We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amy Budd. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amy below.

Amy, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

Starting my latest endeavor by following my heart! Prior to the pandemic, I had my own pet food company. I had been in the pet food industry for over 20 years starting with a pet food delivery business and learning the industry. After a brief learning curve, I decided to create a product of my own. As a long-time horsewoman and riding instructor, I decided to make some horse treats for my existing riding clients. I had no idea the doors that would eventually open. The horse cookies were novel at that time as only one other company was manufacturing that type of product. I was immediately picked up by a huge catalog and started a much steeper learning curve into manufacturing! I eventually branched out and produced horse treats, dog treats, cake mixes for pets, a full line of raw foods for cats and dogs, cooked foods for cats and dogs, and a dehydrated product for dogs. I was one of very few manufacturers at the time that sold both wholesale and direct to consumer. Through the years I started and stopped three different times with a cease and desist order from another company over a trademark issue, a horrible business partner, to finally doing everything on my own, my way. It was an incredible journey and I had learned so much – some of it the hard way – but had finally created my processes, had amazing co-packers, and simplified my product line only to feel like I was meant to do something else.

The horses were calling me back. I felt “called” to come back to the horses so started investigating what types of programs were available to do that kind of work. I knew of veteran programs that helped with PTSD and so started researching. I was fortunate enough to find a local program that offered a weekend introduction to coaching work with horses. I signed up! It was so impactful and profound that I knew I found my path. I enrolled in the program and spent two years learning and obtaining my certification. During that program, I also discovered HeartMath which again resonated so deeply with me I had to know more. All the while – I still had my pet food company. In 2019 I made the decision to let go of my pet food and launch into this new endeavor. I started transitioning another company to take over. Of course, everyone’s world changed in 2020! I ended up staying on longer than anticipated since I was already selling online and sales blew up when we were all in lockdown. The young man poised to take over kept asking me if I was sure this was the right move. I insisted that I was ready to make the change and this was no longer my path. Somehow making that decision and speaking those words out loud set things in motion.

I started looking for a larger horse property to be able to do the coaching work. Real estate at that time was of course NUTS! Everyone was having priority shifts and making life changes with the pandemic. I had made offers on two different properties only to be outbid. I took a deep breath and decided to look in another area. I found the perfect property – well it became the perfect property. I found a property that had been on the market for 45 days, which at that time (later 2020) was not happening. In Colorado, you were lucky to find a property on the market after 24 hours! The property had also just had a 100K price drop!! I had to go look to see “what was wrong with it”. It was a gorgeous setting with a beautiful view, had a house, an apartment on property, and a barn with an indoor arena. This was quite literally my dream come true. The property was a mess and had not been cared for but had all the components to be wonderful. I made the offer and it was accepted. I was starting down this path – my path! I was scheduled to exit my business and have another company take over. I got a phone call from my processing plant – they had a fire and burned to the ground. I just lost a huge chunk of my business sale. Once again the young man poised to take over asked if I was sure about all this.

I am honestly not sure what was driving me other than I knew I was meant to do this. I kept on my path, purchased the property, made the move with my horses, and spent the remainder of 2020 cleaning things up. I questioned my sanity more than once as the pandemic drug on and on during much of 2021. I was honestly ready to quit a couple of different times. The turning point finally came in late 2021 as confidence came back and people were ready and eager to venture out. This last year has been wonderful with a couple of larger corporate on-sites here, a couple of small retreats, the “horse motel” has been discovered and provides both income and entertainment meeting people from around the country, and the apartment is on Airbnb.

I am so happy I had the courage to listen to my heart, be able to live my childhood dream and live my purpose helping and serving others in a profound way. The HeartMath tribe has a great saying: The brain thinks, but the heart knows. We all have that innate wisdom inside and I love helping people connect to that.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

(Some of this in previous question)

I am a serial entrepreneur with what I like to now refer to as my “Portfolio Career”. I think so often we beat ourselves up if our journey is less traditional or has a lot of twists and turns before we “land”. I know that is my truth. I started out wanting to go to vet school so initially got my bachelor’s degree in Animal Science. Thankfully, I decided to work in a veterinary clinic before investing four more years of education. I discovered I was the worst combination of Dr Doolittle and James Harriott! I tried rescuing and saving everything. I hid animals in the garage from my husband until I could find them a home. I quickly got burned out and when we made a move for his career I was able to change gears. I still don’t know how this fully happened, but I received a phone call from a Mary Kay beauty consultant. I was a wrong number and didn’t wear make-up! She was persistent and came to welcome me to our new neighborhood and give me a manicure. By the end of that manicure, I was ready to sign my agreement. I did and had an incredible journey as a result. I won the use of two career cars, had consultants in 14 states, over 250 active customers, and learned more about myself and people than I could have ever imagined. I eventually resigned my directorship when we moved again and had our two children.

