We recently connected with Rhonda Heady and have shared our conversation below.

Rhonda, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

Taking a risk, leaving a well paid pharmaceutical sales job to start my own pharmaceutical company and work for myself. Leaving the guaranteed money, health insurance and everything else to be completely independent of no one other than myself Completely worth it

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.

There’s actually two parts to my story, One is my company which I started called Phoenix West Equus Inc. I started it to make sure that my animals, mainly my horses, were receiving good quality products that were used on them whenever they were sore. Arnica Cream. Its a natural flower that possess homeopathic properties. As more people started using the products and learning about them, it soon became a product that people were using on themselves as well. I was fortunate to have a distributor take on the cream, and then Ebay and a few years ago I was contacted by Amazon and invited to bring my cream on there as well.

The second part is Campbell’s Restaurant Farmers Market and Craft Fair. I started this market about 6 years ago as a place where my Mom could sell her canned jams and homemade pickles. So many market charge so much money for vendors fees and then ask for a percentage of your sales at the end of the day. I just couldn’t see how my Mom could make any money selling her items when she had to pay so much out of pocket. Turns out there were alot of people in the same situation as my Mom. Everyone in Peoria knows of Campbell’s and has a childhood story to tell of growing up with the family and the now restaurant. Steve Campbells was gracious enough to allow me start a market there where we can help our neighbors. Neither Steve nor I make any money off of the market, we charge a vendor fee only to pay for the portable bathroom we have. When Covid hit and so many people were laid off, the market became so important for so many who only had that as income. Since we were an outside venue, we were able to keep the market going, and made sure it was a safe environment for everyone. We started off with 5 vendors, and have grown to 90 plus and keep the same value in mind, we do it for our community.

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

My parents are phenomenal people, everyone calls my Mom, “MOM” at the market as she treats them as her extended family. Her and my Dad love to make jams and pickles, everyone kept telling her to get into a market to sell them, but most markets are expensive and some will even charge a base fee plus ask for a percentage of sales. It just wasn’t economically feasible for them to do that. So, even though I had a list of “you can’t do it” people, I went ahead and started Campbell’s Restaurant Farmers Market and Craft Fair with the support of Steve Campbell. We started with a handful of vendors, and 6 years later we are 90 plus. We’ve even had quite a few of our vendors that have been spot lighted on morning news shows.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I think there is alot of people who had to change the way they do business when COVID hit. Going from seeing people face to face for my company Phoenix West Equus, to having to strictly do it via phone or on line sales was a whole new experience.

With the Farmers Market, it was trying to continue the market that so many people depended on while still following safety protocols to keep everyone safe. Sanitation stations, masks, ” safety zones” , all things that we had to learn to work in a new world. It was so important to keep the market going, and it was important for the restaurant to keep going. Campbell s Restaurant started doing take out dinners where customers didn’t even have to get out of their cars, and the market (which is outside) made sure everyone was spread out, masked up and plenty of sanitzer.   

Contact Info:

• Website: www.phoenixwestequus.com
• Facebook: Campbell’s Restaurant Farmers Market and Craft Fair

Image Credits
All photos I have taken myself Rhonda Heady