta do that, I gotta and just learning as you go, but you just went.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

I did, I did, I went head first, and that's what I do. That's kind of how I do my whole life is I just go in things headfirst, uh trusting, fully trusting. I don't know if it's gut instinct, intuition, spirit guides, the Lord, God. I I don't know how to explain what I trust, but I do trust um in myself, my abilities, who I am as a person, and and the mission that I'm on.

SPEAKER_02 9:17

So you know what uh there is some psychology behind instinct that's probably a lot of instinct. And what we just kind of wrap up is instinct is we see things all the time that we didn't necessarily register consciously, that we see and learn things, and it all that just gets rattling around in our head without something to glue itself to. Right. And then you see something that all kinds of pieces fit together, and you just glue them together real quick and go, I don't know where that came from. And it was just from just paying attention. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

Yeah, yeah, definitely being in tune to what what the opportunities are and uh and going for them. It's it's big.

SPEAKER_02 9:58

So you've you've answered a little bit of this. What do you think makes your business special in this community?

Falling For Bees And Building A Co-op

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Um, it is special. Um, one thing is just that we are all organic, um, and I do still sell produce, by the way. I mean, I still do do that, um, but um we're just we're we're a step above the rest. Kyle takes such good care of those bees, he knows so much about the health of them. Um, and we're just out there doing our thing. We want to connect with other people. We're we're just very adamant about our growth uh and and uh nonstop. I'm headstrong. I I don't believe in competition. There's no competition out there for us. Um we don't want to be in competition, we want to be your friend, we want to know about your bees, we want to know what we can do for you and what you can do for us. Like, I think that's why we stand out above the rest. Is I don't I don't have a comp competitive heart. Um I have a loving heart that says, come in, try our honey. Oh, you got honey, I want to buy a jar from you. And so that's kind of my mentality. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:55

I uh you just reminded me of uh do you know Vince Moffitt? I don't. He he he's uh among other things, he he runs um Basin Home Health. I used to have another show where I put people in the truck and drive them around and film it on camera and whatnot. So I interviewed him and and he said he coined this phrase cooperation. Yeah, there's competition out there, but he works with them. And sounds like you're doing the exact same thing. Exactly. Yes, you're fully on board with co-opetition.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

Yeah, I love that word, it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 11:31

Love it. Yeah, so what are you most proud of when it comes to your team, processes, customers?

SPEAKER_00 11:37

Um, you know, I'm proud of my customers, they are such cool people. I always joke about it, and I have this thing I tell people people that love honey are good people, you know, and it sounds kind of funny, but it's the truth. Like um, people that want to take care of their body, know what honey is, you know, um, they're good people, and these are people that I want to surround myself with and grow with and teach and and learn from as well. Um, a lot of my my um collaborations that we do are are healthy people. Um, Mushrooms In, she makes a sleep teacher, a brain booster um out of honey because people don't want liquor. Um I got a uh a cooperate uh collaboration right here next door at Lava Leaf Organics where they infuse my honey with THC. It's a wonderful product. Um yeah, um Dottie Wampus. So those collaborations um and my team, my my customers, they are what make me awesome.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

Yeah, so it's that they're not even competition for you, but you're collaborating with other businesses.

SPEAKER_00 12:37

Oh, absolutely, yeah. And that I'm very proud of that. I'm very proud of that, and very proud of the way that my customers push me forward and and support me.

