Leadership Lessons from the World’s Most Influential Women
Women globally are not just making waves but rewriting leadership rules with their resilience, innovation, and unwavering commitment …
Shann Jones spent the early part of her adulthood in San Francisco media – five years as an award-winning journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle and ten years as a radio talk show host at KGO Newstalk 810. Being the youngest woman talk show host in the U.S., Shann learned a lot of communication skills that she uses daily in navigating the challenges of running a business. After losing her job in a shake-up at the radio station, she moved to the UK for a fresh start and became a communication coach.
In 2008, when Shann was 41, she met Rich Jones, a Welsh farmer and harp-maker who lived on a self-sustaining family farm overlooking the Irish Sea. They fell in love and got married in 2010. When their little boy Benji suffered from multiple bronchial infections that caused him to take recurrently stronger antibiotics, Rich suggested that they buy their first goat, as it is well known in the Welsh farming tradition that goats’ milk can help with respiratory issues. The goats’ milk worked a treat to resolve Benji’s bronchial conditions, and she used the surplus milk to make goats’ milk soap that cured his eczema. But there was still an abundance of goats’ milk left over, and Shann began to look for other ways in which it could be productively used.
Creating A Magical Elixir
In 2011, Shann heard a Russian doctor named Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride on Radio 4, talking about an unfamiliar new probiotic drink called kefir. Shann contacted Dr. Campbell-McBride and asked how to make kefir in the traditional Russian style, using only goats’ milk and kefir grains, with no additional sweeteners or flavourings. Dr. Campbell-McBride did this, and happily endorsed the resulting therapeutic-grade kefir which Shann and Rich produced on the farm.
Kefir is a fermented milk drink made by adding kefir grains—a combination of bacteria and yeast—to milk, which ferments over about 36 hours. This process creates a drink rich in probiotics, vitamins (especially B vitamins and vitamin K2), minerals like calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and protein. The probiotics in kefir are particularly beneficial for gut health, helping to balance gut bacteria, which is essential for digestion, immune function, and overall health. This makes kefir helpful for conditions like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and diarrhea. Additionally, kefir can enhance immune function by promoting a healthy gut microbiome, and it’s often well-tolerated by people with lactose intolerance, as the fermentation process breaks down much of the lactose.
The high calcium and vitamin K2 content in kefir supports bone health, potentially reducing the risk of osteoporosis. Kefir contains compounds with antibacterial properties that may inhibit harmful bacteria like Salmonella and Helicobacter pylori. The probiotics in kefir may also improve skin conditions such as acne, psoriasis, and eczema by reducing inflammation and promoting gut health, which is closely linked to skin health. Furthermore, kefir’s anti-inflammatory effects may lower the risk of chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer. Its protein content contributes to satiety, potentially aiding in weight management.
Struggle & Success
Shann’s life turned upside down when, in 2012, Rich went into hospital with a bout of colitis and came out with an MRSA superbug infection. Doctors informed the couple that Rich’s life was at risk, as the available antibiotics would not be effective against his resistant infection. But Shann was not a woman to give up and used a combination of her probiotic kefir and essential oils to clear his MRSA. The Welsh Assembly government sent an Innovation Specialist to the farmhouse to investigate the success, and he walked them over to Aberystwyth University, where Shann and Rich’s remedies were tested and found effective. “This began my love affair with the science behind our natural remedies,” says Shann. “I began to research this science and wrote a succession of books on the subject. We began to specialize in gut health and developed a “gut health protocol” that centered on kefir and included other products that we found to boost the beneficial action of the kefir. This protocol is the centerpiece of our business today—Chuckling Goat.”
The road to success was not an easy one for Shann and her family. Shann wanted to extend their healing discoveries to other people, but the couple had exhausted their savings and had no money to invest. Rich was forced to sell his motorcycle in order to raise the money to buy bottles for the kefir.Once a week, Rich and Shann loaded a few bottles of kefir and some bars of handmade soap into the car and drove to the local health food shop, where they received cash for their products. They took the cash straight over to the farmer’s market across the street, where they purchased vegetables for stews to feed the entire family.
Left without any capital for marketing, Shann wrote a personal letter to the only three UK shops that she (as an American) knew and admired: Harrods, Selfridges and Fortnum & Mason. She was amazed when Fortnum & Mason got back in touch, offering to stock her unique probiotic soaps and lotions. Shann then wrote and self-published a book about her experience of coming to live on a goat farm, called Secrets of Chuckling Goat. Her plan was simply that the book would sit on the Fortnum & Mason shelf next to the soaps and lotions, as a sort of brochure to promote the skincare products. However, to her astonishment, the book was picked up and re-published by Hay House, and subsequently became an Amazon best seller.
“I was invited to go onto the Steve Wright show on Radio 2, and the resulting publicity tsunami created an eight-week waiting list for our handmade products,” explains Shann. “We were on our way! Over the next four years, Chuckling Goat experienced a 6000% increase in sales. We moved out of the kitchen, built a small workshop facility on the farm, hired Rich’s grown-up daughters to come and work for us, and grew the team to 24. That growth trend continues to this day.”
Achieving Great Heights
For Shann, Rich remains her inspiration and pillar of strength. “We started the business together and have run it together every step of the way,” she says. “Although our temperaments are very different, we luckily create a positive partnership instead of driving one another crazy!”