I had the privilege and luxury of being a stay home mom for a while. We had horses, so I was able to get my riding instructor certification and do some teaching on the side. It was a perfect part-time outlet for me. My riding instructor years were short-lived as I got divorced and became a single parent with a lot of mouths to feed! I moved to New Mexico to be closer to my parents. I had a good network of friends in New Mexico so I was able to continue teaching riding for a period of time. Through “the friend of a friend”, I heard about a pet food delivery business for sale. I had absolutely no clue about pet food but of course years worth of working in a veterinary clinic so a great deal of experience with cats and dogs, and figured I would give it a try. I bought the business and started delivering pet food in Albuquerque out of my garage! My business quickly grew, to the point I outsold every retail store in town and was visited by a large distributor who offered to set a store for me. I declined the offer as my children were still small and my priority. I had started my cookie business, so when this distributor asked me what I wanted and how he could help me, I told him I wanted him to distribute my cookies. The learning curve that ensued was unbelievable! I sold the pet food delivery business and was able to pursue the manufacturing and distribution of my own line of treats and food. At the time there were very few women-owned and operated pet food companies.

Twenty-something years later we fast forward to today and Whole Heart Ranch. I love helping leaders, business owners, and especially women ditch their inner critic and listen to their inner mentor. Horses have so much to teach in terms of true shared leadership and how to adopt a herd mentality. HeartMath helps give people the tools to make a conscious shift out of old behavior patterns that tend to keep them stuck. After so many years helping and mentoring women in Mary Kay, working with all the aspects of business that involve creating, developing, testing, manufacturing a product and then getting it to market to sell I have a wide array of business knowledge. As both a child in a divorced family, my mom getting remarried and combining households, then being divorced and a single parent myself, a brother that was sexually abused as a child, and a military parent I also have a wide array of personal experience about surviving and thriving in personal situations.

Our human journeys are all unique and we all have “life lessons” to look at both personally and professionally. Being able to help people open their hearts and explore the gift of those lessons to realize their true potential is my passion. The horses help facilitate an environment that is non-judgemental and full of heart coherence so when people come to explore and grow if feels safe and caring. I have had the priviledge to witness first hand so many transformations from an ER doc post pandemic that was completely shut down to saying he felt alive again, a young woman that had been trafficed for 3 months regain some of herself and her confidence and have a new expression for anger, to a corporate group learn a whole new way to communicate with each other and function like a herd!

Being in business is such a journey in and of itself. Being in business with an open, expansive heart is next level!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

(I think I have experienced ALL of the drop-down items! Hahahaha much of which I put in the previous two questions)

Resilience is such an interesting topic to me now. It is one of the things I teach with HeartMath. When we think of resilience normally people say it is the ability to bounce back. Lord knows when you are an entrepreneur or creative soul you get many opportunities to practice resilience! I have purchased a business not knowing anything about it, sold that same business, started a line of pet products from scratch, signed up as a Mary Kay consultant not wearing make-up, and so much more. Many times I have been asked the question if I ever sleep. What type of batteries do I use (referring to the pink bunny! LOL)?

I was blessed early on coming from a family with a foundational belief that “thoughts are things”. That belief was reinforced again by the Mary Kay philosophy, “if you can believe it, you can achieve it”. It seems cliche, but the advancements in neuroscience and now the heart-brain connections are proving it – quite literally “what we think about we bring about”! I think for me on some level always knowing this is what kept me going through all the adversity. Of course, it is easier at times, but resilience in practice builds resilience! We ultimately learn to trust ourselves with our decisions in life and business more and know that if it isn’t perfect we can pivot, or move on, or do whatever it takes and it will be okay.

The HeartMath definition of resilience is the capacity to prepare for, recover from and adapt in the face of stress, adversity, trauma or challenge. The word capacity implies we have an amount of resilience to work with. Learning to change our thinking and making that heart-brain connection expands our capacity of resilience.

Can you talk to us about your experience with selling businesses?

I have now sold two businesses. One was my pet food delivery business, and then most recently my pet food company (well, what was left of it!). I have mixed feelings about business sales after reading Infinite Game by Simon Sinek (fantastic book if you have not read it).

It seems we are breeding an idea that starting a business, growing as fast as you can, and then selling it is the ultimate goal. That is very finite thinking and limiting in so many ways. It is not always the case, but quite often with this path, we lose sight of why we initially started the business, who we were wanting to serve, and caring for all the people that helped in the journey.

That said, I understand especially as an entrepreneur and with the growth that comes from that, we get tired, we want the next challenge, or we finally find our calling. If I had it to do over with my pet food delivery business I would have asked for more outside help with the process. There are many more resources available now for business valuations than what I knew about 20-something years ago. Often we have put in so much sweat equity we feel we are worth a heck of a lot more than what someone else sees looking at numbers. It is also important to find the right buyer. I was so eager to move on I ended up selling to two different people because neither one of the two interested wanted to take on the whole area I was delivering to. If I would have had more patience and waited it would have been more beneficial to me, to the buyer, and to my customers!

With my pet food company, I only sold a very small part of the business, and I am sorry I did. It actually felt more in my integrity to just close. I still have my intellectual property intact and my reputation. If I had sold my company, which has happened already to the part I did sell, the formulations would have changed to make the bottom line look better. That was not what I was about personally. I wanted to create a superior product for cats and dogs that they were excited to eat, not a product that served a group of investors. Timing is everything in business and sometimes the timing is just not quite right. It is funny that questions about my food have come up again and not that I want to produce again, but maybe the right buyer is coming. Everyone has to figure that out for themselves in their journey and there is no right or wrong either way. I think it is being true to yourself.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wholeheartranch.com
• Instagram: www.instagram/wholeheartranchco/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/amywholeheartranch/
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/amy-budd/
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/@wholeheartranch

Image Credits
Gillian Parker (Main photo uploaded)