SPEAKER_02 12:45

Yeah, yeah. So you've kind of just let your root spread through the community.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

I have, I was born and raised here, and that's helpful, right? Um I was born and raised here, I know everything about I love the lay of the land, I know which herbs are here. Um, we've gone and harvested many, many herbs around here, Osha, um, uh Osha root, Yarrow root, uh Mugwar, like or not mugware, uh marshmallow plant, and learned about that. Just so yeah, I'm born and raised. I can show you all the rooms that um that aren't on you know the map or whatever, but they're everywhere. It is, and and also respect for that, right? Like a lot of people that are from here, they're like, oh, I don't want to be here, I want to move out of this place. This place is crappy, whatever. I don't believe that. I believe this place is wonderful and it's magic, and it's who you surround yourself with and the light that you bring to the situation wherever you're at. So um, I'm very proud of that as well.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

Just being a lot of that is a reflection. Um, you can be unhappy or happy anywhere in the world. Right.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

Be happy, my friend. So it's really a choice.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

Yeah, so the the all the complaints a person has about an area is is coming from them. It's how they choose to react to those or how they choose to see them through their lens or anything like that.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

I'm like, what do you mean you hate this area? Have you ever seen Largo Canyon? Things like that, you know. Um, yeah, have you ever been out to the Bisfight Badlands? Like, what do you mean you hate it here? You guys are crazy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:08

So yeah. So if someone's never dealt with you before, um, what's one thing that you'd want them to experience?

SPEAKER_00 14:16

Um, kindness. I I I do respect and love every person that comes to my booth. Um, I don't always have the best knowledge. Again, I've only been in this, what, 18, 19 months. Um, I'm not the expert beekeeper. I don't have all the bee knowledge, but what I can't tell you, I'm gonna give you Kyle's phone number or we're gonna call him right there on speaker phone. And I want people to have that experience where you know you're buying this honey, you know it's local from um the Four Corners area, um, and that sense of when they walk away, they've got a great product in their in their pocket, you know.

SPEAKER_02 14:48

Right. So, yeah, you're not um I mean, who knows? Your big time goals may be to nationalize on some level, but um for now you're extremely seemed like community-driven.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

I am, yeah. Community is when I put my business model together, um, community was one of my big values. Uh, I really do love community. Um, I love building that and showing people and teaching, and and uh I do workshops. I did a firesider workshop a couple times, um, and then I last week I put together a Be Healthy Honey Kit, which is a garlic fermenting honey kit, because our firesider people, everybody's asking, do you have firesider for sale? Oh my gosh, I need I'm sick now. Like, what do I do? And I'm like, Oh, we can ferment garlic honey and it's ready in three or four days versus waiting six weeks for the firesider. Wow. So I created that kit, so it's always uh, you know, it's always evolving.

SPEAKER_02 15:38

Cool. Yeah, really cool. So, what's something that people um don't see that's crucial to keeping your business running smooth?

SPEAKER_00 15:47

Kyle. Yeah, Kyle Harris, yeah. Um he is he's the mastermind. If the bees aren't healthy, we don't have honey to sell. And my business goes from uh, I mean, you're talking 75% of my business is is honey these days. Yeah, um, and that's huge. If those bees aren't healthy, then then it don't run smoothly. I give all gratitude and love to Kyle for what he does and our co-op together. Um, it's a beautiful relationship. Uh, he's the strength behind it. Yeah, I'm just the paperwork guy. I'm the guy that deals with the taxes and all that, and then sells the honey, you know?

SPEAKER_02 16:20

Right. You hear that, Kyle? Whether you like it or not, you are a master.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

Yeah, you are a master.

Organic Practices And Pivot To Honey

SPEAKER_02 16:28

Uh how about along the same lines, what's a small but mighty system or process you put in place that made a big difference?

SPEAKER_00 16:37

Small but mighty system. Um, I think was probably uh this sounds silly, but getting a point of sale system this year. Last year I did it all through a little flip box uh um you know, money box and uh writing down how many jars I took and then counting jars and then remembering, oh god, how many jars did I give away? Oh, did I donate? You know, um and and just struggling with that. So having the point of sell system has um helped a lot. It's not tidy, but it's a small, small win for me.

SPEAKER_02 17:08

Yeah. That's that's one of the things I try to get people to understand it. That's yeah, I get it. I'm a techno geek, I'm a nerd, I'm um wrapped up in all kinds of technology and automation. And so I think that some level of technology and automation can help just about any business. A lot of businesses, it doesn't really make sense. Whereas one per one business it might like fully automated, fully techno another business, yeah, that isn't gonna work, but some level, like just a point of cell system where it's collecting all that for you. You can refer to it at any time, you can sort it, you can work with it.