“We say that I am like the kite, and Rich is the guy who holds the kite string. He is a canny Welsh farmer, very traditional and conservative, and interested in keeping an eye on the bottom line. Without his calming influence, all my mad ideas would have ended up in the bushes long ago.”
Rich understands the beauty of staying small and maintaining the integrity of the artisanal process. He calls this “the Red Door Factor” because the couple’s old dairy has a bright red door, recognizable in all the photos of the farm. “Our clients love this quirky, personal touch,” explains Shann. “Because of Rich, we still make every product by hand, on the farm. Rich taught me to always stay authentic and true to our roots.”
Shann has never been focused on the bottom line, and cash has never been king for her. Instead, she is focused on high impact – how can she use natural solutions to transform the health of the most significant number of people? “I’m only interested in completely natural products that have no downside and powerful, evidence-based health benefits. Chuckling Goat has a 4.9 out of 5 rating on Trustpilot, with nearly 8,000 reviews, and that’s what I consider to be my main success metric,” states Shann. “These people are not just happy but ecstatic about the health improvements that they’ve experienced. That’s what keeps me up late and gets me up early! I have also created a client interface at Chuckling Goat in which every single person who speaks to our clients is a trained Nutritional Therapist.”
From 8 am to 8 pm on weekdays, the Nutritional Therapist’s average response time on live chat is 50 seconds. No AI, no bots, not ever! They are just highly trained and very sympathetic human beings who know their stuff when it comes to gut health. “I believe we need a high touch element to counter the high tech-ery that surrounds us because people are confused and overwhelmed by the amount of low-grade information that is flooding in all the time,” adds Shann. “It’s expensive and time-consuming to create, train and curate such a high-end team – but it’s worth it. I never compromise, and I never drop quality. If I can’t be passionate about what we’re doing and do it beautifully, I’m not interested.”
In her book How to Start a Business on Your Kitchen Table, Shann offers five top tips to budding entrepreneurs, including never compromising your values. The world is already overflowing with cheap anonymous rubbish – don’t make more to add to the pile. Create an excellent product or service that adds real value, and the world will beat a path to your door.
Shann adds that these days, business owners don’t need a physical shop. “Bricks-and-mortar is dead,” she says. “Everyone is accustomed to ordering online and having things turn up on their doorstep. This is a boon for the small niche manufacturer -people can find them online. Why should small business owners turn over 25% or more of their profit to a shop on the high street? Let the Internet be your shop window!”
Another piece of advice Shann offers to entrepreneurs: “Market your story. As the world becomes more automated and depersonalized, people are hungry to purchase from other human beings who have a real story to tell. Think of your customers as readers rather than consumers. Share your story with them, and they will follow your adventures.”
Shann also believes in the idea of doing well by doing good. “Make sure that your business is good for the larger world. The day of starting businesses that deplete the environment is over. Create a business that helps, rather than harms the larger ecosystem.”
Awards & Accolades
Shann has written seven books in total:
Four out of seven of Shann’s books have achieved best-seller status on Amazon. She attributes her success to the fact that although she is not a scientist, she is able to translate impactful science into everyday language that is understandable to the layperson.
In 2024, Shann was awarded an MBE for services to Charity and Innovation in The King New Year’s Honours List 2024. “Being invited to Windsor Castle to receive a medal from the Prince of Wales was a phenomenal and very humbling honor for a girl from Texas!” Shann laughs. Chuckling Goat has indeed come a long way in their mission to find natural solutions for problems that doctors can’t solve. Born on the kitchen table out of two parents desire to help their son, today the family-focused company is the UK’s number one producer of kefir and leading gut health expert, offering a range of gut health solutions, including award-winning goat milk kefir, kefir skincare, and therapeutic herbal teas to hundreds of thousands of customers across the UK.
And their journey continues. In January 2024, Shann and Rich launched their own Chuckling Goat Microbiome Test in partnership with the brilliant scientists at Cambridge University. This was a proud moment for them, as it enabled them to give evidence-based answers to the clients using the best science in the world. This project was the culmination of nearly three years of hard work, and they poured a considerable amount of their profits into the project – no grants or loans!
As for the future of the business, Shann is committed to the development of a heart-centered professional legacy which includes her cherished family. “No one ever lay on their deathbed and wished they had spent more time at the office,” she says. “I firmly believe that the kindest person in the room is often the smartest – and the business that wins is the one that grows leaders the fastest. So Rich and I are increasingly training our children to take over the business as we step away, to spend more time with each other and the grandchildren on the farm.”
“We are very interested in the One Health concept, which links human, animal, and environmental health. Healthy soil makes healthy food, which makes a healthy gut. My retirement project will be a soil microbiome test for gardeners, allowing our clients to link the health of their own soil to the health of their gut. My version of retirement needlework is going to involve linking together a lot of scientists! And my goal for the future is to grow ever-increasing amounts of our own food in my garden, so my grandchildren can wander around and harvest their own supper. Nothing could make me happier.”
" Having grown from a kitchen-table business to a multi-million pound enterprise that has experienced 6000% growth over the past decade, Chuckling Goat now offers a range of gut health solutions, including award-winning goat milk kefir, kefir skincare, and therapeutic herbal teas. "
Shann Jones MBE
Founder & Director
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