Wowzers, ten years is a looooooong time.
Long enough to go from this:
to this:
Benj is all grown up now, off studying Sports Science at Cardiff Met Uni. (Don’t tell him, but I’m harbouring a secret hope that he’ll come back and join us here at CG after he’s seen a bit of the world! We’ve already bagged two of his gorgeous grown-up sisters – Ceris and Els – and his brother-in-law Josh for the team. So stranger things have happened…and probiotics in high performance athletics is a THING. Just saying…)
And our little business is all grown up, too. Funny, how the two things coincided so very closely in my head and my heart. In a way we started the business for Benj – it was his eczema and bronchial conditions that caused us to buy our first goat, and made me put the kefir into the first probiotic soap and lotion, looking for solutions to our family health problems which the doctors didn’t seem able to solve. And now, ten years later – 25 members on the CG team and nearly a millions orders shipped out, 4.9 out of 5 rating on Trustpilot and over 7,000 reviews… jeepers, neither business nor boy fits under my kitchen table anymore!
So many changes over the years…
Matt the Stat (we call him that because he’s a WIZ with a spread sheet!) made up this groovy chart, tracking them all! Just look:
I remember all those products as if they were my own children, because I created most of them. Mostly for family members or friends or people who turned up at the farmhouse door, seeking help. Sometimes to solve the problems of clients who would ring up to say that something was too confusing, or too hard to find, or source, or cook.
We tried to boil it all down and make it simple enough for everyone to follow. There’s nothing extraneous here – just the stuff that we’ve found absolutely necessary for natural gut health improvement, as we travelled along.
Some of the products I invented, created or formulated myself (kefir, probiotic soaps, probiotic lotion, balm, teas, CG Oil) and some we put together after doing research for the best and most sustainable solutions (prebiotic, mushroom powder). Some we sourced from other reputable, sustainable companies (tinctures, collagen).
And one – the CG Microbiome Test – we cracked all our mental sinews and created as a massive team effort, involving lots of brilliant Cambridge scientists, a marvellously inclusive digital design company called Nexer, tons of eye-watering expense and three years of long, painful development. Whew! It was well worth it in the end, but Dearest Aunt Nelly and the Sweet Baby Orphans – please, Never, Never again! I think I used up all my brains on that one…and was lucky to come away with my marriage intact!
Anyhow, what these products all have in common is that I take them myself and I am happy to give them to my children and grandchildren (age appropriately, natch!). And as a mother and grandmother, I can’t give you more of a heartfelt guarantee than that. They are the very best and purest solutions that nature and science together can provide and test.
So – we started out making goatsmilk kefir in our little stone barn. But ten years on, what do we actually DO here at CG?
In a nutshell, we work to solve the root cause of issues stemming from gut dysbiosis, which means a disturbance in your gut microbiome.
Health issues caused by gut dysbiosis include (but are not limited to): IBS/IBD, chronic diarrhoea, constipation, leaky gut syndrome, obesity, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, autoimmune diseases, chronic inflammation, food allergies, food sensitivities, eczema, acne, psoriasis, rosacea, asthma, hay fever, anxiety, depression, cognitive issues, autism spectrum disorder, PCOS, hormonal imbalances, infertility issues, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, vitamin deficiencies, mineral deficiencies.
Think of all these issues as the symptomatic leaves of a single tree – and the trunk of the tree sits in your gut. Improving your gut health is the safest and most natural way to work with any of these issues.
When you concentrate on improving your gut health, imagine yourself as working to save the inhabitants of an entire, tiny planet. They’re alive, they’re fragile, they’re microscopic, they weigh around two kilograms and they’re sitting inside your gut right now. Your gut bugs are your own little captive audience. They eat only what you give them, they suffer from your stress, they are harmed by chemicals and pollution and antibiotics. They need your care!
This care is provided by the Gut Health Protocol. And while you’re doing the gradual, subtle work of improving your gut health with our hero products of CG kefir, prebiotic and collagen, you can attend more rapidly to the other symptoms you may be experiencing with CG soaps, lotions, teas and tinctures.
These things aren’t just objects for me – they’re gifts. I’ve been lucky enough to use these remedies to help people – – both people I knew and loved, and people I had only just met. These days, we’re helping loads of people whom I’ve never met in person. I’m also enchanted to have the invaluable oversight and assistance of the amazing scientists on our Scientific Advisory Board.
But all that doesn’t change the personal impulse that drove me to put these products together – or the thought behind every product. As I explain to each new Nutritional Therapist – the lovely folks whom I personally train to guide our clients on the Gut Health Journey (you can read all about them here, they’re available 8 am to 8 pm weekdays on live chat to answer all your questions, personally and for free!) – I never just wanted to sell stuff. Cash was never King, for me. Instead, I wanted to create impact. I wanted to create the biggest transformative impact in the health of the widest number of people possible.
I never wanted customers – I wanted converts. I wanted people who were so excited about their new improved health – freedom from pain – beautiful clear skin – that they would go out and tell the story to all their friends!
And that is, in fact, what happened.
That’s how we grew our little business, with a marketing budget of £0. (Our marketing budget was £0, because we didn’t have any money for anything. We were flat broke, back in the day. And Rich, as he never ceases to remind me, had to sell his motorcycle so that we could buy bottles to put the kefir in. Blah blah blah. He could have a new motorcycle now. I’ve told him he could. I’d even buy it for him! But will he? Oh, heck no! Because it’s much more fun to remind me how he had to sell it, back in the day. It’s just all about the sympathy vote, right? Men!)
(…although thinking about it, he did keep the goats. And design and build the milking system, and the barn. And design and build the factory, all sustainable and dug into the hill, complete with solar panels. And make all the important decisions about the bottom line. And keep me from going too crazy and spending too much money and going all American and growing everything too big. And taught me the value of keeping everything authentic and artisan and Welsh and on-the-farm. So I guess he’s all right, really...)
Anyhow – v. long story short – I’ve always felt that the best stuff – was the stuff I gave away. The stuff that people would share with their friends, because it bl&&*% works.
And I promise you that today – just as in 2014, back when we started our little kitchen table business at Chuckling Goat – that these products come with my deepest, my most sincere and heartfelt wish for you to have all the health, well-being and happiness that you deserve.
Happy Birthday, from all of us at Chuckling Goat, to you!
Hugs,
Shann x
Shann Jones MBE
Founder/Director Chuckling Goat