SPEAKER_00 17:44

You can and the customers are like, Can you take your credit card? And you're like, Yes, I can. Yes, I can. You know, that was big, that was big for me. Um so I started with just setting up a little stand here and there and and putting it on Facebook, like, hey, I'm doing a pop-up stand here tomorrow in Aztec, come buy honey from me, and that's where it all started, too. Um full-blown 365 days of beer, you know.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

Yeah, awesome. So has anything gotten easier or harder over time?

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Um, selling the product with the knowledge, um, I've really dug into what is honey, you know, what the heck is this product and what else can I do with it that is magical um in itself, and and honestly, I want to say it out for the record like honey is medicine. It truly, truly is so yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

Yeah. And besides just all the universal benefits that come with honey, um, local honey has always been a thing for um because the bees are pollinating local flowers and plants and blooms of any kind they can find. And so it's local pollen, and so if you're dealing with allergy issues, that could help you.

SPEAKER_00 18:53

Absolutely. I mean, I don't even like to use could, it will help you. You know, I use that very, very strongly. It will help you. Um, and it's crazy, Kim. Like, people and at first I was like, no way, until about three people told me this, and it was I don't even have allergies anymore. It cured my allergies, and I was like, no way, the first time. Second time, I was like, That's so sweet, no way, you know, and then the third time I was like, I'll be damned, I think this might actually be real, you know. So I do, I believe, and and I don't tell people it will cure your allergies, but I do tell them you're gonna feel a difference and tell me next week when you come back or in two weeks what what you're feeling.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

It's not triggering your allergic reaction, but it tells your body these aren't dangerous, these are cool. Stop having an allergic reaction.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

So and consistency is everything, right? Like, yeah, if you're gonna do honey, I I mean do it every day of your life.

SPEAKER_02 19:47

Yeah. So, what's something you you wish ran a little smoother behind the scenes?

SPEAKER_00 19:53

Um, it's funny. The little win is the point of sell system, but also um that's probably where it gets a little crazy. I take so many different payments. So we do credit card and cash and check. That's all easy to put into the square system, right? Um, but I also do senior wick, I do um mothers with children wick, I do food stamps, I do uh fresh to flourish. These are all programs that are government entities that have their own apps and ways of being paid. And so to be able to capture those, um, they don't there's no option on my square to like put those in there. Be like, oh, I took this, I took that. So I'm still like still doing the that back dark work on the side with those apps and those things having to tally up that in a different way and putting it on a spreadsheet on my computer. It's kind of real messy there.

SPEAKER_02 20:38

So I can imagine. I was just thinking, I've never come across that. Yeah, yeah. And so um, but that's something I'd be super interested in unraveling and seeing if there's some solution, either another paper processor or one something that would work with a third-party solution to grade into it.

SPEAKER_00 21:00

I mean, I'm not, I'm not, I mean, I was in college years ago, so like trying to work um um word uh Excel, Excel word these days is so foreign to me. I mean, I'm really not good at it, so I would love to have something in place. Before I did this work, I was an office coordinator and I was sharp. Like my jobs were tidy and it drives me crazy because I'm like, I run a business and it's so messy, you know. Um but we're running it. And my bookkeeper is always like, oh, you're too hard on yourself. It's fine, you're doing a great job, you have all the things you need, yeah, and you're keeping good track, you know. But for me, I'm like, oh, it's so messy, you know.

SPEAKER_02 21:35

Yeah, I mean, give yourself a break, right? There's one thing working for an employer where you're not running the business, you're doing a job. Yeah, you can nail it. Right. And then all of a sudden you're running the business, and it's a very weird, fluid, always changing, ever-evolving um thing where you're dealing with um successes and aggravations at the same time. Sometimes the one thing is a success and an aggravation, right?

