We were lucky to catch up with Tracy Jones recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tracy, appreciate you joining us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

It all started with me wanting pet cows. I always joked with my husband that one day we would have a farm because I wanted pet cows….well, 20 years later, he held true to his promise. We left our suburban life behind in Mesa,AZ, and moved north to Dewey to live a more rural farm life. A couple of months after moving in and getting fencing put in for the cows, we had 2 miniature zebus delivered, Toby Stetson and Winston Augustus. After some of our friends came over to see the cows, someone suggested we share them with people, as they were extremely friendly and docile. Hearing of cow cuddling before, we thought, why not?
To see if this would even be a successful venture, we hosted free cow cuddle appointments for one year to see if there was any interest, and there was! As folks came to visit the cows, we would ask them for feedback on how we could enhance the experience and slowly evolved the “cuddle area” as it’s deemed from a blanket on the dirt to sitting on a couch under a large covered awning with misters on artificial turf. After an extremely busy and successful year of hosting cow cuddling appointments, we decided to start the business, and that was the start of The Cuddle Corral.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Both born and raised in the suburbs, Farmer Rob and Tracy decided to leave the concrete jungle of Mesa, AZ, and move up north to live a more rural, country lifestyle. Tracy, being the crazy cow lady she is, has always wanted pet cows, so Farmer Rob found the miniature zebu breed. Once we learned how special and unique these guys were, we knew we had to share them with everyone & thus, cow cuddling started!

Our goal is to provide you with a one-of-a-kind experience, spending time with our special herd of Miniature Zebu cattle. Toby Stetson is our herd bull, Winston Augustus is our steer and is the mischievous one of the group, Stella May is our dainty little sassy mama, and then there’s sweet baby Leroy!. These 4 will show you a side of cows you never knew existed. They are definitely not typical farm animals! Whether you are a cow lover, animal lover, or just looking for something different to do, then you have found the right place.

We offer 2 different cuddle options depending on your needs. A 1-hour therapy cuddle where you can lay, cuddle, and get cow kisses during your visit. A truly unique experience. We also offer a 30-minute meet and greet that is perfect for younger children. These sessions are an awesome way to meet the herd and learn about the mini zebus. You will also get to meet our 20 chickens during your farm visit! Our goal is to make you feel like part of the herd! Both sessions are private, intimate sessions where you will enjoy the peaceful tranquility of the property all to yourself. This is the best way to truly experience the love these 4 mini zebus have to give!

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

It all started with chickens….and cows, of course. We started an Instagram & Facebook page for the cows when we started the free volunteer visits to spread the word about the business. Every time folks would come by for a cow cuddle, we would take photos of them hugging the cows and post them on all our social media platforms. I also attended a free social media marketing class put on by SBDC Yavapai College, and it gave me a lot of insight on how often to post, what to post, how to utilize hashtags, etc. Around the same time, our chickens were starting to lay eggs for the first time, which to me was very exciting, so I decided to post about it. I started posting The Daily Egg Chronicles every day, which was a video of me collecting eggs from the day & interacting with the chickens. It was a hit! I gained a lot of followers from chicken videos, surprisingly. TikTok came next. I figured I could grow our social media audience even more through TikTok, and sure enough, consistently daily posting of cows, chickens & daily farm life has led us to gain quite a nice following on all our social media platforms.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Word of mouth! My husband’s business motto is – You have to talk about your business to have a business.
Whenever we are out and about, he will find a way to bring up the fact that we have pet mini cows & most people are pretty interested to hear more. We tell them all about what we do, show pictures of the adorable mini cows off, and of course give them a business card so they don’t forget about us!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://cuddlecorral.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cuddlecorral

Image Credits

Rebecca Peterson Photography