SPEAKER_00 22:03

It's like the weirdest thing. It's the most beautiful chaos. Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_02 22:06

That's perfect. I love that. So what's what's in the area uh you might have done like still figuring out as you go? That it's probably still tied to that, right? You're on one area of your business, you're still figuring out as you go.

Community Over Competition

SPEAKER_00 22:22

Yeah, yeah, that that the paperwork, the um making it where every day, you know, I really want to get employees hired. So eventually, like I need to do payroll and I need to add that in. I know all that information, right? But before you even add in payroll, like, girl, you gotta tidy up your records, you know. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:39

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um, do you ever feel like you're wearing too many hats or juggling too much?

SPEAKER_00 22:45

Can't you see them? I thought can't you see them, Ken? We didn't even talk about the hats. Um funny um that you say that. So so I do I run the farm. I wake up in the morning, I have a hundred chickens. Um they get out, they get fed, I collect eggs, all the things. Um, so I run the farm. We have irrigation, run that. Um, I have a special needs daughter. Um, she's six years old. Um, she's handicapping special needs, and she is a hot mess. So I I take care of her, yeah. Um, and then I run the business. So um, and I'm a wife, you know, I'm a full-time wife. Uh, and so yeah, I have a lot of hats. Uh, we went hunting this year, my husband and I, and it's funny, he works for the goalfield, he's got two weeks paid vacation. Easy peasy, I'm going, we're going hunting. Okay, honey. Well, hang on. I get about a week because that's all I can take away from the business. And hang on, I gotta hire three people. I need a babysitter, I need a farm worker, and I need somebody to sell honey for me. So, yes, do I wear teeny hats? Absolutely. Yes, do I love it? Do I hate it? Absolutely both. Yes.

unknown 23:44

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:46

Yeah, it takes a special breed to be a business owner. It is.

SPEAKER_00 23:49

I am a I am a hot mess all the time and busy doing something this morning. I did um jalapeno cranberry jelly, 24 jars of it this morning before I even came and seen you. So always up to something else on top of it.

SPEAKER_02 24:00

I leave this question in there because I already know the answer. Almost every business owner I've ever met is the same thing. Too many hats, juggling too much. Small business owner. Um there's other support systems that go in place when you're kind of the the face of the organization as the CEO, but there's everybody doing everything else. So yeah. Um, but a small business owner always, always too many hats. And so I leave that in there just so that some of them, some business owners don't realize they're not the only one. It's like everyone in the community is dealing with the same thing.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

And I love to support other businesses because of that. I have a lot of friends that have these small businesses around here, and and we're all a team. Like, there's a there's a group of us that are like, no, you build me, I build you. And yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, I pat your back, you cut mine, let's go. So we're on it, you know.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

So, what's your your biggest headache right now, if you don't mind me asking?

SPEAKER_00 24:53

Um, biggest headache is just juggling all the hats. I really want employees. I I do have my daughter-in-law who volunteered her time. She started in August when we had to do San Juan County Fair this year. I couldn't pull it. It's it's five days of 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and I did it last year by myself with a little help here and there, but I couldn't pull it this year. So I hired her, hired another friend for that event. Um, but I've kept Ashley on board, um, and a lot of people are starting to know who she is around the honey stand and stuff. So having my daughter-in-law, she volunteered a lot of time. This next week on November 4th, we opened the honey stand out at my location, and she's going on full board uh employee, and so I'll be paying her an hourly wage coming this week. So I got like six months of volunteer work out of her, and it's such a beautiful thing. Yeah, yeah, that's that's the biggest struggle is uh getting people in and getting um getting the business to where I don't have to wear so many hats. I can be at home with my daughter on the farm more than I am selling honey.

SPEAKER_02 25:49

Yeah. And that was something I learned I think in my early 20s. Uh I was still in the Air Force, I wasn't even a business owner, and I was working in this really high stress um environment, and uh my supervisor, who's just this little lieutenant, um, he gave me this insane list of stuff. And I'm I'm I'm a whirlwind, like I can get a lot of things done. And so, and I love that, and and I love that kind of environment, but I let a few balls drop and I and he it came back and he was going, What happened, man? What this can't be, this is not acceptable, this cannot be. I said, dude, man, I'm trying, like, I'm I'm going as hard as I can, and I cannot get every single thing done. And he's like, wait a minute, you're trying to do all this yourself? I said, Yeah. And he goes, dude, that's not possible. That's not even possible, man. I said, Didn't you tell me that when you tell me the legal? I didn't intend for you to do all this yourself. He's like, if you never learn anything else, dude, delegate and oversee. Delegate, oversee, because you can't do it all yourself. And so all these years later, I, you know, as I integrate more and more with all these business owners, and when I see it over and over, is a lot of business owners try to do it all themselves. One, they don't for many reasons. They don't trust anybody else, they can't find anybody else, they just like can't afford it, all this kind of thing. But it's so powerful when you when you are able to finally delegate to an employee and oversee, just let them do their thing and give them some guidance. Yeah, and you know, turn them loose and let them wear that hat, man.

Collaborations, Products, And Local Herbs

SPEAKER_00 27:26

Yeah, I'm still 26 hours a week, is what she'll be doing for me. And I'm like, yes, that's like 26 hours. I like get to be on the farm, right? Mallory, or you know, and and the other thing, Ken, behind the scenes, is we create the habanero hot honey, the throat coat. I do that all from home, you know, and so um those things take a lot of time. You have lab honey sticks, yeah. Yeah, uh honey sticks are tedious and time consuming.

SPEAKER_02 27:49

So I would imagine.

SPEAKER_00 27:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:51

And those are like in they're in a little like a straw. Yeah, like a boba straw. Yeah, it's a big thing. So mine are real thick and big. Okay. Yeah. Cool. So, what are you most excited about for the future of your business?

SPEAKER_00 28:03

Oh gosh, I'm glad you asked. Um, so the biggest thing is I I want to build a store. I want a storefront. And I and I want that little dream in my head is a little picture of um a store that you walk into, you know it's your local honey. Of course, you're going there to get your honey, um, but also you see the produce that's on on the stand that's cool, and we want to have a cooler, cooler produce section, and I want to bring in produce from other other farms and friends that I've made along the way. And so you'll have the honey, the produce, and then kind of like a touristy thing too, where there's a glass window. You can see a spinning hives in the back. We have a you know, a live absorp bee observatory in the in the building where we were gonna build a bubble and put that on the inside so people can see a beehive. Um, that kind of thing, you know. Um, that's that's the biggest dream is having a storefront and building that. And also um building the bees. We, you know, when we started, um, we had 175 hives, those got split. We have 400 now. Want to split them again one time next year and get up to 700. And Kyle wants to cap it at that for the happy pair. 700 hives, and he thinks that that'll keep us going year after year as we grow, and that's enough honey to sustain our community here in San Juan. So that's the goal is get up 700 hives and then start selling nukes, selling beehives, um, given a mentorship and building a store.

SPEAKER_02 29:24

Yeah. I've thought about that because you can go out and you can buy a beehive.

SPEAKER_00 29:30

You absolutely can.

SPEAKER_02 29:31

And and they even make it some of them where you can like flip a little lever or whatever, and it called a flow hive. Quote unquote, breaks the hive and allows the honey to flow out, and then you flip it back and it puts the hive back in place. Yeah, and you have a honey on spigot.

SPEAKER_00 29:47

Uh beekeepers, actually, it's kind of a joke with with beekeepers that are savvy. Yeah, they look at those those flow hives you're talking about and they're like, those never work. That is never gonna work. Really? Right, because it doesn't like it, it doesn't give any room for growth for the hive.

SPEAKER_02 30:03

Yeah, it's very sick. Yeah, yeah. You have a little box with a tiny hive in it.

SPEAKER_00 30:07

Yeah, but yeah, you can get your own hive and you can start your own thing. Uh, one of the things that I've got from Kyle that he says is if you're gonna get into beekeeping, you need to know that it's gonna be one year, you're gonna lose them. Second year, you're probably gonna use them. The third year, you might actually make it with a beehive. Yeah, so it is trial and error, and you're gonna spend four or five hundred bucks every time you're trying to build a hive. So eventually what we'd like to do is be able to sell you the hive and do a two-week or three-week mentorship. And if you have something go on in five weeks where you're scared, you could send Kyle a picture and say, Hey, what is going on? And he'll come back out and help you, and things like that. So eventually we'll get big and have enough hands to be able to do things like that.

SPEAKER_02 30:47

That's the thing with beekeeping, you're not in charge. Yeah, they are like they're doing it. They're making the decisions and doing the work, so yeah. Um, so if time and money weren't an issue, what's something new you'd want to try?

SPEAKER_00 31:02

Oh, how cool. Um, I really am into To the bee therapies. I don't know if you've heard the B venom therapy. Um, so with B stings, they're saying that that is healthy to fibromyalgia and and things like that to the body. So bee sting therapy is definitely something I'd love to look into. Um, healing bee chambers, they have them um in different countries where it looks like an MRI machine, you lay on it, and it's a beehive surrounding you, and they wheel you into it, and the frequency of a beehive is healing to your body at the cell level forward. So as soon as they wheel you in, your body's starting to heal itself. Oh, wow. Um, so that kind of medicine and the bee knowledge, the the new technology um of knowing that bees are way more than we ever thought they were, and we can sting ourselves and it's gonna get rid of our carpal tunnel or our fibromyalgia. That stuff, I want that. And if I had time and money, that's what I would get into for sure. Trying to heal people more with the bees.

SPEAKER_02 31:58

That would be cool. Wow, man, you would you'd have a whole center, like absolutely education, sales, healing, just like the whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 32:09

Absolutely, workshops, right? So you're teaching people how to make the fire cider and all the things.

SPEAKER_02 32:14

So, what would it mean to you personally if you hit those goals?

SPEAKER_00 32:18

Oh gosh, it would just just mean that I was doing something right, life. Um, I already feel like I'm doing something right, life. Um again, community and healing people and teaching them that that honey is medicine and these bees are magical is is important to me.

SPEAKER_02 32:32

Yeah, so yeah, yeah, awesome. It feels like I'm doing it right. So, what's a piece of advice you'd give to somebody just starting out in your industry?

Systems, POS Wins, And Payment Chaos

SPEAKER_00 32:41

Believe in yourself. Um, don't let the people that don't think you can do it or they try to tell you you're doing things wrong. If this is your business, take it by the horns and grow it. Um, believe in yourself, pat yourself on the back every once in a while, um, and and move forward with this with a strong mind. If you're gonna build a business, you have to know it's gonna work, and you have to believe that, and you have to fight for that.

SPEAKER_02 33:02

Yeah. That's beautiful advice because thank you. Whether you believe you can do it or whether you believe you can't, you're right. Either way, you're you're you're you're right. Whichever way you choose to believe you're right.

SPEAKER_00 33:16

You only have one way to do it, and that's to move forward and do the damn thing, you know, and and that's way I'm pretty headstrong like that. Yeah, um, I I fight through all adversity, and and when people come down on me hard or they want to, you know, uh talk ugly or be ugly about my business, boy, it it feels the fire, right? It it drives me, it makes me determined to even be better and stronger and keep going.

SPEAKER_02 33:40

That's that's the the strange tight walk well a tight rope walk to make as a business owner, uh a successful business owner is walking that tightrope between shutting down the naysayers and not letting those voices live in your head, um, but also being open to criticism and and improvement.

SPEAKER_00 34:01

Yes. Speaking of that, what came to mind right now is just thank you, Denise, for all your criticism. I have a girlfriend who meets me at the Wednesday market and she's always telling me what I need to do to better my business. Or oh my god, he didn't have labels that's you know, and I can tell like it's so annoying to her if I missed out and didn't get labels on time. And and I really love that push. Like, yeah, oh my gosh, she's showing me where my where I'm slacking at. And so thanks, Denise.

SPEAKER_02 34:25

It's it's um it's not an easy thing to define knowing the difference between someone who's just complaining and someone who's advising or giving you constructive criticism. Because criticism too often looks like someone complaining, someone putting you down, someone doing that, but that's not always what it is. Absolutely, it's a very difficult thing to figure out.

SPEAKER_00 34:50

It is, and you know, Ken, anytime I'm triggered by something, I check myself. It's a pro thing that I've learned for me is oh man, that just pissed me off. Well, well, why? Yeah, why did it be? Is that your stuff? Or like where are you at with that? And so um, that's really helpful too. Um, and just being open-minded, like please come tell me if you have a complaint. Please come talk to me. Let's get through it. I want to know.

SPEAKER_02 35:10

That's a really helpful internal mechanism to have to not just react. Check myself. But back up and say, okay, why did that make me so mad? What is it? Is it this person or is it something in me? Is it my the way I'm reacting to this? Is that my reaction the entire problem? It's not really a, you know, yeah, that's that that's really helping. So, what's something your customers might not know about you, but they should?

SPEAKER_00 35:35

Um, they don't know about me, but they should. I am I'm stretched thin. Um, there's days that I am gonna be bouncing off the walls, I'm the face of the business. Everybody knows me as Nikki, you know. But there's if you see me where I'm where I'm not that person that day, it's okay. Like that's something that you need to know about me as I am real. I do have a special needs daughter who's very autistic and very uh draining, and and so to run it, wear all the hats and run the business is is tough. But I I have a family life and and always that's number one. Um, and so sometimes those responsibilities do suck me dry. And so if you ever see me out in my thing, like and I'm not me, just you know, smile and give me a hug or something because I probably need it that day, you know. Like that's what they need to know about me is I'm real. I'm real, I have a real life, a real family, and and I'm also really approachable. Yeah, right. Like I said, you got complaints, come to me. Let's talk. If you're curious about the honey or where it comes from or who Kyle is, or if Kyle can help you, like come to me, we will talk.

SPEAKER_02 36:32

So that's something I noticed about you. I when I I size people up really quickly, and so as soon as I I met you, because I've just met you today, um, as soon as I met you, you were buzzing, but you weren't the I don't have time for you, busy buzzing person. You were you were buzzing with energy, yeah, and um and not putting on airs. You were just stating, here I am, this is what's happening, uh, let's do this thing. And so thanks, Ken.

SPEAKER_00 37:00

Thanks for no sign. Yeah, when Ken showed up today, I was I was starving, and I'm like, hey Ken, like come over here and hang with me while I eat real quick. Like, I need to calm down and eat. So yeah, thank you for being a part of that and noticing that that is part of my personality. It's great. I'm not too busy for you, right? Come along with me. And my my kids joke about it, right? I'm like, hey, you want to hang out? Because, well, I want to do some canning today, and my kids are like, mom never calls and just wants to hang out because she's working. I'm like, I need hands and I never stop working, right? So let's hang out. This is how we hang out with mom. Yeah. Awesome. I have three adult children as well.

SPEAKER_02 37:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:32

Oh, I'm so glad I met you. This is me too.

SPEAKER_02 37:35

And you brought me a goodie bag. So I'm gonna I'm gonna tell people what's in here. So one, of course, there is uh a little jar of habanero hot honey that you mentioned, which is so very cool because I'm I'm a pepper fiend. Um, so I like that. And then there's that's a regular honey. That's the five dollar refill jar.

SPEAKER_00 37:57

Yeah, so it's one that I sell and you it goes empty and you bring it back to five bucks to refill it every time.

SPEAKER_02 38:02

Yeah, that's really smart. And then this one has got things floating around it, which is um lemon.

SPEAKER_00 38:10

Right? Throat coat. So throat coat is a lemon ginger honey. Yeah, um, and it's really good for a sore throat. We use it like cough syrup. If you've got a sore throat, you're gonna want to use it like cough syrup. Once you open it, put it in the fridge and keep it cool, and boy, it just it'll cure cough right up.

SPEAKER_02 38:24

I mean, I picked that up from my grandma. That was always a thing of um honey and lemon and usually like a shot of whiskey or something.

SPEAKER_00 38:35

Yeah, yeah, the hot toddies, right? Back in the day, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:38

Yeah, that is always a thing. I was doing that as a kid.

unknown 38:40

Right.

SPEAKER_02 38:41

Whiskey as a kid, why? Right.

SPEAKER_00 38:42

Those are just the little um That's tiny and cute. Those are just little five dollar jars that I sell for baby showers and things like that. That's so very rubber bracelets, beeswax soap, just kind of little gift cutie things, you know.

SPEAKER_02 38:54

So you have all kinds of things going on.

Honey As Medicine And Allergy Talk

SPEAKER_00 38:56

I do. We didn't talk about uh World V Day. I would love to mention that. Uh May 20th, every year is World V Day. We invite a bunch of students out. Um, last year I targeted the homeschool students um and we invited them out. We had 60 homeschool students come out. We did a hive presentation. So Kyle came out, opened the hive, we talked about the hive, showed them what a hive tool was, let them look at the bees, asked questions. Yeah, went back, did a um formal like talk with the kids and the and the parents, and then gave out goodie bags and let them have lunch in the orchard um in the grass. And so World B Day is really big. We'll be doing that again in May. Um opening that up to be even bigger for um not just the homeschools community but the rest of the community as well. Awesome. Um, and then you know, people ask all the time, do you do mentorships? That is coming. Give us another year or so. Yeah, that's another thing.

SPEAKER_02 39:47

I love it. Yeah, you're you're you haven't just settled in to this is what it's gonna be. You have a million ideas of things to try or where you want to go, right? And you'll uh swim that that uneven stream as it as it's coming at you. Absolutely. And um and and work towards things that might not even be in your head right now. I know, yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_00 40:13

Like things just keep coming up, Ken, and and that's the way it goes. Like the business is just growing. Um, I didn't always know about lemon ginger honey, but once I started using it for my autistic daughter who does not take medicine, yeah, and I realized I could make cough syrup out of honey, and now she's uh I'm sick. And I'm like, no, no, you're not. You just give you some anyway, you know. It's it's a magical product, and um you can never learn enough about it. There's a book that I do recommend if anybody is interested in bees or beekeeping or honey at all, the beekeeper's Bible. That's the name of it, the beekeeper's Bible. There's a lot that sound like it, um, but the beekeeper's Bible is a wonderful book if anybody is interested in learning.

SPEAKER_02 40:54

Very cool. Yeah. Well, for the audience, in case um my cleanup of this audio doesn't work um incredibly well. We are in a coffee shop and and there's lots of people milling around and talking and music playing and all that kind of stuff. So if you hear lots of background noise, that's why it's not um it's not Nikki's fault. We're not at her place. So, anyway, but thank you so much. I was I'm so glad to meet you.

SPEAKER_00 41:21

Yeah, you too can. Uh, just one last thing. We are moving into our winter location. It's one mile north of Aztec on the right hand side, um, just outside of town. It's a little red, white, and blue uh connects building. It's set up as a honey stand in the winter, and that's where I sell honey from in the winter.

SPEAKER_02 41:36

Okay. So yeah. So look for you there.

SPEAKER_00 41:38

Yeah, absolutely. And follow me on Facebook. That's that's my biggest platform right now, is is Facebook. I don't have a website or anything like that yet. Um, it is another thing in the future, but yeah. So so thank you for having me and thanks for the support of the community and all the things that have come with that.

SPEAKER_02 41:54

Awesome. Thanks for everything that you're doing. That's amazing. Yeah, it's pretty awesome. Thank you.